Tsakonian or Tsaconian (also Tzakonian or Tsakonic; ; or ) is a highly divergent modern variety of Greek, spoken in the Tsakonian region of the Peloponnese, Greece. Unlike all other extant varieties of Greek, Tsakonian derives from Doric Greek rather than from the Attic–Ionic branch.Linguist List Although it is conventionally treated as a dialect of Greek, some compendia treat it as a separate language. Tsakonian is critically endangered, with only a few hundred or a few thousand, mostly elderly, fluent speakers left. Although Tsakonian and standard Modern Greek are related, they are not mutually intelligible.
Etymology The term Tsakonas or Tzakonas first emerges in the writings of Byzantine chroniclers who derive the ethnonym from a corruption of Lakonas, a Laconian/Lacedaemonian (Spartan)—a reference to the Doric roots of the Tsakonian language.
Geographic distribution
Tsakonian is found today in a group of mountain towns and villages slightly inland from the Argolic Gulf, although it was once spoken farther to the south and west as well as on the coasts of Laconia (ancient Sparta).
Geographical barriers to travel and communication kept the Tsakonians relatively isolated from the rest of Greece until the 19th century, although there was some trade between the coastal towns. The rise of mass education and improved travel beginning after the Greek War of Independence meant that fluent Tsakonian speakers were no longer as isolated from the rest of Greece. In addition, during the war, the Turkish army drove the Tsakonians east, and as a result, their de facto capital shifted from Prastos to Leonidio, further making the people significantly less isolated. There began a rapid decline in speaker numbers—from an estimated 200,000 fluent speakers to between 200 and 1,000 by 2007.
Since the introduction of electricity to all villages in Tsakonia by the late 1950s, Greek mass media can reach the most remote of areas and has profoundly affected the speech of younger speakers. Efforts to revive the language by teaching it in local schools do not seem to have had much success. Standard Modern Greek is the official language of government, commerce and education, and it is possible that the continued modernization of Tsakonia will lead to the language's disappearance sometime in the 21st century.
The area where the language is found today in some villages Tsakonia slopes of Parnon in the southern province of Kynouria, including the towns of Leonidio and Tyros and the villages of Melana, Agios Andreas, Vaskina, Prastos, Sitaina and Kastanitsa.
Official status Tsakonian has no official status. Prayers and liturgies of the Greek Orthodox Church have been translated into Tsakonian, but the ancient Koine of the traditional church services is usually used as in other locations in Greece. Some teaching materials in Tsakonian for use in local schools have reportedly also been produced.P. Trudgill, D. Schreier (2006): Greece and Cyprus. In: U. Ammon (ed.), Sociolinguistics. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Dialects There are three dialects of Tsakonian: Northern, Southern, and Propontis.
The Propontis dialect was spoken in what was formerly a Tsakonian colony on the Sea of Marmara (or Propontis; two villages near Gönen, Vatika and Havoutsi), whose members were resettled in Greece during the 1924 population exchange between Greece and Turkey. Propontis Tsakonian appears to have died out around 1970, although it had already stopped being the primary language of its community after 1914 when they were internally exiled with other Greeks in the region due to the outbreak of World War I.Costakis, A. P. (1986) Lexiko tīs tsakōnikīs dialektou. pX Propontis Tsakonian was overall grammatically more conservative, but it was also influenced by the nearby Thracian dialects of Greek which were much closer to Standard Modern Greek. The emergence of the Propontis community is either dated to the 13th century settlement of Tsakonians by Emperor Michael VII, explicitly referenced by Byzantine George PachymeresKoukoules, F. (1924) Ekthesis peri tou kata to etos 1919 telesthentos diagōnismou tīs en Athīnais Glōssikīs Etaireias [Presentation of the competition conducted by the Linguistic Society of Athens in 1919]. Athina, 36: 254–281. Referenced in Nicholas 2019 : p20. or around the time of the 1770 Orlov Revolt.Costakis, A. P. (1951) Syntomī grammatikī tīs tsakōnikīs dialektou [A brief grammar of the Tsakonian dialect]. Athens: Institut Français d’Athènes Publ., 224 p. (Collection de l’Institut Français d’Athènes. Vol. 35). Pages 151–155 For an example of the standardizing Thracian Greek influence, compare the Northern and Southern word for water, (, derived from ) to Propontic and Standard (, ).
