Minority Languages and Dialects Of Europe, Part 1
Europe is a diverse continent. Some people tend to think that there is some sort of "European" quality in most of its cultures, however the diversity is still there and when it does not become a tool for nationalism and aggressive behaviour, it makes the various nations unique and their cultures rich and complex and when the exchange of ideas is not hindered by any extreme opinions those cultures can become even richer. It is my firm belief that the most important characteristic of a culture is the language, because it has adapted, through the years, to reflect the reality that its speakers face in everyday life. This way, it could be said that a language acts like a prism that analyses a culture and shows its very essence. And this is why the study of languages has always fascinated me.
Most people are familiar with some European languages; English, Spanish and French are spoken by millions of people, many of which live in other continents. Portuguese is the official language of Brazil, a country that boasts high rates of economic development. And who hasn't heard of Italian or German, or even heard of the Scandinavian countries and the Balkans? However there's more... Many other, relatively unknown languages are spread throughout the continent, and all of them have played an important role in History and they still define their speakers' lives. Most of them are endangered and many fear that they may disappear in the future. The reason is their supplantation by those major languages I mentioned above and the acceleration of the process because of the lack of educational material or external stimuli such as TV programmes and books. Sometimes this is done deliberately, or because of neglect, but whatever the case may be, the problem remains, although the languages are still very important.
In this article, I will be presenting some of them while I describe certain features and problems they may face. So let's begin!
Tsakonika
We start from my own country, Greece, a small state situated in the Balkans. The official langage may be Greek, but there are many other languages spoken here, and if regional dialects were included we'd need entire books to talk about them. Modern Greek is the direct descendent of Ancient Greek, specifically the regional variety that was spoken in Attica, that in turn evolved into Koine and Middle Greek. Attic Greek itself is derived from Mycenaean the language of the people that lived in the area during the Bronze age. One would think that a language with such a long history would have many other branches, the same way that Latin gave us the various Romance languages. This is nor far from the truth, however, neglect and cultural shifts, as well as the adoption of Attic as the language of literature from the Hellenistic years al the way to the 15th century AD has caused many of the variants to become either extinct or very endangered. One of these is the Tsaconian language (Tsakonica), spoken in the Peloponnese. What is fascinating about this language is that unlike most other Greek related languages that are derived from Koine (thus from Attic) this one is an evolution of the Doric variety, the one spoken my ancient Laconians. As such, it presents a unique morphology, including a plethora of archaisms and phonetic features that are found nowhere else. A good example would be the preservation of the Doric /a/ in many words. Whereas Attic had a sound close to /ε/ (as in "bed"), which later became the modern /i/ sound (as in "free" but shorter), Doric had an /a/ sound (as in 'lack"). There is also the preservation of /u/ (as in "boot") in words with the letter upsilon (υ), which was /y/ (French u) in Attic and turned into /i/ in Modern. Many other elements have been preserved including pre-classical ones.
The vocabulary is very archaic and includes some words of Turkish origin. As far as writing is concerned, there is no official writing system for Tsakonika, although the use of the standard Greek alphabet is very common, with some scholars using their own ligatures and systems. Unfortunately there has never been any official effort by the government to extensively study the language or try to preserve it. The rural area where it is spoken, is under the constant influnence of Modern Greek, which can be heard through television or found in all legal documents, something that is making the language slowly obsolete. Most of the speakers (a few hundred) are old and the younger ones (if there are any) do not speak it often as its use as no place in modern society . The language is not taught at schools, thus any hopes for its adoption by the next generation are non-existent.
Griko
While we're examining obscure Greek dialects, let's go westwards, in Italy where another variety of Greek is spoken in the areas of Salento and Calabria, where the ancient colonies once stood. Gerhard Rohlfs and Greek linguists consider Griko, as the language is known, to be the descendent of the languages that were once spoken in Magna Graecia, which would explain the many Doric elements that can be found in it. This opinion is also supported by evidence based on toponymies. Others (mainly Italian linguists) consider it to be a result of Byzantine influence during the 9th century, which would explain some elements of the syntax. Even if the origin of this language is unclear, everyone agrees that the dialect has a very long history and could benefit from academic study. Some interesting features include the dropping of the final sigma (ς) in most words (also found in Tsakonian) as well as the conversion of double lambda (λ) to double d. The preservation of Doric /a/ (described above) is also common. The retention of the infinitive, which is not found in Modern Greek is one of the many archaic syntactic elements of the dialect. There are many words of Latin and Italian origin. The writing system is the Greek or Latin alphabet. The language is spoken in nine villages in Salento, and nine more in Calabria. The language is recognised as a minority language by the Italian parliament and its speakers are considered an ethnic minority. The language suffered under the fascist regime of the 20th century and is now being supplanted and constantly influenced by Italian because of modern technological innovations. However, it is taught at schools (up to secondary school) and there are some organizations that promote the language and the local customs. It appears that there's an interest, by the locals, to explore their ancestry and traditions which means that there is still hope for the dialect's future.
This concludes this article. In the next one I'll be examining languages and dialects found in other parts of Europe. I would like to hear any suggestions or comments that you may have.
Behold the Beard
Helios 64 - All Good Things
Mayonnaise
Bombs for Muffins
Finis adest rerum
Vicarius Provinciae
VELUTI SI DEUS DARETUR
Hva i helvete?
Originally Posted by Hobbes.
It's here... and amazing!
A really great issue guys, Inkie's second article made me chuckle.
And Inarus' article was brilliant.
:
Patricius
Praeses
quaeri, si sapis
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