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103-483: The Sarakatsani ( Greek : Σαρακατσάνοι , also written Karakachani , Bulgarian : каракачани ) are an ethnic Greek population subgroup who were traditionally transhumant shepherds, native to Greece , with a smaller presence in neighbouring Bulgaria , southern Albania , and North Macedonia . Historically centred on the Pindus mountains and other mountain ranges in continental Greece, most Sarakatsani have abandoned

206-525: A Romance -speaking population. In many instances the Sarakatsani were identified as Vlachs . Aravantinos discusses how another group, the Arvanitovlachs (also known as Farsharot Aromanians), were erroneously called Sarakatsani , although the latter were clearly of Greek origin, increasing the differences between the two groups and stating that the Arvanitovlachs were actually yet another group,

309-525: A 1.62 meter amphora that was made by the Dipylon painter in around 760–750 BC. The vase was a grave marker to an aristocratic woman in the Dipylon cemetery. This was the first phase of the late Geometric period (760–700 BC), in which the great vessels of Dipylon ware placed on the graves as funeral monuments and represented their height (often at a height of 1.50 m). The funerary imagery on

412-551: A Greek folklorist who spent a lifetime among the Sarakatsani, emphasises the prototypical elements of Greek culture that she found in the pastoral way of life, social organisation and art forms of the Sarakatsani. She also points out the similarity between their decorative art and the geometric art of pre-classical Greece. Euripides Makris (1997) describes the Sarakatsani as "the most ancient Greek tribe of nomadic shepherds, whose origins can be traced to time imemorial". English historian and anthropologist John K. Campbell arrives at

515-577: A basis for coinages: anthropology , photography , telephony , isomer , biomechanics , cinematography , etc. Together with Latin words , they form the foundation of international scientific and technical vocabulary ; for example, all words ending in -logy ('discourse'). There are many English words of Greek origin . Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European language family. The ancient language most closely related to it may be ancient Macedonian , which, by most accounts,

618-519: A common origin for the Sarakatsani and the Aromanians. The latter, also known as Vlachs, constitute the other major transhumant ethnic group in Greece and speak Aromanian , an eastern Romance language , while the Sarakatsani speak a northern dialect of Greek . The Sarakatsani partially share a common geographic distribution with the Aromanians in Greece, although the Sarakatsani extend farther to

721-532: A distinct social and cultural group within the collective Greek heritage, and they are not considered among the Greeks to constitute an ethnic minority. Their distinctive folk arts consist of song, dance, and poetry, as well as decorative sculptures in wood and embroidery on their traditional costumes, which resemble the geometric art of pre-classical Greece. In medicine, they use a number of folk remedies including herbs, honey and lamb's blood. The Sarakatsani speak

824-558: A fairly stable set of consonantal contrasts . The main phonological changes occurred during the Hellenistic and Roman period (see Koine Greek phonology for details): In all its stages, the morphology of Greek shows an extensive set of productive derivational affixes , a limited but productive system of compounding and a rich inflectional system. Although its morphological categories have been fairly stable over time, morphological changes are present throughout, particularly in

927-560: A faster, more convenient cursive writing style with the use of ink and quill . The Greek alphabet consists of 24 letters, each with an uppercase ( majuscule ) and lowercase ( minuscule ) form. The letter sigma has an additional lowercase form (ς) used in the final position of a word: In addition to the letters, the Greek alphabet features a number of diacritical signs : three different accent marks ( acute , grave , and circumflex ), originally denoting different shapes of pitch accent on

1030-520: A few cases, were also born. Contrary to their Greek dialect and self-identification, the Bulgarian government regards the Sarakatsani as an ethnic group separate from other Greeks in Bulgaria . Bulgarians consider them to be probably of Aromanian or Slavic origin. An alternative Bulgarian theory claims that the Sarakatsani are descendants of Hellenized Thracians who, because of their isolation in

1133-411: A few generations a separate Greek dialect, has to be assumed with caution. John Campbell stated, after his own field work among the Sarakatsani in the 1950s, that the Sarakatsani were in a different position from the Aromanians. The Aromanians are usually bilingual in Greek and Aromanian, while the Sarakatsani communities have always spoken only Greek and have known no other language. He also asserts that

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1236-487: A foreign language. It is also often stated that the historical changes have been relatively slight compared with some other languages. According to one estimation, " Homeric Greek is probably closer to Demotic than 12-century Middle English is to modern spoken English ". Greek is spoken today by at least 13 million people, principally in Greece and Cyprus along with a sizable Greek-speaking minority in Albania near

1339-425: A group of cooperating houses, generally linked by ties of kinship or marriage. They build the houses in a cluster on flat land close to the pasturage, with supporting structures nearby. This complex is called stani (στάνη), a term also used to refer to the cooperative group sharing the leased land. The head of each participating family pays a share at the end of each season to tselingas, the stani leader, in whose name

