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61-536: In the local Tsakonian language , the only surviving descendant of Doric Greek , the town is called Agie Lidi . The town of Leonidio, with a population of 3,826, emerges from a spectacular landscape, bound by two abrupt mountainsides enclosing the town from the north and south. The River Dafnon passes through the town, and its banks are linked with three bridges. The town is capital of the Tsakonia region, notable for its cultural and linguistic particularities , and

122-511: A Tsakonian colony on the Sea of Marmara (or Propontis; two villages near Gönen , Vatika and Havoutsi), whose members were resettled in Greece during the 1924 Population exchange between Greece and Turkey . Propontis Tsakonian appears to have died out around 1970, although it had already stopped being the primary language of its community after 1914 when they were internally exiled with other Greeks in

183-457: 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, the nightingale 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. Tsakonian avoids consonant clusters, as seen, and drops final [s] and [n] ; as

244-485: A community with special collective rights . Language can also be considered as scientific knowledge in topics such as medicine, philosophy, botany, and more. It reflects a community's practices when dealing with the environment and each other. When a language is lost, this knowledge is often lost as well. In contrast, language revitalization is correlated with better health outcomes in indigenous communities. During language loss—sometimes referred to as obsolescence in

305-470: A dominant position in a country. Speakers of endangered languages may themselves come to associate their language with negative values such as poverty, illiteracy and social stigma, causing them to wish to adopt the dominant language that is associated with social and economical progress and modernity . Immigrants moving into an area may lead to the endangerment of the autochthonous language. Dialects and accents have seen similar levels of endangerment during

366-520: A few hundred/thousand, mostly elderly, fluent speakers left. Although Tsakonian and standard Modern Greek are related, they are not mutually intelligible . The term Tsakonas or Tzakonas first emerges in the writings of Byzantine chroniclers who derive the ethnonym from a corruption of Lakonas, a Laconian/Lacedaemonian ( Spartan )—a reference to the Doric roots of the Tsakonian language. Tsakonian

427-433: A fraction of the world's linguistic diversity, therefore their picture of what human language is—and can be—will be limited. Some linguists consider linguistic diversity to be analogous to biological diversity, and compare language endangerment to wildlife endangerment . Linguists, members of endangered language communities, governments, nongovernmental organizations, and international organizations such as UNESCO and

488-442: A language associated with social or economic power or one spoken more widely, leading to the gradual decline and eventual death of the endangered language. The process of language shift is often influenced by factors such as globalisation, economic authorities, and the perceived prestige of certain languages. The ultimate result is the loss of linguistic diversity and cultural heritage within affected communities. The general consensus

549-409: A language is unlikely to survive another generation and will soon be extinct. The fourth stage is moribund , followed by the fifth stage extinction . Many projects are under way aimed at preventing or slowing language loss by revitalizing endangered languages and promoting education and literacy in minority languages, often involving joint projects between language communities and linguists. Across

610-655: A larger sign language or dispersal of the deaf community) can lead to the endangerment and loss of their traditional sign language. Methods are being developed to assess the vitality of sign languages. While there is no definite threshold for identifying a language as endangered, UNESCO 's 2003 document entitled Language vitality and endangerment outlines nine factors for determining language vitality: Many languages, for example some in Indonesia , have tens of thousands of speakers but are endangered because children are no longer learning them, and speakers are shifting to using

671-533: A number of taverns and bars immediately adjacent to the sea, while every August, it also hosts the "Tsakonian Eggplant Festival", attracting well-known chefs from across Europe and achieving ever-growing popularity. Leonidio is situated near the ancient city of Prasiae , which was an important harbour for Sparta until its ruin by the Athenians during the Peloponnesian War . Today, Leonidio

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732-604: 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 instance, ancient [hadros] "hard" goes to Tsakonian [a.tʃe] , where /t͡ʃ/ can be considered a single phoneme; it is written traditionally with a trigraph as ατσχέ (= atskhe ). Tsakonian has undergone considerable morphological changes: there is minimal case inflection. The present and imperfect indicative in Tsakonian are formed with participles, like English but unlike

793-441: Is potential endangerment . This is when a language faces strong external pressure, but there are still communities of speakers who pass the language to their children. The second stage is endangerment . Once a language has reached the endangerment stage, there are only a few speakers left and children are, for the most part, not learning the language. The third stage of language extinction is seriously endangered . During this stage,

