Joseph Michael Deffner ( el, Μιχαήλ Δέφνερ * 18 September 1848 in
Donauwörth
Donauwörth () is a town and the capital of the Donau-Ries district in Swabia, Bavaria, Germany. It is said to have been founded by two fishermen where the rivers Danube (Donau) and Wörnitz meet. The city is part of the scenic route called "Roman ...
; † 15 October 1934 in Athens) was a German classical philologist and linguist, known for his studies exploring the
Tsakonian language
Tsakonian or Tsaconian (also Tzakonian or Tsakonic, Greek and Tsakonian: , ) is a highly divergent modern variety of Greek, spoken in the Tsakonian region of the Peloponnese, Greece. Tsakonian derives from Doric Greek, being its only extant va ...
.
Biography
He studied classical philology and linguistics in
Munich
Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...
and
Leipzig
Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as wel ...
, and went to Athens in 1871 as a Latin teacher. From 1872–78 he was a lecturer in
comparative literature
Comparative literature is an academic field dealing with the study of literature and cultural expression across linguistic, national, geographic, and disciplinary boundaries. Comparative literature "performs a role similar to that of the study ...
at the
University of Athens
The National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA; el, Εθνικό και Καποδιστριακό Πανεπιστήμιο Αθηνών, ''Ethnikó ke Kapodistriakó Panepistímio Athinón''), usually referred to simply as the Univers ...
. Under the auspices of the Berlin Academy of Sciences, one of the predecessors to the
Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities
The Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities (german: Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften), abbreviated BBAW, is the official academic society for the natural sciences and humanities for the States of Germany, German ...
went to the
Peloponnese
The Peloponnese (), Peloponnesus (; el, Πελοπόννησος, Pelopónnēsos,(), or Morea is a peninsula and geographic regions of Greece, geographic region in southern Greece. It is connected to the central part of the country by the Isthmu ...
to study the
Maniot
The Maniots or Maniates ( el, Μανιάτες) are the inhabitants of Mani Peninsula, located in western Laconia and eastern Messenia, in the southern Peloponnese, Greece. They were also formerly known as Mainotes and the peninsula as ''Maina''. ...
and Tsakonian dialects. He did mostly archaeological work, except for his studies of Tsakonian while he was in the Peloponnese. In the summer of 1876 he worked for the Berlin Academy in
Trebizond working on a study of the
Pontic dialect
Pontic, from the Greek language, Greek ''pontos'' (, ), or "sea", may refer to:
The Black Sea Places
* The Pontic colonies, on its northern shores
* Pontus (region), a region on its southern shores
* The Pontic–Caspian steppe, steppelands str ...
, some of which he did himself, and some of which was done by
Ioannis Pacharidis, a local orphan schoolboy who had been working for a merchant firm to support his family. Pacharidis was eventually imprisoned by Turkish authorities for suspected spying; Deffner and the Greek
vice consul
A consul is an official representative of the government of one state in the territory of another, normally acting to assist and protect the citizens of the consul's own country, as well as to facilitate trade and friendship between the people ...
secured Pacharidis's release from gaol and helped him emigrate to Greece to complete his studies. From 1877 to 1910, Deffner was the director of the National Library of Greece in Athens.
Deffner directed
archaeological excavations
In archaeology, excavation is the exposure, processing and recording of archaeological remains. An excavation site or "dig" is the area being studied. These locations range from one to several areas at a time during a project and can be condu ...
on the peninsula of
Methana
Methana ( el, Μέθανα) is a town and a former municipality on the Peloponnese peninsula, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Troizinia-Methana, of which it is a municipal unit. The municipal unit has ...
and on the island of
Skyros
Skyros ( el, Σκύρος, ), in some historical contexts Latinized Scyros ( grc, Σκῦρος, ), is an island in Greece, the southernmost of the Sporades, an archipelago in the Aegean Sea. Around the 2nd millennium BC and slightly later, the ...
. At Methana he discovered an ancient stone throne, the "Throne of the Gods". His research findings are recorded in the Athens Communiqués. His photodocumentation from Methana is preserved at the
German Archaeological Institute at Athens
The German Archaeological Institute at Athens (german: Deutsches Archäologisches Institut (DAI), Abteilung Athen; el, Γερμανικό Αρχαιολογικό Ινστιτούτο Αθηνών) is one of the 19 foreign archaeological institu ...
.
Defner was an editor for the ''Archiv für mittel- und neugriechische philologie'', a German-language journal on mediaeval and modern Greek studies; the ''Beiträge zur Kunde der indogermanischen Sprachen'', an
Indo-European studies
Indo-European studies is a field of linguistics and an interdisciplinary field of study dealing with Indo-European languages, both current and extinct. The goal of those engaged in these studies is to amass information about the hypothetical pro ...
journal founded by
Balticist Adalbert Bezzenberger
Adalbert Bezzenberger (14 April 1851 – 31 October 1922) was a German philologist. He was born at Kassel and died at Königsberg. He is considered to be the founder of Baltic philology.honorary citizen
Honorary citizenship is a status bestowed by a city or other government on a foreign or native individual whom it considers to be especially admirable or otherwise worthy of the distinction. The honour usually is symbolic and does not confer an ...
of
Leonidio
Leonidio ( el, Λεωνίδιο, Katharevousa: Λεωνίδιον, Tsakonian: Αγιελήδι) is a town and a former municipality in Arcadia, Peloponnese, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality South Kynou ...
in the Peloponnese. His grandson and
namesake
A namesake is a person, geographic location, or other entity bearing the name of another.