1442-444: A northern Greek dialect , Sarakatsanika (Σαρακατσάνικα), which contains many archaic Greek elements that have not survived in other variants of modern Greek . Carsten Høeg states that there are no significant traces of foreign loan words in the Sarakatsani dialect and that foreign elements are not found in the phonological or the grammatical structures. Sarakatsanika has a few words related to pastoralism of Aromanian origin, but

1545-622: A particularly important class of which are the amphorae that acted as grave markers for aristocratic graves, principally the Dipylon Amphora by the Dipylon Master who has been credited with a number of kraters and amphorae from the late Geometric period. Linear designs were the principal motif used in this period. The meander pattern was often placed in bands and used to frame the now larger panels of decoration. The areas most used for decoration by potters on shapes such as

1648-561: A singular artwork can be created by the viewer. A combination of historical, mythological, and societal context is needed to interpret the stories told within Greek Geometric art. The artwork during the Geometric period can be seen as "supplementary sources and illustrative materials for Greek mythology and Greek literature". The scenes that are depicted within Greek Geometric art contain various interpretations through analysis of

1751-804: Is also found in Bulgaria near the Greek-Bulgarian border. Greek is also spoken worldwide by the sizable Greek diaspora which has notable communities in the United States , Australia , Canada , South Africa , Chile , Brazil , Argentina , Russia , Ukraine , the United Kingdom , and throughout the European Union , especially in Germany . Historically, significant Greek-speaking communities and regions were found throughout

1854-479: Is an Indo-European language, but also includes a number of borrowings from the languages of the populations that inhabited Greece before the arrival of Proto-Greeks, some documented in Mycenaean texts ; they include a large number of Greek toponyms . The form and meaning of many words have changed. Loanwords (words of foreign origin) have entered the language, mainly from Latin, Venetian , and Turkish . During

1957-565: Is considered one of the most representative sites of the Early Protogeometric style. New shapes, like the kalathos and pyxis , are thought to have been introduced during the Late Protogeometric period. In the early Geometric period (900–850 BC), the height of the vessels had been increased, while the decoration was limited around the neck down to the middle of the body of the vessel. The remaining surface

2060-409: Is covered by a thin layer of clay, which during the firing takes a dark, shiny, metallic color. This was the period when the decorative theme of the meander was added to the pottery design, the most characteristic element of Geometric art. During this period, a broader repertoire of vessel shapes was initiated. Specifically, amphorae were used to hold cremation ashes. The amphorae featured handles on

2163-466: Is matched only by the now-extinct Anatolian languages . The Greek language is conventionally divided into the following periods: In the modern era, the Greek language entered a state of diglossia : the coexistence of vernacular and archaizing written forms of the language. What came to be known as the Greek language question was a polarization between two competing varieties of Modern Greek: Dimotiki ,

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2266-689: Is most marked among the women and most of all by the widow. The Sarakatsani traditionally have spent the summer months in the mountains and returned to the lower plains in the winter. The migration would start on the eve of Saint George 's day in April and the return migration would begin on Saint Demetrius ' day, on 26 October. However, according to a theory, the Sarakatsani were not always nomads , but only turned to harsh nomadic mountain life to escape Ottoman rule . The Sarakatsani were found in several mountainous regions of continental Greece , with some groups of northern Greece moving to neighbouring countries in

2369-521: Is mostly visible in ceramic production. Technological developments of the era created a new relationship between ornament and structure, causing differing stylistic choices from its Mycenaean influences. The shapes of the vessels have eliminated the fluid nature of the Mycenaean creating a more strict and simple design. There are horizontal, decorative bands that feature geometric shapes, including concentric circles or semicircles. Other characteristics of

2472-406: Is of great importance to the Sarakatsani and the behaviour of any member of a family reflects upon all its members. Therefore, the avoidance of negative public opinion provides a strong incentive to live up to the values and standards of propriety held by the community as a whole. Men have as their duty the protection of the family's honor and are watchful of the behaviour of the rest of the members of

2575-574: Is one of total assimilation. Greek language Greek ( Modern Greek : Ελληνικά , romanized :  Elliniká , [eliniˈka] ; Ancient Greek : Ἑλληνική , romanized :  Hellēnikḗ ) is an Indo-European language, constituting an independent Hellenic branch within the Indo-European language family. It is native to Greece , Cyprus , Italy (in Calabria and Salento ), southern Albania , and other regions of

2678-519: Is protected and promoted officially as a regional and minority language in Armenia, Hungary , Romania, and Ukraine. It is recognized as a minority language and protected in Turkey by the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne . The phonology , morphology , syntax , and vocabulary of the language show both conservative and innovative tendencies across the entire attestation of the language from the ancient to

2781-994: Is sometimes called aljamiado , as when Romance languages are written in the Arabic alphabet. Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Greek: Transcription of the example text into Latin alphabet : Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in English: Proto-Greek Mycenaean Ancient Koine Medieval Modern Geometric art Large funerary vases (often Dipylon kraters for men, and belly-handled amphorae for women) not only depicted funerary scenes, but they also had practical purposes , either holding

