The Istanbul Greek dialect () is the endangered Greek dialect spoken by the millennia-old Greek community in Istanbul, which has now shrunk to a couple thousand individuals. It is differentiated from Standard Greek due to a number of internal divergent developments, preservation of characteristics of Ancient Greek that are absent from Standard Greek, and language contact, most notably with Turkish, French, Italian and Armenian. Various characteristics of Istanbul Greek are said to have parallels in Old Athenian Greek, as well as Tsakonian.
The idiom is spoken mainly in Istanbul, and among the Istanbul Greek emigre community in Athens.
History
The Istanbul Greek idiom derives from the speech of Istanbul's indigenous Greek community, which, having comprised the majority population before 1453, and 35% of the city's population at the turn of the 20th century, has now shrunk to 0.01% of Istanbul's population, or 2000 individuals.
One of the pivotal moments in the shrinkage of the community was the expulsion of tens of thousand of Istanbul Greeks who held Greek passports in 1964; this also marks the emergence of the Istanbul Greek community in Athens. The features of the dialect have been shaped through a history of interaction with Turks, Armenians, Italians, Franco-Levantines, as well as the maintenance of contact with Standard Greek. Structural changes induced by contact with non-Greek idioms have also occurred. Loanwords in the Istanbul idiom do not tend to be adjusted to typical Greek phonology to the same degree as in Standard Greek. At the same time, Istanbul Greek preserves characteristics that have since been lost in most other Greek dialects. The current Istanbul Greek youth have an identity that has been described as "neither exclusively Greek nor Turk".
Classification
Among modern Greek dialects, Istanbul Greek generally displays characteristics associated with Northern Greek, rather than Southern Greek, dialects.
Istanbul Greek has historically been ignored in traditional Greek dialectology, or erroneously portrayed as "identical" to Standard Greek because of Constantinople's historical role.
Phonology
As has been demonstrated from articulatory and acoustic analyses, the back vowels in Istanbul Greek are further back than they are in Standard Greek. This resembles the articulation of back vowels in Turkish, and is likely due to a language contact effect arising from the long running contact between Greek and Turkish in the city, dating back to at least 1450.
Also attributed to Turkish contact are the presence of dark L in the dialect, as well as the postalveolar affricates and . Both features are held to be indexical of Istanbul Greek speech, velar L being more so than .
The postalveolar affricate does occur in other Greek dialects, such as Cypriot Greek; however, it does not elsewhere correspond to Standard Greek (as Istanbul Greek does) but instead to palatalized before front vowels. Likewise, the velarized lateral is a characteristic of Northern Greek speech before back round vowels and , but not before front vowels, whereas it has been shown to extend to front vowels in the Istanbul dialect.
Among the community of Istanbul Greeks who have moved to Athens, the velar lateral has attained a negative stigmatization as it varies noticeably from Standard Greek, and thus many speakers have stopped using it, although the same has not occurred with ; whereas the velar lateral is not common outside of Istanbul among Greek dialects, the postalveolar affricate is not limited to Istanbul Greeks, and in fact many Standard Greek speakers will also produce it before back round vowels. In Istanbul itself, meanwhile, is being lost as a distinct phoneme, and it is not considered to be indexical of Istanbul Greek identity.
Lexicon
The lexicon of Istanbul Greek differs from Standard Greek in the preservation of words associated with Ancient Greek more so than the modern form, as well as a wealth of loans from various foreign languages, most notably Turkish, French, Armenian, Italian and English. The lexicon of the dialect is characterized by a much higher rate of borrowing.