Tsakonian,
Tsaconian,
Tzakonian or
Tsakonic (
GreekGreek , an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, is the language of the Greeks. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. In its ancient form, it is the language of classical...
Τσακωνικά) is a
highly divergent dialect of modern GreekThe linguistic varieties of Modern Greek can be classified along two principal dimensions. First, there is a long tradition of sociolectal variation between the natural, popular spoken language on the one hand and archaizing, learned written forms on the other. Second, there is regional variation...
or a separate language spoken in the
Tsakonian regionTsakonia or the Tsakonian region describes the area of the eastern Peloponnese where the Tsakonian language is presently spoken...
of the
PeloponneseThe Peloponnese or Peloponnesus is a large peninsula and region in southern Greece, forming the part of the country south of the Gulf of Corinth...
,
GreeceGreece , officially the Hellenic Republic , is a country in southeastern Europe, situated on the southern end of the Balkan Peninsula....
. It is named after its speakers, the 'Tsakonians', which is held to be an alteration of '
LaconiaLaconia , also known as Lacedaemonia, is a prefecture in Greece. Laconia has the legal status of a prefecture, with Sparti its administrative capital. Its main towns and cities are Amyclae, Areopolis, Gytheion, Molaoi, Monemvasia, Mystras, Neapoli and Sellasia...
ns' - although Tsakonians themselves did not traditionally use this
ethnonymAn ethnonym is the name applied to a given ethnic group. Ethnonyms can be divided into two categories: exonyms and autonyms .As an example, the ethnonym for the ethnically dominant group...
. It is said to be from Exo-Lakones (meaning outer Lakonians) and morphed to Tsakones.
Classification
Tsakonian is a variety of Greek. It is not mutually intelligible with Standard Greek, and is therefore sometimes considered a separate language, though historically it derives from the Greek
DoricDoric or Dorian was a dialect of ancient Greek. Its variants were spoken in the southern and eastern Peloponnese, Crete, Rhodes, some islands in the southern Aegean Sea, some cities on the coasts of Asia Minor, Southern Italy, Sicily, Epirus and Macedon. Together with Northwest Greek, it forms the...
dialect.
Geographic distribution
Tsakonian is found today in a group of mountain towns and villages slightly inland from the
Argolic GulfThe Argolic Gulf is a small gulf off the east coast of the Peloponnese, Greece, opening into the Aegean Sea. Its main island is Spetses. This gulf and its islands are sometimes combined with the Saronic Gulf and Saronic Islands, with the result called the Argo-Saronic Gulf and the Argo-Saronic...
, although it was once spoken farther to the south and west as well as on the coasts of
LaconiaLaconia , also known as Lacedaemonia, is a prefecture in Greece. Laconia has the legal status of a prefecture, with Sparti its administrative capital. Its main towns and cities are Amyclae, Areopolis, Gytheion, Molaoi, Monemvasia, Mystras, Neapoli and Sellasia...
(ancient
SpartaSparta was a city-state in ancient Greece, situated on the River Eurotas in the southern part of the Peloponnese. From c. 650 BC it rose to become the dominant military power in the region and as such was recognized as the overall leader of the combined Greek forces during the Greco-Persian Wars...
). There was formerly a Tsakonian colony on the Propontis (two villages near
GönenGönen is a district of Balıkesir Province of Turkey, located in the southern part of Marmara Sea. The town is mostly known for its therapeutic hot springs, leather processing and rice production.-Location:...
, Vatika and Havoutsi), probably dating from the 18th century, whose members were resettled in Greece with the 1924
population exchangesThe 1923 population exchange between Greece and Turkey was the first compulsory large-scale population exchange, or agreed mutual expulsion of the 20th century. It involved approximately 2 million people, most of whom were forcibly made refugees and de jure denaturalized from their homelands...
. Propontis Tsakonian appears to have died out around 1970.
Official status
Tsakonian has no official status. Prayers and liturgies of the
Greek Orthodox ChurchThe Church of Greece , part of the wider Greek Orthodox Church, is one of the fifteen autocephalous Eastern Orthodox churches which make up the Orthodox Communion...
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.
