New entry: arkas

Rebetiko Glossary Discussion about the Rebetiko Glossary
1

arkás: protector, supporter, „backing“

It appears in Dragatsis’s song „Mórtissa and Alánis“ (1931):

whatever crosses your mind
don’t say it — you won’t do it

and the one you love
drive him away so you won’t die

if you are a mórtissa, they call me an alánis

and if you have powerful backing, I fear no one

arkás (masc. noun) arkás [arˈkas] Sinassos. arká [arˈka] Axos, Malakopi. archás [arˈxas] Pharasa. From the Modern Greek noun ἀρκάς = a) protector b) helper, support (Som. Lexicon), which comes from the Turkish noun arka = a) back b) rear, including the dialectal form arha. The word is also found in Bithynia and Pontus (ILNE, entry ἀρκᾶς).

  1. Back Axos. Synonym: back

  2. Support, backing Axos, Malakopi, Sinassos, Pharasa: Arka éhis. Mi fováse! („You’ve got backing. Don’t be afraid!“) Sinassos — Archelaos. An éhis arka, mi fováse („If you’ve got backing, don’t be afraid“) Axos — Mavrocherson. „To koríts’ en ftohó“, légi, „ke théli énan zengín’ na ‘s̑’ arka“ („The girl is poor“, she says, „and she wants a rich man to support her“) Sinassos — Album. Synonym: support

(HISTORICAL DICTIONARY OF THE DIALECTS OF CAPPADOCIA)

1 Like
🎵 Τι τραγούδι ακούμε... τώρα!
2

Sinasos, Cappadocia

Malakopi, Cappadocia

Pharasa, Cappadocia

Axos or Axenou (both existed), Cappadocia

____________________________________

A Cappadocian word has made its way into rebetiko lyrics? In such a casual manner, implying that everyone will understand?

Isn’t that a little unusual?

1 Like
3

It probably isn’t exclusively Cappadocian. Besides, it isn’t prevalent in Piraeus-style rebetiko.

On the other hand, that’s the lexical magic of rebetiko, as we’ve established on other occasions.

1 Like
4

The explanations of the abbreviations are great and extremely useful! Thank you very much!

5

There are one or two more that I haven’t found.

6

Here from Giagoulis (A Small Interpretive and Etymological Thesaurus of the Cypriot Dialect: from the Thirteenth Century to the Present Day, 1997)
arkás, the [Turkish arka] protector, defender. “It is absolutely necessary that we find a protector and a just man.”

From ATHINA 1933
arka vermek), to give one’s back, to support

From the Dictionary of the Tsakonian Dialect (1986)
The Turkish arka. 1. Care, protection, commonly. “I’ll give him arka for the winter”, ironically, “I’ll look after him; I’ll fatten him up for the winter.” 2. Help, masculine. 3. Strength, masculine. “Whoever has no arka has no strength.”

7

Right, so it doesn’t occur only in one outlying corner of the Greek language.

Even so, it is still a long way off. Cappadocian is a highly divergent dialect, Tsakonian an even more divergent one—or, according to some, a separate language altogether—while Cypriot is a liiiittle closer to the centre, but still quite far away.

(Yiangoullis, I think)

(And something unrelated: I didn’t expect that in 1933 they would say, in Katharevousa at that, δίδω ράχιν, “I put my back into it”, for “I support”!)

8

I confess I don’t understand what the issue is supposed to be…

It’s a song by a composer of Asia Minor origin, and we find this word in it, which appears to have been in use in the wider Asia Minor region.

It’s not Piraeus rebetiko for me to wonder where on earth Markos, for example, picked up such a word.

For me, the question is: do we actually hear it? Does it really say “arka”? If so, what on earth does it mean?
Ah, so that’s what it means. And does the poetic text make sense that way? It does…

The fact that something may perhaps “lie far away” does not make it quasi-nonexistent when we clearly encounter it in a poetic text from the urban folk-song tradition, I think.

9

Ah, and one last entry from the Academy’s Historical Dictionary:

ἀρκᾶς m., widely and in Cappadocia (Sinassos) ἀρκᾶ; Tsakonian ἀρκὰ f.; Pontic (Kromni, Chaldia, etc.) ἀρχὰ; Pontic (Chaldia, etc.) ἀρκὰ; Bithynian neut.

