Pomak language (, ''pomakiki glosa'' or πομακικά, ''pomakika''; , ''pomaški ezik''; ) is a term used in

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

and

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

to refer to some of the Rup dialects of the

Bulgarian language Bulgarian (; , ) is an Eastern South Slavic, Eastern South Slavic language spoken in Southeast Europe, primarily in Bulgaria. It is the language of the Bulgarians. Along with the closely related Macedonian language (collectively forming the ...

spoken by the Pomaks of Western Thrace in Greece and

Eastern Thrace East Thrace or Eastern Thrace, also known as Turkish Thrace or European Turkey, is the part of Turkey that is geographically in Southeast Europe. Turkish Thrace accounts for 3.03% of Turkey's land area and 15% of its population. The largest c ...

in Turkey. These dialects are native also in

Bulgaria Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...

, and are classified as part of the Smolyan subdialect. Not all Pomaks speak this dialect as their mother language.

History

Some grammatical forms of the Rup dialects, published by the Danish linguist Holger Pedersen in 1907, have a striking resemblance to the grammatical forms of the

Armenian language Armenian (endonym: , , ) is an Indo-European languages, Indo-European language and the sole member of the independent branch of the Armenian language family. It is the native language of the Armenians, Armenian people and the official language of ...

. As well, the Rup dialects have slightly different forms of demonstrative suffixes (exercising also functions of the possessive pronouns) from the Bulgarian Tran dialect and the modern standard Macedonian language. There are publications concerning the vocabulary of the Rup dialects and anthroponyms of Armenian origin which overlap areas, populated by Paulicians from the 15th to 18th centuries. According to the 1935 census in Turkey, 3881 people in

identified their mother tongue as Bulgarian and 18,382 as Pomak. The overall statistic from 1935 shows that 41,041 people spoke Pomak as their mother tongue or as a secondary dialect. In the mid-1990s, "Grammar of the Pomash language", "Pomash-Greek" and "Greek-Pomash dictionary" were published in Greece, which, according to Bulgarian linguists, were a political attempt at glottotomy. Pomak is also noted for its dialectal differences, as highlighted in recent work b
Sercan Karakas
(2022), which demonstrates that the language's case system exhibits dialectal variation.

Examples

;Some phrases and words Some words and phrases in the Pomak language are borrowed from Turkish, Greek, and other languages.

Grammar

Spatio-pragmatic and temporal-modal uses of nominals and noun modifiers

Three

deictics In linguistics, deixis () is the use of words or phrases to refer to a particular time (e.g. ''then''), place (e.g. ''here''), or person (e.g. ''you'') relative to the context of the utterance. Deixis exists in all known natural languagesLyons, ...

(-s-, -t- and -n-) are used for spatio-pragmatic and temporal-modal reference in nominals. These deictics are used among others in noun modifiers such as definite articles and

demonstrative Demonstratives (list of glossing abbreviations, abbreviated ) are words, such as ''this'' and ''that'', used to indicate which entities are being referred to and to distinguish those entities from others. They are typically deictic, their meaning ...

s: Adamou, E. 2011, Temporal uses of Definite Articles and Demonstratives in Pomak (Slavic, Greece), Lingua 121(5) : 871-889.

References

* Стойков, Ст. Българска диалектология. София, 1968. (Stoykov St. Bulgarian Dialectology. Sofia, 1968). *Милетич, Л. Ловчанските помаци. София, Български преглед, г. V, кн. I, 1898, c. 67–78. (Miletic, L. The Lovech Pomaks. Sofia, Bulgarian Review, y. V, vol. I, 1898, p. 67-78). *Савов, В. Ловчанските помаци и техния говор. Известия на семинара по славянска филология. София, 1931, кн. VII, с. 1–34. (Savov, V. The Lovech Pomaks and their language. Proceedings of the Workshop on Slavic Studies. Sofia, 1931, vol. VII, p. 1–34). *Миков, В. Българските мохамедани в Тетевенско, Луковитско и Белослатинско. Родина, 1940 - 1941, No 3, с. 51–68. (Mikov, V. Bulgarian Muslims in Teteven, Lukovit, and Byala Slatina Country. Rodina, 1940–1941, No 3, p. 51–68). *Български диалектен атлас. София, 1980, т. IV: с. Галата /под No 1471/, с. Добревци /под No 1458/ и с. Кирчево (Помашка Лешница) /под No 2306/. (Bulgarian Dialect Atlas. Sofia, 1980, section IV: the village of Galata –under No 1471, Dobrevtsi /under No 1458/, and Kirchevo (Pomak Leshnitsa) /under No 2306/).

External links