2884-763: Is still used internationally for the writing of Ancient Greek . In Greek, the question mark is written as the English semicolon, while the functions of the colon and semicolon are performed by a raised point (•), known as the ano teleia ( άνω τελεία ). In Greek the comma also functions as a silent letter in a handful of Greek words, principally distinguishing ό,τι ( ó,ti , 'whatever') from ότι ( óti , 'that'). Ancient Greek texts often used scriptio continua ('continuous writing'), which means that ancient authors and scribes would write word after word with no spaces or punctuation between words to differentiate or mark boundaries. Boustrophedon , or bi-directional text,

2987-674: The Balkans , Caucasus , the Black Sea coast, Asia Minor , and the Eastern Mediterranean . It has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning at least 3,400 years of written records. Its writing system is the Greek alphabet , which has been used for approximately 2,800 years; previously, Greek was recorded in writing systems such as Linear B and the Cypriot syllabary . The alphabet arose from

3090-624: The Byzantine Empire and developed into Medieval Greek . In its modern form , Greek is the official language of Greece and Cyprus and one of the 24 official languages of the European Union . It is spoken by at least 13.5 million people today in Greece, Cyprus, Italy, Albania, Turkey , and the many other countries of the Greek diaspora . Greek roots have been widely used for centuries and continue to be widely used to coin new words in other languages; Greek and Latin are

3193-627: The Christian Bible was also originally written in Greek. Together with the Latin texts and traditions of the Roman world , the Greek texts and Greek societies of antiquity constitute the objects of study of the discipline of Classics . During antiquity , Greek was by far the most widely spoken lingua franca in the Mediterranean world . It eventually became the official language of

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3296-495: The Eastern Mediterranean , in what are today Southern Italy , Turkey , Cyprus , Syria , Lebanon , Israel , Palestine , Egypt , and Libya ; in the area of the Black Sea , in what are today Turkey, Bulgaria , Romania , Ukraine , Russia , Georgia , Armenia , and Azerbaijan ; and, to a lesser extent, in the Western Mediterranean in and around colonies such as Massalia , Monoikos , and Mainake . It

3399-487: The Garagounides or Korakounides . The Sarakatsani have also been referred to as Roumeliotes or Moraites , names based on where they lived. Otto , the first king of modern Greece, was well known to be a great admirer of the Sarakatsani, and is said to have fathered an illegitimate child early in his reign with a woman from a Sarakatsani clan named Tangas. Since the 20th century a multitude of scholars have studied

3502-518: The Homeric epics and were used to enhance the heroic ambience. To the Greeks, an omission of a proper burial was an insult to proper dignity. The mythological context of a proper burial relates to the Greeks' belief in a continued existence in the underworld that will disallow the dead to maintain peace in the absence of a proper burial ritual. Aside from its funerary use, the Greeks also utilized various vessels during symposia . The Greek symposium

3605-516: The Indo-Iranian languages (see Graeco-Aryan ), but little definitive evidence has been found. In addition, Albanian has also been considered somewhat related to Greek and Armenian, and it has been proposed that they all form a higher-order subgroup along with other extinct languages of the ancient Balkans; this higher-order subgroup is usually termed Palaeo-Balkan , and Greek has a central position in it. Linear B , attested as early as

3708-504: The Orientalizing period style, in which the pottery style of Corinth distinguished. Based on excavations, and radiocarbon dating, at the site Zagora on the island of Andros, and previous datings at Sindos, Alagich et al. (2024) suggest Late Geometric I Period began around 120 years earlier than the traditional chronology, and lasted (c. 870-730 BC). Vases in the Geometric style are characterized by several horizontal bands about

3811-657: The Phoenician script and was in turn the basis of the Latin , Cyrillic , Coptic , Gothic , and many other writing systems. The Greek language holds a very important place in the history of the Western world. Beginning with the epics of Homer , ancient Greek literature includes many works of lasting importance in the European canon . Greek is also the language in which many of the foundational texts in science and philosophy were originally composed. The New Testament of

3914-477: The Resurrection of Christ , while Easter week is the most important ritual period in Sarakatsani religious life. Other ceremonial events, outside the formal Christian calendar, are weddings and funerals; the latter are ritual occasions that involve not only the immediate family of the deceased, but also the members of the largest kindred, while funerary practice is consistent with that of the church. Mourning

4017-408: The amphorae and lekythoi were the neck and belly, which not only offered the greatest liberty for decoration but also emphasized the taller dimensions of the vessels. The first human figures appeared around 770 BC on the handles of vases. The human forms are easily distinguished because they do not overlap with one another, making the painted black forms discernible from one another against

4120-492: The nominal and verbal systems. The major change in the nominal morphology since the classical stage was the disuse of the dative case (its functions being largely taken over by the genitive ). The verbal system has lost the infinitive , the synthetically -formed future, and perfect tenses and the optative mood . Many have been replaced by periphrastic ( analytical ) forms. Pronouns show distinctions in person (1st, 2nd, and 3rd), number (singular, dual , and plural in