From Turkish arka. A. Literally. 1. The back, the rear, of living beings and inanimate objects in various places: The back of the waistcoat, Rhodes. The back of the knife (the part opposite the blade), Bithynia. “Don’t strike with the sharp edge; strike it with the back,” ibid. “A back-load of wood” (as much wood as one can carry on one’s back and, by extension, as much as one can carry in one’s arms), Megiste. ‖ Proverb. “No back and no sleeve, yet you want to make a garment” (of someone attempting to do something while lacking the necessary means), Macedonia (Serres). 2. The part of a ship where the prow is supported, Chios. 3. The arch of a bridge, Epirus. 4. A heap of earth or stones, Central Greece (Aetolia). 5. A stone-built wall of a house, from its foundations to its roof, Macedonia (Siatista). 6. Bulk, Peloponnese (Olympia): “That pasta you’re eating will turn into a lump inside you.” 7. A thick layer of material, Peloponnese (Messenia): Phrase. “He has a back stuck to his face” (his face is unwashed and dirty). 8. An embankment, Epirus (Zagori): “Don’t damage the embankment of your field, because the winter waters will get in.” B. Figuratively. 1. Help, Pontic (Kromni, Chaldia, etc.), Tsakonian: Phrase. “I give arka” (I give help, I help), Chaldia. 2. Helper, protector, defender, in various places and in Cappadocia (Sinassos): “He found an arka,” Kos. “His arka makes him a fine fellow” (he appears to be a fine fellow because he has powerful protection), ibid. “Do you have an arka? Don’t be afraid!” Sinassos. “He has an arka and does these things,” Bithynia. “He is not afraid; he has strong arkas” (synonym: he has powerful backing), ibid. ‖ Phrase. “I’ll catch you by the back for the shoulders” (I don’t need you; I despise you), Ionian (Kriti). “I’ll catch you by the back for the flies” (synonymous with the preceding), Peloponnese (Messenia). ‖ Proverb. “The bear had arkades, and she gathered arkades” (of an unjust or rapacious person who is supported by others), Bithynia. ‖ Song. “Shall I call on God as my arka, and Charon as my avenger, to take you swiftly, so that I may take you,” Cyprus. 3. Master, ruler, Peloponnese (Laconia): “What, shall I make you the arka of my head?” (said to someone who wants to impose himself on us).

The word is also used as a surname. Pár.

(We turned it into a Sarantakos one!) :slightly_smiling_face:

10

Somewhere the word was split :wink: — diki(g)oron (δικη(γ)όρον).

11

Alright, I’ll concede the point with these latest ones from the Historian (Rhodes, Kastellorizo, Serres, Epirus…). I wouldn’t be so quick to go along with Tsakonians and Cappadocians, though.

12

I’m afraid once again it was a forced pass, because the issue isn’t whether the word is unusual, but whether it is sung in the song, whether such a word actually exists, and whether it makes sense in the composition of the poetic text :slightly_smiling_face:

13

A barrage of entries from Anthimos! Easy does it, so we can keep up! Merci, all the same! A wealth of words in the rebetiko firmament!

14

There are homophones too!

Listening isn’t enough. Everyone can hear a violin like Roviolis’s perfectly clearly, but it isn’t there.

1 Like
15

Well, not quite so clear-cut, no… that’s one thing, and the whole violin–santouri business is another. There’s also the deliberate emphasis placed on the words…

16

If it didn’t sound exactly the same, at least within the verse (in speech, stress can indeed distinguish them), there wouldn’t be people who think it says something about Roviolis.

The same goes for other songs. In the famous Athenian Sevntalis, those who write „μεζεφκλής“ (είμαι ντερτλής, είμαι ζεφκλής) are hearing correctly, but understanding incorrectly. (And if we were two days further on and the Triodion had begun, I’d also tell you about a poem that ends „ίσως και της ψυχής μου νίψω λίγα μίση“; but since these are still ordinary days, I’m not allowed to.)

Well then, just as syllables from different words can sound identical to other words, so a word by itself can sound identical to another unrelated word—for example, arkás (Cappadocian, etc.) - *arkás (more common)—while meaning different things and having different etymologies. That is exactly the case with bobína, which we were discussing recently.

You might say: but is there really such a word—the second arkás?

I didn’t even know about the first one, and yet there it is. The second one could exist too, and I might still not know it. We can tell that in the end we don’t need to assume that it exists from the observation that the first arkás is not, after all, exclusively Cappadocian, Tsakonian, etc., as it initially appeared.