In April 2017, me and my colleague Andreas Pingouras presented our research on the [ʝː]~[ʎː] allophony in Cypriot Greek at the 1st Cyprus Undergraduate Linguistics Conference. We finally got around releasing our slides. We also discussed our research and the phenomenon in general recently, on Dr Spyros Armostis’ radio show Usus norma loquendi. I am making downloads of both available below:

Downloads

• Presentation Slides 26/04/2017 - in English [PDF] (531.1 kB)
• Usus norma loquendi on 03/11/2017 - in Greek [OGG/Vorbis] (45.4 MB)

Abstract

Demetris Karayiannis, Andreas Pingouras, Department of English Studies, University of Cyprus

Using a modified version of Labov’s (1966) planned interview methodology from his New York study, we tried to find the age distribution of the voiced palatal fricative [ʝː] and palatal lateral approximant [ʎː] allophones in the Cypriot Greek variety of Nicosia residents, and the prevalence of the [ʝː] allophone among Paphos residents when compared to Nicosia residents. The experiment was made up of four parts: a) a list of pictures incorporated in simple sentences b) a list of words c) a poem d) a short narrative. The four parts were randomised, the contents of each individual part, however, were fixed. The entire experiment, including the instructions and any conversation between interviewer and interviewee, was conducted entirely in Cypriot Greek to avoid priming the interviewee into responding in a more formal style. The subjects were divided into four age groups, namely: 18–34, 35–50, 51‍+. Our hypothesis was that there would be no meaningful difference in the distribution of the two allophones between age groups in Nicosia, that the palatal fricative has fallen out of use across all age groups, at least to some extent, and, consequently, that the palatal lateral approximant allophone would have become more prevalent throughout the population when compared to older studies of Cypriot Greek. In Paphos, we postulated that the [ʎː] variant would be much more prevalent, and that the [ʝː] variant would be very rare, as attested by Pappas (2014).

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Tags: Presentation, Podcast