Re: GSF revisited

Eugene Oh wrote:
>> >
>> > A tangential question -- what is "TTBOMK"?
>>
>> To The Best Of My Knowledge
>>
>> --
>> Tristan.
>>
>
> Thank you, Tristan.
>
> Reading the email again, though, and seeing the name Φίλιππος, brings
> to mind another question: is it known, or clear, when the merging of
> geminate consonants into their simple counterparts occured in Greek?
It still has not happened in some of the spoken dialects, in particular
in Cypriot Greek (we had a young Cypriot girl staying with us several
years ago) - but I understand some other modern variants still retain
geminate consonants (or did retain them till recently).

I'm not sure when the merging of geminates into single counterparts
occurred. One might expect t to be part of the same process as the loss
of vowel length distinction when pitch accent gave way to stress accent
in the 4th cent CE - but the persistence of gemination in some areas to
the modern day suggests to me that this merging must be much more
recent. Because of the conservative spelling of Greek there probably
isn't any clear indication when this string happening in the standard
language.

Anyone know more?


--
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}

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