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Poster De Conférence Année : 2019

Phonocentrism in Greece: Side Effects of Two Centuries of Diglossia

Résumé

According to Anis [1], phonocentrism is the linguistic ideology claiming that written language is subordinated to speech, and autonomism is the ideology where written and spoken language are considered as equally important interacting systems. In the following we will prefix by a "γ-" (resp. "φ-") linguistic sub-disciplines applied to written (resp. spoken) language, e.g., γ-emics (resp. φ-ology), γ-morphology (resp. φ-morphology), etc., and more generally γ-linguistics (resp. φ-linguistics) [2]. Definitions, phonocentrism, γ-/φ-linguistics In ancient Greek, short φ-vowels had one mora, and long φ-vowels two morae. In modern Greek, all φ-vowels have equal length. But γ-vowels still carry length information (<η>, <ω> are long, <ε>, <ο> are short). γ-syllables have γ-syllable length depending on γ-vowel, position, POS, morphology. In many dialects of ancient Greek, initial φ-vowels could be φ-aspirated. Currently φ-aspiration has vanished, but γ-aspiration remains, through the rough breathing γ-eme. Greek γ-syllable length, γ-aspiration In the 19th century, Greece has witnessed an increasing gap between the "purified" idiom (καθαρεύουσα) used by the State and taught in schools, and the "demotic" (δημοτικὴ) which was the natural evolution of byzantine Greek. [4] In the early 20th century, linguists amalgamated written language w/ purified language and speech w/ demotic language. They adopted Saussure's phonocentric ideology as an additional argument in favor of demotic. In 1941, Triantafyllidis standardized the grammar of demotic [6], and in 1982 γ-accentuation and γ-aspiration were abandoned by law. The Greek Language Issue γ-double articulation refers to the twofold structure of writing that consists of elementary meaningful units (γ-morphemes), in turn built of distinctive γ-elements (γ-emes). Thanks to iotacism, γ-syllable length, and γ-accentuation, γ-morphology of Greek is more elaborate than φ-morphology. E.g., <σώζεται> ̸ = <σώζετε>, <Θεῷ> ̸ = <Θεό>, <ὅρος> ̸ = <ὄρος>. Greek γ-morphology γ-aspiration enhanced access to semantics by etymological disambiguation: <ἑνικός> vs. <ἔντονος>, <ἕκτος> vs. <ἔκτακτος>, <ὁμόνοια> vs. <ὀμίχλη>. γ-accentuation used two dipoles: 1. acute/grave vs. circumflex, which indicated γ-syllable length: <πήδα> vs. <μῆλα>, <τὰ ὁποῖα> vs. <ἡ ὁποία>, and fulfilled a redundant morphological function: <ἑρωτῶ> vs. <Ἐρατώ>, <τοῦ ποιητῆ> vs. <τὸν ποιητή>, where redundancy enhanced the reading process. 2. acute vs. grave, which had a redundant syntactic function: <ἡ ἠθικὴ> vs. <ἡ ἠθική του>, and a redundant discur-sive function: <γιατί τὸ εἶπε;> (ques-tion) <γιατὶ τὸ πίστευε> (fact). Current practice is to use a single φ-stress accent: <ενικός>, <έντονος>, <έκτος>, <έκτακτος>, <ομόνοια>, <ο-μίχλη>, <πήδα>, <μήλα>, <τα οποία>, <η οποία>, <ερωτώ>, <Ερατώ>, <του ποιητή>, <τον ποιητή>, <η ηθική>, <η ηθική του>, <γιατί το είπε>, <γιατί το πίστευε>. γ-aspiration/γ-accentuation In the 19th and early 20th century, transcription of foreign words took the following into account: 1. γ-syllable length: <Καίμπριτζ> (Cambridge), <Βερλαίν> (Verlaine), <Γκαῖτε> (Goethe), <Τσῶσερ> (Chau-cer), <Μῆλε> (Miele); 2. foreign γ-morphology: <βόλλεϋ> (volley), <τραῖνο> (train), <μοτοσυ-κλέττα> (motocyclette); 3. γ-aspiration: <Ἅμλετ> (Hamlet), <Ἑρρίκος> (Henri), <Ἁμβοῦργο> (Hamburg). Cavafy's proposal of writing <'Υόρκη> (York) with a smooth breathing [3] was thoroughly γ-autonomistic. Current practice denies γ-properties and relies solely on foreign φ-et-ics: <Κέμπριτζ> (Cambridge), <Βερ-λέν> (Verlaine), <Γκέτε> (Goethe), <Τσόσερ> (Chaucer), <Μίλε> (Miele); <βόλεϊ> (volley), <τρένο> (train), <μοτοσικλέτα> (motocyclette); <Άμ-λετ> (Hamlet), <Ερρίκος> (Henri), <Αμβούργο> (Hamburg). Transcription Before Triantaf. [6], hyphenation was 1. γ-morphological: <συν-άδελφος>, <παρ-έμβαση>, <ἐξ-έχω>, <ἄν-ισος>; 2. based on foreign morphology for transcribed words: <Φόλκσ-βαγκεν> (Volkswagen), <Χίλντεσ-χαϊμ> (Hildesheim), <Ἄουγκσ-μπουργκ> (Augsburg); 3. sensitive to prenasalisation: <ἀν-τί> but <ἀ-ντίο>, <ἐμ-πρός> but <μπα-μπάς>, <κον-τός> and <κον-τέσσα> but <ντα-ντά>. Obeying [6] rules, current hyphenation is mechanistic: 1. <συ-νάδελφος>, <πα-ρέμβαση>, <ἐ-ξέχω>, <ἄ-νισος>; 2. <Φόλ-κσβαγκεν> (Volkswagen), <Χίλ-ντε-σχαϊμ> (Hildesheim), <Ἄουγκ-σμπουργκ> (Augsburg); 3. <ἀ-ντί> = <ἀ-ντίο>, <ἐ-μπρός> = <μπα-μπάς>, <κο-ντός> = <κο-ντέσ-σα> = <ντα-ντά>. According to [5], mechanistic hyphen-ation is partly responsible for decreasing prenasalisation: γ-* influences φ-*. Hyphenation In their efforts to solve the Greek Language Issue, Greek linguists adhered to a phonocentric ideology whose side effects are the current practices of φ-stress-based accentuation, φ-etically-based transcription of foreign words, and mechanistic hyphenation.

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Linguistique
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hal-02480230 , version 1 (15-02-2020)

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Yannis Haralambous. Phonocentrism in Greece: Side Effects of Two Centuries of Diglossia. 12th International AWLL Workshop, Mar 2019, Cambridge, United Kingdom. , 2019. ⟨hal-02480230⟩
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