Tsakonian language

Tsakonian or Tsaconian (also Tzakonian or Tsakonic, Template:Langx, η τσακωνική διάλεκτος and Tsakonian: , ) 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. 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

File:Pelopones ethnic.JPG

Old ethnic map of Peloponnese; Tsakonian-speaking areas in blue

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 from an estimated figure of some 200,000 fluent speakers to the present estimate of a speaker count between 200 and 1,000.

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 this 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.

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. 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 Pachymeres or around the time of the 1770 Orlov Revolt. For an example of the standardizing Thracian Greek influence, compare the Northern and Southern word for water, ύο (ýo, derived from Ancient Greek ) to Propontic νερέ and Standard νερό (neré, neró).

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". 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 Celebi in the 17th century.

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

		Labial	Dental/Alveolar		Post- alveolar	Palatal	Velar
			central	sibilant
Stop/ Affricate	voiceless	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	(Template:IPA link)	(Template:IPA link)	Template:IPA link
	aspirated	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link		Template:IPA link
Fricative	voiceless	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link		Template:IPA link
	voiced	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link		Template:IPA link
Nasal		Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link			Template:IPA link
Lateral			Template:IPA link			Template:IPA link
Trill			Template:IPA link

• The voiced-prenasalization of stop consonant sounds of /Template:IPA link, Template:IPA link, Template:IPA link, Template:IPA link/ as [[[:Template:IPA link]], Template:IPA link, Template:IPA link, Template:IPA link] may also occur within segments. When before front vowels /Template:IPA link, Template:IPA link/, the phonetic sequence [[[:Template:IPA link]]] is then palatalized as [[[:Template:IPA link]]].
• /Template:IPA link/ are heard as palatal sounds [[[:Template:IPA link]]] when preceding front vowels /Template:IPA link, Template:IPA link/. /Template:IPA link, Template:IPA link/ may also be heard as [[[:Template:IPA link]], Template:IPA link] in this same position.
• [[[:Template:IPA link]]] may also occur as phonemic among dialects.
• /Template:IPA link/ may also be heard as [[[:Template:IPA link]]] among speakers.

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	Template:IPA link		Template:IPA link
Mid	Template:IPA link		Template:IPA link
Open		Template:IPA link

• /Template:IPA link, Template:IPA link/ are heard as non syllabic when following consonants and preceding other vowels.
• /Template:IPA link/ and /Template:IPA link/ in weak positions can both be heard as [[[:Template:IPA link]]].

Phonological history

Vowels

• A can appear as a reflex of Doric , in contexts where Attic had η and Modern Greek has : αμέρα "day" corresponding to Modern ημέρα "day", κρέφτα "thief" corresponding to Modern κλέφτης .
• Ε > before vowels: e.g. βασιλλία "king" < βασιλέα . 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: εννία "nine" from Ancient Greek ἐννέα VS νία "one fem." from Ancient Greek μία.
• O occasionally > : ου(ι)θί < όφις "snake", τθούμα < στόμα "mouth". Final > after coronals and front vowels: όνος > όνε "donkey", πόρος > πόρε "door", γραφτός > γραφτέ "written", χρέος > χρίε , but λύκος > λιούκο "wolf" and θερμόν > σχομό "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: λύκος νύκτα κρύπτων τύ > > λιούκο "wolf" νιούτθα "night" γκρζιούφου "hide (participle)" εκιού "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 : εζού "I" Ancient Greek ἐγώ , αού "say (participle)" < λαλών . This shift is absent from Propontis Tsakonian.

Consonants

Tsakonian in some words preserves the pre-classical Greek -sound, represented in some Ancient Greek texts by the digamma (ϝ). In Tsakonian, this sound has become a fricative : βάννε "sheep", corresponding to Ancient ϝαμνός (Attic ἀμνός).

Tsakonian has extensive changes triggered by palatalisation:

• >  : κύριος > τζιούρη , occasionally : κεφάλι > τσουφά
• >  : αγγίζων > αντζίχου
• >  : πηγάδι > κηγάδι
• >  : τυρός > κιουρέ , occasionally : τίποτα > τσίπτα , πίτα > πίτσα
• >  : Μιχάλης > Ν(ν)ιχάλη
• >  : ανοίγων > ανοίντου
• >  : ηλιάζων > λιάζου
• >  : ρυάκι > ρζάτζι . 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, whereas in other languages it went in the reverse.

