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Phonemic Distinction of Attic Greek Vowel Length: A Corpus Study

This study on Attic Greek alpha, iota, and upsilon vowels explores their phonemic distinctions using a corpus approach, citing minimal pairs from languages like German to illustrate the concept. Results show significant differences in vowel length percentages. The conclusion affirms that the distinction is phonemic, suggesting no need for additional letters. Future work includes expanding the corpus and considering historical factors.

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Phonemic Distinction of Attic Greek Vowel Length: A Corpus Study

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  1. A Corpus Study of Attic Greek Alpha, Iota and Upsilon Cory Robinson

  2. Attic Vowels Short Long A E I O Y

  3. Attic Vowels Short Long A E H I O Ω Y

  4. Minimal Pairs Allen (1987) “such contrasts are rare” “no more numerous than true homonyms” “the context will in any case seldom have left room for ambiguity”

  5. Minimal Pairs Example from German /x/ [ç] [x]

  6. Minimal Pairs Example from German /x/ [ç] [x] However… Kuhchen (little cow) [|khu:çən] Kuchen (cake) [|khu:xən]

  7. Phonemic or Allophonic?

  8. Phonemic or Allophonic? Allen (1987) Primarily concerned with phonetics Teodorsson (1974) “Sequences of identical phonemes” Woodard (1997) “Vowel length is phonemic in Greek”

  9. Phonemic or Allophonic? Complementary Distribution

  10. The Corpus

  11. The Corpus Lysias (c. 445 – 380 B.C.) Attic orator Everyday speech Oration 32: Against Diogeiton 700 words 1,600 syllables

  12. The Corpus

  13. The Corpus

  14. The Corpus Vowel Length First marked c. 400 – 200 B.C. Poetry Accent

  15. The Corpus Sorting By syllable All syllables together For any factors correlating to the length of alpha, iota, upsilon

  16. Results

  17. Results Short Long A 85% 15% I 90% 10% Y 85% 15% E/H 68% 32% O/Ω 62% 38%

  18. Conclusion Distinction is phonemic No need for new letters

  19. Future Work Bigger corpus Historical factors

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