Modern Greek dialects (was: GSF revisited)

Philip Newton wrote:
> On 5/11/07, R A Brown <ray@...> wrote:
[snip]
>> > Side question: does anyone know if the Cypriot dialect sounds
>> > different, prosodically etc., from the standard Athenian?
>>
>> I suspect it may well do - but I do not have enough information to say
>> so definitely.
>
>
> It certainly has a different phonology -- e.g. it has (what sounds to
> me like) /S/ < /sj/ in words such as "sheftalia" (a local food),
> spelled with sigma-iota. The presence of this sound is, I'm sure, also
> responsible for their slightly different word for "chocalate":
> standard Greek has σοκολάτα while on Cyprus, I've seen it written
> σιοκολάτα instead, with /S/ at the beginning instead of /s/.
I believe there may be other differences.

Cretan Greek has more advanced palatalization than the standard language
& this even affects borrowings such as _kilo_ which is pronounce /tSilo/.

> It also has a different morphology, retaining some older elements
> (e.g. I remember hearing επεβάλλετο for standard επιβαλλόταν, and πονά
> for πονάει [also possible in standard MG, but I think not as common]).
I believe there are some other differences. I don't know whether this
applies to Cyprus, but in some areas, e.g. Crete, the old 3rd person
plural present tense ending -ουσι survived - but I suspect the standard
-ουν must be spreading to these areas.

I discovered this web site yesterday:
http://www.benjamins.com/cgi-bin/t_bookview.cgi?bookid=JGL%204

It has links to downloadable PDF documents. There is one modern Greek
dialects and another specifically on Cypriot geminates.

--
Ray
==================================
ray@carolandray.plus.com
http://www.carolandray.plus.com
==================================
Nid rhy hen neb i ddysgu.
There's none too old to learn.
[WELSH PROVERB}

Reply