4223-802: The 2011 census, 2,556 individuals were identified as Sarakatsani, ( Bulgarian : каракачани , karakachani), a number significantly reduced from the 4,107 Sarakatsani identified in the 2001 census. However, in 1992 they were estimated to be as many as 15,000. Most live in the areas of the Balkan range , Mount Rila and northeastern Bulgaria. In 1991, they established the Federation of the Cultural and Educational Associations of Karakachans in Sliven . The Sarakatsani in Bulgaria call themselves Bulgarian Karakachans, since they live in Bulgaria, where their ancestors, in

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4326-536: The Aromanian influences on the Sarakatsani dialect are the result of recent contacts and economical dependencies between the two groups. In Bulgaria, the Sarakatsani use both Bulgarian and Greek to the same extent in their families and communities. They have a complex or different identities, as Sarakatsani, but also Greek, as well as Bulgarian. In Bulgaria, they usually mark their ethnicity as Bulgarian and speak Bulgarian in most situations. The kinship system among

4429-521: The Aromanians in that they dower their daughters, assign a lower position to women and adhere to an even stricter patriarchal structure. Greek diaspora Constantinople and Asia Minor : Africa : Other regions : Other groups : Other languages Today, almost all Sarakatsani have abandoned their nomadic way of life and assimilated to mainstream modern Greek life, but there have been efforts to preserve their cultural heritage. The traditional Sarakatsani settlements, dress and costumes make them

4532-486: The Greek alphabet since approximately the 9th century BC. It was created by modifying the Phoenician alphabet , with the innovation of adopting certain letters to represent the vowels. The variant of the alphabet in use today is essentially the late Ionic variant, introduced for writing classical Attic in 403 BC. In classical Greek, as in classical Latin, only upper-case letters existed. The lower-case Greek letters were developed much later by medieval scribes to permit

4635-495: The Greek language was the Cypriot syllabary (also a descendant of Linear A via the intermediate Cypro-Minoan syllabary ), which is closely related to Linear B but uses somewhat different syllabic conventions to represent phoneme sequences. The Cypriot syllabary is attested in Cyprus from the 11th century BC until its gradual abandonment in the late Classical period, in favor of the standard Greek alphabet. Greek has been written in

4738-629: The Greek verb have likewise remained largely the same over the course of the language's history but with significant changes in the number of distinctions within each category and their morphological expression. Greek verbs have synthetic inflectional forms for: Many aspects of the syntax of Greek have remained constant: verbs agree with their subject only, the use of the surviving cases is largely intact (nominative for subjects and predicates, accusative for objects of most verbs and many prepositions, genitive for possessors), articles precede nouns, adpositions are largely prepositional, relative clauses follow

4841-685: The Greek-Albanian border. A significant percentage of Albania's population has knowledge of the Greek language due in part to the Albanian wave of immigration to Greece in the 1980s and '90s and the Greek community in the country. Prior to the Greco-Turkish War and the resulting population exchange in 1923 a very large population of Greek-speakers also existed in Turkey , though very few remain today. A small Greek-speaking community

4944-404: The Sarakatsani adheres to a strong patrilineal descent system. When reckoning descent, lineage is traced along the paternal line alone; in determining family relationships, the descendants of a man's maternal and paternal grandparents provide the field from which his recognized kin are drawn. Kinship is not counted beyond the degree of the second cousin. Within the kinship , the family constitutes

5047-584: The Sarakatsani are descended from the Dorians , who were isolated for centuries in the mountains. Their origins have been the subject of broad and permanent interest, resulting in several fieldwork studies by anthropologists among the Sarakatsani. Many of the 19th century descriptions of the Sarakatsani do not differentiate them from the other great shepherd people of the Balkans, the Aromanians ("Vlachs")

5150-445: The Sarakatsani. He visited the Sarakatsani of Epirus and mentioned other groups with no fixed villages in several other parts of Greece as well. There appears to be no written mention of the Sarakatsani previous to the 18th century, but that does not necessarily imply that they did not exist earlier. It is likely the term 'Sarakatsani' is a relatively new generic name given to an old population that lived for centuries in isolation from

5253-404: The acute during the late 20th century, and it has only been retained in typography . After the writing reform of 1982, most diacritics are no longer used. Since then, Greek has been written mostly in the simplified monotonic orthography (or monotonic system), which employs only the acute accent and the diaeresis. The traditional system, now called the polytonic orthography (or polytonic system),

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5356-402: The ancient language; singular and plural alone in later stages), and gender (masculine, feminine, and neuter), and decline for case (from six cases in the earliest forms attested to four in the modern language). Nouns, articles, and adjectives show all the distinctions except for a person. Both attributive and predicative adjectives agree with the noun. The inflectional categories of

