Constantinoupolitan dialect

Constantinoupoli Greek dialect
Κωνσταντινουπολίτικη διάλεκτος κωνσταντινουπολίτικα πολίτικα
Native to	Romaia
Region	Apollonia, Aidonia, Klaudia
Native speakers	c. 4,000,000 (2019)
Language family	Indo-European Greek Koine Greek Romaian Greek Central Romaian Greek Constantinoupoli Greek dialect
Writing system	Greek alphabet
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–

The Constantinoupoli Greek dialect (Κωνσταντινουπολίτικη διάλεκτος or Πολίτικη διάλεκτος) is a Romaian Greek dialect is one of the central Romaian dialects spoken in the Metropoly of Constantinoupoli, especially in Constantinoupoli.

Classification

Constantinoupoli dialect is derived from Medieval Greek. It has traditionally been placed in the central Romaian group of dialects, along with the dialects of the Aidonia and Claudia (with which it shares several phonological phenomena).

Though Constantinoupoli dialect tends to be regarded as a dialect by its speakers, it is unintelligible to speakers of Standard Modern Greek without adequate prior exposure. Greek-speaking Constantinoupolitans are diglossic in the vernacular Romaian Greek and Standard Modern Greek.

Phonology

Consonants

Constantinoupolitan Greek has geminate and palato-alveolar consonants, which Standard Modern Greek lacks. The table below depicts the consonantal inventory of the dialect.

Consonant phonemes

		Labial		Dental		Alveolar		Post- alveolar		Palatal		Velar
		short	long	short	long	short	long	short	long	short	long	short	long
Nasal		m	mː	n	nː
Stop		p	pʰː	t	tʰː		t͡s	t͡ʃ	t͡ʃʰː	c	cʰː	k	kʰː
Fricative	voiceless	f	fː	θ	θː	s	sː	ʃ	ʃː			x	xː
	voiced	v		ð		z		ʒ		ʝ		ɣ
Lateral						l	lː
Rhotic						ɾ	r

Stops /p t c k/ and affricate /t͡ʃ/ are unaspirated and may be pronounced weakly voiced in fast speech. /pʰː tʰː cʰː kʰː/ are always heavily aspirated and they are never preceded by nasals, with the exception of some loans, e.g. /ʃamˈpʰːu/ "shampoo". /t͡ʃ/ and /t͡ʃʰː/ are laminal post-alveolars. /t͡s/ is pronounced similarly to /t͡ʃʰː/, in terms of closure duration and aspiration.

Voiced fricatives /v ð ɣ/ are often pronounced as approximants and they are regularly elided when intervocalic. /ʝ/ is similarly often realised as an approximant [j] in weak positions.

The palatal lateral approximant [ʎ] is most often realised as a singleton or geminate lateral [ʎ(ː)] or a singleton or geminate fricative [ʝ(ː)], and sometimes as a glide [j] (yeísmo). The circumstances under which all the different variants surface are not very well understood, but [ʝ(ː)] appear to be favoured in stressed syllables and word-finally, and before /a e/.

The palatal nasal [ɲ] is produced somewhat longer than other singleton nasals, though not as long as geminates. /z/ is similarly "rather long".

The alveolar trill /r/ is the geminate counterpart of the tap /ɾ/.

Palatalisation and glide hardening

In analyses that posit a phonemic (but not phonetic) glide /j/, palatals and postalveolars arise from CJV (consonant–glide–vowel) clusters, namely:

• /mjV/ → [mɲV]
• /njV/ → [ɲːV]
• /ljV/ → [ʎːV] or [ʝːV]
• /kjV/ → [t͡ʃV] or [cV]
• /xjV/ → [ʃV] or [çV]
• /ɣjV/ → [ʝV]
• /zjV/ → [ʒːV]
• /t͡sjV/ → [t͡ʃʰːV]

The glide is not assimilated, but hardens to an obstruent [c] after /p t f v θ ð/ and to [k] after /ɾ/. At any rate, velar stops and fricatives are in complementary distribution with palatals and postalveolars before front vowels /e i/; that is to say, broadly, /k kʰː/ are palatalised to either [c cʰː] or [t͡ʃ t͡ʃʰː]; /x xː/ to [[[:Template:IPAplink]] çː] or [ʃ ʃː]; and /ɣ/ to [ʝ].

Geminates

Romaian Greek is notable among the Greek varities for its extensive geminated consonants. In Romaian and in Constantinoupolitan dialects, word-internal geminates are usually written with two consonants, and geminates are distinctive. Tonic syllables are bimoraic and are therefore composed of either a long vowel in an open syllable or a short vowel in a closed syllable. Double or long consonants occur not only within words but also at word boundaries, and they are then pronounced but not necessarily written.