I'm Manolis son of Petros, from Prastos
in Kynouria. I learnt [lit. I know] Tsakonian
from my grandparents and my parents
Our language is spoken in seven
villages here in Kynouria, Eastern
Peloponnese, Arcadia Region.
I've heard that they also speak it
in seven other villages
in Italy, on the island of Sicily.
Our history is that we Tsakonians..
we say that the language is ancient Doric
It isn't written down, it has no written form
it only exists in spoken form.
[In Gk] Where is it spoken?
[Tsak] It is spoken in Prastos,
Leonidio, Pramatefti, Melana,
Tyros and Sapounakeika. In Kastanitsa and
Sitaina they speak Tsakonian too
but a slightly altered form of it, with more
differences from the other pure Tsakonian.
[Gk] Anything else? Ask me whatever you want.
[Gk] Did you do it at school?
[Gk] No, at school [Tsak] we weren't taught
Tsakonian dialect.... normal Greek.
[Gk] [Ask me] something else
[Gk] What significance does it have for you?
[Tsak] Significance... the significance of our
language is that it is local and all the
Tsakonians can communicate with each other
in this language.
[Gk] So now do you want me to say
it for you, to translate it and say it in
Greek so you can understand it because
at this point... No, no....alright
[Gk] Ok?
[Tsak] Do you also want me to tell you
something of the history of my home village
Prastos? You see [lit. 'that'] when the war
happened between 1820 and 1826
Ibrahim Pasha came to our village
Prastos and burnt it down.
Er...our village Prastos in the days
when Athens had 10,000 inhabitants
Prastos had 7,000 inhabitants.
It had seven districts, seven churches.
It had the church of Our Lady Mitropoli
the church of the Archangels
Our Lady Stoliotissa
Saint Nicholas
Saint Demetrios
Saint George
Saint, er, Saint Paraskevi
and the Prophet Elijah.
[Gk] Did you understand what I said to you?
I told you about the churches Prastos has.
[Gk] Ah, the old capital.
[Gk] Capital yes, and the second town after
Athens which... when Athens had a
population of 10,000 people, Prastos
had 7,000 people then.
After Ibrahim Pasha set fire to it, the
village was destroyed and the people fled
some went to Leonidio, others went to
the City, to Constantinople
[Gk] What about songs and such in...
[Gk] Say it in Tsakonian!
[Gk] I'm saying it to him because...
[Gk] I don't mean to hassle,
but it's recording.
[Gk] Ah, it's recording.... ok...
[Tsak] We have the music with the Tsakonian
dance, here in our village, it is local...
this Tsakonian dance takes place here
they don't know it in the rest of Greece,
only here in Tsakonia.
[Gk] ask me something else.
[Gk] Songs, songs in Tsakonian
Songs, the words not the music
and the dance.
Yes
Do they exist?
[Gk] They exist. [Tsak] They exist.
[Gk] The ones we did just now? Did you have
any songs in Tsakonian in the old days?
[Gk] In Tsakonian?
[Gk] In Tsakonian.
[Tsak] there are 2 or 3 singers
who brought out songs in Tsakonian.
Stamatopoulos who was from Sitaina.
Er.. Vlamis Dolas from Leonidio
Yes
[Gk] These..
[Tsak] These are the ones I know that sing
in Tsakonian.
[Gk] Tsakonian traditional dress, tell us
what it is.
[Gk] The traditional dress,
[Tsak] the Tsakonian traditional dress is
The foustanela and the tzoube, the women
who wear the
The tzoube
The tzoube.
The men wear the foustanella, the sorkadi
the... the albanian clogs
the gaiters
the fez.
That's the traditional dress of the men
And the women wear the tzoube.
[Gk] Tell us, what colour is the tzoube?
[Tsak] It has different, many colours
Black, red, white...various colours.
Something else?
[Gk] Do you want the language to continue
to be spoken?
I certainly desire and want the language
not to be lost and...
our language to be here locally
as long as we know it and speak it
and some of us do speak it here
I want it to continue.
I want younger people to learn it.
[Gk] Do you think that will happen, that the
Tsakonian language will continue to be spoken?
People put their mind to it and the
associations, various groups, the state,
the regional council all help, it is
possible that it will carry on and that
people will speak the Tsakonian language.
But they need to help, the language needs
help so that it doesn't die out.
Young people too should make an effort
to learn it and speak it, so that
we don't lose our language.
Subtitles by the Amara.org community