5459-454: The ashes or being used as grave markers. These vases often carried funerary imagery to commemorate the dead; the deceased person was depicted robed lying in state ( prothesis ), often surrounded by mourning family members, or lying in a bed and carried to the grave with an honorary chariot procession ( ekphora ). The depiction was accompanied by various heroic scenes and warfare imagery which are thought to be related to similar descriptions of

5562-508: The blond heads you see now. The Sarkatsanoi were known by various names by the indigenous population, usually based on where they were perceived to have come from, and in Evia they were generally called Roumi, Romi or Roumeliotes after the Roumeli region. People often spoke of them misleadingly as Vlachs . They are settled now, mainly as farmers, with their own permanent pasture land. Their story

5665-428: The building of the dwellings, sheepfolds and goat pens; child care, and other domestic tasks, including preparing, spinning and dying the shorn wool; and tending chickens, the eggs of which are their only source of personal income. Women also keep household vegetable gardens, with some wild herbs used to supplement the family diet. When boys are old enough to help with the flocks, they accompany their fathers and are taught

5768-625: The characteristic examples of the late Geometric style is the oldest surviving signed work of a Greek potter, Aristonothos (or Aristonophos) (7th century BC). The vase was found at Cerveteri in Italy and illustrates the blinding of Polyphemus by Odysseus and his companions. From the mid-8th century BC, the closer contact between Greece and the East enriched the ceramic art with new subjects – such as lions, panthers, imaginary beings, rosettes, palmettes, lotus flowers etc. – that led to

5871-607: The chunk of the island from the Chalcis - Kymi axis northwards about as far an Ayianna, and the cluster of villages around Skiloyanni constituted the most heavily settled Sarakatsani region on the island. There were 50 Sarakatsani families living on Mount Kandili, working as resin gatherers encased in layers of elaborate costume. Photographs taken only few decades ago of Sarakatsani women in traditional costume sitting outside their wigwam-shaped branch woven huts. Many of them had quite an un-Greek looks, and were fair; perhaps that explains

5974-438: The circumference covering the entire vase. Between these lines the Geometric artist used a number of other decorative motifs such as the zigzag , the triangle, the meander and the swastika . Besides abstract elements, painters of this era introduced stylized depictions of humans and animals which marks a significant departure from the earlier Protogeometric style . Many of the surviving objects of this period are funerary objects,

6077-473: The color of the clay body. The males were depicted with triangular torsos , ovoid heads with blobs for noses and long cylindrical thighs and calves. Female figures were also abstracted . Their long hair was depicted as a series of lines, as were their breasts, which appeared as strokes under the armpits. Two techniques of this time period include red-figure pottery and black-figure pottery . The black figure pottery started around 700 BC, and it remained

6180-477: The conclusion that the Sarakatsani must have always lived in—more or less—the same conditions and areas as they were found in his days of research in the mid-1950s. He also highlights the differences between them and the Aromanians, regarding the Sarakatsani as a distinctive social group within the Greek nation. As a result of his field studies of the Sarakatsani of Epirus, Nicholas Hammond , a British historian, considers them descendants of Greek pastoralists living in

6283-485: The dominant style until its successor, red figure pottery, was invented around 530 BC. The switch from black figure pottery to red figure pottery was made due to the enhanced detail that red figured pottery allowed its artists. The notion of narrative during this time period exists between the artist and the audience. The artist communicates with the viewer, but the viewer's interpretation can sometime be an inaccurate interpretation. Furthermore, multiple interpretations of

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6386-691: The early Protogeometric style included monochrome pottery and wavy lines on the shoulders. Common vase shapes of the period include amphorai with the handles on both the belly and the neck, hydriai (water jars), oinochoai (wine jugs), lekythoi , and skyphoi (stemless cups). Protegeometric pottery style is thought to have been led by Athens , while other regions also had their own local variations, most notably Thessaly , Euboea , Crete etc. The Protogeometric period did not yet feature human figures within its art, but horses were pictured during this time period. The village of Lefkandi in Euboea

6489-416: The exact number of the Sarakatsani over the years, since they were dispersed and migrated in summer and winter and were not considered a distinct group such that census data have not included separate information on them. As well, they were often confused with other population groups, especially the Aromanians. However, in the mid-1950s their number was estimated at 80,000 in Greece, but it was a period in which

6592-529: The household. The Sarakatsani are Greek Orthodox Christians and affiliated with the Church of Greece . The Sarakatsani honor the feast days of Saint George and Saint Demetrius , which fall just before their seasonal migrations in late spring and early winter, respectively. Especially for the Saint George's feast day, a family feasts on lamb in the saint's honor, a ritual that also marks Christmas and

6695-447: The increasing pressure on the limited areas available for winter grazing in the coastal plains has resulted in disputes between the two groups on the use of the pastures. In addition, during the time of his research, many Aromanians often lived in substantial villages where shepherding was not among their occupations, and demonstrated different art forms, values and institutions, from those of the Sarakatsani. The Sarakatsani also differ from

