Tsakonian Digital VaultTsakonian syntax has several distinctive features, particularly in the placement of clitics and the use of the predicative participle.
Syntax is the study of how words and phrases are arranged to form sentences — the rules that determine word order, agreement, and how different grammatical elements combine. The most remarkable syntactic features of Tsakonian are: the clitic placement rules (which differ between subdialects), the periphrastic verb structure, and the preserved predicative participle. For dialect-specific differences, see 4.4 Dialect Comparison. For clitic forms themselves, see 5.9 Particles and Clitics.
Clitic Placement
The rules for clitic pronoun placement vary between the subdialects and constitute one of the most theoretically interesting features of Tsakonian syntax. (Liosis, 2017)
Propontis Tsakonian
In the Propontis subdialect, clitic pronouns are subject to the same restrictions that apply generally in medieval Greek (cf. Mackridge 1993, Condoravdi & Kiparsky 2004): if the verb is in initial position, the clitics follow it (enclitic); otherwise they precede the verb (proclitic). (Liosis, 2017)
Verb-initial — clitics enclitic:
| θωράκαΐ | ν’ | τον | αγό |
|---|---|---|---|
| saw.3PL | DO3SG | the | rabbit |
‘They saw the rabbit’ (= είδαν τον τον λαγό) — (Costakis 1957: 118)
Non-verb-initial — clitics proclitic:
| µα | τ’ | παρακαλέσ’ |
|---|---|---|
| FUT | DO2SG | ask.1SG.SUBJ |
‘I will ask you’ (= θα σε παρακαλέσω) — (Costakis 1957: 96)
Peloponnesian Tsakonian
In Peloponnesian Tsakonian, clitic pronouns are now proclitic in almost all syntactic environments. (Liosis, 2017)
| νι | ενέντζε |
|---|---|
| DO3SG | brought.3SG |
‘S/he brought it’ (= το έφερε) — (Liosis 2007)
| θα | ναµ’ | αλεί |
|---|---|---|
| FUT | IO1PL | say.3SG.SUBJ |
‘S/he will tell us’ (= θα µας πει) — (Liosis 2007)
Clitic Clustering
When a clitic pronoun and the clitic auxiliary co-occur in the same verb phrase, the two clitics cluster together, and their relative position differs between the Peloponnesian and Propontis subdialects. (Liosis, 2017)
Propontis Tsakonian — verb auxiliary + DO clitic:
| πουλώ | τα-σι | ένα | γρόσ’ |
|---|---|---|---|
| selling.M.SG | CLA3.PST-DO3PL | one | piaster |
‘He wanted to sell (was selling) them for one piaster’ — (Costakis 1957: 102)
Peloponnesian Tsakonian — IO + auxiliary pattern:
| µ-εκι | αούα | α | µαµού | µοι |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| IO1SG-CLA3SG.PST | telling.F.SG | the | grandmother | mine |
‘My grandmother used to tell me’ — (Costakis 1986, 3: 394)
Possessive and Genitive Constructions
Due to the weakening and near-disappearance of the genitive case (especially in the plural), Tsakonian employs several alternative syntactic strategies:
- Periphrastic Genitive: Possession is frequently expressed through prepositional phrases using σε (to/in) or από (from) followed by the accusative.
- Example: οι φίλοι σ’ εταγή τα γυναίκα (the friends of this woman) (Kisilier & Mertyris, 2018).
- Example: τα πόδια από των παιδιών (the feet of the children) (Kisilier & Mertyris, 2018).
- Accusative for Possession: The accusative case with the definite article often replaces the genitive form entirely.
- Example: τα πόδια της κότας (the chicken’s legs) (Kisilier & Mertyris, 2018).
- Synaloepha and Contraction: Possessive constructions often feature phonological merging, such as the contraction of articles with the following noun.
- Example: τουρ αθρίποι (of the people) where /s/ + /t/ + /r/ results in a merged form (Kisilier & Mertyris, 2018).
Predicative Participle
Tsakonian preserves the use of the predicative participle after verbs of sensing or starting — a construction unique among modern Greek dialects. A predicative participle is a participle that functions as part of the predicate (the core of the sentence) rather than as a modifier of a noun. The English sentence ‘I saw him running’ contains a predicative participle. This construction has been lost in all other living varieties of Greek. (Liosis, 2017)
| Tsakonian | Translation |
|---|---|
| νι οράκα σουρούµενε | ’I saw him crawling’ |
| αρχινίε δρανίντου (archiníe draníndou) | ‘s/he started to run’ |
‘s/he started to run’ (literally ‘began running’) — (Liosis 2007)
This syntactic survival is significant because it represents a construction that has been lost in all other modern Greek varieties, making it an important feature for the historical syntax of Greek.
Periphrastic Verb Constructions in Syntax
The periphrastic verbal system of Tsakonian — formed with the auxiliary ‘to be’ and the participle of the verb — has syntactic consequences, particularly for clitic placement. When a clitic pronoun and a clitic auxiliary co-occur in the same clause, their relative order differs between subdialects (see Clitic Clustering above). (Liosis, 2017)
This is crosslinguistically unusual: periphrastic structures for the subjunctive and imperative are rare across languages (cf. Dahl 1985, Bybee et al. 1994: 104–124), and their presence in Tsakonian cannot easily be interpreted as the result of language decay. The Propontis subdialect additionally features periphrastic subjunctive and imperative forms, which further enrich the syntactic complexity of the verbal system. (Liosis, 2017)