Saying it like it is.

So I am trying to write up an article on František Branislav, and have come across an interesting language word: Černomoří.

Now, Černomořský means ‘Pontic Greek’, which makes sense as Branislav could speak Greek as well as Scandanavian languages. Pontic Greek is spoken in Greece, Russia, the Ukraine, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Turkey, Germany, and the Netherlands; it is a Greek language with Turkish and Caucasian influence, spoken primarly by Greeks around the Pontus region (now in Turkey). Specifically? We are looking at the Greek language as it developed around the Black Sea.

Černý - Black / moře - Sea

Hmm, maybe it should be that ‘Pontic’ is the more interesting linguistic word? ‘Cause the Czechs just say it exactly how it is, while I’m now surfing around reading all about the Pontic Greeks and how they got their name in English!