Of the two mainland dialects of Tsakonian, Southern Tsakonian is spoken in the villages of Melana, Prastos, Vaskina, Tiros, Leonidio, Pragmateftis and Sapounakeika, while Northern Tsakonian is found in Sitena and Kastanitsa. As early as 1971, it became difficult for researchers in the northern villages to find any informants who could offer more than "a few isolated words".Haralambopoulos, A. L. (1980) Fōnologikī analysī tīs tsakōnikīs dialektou [Phonological analysis of the Tsakonian dialect]. Thessaloniki: Aristotle University Publ., 195 p. (Aristoteleio Panepistīmeio Thessalonikīs, Epistīmonikī Epetīrida tīs Filosofilkīs Scholīs [Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. Scholarly papers of the Faculty of Philosophy]. Appendix. No. 30). Page 7 The Northern villages were much more exposed to the rest of Greek society, and as a result, according to linguist Nick Nicholas, Northern Tsakonian experienced much heavier Standard Greek lexical and phonological influence, before it began to die out much faster than Southern Tsakonian. It is generally believed that Northern Tsakonian has been influenced by modern Greek and there are indeed some examples where Northern Tsakonian uses "more modern" vocabulary than its Southern counterpart. The principal difference between Northern and Southern Tsakonian is the loss of the intervocalic consonant /-l-/ which exists in Northern Tsakonian but is absent from Southern Tsakonian. According to Maxim L. Kisilier, professor of Modern Greek in the Saint Petersburg State University, the /-l-/ in Northern Tsakonian is unlikely to be an innovation influenced by Standard Modern Greek, and, as such, according to him, it's more likely that Southern Tsakonian changed instead.
There may have once been a fourth, Western, dialect of Tsakonian given the forms attested by Evliya Çelebi in the 17th century.Liosis, N. (2007) Glōssikes epafes stī notioanatolikī Peloponnīso [Language contact in the Southeastern Peloponnese]. PhD dissertation (Linguistics). Thessalonica, Aristotle University. Page 7
Contact
There has always been contact with Koine Greek speakers and the language was affected by the neighboring Greek dialects. Additionally, there are some lexical borrowings from Arvanitika and Turkish. The core, base vocabulary remains recognizably Doric, although experts disagree on the extent to which other true Doricisms can be found. There are only a few hundred, mainly elderly true native speakers living, although a great many more can speak the language less than fluently.
Phonology
Consonants LabialDental/AlveolarPost-alveolarPalatalVelarcentralsibilantStop/Affricatevoiceless()()aspiratedFricativevoicelessvoicedNasalLateralTrill
The voiced-prenasalization of stop consonant sounds of /, , , / as [, , , ] may also occur within segments. When before front vowels /, /, the phonetic sequence [] is then palatalized as []. /, , , / are heard as palatal sounds [, , , ] when preceding front vowels /, /. /, / may also be heard as [, ] in this same position. [] may also occur as phonemic among dialects. // may also be heard as [] among speakers.
Vowels FrontCentralBackCloseMidOpen
/, / are heard as non syllabic when following consonants and preceding other vowels. // and // in weak positions can both be heard as [].Haralambopoulos, A. L. (1980) Fōnologikī analysī tīs tsakōnikīs dialektou [Phonological analysis of the Tsakonian↵dialect]. Thessaloniki: Aristotle University Publ., 195 p. (Aristoteleio Panepistīmeio Thessalonikīs, Epistīmonikī↵Epetīrida tīs Filosofilkīs Scholīs [Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. Scholarly papers of the Faculty↵of Philosophy]. Appendix. No. 30).
