British, Belgian, and French discover the beauty of the Tsakonian dialect

Greek author and professor of English and Greek Cupture, Eleni Manou Source: Supplied

SBS Greek

View Podcast Series

Get the SBS Audio app

Other ways to listen

Tsakonian is a highly divergent modern variety of Greek, spoken in the Tsakonian region of the Peloponnese, Greece. Tsakonian derives from Doric Greek, being its only extant variant. Although it is conventionally treated as a dialect of Greek, some compendia treat it as a separate language. Greek author and English and Greek languages professor, Eleni Manou talks to Panos Apostolou.

Tsakonian 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).

There was formerly a Tsakonian colony on the Sea of Marmara (or Propontis; two villages near Gönen, Vatika and Havoutsi), probably dating from the 18th century, whose members were resettled in Greece with the 1924 population exchanges.[7] Propontis Tsakonian appears to have died out around 1970.

Kalos Irthate: An immersive tribute to Greek migration in Australia

Greek family from Melbourne builds ties with a remote Aboriginal community

Tavli, trophies and team spirit: Inside the Greek Legends' road to victory