*Dates (beginning with Ancient Greek) from Wallace D. B. (1996). Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics: An Exegetical Syntax of the New Testament. Grand Rapids: Zondervan. p. 12. ISBN 0310218950. 

Tsakonian derives from Doric Greek.1 Geographic distribution 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). There was formerly a Tsakonian colony on the Sea of Marmara (or Propontis; two villages near Gnen 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. 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.2 Dialects

Tsakonian is divided by scholars into three dialects Northern Tsakonian Southern Tsakonian and Propontis Tsakonian.

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 (pu) relativiser which takes the form (pi) in Tsakonian (note: the traditional Tsakonian orthography uses the digraph + giving ). Noun morphology is broadly similar to Standard Modern Greek although Tsakonian tends to drop the nominative "s" from masculine nouns thus Tsakonian for Standard o (o tshifta/o triftis: "grater"). (English/Tsakonian/Greek) "Our language is Tsakonian. Ask and they'll tell you./Grossa nmou eni ta Tsaknika. Rotete na niom'aloi./E glssa mas enai ta Tsaknika. Rotste na sas poun." bilingual (Tsakonian and Standard Greek) sign in the town of Leonidio and Tyros Greece. The Propontis dialect was much more heavily influenced by the modern Thracian dialect and although there were significant grammatical differences in terms of vocabulary it was much closer to Standard Modern Greek. Compare the Northern and Southern word for water (io derived from Ancient Greek ) to Propontic and Standard (nere nero). However 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 Albanian and Turkish. The core vocabulary remains recognizably Doric though experts disagree on the extent to which other true Doricisms can be found. There are only a few hundred mainly elderly true native speakers alive although there are a great many more who can speak the language less than fluently. 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 and there began a rapid decline from an estimated figure of some 200000 fluent speakers to the present fluent core estimated in the hundreds. Since the introduction of electricity to all villages in Tsakonia by the 1970s the Greek mass media can reach the most remote of areas and profoundly affect 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 appears inevitable that the continued modernization of Tsakonia will lead to the language's disappearance sometime this century.citation needed Sounds Vowels A) /a/ can appear as a reflex of Doric /a/ in contexts where Attic had // and Modern Greek has /i/: /amera/ corresponding to Modern /imera/ "day" /stratiota/ corresponding to Modern /stratiotis/ "soldier". ) /e/ > /i/ before vowels: e.g. /vasilia/ instead of /vasilea/. O) occasionally /o/ > /u/: /ufis/ < /ofis/ "snake" /tuma/ < /stoma/ "mouth". Final /o/ > /e/ after coronals and front vowels: /onos/ > /one/ /xyros/ > /xjure/ /raftos/ > /rafte/ /xreos/ > /xrie/ but /romos/ > /romo/ ) Pronounced in Modern Greek /i/ this was /u/ in Doric and /y/ in Attic. The reflex of this phoneme in Tsakonian is /u/ and /ju/ after coronals (suggesting an origin in /y/). /suka/ corresponding to Modern /sika/ "figs" /artuma/ corresponding to /artima/ "bread"; /lykos/ > /ljuko/ uko "wolf" ) // in Ancient Greek regularly goes to /u/: /muria/ (Ancient /mrea/ Modern /murja/) /au/ < /laln/ "speaking". (Note: Tsakonian citation forms for verbs are participles hence they are given as derived from the ancient participle in -.) Consonants Tsakonian in some words preserves the pre-classical Greek w-sound represented in some Ancient Greek texts by the digamma. In Tsakonian this sound has become a fricative v: /vane/ "sheep" corresponding to Ancient /wamnos/ (Attic ). Tsakonian has extensive changes triggered by palatalisation: /k/ > t : /kyrios/ > /turi/ occasionally /ts/: /kefali/ > /tsufa/ // > dz : /aizn/ > /andzixu/ /p/ > c : /piai/ > /ciai/ /t/ > c : /tyros/ > /cure/ occasionally /ts/: /tipota/ > /tsipta/ /m/ > n : /mixalis/ > () /nixali/ /n/ > // : /anin/ > /aindu/ /l/ > // : /iliazn/ > /azu/ /r/ >  : /ryaki/ > /ati/. This sound appears to have been a fricative trill in the 19th century and survived latterly only in women's usage in Southern Tsakonian. In Southern Tsakonian /l/ is deleted before back and central vowels: /loos/ > Northern o /loo/ Southern o /oo/; /luzn/ > Northern /luku/ Southern /uku/; Occasionally // > /s/ which appears to reflect an earlier process in Laconian but in others // is retained though the word is absent in Standard Greek: /yatir/ > /sati/ but Ancient /in/ (Modern /sfazo/) > /iu/ Word-final /s/ > /r/ which reflects an earlier process in Laconian; in Tsakonian it is a liaison phoneme: /tinos/ > /tsuner/ Word-initial /r/ > //: * /rafn/ > /afu/ In the common verb