Phonology Cypriot Greek

1 phonology

1.1 consonants

1.1.1 palatalisation , glide hardening
1.1.2 geminates
1.1.3 assimilatory processes


1.2 vowels
1.3 stress

phonology

studies of phonology of cypriot greek few , tend examine specific phenomena, e.g. gemination, glide hardening . general overview of phonology of cypriot greek has ever been attempted once, newton 1972, parts of contested.

consonants

cypriot greek has geminate , palato-alveolar consonants, standard modern greek lacks, contrast between [ɾ] , [r], standard modern greek lacks. table below, adapted arvaniti 2010, p. 4, depicts consonantal inventory of cypriot greek.

stops /p t c k/ , affricate /t͡ʃ/ unaspirated , may pronounced weakly voiced in fast speech. /pʰː tʰː cʰː kʰː/ heavily aspirated , never preceded nasals, exception of loans, e.g. /ʃamˈpʰːu/ shampoo . /t͡ʃ/ , /t͡ʃʰː/ laminal post-alveolars. /t͡s/ pronounced /t͡ʃʰː/, in terms of closure duration , aspiration.

voiced fricatives /v ð ɣ/ pronounced approximants , regularly elided when intervocalic. /ʝ/ realised approximant [j] in weak positions.

the palatal lateral approximant /ʎ/ realised singleton or geminate lateral [ʎ(ː)] or singleton or geminate fricative [ʝ(ː)], , glide [j] (cf. yeísmo). circumstances under different variants surface not understood, [ʝ(ː)] appear favoured in stressed syllables , word-finally, , before /a e/. pappas 2009 identifies following phonological , non-phonological influencing factors: stress, preceding vowel, following vowel, position inside word; , sex, education, region, , time spent living in greece (where [ʎ] standard). arvaniti 2010 notes speakers of local varieties, notably of larnaca, substitute geminate fricative /ʎ/, pappas 2009 contests this, saying that, [ʝ(ː)] robustly present in 3 urban areas of lefkosia, lemesos , larnaka rural kokinohoria region, among teenaged speakers ... innovative pronunciation [ʝ(ː)] not feature of local patois, rather supra-local feature.

the palatal nasal /ɲ/ produced longer other singleton nasals, though not long geminates. /z/ rather long .

the alveolar trill /r/ geminate counterpart of tap /ɾ/.

palatalisation , glide hardening

in analyses posit phonemic (but not phonetic) glide /j/, palatals , postalveolars arise cjv (consonant–glide–vowel) clusters, namely:

the glide not assimilated, hardens obstruent [c] after /p t f v θ ð/ , [k] after /ɾ/. @ rate, velar stops , fricatives in complementary distribution palatals , postalveolars before front vowels /e i/; say, broadly, /k kʰː/ palatalised either [c cʰː] or [t͡ʃ t͡ʃʰː]; /x xː/ [ç çː] or [ʃ ʃː]; , /ɣ/ [ʝ].

geminates

there considerable disagreement on how classify cypriot greek geminates, though understood geminates proper (rather clusters of identical phonemes or fortis consonants). geminates 1.5 2 times longer singletons, depending, primarily, on position , stress. geminates occur both word-initially , word-medially. word-initial geminates tend longer. tserdanelis & arvaniti 2001 have found stops, in particular, lengthening affects both closure duration , vot , davy & panayotou 2003 claim stops contrast in aspiration, , not duration. armosti 2010 undertook perceptual study thirty native speakers of cypriot greek, , has found both closure duration , (the duration , properties of) aspiration provide important cues in distinguishing between 2 kinds of stops, aspiration more significant.

assimilatory processes

word-final /n/ assimilates succeeding consonants—other stops , affricates—at word boundaries producing post-lexical geminates. consequently, geminate voiced fricatives, though not phonemic, occur allophones. below examples of geminates arise sandhi.

/ton ˈluka/ → [to‿ˈlˑuka] τον Λούκα lucas (acc.)
/en ˈða/ → [e‿ˈðːa] εν δα [he] here
/pu tin ˈɾiza/ → [pu ti‿ˈriza] που την ρίζα root

in contrast, singleton stops , affricates not undergo gemination, become voiced when preceded nasal, nasal becoming homorganic. process not restricted terminal nasals; singleton stops , affricates become voiced following nasal.

/kaˈpnizumen ˈpuɾa/ → [kaˈpnizumem‿ˈbuɾa] καπνίζουμεν πούρα [we] smoke cigars
/an ˈt͡ʃe/ → [an‿ˈd͡ʒe] αν τζ̌αι though
/tin ciɾi.aˈci/ → [tiɲ‿ɟirĭ.aˈci] την Κυριακή on sunday

word-final /n/ altogether elided before geminate stops , consonant clusters:

/eˈpiasamen ˈfcoɾa/ → [eˈpcasame‿ˈfcoɾa] επιάσαμεν φκιόρα [we] bought flowers
/ˈpa‿stin cʰːeˈlːe/ → [ˈpa‿sti‿cʰːeˈlːe] πα στην κκελλέ on head

like /n/, word-final /s/ assimilates following [s] , [ʃ] producing geminates:

/as ʃoˈnisi/ → [a‿ʃːoˈnisi] ας σ̌ονίσει let snow

lastly, word-final /s/ becomes voiced when followed voiced consonant belonging same phrase:

/tis ˈmaltas/ → [tiz‿ˈmaltas] της Μάλτας of malta
/aˈɣonas ˈðromu/ → [aˈɣonaz‿ˈðromu] αγώνας δρόμου race

vowels

the vowels of cypriot greek. adapted arvaniti 1999, p. 4.

cypriot greek has five-vowel system /i, u, e, o, a/ identical of standard modern greek (see acoustic comparison of 2 vowel systems themistocleous 2017 , themistocleous 2017).

back vowels /i u/ following /t/ @ end of utterance regularly reduced (50% of cases presented in study) fricated vowels (40% of cases, cf. slavic yers), , elided altogether (5% of cases).

in glide-less analyses, /i/ may alternate [k] or [c], e.g. [kluvi] cage → [klufca] cages , or [kulːuɾi] koulouri → [kulːuɾ̥ka] koulouria ; and, in standard modern greek, pronounced [ɲ] when found between /m/ , vowel belongs same syllable, e.g. [mɲa] 1 (f.).

stress

cypriot greek has dynamic stress. both consonants , vowels longer in stressed in unstressed syllables, , effect stronger word-initially. there 1 stress per word, , can fall on of last 4 syllables. stress on fourth syllable end of word rare , limited verb forms. because of possibility, however, when words antepenultimate stress followed enclitic in cypriot greek, no stress added (unlike standard modern greek, stress can fall on 1 of last 3 syllables), e.g. cypriot greek το ποδήλατον μου [to poˈðilato‿mːu], standard modern greek το ποδήλατό μου [to poˌðilaˈto‿mu] bicycle .