Listen to the Tsakonian language of Greece | Manolis speaking Tsakonika | Wikitongues
Channel: Wikitongues
Date: 2015-09-22

Tsakonian (or Tsakonika) is a modern Greek language, spoken in the Tsakonia region of the Peloponnese Peninsula. It is the only living descendent of Doric Greek, the language of Ancient Sparta. Though the Tsakonian-speaking community is small, numbering no more than a couple hundred speakers, the language has three distinct dialects, 'Northern', 'Southern' and 'Propontis'. 

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More from Wikipedia: Tsakonian (also Tsaconian, Tzakonian or Tsakonic; Tsakonian: τσακώνικα, α τσακώνικα γρούσσα; Greek: τσακώνικα) is a modern Hellenic language which is both highly divergent from other spoken varieties of Modern Greek and, from a philological standpoint, linguistically classified separately from them. It is spoken in the Tsakonian region of the Peloponnese, Greece. Tsakonian descends from Doric, which was an Ancient Greek language on the Western branch of the Hellenic languages, and it is its only living descendant. Although Tsakonian is treated as a dialect of Modern Standard Greek, some compendia treat it as a separate language, since Modern Standard Greek descends from Ionic and Attic which are on the Eastern branch of the Hellenic languages, while Tsakonian (as a descendant of Doric) is the sole surviving member of the Western branch. Tsakonian is critically endangered, with only a few hundred, mostly elderly, fluent speakers left. Tsakonian and Modern Greek are not mutually intelligible.

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