Every variety is described by where and how it is spoken. None is described as broken, impure, rustic or a corruption of the standard. Each carries the name its speakers give it, and the Atlas's position on whether it is a dialect or a language is stated on its own page, with its source.
What we mean by "variety"
A variety is a research object delimited by a source. It is not automatically a taxonomic rank. A dialect is a category attributed by a scholar or a community, and mutual intelligibility alone is not a universal rule. A local idiom is a documented speech tradition at a stated place, without implying a separate genealogical branch. These are the Atlas's working definitions, not a claim of universal consensus.
Names that look alike and are not the same
- Romeyka of Of and Mariupol Rumeika. Cambridge's account of Romeyka supports a Trabzon context B15 main research paragraphs. It does not support an equivalence with the Azov region.
- Salento Griko and Calabrian Greko. Aprile distinguishes the two Italian communities B14 §1 p.55. They remain separate units.
- Pontic and Cappadocian. Kept separate, even when a scholar places them under a shared heading.
- Macedonian Greek. The Greek varieties of Macedonia are not the Slavic Macedonian language, and they are not the evidence for ancient Macedonian.
Contact languages are recorded as separate entities, not as Greek varieties because they are spoken in the same place.
How many varieties are there?
No defensible number exists. This edition's index has 53 research units, but they include periods, registers and historical groups. They are not "53 Greek dialects" and should not be read that way. The groups in the list below are finding aids to help you locate what you are looking for. They are not a taxonomy.
Where research has gone deeper
Cretan, Cypriot, Griko and the Greek of Epirus have focused literature reviews, with fourteen findings attributed to their sources. The local samples in those studies do not represent whole regions, and the limit of each finding is shown beside it.