Keen to learn the Pontian dialect?

The Pontian Community of Melbourne and Victoria invites you to join their free online tutorials on the Pontian dialect.

Source: Pontian Community of Melbourne/Facebook

In early August, the Pontian Community of Melbourne launched its online school for members of the broader community interested in learning the Pontian dialect.

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 Highlights

• After months in the making, an initiative spearheaded by the Pontian Community of Melbourne and Victoria for online tutorials on the Pontian dialect has come to fruition.
• Classes, delivered online, are free and accessible to anyone interested, in a bid to preserve the unique language tradition.
• The project was designed in collaboration with a Greek based educator, who teaches the Pontian dialect, and offered a user-friendly teaching manual for the purpose.

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 Community representatives state the aim is to contribute in preserving the dialect, placing emphasis on its uptake by younger generations.

“The Pontian dialect is intimately connected to the ancient Greek language and functions as a link, a manifestation of the unified undivided Greek language,” says President of the Pontian Community Apostolos Alexiadis.

“It is the language of our ancestors and we believe it’s our duty to do anything within our powers for it to remain a language spoken by our children.”

The initiative has taken shape, following months of preparations, also thanks to the help provided by Greece-based educator Yiota Ioakimidou.

Source: Pontian Community of Melbourne/Supplied

Ms Ioakimidou is currently delivering Pontian dialect classes to students in the municipality of Thessaloniki.

For the purposes of the online tutorial series, she has made available an accessible learning guide, following the revision of a manual first authored by late educator Vera Antoniadou-Kesidou, an acclaimed contributor in the study and teaching of the dialect.

Online classes offered by the Pontian Community of Melbourne are open to participants regardless of their place of residence in Australia and come at no cost.

To express your interest and for more information, contact the Pontian Community of Melbourne via email at [e-mail] or call [phone].