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

A Corpus Study of Attic Greek Alpha, Iota and Upsilon

Cory Robinson

Page 2: A Corpus Study of Attic Greek Alpha, Iota and Upsilon Cory Robinson.

Attic Vowels

Short LongAEIOY

Page 3: A Corpus Study of Attic Greek Alpha, Iota and Upsilon Cory Robinson.

Attic Vowels

Short Long

A

E H

I

O Ω

Y

Page 4: A Corpus Study of Attic Greek Alpha, Iota and Upsilon Cory Robinson.

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”

Page 5: A Corpus Study of Attic Greek Alpha, Iota and Upsilon Cory Robinson.

Minimal Pairs

Example from German

/x/

[ç] [x]

Page 6: A Corpus Study of Attic Greek Alpha, Iota and Upsilon Cory Robinson.

Minimal Pairs

Example from German

/x/

[ç] [x]

However…Kuhchen (little cow) [|khu:çən]

Kuchen (cake) [|

khu:xən]

Page 7: A Corpus Study of Attic Greek Alpha, Iota and Upsilon Cory Robinson.

Phonemic or Allophonic?

Page 8: A Corpus Study of Attic Greek Alpha, Iota and Upsilon Cory Robinson.

Phonemic or Allophonic?

Allen (1987)Primarily concerned with phonetics

Teodorsson (1974)“Sequences of identical phonemes”

Woodard (1997)“Vowel length is phonemic in Greek”

Page 9: A Corpus Study of Attic Greek Alpha, Iota and Upsilon Cory Robinson.

Phonemic or Allophonic?

Complementary Distribution

Page 10: A Corpus Study of Attic Greek Alpha, Iota and Upsilon Cory Robinson.

The Corpus

Page 11: A Corpus Study of Attic Greek Alpha, Iota and Upsilon Cory Robinson.

The Corpus

Lysias (c. 445 – 380 B.C.)Attic orator

Everyday speech

Oration 32: Against Diogeiton

700 words

1,600 syllables

Page 12: A Corpus Study of Attic Greek Alpha, Iota and Upsilon Cory Robinson.

The Corpus

Page 13: A Corpus Study of Attic Greek Alpha, Iota and Upsilon Cory Robinson.

The Corpus

1O3 1O2 1O1 1N 1L 1A 1C1 1C2T A \N O S) EI :

M E \ NM H : \L A) H : /\ NT A \T A) W : /\

D R E S

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The Corpus

Vowel LengthFirst marked c. 400 – 200 B.C.

Poetry

Accent

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The Corpus

SortingBy syllable

All syllables together

For any factors correlating to the length of alpha, iota, upsilon

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Results

222

3952 43

5

78

34

6 8

302

144

194

121

A E H O ΩA: A? I I: I? Y Y: Y?

Frequency of Vowels in Corpus

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Results

Short Long

A 85% 15%

I 90% 10%

Y 85% 15%

E/H 68% 32%

O/Ω 62% 38%

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Conclusion

Distinction is phonemic

No need for new letters

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Future Work

Bigger corpus

Historical factors