Dialects
Tsakonian is divided by scholars into three dialects, Northern Tsakonian, Southern Tsakonian and Propontis Tsakonian.
Another difference between Tsakonian and the common Demotic Greek dialect is its verb system - Tsakonian preserves different archaic forms, such as participial
periphrasisIn linguistics, periphrasis is a device by which a grammatical category or relationship is expressed by a free morpheme , instead of being shown by inflection or derivation...
for the present tense. Certain
complementisersIn grammar the term complement is used with different meanings. The primary meaning is a word, phrase or clause which is necessary in a sentence to complete its meaning. We find complements which function as a sentence element In grammar the term complement is used with different meanings. The...
and other adverbial features present in the standard Modern Greek dialect are absent from Tsakonian, with the exception of the Modern που relativiser, which takes the form πη in Tsakonian (note: the traditional Tsakonian orthography uses the
digraphA digraph or digram is a pair of characters used to write one phoneme or a sequence of phonemes that does not correspond to the normal values of the two characters combined...
πφ + η, giving πφη). Noun morphology is broadly similar to Standard Modern Greek, although Tsakonian tends to drop the nominative "s" from masculine nouns, thus Tsakonian ο τσχίφτα for Standard o τρίφτης (o tshifta/o triftis: "grater").
The Propontis dialect was much more heavily influenced by the modern
Thracian dialectThe Thracian dialect is a dialect of the Bulgarian language, member of the Rup or Southeastern Bulgarian dialects. The present range of the dialect includes the regions of Haskovo, Parvomay, Elhovo, Harmanli, Svilengrad, Topolovgrad and Ivaylovgrad...
and although there were significant grammatical differences, in terms of vocabulary it was much closer to Standard Modern Greek. Compare the Northern and Southern word for water, ύο (io, derived from Ancient Greek ) to Propontic νερέ and Standard νερό (nere, nero).
However, there has always been contact with
Koine GreekKoine Greek is the popular form of Greek which emerged in post-Classical antiquity . Other names are Alexandrian, Hellenistic, Patristic, Common, Biblical or New Testament Greek...
speakers and the language was not entirely unaffected by the neighboring Greek dialects. Additionally, there are some lexical borrowings from Arvanitic and Turkish. The core vocabulary remains recognizably Doric, though experts disagree on the extent to which other true Doricisms can be found. There are only a few hundred, mainly elderly true native speakers alive, although there are a great many more who can speak the language less than fluently.
GeographicalThe country of Greece is located in southern Europe, on the southern end of the Balkan peninsula. Greece is surrounded on the north by Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia and Albania; to the west by the Ionian Sea; to the south by the Mediterranean Sea and to the east by the Aegean Sea and Turkey...
barriers to
travelTravel is the change in location of people on a trip through the means of transport from one location to another. Travel is most commonly for recreation , for business or for commuting; but may be for numerous other reasons, such as migration, fleeing war, etc...
and
communication Communication is a process of transferring information from one entity to another. Communication processes are sign-mediated interactions between at least two agents which share a repertoire of signs and semiotic rules. Communication is commonly defined as "the imparting or interchange of...
kept the Tsakonians relatively isolated from the rest of
GreeceGreece , officially the Hellenic Republic , is a country in southeastern Europe, situated on the southern end of the Balkan Peninsula....
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 IndependenceThe Greek War of Independence was a successful war of independence waged by the Greek revolutionaries between 1821 and 1829, with later assistance from several European powers, against the Ottoman Empire, who were assisted by their vassals, the Egyptian Khedivate and partly the Vilayet of...
meant that fluent Tsakonian speakers were no longer as isolated from the rest of Greece and there began a rapid decline from an estimated figure of some 200,000 fluent speakers to the present fluent core estimated in the hundreds.
Derived languages
There are no
creoleA creole language, or simply a creole, is a stable language that originates from a mixture of various languages. The lexicon of a creole usually consists of words clearly borrowed from the parent languages, except for phonetic and semantic shifts...
dialects described in the literature, although as noted above, the Propontis dialect is much closer to the standard dialect of Greek than are the other two, and all dialects have been in constant contact with the standard. The northern dialect which in the mid-twentieth century was retreating much faster than its southern cousin, reportedly had a greater affinity to Demotic Greek. An indeterminate number of persons speak Tsakonian less-than fluently, so it is possible that some degree of creolization has taken place.
