Modern Greek phonology

This article deals with the phonology and phonetics of Standard Modern Greek. For phonological characteristics of other varieties, see varieties of Modern Greek, and for Cypriot, specifically, see Cypriot Greek § Phonology.

In IPA, phonemes are written between slashes, / /, and corresponding allophones between brackets, [ ].

Consonants

Greek linguists do not agree on which consonants to count as phonemes in their own right, and which to count as conditional allophones. The table below is adapted from Arvaniti (2007, p. 7), who does away with the entire palatal series, and both affricates [t͡s] and [d͡z].

Consonant phonemes
Labial Dental Alveolar Velar
Nasal /m/ μ /n/ ν
Plosive voiceless /p/ π /t/ τ /k/ κ
voiced /b/ μπ /d/ ντ /ɡ/ γκ
Fricative voiceless /f/ φ /θ/ θ /s/ σ /x/ χ
voiced /v/ β /ð/ δ /z/ ζ /ɣ/ γ
Tap /ɾ/ ρ
Lateral /l/ λ
Examples for consonant phonemes[1]
πήρα /ˈpira/ 'I took'
μπύρα /ˈbira/ 'beer'
φάση /ˈfasi/ 'phase'
βάση /ˈvasi/ 'base'
μόνος /ˈmonos/ 'alone'
νόμος /ˈnomos/ 'law'
τείνω /ˈtino/ 'I tend'
ντύνω /ˈdino/ 'I dress'
θέμα /ˈθema/ 'topic'
δέμα /ˈðema/ 'parcel'
σώα /ˈsoa/ 'safe' (fem.)
ζώα /ˈzoa/ 'animals'
ρήμα /ˈrima/ 'verb'
λίμα /ˈlima/ 'nail file'
κόμμα /ˈkoma/ 'comma'
χώμα /ˈxoma/ 'soil'
γόμα /ˈɣoma/ 'eraser'
γκάμα /ˈɡama/ 'range'

The alveolar nasal /n/ is assimilated to following obstruents; it can be labiodental (e.g. αμφιβολία [aɱfivoˈlia] 'doubt'), dental (e.g. άνθος [ˈan̪θos] 'flower'), retracted alveolar (e.g. πένσα [ˈpen̠sa] 'pliers'), alveolo-palatal (e.g. συγχύζω [siɲˈçizo] 'to annoy'), or velar (e.g. άγχος [ˈaŋхos] 'stress').[2]

Voiceless stops are unaspirated and with a very short voice onset time.[1] They may be lightly voiced in rapid speech, especially when intervocalic.[3] /t/'s exact place of articulation ranges from alveolar to denti-alveolar, to dental.[4] It may be fricated [θ̠ ~ θ] in rapid speech, and very rarely, in function words, it is deleted.[5] /p/ and /k/ are reduced to lesser degrees in rapid speech.[5]

Voiced stops are prenasalised, which is reflected in the orthography to varying extents, and sometimes not at all.[6] The nasal component—when present—does not increase the duration of the stop's closure; as such, prenasalised voiced stops would be most accurately transcribed [ᵐb ⁿd ᵑɡ] or [m͡b, n͡d, ŋ͡ɡ], depending on the length of the nasal component.[6] Word-initially and after /r/ or /l/, they are very rarely, if ever, prenasalised.[1][4] In rapid and casual speech, prenasalisation is generally rarer, and voiced stops may be lenited to fricatives.[4] This also accounts for Greeks having trouble disambiguating voiced stops, nasalised voiced stops, and nasalised voiceless stops in borrowings and names from foreign languages; for example, d, nd, and nt, which are all written ντ in Greek.

/s/ and /z/ are somewhat retracted ([s̠, z̠]); they are produced in between English alveolars /s, z/ and postalveolars /ʃ, ʒ/.[7] /s/ is variably fronted or further retracted depending on environment, and, in some cases, it may be better described as an advanced postalveolar ([ʃ˖]).[7] Otherwise, they are allophones, wherein [z̠] is an allophone of [s̠] before voiced consonants (including word-final positions, where [s̠] are one of the only 2 consonants in the word-final positions of native Greek terms) and [s̠] is a variant of [z̠] before voiceless consonants.