ending -zo /z/ > /nd/ : /fonazn/ > /foandu/ Tsakonian avoids clusters and reduces them to aspirated or prenasalised stops and affricates: /r r tr/ > /t/: /ryas anropos traos/ > /tua atopo tao/ /sp st s sk sx/ > /p t t k k/: /spirn istos epiasi askos isxn/ > /piru ite ecate ako iku/ /mf n nx/ > /p t k/: /omfalos ronia ryxos/ > /apale rotia uko/ /ks/ > /ts/: /kseros/ > /tsere/ /kt x/ > /t/: /aktylo ex/ > /atile etu/ /l/ after consonants often goes to /r/: /platy kleftis lsa axlaes/ > /pracu krefta rusa axrae/ /rp rt rk r/ > /mb nd nd/: /skorpios artos arka pori/ > /kombio ande aa punda/ /z v/ are added between vowels: /myia kyanos/ > /muza kuvane/ / / often drop out between vowels: /poas traos/ > /pua tao/ Prosody original song-Tsakonian In Roman transliteration ' '. ' . ' . Poulaki ema echa t-tho klouvi tse meroute oi ema echa tachigha ni ema zachari pokicha ema mosko tse apo to mosko to persu tse apo ta mirodia eskantaliste to klouvi ts efitze mi taidine. Tsafegi si ni tsinighou me to klouvi t-tha chera Ela pouli t-tho topo oti ela t-tha katitsia o alatsou ta koudhounia oti na valou alla tsenourza. In modern Greek Modern Greek pronunciation - Roman guideline . ' : ' Poulaki icha sto klouvi ke meromeno to icha to taiza zachari ke to potiza moscho ke apo ton poli ton moscho ke tin mirodia tou eskantalisti le to klouvi ke mou efyghe taidoni. ke o afegis to kinigai me to klouvi sto cheri Ela pouli ston topo sou ela stin katikia sou Nallaxo ta koudounia sou na valo alla kenourgia. 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 it 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 /s/ and /n/; 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 instances ancient /hadros/ "hard" goes to Tsakonian /a.te/ where /t/ can be considered a single phoneme; it is written traditionally with a trigraph as ( atskhe). Grammar Tsakonian has undergone considerable morphological simplification: there is minimal case inflection. The present and imperfect indicative in Tsakonian are formed with participles like English but unlike the rest of Greek: "I am saying I was saying" < (Enee) I am (Esi) you are (Eni) he/she/it is (Eme) we are (Ete) you are (Eeni) they are (Ema) I was (Esa) you were (Eki) he/she/it was (Emai) we were (Etai) you were (Igiai) they were (males) (females) (ferikou/ferika) I bring (ferikis) you bring (feriki) he/she/it brings (ferikoude) we bring (ferikoute) you bring (ferikousi) they bring Writing system Traditionally Tsakonian used the standard Greek alphabet along with digraphs to represent certain sounds which either do not occur in Demotic Greek or which do not commonly occur in combination with the same sounds as they do in Tsakonian. For example the "sh" sound which does not occur in standard Greek does in Tsakonian and is spelled "" (much like German sch). Another sound recalls Czech . Prof. 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. This is more like the Czech usage of haceks (such as ). Lastly unpalatalized n and l before a front vowel can be written double to contrast with a palatalised single letter. (e.g. in Southern Tsakonian ei "he is" eni "I am" -- the latter corresponding to Northern Tsakonian emi and Standard Greek ime.)   Representing Tsakonian sounds. Sources: Nicholas Houpis Costakis Digraphs Costakis IPA t r t k p ()   - &   ()   - (K) t tr (L) t d n (not ) l (not ) *Note: (K) is for the northern dialect of Kastanitsa & Sitaina () and (L) for the southern which is spoken around Leonidio and Tyros. Examples English Modern Greek Tsakonian (Greek alphabet) Tsakonian (Latin alphabet) Tsakonian (Costakis Notation) Where is my room ; ; Ci i o da ni ; Where is the beach ; ; Ci i to perigilli ; Where is the bar ; ; Ci i to bar ; Don't touch me there! ' ! ' ' ! M' m'adzchere rpa! ! See also Tsakonia Tsakonian people References Linguist List P. Trudgill D. Schreier (2006): Greece and Cyprus. In: U. Ammon (ed.) Sociolinguistics. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Sources Costakis Athanasios (Thanasis) P. (1951). (Brief Grammar of the Tsakonian Dialect). Athens: Institut Franais d'Athnes.  Horrocks Geoffrey (1997). Greek: A history of the language and its speakers. London: Longman.  Nicholas Nick (unpublished). n/a A Critical Lexicostatistical Examination of Ancient and Modern Greek and Tsakonian. Second Draft. n/a.  Nicholas Nick (1999). The Story of pu: The grammaticalisation in space and time of a Modern Greek complementiser. Final. http://www.tlg.uci.edu/opoudjis/Work/thesis.html.  Pernot H. (1934). Introduction l'tude du dialecte tsakonien. Paris.  External links Tsakonian language test of Wikipedia at Wikimedia Incubator Brief Description - Ethnologue Linguistic Lineage Projet Homere (text sample and audio files) Tsakonian Bibliography The Lord's Prayer in Tsakonian (text sample) Church Service in Tsakonian (RealAudio) Tsakonian in the Tree for Hellenic