Standard Modern Greek and Cypriot Greek vowels: a sociophonetic study

Abstract

This study is a comparative analysis of Standard Modern Greek (SMG) and Cypriot Greek (CG) vowels. Specifically, the study examines the effects of vowel (/e i a o u/), language variety (SMG vs CG), and stress (stressed vs unstressed vowels) on vowel formants F1 and F2, vowel duration, and fundamental frequency (f0). 45 female speakers were recorded: 20 SMG speakers and 25 CG speakers from Athens and Nicosia respectively. The results showed significant effects of vowel, stress, and language variety on formants, duration and f0. The study confirms the findings of earlier studies on SMG vowels, provides the first report on CG vowels’ acoustic structure, and constitutes the first comparative sociophonetic research on SMG and CG vowels.