Thanasis Costakis (, 1907–2009) was a

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

linguist Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...

and

lexicographer Lexicography is the study of lexicons and the art of compiling dictionaries. It is divided into two separate academic disciplines: * Practical lexicography is the art or craft of compiling, writing and editing dictionary, dictionaries. * The ...

best known for his work on the

critically endangered An IUCN Red List critically endangered (CR or sometimes CE) species is one that has been categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as facing an extremely high risk of extinction in the wild. As of December 2023, of t ...

Tsakonian language Tsakonian or Tsaconian (also Tzakonian or Tsakonic, and Tsakonian: , ) is a highly divergent modern variety of Greek, spoken in the Tsakonian region of the Peloponnese, Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in So ...

spoken in the eastern

Peloponnese The Peloponnese ( ), Peloponnesus ( ; , ) or Morea (; ) is a peninsula and geographic region in Southern Greece, and the southernmost region of the Balkans. It is connected to the central part of the country by the Isthmus of Corinth land bridg ...

. Costakis was born in Pera Melana in Arcadia, a Tsakonian-speaking village. Costakis taught at several gymnasia and lycea in Athens before affiliating with the Academy of Athens, where he contributed to the composition of the Historical Lexicon of Modern Greek. In addition to his linguistic works, he also published a volume on the traditional architecture of

Tsakonia Tsakonia (, ''Tsakoniá''; Tsakonian language, Tsakonian: Τσακωνία, ''Tsakonía'') or the Tsakonian region () refers to the small area in the eastern Peloponnese where the Tsakonian language is spoken, in the area surrounding 13 towns, vil ...

. Costakis also developed a writing system for the Tsakonian language, which included orthography using dots, ''

spiritus asper In the polytonic orthography of Ancient Greek, the rough breathing ( or ; ) character is a diacritical mark used to indicate the presence of an sound before a vowel, diphthong, or after rho. It remained in the polytonic orthography even afte ...

'', and

caron A caron or háček ( ), is a diacritic mark () placed over certain letters in the orthography of some languages, to indicate a change of the related letter's pronunciation. Typographers tend to use the term ''caron'', while linguists prefer ...

for use in his works, which has been used in his grammar and local editions of dialectical texts.

Works

*''Historical Lexicon of Modern Greek'', The Academy of Athens, Athens: 1933–present (contributor) *''A Brief Grammar of the Tsakonian Dialect'', The French Institute of Athens, Athens: 1951. *''Tsakonian Popular Architecture'', The Academy of Athens, Athens: 1961. *''Le parler grec d'Anakou, Centre for Asia Minor Studies, Athens: 1964.'' *''The Tsakonian of Propontis'', The Academy of Athens, Athens: 1979. *''Lexicon of the Tsakonian Dialect'', The Academy of Athens: 1986.

References

External links

Biography at the University of Patras website (in Greek)
1907 births 2009 deaths People from South Kynouria Linguists from Greece Greek lexicographers 20th-century Greek educators Tsakonia 20th-century linguists 20th-century lexicographers {{Greece-linguist-stub