Re: ?: Greek vowel systems (was Re: Tolkien & front rounded vowels

From: "Raymond Brown" <ray.brown@...>

| Oh dear, with various interruptions, it taken three days to do this -
| probably been answered already by now  ;)

It's okay, it's a great post because of it!

| (b) long vowels
|     -----------
|   The early history is not quite as simple as the short ones, but there
| appears to have developed in most dialects a seven vowel system thus:
|                Phonemes            Graphemes
|           /i:/          /u:/       {I}             {Y}
|             /e:/       /o:/          {EI}       {OY}
|               /E:/   /O:/               {H}  {?}
|                  /a:/                     {A}

? means Omega I presume? (I use W for "fake Greek" transliteration sometimes,
since uncial omega resembles W.)

| (c) Diphthongs ending in /i/ [j]

| * original /ei/ has become /e:/ by the Classical period.
| Also it likely that /ai/ and /oi/ has already begun to shift towards /e/
| and /y/ at least in word final position as early as the 5th cent. BC, since
| the two diphthongs are nearly always reckoned as short in that position.
| Certainly during the Koine, /ai/ gave way to /e(:)/ and /oi/ became /y(:)/,
| the latter eventually becoming unrounded and joining /i/ by the Byzantine
| period.

I was thinking OI could've been [ø:] (o-slash), or another diphthong [øy], at
some time, then went to [y]. And could AI have been [E:] or [æ:] (ash) as well?

ObConlang: AI > /æ:/, EI > /e:/ or /i:/, OI > /ø:/ and YI > /y:/ for Greek loans
in Exian, but of course that's fictional. I luvs them front rounded vowels....

| (d) Diphthongs ending in /u/ [w]
|     ----------------------------
|    Ancient Greek also had two sets of these:
|    /E:u/ /A:u/ /O:u/             {HY} {AY} {?Y}
|    /eu/  /au/   *                {EY} {AY}
|
| * /ou/ had become /o:/ by the Classical period and, indeed, shifted to /u:/
| in Athens before the 4th cent. BC.  It has remained [u(:)] ever since.

ObConlang again: For Exian, AY > /å:/ (a-ring, but that should be an inverted
script a in IPA), EY > /i-:/ (i-bar) or maybe /@:/. Some may have been heard
using /@`:/ (a long "er" sound like the third frog in the old Budweiser
commercials). Also, OY becomes /o:/ or /u:/.

However, some "Westernized" Elves say /av/ for AY and /Ev/ for EY, with
obligatory devoicing to /Vf/ before voiceless consonants. A very few have
over-extended this practice to OY, producing /Ov/ au russe.

(There are a lot of Greek words in Exian.)

~Danny~

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