Modern Greek Dialects Research Articles

Jewish Speech in Early 19th-Century Greek Comedy

Abstract The article introduces the historical context of multilingual comedy by Greek writers of the early 19th century in Asia Minor, then an Ottoman realm. The author analyzes two passages from Erotomaniac Chatziaslanis and Monsieur Kozis containing Modern Greek dialects, Karamanlidika, Judeo-Spanish, Judeo-Turkish, and Judeo-Greek. The analysis shows that Jewish characters prefer to communicate in Judeo-Turkish. Both plays actively utilize (Jewish and non-Jewish) linguistic varieties for stereotyping and comedic purposes.

A dialectometric approach to inner Asia Minor Greek: Comparisons and associations between linguistic levels

Abstract Even though dialectometric approaches have significantly contributed to the development of dialectology in the last few decades, no relevant analyses have ever been performed on Modern Greek dialects. This article attempts to fill this gap by using dialectometric techniques to measure the degrees of association between aggregate morphological, phonological, and syntactic differences in nineteen varieties of inner Asia Minor Greek (i.e. of Cappadocian, Pharasiot, and Silliot). Our methods include correlations (between pairs of linguistic levels and between linguistic levels and geography) as well as multidimensional scaling and cluster analysis (of the whole dataset as well as of the linguistic levels), which allow us, on the one hand, to draw conclusions about the associations of linguistic levels and the distributions of dialects and, on the other hand, to directly compare our results to those coming from previous dialectometric studies and Greek dialectology. Results show that, although the complete dataset, phonology, and morphology yield—in some instances—similar patterns (i.e. high correlations between them as well as with geography, high agreement of dialect classifications), the level of syntax deviates the most, which is interpreted as a tendency to form larger dialect areas. Our findings are consistent with patterns found in earlier large-scale studies in dialectometry, but they only partially confirm the classifications of Greek dialectology.

Once Again about Archaisms in Modern Greek Dialects

Modern Greek identity is heavily based on the idea of the continuity of Greek culture and the Greek language. Most specialists in Modern Greek regard Ancient Greek and Modern Greek as different stages of the same language despite multiple differences and innovations at all levels. During the 19th century, a number of European classical philologists tried to find Ancient Greek features in Modern Greek dialects. As a result, they have singled out Tsakonian as the sole dialect which descends directly from Ancient Doric Laconian but not from Hellenistic Koiné as the rest of the modern dialects. Nevertheless, it is important to point out that Tsakonian is not the only Modern Greek variety with some unique peculiarities inherited from Ancient Greek. This contribution analyzes the phenomena of the Ancient Greek origin in vocabulary, phonetics, morphology and syntax in Modern Greek dialects. The research is focused on those archaisms which exist in the dialects but are absent from Standard Modern Greek. The data was mostly collected by the author of this paper and his colleagues between 2000 and 2023. The analysis demonstrates that the majority of unique peculiarities of the Ancient Greek origin are found in Pontic and Tsakonian, although most varieties of Modern Greek have some archaisms. However, the quantity of archaisms is not a consistent indicator of the antiquity of the dialect since the history of Modern Greek dialects is still terra incognita and there is no good explanation why some dialects keep their archaisms better than the others.

Contact Phenomena in Azov Greek

Azov Greek is a Modern Greek dialect currently spoken in several villages in the area of Mariupol (Eastern Ukraine). Recent studies in Modern Greek dialectology clearly demonstrate that all Modern Greek dialects (even so specific as Tsakonian) in some period (or periods) of their history were deeply influenced by other dialects or languages and the traces of this influence can be found on various linguistic levels. Azov Greek is no exception here. This contribution intends not only to specify languages involved in language contact with Azov Greek and to analyze the most remarkable features but also to reconstruct a timeline of these contacts. The analysis is based on the field research data collected in Greek speaking villages around Mariupol between 2001 and 2019 and considers folklore and literary texts in Azov Greek.

