1989/07/01 by Peter Trudgill · 2 citations
Social Sciences · Psychology · Arts and Humanities · #Linguistic Variation and Morphology #Phonetics and Phonology Research #Spanish Linguistics and Language Studies #Pronunciation #Consonant #Linguistics #Interpretation (philosophy) #Contrast (vision) #Variation (astronomy) #Phenomenon #History #Feature (linguistics) #Geography #Philosophy #Vowel #Physics #Computer science #Artificial intelligence
paper · doi:10.1017/s0025100300002942
openalex publication_date 1989/07/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/05/21
In most varieties of modern Greek, the consonant /l/ is typically a “clear” [l] in most environments, as in /ala/ [ala] αλλ⋯ ‘but’; but with positional variation involving also palatalised and/or palatal variants, as in /skili/ [skiļi] σχυλ⋯ ‘dog’. In a number of areas of northern Greece, velarised [⃒]-type pronunciations may also be found, as they may also be in those areas of Attica and Biotia where Albanian/Greek bilingualism is or has been common (see Trudgill & Tzavaras 1975 – most varieties of Albanian have a phonemic contrast between /l/ and /l/). In his book The Generative Interpretation of Dialect (1972), however, Brian Newton also points out that ‘in the Sphakiá area of Crete /l/ has a retroflex pronunciation before back vowels’. This feature is also cited by Kondosopoulos (1959, 1969, 1974) and Pangalos (1955), who also mention some other areas of Crete where a similar phenomenon occurs. (Following Kondosopoulos and Pangalos, Newton also indicates that /l/ → Ø or /l/ → /w/ in certain Cretan villages.)