The only Greek rhotic /r/ is prototypically an alveolar tap [ɾ], often retracted ([ɾ̠]). It may be an alveolar approximant [ɹ] intervocalically, and is usually a trill [r] in clusters, with two or three short cycles.[8] It is also usually a trill [r] in syllable-final position. In word-final position, it is usually a free variation between a flap or a trill when followed by a consonant or a pause, but flap is more common, only flap before vowel-initial words; word-final /r/ only happens in loanwords. Otherwise, [r] and [ɾ] or [ɹ] contrast between vowels wherein a trill occurs as a result of gemination (doubling) of [ɾ].

Greek has palatals [c, ɟ, ç, ʝ] that contrast with velars [k, ɡ, x, ɣ] before /a, o, u/, but in complementary distribution with velars before front vowels /e, i/.[9] [k] is an allophone of [x] before trill [r] and [l] in one whole syllable. [ʎ] and [ɲ] occur as allophones of /l/ and /n/, respectively, in CJV (consonant–glide–vowel) clusters, in analyses that posit an archiphoneme-like glide /J/ that contrasts with the vowel /i/.[10] All palatals may be analysed in the same way. The palatal stops and fricatives are somewhat retracted, and [ʎ] and [ɲ] are somewhat fronted. [ʎ] is best described as a postalveolar, and [ɲ] as alveolo-palatal.[11]

Finally, Greek has two phonetically affricate clusters, [t͡s] and [d͡z].[12] Arvaniti (2007) is reluctant to treat these as phonemes on the grounds of inconclusive research into their phonological behaviour.[13]

Note that syllables end in all consonants in all native words, but in word-final positions, consonants are limited to [n] or [s̠].

The table below, adapted from Arvaniti (2007, p. 25), displays a near-full array of consonant phones in Standard Modern Greek.

Consonant phones
Bilabial Labio-
dental		 Dental Alveolar Retracted
alveolar		 Post-
alveolar		 Alveolo-
palatal		 Retracted
palatal		 Velar
Nasal m ɱ n̪ n n̠ ɲ̟ ŋ
Stop pb td c̠ɟ˗ kɡ
Affricate t͡sd͡z
Fricative fv θð s̠z̠ ç˗ʝ˗ xɣ
Approximant ɹ̠
Flap or tap ɾ̠
Trill r̠
Lateral l ʎ

Sandhi

Some assimilatory processes mentioned above also occur across word boundaries. In particular, this goes for a number of grammatical words ending in /n/, most notably the negation particles δεν and μην and the accusative forms of the personal pronoun and definite article τον and την. If these words are followed by a voiceless stop, /n/ either assimilates for place of articulation to the stop, or is altogether deleted, and the stop becomes voiced. This results in pronunciations such as τον πατέρα [to(m)baˈtera] ('the father' ACC) or δεν πειράζει [ðe(m)biˈrazi] ('it doesn't matter'), instead of *[ton paˈtera] and *[ðen piˈrazi]. The precise extent of assimilation may vary according to dialect, speed and formality of speech.[14] This may be compared with pervasive sandhi phenomena in Celtic languages, particularly nasalisation in Irish and in certain dialects of Scottish Gaelic.

Vowels
The vowels of Standard Modern Greek on a vowel chart. Adapted from Arvaniti (2007, p. 28).

Greek has a system of five vowels /i, u, e, o, a/. The first two have qualities approaching their respective cardinal vowels [i, u], the mid vowels /e, o/ are true-mid [e̞, o̞] and the open /a/ is near-open central [ɐ][15]

There is no phonemic length distinction, but vowels in stressed syllables are pronounced somewhat longer [iˑ, uˑ, eˑ, oˑ, aˑ] than in unstressed syllables. Furthermore, vowels in stressed syllables are more peripheral, but the difference is not large. In casual speech, unstressed /i/ and /u/ in the vicinity of voiceless consonants may become devoiced or even elided.[16]

Examples for vowel phonemes[17]
πας /pas/ 'you go' subj.
πες /pes/ 'say' imper.
πεις /pis/ 'you say' subj.
πως /pos/ 'that' conj.
που /pu/ 'where'

