Tsakonia
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Tsakonia (Greek: Τσακωνιά, Tsakoniá; Tsakonian: Τσακωνία, Tsakonía) or the Tsakonian region (Τσακωνικός χώρος) refers to the small area in the eastern Peloponnese where the Tsakonian language is spoken, in the area surrounding 13 towns, villages and hamlets located around Pera Melana in Arcadia. It is not a formally defined political entity of the modern Greek state.
Extent
In his Brief Grammar of the Tsakonian Dialect published in 1951, Prof.
Some early commentators seem to have confused the speech of
The actual Tsakonian speech community has shrunk greatly since Brief Grammar was published, but the area delineated by Costakis is still considered "Tsakonia" due to the preservation of certain cultural traits such as the Tsakonian dance and unique folk costumes.
The Tsakonian speaking region was once much more widespread than it was at the time of Brief Grammar; Evliya Çelebi noted in 1668 that the village of Vatika, far south of Leonidio, was Tsakonian; however that place would later be resettled by Arvanites; the Chronicle of Morea (14th century) furthermore indicates that Tsakonian was spoken in Cynuria, which is now part of Arcadia but was once considered to be in the northeast of Laconia.[1] The original Tsakonian region may have consisted of the entire eastern half of Laconia.[1]
History
The term Tsakonas or Tzakonas first emerges in the writings of
The Tsakonians are thought to have been often border guards in the Byzantine military, judging by the number of references to τζάκωνες and τζέκωνες playing such roles in Byzantine Greek writings.[3] The first reference to their "barbaric" speech being unintelligible to Koine Greek dates to the 15th century.[3]
According to the Byzantine historian
Population
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The Tsakonians (
Tsakonians in later time were known for their
Genetic studies
The paper "Genetics of the peloponnesean populations and the theory of extinction of the medieval peloponnesean Greeks" (2017) studied the Tsakonians under two groups; one from the South (15 samples) and one from the North (9 samples) of the region. Both populations have a very high average pairwise IBD sharing of 0.66% of their genome, or 94 cM, and every pair of individuals shares at least one IBD segment. Tsakonians possess low levels of common ancestry with the Slavs (Belarusians, Russians, Polish, and Ukrainians) at 0.2%–0.9% for Southern Tsakonians and at 3.9%–8.2% for Northern Tsakonians. The rest of the Peloponnesians (148 samples - excluding the Maniots), even though possessing low levels of common ancestry with the Slavs as well, they are still relatively higher than that of Tsakonians (and Maniots) at 4.8%–14.4%. Even though Maniots, divided under the groupings of Deep Mani or Mesa/Inner Mani (22 samples), West Taygetos or Exo/Outer Mani (24 samples), and East Taygetos or Kato/Lower Mani (23 samples), are similarly conservative at 0.7%–1.6%, 4.9%–8.6%, and 5.7%–10.9% of common ancestry with the Slavs respectively, Tsakonians remain a distinct population from both the Maniots and the rest of the Peloponnesians, something that is attributed to isolation by distance and the possibility that Tsakonia in antiquity was inhabited by Doric-speaking Ionians (per Herodotus), while Mani by actual Dorians.[7]
References
- ^ a b Nicholas 2019, p. 20
- ^ William Miller. The Latins in the Levant: A History of Frankish Greece 1204–1566. Cambridge, Speculum Historiale, 1908. p. 4.
- ^ a b c d Nicholas 2019, p. 21
- ^ Original from Porphyrogenitus: Ἱστέον ὅτι οἱ τοῦ κάστρου τῆς Μαΐνης οἰκήτορες οὐκ εἰσὶν ἀπὸ τῆς γενεᾶς τῶν προρρηθέντων Σκλάβων, ἀλλ’ ἐκ τῶν παλαιοτέρων Ῥωμαίων, οἳ καὶ μέχρι τοῦ νῦν παρὰ τῶν ἐντοπίων Ἕλληνες προσαγορείονται διὰ τὸ ἐν τοῖς προπαλαιοῖς χρόνοις εἰδωλολάτρας εἶναι καὶ προσκυνητὰς τῶν εἰδώλων κατὰ τοὺς παλαιοὺς Ἕλληνας, οἵτινες ἐπὶ τῆς βασιλείας τοῦ ἀοιδίμου Βασιλείου βαπτισθέντες χριστιανοὶ γεγόνασιν
- ^ a b Treadgold, Warren (1997). A History of the Byzantine State and Society. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press.
- ^ Costakis, Thanasis P (1951). Σύντομη Γραμματική της Τσακωνικής Διαλέκτου [Brief Grammar of the Tsakonian Dialect] (in Greek). Athens: Institut Français d'Athènes.
- PMID 28272534.
Sources
- Nicholas, Nick (2019). "A critical lexicostatistical examination of Ancient and Modern Greek and Tsakonian". Journal of Applied Linguistics and Lexicography. 1 (1): 18–68. .
- Chrēstos D. Petakos (2003). Chrēstu D. Petaku "Tsakonia": psēphida ellēnikē istorias kai politismu. Zacharopulos. ISBN 978-960-91690-1-1.
- Hawes, Charles H. "Some Dorian Descendants?." The Annual of the British School at Athens 16 (1910): 258-280.
- Costakis, Thanasis P. "Vatika kai Chavoutsi ta tsakonochoria tes Propontidas." (1979).
- Bagenas, Thanos K. Thanu K. Bagena Historika Tsakōnias kai Leōnidiu. 1971.
- Pitsios, Th K. "Anthropologische Untersuchung der Bevölkerung des Peloponnes unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der Arwaniten und Tsakonen." Anthropologischer Anzeiger (1986): 215-225.