854-749: Is a language that is at risk of disappearing as its speakers die out or shift to speaking other languages. Language loss occurs when the language has no more native speakers and becomes a " dead language ". If no one can speak the language at all, it becomes an " extinct language ". A dead language may still be studied through recordings or writings, but it is still dead or extinct unless there are fluent speakers. Although languages have always become extinct throughout human history, they are currently dying at an accelerated rate because of globalization , mass migration , cultural replacement, imperialism , neocolonialism and linguicide (language killing). Language shift most commonly occurs when speakers switch to

915-567: Is a highly divergent modern variety of Greek , spoken in the Tsakonian region of the Peloponnese , Greece . Unlike all other extant varieties of Greek, Tsakonian derives from Doric Greek rather than from the Attic - Ionic branch. Although it is conventionally treated as a dialect of Greek, some compendia treat it as a separate language. Tsakonian is critically endangered , with only

976-468: Is a liaison phoneme: τίνος [ˈtinos] > τσούνερ [ˈtsuner] In Southern Tsakonian, [l] is deleted before back and central vowels: λόγος [ˈloɣos] > Northern λόγo [ˈloɣo] , Southern όγo [ˈoɣo] ; λούζων [ˈluzɔːn] > Northern λούκχου [ˈlukʰu] , Southern ούκχου [ˈukʰu] ; Occasionally [θ] > [s] , which appears to reflect an earlier process in Laconian, but in others [θ]

1037-432: Is a lively and colourful town, especially in summer months, as a result of newly developing tourism. Agriculture, nevertheless, remains a main source of income for its residents, and the benefits of the exploitation of the plain are irreplaceable. The town is also famous for its unusual Easter celebration, when the custom of aerostata (air balloons) attracts spectators. Greek comedy writer Dimitrios Psathas once recommended

1098-455: Is also sometimes referred to as language revival or reversing language shift . For case studies of this process, see Anderson (2014). Applied linguistics and education are helpful in revitalizing endangered languages. Vocabulary and courses are available online for a number of endangered languages. Language maintenance refers to the support given to languages that need for their survival to be protected from outsiders who can ultimately affect

1159-535: Is found in Sitena and Kastanitsa . As early as 1971, it became difficult for researchers in the northern villages to find any informants who could offer more than "a few isolated words". The Northern villages were much more exposed to the rest of Greek society, and as a result, according to linguist Nick Nicholas, Northern Tsakonian experienced much heavier Standard Greek lexical and phonological influence, before it began to die out much faster than Southern Tsakonian. It

1220-594: 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 ). 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

1281-523: Is generally believed that Northern Tsakonian has been influenced by modern Greek and there are indeed some examples where Northern Tsakonian uses "more modern" vocabulary than its Southern counterpart. The principal difference between Northern and Southern Tsakonian is the loss of the intervocalic consonant /-l-/ which exists in Northern Tsakonian but is absent from Southern Tsakonian. According to Maxim L. Kisilier, professor of Modern Greek in

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1342-851: Is home to a number of stunning geological formations , such as the Peleta Sinkhole , and the Propantes pothole (a vertical cave ). Newly developing tourism is also a vital part of the area, with its scenic, clean beaches and breathtaking mountain scenery. Notably, the area is part of Tsakonia , and the Tsakonian language is still spoken in some areas. Its communities take in the following: Leonidio, Vaskina, Agios Vasileios, Kosmas, Kounoupia, Mari, Paliochori, Paliochora, Peleta, Pigadi, Platanaki, Poulithra , Pragmatefti, Tsitalia, and Vlisidia. Tsakonian language Tsakonian or Tsaconian (also Tzakonian or Tsakonic , Greek : τσακώνικα and Tsakonian: τσακώνικα , α τσακώνικα γρούσσα )

1403-447: Is possible that the continued modernization of Tsakonia will lead to the language's disappearance sometime this century. The area where the language is found today in some villages Tsakonia slopes of Parnon in the southern province of Kynouria, including the towns of Leonidio and Tyros and the villages of Melana, Agios Andreas , Vaskina, Prastos , Sitaina and Kastanitsa . Tsakonian has no official status. Prayers and liturgies of

