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This article deals with thephonology andphonetics ofStandard Modern Greek. For phonological characteristics of other varieties, seevarieties of Modern Greek, and for Cypriot, specifically, seeCypriot Greek § Phonology.

Greeklinguists do not agree on which consonants to count asphonemes in their own right, and which to count as conditionalallophones. The table below is adapted fromArvaniti (2007, p. 7), who considers thepalatals and bothaffricates,[t͡s] and[d͡z], to be allophonic.

The alveolar nasal/n/ isassimilated to followingobstruents; 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').^[2]

Voiceless stops areunaspirated and with a very shortvoice onset time.^[1] They may be lightly voiced in rapid speech, especially whenintervocalic.^[3]/t/'s exactplace of articulation ranges fromalveolar todenti-alveolar, todental.^[4] It may be fricated[θ̠~θ] in rapid speech, and very rarely, infunction words, it is deleted.^[5]/p/ and/k/ are reduced to lesser degrees in rapid speech.^[5]

Voiced stops areprenasalised (which is reflected in the orthography) to varying extents, and sometimes not at all.^[6] 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[ᵐbⁿdᵑɡ] or[m͡b,n͡d,ŋ͡ɡ], depending on the length of the nasal component.^[6] Word-initially and after/r/ or/l/, they are very rarely, if ever, prenasalised.^[1][4] In rapid and casual speech, prenasalisation is generally rarer, and voiced stops may be lenited to fricatives.^[4] 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, andnt, which are all written ντ in Greek.

/s/ and/z/ are somewhatretracted ([s̠,z̠]); they are produced in betweenEnglish alveolars/s,z/ andpostalveolars/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˖]).^[7]

The only Greek rhotic/r/ is prototypically an alveolar tap[ɾ], often retracted ([ɾ̠]). It may be analveolar approximant[ɹ] intervocalically, and is usually atrill[r] in clusters, with two or three short cycles.^[8]

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/.^[9][ʎ] and[ɲ] occur as allophones of/l/ and/n/, respectively, inCJV (consonant–glide–vowel) clusters, in analyses that posit anarchiphoneme-likeglide/J/ that contrasts with the vowel/i/.^[10] 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] asalveolo-palatal.^[11]

Finally, Greek has two phonetically affricateclusters,[t͡s] and[d͡z].^[12]Arvaniti (2007) is reluctant to treat these as phonemes on the grounds of inconclusive research into their phonological behaviour.^[13]

The table below, adapted fromArvaniti (2007, p. 25), displays a near-full array of consonant phones in Standard Modern Greek.

Someassimilatory 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 particlesδεν andμην and theaccusative forms of the personal pronoun and definite articleτον andτην. 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 asτον πατέρα[to(m)baˈtera] ('the father'ACC) orδεν πειράζει[ðe(m)biˈrazi] ('it doesn't matter'), instead of*[tonpaˈtera] and*[ðenpiˈrazi]. The precise extent of assimilation may vary according to dialect, speed and formality of speech.^[14] This may be compared with pervasivesandhi phenomena in Celtic languages, particularly nasalisation inIrish and in certain dialects ofScottish Gaelic.

Greek has a system of five vowels/i,u,e,o,a/. The first two are close to thecardinal vowels[i,u]; the mid vowels/e,o/ aretrue-mid[e̞,o̞]; and the open/a/ is near-open central[ɐ].^[15]

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.^[16]

Some falling diphthongs exist as well, e.g.ακούει[aˈkui̯] 's/he listens',γάιδαρος[ˈɣai̯ðaɾos] 'donkey',φράουλα[ˈfɾau̯la] 'strawberry'.^[18]

UnlikeAncient Greek, which had apitch accent system, Modern Greek has variable (phonologically unpredictable)stress. Every multisyllabic word carries stress on one of its three final syllables.Enclitics form a singlephonological 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 to last syllable (e.g.αυτοκίνητό μου[aftoˌciniˈtomu] 'my car'). Phonetically, stressed syllables are longer, or carry higher amplitude, or both.^[19]

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 fromAncient Greek according to which a word could not be accented on the third-last syllable if the vowel in thelast syllable was long, e.g.άνθρωπος ('human',nominativesingular, last vowel short), butανθρώπων ('of humans',genitiveplural, last vowel 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 vowel length distinction itself no longer exists.^[20]

This sample text, the first sentence ofAesop's fable "The North Wind and the Sun" in Greek, and the accompanying transcription, are adapted fromArvaniti (1999, pp. 5–6).

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.

[ovoˈɾʝasˈco̯iʎozˈmalonan|ʝatoˈpçosaptuzˈðʝoˈineo̯ðinaˈtoteɾos|ˈotaˈnetiçenapeˈɾasiapobroˈstatus|ˈenastaksiˈðʝotispu̥foˈɾuseˈkapa]

• About the Greek Language – Harry Foundalis
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