1888, The Glossary of the Island of Chios, To Chiakon Glossarion, First Edition, A.G. Paspatis

The Byzantine scholar and archeologist Alexandros Paspatis from Chios publishes here an extensive glossary of the dialect of his particular homeland. His sources are not the spoken language, which he considers corrupted, but the “ancient village records, the so-called codes”, which he found in monasteries, churches, peasants’ houses and the Town High School. These notarial codes (documents of sale, dowry agreements-dowry traditions, wills, some of which he publishes), the “precious treasure of the language spoken in Chios”, together with Adamantios Korais’ ‘Atakta‘ (vol. 3, in Paris 1830) and the Chiakas, i.e. the history of the island of Chios by Alexandros M. Vlastos (two volumes, in Ermoupolis 1840) constitute the raw material for the linguistic reconstruction of Paspatis. In addition to the meaning (or multiple meanings) of each entry, the Chiotian author offers clues to its pronunciation, etymology, and uses in speech. His model was the Dictionary of our Greek dialect (Athens 1874) by Skarlatos Byzantios (1798-1878). In his preface the author gives a brief description of the physical geography of the island, mentions the towers and citrus gardens which adorn the island, and praises the philanthropy of the agricultural inhabitants. He also publishes a total of 75 (61 ancient Greek, eight Genoese and six modern Greek) inscriptions, which he transcribed and interpreted himself.