1464-2784: Is retained though the word is absent in Standard Greek: θυγάτηρ [θyˈɣatir] > σάτη [ˈsati] , but Ancient θύων [ˈθiɔːn] (Modern equivalent: σφάζω [ˈsfazo] ) > θύου [ˈθiu] Tsakonian avoids clusters, and reduces them to aspirated or prenasalised stops and affricates: In the common verb ending -ζω , [z] > [nd]  : φωνάζων [foˈnazɔːn] > φωνιάντου [foˈɲandu] [z, v] are added between vowels: μυία, κυανός [myˈia, kyaˈnos] > μούζα, κουβάνε [ˈmuza, kuˈvane] [ɣ, ð] often drop out between vowels: πόδας, τράγος [ˈpoðas, ˈtraɣos] > πούα, τσχάο [ˈpua, ˈtʃao] Πουλάτζι ἔμα ἐχα τθὸ κουιβί τσαὶ μερουτέ νι ἔμα ἐχα ταχίγα νι ἔμα ζάχαρι ποϊκίχα νι ἔμα μόσκο, τσαί ἁπό τὸ μόσκο τὸ περσού τσαὶ ἁπὸ τὰ νυρωδία ἑσκανταλίστε τὁ κουιβί τσ' ἑφύντζε μοι τ' αηδόνι. Τσ' ἁφέγκι νι ἔκει τσυνηγού μὲ τὸ κουιβί τθὸ χέρε. Ἔα πουλί τθὸν τόπο ντι ἔα τθα καϊκοιτζίαι, να ἄτσου τὰ κουδούνια ντι νἁ βάλου ἄβα τσαινούρτζα. Poulátzi éma ékha tʰo kouiví tse merouté ni éma ékha takhíga ni éma zákhari poïkíkha ni éma mósko tse apó to mósko to persoú tse apó ta nirodía eskantalíste to kouiví ts' efíntze mi t' aïdóni. Ts' aféngi ni éki tsinigoú me to kouiví tʰo khére Éa poulí tʰon tópo nti, éa tʰa kaïkitzíe na átsou ta koudoúnia nti na válou áva tsenoúrtza. puˈlatɕi ˈema ˈexa tʰo kwiˈvi tɕe meruˈte ɲ ˈema ˈexa taˈçiɣa ɲ ˈema ˈzaxaʒi po.iˈkixa ɲ ˈema ˈmosko tɕ aˈpo to ˈmosko to perˈsu tɕ aˈpo ta ɲiroˈði.a eskandaˈʎiste to kwiˈvi tɕ eˈfidze mi t a.iˈðoɲi tɕ aˈfeɲɟi ɲ ˈeki tɕiɲiˈɣu me to kwiˈvi tʰo ˈçere ˈe.a puˈʎi tʰon ˈdopo di ˈe.a tʰa ka.ikiˈtɕi.e n ˈatsu ta kuˈðuɲa di na ˈvalu ˈava tɕeˈnurdza Πουλάκι είχα στο κλουβί και μερομένο το είχα. το τάιζα ζάχαρη και το πότιζα μόσχο και από τον πολύ τον μόσχο και την μυρωδιά του εσκανταλίστη και το κλουβί και μου έφυγε τ' αηδόνι Κι' ο αφέντης το κυνηγάει με το κλουβί στο χέρι: Έλα πουλί στον τόπο σου, έλα στην κατοικία σου ν' αλλάξω τα κουδούνια σου να βάλω άλλα καινούργια Pouláki íkha sto klouví ke meroméno to íkha to táïza zákhari ke to pótiza móskho ke apó ton polí ton móskho ke tin mirodiá tou eskantalísti ke to klouví ke mou éfige t' aïdóni. Ki' o aféntis to kinigáï me to klouví sto khéri Éla poulí ston tópo sou, éla stin katikía sou n' allákso ta koudoúnia sou na válo álla kenoúrgia. puˈlaci ˈixa sto kluˈvi ce meroˈmeno to ˈixa to ˈta.iza ˈzaxari ce to ˈpotiza ˈmosxo c aˈpo tom boˈli tom ˈmosxo ce tim miroˈðja tu eskandaˈlisti ce to kluˈvi ce mu ˈefiʝe t a.iˈðoni c o aˈfendis to ciniˈɣa.i me to kluˈvi sto ˈçeri ˈela puˈli ston ˈdopo su ˈela stiŋ ɡatiˈci.a su n alˈakso ta kuˈðuɲa su na ˈvalo ˈala ceˈnurʝa I had