6798-439: The infinitive entirely (employing a raft of new periphrastic constructions instead) and uses participles more restrictively. The loss of the dative led to a rise of prepositional indirect objects (and the use of the genitive to directly mark these as well). Ancient Greek tended to be verb-final, but neutral word order in the modern language is VSO or SVO. Modern Greek inherits most of its vocabulary from Ancient Greek, which in turn

6901-467: The late 15th century BC, was the first script used to write Greek. It is basically a syllabary , which was finally deciphered by Michael Ventris and John Chadwick in the 1950s (its precursor, Linear A , has not been deciphered and most likely encodes a non-Greek language). The language of the Linear B texts, Mycenaean Greek , is the earliest known form of Greek. Another similar system used to write

7004-466: The lease was originally taken. Inheritance of an individual's property and wealth generally passes to the males of the family; sons inherit a share of the flocks and property owned by their fathers and mothers, although household goods may pass to daughters. Their life centers year-round on the needs of their flocks; men and boys are usually responsible for the protection and general care of the flocks, like shearing and milking, while women are occupied with

7107-469: The linguistic, cultural and racial background of the Sarakatsani. Among these, Danish scholar Carsten Høeg , who travelled twice to Greece between 1920 and 1925 and studied the dialect and narrations of the Sarakatsani, is arguably the most influential. He found no traces of foreign elements in the Sarakatsani dialect and no traces of sedentism in their material culture. Furthermore, he looked for examples of nomadism in classical Greece , similar to that of

7210-524: The membership of Greece and Cyprus in the European Union, Greek is one of the organization's 24 official languages . Greek is recognized as a minority language in Albania, and used co-officially in some of its municipalities, in the districts of Gjirokastër and Sarandë . It is also an official minority language in the regions of Apulia and Calabria in Italy. In the framework of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages , Greek

7313-441: The modern period. The division into conventional periods is, as with all such periodizations, relatively arbitrary, especially because, in all periods, Ancient Greek has enjoyed high prestige, and the literate borrowed heavily from it. Across its history, the syllabic structure of Greek has varied little: Greek shows a mixed syllable structure, permitting complex syllabic onsets but very restricted codas. It has only oral vowels and

7416-537: The mountains of northern Peloponnese , in the Rhodope Mountains in Greece, in Greek Thrace , in the mountains near Olympus and Ossa , and in parts of Greek Macedonia . The vast majority of the Sarakatsani have abandoned the nomadic way of life and live permanently in their villages, while many members of the younger generation have moved to the principal Greek cities. In Bulgaria , according to

7519-579: The mountains, were not Slavicised . In her book An Island Apart , the travel writer Sarah Wheeler traces scions of the Sarakatsani in Euboea . They can also be found in the island of Poros . She writes: I was fascinated by this elusive, aloof transhumant tribe with beguilingly mysterious origin. They fanned out all over the Balkans and have most closely associated with the Pindus and the Rodopi mountains in

7622-456: The neck or shoulder for males, while featuring handles on the "belly" of the vase for women. By the middle Geometric period (850–760 BC), the decorative zones appear multiplied due to the creation of a laced mesh, while the meander dominates and is placed in the most important area, in the metope, which is arranged between the handles. Based on excavations at Sindos, mentioned by Gimatzidis and Weninger (2020), Alagich et al. (2024) consider

7725-484: The northern mainland: in the fifties there were about 80,000 of them. They spent half of the year in their mountain pastures and the other half in their lowlands. Their rootlessness was balanced by an elaborate ritualization of almost every aspect of their lives, from costume to the moral code. Evia was the only island used by the Sarakatsani except Poros which was the furthest south they ever got (and perhaps Aegina too). In Evia they were, until this century, only found in

7828-399: The noun they modify and relative pronouns are clause-initial. However, the morphological changes also have their counterparts in the syntax, and there are also significant differences between the syntax of the ancient and that of the modern form of the language . Ancient Greek made great use of participial constructions and of constructions involving the infinitive, and the modern variety lacks

7931-706: The older periods of Greek, loanwords into Greek acquired Greek inflections, thus leaving only a foreign root word. Modern borrowings (from the 20th century on), especially from French and English, are typically not inflected; other modern borrowings are derived from Albanian , South Slavic ( Macedonian / Bulgarian ) and Eastern Romance languages ( Aromanian and Megleno-Romanian ). Greek words have been widely borrowed into other languages, including English. Example words include: mathematics , physics , astronomy , democracy , philosophy , athletics , theatre, rhetoric , baptism , evangelist , etc. Moreover, Greek words and word elements continue to be productive as

8034-557: The onset of privatization , both the mass slaughter of livestock and their export led to a drastic loss of animals, with no residual state infrastructure left to protect them. It was only a group of animal lovers who mustered the remaining stocks and established an area to conserve them in Orelyak , which enabled the Karakachan breeds of horse , sheep and dog to survive intact. Romanian and Aromanian scholars have tried to prove