Phonological history
Vowels A can appear as a reflex of Doric , in contexts where Attic had η and Modern Greek has : 'day' corresponding to Modern 'day', 'thief' corresponding to Modern . Ε > before vowels: e.g. 'king' < . This sound change is absent from Propontis Tsakonian. As a result of this sound change in combination with the prior palatalization of and into and , the palatal allophones became phonemic. Minimal pairs example: 'nine' from Ancient Greek vs 'one (fem.)' from Ancient Greek . O occasionally > : < 'snake', < 'mouth'. Final > after coronals and front vowels: > 'donkey', > 'door', > 'written', > , but > 'wolf' and > 'food'. Υ Reflected as in most Modern Greek dialects, this was in Doric and in Attic. In Southern and Northern Tsakonian, that was fronted to , and then backed to again. The palatalization of numerous consonants before front vowels that took place right before the backing of to gives the flawed impression that was diphthongized into . Examples: > > 'wolf' 'night' 'hide (participle)' 'you'. As seen from the following equivalent words, <Υ> was never fronted in Propontis Tsakonian, but rather remained : 'wolf', 'night', 'you'. Any minor divergences from this model can be attributed to either internal dialectal borrowings or to borrowings from other Hellenic languages such as Maniot Greek or Standard Modern Greek. Ω in Ancient Greek (Severe Doric ), regularly goes to : 'I' < Ancient Greek , 'say (participle)' < . This shift is absent from Propontis Tsakonian.
Consonants Tsakonian in some words preserves the pre-classical Greek -sound, represented in archaic Ancient Greek inscriptions by the digamma (ϝ). In Tsakonian, this sound has become a fricative : , corresponding to Ancient (Attic ).
Tsakonian has extensive changes triggered by palatalisation: > : > , occasionally : > > : > > : > > : > , occasionally : > , > > : > > : > > : > > : > . This sound appears to have been a fricative trill in the 19th century, and survived latterly only in women's usage in Southern Tsakonian. A similar change occurred with palatalised in Polish and Czech.
Word-initial > : >
Word-final > , which reflects an earlier process in Laconian (rhotacism); in Tsakonian, it is a liaison phoneme: >
In Southern Tsakonian, is deleted before back and central vowels: > Northern , Southern ; > Northern , Southern ;
Occasionally > , which appears to reflect an earlier process in Laconian, but in others is retained though the word is absent in Standard Greek: > , but Ancient (Modern equivalent: ) >
Tsakonian avoids clusters, and reduces them to aspirated or prenasalised stops and affricates: > : , , > , , > : , , , , > , , , , > : , , > , , > : > > : , > , after consonants often goes to : , , , > , , , > : , , , > , , ,
In the common verb ending , > : >
are added between vowels: , > ,
often drop out between vowels: , > ,
Prosody Tsakonian Greek: original songThis song in its original (polytonic) Tsakonian form is taken from a book called «Κλεφτικα Δημοτικα Τραγουδια» (Klephtic Demotic Songs) by N. G. Politou. It can be found in the last few pages of the book under the «Τραγουδια εις Ελληνικας Διαλεκτους» (Songs in Greek Dialects) section on page 269. Tsakonian Greek: Latin transcription Tsakonian Greek: IPA transcriptionΠουλάτζι ἔμα ἐχα τθὸ κουιβί τσαὶ μερουτέ νι ἔμα ἐχα ταχίγα νι ἔμα ζάχαρι ποϊκίχα νι ἔμα μόσκο, τσαί ἁπό τὸ μόσκο τὸ περσού τσαὶ ἁπὸ τὰ νυρωδία ἑσκανταλίστε τὁ κουιβί τσ' ἑφύντζε μοι τ' αηδόνι. Τσ' ἁφέγκι νι ἔκει τσυνηγού μὲ τὸ κουιβί τθὸ χέρε.