1525-400: Is that there are between 6,000 and 7,000 languages currently spoken. Some linguists estimate that between 50% and 90% of them will be severely endangered or dead by the year 2100. The 20 most common languages , each with more than 50 million speakers, are spoken by 50% of the world's population, but most languages are spoken by fewer than 10,000 people. The first step towards language death

1586-500: The Cambridge Handbook of Endangered Languages , there are four main types of causes of language endangerment: Causes that put the populations that speak the languages in physical danger, such as: Causes that prevent or discourage speakers from using a language, such as: Often multiple of these causes act at the same time. Poverty, disease and disasters often affect minority groups disproportionately, for example causing

1647-606: The Czech usage of the háček (such as š ). Lastly, unpalatalized n and l before a front vowel can be written double to contrast with a palatalised single letter; essentially the opposite of Spanish ñ and ll (e.g. in Southern Tsakonian ένει [eɲi] "I am", έννι [eni] "he is" – the former corresponds to Northern Tsakonian έμι [emi] and Standard Greek είμαι [ime] ). Critically endangered language An endangered language or moribund language

1708-477: 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. There are three dialects of Tsakonian: Northern, Southern, and Propontis. The Propontis dialect was spoken in what was formerly

1769-526: The Greek War of Independence meant that fluent Tsakonian speakers were no longer as isolated from the rest of Greece. In addition, during the war, the Turkish army drove the Tsakonians east, and as a result, their de facto capital shifted from Prastos to Leonidio , further making the people significantly less isolated. There began a rapid decline from an estimated figure of some 200,000 fluent speakers to

1830-728: The Northwest Pacific Plateau . Other hotspots are Oklahoma and the Southern Cone of South America. Almost all of the study of language endangerment has been with spoken languages. A UNESCO study of endangered languages does not mention sign languages. However, some sign languages are also endangered, such as Alipur Village Sign Language (AVSL) of India, Adamorobe Sign Language of Ghana, Ban Khor Sign Language of Thailand, and Plains Indian Sign Language . Many sign languages are used by small communities; small changes in their environment (such as contact with

1891-496: The Saint Petersburg State University , the /-l-/ in Northern Tsakonian is unlikely to be an innovation influenced by Standard Modern Greek, and, as such, according to him, it's more likely that Southern Tsakonian changed instead. There may have once been a fourth, Western, dialect of Tsakonian given the forms attested by Evliya Celebi in the 17th century. Another difference between Tsakonian and

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1952-402: The digraph ⟨ πφ ⟩ to represent aspirated /pʰ/ ). Noun morphology is broadly similar to Standard Modern Greek, although Tsakonian tends to drop the nominative, final -ς ( -s ) from masculine nouns, thus Tsakonian ο τσχίφτα o tshífta for Standard o τρίφτης o tríftis ' grater ' . There has always been contact with Koine Greek speakers and the language

2013-611: The national language (e.g. Indonesian ) in place of local languages. In contrast, a language with only 500 speakers might be considered very much alive if it is the primary language of a community, and is the first (or only) spoken language of all children in that community. Asserting that "Language diversity is essential to the human heritage", UNESCO's Ad Hoc Expert Group on Endangered Languages offers this definition of an endangered language: "... when its speakers cease to use it, use it in an increasingly reduced number of communicative domains, and cease to pass it on from one generation to

2074-472: The 21st century due to similar reasons. Language endangerment affects both the languages themselves and the people that speak them. This also affects the essence of a culture. As communities lose their language, they often lose parts of their cultural traditions that are tied to that language. Examples include songs, myths, poetry, local remedies, ecological and geological knowledge, as well as language behaviors that are not easily translated. Furthermore,

2135-678: The European Union are actively working to save and stabilize endangered languages. Once a language is determined to be endangered, there are three steps that can be taken in order to stabilize or rescue the language. The first is language documentation, the second is language revitalization and the third is language maintenance. Language documentation is the documentation in writing and audio-visual recording of grammar , vocabulary, and oral traditions (e.g. stories, songs, religious texts) of endangered languages. It entails producing descriptive grammars, collections of texts and dictionaries of

2196-480: The cities or to other countries, thus dispersing the speakers. Cultural dominance occurs when literature and higher education is only accessible in the majority language. Political dominance occurs when education and political activity is carried out exclusively in a majority language. Historically, in colonies, and elsewhere where speakers of different languages have come into contact, some languages have been considered superior to others: often one language has attained