Word-initial > : *ράφων > σχάφου

Word-final > , which reflects an earlier process in Laconian; in Tsakonian, it is a liaison phoneme: τίνος > τσούνερ

In Southern Tsakonian, is deleted before back and central vowels: λόγος > Northern λόγo , Southern όγo ; λούζων > Northern λούκχου , Southern ούκχου ;

Occasionally > , which appears to reflect an earlier process in Laconian, but in others is retained though the word is absent in Standard Greek: θυγάτηρ > σάτη , but Ancient θύων (Modern equivalent: σφάζω ) > θύου

Tsakonian avoids clusters, and reduces them to aspirated or prenasalised stops and affricates:

• > : δρύας, άνθρωπος, τράγος > τσχούα, άτσχωπο, τσχάο
• > : σπείρων, ιστός, επιάσθη, ασκός, ίσχων > πφείρου, ιτθέ, εκιάτθε, ακχό, ίκχου
• > : ομφαλός, γρονθία, ρύγχος > απφαλέ, γροτθία, σχούκο
• > : ξερός > τσερέ
• > : δάκτυλο, δεχθώ > δάτθυλε, δετθού
• after consonants often goes to : πλατύ, κλέφτης, γλώσσα, αχλάδες > πρακιού, κρέφτα, γρούσα, αχράε
• > : σκορπίος, άρτος, άρκα, πορδή > κχομπίο, άντε, άγκα, πφούντα

In the common verb ending -ζω, >  : φωνάζων > φωνιάντου

are added between vowels: μυία, κυανός > μούζα, κουβάνε

often drop out between vowels: πόδας, τράγος > πούα, τσχάο

Prosody

Original song – Tsakonian	Roman Transliteration	IPA transcription
Πουλάτζι 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. Ἔα πουλί τθὸν τόπο ντι ἔα τθα καϊκοιτζίαι, να ἄτσου τὰ κουδούνια ντι νἁ βάλου ἄβα τσαινούρτζα.	Poulátzi éma ékha tʰo kouiví tse merouté ni éma ékha takhíga ni éma zákhari poïkíkha ni éma mósko tse apó to mósko to persoú tse apó ta nirodía eskantalíste to kouiví ts' efíntze mi t' aïdóni. Ts' aféngi ni éki tsinigoú me to kouiví tʰo khére Éa poulí tʰon tópo nti, éa tʰa kaïkitzíe na átsou ta koudoúnia nti na válou áva tsenoúrtza.

Modern Greek	Modern Greek pronunciation (Roman guideline)	IPA transcription (see Greek phonology)
Πουλάκι είχα στο κλουβί και μερομένο το είχα. το τάιζα ζάχαρη και το πότιζα μόσχο και από τον πολύ τον μόσχο και την μυρωδιά του εσκανταλίστη και το κλουβί και μου έφυγε τ' αηδόνι 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	Pouláki íkha sto klouví ke meroméno to íkha to táïza zákhari ke to pótiza móskho ke apó ton polí ton móskho ke tin mirodiá tou eskantalísti ke to klouví ke mou éfige t' aïdóni. Ki' o aféntis to kinigáï me to klouví sto khéri Éla poulí ston tópo sou, éla stin katikía sou n' allákso ta koudoúnia sou na válo álla kenoúrgia.

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,
the nightingale 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 and ; 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 instance, ancient "hard" goes to Tsakonian , where can be considered a single phoneme; it is written traditionally with a trigraph as ατσχέ (=atskhe).

Writing system

Traditionally, Tsakonian used the standard Greek alphabet, along with digraphs to represent certain sounds that either do not occur in Demotic Greek, or that do not commonly occur in combination with the same sounds as they do in Tsakonian. For example, the sound, which does not occur in standard Greek, occurs in Tsakonian, and is spelled as σχ (much like German sch). Another sound recalls Czech ř. Thanasis Costakis invented an orthography using dots, spiritus asper, and caron for use in his works, which has been used in his grammar and several other works. That is more like the Czech usage of the háček (such as š). Lastly, unpalatalized n and l before a front vowel can be written double to contrast with a palatalised single letter; essentially the opposite of Spanish ñ and ll (e.g. in Southern Tsakonian ένει "I am", έννι "he is" – the former corresponds to Northern Tsakonian έμι and Standard Greek είμαι ).