Stress

Unlike Ancient Greek, which had a pitch accent system, Modern Greek has variable (phonologically unpredictable) stress. Every multisyllabic word carries stress on one of its three final syllables. Enclitics form a single phonological word together with the host word to which they attach, and count towards the three-syllable rule too. In these cases, primary stress shifts to the second-to-last syllable (e.g. αυτοκίνητό μου [aftoˌciniˈto mu] 'my car'). Phonetically, stressed syllables are longer and/or carry higher amplitude.[18]

The position of the stress can vary between different inflectional forms of the same word within its inflectional paradigm. In some paradigms, the stress is always on the third last syllable, shifting its position in those forms that have longer affixes (e.g. κάλεσα 'I called' vs. καλέσαμε 'we called'; πρόβλημα 'problem' vs. προβλήματα 'problems'). In some word classes, stress position also preserves an older pattern inherited from Ancient Greek, according to which a word could not be accented on the third-from-last syllable if the last syllable was long, e.g. άνθρωπος ('man', nom. sg., last syllable short), but ανθρώπων ('of men', gen. pl., last syllable long). However, in Modern Greek this rule is no longer automatic and does not apply to all words (e.g. καλόγερος 'monk', καλόγερων 'of monks'), as the phonological length distinction itself no longer exists.[19]

Sample

This sample text, the first sentence of the fable of The North Wind and the Sun in Greek, and the accompanying transcription are adapted from Arvaniti (1999, pp. 5–6).

Orthographic version

Ο βοριάς κι ο ήλιος μάλωναν για το ποιος απ’ τους δυο είναι ο δυνατότερος, όταν έτυχε να περάσει από μπροστά τους ένας ταξιδιώτης που φορούσε κάπα.

Transcription

[o voˈɾʝas ˈco̯iʎoz ˈmalonan | ʝa to ˈpços aptuz ˈðʝo ˈineo̯ ðinaˈtoteɾos | ˈota ˈnetiçe napeˈɾasi apo broˈstatus | ˈenas taksiˈðʝotis pu̥ foˈɾuse ˈkapa]

Notes
  1. Arvaniti 1999, p. 2.
  2. Arvaniti 2007, pp. 14–15.
  3. Arvaniti 2007, p. 7.
  4. Arvaniti 2007, p. 10.
  5. Arvaniti 2007, p. 11.
  6. Arvaniti 2007, p. 9.
  7. Arvaniti 2007, p. 12.
  8. Arvaniti 2007, p. 15.
  9. Arvaniti 2007, p. 19.
  10. Baltazani & Topinzi 2013, p. 23.
  11. Arvaniti 2007, p. 19–20.
  12. Arvaniti 2007, pp. 20, 23.
  13. Arvaniti 2007, p. 24.
  14. Joseph & Philippaki-Warburton 1987, p. 246.
  15. Arvaniti 2007, pp. 25, 28.
  16. Arvaniti 1999, pp. 3, 5.
  17. Arvaniti 1999, p. 3.
  18. Arvaniti 1999, p. 5.
  19. Holton, Mackridge & Philippaki-Warburton 1998, pp. 25–27, 53–54.

References
  • Arvaniti, Amalia (1999). "Illustrations of the IPA: Modern Greek" (PDF). Journal of the International Phonetic Association. 29 (2): 167–172. doi:10.1017/s0025100300006538. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-03-03.
  • Arvaniti, Amalia (2007). "Greek Phonetics: The State of the Art" (PDF). Journal of Greek Linguistics. 8: 97–208. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.692.1365. doi:10.1075/jgl.8.08arv. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-12-11.
  • Baltazani, Mary; Topinzi, Nina (2013). "Where the glide meets the palatals" (PDF). Selected Papers of the 20th International Symposium of Theoretical and Applied Linguistics. Versita. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-03-03.
  • Holton, David; Mackridge, Peter; Philippaki-Warburton, Irini (1998). Grammatiki tis ellinikis glossas. Athens: Pataki.
  • Joseph, Brian; Philippaki-Warburton, Irene (1987). Modern Greek. Beckenham: Croom Helm.

Further reading
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