Tsakonian language
| Tsakonian | |
|---|---|
| τσακώνικα | |
| Native to | Greece |
| Region | Eastern Peloponnese around Mount Parnon |
|
Native speakers
|
at most a couple hundred with "some fluency" (2007) |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | |
| Glottolog | tsak1248 |
| Linguasphere | 56-AAA-b |
Tsakonian or Tsaconian (also Tzakonian or Tsakonic, Greek and Tsakonian: τσακώνικα) is a highly divergent modern variety of Greek, spoken in the Tsakonian region of the Peloponnese, Greece. Tsakonian derives from Doric Greek, being its only extant variant. 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, mostly elderly, fluent speakers left. It is mutually unintelligible with Standard Modern Greek.
It is named after its speakers, the Tsakonians, which in turn may be derived from 'exo-Laconians' 'Outer Lakonians'.
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). There was formerly a Tsakonian colony on the Sea of Marmara (or Propontis; two villages near Gönen, Vatika and Havoutsi), probably dating from the 18th century, whose members were resettled in Greece with the 1924 population exchanges. Propontis Tsakonian appears to have died out around 1970.
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 Paliohora 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.
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Wikipedia