Saloniki Dialect
Dialecto de Saloniko
Native to	Greece
Region	Thessalonika
Native speakers	10,000
Language family	Indo-European Italic Romance Western Ibero-Romance West Iberian Saloniki Dialect
Early form
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–
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Name

The dialect's name comes from the name of the city of Thessalonika or Salonika.

Linguistic Description

The Saloniki Dialect is the dialect of Ladino most similar to Old Spanish. Unlike other dialects of Ladino spoken in Greece letters /o/ and /e/ do not become /u/ and /i/ when unstressed. Furthermore Saloniki Ladino preserves the Spanish fricative /ð/ represented by /ד'/ and the <f> in the beginning words such as in <fermoza> Modern Spanish <hermoza> and <fijo> Modern Spanish <hijo>. The number of Jews in Thessaloniki was so big that not only did the majoruity of Jews speak Ladino but many of the other ethnic groups including the Greeks, Bulgarians, Turks, and even Albanians in the city spoke Ladino.

Spoken Area

The Saloniki dialect was not only spoken in the city of Salonika but was spoken up to Thessaly and in Greek Macedonia.