History
The word is first attested around 1635, and probably comes from the phrase "for one's name's sake",
which originates in English Bible translations ...
is Prof. Michael Deffner of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens,.
Criticism
Business analyst,
linguist
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Linguis ...
(PhD Ling. &
App. Ling Melbourne
Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...
, '99), and associate of the
Thesaurus Linguae Graecae
The Thesaurus Linguae Graecae (TLG) is a research center at the University of California, Irvine. The TLG was founded in 1972 by Marianne McDonald (a graduate student at the time and now a professor of theater and classics at the University of Cal ...
,
Nick Nicholas
Nick may refer to:
* Nick (given name)
* A cricket term for a slight deviation of the ball off the edge of the bat
* British slang for being arrested
* British slang for a police station
* British slang for stealing
* Short for nickname
Pla ...
criticized Deffner's Tsakonian research methods in a linguistics blog post entitled "Michael Deffner: Scoundrel", published in 2009.
Dr. Nicholas, also an electrical engineer, focused his doctoral research on electronic methods for analyzing the grammatical and syntactical structure of words and phrases in various languages, including his native Greek and its various dialects. This end, he conducted published and unpublished research in Tsakonian and other outlier Greek dialects, which present interesting problems in such analysis. This gave him a broad familiarity with the whole body of research on Tsakonian, including Deffner's work.
In his critique, Nicholas notes that the criticisms of Deffner do not begin with him, but stretch back as far as Deffner's contemporary
Hubert Pernot
Hubert Octave Pernot (7 August 1870, in Froideconche – 27 June 1946, Paris) was a French linguist, specializing in Modern Greek studies.
He studied at the École des langues orientales in Paris as a pupil of Émile Legrand and Jean Psich ...
, who said that Deffner "has made a sea" of Tsakonian
phonology
Phonology is the branch of linguistics that studies how languages or dialects systematically organize their sounds or, for sign languages, their constituent parts of signs. The term can also refer specifically to the sound or sign system of a ...
. Nicholas notes that this is a term of not inconsiderable
opprobrium Opprobrium may refer to:
* Opprobrium, disgrace arising from exceedingly shameful conduct (see shame)
* Opprobrium (band)
Opprobrium (formerly known as Incubus) is an American death metal band from Metairie, Louisiana, United States. The band w ...
in el, (τα 'κανε θάλασσα, lit. "he made things a sea", i.e. "he messed up").
Nicholas reserves special criticism for a children's tale, ''Πεντάμορφο του κόσμου. Παρανύθι για τα καμπζία Τhα Τσακώνικα γρούσσα (The Five-time Most Beautiful in the World. A fairy tale for children. In the Tsakonian language)'' a
Snow White
"Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" is a 19th-century German fairy tale that is today known widely across the Western world. The Brothers Grimm published it in 1812 in the first edition of their collection ''Grimms' Fairy Tales'' and numbered as Ta ...
-like story composed in a somewhat eccentric variety of Tsakonian which Deffner submitted to several learned societies without explanation. Since Deffner never asserted that the story was an authentic Tsakonian folk-tale collected in the field, Nicholas does not go so far as to call Deffner a fraud, but he does criticize Deffner's lack of specificity on the matter and his submission of the story to academic journals without proper attribution, a scholarly lapse which he asserts is the academic equivalent of the Christian
sin
In a religious context, sin is a transgression against divine law. Each culture has its own interpretation of what it means to commit a sin. While sins are generally considered actions, any thought, word, or act considered immoral, selfish, s ...
of
blasphemy against the Holy Ghost
In Christian hamartiology, eternal sin, the unforgivable sin, unpardonable sin, or ultimate sin is the sin which will not be forgiven by God. One eternal or unforgivable sin (blasphemy against the Holy Spirit), also known as the sin unto death, ...
, an
unpardonable offense.
Deffner has also been criticized for exaggerated claims about the survival of the
Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic peri ...
infinitive
Infinitive (abbreviated ) is a linguistics term for certain verb forms existing in many languages, most often used as non-finite verbs. As with many linguistic concepts, there is not a single definition applicable to all languages. The word is deri ...
in the Pontic Greek dialects into the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In 1977,
Pontic
Pontic, from the Greek ''pontos'' (, ), or "sea", may refer to:
The Black Sea Places
* The Pontic colonies, on its northern shores
* Pontus (region), a region on its southern shores
* The Pontic–Caspian steppe, steppelands stretching from no ...