Transcribing Tsakonian
Digraphs	Costakis	IPA
σχ
τσχ
ρζ	ρζ
τθ
κχ
πφ
τζ	(Κ) τζ̌ – τζ & τρζ̌ — τρζ (Λ) τζ̌ – τζ	(K) (L)
νν		n (not )
λλ	λ̣	l (not )

Note: (K) is for the northern dialect of Kastanitsa and Sitaina, (Λ) and (L) for the southern which is spoken around Leonidio and Tyros.

Grammar

Tsakonian has undergone considerable morphological changes: there is minimal case inflection.

The present and imperfect indicative in Tsakonian are formed with participles, like English but unlike the rest of Greek: Tsakonian ενεί αού, έμα αού "I am saying, I was saying" ≈ Greek ειμί λαλών, ήμην λαλών.

Tsakonian			English
Masculine	Feminine	Neuter
Ένει Ení			I am
Έσει Esí			you are
Έννι Éni			he/she/it is
Έμε Éme			we are
Έτθε Éthe			you are
Είνι Íni			they are
Έμα Éma			I was
Έσα Ésa			you were
Έκη Éki			he/she/it was
Έμαϊ Émaï			we were
Έτθαϊ Éthaï			you were
Ήγκιαϊ Ígiaï			they were
ένει φερήκχου feríkhou	ένει φερήκχα feríkha	ένει φερήκχουντα ferikhouda	I bring
έσει φερήκχου feríkhou	έσει φερήκχα feríkha	έσει φερήκχουντα ferikhouda	you bring
έννι φερήκχου feríkhou	έννι φερήκχα feríkha	έννι φερήκχουντα ferikhouda	he/she/it brings
έμε φερήκχουντε feríkhude		έμε φερήκχουντα feríkhuda	we bring
έτθε φερήκχουντε feríkhude		έτθε φερήκχουντα feríkhuda	you bring
είνι φερήκχουντε feríkhude		έμε φερήκχουντα feríkhuda	they bring

Note that participles change according to the gender of the subject of the sentence.

Tsakonian has preserved the original inflection of the aorist indicative.

Tsakonian	English
ενέγκα enéga	I brought
ενέντζερε enédzere	you brought
ενέντζε enédze	he/she/it brought
ενέγκαμε enégame	we brought
ενέγκατε enégate	you brought
ενέγκαϊ enégaï	they brought

Morphology

Another difference between Tsakonian and the common Demotic Greek dialect is its verb system – Tsakonian preserves different archaic forms, such as participial periphrasis for the present tense. Certain complementisers and other adverbial features present in the standard Modern Greek dialect are absent from Tsakonian, with the exception of the Modern () relativiser, which takes the form () in Tsakonian (note: traditional Tsakonian orthography uses the digraph Template:Angbr to represent aspirated ). Noun morphology is broadly similar to Standard Modern Greek, although Tsakonian tends to drop the nominative, final (Template:Transliteration) from masculine nouns, thus Tsakonian Template:Transliteration for Standard Template:Transliteration Template:Gloss.

Sample texts

English	Modern Greek	Tsakonian (Greek alphabet)	Tsakonian (Latin script)	Tsakonian (Costakis Notation)
Where is his/her/its room?	Πού είναι το δωμάτιό του/της;	Κιά έννι το όντα σι;	Kiá éni to óda si?
Where is the beach?	Πού είναι η παραλία;	Κιά έννι το περιγιάλλι;	Kiá éni to perigiáli?
Where is the bar?	Πού είναι το μπαρ;	Κιά έννι το μπαρ;	Kiá éni to bar?
Don't touch me there!	Μη μ' αγγίζεις εκεί!	Μη' μ' αντζίζερε όρπα!	Mi m' andzízere órpa!

See also

• Tsakonia

Further reading

• Blažek, Václav. "Glottochronological analysis of the Greek lexicon: Modern, Tsakonian, Old and Mycenaean Greek. In: Graeco-Latina Brunensia. 2010, vol. 15, iss. 1, pp. 17–35. Template:Catalog lookup link

External links

• Projet Homere (text sample and audio files)
• Tsakonian Bibliography
• The Lord's Prayer in Tsakonian (text sample)
• Church Service in Tsakonian Template:Webarchive (RealAudio)