dialects) and as the living language that is closest to Ancient Greek. Because a majority of the population of these districts converted to Islam during the 17th to 19th centuries, some Arabic and Turkish loanwords have been adopted in the language. According to Vahit Tursun, writer of the Romeika-Turkish dictionary, loanwords from the neighboring Laz speakers of Rize province are strikingly absent in the Romeika vocabulary of Trabzon natives. A very similar dialect is spoken by descendants of Christians from the Of valley (especially from Kondu) now living in Greece in the village of Nea Trapezounta, Pieria, Central Macedonia, with about 400 speakers. Geographic distribution Though Pontic was originally spoken on the southern shores of the Black Sea, from the 18th and 19th century and on substantial numbers migrated into the northern and eastern shores, into the Russian Empire. Pontic is still spoken by large numbers of people in Ukraine, mainly in Mariupol, but also in other parts of Ukraine such as the Odessa and Donetsk region, in Russia (around Stavropol) and Georgia. The language enjoyed some use as a literary medium in the 1930s, including a school grammar (Topkharas 1998 [1932]). After the massacres of the 1910s, the majority of speakers remaining in Asia Minor were subject to the Treaty of Lausanne population exchange, and were resettled in Greece (mainly northern Greece). A second wave of migration occurred in the early 1990s, this time from countries of the former Soviet Union. In urban areas in Greece the language is no longer spoken in daily life but in villages and towns with more homogeneous Pontic population, located mostly in the northern part of country, the language is still in active daily usage. Many radio stations broadcast in the Pontic language, and many associations exist for its safeguard. Greece: 400,000 speakers, mostly in Macedonia (East, Central and West) and in Attica Turkey: Unknown (certainly more than 5,000), mostly in eastern Black Sea Region and in Istanbul Of-dialectical region: Of: multiple villages Çaykara: (24–70 villages) Dernekpazarı: (13 villages) Köprübaşı: (5 villages) Sürmene: (31 villages) Rize: (21 villages, mostly in İkizdere district) To the west of Trabzon: Maçka: A handful of villages, settled from the Of-Çaykara region Tonya: (17 villages) Beşikdüzü: 1 village Giresun: (3 villages in Bulancak district) Gümüşhane: Sparsely in Torul-ardasa, Yağlıdere-kromni, Dumanlı Caucasus region Kars: Multiple villages and provincial capital. Official status Greece In Greece, Pontic has no official status,