Variation in voiced stop prenasalization in Greek

Part of : Γλωσσολογία ; Vol.11-12, 2000, pages 131-166

Issue:
Pages:
131-166
Section Title:
Άρθρα = Articles
Author:
Abstract:
Ancient Greek clusters ot nasal (N) plus voiceless unaspirated (T) or voiced stop (D)merged to ND in Middle Greek, yielding mainly ND or D in the modern dialects Impressionisticstudies suggest that currently there is stylistic variation between D and NDin the dialects that have developed these reflexes, with ND as the formal variant Ourstudy reveals that age, not style, is the most important factor in ND/D variation, withspeakers under 40 using dramatically fewer ND tokens than older speakers, at the sametime NT, a variant which reflects spelling conventions and is possible only across wordboundaries, emerges as a careful style marker This abrupt change of pattern, which coincideswith important sociopolitical changes in Greece and the official demise ofKatharevousa, the H(igh) variety of Greek diglossia, suggests that a real sound changein progress away from the previous pattern of stable variation may be taking place inGreece.
Subject:
Subject (LC):
Notes:
Περιέχει σημειώσεις, διαγράμματα, πίνακες, παραρτήματα και βιβλιογραφία