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.

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 considers the palatals and both affricates, [t͡s] and [d͡z], to be allophonic.

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, ς	/x/ χ
	voiced	/v/ β	/ð/ δ	/z/ ζ	/ɣ/ γ
Tap				/ɾ/ ρ
Lateral				/l/ λ

Examples for consonant phonemes

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').

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

Voiced stops are prenasalised (which is reflected in the orthography) to varying extents, and sometimes not at all. 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. Word-initially and after /r/ or /l/, they are very rarely, if ever, prenasalised. In rapid and casual speech, prenasalisation is generally rarer, and voiced stops may be lenited to fricatives. That also accounts for Greeks having trouble disambiguating voiced stops, nasalised voiced stops, and nasalised voiceless stops in borrowings and names from foreign languages such as, 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/. /s/ is variably fronted or further retracted depending on environment, and, in some cases, it may be better described as an advanced postalveolar ([ʃ˖]).

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.

Greek has palatals [c, ɟ, ç, ʝ] which are allophones of the velar consonants /k, ɡ, x, ɣ/ before the front vowels /e, i/. The velars also merge with a following nonsyllabic /i/ to the corresponding palatal before the vowels /a, o, u/, e.g. χιόνι [ˈçoni] (= /ˈxi̯oni/) 'snow', thus producing a surface contrast between palatal and velar consonants before /a, o, u/. [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/. 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.

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

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	p	b					t	d							c̠	ɟ˗	k	ɡ
Affricate							t͡s	d͡z
Fricative			f	v	θ	ð			s̠	z̠					ç˗	ʝ˗	x	ɣ
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 - in both circumstances - 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. 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 are close to the cardinal vowels [i, u]; the mid vowels /e, o/ are true-mid [e̞, o̞]; and the open /a/ is near-open central [ɐ].

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.

Examples for vowel phonemes

πας	/pas/	'you go' subj.
πες	/pes/	'say' imper.
πεις	/pis/	'you say' subj.
πως	/pos/	'that' conj.
πού	/pu/	'where'

The phonetic values of ⟨αυ⟩, ⟨ευ⟩ and ⟨ηυ⟩ are /av/, /ev/ and /iv/ when they appear before a voiced consonant or a vowel and /af/, /ef/ and /if/ otherwise (before voiceless consonants and at the end of a word).

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. When an enclitic attaches to a word with stress on the third-to-last syllable, that stress becomes secondary, and the primary stress shifts to the second-last syllable (e.g. αυτοκίνητό μου [aftoˌciniˈto mu] 'my car'). Phonetically, stressed syllables are longer, or carry higher amplitude, or both.

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-last syllable if the last syllable was long, e.g. άνθρωπος ('man', nominative singular, last syllable short), but ανθρώπων ('of men', genitive plural, 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.

Sample

This sample text, the first sentence of Aesop's fable "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.

Further information: Greek orthography

Transcription

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

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. S2CID 145606058. 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 (2004). Greek: an essential grammar of the modern language. Peter Mackridge, Irene Philippaki-Warburton. London: Routledge. ISBN 0-203-64521-9. OCLC 63791905.
• 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.
• Zachariou, Philemon (2020-06-08). Reading and Pronouncing Biblical Greek: Historical Pronunciation versus Erasmian. Wipf and Stock Publishers. ISBN 978-1-7252-5448-0.

Further reading

• Adaktylos, Anna-Maria (2007). "The accent of Ancient and Modern Greek from a typological perspective" (PDF). In Tsoulas, George (ed.). Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Greek Linguistics. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-05-15.
• Arvaniti, Amalia; Ladd, D. Robbert (2009). "Greek wh-questions and the phonology of intonation" (PDF). Phonology. 26: 43–74. doi:10.1017/s0952675709001717. hdl:20.500.11820/1a20a4b7-4e70-40c7-8e03-5a2b19e30f30. S2CID 30810921. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-03-03.
• Baltazari, Mary (2007). "Prosodic Rhythm and the status of vowel reduction in Greek" (PDF). Selected Papers on Theoretical and Applied Linguistics from the 17th International Symposium on Theoretical & Applied Linguistics. Vol. 1. Thessaloniki: Department of Theoretical and Applied Linguistics. pp. 31–43.
• Joseph, Brian D.; Tserdanelis, Georgios (2003). "Modern Greek" (PDF). In Roelcke, Thorsten (ed.). Variationstypologie. Ein sprachtypologisches Handbuch der europäischen Sprachen in Geschichte und Gegenwart / Variation Typology. A Typological Handbook of European Languages. Walter de Gruyter. pp. 823–836. ISBN 9783110202021. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2007-03-02.
• Kong, Eunjong; Beckman, Mary; Edwards, Jan (6–10 August 2007). "Fine-grained phonetics and acquisition of Greek voiced stops" (PDF). Proceedings of the XVIth International Congress of Phonetic Sciences.
• Mennen, Ineke; Olakidou, Areti (2006). Acquisition of Greek phonology: an overview. QMU Speech Science Research Centre Working Papers (WP-11).
• Nicolaidis, Katerina; Edwards, Jan; Beckman, Mary; Tserdanelis, Georgios (18–21 September 2003). "Acquisition of lingual obstruents in Greek" (PDF). Proceedings of the 6th International Conference of Greek Linguistics. Archived from the original (PDF) on 9 May 2009.
• Trudgill, Peter (2009). "Greek Dialect Vowel Systems, Vowel Dispersion Theory, and Sociolinguistic Typology". Journal of Greek Linguistics. 9 (1): 80–97. doi:10.1163/156658409X12500896406041.

External links

• About the Greek Language – Harry Foundalis
• Segmentals and suprasegmentals in Modern Greek with pronunciation