Contrasting Romance and Turkish as Source Languages: Evidence from Borrowing Verbs in Modern Greek Dialects

Abstract In this paper, I deal with verb borrowing in a language-contact situation involving Greek as target and Romance and Turkish as source languages. More particularly, I discuss the reasons and techniques that make verbs of typologically and genetically different languages to be accommodated in a uniform way within the same linguistic system, and verbs of the same donor to be integrated in a different manner within the same recipient. I try to provide an explanation for the observed divergences and similarities by appealing to an interplay of linguistic and extra-linguistic factors. For the purposes of this study, evidence is drawn from both written and oral sources from five Greek dialectal varieties: Grekanico, Heptanesian, Pontic, Aivaliot and Cypriot.

The Development, Preservation and Loss of Differential Case Marking in Inner Asia Minor Greek

In Cappadocian and Pharasiot, the two main members of the inner Asia Minor Greek dialect group, the head nouns of NPs found in certain syntactic positions are marked with the accusative if the relevant NPs are definite and with the nominative if the NPs are indefinite. This differential case marking (dcm) pattern contrasts with all other Modern Greek dialects, in which the accusative is uniformly used in the relevant syntactic positions. After revisiting recent proposals regarding the synchronic status of dcm in Cappadocian and Pharasiot, I show how the two dialects developed this ‘un-Greek’ feature in the model of Turkish, which marks the head nouns of direct object NPs with an accusative suffix only if they take a specific reading leaving non-specific direct object NPs unmarked. I subsequently trace the diachronic trajectory of this contact-induced innovation within the two dialectal systems, seeking to explain why dcm was gradually lost in Cappadocian but preserved in Pharasiot.

Object Omission in Contact: Object Clitics and Definite Articles in the West Thracian Greek (Evros) Dialect

We examine spontaneous production data from the dialect of Modern West Thracian Greek (mwtg) (the local dialect of Evros) with regard to a hypothesis of syntactic borrowing of verbal transitivity. We argue that mwtg allows omission of the direct object with specific reference, in contrast to Standard Modern Greek (smg) and other Modern Greek (mg) dialects (spoken in Greece), but similar to Turkish. Object omission in mwtg is possible only in contexts where smg and other mg dialects show obligatory use of the 3rd-person clitic. We argue that syntactic borrowing in the case of language contact follows the transfer with second language learners: the relevant elements that host uninterpretable features are used optionally. Moreover, the definite article, in contrast to the indefinite article, is also affected by language contact. The 3rd-person clitic and the definite article are affected by contact as uninterpretable clusters of features. We claim that interpretability plays a significant role in transitivity in cases of language contact.

Raba narečja v novogrški prozi: primer Joannisa Kondilakisa

Članek obravnava jezik Joannisa Kondilakisa, enega izmed novogrških avtorjev, ki so v svoj književni opus vključevali značilnosti domačega (tj. kretskega) narečja, in kontekst nastanka njegovega literarnega opusa. Da bi omenjeno tematiko osvetlili z različnih vidikov, so v prvem delu prikazane temeljne idejne in jezikovne usmeritve časa, v katerem je omenjeni avtor deloval, pa tudi podatki o njegovem življenju in delu. Sledi strnjen pregled novogrških narečij, članek pa se zaključi s prikazom najpomembnejših rezultatov analize rabe kretskega narečja v delih Joannisa Kondilakisa.

Aspiration in southern Italian and Modern Greek dialects. Hints of a preservation strategy

Aspiration in southern Italian and Modern Greek dialects. Hints of a preservation strategy

Effects of Two Linguistically Proximal Varieties on the Spectral and Coarticulatory Properties of Fricatives: Evidence from Athenian Greek and Cypriot Greek.

Several studies have explored the acoustic structure of fricatives, yet there has been very little acoustic research on the effects of dialects on the production of fricatives. This article investigates the effects of two linguistically proximal Modern Greek dialects, Athenian Greek and Cypriot Greek on the temporal, spectral, and coarticulatory properties of fricatives and aims to determine the acoustic properties that convey information about these two dialects. Productions of voiced and voiceless labiodental, dental, alveolar, palatal, and velar fricatives were extracted from a speaking task from typically speaking female adult speakers (25 Cypriot Greek and 20 Athenian Greek speakers). Measures were made of spectral properties, using a spectral moments analysis. The formants of the following vowel were measured and second degree polynomials of the formant contours were calculated. The findings showed that Athenian Greek and Cypriot Greek fricatives differ in all spectral properties across all places of articulation. Also, the co-articulatory effects of fricatives on following vowel were different depending on the dialect. Duration, spectral moments, and the starting frequencies of F1, F2, F3, and F4 contributed the most to the classification of dialect. These findings provide a solid evidence base for the manifestation of dialectal information in the acoustic structure of fricatives.