8137-399: The other inhabitants of what is today Greece. Georgakas (1949) and Kavadias (1965) believe that the Sarakatsani are either descendants of ancient nomads who inhabited the mountain regions of Greece in the pre-classical times, or they are descended from sedentary Greek peasants forced to leave their original settlements around the 14th century who became nomadic shepherds. Angeliki Hatzimihali,

8240-399: The possibility that Middle Geometric period began 140 years earlier, lasting (c. 990-870 BC). Late Geometric period lasted from 750 to 700/650 BC. Some potters enriched again the decorative organization of the vases, stabilized the forms of the animals in the areas of the neck and the base of the vase, and introduced the human form between the handles. The late Geometric period was marked by

8343-489: The predominant sources of international scientific vocabulary . Greek has been spoken in the Balkan peninsula since around the 3rd millennium BC, or possibly earlier. The earliest written evidence is a Linear B clay tablet found in Messenia that dates to between 1450 and 1350 BC, making Greek the world's oldest recorded living language . Among the Indo-European languages, its date of earliest written attestation

8446-500: The process of urbanization had already started for large numbers of Greeks, and the number of the Sarakatsani who had already ceased to be transhumant shepherds sometime in the past was unknown. The Sarakatsani populations can be primarily found in several regions of continental Greece: in the Pindus mountain range and its southern extensions of Giona , Parnassus and Panaitoliko in Central Greece ; in central Euboea , in

8549-628: The region of Gramos and Pindus since the early Byzantine period , who were dispossessed of their pastures by the Aromanians at the latest by the 12th century. According to Kapka Kassabova , who lived among the Sarakatsani in Bulgaria, in modern times, four major factors account for the disintegration of the people's traditional nomadic lifestyle: (a) after WWI, in agreements such as the Treaty of Neuilly-sur-Seine , new borders were drawn up between Greece, Bulgaria and Turkey, which made nomadic caravans engaged in transhumance both costly and dangerous; (b) in

8652-475: The remaining vessel is covered by strict zones of meanders, crooked lines, circles, swastikas, in the same graphical concept. Later, the main tragic theme of the wail declined, the compositions eased, the geometric shapes became more free, and areas with animals, birds, scenes of shipwrecks, hunting scenes, themes from mythology or the Homeric epics led Geometric pottery into more naturalistic expressions. One of

8755-487: The same kindred. The bride must bring into the marriage a dowry of household furnishings, clothing and more recently sheep or their cash equivalent. The husband's contribution is his share of the flocks held by his father, which remain held in common by his paternal joint household until some years after his marriage. The newlywed couple initially takes up residence near the husband's family of origin, while divorce and remarriage after widowhood are unknown. The concept of honor

8858-414: The significant unit and is a corporate group. A conjugal pair is the core of the extended family, which also includes their unmarried offspring and often their young married sons and their wives. The Sarakatsani kindred constitutes a network of shared obligations and cooperation in situations concerning the honor of its members. Their marriages are arranged and there can be no marriage between two members of

8961-657: The skills they will someday need. Similarly, girls learn through observing and assisting their mothers. Until the mid-20th century, the Sarakatsani were scattered in many parts of Greece , with those of the northern Greek regions moving frequently for the summer months to neighbouring countries, such as Albania , southern Yugoslavia , Bulgaria and East Thrace in Turkey. In the 1940s the borders between these countries were closed, and small numbers of Sarakatsani had to settle down outside of Greece. Residual communities still exist in southern Albania (northern Epirus), North Macedonia , and Bulgaria. It has been difficult to establish

9064-515: The south. Despite the differences between the two populations, they are often confused with each other due to their common transhumant way of life. Moreover, the term "Vlach" has been used in Greece since the Byzantine times to refer indiscriminately to all transhumant pastoralists. Besides, the presumption that a nomadic society, such as the Sarakatsani, would abandon its language, then translate all of its verbal tradition into Greek and create within

9167-437: The stressed vowel; the so-called breathing marks ( rough and smooth breathing ), originally used to signal presence or absence of word-initial /h/; and the diaeresis , used to mark the full syllabic value of a vowel that would otherwise be read as part of a diphthong. These marks were introduced during the course of the Hellenistic period. Actual usage of the grave in handwriting saw a rapid decline in favor of uniform usage of

9270-562: The summer, since border crossings between Greece, Albania , Bulgaria and the former Yugoslavia were relatively unobstructed until the middle of the 20th century. After 1947, with the beginning of the Cold War , borders between these countries were sealed; and some Sarakatsani groups were trapped in other countries and not able to return to Greece. Traditional Sarakatsani settlements were located on or near grazing lands both during summers and winters. The most characteristic type of dwelling

9373-574: The transhumant way of life and have been urbanised. The most widely accepted theory for the origin of the name "Sarakatsani" is that it comes from the Turkish word karakaçan (from kara = 'black' and kaçan = 'fugitive'), used by the Ottomans , in reference to those people who dressed in black and fled to the mountains during the Ottoman rule . According to other theories, the name could stem from