Since the introduction of
electricityElectricity is a general term that encompasses a variety of phenomena resulting from the presence and flow of electric charge...
to all villages in Tsakonia by the 1970s, the Greek
mass mediaMass media denotes a section of the media specifically designed to reach a very large audience such as the population of a nation state. The term was coined in the 1920s with the advent of nationwide radio networks, mass-circulation newspapers and magazines. However, some forms of mass media such...
can reach the most remote of areas and profoundly affect the speech of younger speakers. Some efforts to revive the language by teaching it in local schools seem not to have had much success. Standard Modern Greek is the official language of
governmentThe Politics of Greece takes place in a large parliamentary representative democratic republic, whereby the Prime Minister of Greece is the head of government, and of a multi-party system. Legislative power is vested in both the government and the Hellenic Parliament...
,
commerceCommerce is a division of trade or production which deals with the exchange of goods and services from producer to final consumer. It comprises the trading of something of economic value such as goods, services, information, or money between two or more entities...
and education, and it appears inevitable that the continued modernization of Tsakonia will lead to the language's disappearance sometime this century.
Vowels
A) /a/ can appear as a reflex of Doric /aː/, in contexts where Attic had η /ɛː/ and Modern Greek has /i/: αμέρα /amera/ corresponding to Modern
ημέρα /imera/ "day", στρατιώτα /stratiota/ corresponding to Modern στρατιώτης /stratiotis/ "soldier".
Ε) /e/ > /i/ before vowels: e.g. Βασιλήα /vasilia/ instead of βασιλέα /vasilea/.
O) occasionally /o/ > /u/: ουφις /ufis/ < όφις /ofis/ "snake", τθούμα /tʰuma/ < στόμα /stoma/ "mouth". Final /o/ > /e/ after coronals and front vowels: όνος /onos/ > όνε /one/, χοίρος /xyros/> χιούρε /xjure/, γραφτός /ɣraftos/> γραφτέ /ɣrafte/, χρέος /xreos/ > χρίε /xrie/, but δρόμος /ðromos/> δρόμο /ðromo/
Υ) Pronounced in Modern Greek /i/, this was /u/ in Doric and /y/ in Attic. The reflex of this phoneme in Tsakonian is /u/, and /ju/ after coronals (suggesting an origin in /y/). σούκα /suka/ corresponding to Modern σύκα /sika/ "figs", άρτουμα /artuma/ corresponding to άρτυμα /artima/ "bread"; λύκος /lykos/ > λιούκο /ljuko/ [ʎuko] "wolf"
Ω) /ɔː/ in Ancient Greek, regularly goes to /u/: μουρήα /muria/ (Ancient μωρέα /mɔːrea/, Modern μουριά /murja/), αού /au/ < λαλών /lalɔːn/ "speaking".
(Note: Tsakonian citation forms for verbs are participles, hence they are given as derived from the ancient participle in -ών.)
Consonants
Tsakonian in some words preserves the pre-classical Greek
w-sound, represented in some Ancient Greek texts by the
digammaDigamma is an archaic letter of the Greek alphabet, used primarily as a Greek numeral.The letter had the phonetic value of a voiced labial-velar approximant . It was originally called wau. It was later called the "elusive" ' because of its shape...
. In Tsakonian, this sound has become a fricative
v: βάννε /vane/ "sheep", corresponding to Ancient ϝαμνός /wamnos/ (Attic ἀμνός).