Dialect classification using vowel acoustic parameters

This study provides a classification model of two Modern Greek dialects, namely Athenian Greek and Cypriot Greek, using information from formant dynamics of F1, F2, F3, F4 and vowel duration. To this purpose, a large corpus of vowels from 45 speakers of Athenian Greek and Cypriot Greek was collected. The first four formant frequencies were measured at multiple time points and modelled using second degree polynomials. The measurements were employed in classification experiments, using three classifiers: Linear Discriminant Analysis, Flexible Discriminant Analysis, and C5.0. The latter outperformed the other classification models, resulting in a higher classification accuracy of the dialect. C5.0 classification shows that duration and the zeroth coefficient of F2, F3 and F4 contribute more to the classification of the dialect than the other measurements; it also shows that formant dynamics are important for the classification of dialect.

Griechische Reise und byzantinische Hymnographie: Unbekannte Briefe Karl Krumbachers im Nachlass Wilhelm Meyers

AbstractFrom October 1884 to May 1885 Karl Krumbacher (1856-1909) undertook a journey to Greece and Turkey with the aim of studying the Modern Greek dialects. He describes his trip in the book Griechische Reise (Berlin 1886), which has been the only source about Krumbacher’s travel so far. The present article offers the edition and commentary of six hitherto unknown letters addressed by Karl Krumbacher to his friend and colleagueWilhelm Meyer between October 1884 and January 1885. These letters, preserved in the University Library of Göttingen, shed light on the importance of the Greek journey for Krumbacher’s research not only in the field of Greek linguistics, but also of Byzantine hymnography.

Morphosyntactic variation in Modern Greek dialects

This introduction lays out the issues in the study of morphosyntactic variation in Modern Greek dialects and summarizes the contents of the papers included herein.

O arabskiej genezie wyrazu nowogreckiego κατσαμπας

The appellative κατσαμπάς is attested in the Modern Greek dialects in two different meanings (1. ‘well’; 2. ‘a kind of well-sweep’). The Greek linguists believe that it was borrowed directly from Turkish kasaba ‘country town’, dial. ‘irrigating channel’. It is suggested that the Modern Greek appellative is of Arabic origin, cf. Arab. qaṣaba ‘fortress, citadel; suburb’, also qaṣabä(t) ‘pipe, windpipe’. The Arabic word was first adopted by the Cretan Greeks during the Arabic occupation of the island of Crete (ca. 824-961 AD) and later the Cretan borrowing was gradually distributed in the Byzantine Greek world.

Vocoid-driven processes: Palatalization and glide hardening in Greek and its dialects

The point of departure of this article is the processes that front vocoids induce as triggers in language. We start with a description of palatalization, using Standard Modern Greek and other Greek dialects as an empirical basis. We then introduce a new, so far undescribed type of palatalization, dubbed strengthened palatalization. Despite its similarity to secondary palatalization, we argue that it is a different process because it is triggered by an unrealized high front /i/, unlike secondary palatalization, where the high vocoid is alongside the preceding consonant as a secondary gesture. Furthermore, the output of strengthened palatalization is different because it lacks the primary cue of secondary palatalization, that is, F2 raising in VC sequences. Next, we examine glide hardening, a process complementary to palatalization because it is also triggered by a high front vocoid. However, in glide hardening the glide is maintained as a separate segment and is strengthened into a palatal fricative (or even a stop). By focusing on the triggers – rather than the outputs, we attain a unified account of both palatalization and glide hardening as enhancement processes that aim at strengthening the phonetic cues of their targets for reasons of perceptual salience.

