Agidel

A map showing the distrubtion of the Maniot dialect.

The Maniot dialect is a variant of the Greek language spoken in Mani. It is characterised by the pronunciation of (/Υ/, /υ/, /ου/) from ypsilon from the modern Greek /οι, ι/ to the more ancient /ου/ ie. “Ancient Greek υ and οι have become /i/ in nearly all varieties of Modern Greek, however, a number of areas (including Mani) have (/Υ/, /υ/, /ου/) ”, plus velar palatalisation, The deletion of Word Final /s/, /Σ/, /ς/, in Mani and its offspring dialect in Cargese, Corsica and shares vocabulary, phonological, and grammatical features with the Tsakonian and Cretan dialects.

A highly archaic feature shared by Tsakonian, the Maniot dialect, and the Old Athenian enclave dialects, is the divergent treatment of historical /y/ (<υ>). While this sound merged to /i/ everywhere else, these dialects have /u/ instead (e.g. ['ksulo] vs. standard ['ksilo] 'wood')., Ancient Greek υ and οι have become /i/ in nearly all varieties of Modern Greek, however, a number of areas have /u/, They are: the four ‘oasis’ dialects on the edges of or surrounded by the Arvanitika-speaking area, —Kimi, Aegina,Megara, and Old Athenian; the Mani peninsula of the southern Peloponnese; and Tsakonian. Tsakonian is generally reckoned to be the only modern dialect that is not descended from the Ancient Greek Koiné and it is aberrant in very many respects. One obvious conclusion from the geographical configuration, is that the four, now extinct, ‘oasis’ dialects are the last remnants of a large, single area over all of which this feature was once found, before the penetration of Arvanitika had the effect of dividing and separating these four relic areas from one another.

All varieties of Modern Greek front velar consonants in the environment before front vowels and /j/. However, a well-known feature associated with southern Greek dialects is the extreme palatalisation and (af)frication of velar consonants in this same position. Specifically, /k, ɡ, x, ɣ/ are fronted before /i, e, j/ to ([tɕ], [dʑ], [ɕ], [ʑ]) or to ([tʃ], [dʒ], [ʃ], [ʒ]). This is a well-known feature of Cretan, where the former(alveolo-palatal) pronunciations are more common, and in Cyprus, where the latter (palato-alveolar) realisations are usual., this feature is found in Mani, a dialect that has other affinities with Cretan; The geographically most widespread palatalisation is of /k/—i.e. some dialects have palatalisation and affrication of /k/ but not of the other velars.