Tsakonian
Ethnographic map of the Peloponnese ( Alfred Philippson ) 1890 with the Tsakonian language area in light blue
Zakonian or Tsakonian ( Greek Τσακωνική διάλεκτος Tsakoniki dialektos ) is a Greek dialect that is still actively spoken in a few villages in the Laconia and Arcadia regions of the Peloponnese . Tsakonian is the only Greek dialect still spoken today that did not develop from the Hellenistic common language ( Koine ), but from the ancient Doric dialect.
The tsakonic was rediscovered by the French scholar Jean-Baptiste Gaspard d'Ansse de Villoison on his trip to Greece (1784–1786). It was first thoroughly researched by the German Michael Deffner , who published a Zakonian grammar in 1881 , and by the Cretan Georgios N. Chatzidakis .
Typical characteristics of tsakonic are:
- Rhotacism : Change the [ s ] - Auslautes in [ r ] when the initial sound of the following word vowel is. Examples: τα ρ α μερί ( της ημέρας ), καλέ ρ έ νι ( Καλός είναι ), πού ρ ε πέτσερε ( πώς είπες )
- Preservation of the Doric ā [ a: ]: α μέρα ( ημέρα ), ψ α φού ( ψηλαφώ )
- Transformation of the [ thetav ] in [ s ] : σ άτη ( θυγάτηρ ), σ έρι ( θέρος )
- Preservation of the Digamma initials ([ w ]) in the word: β άννε ← Fαρήν ( αρνί )