2257-494: 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 που ( /pu/ ) relativiser, which takes the form πφη ( /pʰi/ ) in Tsakonian (note: traditional Tsakonian orthography uses

2318-575: The contributions of linguists globally. Ethnologue's 2005 count of languages in its database, excluding duplicates in different countries, was 6,912, of which 32.8% (2,269) were in Asia, and 30.3% (2,092) in Africa. This contemporary tally must be regarded as a variable number within a range. Areas with a particularly large number of languages that are nearing extinction include: Eastern Siberia , Central Siberia , Northern Australia , Central America , and

2379-461: The cycles of language death and emergence of new languages through creolization as a continuous ongoing process. A majority of linguists do consider that language loss is an ethical problem, as they consider that most communities would prefer to maintain their languages if given a real choice. They also consider it a scientific problem, because language loss on the scale currently taking place will mean that future linguists will only have access to

2440-408: The dispersal of speaker populations and decreased survival rates for those who stay behind. Among the causes of language endangerment cultural, political and economic marginalization accounts for most of the world's language endangerment. Scholars distinguish between several types of marginalization: Economic dominance negatively affects minority languages when poverty leads people to migrate towards

2501-517: The earliest is GIDS (Graded Intergenerational Disruption Scale) proposed by Joshua Fishman in 1991. In 2011 an entire issue of Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development was devoted to the study of ethnolinguistic vitality, Vol. 32.2, 2011, with several authors presenting their own tools for measuring language vitality. A number of other published works on measuring language vitality have been published, prepared by authors with varying situations and applications in mind. According to

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2562-416: The languages, and it requires the establishment of a secure archive where the material can be stored once it is produced so that it can be accessed by future generations of speakers or scientists. Language revitalization is the process by which a language community through political, community, and educational means attempts to increase the number of active speakers of the endangered language. This process

2623-399: The linguistic literature—the language that is being lost generally undergoes changes as speakers make their language more similar to the language that they are shifting to. For example, gradually losing grammatical or phonological complexities that are not found in the dominant language. Generally the accelerated pace of language endangerment is considered to be a problem by linguists and by

2684-530: The local economy, with its high level of agricultural employment. Apart from citrus fruit, pears, tomatoes and olives, the area's most famous and widely distributed product is the Tsakonian eggplant, characteristic in its sweet taste, and acknowledged and protected by the European Union . Three old windmills overlook the town. Thanks to its position on the mountain of Parnon , the Leonidio municipality

2745-455: The next. That is, there are no new speakers, adults or children." UNESCO operates with four levels of language endangerment between "safe" (not endangered) and "extinct" (no living speakers), based on intergenerational transfer: "vulnerable" (not spoken by children outside the home), "definitely endangered" (children not speaking), "severely endangered" (only spoken by the oldest generations), and "critically endangered" (spoken by few members of

2806-545: The number of speakers of a language. UNESCO seeks to prevent language extinction by promoting and supporting the language in education, culture, communication and information, and science. Another option is "post-vernacular maintenance": the teaching of some words and concepts of the lost language, rather than revival proper. As of June 2012 the United States has a J-1 specialist visa , which allows indigenous language experts who do not have academic training to enter

2867-731: The oldest generation, often semi-speakers ). UNESCO's Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger categorises 2,473 languages by level of endangerment. Using an alternative scheme of classification, linguist Michael E. Krauss defines languages as "safe" if it is considered that children will probably be speaking them in 100 years; "endangered" if children will probably not be speaking them in 100 years (approximately 60–80% of languages fall into this category) and "moribund" if children are not speaking them now. Many scholars have devised techniques for determining whether languages are endangered. One of

2928-481: The pre-classical Greek [w] -sound, represented in some Ancient Greek texts by the digamma (ϝ) . In Tsakonian, this sound has become a fricative [v] : βάννε [ˈvane] "sheep", corresponding to Ancient ϝαμνός [wamˈnos] (Attic ἀμνός ). Tsakonian has extensive changes triggered by palatalisation: Word-initial [r] > [ʃ] : *ράφων [ˈrafɔːn] > σχάφου [ˈʃafu] Word-final [s] > [r] , which reflects an earlier process in Laconian; in Tsakonian, it

2989-512: The present estimate of a speaker count between 200 and 1,000. Since the introduction of electricity to all villages in Tsakonia by the late 1950s, Greek mass media can reach the most remote of areas and has profoundly affected 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

