In search of Peloponnesian
Nikolaos Pantelidis1 & Vassilios Spyropoulos2
National and Kapodistrian University of Athens1, 2
This paper discusses the dialectal situation of Peloponnese from a historical dialectological point of view. More specifically, we will claim that the dialectal situation in Peloponnese is far more complex and interesting from the widely accepted view that Standard Modern Greek is based on the Peloponnesian so that there is no interest in its examination because of their extensive similarity (see for example Κοντοσόπουλος 2001: 73–74). On the contrary, we will show that the Peloponnesian varieties exhibit features that point towards the existence of an old dialectal substratum, now almost extinct, and of various and complex relations with other dialectal areas, which challenge some of the widely held assumptions about the taxonomy of Modern Greek dialects.
Recent studies (Παντελίδης 2001; 2007; 2015; υπό έκδ.) have pointed out that the Peloponnesian varieties exhibit features of all grammatical levels that do not exist in Standard Modern Greek, e.g.:
a) affrication of velar stops before front vowels (“tsitakism”), e.g. [peˈðaci] > [peˈðaʧi], [peˈðaʨi] ‘little child’;
b) change of medieval /y/ > /ju/, /ˈaxyro/>/ˈaxjuro/ ([ˈaçuro]);
c) 2PL non-past active in ‑ute, e.g. ˈexute ‘you have’ (standard: ˈeçete), θa iˈðute ‘you will see’ (standard: θa ˈðite);
d) imperfective past of Class 2b verbs such as ˈboriɣa ‘I could/was able’ (standard: boˈrusa, boˈro ‘I can/am able’).
We will document and examine a number of such “distinct” features from various areas of Peloponnese. Our data were drawn from extensive documentation of archival material (notebook collections in the Folklore Library of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and in the Research Centre for Modern Greek Dialects of the Academy of Athens) and from the very few detailed descriptions of Peloponnesian varieties (Κοντοσόπουλος 2001; Παντελίδης2001, et seq.). These features exhibit a very fragmentary geographical distribution and some of them are also systematically attested in dialectal varieties outside Peloponnese, such as the “tsitakism”, the change of medieval /y/ > /ju/ and the imperfective formations ˈven‑o ‘put’ and ˈvʝen‑o ‘take out’ (instead of ˈvazo, ˈvɣazo) in the northeastern Peloponnese and the Old Athenian dialect group (cf. ˈvano, ˈvɣano in other Peloponnesian varieties). Based on such facts, we will put forward the hypothesis that Peloponnesian involved a dialect group with features that are today almost obsolete and that the systematic occurrence of some of these features in areas outside Peloponnese reveals dialectal relations within a wider zone in the southern — eastern part of mainland Greece (Παντελίδης 2016). Such a dialectal situation challenges the taxonomy of the Modern Greek dialects, especially regarding the “north — south” axis, given, among others, the consistent attestation of traces of the so-called northern vocalism in various areas in Peloponnese. This linguistic situation was extremely affected by the historical events that shook Peloponnese during the 17th–19th centuries and resulted in the fragmentation of this dialect group and the almost total disappearance of its characteristics. If our hypothesis is correct, then the “unexpected” characteristics of the Peloponnesian varieties may be traced back to this dialectal substratum and provide us with a window to the dialectal history of the area.
References
Κοντοσόπουλος, Ν. Γ. 2001. Διάλεκτοι και Ιδιώματα της Νέας Ελληνικής. Αθήνα: Γρηγόρης.
Παντελίδης, Ν. 2001. Πελοποννησιακός ιδιωματικός λόγος και κοινή νεοελληνική. Μελέτες για την ελληνική γλώσσα21: 550-561.
Παντελίδης, Ν. 2007. Κοινή δημοτική: παρατηρήσεις στη διαδικασία διαμόρφωσής της. Μελέτες για την ελληνική γλώσσα 27: 337–347.
Παντελίδης, Ν. 2015. Σχετικά με το ιδιωματικό υπόβαθρο της Κοινής Νεοελληνικής. Στο Γ. Ανδρουλάκης (επιμ.), Οι γεωγραφικές και κοινωνικές ποικιλίες της Νέας Ελληνικής Γλώσσας και η παρουσία τους στην εκπαίδευση. Πρακτικά του 4ου γλωσσολογικού συνεδρίου «Τζαρτζάνεια», Τύρναβος, 7–9.12.2012, 41–50. Βόλος: Έκδοση Εργαστηρίου Μελέτης, Διδασκαλίας και Διάδοσης της Ελληνικής Γλώσσας.
Παντελίδης, Ν. 2016. Μια νοτιοελλαδική διαλεκτική ζώνη; Μελέτες για την ελληνική γλώσσα 36: 303–313.
Παντελίδης, Ν. Υπό έκδοση. Η Πελοποννησιακή. Στο Χ. Τζιτζιλής (επιμ.), Νεοελληνικές Διάλεκτοι. Θεσσαλονίκη: Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών [Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριναταφυλλίδη].