The American English Pronunciation of Greek Immigrants: a Study in Language Contact with Pedagogical Implications

Home , Demotic Greek, Greek to me, Immigrant Mother, Modern Greek phonology, Nete (mythology)

This dissertation has been microfilmed exactly as received ® 7-2402

ALATIS, James Efstathios, 1926- THE AMERICAN ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION OF GREEK IMMIGRANTS: A STUDY IN LANGUAGE CONTACT WITH PEDAGOGICAL IMPLICATIONS.

The Ohio State University, Ph.D., 1966 Language and Literature, linguistics

University Microfilms, Inc., Ann Arbor, Michigan ^ Copyright by

JAMES EFSTATHIOS ALATIS

1967 THE AMERICAN ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION OF GREEK IMMIGRANTS:

A STUDY IN LANGUAGE CONTACT WITH PEDAGOGICAL

IMPLICATIONS

DISSERTATION

Presented In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy In the Graduate School of The Ohio State University

By James E; A latis, A.B., M.A

The Ohio State University 1966

Approved by:

Ar-*-**0-** /ft* A dviser d v i s e r gy Department of English "We are ell Greeka. Our laws, our literature, our religion,

our arte have their roots In Greece."

•-Percy Bysshe Shelley

11 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like to express ray deep gratitude to Professor Francis

Lee Utley for his Invaluable advice and guidance. Without his contin uous encouragement and understanding, this study would never have been possible. Since he introduced toe to the field of English Linguistics,

I have benefited again and again from his wide-ranging knowledge, his teaching, and his friendship.

Professor Robert M. Estrlch wrote me an important letter at a crucial moment In my career, which inspired me to make the decision that resulted In the actual writing of this dissertation. I shall never forget him for this.

1 am grateful also to Dr. Kenneth W. Mlldenberger, Director of

Programs, Modern Language Association of America (formerly of the U. S.

Office of Education) for sponsoring course work at Georgetown University related to this dissertation, and for arranging a leave of absence In the summer of 1965 which enabled me to do the necessary research and field work preliminary to this study. His constant encouragement and friendship are very much appreciated.

1 owe a heavy debt of gratitude to Dr. Robert Lado, Father

Gerard Canpbell, Father Bryan McGrath, and Father Francis Dlneen, all of Georgetown University, for their confidence in me while this study was being couple ted.

i l l Professor Eric Hamp, his wife Margot, and Mrs. George Faust, were kind enough to show me the h o s p ita lity of th e ir home in the summer o f 1965, while Professor Hamp and I discussed important aspects of this disserta tion. I owe them more than hospitality.

Professor Robert DiPietro introduced me to contrastive linguistics and helped me plan this dissertation at the outset. 1 am Indebted to him for his friendship and his scholarly advice.

1 am deeply indebted to all these, to my informants, and many others (see Appendix A) for all their help. I only hope that each person who assisted in any way w ill find his interest and efforts justified in the pages that follow.

Lastly, 1 would like to acknowledge a debt I can never repay to informant Nunber 11 who unfortunately did not live to see this disserta tion completed.

iv VITA

July 13( 1926 Boxn - Weirton, West Virginia

1 9 4 8 . A.B., West Virginia University, Morgantown, W. Va.

1953 . . • . . . M.A., The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio

1953-1955 . • . Graduate Assistant, Department of English, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio

1955-1957 . . . Fulbright Lecturer In English as a Foreign Language, University of Athens, Greece

1957-1959 . . . Assistant in English, Department of English, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio

1959-1961 . • . English Testing and Teaching Specialist, International Educational Exchange Service, U. S. Department of State, Washington, D. C.

1961-1965 • . . Specialist for Language Research, Language Development Branch, U. S. Office of Education, Washington, D. C.

1965-1966 . . . Chief, Language Section, Research Branch, U. S. Office of Education, Washington, D. C.

1966 ...... Associate Dean and Associate Professor of Linguistics, Institute of Languages and Linguistics, Georgetown University, Washington, D. C.

PUBLICATIONS

"The Americanization of Greek Names," Names. Septenber 1955

"The Department of State's Overseas Testing Program," HE News Bulletin. April, 1960

"Testing the English Proficiency of Foreign Students," Testing; Report of a Conference. The Center for Applied Linguistics, May 1961

v VITA--(Continued)

"Our Own Language B arrier," American Education. December 1964 - January 1965, Vol. I, No. 1

"Opportunities for Service In State Educational Systems," On Teaching English to Sneakers of Other Languages. Series II, NAFSA, NCTE, MLA, SAA, and CAL, 1966

FIELDS OF STUDY

Major Field: English

Linguistics and English. Professor Francis Lee Utley

Old and Middle English. Professor Morton W. Bloomfield

Phonetics and Phonemlcs. Professor Floyd Lounsbury, Summer Linguistic Institute, University of Michigan

Morphology and Syntax. Professor Bernard Bloch, Sumner Linguistic Institute, University of Michigan

Contrastive Linguistics. Professor Robert J. D1 Pietro, Georgetown University

vi TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS...... i l l

LIST OF TABLES...... v i i l

LIST OF FIGURES...... ix

INTRODUCTION...... I

Chapter I . THE SOCIO-CULTURAL SETTINGS OF THE MODERN GREEK-EN GLISH CONTACT...... 22

I I . PHONEMIC ANALYSIS OF GREEK...... 41

I I I . ANALYSIS OF ENGLISH SOUNDS...... 93

IV. CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS: THE TWO SYSTEMS IN CONFLICT .... 130

V. VERIFICATION OF FINDINGS...... 164

CONCLUSION AND APPLICATIONS...... 178

APPENDIX A ...... 188

APPENDIX B ...... 210

APPENDIX C ...... 222

BIBLIOGRAPHY...... 226

v i i LIST OF TABLES

Table Page

1. Immigration from Greece by Decadee...... *23

2* Decennial Imnigration to the U. S. from Greece, 1821-1940 According to Varloue Sources ...... 28

3. Greek Stock In the U. S., 1850-1960 ...... 30

4. Per Cent Urban of the Greece-Born and the Native White of Greek or Mixed Parentage in the U .S ...... 32

5. Distribution of Greek-Americans, 1960 ...... 33

6. Greek Consonant Phonemes ...... 62

7. Athenian Standard Greek In itial (and Medial) Two-Consonant C lu s te rs ...... 66

8. Modern Mainland Gredt In itial (and Medial) Two-Consonant C lu s te rs ...... 67

9 . Greek Vowel Phonemes and th e ir Allophonee ...... 72

10. English Consonant Phonemes...... 95

11. Consonants of Athenian Greek and American English in C o n tra st...... 132

12* Consonants of Modern Mainland Greek and American English in C o n tra st ...... 133

viii LIST OF FIGURES

Figure Page

1. Greek Immigration to the United States, 1880-1962 ...... 24

2. Immigrant Mother Tongues ...... 27

3. Dialect Map of Modem Greek According to Trlandaphyllldis . .47

4. Regional Map of Greece ...... 49

5. Map of Greece Showing Birthplaces of Informants ...... 52

6. Athenian Greek and American English Consonants Contrasted . 134

7. Mainland Greek and American English Consonants Contrasted . 135

8. Greek and English Vocalic Systems ...... 143

9. Greek and English Vowels Contrasted: Approximate Correspondence and Likely Substitutions ...... 147

10. Greek and English Vocalic Systems: Articulatory Positions Relative to Each Other...... 148

Ix For faithful Panelope

X INTRODUCTION

Purpose

The purpose of this dissertation is to compare the sound patterns

of Modern Greek and of American English in order to determine the simi

larities and differences of their phonological systems, identify and

isolate the areas of difficulty in English pronunciation for Greeks, and provide a sound basis for the preparation of English pronunciation lessons

for Greeks. A study of the relationship of orthography to speech in both

Greek and English, followed by a comparison of the two, will also help to

determine the nature of interferences that can be expected from orthography.

Having isolated various areas of difficulty through a contrastive

analysis of the phonological and orthographic systems of the two languages,

the author will attempt to verify his findings by constructing and admin

istering a set of test sentences to a group of Greek informants whose

English speech will be recorded and analyzed. An attempt will also be made

to compare the findings of the contrastive analysis with the representation

■of the Greek "accent" in the Manual of Foreign Dialects for Radio. Staee

and Screen by Lewis and M arguerite Herman.

Finally, the results of this experimental examination of a specific

instance of language contact will be used to test certain basic concepts

of existing language contact theory.

1 2

Background

The Inspiration for this dissertation came from the reading of

Einar Haugen's Bilingualism in the Americas: A Bibliography and Research

Guide and Uriel Weinreich's Languages in Contact: Findings and Problems.

Both authors make a plea for more research in the field of bilingualism

and language contact and suggest this as a fruitful area of investigation

for writers of doctoral dissertations. The presentation and title of the

present study are modeled for the most part after Marshall D. Berger's

The American English Pronunciation of Russian Immigrants and Foongfuang

Kruatrachue's Tnai and English: A Comparative Study of Phonology for

Pedagogical Applications.

Language contact theory

The main theoretical formulations in the field of language contact

are those of Haugen* and Weinreich^ who agree th at phonic in terferen ce—

deviations from normal usuage in the bilingual's secondary or target lang

uage—can be predicted as to magnitude and type on the basis of a dialinguistic

*The Norwegian Language in America. Philadelphia, 1953; "Problems of B ilingual D escription," Georgetown U niversity Series on Language and L in g u istic s. Monograph No. 7, 1954, 9-19; Rev. of Languages in Contact. Language. XXX (1954), 380-388; Bilingualism in the Americas: A Biblio graphy and Research Guide. Publication of the American Dialect Society, No. 26, 1956; "Report" Proceedings of the Eighth International Congress of Linguists. Oslo, 1958, 771-785.

^Languages in Contact. Publications of the Linguistic Circle of New York No. 1. 1953; Rev, of The Norwegian Language in America. Word, XI, (1955), 165-168; "On the Description of Phonic Interference," Word. XIII (1957), 1-11. 3 description of his primary and secondary languages, and that this inter ference results from the identification of elements in the two languages.3 One of the major aspects of their hypotheses is summarized in the following statem ent by Haugen:

. . .a synchronic approach is possible in the study of bilingual phenomena;. . .the identifications made between different phonemic systems by bilingual speakers can be predicted by a careful bilingual description;. . .these can be tested by experimen ta tio n and observation and can then be sta te d as diaphonic formulas in which the phonemes of the respective languages constitute the terms.^

Thus, in the analysis of language contact situations, two procedures are necessary:

1) The formulation of a "dialinguistic" description, disclosing sim ilarities and differences between the primary and secondary languages; and

^In Languages in Contact, pp. 18-19, Weinreich lists under-differen- tion of phonemes, over-differentiation of phonemes, reinterpretation of distinctions, and phone substitution as types of interference that may occur between sound systems of languages. Under-differentiation; Loss of distinc tion; over-differentiation; acquisition of a distinction; reinterpretation; displacement of a distinction. In Bilingualism, p. 40, Haugen recognizes three stages in the "diffusion" of characteristics from one language to another: 1) "Switching": the "alternate use of two languages": 2) "Inter ference": the "overlapping" of two languages; 3) "Integration": the "regular use of material from one language in another, so that there is no longer either switching or overlapping, except in a historical sense."

^"Problems," p. 19. 4

2) The pragmatic validation of resultant hypotheses as to the inter-lingual identification of elements in the two languages through observation of interference data.^

This dialinguistic description should provide

1) Phonetic descriptions of the major allophones of the phonemes of the two languages; and

2} D istrib u tio n al ru les governing the occurrences of these phonemes and allophones.^ When correlations between the phonological systems in contact are thus analytically established and pragmatically validated, the dialinguist's description of the contact situation is complete.

Foreign language learning theory

Because language contact theory has been concerned primarily with phonic factors, it has become associated with the "aural-oral" or "audio- lingual" theory of foreign language learning. The audio-lingual theory, which is more or less the "official" theory of the reform movement in foreign language teaching in the United States of America, has the follow ing principal ideas: (1) that since speech is primary and writing is secondary, the habits to be learned must be learned first of all as auditory discrimination responses and speech responses; (2) that habits must be auto matized, as much as possible so that they can be called forth without

^"Report," Proceedings of the Eighth International Congress of Linguists (Oslo, 1958), 779-780.

^Bilingualism, p. 45. 5

conscious attention; and (3) that the autc'dzation of habits occurs

chiefly by practice; that is, by repetition and drill. / However, learning the pronunciation of a foreign language involves

not only making habitual the accurate production of individual sound segments

which are new, but also the accurate production of these sound segments in

sequences. As Charles C. Fries has said,

The basic problems. . .in the early stages of learning a language are first, the mastery of the sound system— to understand the stream of speech, to hear the distinc tive sound features, and to approximate their production— and second, the mastery of the features of arrangement that constitute the structure of the language. These are the matters that the native speaker as a child has early acquired as unconscious habits. They must become auto matic habits of the learner of a new language.^

Since each language has its own pattern of sound sequences, the

advocates of the "nev/1 approach to language teaching tell us, the speaker

of a particular language already has a fixed set of habits for the pro

nunciation of these sequences. In learning to pronounce a foreign lang

uage he must replace the deeply entrenched habits of his native language

with new habits. As Hockett points out,

Different motions of the "organs of speech" are involved in d iffe re n t languages, and even when the same or almost the same motions occur, they are apt to occur in different sequences relative to each other. . .So it is that when we start to learn a new language, matters of pronunciation cannot be left to automatic habit. We simply do not have the necessary habits. We have to start by consciously guiding our tongue and lips, practicing until these organs are making the right motions. Then we must continue the the practice until those motions for the new language are as habitual, as unconscious, as effortless, as are the

^"As We See It," Language Learning. I. l(January 1948), pp. 12-13. 6

more or less different motions for our own language. And as we try to do this, the main interfering fac tor is the set of habits we already have for our own native language.**

Charles C. Fries, in Teaching and Learning English as a Foreign

Language, 19A5, advocates the "oral approach," with the aim of learning to speak a language and to understand it when it is spoken. He insists, however, that "only with sound materials based upon an adequate descriptiveanalysis of both the language to be studied and the native language of the student. . . can an adult make maximum progress toward satisfactory mastery of a foreign language.^ Elsewhere he call for

More complete descriptive (or structural) analyses of the languages to be taught, carefully and systematically compared in terms to meet the experience of the profession of language teachers.*®

Although the pedagogical value of dialinguistic, or contrastive, analysis has been recognized for some time, relatively few substantial studies have been published. In the United States, one of the first practical presentations of the techniques of systematic linguistic-cultural comparisons was Robert Lado's Linguistics Across Cultures: Applied Linguis tics for Language Teachers, Ann Arbor, 1957. In the summer of 1959 the

^Charles F. H ockett, "Learning Pronunciation," Modern Language Jo u rn al. XXXIV, A(April 1950), pp. 261-262.

^Teaching and Learning English, p. 5.

*®"The Chicago Investigation," Selected Articles from Language Learning. Series I, English as A Foreign Language, 1953, Ann Arbor, p. 75. Center for Applied Linguistics, under a contract vlth the U. S. Office of Education (Title VI, Section 602, National Defense Education Act of 1958), undertook a series of contrastive structure studies designed to describe the similarities and differences between English and each of the five foreign languages most commonly taught in the United States: French, German, Italian,

Russian, and Spanish. Each of the five languages was to be represented by two volunes in the s e rie s , one on the sound systems and the other on the grammatical systems of English and the language in question. To date only the volumes fo r German, I ta lia n , and Spanish have appeared. Two by-products of the project have also appeared. One, Linguistic Reading Lists for Teaching of Modem Languages (Washington, D. C., 1962) contains a carefully selected

list of works which linguists would recommend to the teacher of French, German,

Italian, Russian, or Spanish. The other, W. W. Gage's Contrastive Studies in Linguistics (Washington, D. C., 1961) consists of an unannotated listing of all contrastive studies which had come to the attention of the Center by the summer of 1961.

Review of re la te d lite ra tu r e and relevant scholarship

A survey of the literature in the field discloses that, while there have been many studies of the Americanization of immigrant tongues in the

United States, immigrant English itself is still a virgin field. Prior to

the present study, there has been very little American linguistic investi

gation of the English language as it is spoken by Greek immigrants in the

United States. Experimental studies on English as it is spoken by Greek

Immigrants are virtually non-existent. In addition to the works of Haugen

and Weinreich, and the contrastive studies mentioned above, there are three

dissertations and one article that have particular relevance to the main concern of the present study: Marshall Berger, "The American English

Pronunciation of Russian Immigrants," unpublished doctoral thesis, Columbia

U niversity, 1952; Janies Macris, "An Analysis of English Loanwords in New

York City Greek," unpublished doctoral thesis, Columbia University, 1955;

P. David Seaman, "Modem Greek and American English in Contact: A Socio-

Linguistic Investigation of Greek-American Bilingualism in Chicago," unpublished doctoral thesis, Indiana University, 1965; and Andreas and

Olympia Koutsoudas, "A Contrastive Analysis of the Segmental Phonemes of

Greek and English," Language Learning, XII (1963), 211-230.

Berger's study is a full-length examination of the contact of the

Russian and English phonological systems, and has been characterized by

Weinreich as "perhaps the most thorough description of a case of phonemic interference that has been attempted.However, Berger's methodology is non-experimental, and he makes no attempt to validate or verify his findings through test questions such as those designed for the present study.

Macris's dissertation is primarily concerned with the investigation of loan words in the Greek spoken in New York City. Though he presents a contrastive description of Greek and English phonology, his main emphasis is on Greek rather than on immigrant English. Greek immigrants who arrived in the United States before 1924 are not represented among his informants.

Seaman's dissertation studies the Modern Greek American English contact situation in considerable detail and is thus quite pertinent to the present study, but it is concerned with the Greek speech of Greek-Americans and with interference on the phonological level of the Greek spoken in the United

States. It "attempts to discover and investigate some of the essential

H 'Languaget: in Cont< *t. p. 14. tendencies of Modem Greek produced by the contact with American English.

Again, the emphasis is on Greek rather than immigrant English.

The article by Andreas and Olympia Koutsoudas also presents a contrastive analysis of Greek and English phonology. However, no attempt is made to treat the problem of orthographic interference and, again, the method ology used is nonexperimental. The present writer believes that predictions of interference type and magnitude based on the comparison of descriptions of the systems in contact are likely to be too inexplicit, and often too inaccurate, to be optimally useful. Mr. and Mrs. Koutsoudas themselves admit that . .the exact degree of difficulty and precisely what diffi

culties a person will have with mastering a new language are to a large extent an individual matter, varying from person to person and depending on other linguistic (such as lexicon) and extrallnguistic factors. . .

Procedures: Informants, method of investi gation. and testing techniques

A full-scale comparison of Greek and English phonology and ortho

graphy was the first step in ascertaining how Greek speakers with a limited knowledge of English perceive and produce the English sounds. The primary materials on which the phonological comparison are based are (1) recent

analyses of English, chiefly those of Trager-Smith,^ Stockwell-Boven,^

^Seaman, Modem Greek and American English in Contact, p. 1.

