Tsakonian language
Tsakonian or Tsaconian (also Tzakonian or Tsakonic, Greek: τσακώνικα and Tsakonian: τσακώνικα, α τσακώνικα γρούσσα) 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.[2] Although it is conventionally treated as a dialect of Greek,[3][4][5] some compendia treat it as a separate language.[6] Tsakonian is critically endangered, with only a few hundred/thousand, mostly elderly, fluent speakers left.[6] Although Tsakonian and standard Modern Greek are related, they are not mutually intelligible.[7]
Tsakonian
Eastern Peloponnese, around Mount Parnon
2,000–4,000 (2018)[1]
- Propontis †
- Northern
- Southern
- Western? †
56-AAA-b
Morphology[edit]
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 που (/pu/) relativiser, which takes the form πφη (/pʰi/) in Tsakonian (note: traditional Tsakonian orthography uses the digraph ⟨πφ⟩ to represent aspirated /pʰ/). Noun morphology is broadly similar to Standard Modern Greek, although Tsakonian tends to drop the nominative, final -ς (-s) from masculine nouns, thus Tsakonian ο τσχίφτα o tshífta for Standard o τρίφτης o tríftis 'grater'.
Contact[edit]
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,[6] although a great many more can speak the language less than fluently.
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.
Note: Participles change according to the gender of the subject of the sentence
Tsakonian has preserved the original inflection of the aorist indicative.