The Greek suffix -ozos

This paper offers a morphological analysis of the borrowed derivational suffix -όζος [ózos], used in both a number of Modern Greek (MGr) dialects and in Standard Modern Greek (SMGr). It draws on an extensive corpus to examine the suffix from both a synchronic and a diachronic perspective. Our diachronic analysis emphasizes the geographical distribution, the etymological provenance of the suffix, and the loan accommodation strategies employed in various MGr dialects, thus providing some interesting etymological findings regarding the lexical stock of Modern Greek (Standard and dialects). Our synchronic analysis focuses on the stem categories with which the suffix combines and accounts for the phonological, morphological, and syntactic constraints that function during the derivational process.

The Asia Minor Greek Adpositional Cycle

This paper examines the interplay of language-internal continuity and external influence in the cyclical development of the Asia Minor Greek adpositional system. The Modern Greek dialects of Asia Minor inherited an adpositional system of the Late Medieval Greek type whereby secondary adpositions regularly combined with primary adpositions to encode spatial region. Secondary adpositions could originally precede simple adpositions ([preposition + preposition + NP ACC ]) or follow the adpositional complement ([preposition + NP ACC + postposition]). Asia Minor Greek replicated the structure of Ottoman Turkish postpositional phrases to resolve this variability, fixing the position of secondary adpositions after the complement and thus developing circumpositions of the type [preposition + NP ACC + postposition]. Later, some varieties dropped the primary preposition se from circumpositional phrases, leaving (secondary) postpositions as the only overt relator ([NP ACC + postposition]) in some environments. In addition, a number of Turkish postpositions were borrowed wholesale, thus enriching the Greek adpositional inventory.

Ichthyonymia Graeco-Latina. Die Bedeutung der Lexik neugriechischer und romanischer Dialekte für die richtige Identifizierung lateinischer Fischnamen

Ichthyonymia Graeco-Latina. The Importance of the Modern Greek and Romance Lexical Data for Correct Identification of the Latin Fish-NamesIn his edition of Halieutica A. W. Mikołajczak leaves eight Latin names of the Mediterranean fishes, mentioned by Ovid, with no identification and explanation. The present author discusses them, taking into account the lexical data attested in the Modern Greek dialects, as well as the Italian ones. Four fish-names (cantharus, erythinus, iulis, smaris) may be securely identified on the basis of the modern (Greek and/or Romance) terminology for fishes of the Mediterranean Sea. No reflexes of four different fishes (cercyros, glaucus, lamiros, tragus) appear in the contemporary vocabulary of peoples of the Mediterranean area. This is why these Ovid’s fishes are hardly identifiable. M. Kokoszko’s book appears to be a valuable dictionary of the Greek fish-names, introducing an excellent presentation and convincing identification of most Mediterranean Sea fishes. His presentation agrees completely with the conclusions given in this paper.

Η ταυτότητα της Οφιτικής Ποντιακής: Μια γλωσσολογική μελέτη των πηγών και των ομιλητών της

Ofitika Pontic is a Greek dialect of the Pontic dialect group which is currently spoken in a few isolated pockets in Northern Greece by Pontian Greeks who originate from the of area, and also in about thirty villages in the provinces of of and Caykara in Turkey. The present study constitutes a structured documentation of Ofitika Pontic based on the outcomes of: (a) archival research a t the Taylor Bodleian Slavonic & Modern Greek Library of Oxford, the Research Centre for Modern Greek Dialects of the Academy of Athens and other specialized libraries in Greece and abroad, and (b) a fieldtrip to the village of Nea Trapezounta (prefecture of Pieria), which is predominantly inhabited by of is Pontians and their descendants. This study presents the basic typological characteristics of Ofitika Pontic at all grammatical levels (phonology, morphology and syntax) as these are revealed from the comparative study of the few existing (published and unpublished) grammatical descriptions of the dialect in question as well as the elaborate study of written Ofitika Pontic documents such as work logs, sayings, folk stories and narratives, cooking recipes, etc. The results of the archival and documentary research are further complemented with the findings of the research on the spoken material collected during the fieldwork in the village of Nea Trapezounta.

Prefixation in Modern Greek dialects: synchronic and diachronic perspective

Prefixation in Modern Greek dialects: synchronic and diachronic perspective