Tsakonian has extensive changes triggered by palatalisation:
- /k/ > [tɕ] : κύριος /kyrios/ > τζιούρη /tɕuri/, occasionally /ts/: κεφάλι /kefali/ > τσουφά /tsufa/
- /ɡ/ > [dz] : αγγίζων /angizɔːn/ > αντζίχου /andzixu/
- /p/ > [c] : πηγάδι /piɣaði/ > κηγάδι /ciɣaði/
- /t/ > [c] : τυρός /tyros/ > κιουρέ /cure/, occasionally /ts/: τίποτα /tipota/ > τσίπτα /tsipta/
- /m/ > [n] : Μιχάλης /mixalis/ > Ν(ν)ιχάλη /nixali/
- /n/ > /ɲ/ : ανοίγων /aniɣɔːn/ > ανοίντου /aɲindu/
- /l/ > /ʎ/ : ηλιάζων /iliazɔːn/ > λιάζου /ʎazu/
- /r/ > [ʒ] :ρυάκι /ryaki/ > ρζάτζι /ʒatɕi/. This sound appears to have been a fricative trill in the 19th century, and [ʒ] survived latterly only in women's usage in Southern Tsakonian.
In Southern Tsakonian, /l/ is deleted before back and central vowels: λόγος /loɣos/ > Northern λόγo /loɣo/, Southern όγo /oɣo/; λούζων /luzɔːn/ > Northern λούκχου /lukʰu/, Southern ούκχου /ukʰu/;
Occasionally /θ/ > /s/, which appears to reflect an earlier process in Laconian, but in others /θ/ is retained though the word is absent in Standard Greek: θυγάτηρ /θyɣatir/ > σάτη /sati/, but Ancient θύων /θiɔːn/ (Modern σφάζω /sfazo/) > θύου /θiu/
Word-final /s/ > /r/, which reflects an earlier process in Laconian; in Tsakonian, it is a liaison phoneme: τίνος /tinos/ > τσούνερ /tsuner/
Word-initial /r/ > /ʃ/: *ράφων /rafɔːn/ > σχάφου /ʃafu/
In the common verb ending -zo, /z/ > /nd/ : φωνάζων /fonazɔːn/ > φωνιάντου /foɲandu/
Tsakonian avoids clusters, and reduces them to aspirated or prenasalised stops and affricates:
- /ðr, θr, tr/ > /tʃ/: δρύας, άνθρωπος, τράγος /ðryas, anθropos, traɣos/ > τσχούα, άτσχωπο, τσχάο /tʃua, atʃopo, tʃao/
- /sp, st, sθ, sk, sx/ > /pʰ, tʰ, tʰ, kʰ, kʰ/: σπείρων, ιστός, επιάσθη, ασκός, ίσχων /spirɔːn, istos, epiasθi, askos, isxɔːn/ > πφείρου, ιτθέ, εκιάτθε, ακχό, ίκχου /pʰiru, itʰe, ecatʰe, akʰo, ikʰu/
- /mf, nθ, nx/ > /pʰ, tʰ, kʰ/: ομφαλός, γρονθία, ρύγχος /omfalos, ɣronθia, rynxos/ > απφαλέ, γροτθία, σχούκο /apʰale, ɣrotʰia, ʃukʰo/
- /ks/ > /ts/: ξερός /kseros/ > τσερέ /tsere/
- /kt, xθ/ > /tʰ/: δάκτυλο, δεχθώ /ðaktylo, ðexθɔː/ > δάτθυλε, δετθού /ðatʰile, ðetʰu/
- /l/ after consonants often goes to /r/: πλατύ, κλέφτης, γλώσσα, αχλάδες /platy, kleftis, ɣlɔːsa, axlaðes/ > πρακιού, κρέφτα, γρούσα, αχράε /pracu, krefta, ɣrusa, axrae/
- /rp, rt, rk, rð/ > /mb, nd, ŋɡ, nd/: σκορπίος, άρτος, άρκα, πορδή /skorpios, artos, arka, porði/ > κχομπίο, άντε, άγκα, πφούντα /kʰombio, ande, aŋɡa, pʰunda/
/z, v/ are added between vowels: μυία, κυανός /myia, kyanos/ > μούζα, κουβάνε /muza, kuvane/
/ɣ, ð/ often drop out between vowels: πόδας, τράγος /poðas, traɣos/ > πούα, τσχάο /pua, tʃao/
Prosody
original song-Tsakonian
Πουλάκι έμα έχα τθο κλουβί τσαί μερουτέ ωι έμα έχα
τάχιγα νι εμα ζάχαρι ποκίχα νι έμα μόσκο,
τσαί από το μόσκο το περσού τσαί από τα μυρωδιά
εσκαντάλιστε το κλουβί τσ' εφύντζε μι τ'αϊδίνι.