^Koutsoudas, Footnote 6, pp. 223-24.

^George L. Trager and Henry Lee Smith, An Outline of English Structure (Norman, Oklahoma, 1951). For a discussion of th is and other analyses, and their antecedents, see the review by James Sledd of Trager and Smith, Outline. and Fries, Structure of English, in Language 31.312-45 (1955).

^R obert P. Stockwell and J. Donald Bowen, The Sounds of English and Spanish (Chicago, 1965). and Moulton; 16 (2) the analyses of Greek by Koutsoudas,^ Macris, 1® and Householder.1^ Householder's analysis of the Greek writing system is used as a starting point for the orthographic analyses of the two languages.

This writer owes a particularly heavy debt to the contrastive analysis by

Andreas and Olympia Koutsoudas.^ All these are supplemented by my own observations in the teaching of English to Greek university students and

Greek to American Fulbright scholars.

The second step in the investigation was the pragmatic validation of the hypotheses which resulted from the contrastive analysis through controlled observation of interference data. The contrastive analysis served to roughly delimit those areas of the Greek system which were likely to be involved in the contact situation. On the basis of the results of the contrastive analysis, the crucial distinctions in the Greek-English interpretation of English phonemes were determined. Concentrating on these crucial distinctions, a question naire consisting of 213 test sentences^! was designed and administered to eighteen carefully selected Greek immigrants. The responses to the test

^ w illia m G. Moulton, The Sounds of German and English (Chicago, 1962). ^Andreas Koutsoudas, Verb Morphology of Modern Greek (Bloomington, 1962).

^Macris, op. cit. l^pred Householder et a l., Reference Grammar of Literary Dhimotoki (Bloomington, 1964.). ^Koutsoudas and Koutsoudas, op. cit. ^See Appendix B for the complete questionnaire. 11 questions were tape-recorded. The time required for the recordings varied from an hour to an hour and a half, with most of the informants taking close to an hour to complete the questionnaire.

The test questions were designed to ascertain the perceptual and pro ductive interpretation by these subjects of distinctions present in English but lacking in Greek. During the administration of the questionnaire, data on the perception of English sounds was gathered by presenting the test phonemes to the subjects in a set of typical environments and then obtaining a record of their interpretations of these occurrences. Two techniques were employed to elicit renditions of the test items by the subjects, a translation technique and an exemplification technique. In the first the subject was offered a Greek translation of the utterance containing the test item and was asked to retranslate it into English. The second tech nique, employed only when limitations on the subject's knowledge of the vocabulary and grammar of English prevented him from carrying out Che instructions of the translation technique, was to offer him a model for duplication through imitation. The proportion of test utterances success fully elicited by the translation technique as opposed to exemplification was also useful as an index of the subject's overall proficiency in English.

Proficiency was also measured by means of the Oral Rating Form of

"The English Usage Test" of the American Language In s titu te of Georgetown Uni versity.^ A structured interview schedule, designed to elicit socio cultural information about each informant, was prepared in advance of the larger questionnaire, and used in a preliminary interview. In administering the interview, the instructions for rating aural/oral proficiency in English

22See Appendix C for a description of the Test, and a sample of the Oral Rating Form. 12 which are given in the English Testing Guidebook^ were carefully followed.

In addition to providing a measure of the Informant's proficiency, it was ex pected that the data thus collected would prove valuable in accounting for exceptions not covered by the contrastive analysis or which defied linguistic classification. The written portion of the English Usage Test was also given to four of the informants. Very few informants had the time, patience, and proficiency to submit both to the written test and the questionnaire.

Additional data was gathered by having some of the informants read the

Diagnostic Passage which accompanies Prator's Manual of American English

Pronunciation?^ The passage, as read by each of nine informants who were selected on the basis of the proficiency they demonstrated in the preliminary interview, was recorded, transcribed, and analyzed using Prator's Accent

Inventory. It was expected that the data thus collected would help to disclose difficulties arising from differences in Greek and English ortho graphy and prosody.