3050-483: The region due to the outbreak of World War I . Propontis Tsakonian was overall grammatically more conservative, but it was also influenced by the nearby Thracian dialects of Greek which were much closer to Standard Modern Greek. The emergence of the Propontis community is either dated to the 13th century settlement of Tsakonians by Emperor Michael VII , explicitly referenced by Byzantine George Pachymeres or around

3111-533: The rest of Greek: Tsakonian ενεί αού, έμα αού "I am saying, I was saying" ≈ Greek ειμί λαλών, ήμην λαλών . Note: Participles change according to the gender of the subject of the sentence Tsakonian has preserved the original inflection of the aorist indicative. Traditionally, Tsakonian used the standard Greek alphabet, along with digraphs to represent certain sounds that either do not occur in Demotic Greek, or that do not commonly occur in combination with

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3172-408: The same sounds as they do in Tsakonian. For example, the [ʃ] sound, which does not occur in standard Greek, occurs in Tsakonian, and is pronounced as σχ (much like German sch ). Another sound recalls Czech ř . 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. That is more like

3233-421: The settlement itself offers striking and picturesque architecture; now a protected architectural site, there are very strict regulations for building within the town's limits. Plaka is the picturesque port of Leonidio, situated 4 km from the town. It functions mainly with the help of tourism, but a small fishing fleet is also to be found; a well-regarded beach lies 4 km across the shore. The port takes in

3294-661: The social structure of one's community is often reflected through speech and language behavior. This pattern is even more prominent in dialects. This may in turn affect the sense of identity of the individual and the community as a whole, producing a weakened social cohesion as their values and traditions are replaced with new ones. This is sometimes characterized as anomie . Losing a language may also have political consequences as some countries confer different political statuses or privileges on minority ethnic groups, often defining ethnicity in terms of language. In turn, communities that lose their language may also lose political legitimacy as

3355-502: The speakers. However, some linguists, such as the phonetician Peter Ladefoged , have argued that language death is a natural part of the process of human cultural development, and that languages die because communities stop speaking them for their own reasons. Ladefoged argued that linguists should simply document and describe languages scientifically, but not seek to interfere with the processes of language loss. A similar view has been argued at length by linguist Salikoko Mufwene , who sees

3416-507: The time of the 1770 Orlov Revolt . For an example of the standardizing Thracian Greek influence, compare the Northern and Southern word for water, ύο ( ýo , derived from Ancient Greek ὕδωρ ) to Propontic νερέ and Standard νερό ( neré , neró ). Of the two mainland dialects of Tsakonian, Southern Tsakonian is spoken in the villages of Melana, Prastos , Vaskina, Tiros, Leonidio , Pragmateftis and Sapounakeika, while Northern Tsakonian

3477-613: The virtues of passing: "..carnival in Patras , and Easters in Leonidio". In latter years it has become a well known tourist destination for rock climbing . Leonidio is situated on the eastern coast of the Peloponnese and, although coastal, opening on to the Myrtoan Sea, it is also mainly mountainous, punctuated by the Parnon . Leonidio town itself, however, is to be found on the area's plain, which proves fertile and very important for

3538-457: The world is not known, and it is not well defined what constitutes a separate language as opposed to a dialect. Estimates vary depending on the extent and means of the research undertaken, and the definition of a distinct language and the current state of knowledge of remote and isolated language communities. The number of known languages varies over time as some of them become extinct and others are newly discovered. An accurate number of languages in

3599-418: The world was not yet known until the use of universal, systematic surveys in the later half of the twentieth century. The majority of linguists in the early twentieth century refrained from making estimates. Before then, estimates were frequently the product of guesswork and very low. One of the most active research agencies is SIL International , which maintains a database, Ethnologue , kept up to date by

3660-413: The world, many countries have enacted specific legislation aimed at protecting and stabilizing the language of indigenous speech communities . Recognizing that most of the world's endangered languages are unlikely to be revitalized, many linguists are also working on documenting the thousands of languages of the world about which little or nothing is known. The total number of contemporary languages in

3721-447: Was affected by the neighboring Greek dialects. Additionally, there are some lexical borrowings from Arvanitika and Turkish . The core, base vocabulary remains recognizably Doric, although experts disagree on the extent to which other true Doricisms can be found. There are only a few hundred, mainly elderly true native speakers living, although a great many more can speak the language less than fluently. Tsakonian in some words preserves

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