Pondicherry: A PEOPLE WITHOUT PATRIΑ (VI) 6 .- LANGUAGE
The language spoken by the Pondicherry (ποντιακά, pondiaká) is a Greek variant of which has its roots in antiquity and is one of the two dialects of Asia Minor (the other is the Cappadocian, who is now almost extinct). It is based on the Ionian Greeks who took Miletus when they founded the first colony in the seventh century BC, although it has undergone many changes and influences over the centuries, much of the surrounding languages \u200b\u200bas other variants of the Greek. I do not attempt here a comprehensive study of its characteristics but simply to highlight those that caught my attention (I'm no expert, I'm just looking for a self-taught and rather casual). I hope not too boring for non-philologists. To compensate a little, after the "roll philological" I will put some interesting sights and videos with lyrics translated Pondicherry.
First, it highlights the fact that has many anachronisms, ie remnants of the ancient or medieval language (jonismos and Byzantine) are not in modern Greek. For example, conservation-ν (Jan) final or denial 'κι that comes from the ancient Ionian adverb which we find in Homer: ουκί. You can keep Ionians as terms κοσσάρα (κότα, chicken) or the ancient Greek infinitive, which in modern Greek disappeared being replaced by a periphrastic form (δύναμαι λέγειν -> δύναμαι ίνα λέγω -> μπορώ να λέω) but in Pondicherry are preserved in certain situations. Also I have drawn much attention to the maintenance of the imperatives in-σον: γράψον (γράψε, write), ποίσον (\u0026lt;ποίησον, φτιάξε, beam).
Another archaism is the pronunciation of the sound Ionian η (and longer) than in common Greek came to be pronounced as / i / since ancient times. Pondicherry has been preserved in the pronunciation as / e / in many words: νύφε (νύφη, novia), pegadin (well, pozo), kepin (sions, diminutivo de garden, jardín), thieves (thief, ladrón), terminal (vine, vid) , friend ever (I got, got, cogí), etc. aunque hay numerosas excepciones debidas, en parte, a la influencia del griego moderno. También la conservación de las consonantes DB en lugar de beats: break (butcher, degollar), spingo (clench, ahogar), aspalo y aspalizo (tutus, cerrar) , anaspallo (re-lapse, olvidar) y en general la conservación of occlusive π, τ, κ in some words instead of affricates φ, θ, χ.
In some areas (since the turn Pondicherry has several variants), unstressed vowels disappear ι, ου in the middle of the word or the end, something resembling the dialects of Northern Greece . Thus it is said κόρ ' , πεγάδ' , τραπέζ ' , άκ'σον , γίν'νταν instead of κόρη , πεγάδιν , τραπέζιν , άκουσον , γίνουνταν seen in other areas. At other times, instead of removing the voice is added by analogy to the end of the word, especially when followed by a pronoun: And that happens very often in the songs that appear one iota added metric reasons.
Another feature that calls attention right away when we heard a song is the pronunciation of many sibilant fricatives: for χέρι (hand, pronounced in modern Greek "Jeri", with a jack too soft), the Pondicherry say χέριν (pronounced "Sherin" with a particular sound, like the "ch" French and even the "x" Asturian eg "xana"). The same happens with consonants σ, ζ, ξ, ψ, which often also become fricatives. At other times there is a loss of intervocalic sound, as the wish to congratulate used eg Christmas: υείαν και ευλοίαν! (υγεία και ευλογία, health and blessing).
This is one of the books I used to write this article
also struck by the abundant use of diminutive suffix-οπον: poulopon (birdie, pajarito), lalopon (de speech , little voice, vocecita) KORTSOPON (girl, muchachita), macheropon (macheraki, cuchillito). Y otro tanto ocurre con el sufijo que se usa para formar el femenino de muchos adjetivos,-Essenes. The female is μικρός μικρέσσα ορφανός and the ορφανέσσα . It reminds me of our prince, princess, Count Countess Duke Duchess.
pronouns are placed at the end of the verb, unlike in modern Greek: έγκα σε (old ήνεγκον σοι, σου'φερα, I brought), λέγω σε (σου λέω, I say), δίγω σε (σου δίνω, I give you.) Something similar happens in the Asturias, where it is common to hear "dígotelo me." Indeed, as shown in the examples, is noteworthy σε pronoun usage for both the direct complement to the indirect.
A phenomenon which is extremely surprising to those who have studied ancient Greek sobresdrújulas is to find words with accent on the fourth syllable or even in the fifth from the end, something that happens mostly in the vocative ( Χάραλαμπε ) or verbs.
The Pondicherry, like other variants of the Greek (as the Cretan), does not use but είντα τι interrogative, simplified form ντο : ντο φτάς; (τι κάνεις, what are you doing? how about that?) ντο να ίνουμε; (τι θα γίνω, what will become of me?) ντο εν αούτο; (τι ειν 'αυτό, what is that?). And this last example that I have reminds me of the characteristic use of third person pronoun αούτος or αβούτος αυτός instead. That made it one of the nicknames that they put the Pondicherry in Greece was that of Αούτηδες (aútides).
Another
Unlike the modern Greek is the maintenance of many word-final hiatus: καρδία , λαλία , παιδία , χωρίον (instead of καρδιά λαλιά παιδιά χωριό). In contrast, in a few words with diphthong sound is pronounced halfway between the two, there are two neutral vowels "o-εα ια becomes a sound that is neither" a "or" e "( παρχάρια, όρνεα ), so it is with-ιο, "εο ( άγριος , παλαιώνω ), with a sound between" e "and" or. " It is also striking gender change in many words, for example, many women that become neutral plural: τα κόσσαρας (οι κότες) or the ending-ον for male names: ο θεόν (ο θεός God), ο λύκον (ο λύκος, the wolf). If all these differences we add the use of words that are completely unknown to the speakers of Greek, will usually result in a dialect incomprehensible to the "uninitiated". Just look at these examples: κουτσί , πατσή (κορίτσι, κοπέλα, girl), παρχάρια (meadows, prados, pastos de verano), rachia (pronunciado rasa , mountains, montes), It was this vision (del antiguo ear, ear, oído), ovon ( egg, huevo), efanthen (shown, pareció), OKNE (Lazy vague), άλλο καλλίον (καλύτερο the better).
could say much more about a language with many centuries of history, but I think I've bored you enough for today. To liven up a bit this chapter so dry I'll put (with English translation) a few songs I like especially. The first is sung by Alexis dipat Parjaridis, which I've put pictures of the church of Santa Sofia (Αγία Σοφία, Ayasofya) in the city of Trabzon:
And the second is a OMAL Monon, also sung by Parjaridis, this time with pictures of the monastery of Sumela Panayi (Παναγία Σουμελά), the main monastery of Pontus, in the mountains Trabzon region:
Finally, I will discuss the enormous amount of works that are written in Pondicherry, including the translation of some numbers Asterix.
By the way, you can consult the Wikipedia Pondicherry.
We're nearing the end of our journey. The next chapter (which will be the last) address matters more interesting, varied.
Maria Paz
Links to previous chapters:
I. Introduction
II. 2700 years of history
III. The great catastrophe
IV. The Russian-sponded
V. Costumes, music and dance