Τσ'αφέγκι σι νιε τσυνηγού με το κλουβί τθα τζέρρι.
Έλα πουλί τθο τόπο ωτι έλα τθα κατοιτσία
ω'αλάτσου τα κουδούνια ωτι να βάλου άλλα τσαινούρζα.
In Latin characters for pronunciation
Poulaki ema echa t-tho klouvi tse meroute oi ema echa
tachigha ni ema zachari pokicha ema mosko
tse apo to mosko to persu tse apo ta mirodia
eskantaliste to klouvi ts efitze mi taidine.
Tsafegi si ni tsinighou me to klouvi t-tha chera
Ela pouli t-tho topo oti ela t-tha katitsia
o alatsou ta koudhounia oti na valou alla tsenourza
In modern Greek
Πουλάκι είχα στο κλουβί και μερομένο/χαρούμενο το είχα.
το τάιζα ζάχαρι και το πότιζα μόσχο
και από τον πολύ τον μόσχο και την μυρωδιά του
εσκανταλίστη και το κλουβί και μου έφυγε τ'αϊδόνι
Κι ο αφέντης το κυνηγάει με το κλουβί στο χέρι:
Έλα πουλί στον τόπο σου, έλα στην κατοικία σου
ν'αλλάξω τα κουδούνια σου να βάλω άλλα καινούργια
Modern Greek pronunciation - Latin guideline
Poulaki icha sto klouvi ke meromeno to icha
to taiza zachari ke to potiza moscho
ke apo ton poli ton moscho ke tin mirodia tou
eskantalisti le to klouvi ke mou efyghe taidoni.
ke o afegis to kinigai me to klouvi sto cheri
Ela pouli ston topo sou, ela stin katikia sou
Nallaxo ta koudounia sou na valo alla kenourgia
English translation
I had a bird in a cage and I kept it happy
I gave it sugar and wine-grapes
and from the great amount of grapes and their essence,
it got naughty (possibly means it got drunk ) and escaped.
And its master now runs after it with the cage in his hands:
Come my bird back where you belong, come to your house
I will remove your old bells and buy you new ones.
Phonotactics
Tsakonian avoids consonant clusters, as seen, and drops final /s/ and /n/; as a result, syllable structure tends more to CV than in Standard Modern Greek. (The use of digraphs in tradition spelling tends to obscure this). For instances, ancient /hadros/ "hard" goes to Tsakonian /a.tʃe/, where /tʃ/ can be considered a single phoneme; it is written traditionally with a trigraph as ατσχέ (=
atskhe).
Grammar
Tsakonian has undergone considerable morphological simplification: there is minimal case inflection.
The present and imperfect indicative in Tsakonian are formed with participles, like English but unlike the rest of Greek: ενεί αού, έμα αού "I am listening, I was listening" < εινί ναού, έμα ναού
Ενεί: Enee =i am
Εσεί: Esi =you are
Έννι: Eni =he/she/it is
Έμε: Eme =we are
Έτε: Ete =you are
Είνι: Eeni = they are
Έμα: Ema = I was
Έσα: Esa = You were
Έκη: Eki =he/she/it was
Έμαϊ: Emai =we were
Έταϊ: Etai =you were
Ήγκιαϊ: Igiai =they were
φερήκου (males) φερήκα (females): ferikou/ferika = I bring
φερήκεις: ferikis =you bring
φερήκει: feriki =he/she/it brings
φερήκουντε: ferikoude =we bring
φερήκουτε: ferikoute =you bring
φερήκουσι: ferikousi =they bring
Writing system
Traditionally, Tsakonian used the standard Greek alphabet, along with digraphs to represent certain sounds which either do not occur in Demotic Greek, or which do not commonly occur in combination with the same sounds as they do in Tsakonian. For example, the "sh" sound, which does not occur in standard Greek, does in Tsakonian, and is spelled "σχ" (much like
GermanGerman is a West Germanic language, thus related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. It is one of the world's major languages and the most widely spoken first language in the European Union. Around the world, German is spoken by approximately 105 million native speakers and also by...
sch). Another sound recalls
CzechCzech is a West Slavic language with about 12 million native speakers; it is the majority language in the Czech Republic and spoken by Czechs worldwide. Czech is similar to and mutually intelligible with Slovak and, to a lesser extent, to Polish and Sorbian. - Official status :Czech is widely...
