Page 279 - Beholding Liberty!

the introduction is highly archaistic: «Διά του παρόντος δηλοποιούμεν ημείς οι κάτωθεν υπογεγραμμένοι της πολιορκίας του Λάλα [...]/With the present the undersigned of the siege of Lalas we state [...]»; however, a little further down the lines, the indeclinable participle ending in -οντας/ώντας makes its appearance, which already from the 4th to the 6th century A.D. begins to manifest signs of non-morphological differentiation, denoting the demotic register:29 «[...] από τους οποίους ήτον ένας και ο ρηθείς καπητάν Ευαγγέλης, έχοντας (instead of: έχων) μίαν μικρήν πληγήν εις την κεφαλήν, του οποίου τα ηρωικά έργα έμειναν εντετυπωμένα εις τας καρδίας μας/[...] of which one was the said captain Evangelis, having a small wound on the head, whose heroic deeds remained imprinted in our hearts». In the same document we read: «ανεχωρήσαμεν αφίνοντες ατελή την πολιορκίαν του εχθρού και βουλώνοντες συγγνώμως τα δύω ρηθέντα κανόνια, μην ειμπορούντες να τα πάρωμεν όντας βαρυά/we departed leaving incomplete behind us the siege of the enemy and having stuffed accordingly the two said cannons, not being able to take them, as they were heavy», with learned elements such as ανεχωρήσαμεν, συγγνώμως and ρηθέντα co-existing with the modern Greek ειμπορούντες (idiomatic, instead of i.e. δυνάμενοι), βουλώνοντες, όντας. As a result, an interesting register-mixing is created.
An interesting feature of orality that is encountered in many documents is the use of loanwords from Turkish. For example in a letter of Anagnotis Makrypokamisos, a parliament member from Nafplio, to the Legislative (Nafplio, 2 September 1823, AGR, vol. 9, p. 259), the «writer» in order to justify his delayed appearance in the Body, pleads indisposition, using the Turkish words ζαΐφης (< zayıf ‘ill, weak, peaky’) and ζαϊφλίκι: «Όθεν με το να έχω ολίγην μου δουλείαν και το περισσότερον οπού ευρίσκομαι ζαΐφης, κατάκοιτος, διά αυτό εμποδίσθην έως ώρας. [...] Έως Τετάρτη, Πέμπτη μάλιστα ελπίζομεν να αναλάβωμεν από το ζαϊφλίκι μας και αμέσως θέλει καταχειρίσωμεν τον δρόμον μας χωρίς κανένα εμπόδιον/Therefore, by having a little work and more so by be- ing ill, lying in bed, I was impeded until now. [...] Up until Wednesday, Thursday at the latest, we hope to have recovered from our illness and we shall immediately be on the way without any obstacle». Noteworthy is also the unaugmented type of passive past tense εμποδίσθην. Nevertheless, in the closing of the letter the style resumes its more scholarly form with the stereotypical ending «All willing».
Even more frequent, almost inevitable, is the use of Turkish words, when reference is made to military opera- tions, in which the everyday vocabulary of war is cited. In a letter of (the Arvanitika speaking) Markos Botsaris to Ioan. Kolokotronis (Missolonghi, 3 January 1823, AGR, vol. 16, p. 131), after the atticizing introduction («Το αδελφικόν μοι γράμμα σου έλαβον διά το αίσιον της εφετής μοι υγείας σου. Άκρως εχάρην γνους τα εν αυτώ. Καγώ υγιαίνω/Your brotherly letter I received about the state of your precious health. I was extremely happy to learn about your condition. I am in good health, too»), with morphological types (γνους) and phonological phenomena (contraction: καγώ) that have since long become redundant in the spoken language, there follows a reference to an instance of Greeks launching an attack against the Turks, which is full of wordings borrowed from Turkish: «Μετά τρεις ημέρας εβγήκαν κάμποσοι Έλληνες προς απόπειραν της δυνάμεώς των και επήγαν έως τα ταμπούρια τους, και αυτοί δεν εβγήκαν ποσώς εις απάντησίν των. [...] Εις τας 31 περί το μεσονύκτιον έφυγαν με μεγαλωτάτην ησυχίαν, φοβούμενοι να τους πάρωμεν από κατόπιν, και άφησαν όλα τα τσατήρια, τα κανόνια τους και τους τζιμπεχανέδες και όλην την αποσκευήν τους/Three days later, some Greeks launched an attack to test their forces and went as far as the [Turkish] taburs (probably from tabur ‘a camp fortified by carts’ and by extension ‘bulwark, natural or artificial, bastion’) and they did not exit to respond. [...] On the 31st around midnight they left very quietly, fearing that we will chase them, and left behind all their τσατήρια (< çadιr ‘tents’), their cannons and τζιμπεχανέδες (< cephane ‘gunpowder magazine, ammunition, supplies) and all their baggage».
In other documents we witness the diversity as to the language-source of the loans: i.e. in a letter of A. Vokos, Ioan. Voulgaris and L. Lalechos to the notables of the island of Hydra, on the topic of the Turkish flagship’s burning at Chios (Psara, 7 June 1822, AGR, vol. 1, p. 551), we come across words of Turkish origin, such as σαντσάκι (< sancak ‘secondary administrative division of the Ottoman empire, sub-division of the eyalet’; in the text, though, with its initial meaning of ‘military banner’), of Italian origin, such as βαρδακόστες (and
29. See, Nakas 2003.
The linguistic imprint of the National Regeneration 279