9476-447: The various stages of the Greek language are often emphasized. Although Greek has undergone morphological and phonological changes comparable to those seen in other languages, never since classical antiquity has its cultural, literary, and orthographic tradition been interrupted to the extent that one can speak of a new language emerging. Greek speakers today still tend to regard literary works of ancient Greek as part of their own rather than

9579-399: The vases included the deceased person lying in state ( prothesis ) surrounded by mourning figures, or lying in a bed and carried to the grave with an honorary chariot procession ( ekphora ). It was accompanied by heroic scenes and warfare imagery, thought to be related to similar descriptions of the Homeric epics. People and animals are depicted geometrically in a dark glossy color, while

9682-529: The vernacular form of Modern Greek proper, and Katharevousa , meaning 'purified', a compromise between Dimotiki and Ancient Greek developed in the early 19th century that was used for literary and official purposes in the newly formed Greek state. In 1976, Dimotiki was declared the official language of Greece, after having incorporated features of Katharevousa and thus giving birth to Standard Modern Greek , used today for all official purposes and in education . The historical unity and continuing identity between

9785-531: The village of Sakaretsi (the supposed homeland of the Sarakatsani), or from the village of Syrrako . Despite the silence of the classical and medieval writers, scholars argue that the Sarakatsani are a Greek people, possibly descended from pre- classical indigenous pastoralists, citing linguistic evidence and certain aspects of their traditional culture and socioeconomic organisation. A popular theory, based on linguistics and material culture, suggests that

9888-460: The wake of WWII and the outbreak of the Cold War , these national borders froze relations and outlawed the movement of animals and people from the Aegean and Thracian Balkan lowlands into the interior; (c) the process of collectivization in Bulgaria undertaken from 1957 onwards led to the slaughter of much livestock, together with outright theft of flocks; and (d) with the collapse of communism and

9991-574: Was a distinct dialect of Greek itself. Aside from the Macedonian question, current consensus regards Phrygian as the closest relative of Greek, since they share a number of phonological, morphological and lexical isoglosses , with some being exclusive between them. Scholars have proposed a Graeco-Phrygian subgroup out of which Greek and Phrygian originated. Among living languages, some Indo-Europeanists suggest that Greek may be most closely related to Armenian (see Graeco-Armenian ) or

10094-546: Was a domed hut, framed of branches and covered with thatch. A second type was a wood-beamed, thatched, rectangular structure. In both types, the centerpiece of the dwelling was a stone hearth. The floors and walls were plastered with mud and mule dung. Since the late 1930s, national requirements for the registration of citizens have led most of the Sarakatsani to adopt as legal residence the villages associated with summer grazing lands, and many have since built permanent houses in such villages. Their traditional settlements consist of

10197-615: Was a social gathering that only aristocratic males were allowed to attend. Vessels, such as wine coolers, jugs, various drinking cups, and mixing vessels, were decorated with Greek, geometric scenes. Some of the scenes depicted drinking parties or Dionysus and his followers. The symposia were held in the andron , which was a men's-only room. The only women allowed into this room were called " hetaera ", or female sex-workers, who required payment from their regular, male companions. The Protogeometric style (1025–900 BC) inherits its decorative forms and motifs from Mycenaean tradition and

10300-568: Was also used as the official language of government and religion in the Christian Nubian kingdoms , for most of their history. Greek, in its modern form, is the official language of Greece, where it is spoken by almost the entire population. It is also the official language of Cyprus (nominally alongside Turkish ) and the British Overseas Territory of Akrotiri and Dhekelia (alongside English ). Because of

10403-557: Was also used in Ancient Greek. Greek has occasionally been written in the Latin script , especially in areas under Venetian rule or by Greek Catholics . The term Frankolevantinika / Φραγκολεβαντίνικα applies when the Latin script is used to write Greek in the cultural ambit of Catholicism (because Frankos / Φράγκος is an older Greek term for West-European dating to when most of (Roman Catholic Christian) West Europe

10506-580: Was under the control of the Frankish Empire ). Frankochiotika / Φραγκοχιώτικα (meaning 'Catholic Chiot') alludes to the significant presence of Catholic missionaries based on the island of Chios . Additionally, the term Greeklish is often used when the Greek language is written in a Latin script in online communications. The Latin script is nowadays used by the Greek-speaking communities of Southern Italy . The Yevanic dialect

10609-673: Was written by Romaniote and Constantinopolitan Karaite Jews using the Hebrew Alphabet . In a tradition, that in modern time, has come to be known as Greek Aljamiado , some Greek Muslims from Crete wrote their Cretan Greek in the Arabic alphabet . The same happened among Epirote Muslims in Ioannina . This also happened among Arabic-speaking Byzantine rite Christians in the Levant ( Lebanon , Palestine, and Syria ). This usage

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