ř. Prof. Costakis invented an orthography using dots,
spiritus asperThe spiritus asper , is a diacritical mark used in the polytonic orthography. In ancient Greek, it indicates initial aspiration, or the presence of the voiceless glottal fricative at the beginning of a word...
, and
caronA caron or háček , also known as a wedge, inverted circumflex, inverted hat, is a diacritic placed over certain letters to indicate present or historical palatalization, iotation, or postalveolar pronunciation in the orthography of some Baltic, Slavic, Finno-Lappic, and other languages.It looks...
for use in his works, which has been used in his grammar and several other works. This is more like the
CzechCzech is a West Slavic language with about 12 million native speakers; it is the majority language in the Czech Republic and spoken by Czechs worldwide. Czech is similar to and mutually intelligible with Slovak and, to a lesser extent, to Polish and Sorbian. - Official status :Czech is widely...
usage of haceks (such as
š). Lastly, unpalatalized
n and
l before a front vowel can be written double, to contrast with a palatalised single letter. (e.g. in Southern Tsakonian ένι [eɲi] "he is", έννι [eni] "I am" -- the latter corresponding to Northern Tsakonian έμι [emi] and Standard Greek είμαι [ime].)
| Representing Tsakonian sounds. Sources: Nicholas, Houpis, Costakis |
| Digraphs |
Costakis |
IPA |
| σχ |
|
|
| τσχ |
|
|
| ρζ |
ρζ |
|
| τθ |
|
|
| κχ |
|
|
| πφ |
|
|
| τζ |
(Κ) τζ - τζ & τρζ – τρζ
(Λ) τζ - τζ |
(L) |
| νν |
|
|
| λλ |
λ̣ |
|
| *Note: (K) is for the northern dialect of Kastanitsa & Sitaina, (Λ) and (L) for the southern which is spoken around Leonidio. |
Examples
| English English is a West Germanic language that developed in England during the Anglo-Saxon era. As a result of the military, economic, scientific, political, and cultural influence of the British Empire during the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries, and of the United States since the mid 20th century,...
|
Modern GreekModern Greek refers to the varieties of Greek spoken in the modern era. The beginning of the "modern" period of the language is often symbolically assigned to the fall of the Byzantine Empire in 1453, even though that date marks no clear linguistic boundary and many characteristic modern features...
|
Tsakonian (Greek alphabetThe Greek alphabet is a set of twenty-four letters that has been used to write the Greek language since the late 9th or early 8th century BCE. It is the first and oldest alphabet in the narrow sense that it notes each vowel and consonant with a separate symbol. It is as such in continuous use to...
) |
Tsakonian (Latin alphabetThe Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, is the most widely used alphabetic writing system in the world today. It evolved from the western variety of the Greek alphabet called the Cumaean alphabet, and was initially developed by the ancient Romans to write the Latin language.During the...
) |
Tsakonian (IPAThe International Phonetic Alphabet ["The acronym 'IPA' strictly refers [...] to the 'International Phonetic Association'. But it is now such a common practice to use the acronym also to refer to the alphabet itself that resistance seems pedantic...]
) |
| Where is my room? |
Πού είναι το δωμάτιό μου; |
Κιά έννι τθο όντα νι; |
Ciá éñi o óda mi? |
|
| Where is the beach? |
Πού είναι η παραλία; |
Κιά έννι τθο περιγιάλλι; |
Ciá éñi to perigiálli? |
|
| Where is the bar? |
Πού είναι το μπαρ; |
Κιά έννι τθο μπαρ; |
Ciá éñi to bar? |
|
| Don't touch me there! |
Μη μ' αγγίζεις εκεί! |
Μη' μ' αντζίτζερε όρπα! |
Mē' m'adzíchere órpa! |
|
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