-descended Greek linguist
D.E. Tombaidis began a study of Christian Pontic Greek refugees living in Greece to see if he could find traces of an infinitive, which he himself had never heard among Pontic Greeks. He could find only one
informant
An informant (also called an informer or, as a slang term, a “snitch”) is a person who provides privileged information about a person or organization to an agency. The term is usually used within the law-enforcement world, where informan ...
who could understand and use the infinitive, otherwise, the speakers used a subordinating particle combined with a third-person finite verb form, just like speakers of Standard Modern Greek. Not all refugee Pontic Greek speakers could assimilate rapidly to Standard Modern Greek, and decades later could still reproduce other distinctive Pontic forms, leading Tombaidis to conclude that the Christian Pontic infinitive was already moribund by the time the Christian Pontians were expelled from
Asia Minor
Anatolia, tr, Anadolu Yarımadası), and the Anatolian plateau, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey. The re ...
during the
Population exchange between Greece and Turkey
The 1923 population exchange between Greece and Turkey ( el, Ἡ Ἀνταλλαγή, I Antallagí, ota, مبادله, Mübâdele, tr, Mübadele) stemmed from the "Convention Concerning the Exchange of Greek and Turkish Populations" signed at ...
; this in turn led Tombaidis to conclude that Deffner was not a reliable source. Tombaidis does not name the sole informant who was able to understand and produce the infinitive, but Nicholas believes that textual clues reveal the informant was
Odysseas Lampsides, a Pontic historian whose own knowledge of the Pontic infinitive could have been contaminated by his knowledge of older forms of Pontic Greek and other older varieties of Greek.
On the other hand, while the infinitive seems essentially extinct among ''Christian'' Pontians, there is evidence that the infinitive survives, in very restricted use, among the
Muslim
Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...
''Romeye'' of Turkey, in their dialect ''Romeyka'';
[Sitaridou, I. (2014). 'The Romeyka Infinitive: Continuity, Contact and Change in the Hellenic varieties of Pontus’. Diachronica 31.1. pp. 23–73]
, retrieved 5 July 2015 these include the Ophitic Pontic group that Deffner described based on information communicated by his protégé, Pacharidis.
Works
* ''Neograeca''. Dissertation Universität Leipzig 1871.
* ''Zakonische Grammatik'', Bd. 1. Berlin 1881.
* ''Η χλωρίς της Τσακωνιάς.'' Τυπογραφική Εταιρία Χρίστου & Σια, Αθήνα 1922 (Βασιλική Γεωργική Εταιρία, Γεωπονική Βιβλιοθήκη, aριθ. 2)
Online – ("Die Fauna Tsakoniens")
* ''Λεξικόν τής Τσακωνικής διάλεκτου''. Athen 1923. – ("Lexikon des Tsakonischen Dialekts")
* ''Lebenslauf'', in: ''Mitteilungen des historischen Vereins für Donauwörth und Umgebung'' 1997, S. 90–91.
* ''Meine wissenschaftliche Laufbahn in Kürze (1881)'', in: ''Mitteilungen des historischen Vereins für Donauwörth und Umgebung'' 1997, S. 92–93.
* ''Meine amtliche wissenschaftliche Tätigkeit während der 56 Jahre meines Lebens in Griechenland (1871–1927)'', in: ''Mitteilungen des historischen Vereins für Donauwörth und Umgebung'' 1997, S. 94–111.
* ''Meine Verbannung nach Skyros und Kreta (1917–1919)'', in: ''Mitteilungen des historischen Vereins für Donauwörth und Umgebung'' 1997, S. 112–113.
Bibliography
* Otto M. Deffner: ''Michael Deffner (1848–1934). Der Hellenist, der Graecophile, der Grieche'', in: ''Mitteilungen des historischen Vereins für Donauwörth und Umgebung'' 1997, S. 5–11.
* Πβ. Θαν. Π. Κωστάκης: ''Προσθήκες και διορθώσεις στη Χλωρίδα της Τσακωνιάς του Μιχαήλ Δέφνερ''. In: Mélanges offerts à Octave et Melpo Merlier, I. Αθήνα 1956, S. 133–156. – („Zusätze und Berichtigungen in der ''Fauna Tsakoniens'' Michael Deffners“)
* Ottmar Seuffert: ''Der Griechenlandforscher Dr. Michael Deffner im Spiegel seiner Briefe (1871–1891)'', in: ''Mitteilungen des historischen Vereins für Donauwörth und Umgebung'' 1997, S. 12–48.
*
Jutta Stroszeck: ''Der Sprachforscher Michael Deffner als Archäologe'', in: ''Mitteilungen des historischen Vereins für Donauwörth und Umgebung'' 1997, S. 49–89.
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Deffner, Michael
19th-century philologists
20th-century philologists
19th-century archaeologists
20th-century archaeologists
People from Donauwörth
Academic staff of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens
1848 births
1934 deaths
Modern Greek language
Leipzig University alumni
German philologists
Greek philologists