Three of the informants were also asked to read the monoiog entitled

"The Deaf Chef" from the Manual of Foreign D ialects for Radio. Stage and

Screen by Lewis and M arguerite H e r m a n . 25

23 David P. Harris, English Testing Guidebook; Part I. Instructions for Rating Aural/Oral Proficiency in English using the AULC Interview Rating Form (Washington, D.C., 1960). ^Clifford H. Prator, Jr., Manual of American English Pronunciation for Adult Students (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1954). ^Chicago-New York, 1943. See Appendix B for the complete passage. 13

The third step involved the transcription and analysis of all the data that had been collected on the tapes. The various types of interference which actually occurred were then tabulated and compared with the types of errors which the contrastive analysis had predicted would occur.

The Informants

The questions asked about the informants' background were these:

1. What is your name?

2. What is today's date?

3. Where do you live? (a) Street address; (b) City; (c) State; (d) Telephone.

4. How old are you?

3. What work do you do? (What is/was your profession/intended profession?)

6. What part of, or what town in Greece were you bom in?

7. Have you lived in other parts of Greece? If so, where and when?

8. Where were your parents' bom?

9. What are/were your parents' names?

10. Where do/did your parents live?

11. Is Greek the first language you learned as a child? If not, what language did you first learn to speak?

12. When did you first come to the United States?

13. Have you ever been back to Greece? Why? When? How long did you stay?

14. Have you ever been to other countries besides Greece and the U.S.? Where? Why? When? How long?

15. Have you ever lived in other parts of the U. S.? Where? Why? When? How long?

16. Are you married?

17. What is your husband's/wife's name?

18. Where was your husband/wife bom?

19. What are/were the names of your husband's/wife's parents? 14

20. Do you have any children? How many? Boys or girls?

21. What are your c h ild re n 's names?

22. How fa r did you go in Greek schools? Elem? Gynasium? Univ? Were you a good student?

23. Have you ever gone to school in the U.S.? I f so, where? When? How long? Were you a good student?

24. Where and when did you start to study English?

25. How did you learn English? What method did you use?

26. How long did you study English 1) in Greece? 2) in the U.S.? 3) are you studying English now? Where? How?

27. Do you think Greeks in America should learn English?

28. Do you have trouble understanding English as it is spoken where you live?

29. Do you think you speak English well enough to take care of your every-* day business?

30. Do you think you read English well?

31. Do you think you w rite English w ell?

32. Has your knowledge of English helped you in your business/profession?

33. Do you think people should learn foreign languages?

34. Do/Would you want your children to learn Greek?

35. Do your children know Greek? If so, how did they learn it?

36. Is Greek a better/more beautiful/more literary/more cultural language than English?

37. Is English a harder language than Greek?

38. Do you think boys should go to college?

39. Do you think girls should go to college?

40. Do you think children should obey their parents? their older brothers? their older sisters?

41. Do you think a girl should have a dowry before she marries?

42. Do you think Greek boys should marry Greek girls in the U.S.?

43. What church do you belong to? 15

44. Do you go to church regularly?

45. Does your husband/wife go to church regularly?

46. Do your children go to church regularly?

47. Do you think travelling to foreign countries is educational?

48. Do you think Constantinople should be given back to Greece?

49. Do you think Cyprus should become a p a rt of Greece?

50. Do you think more Greeks should be allowed to come to the U.S.?

The questions were asked in English although, depending on the informant's proficiency, it sometimes became necessary to resort to Greek.

In some cases Greek was used in the introductory part of the interview in order to put the informants at ease.

Fourteen of the informants used in this study were selected from among immigrants who had arrived in the United States before World War II, chiefly between 1900 and 1924, and four from among those who had entered

the United States from 1946 to 1960. Nine are males and nine females. The informants were deliberately selected to represent the various Greek dia

lects, including modern Athenian Greek, so that variations might be observed as to differences in types of interference phenomena. The informants, as a whole, varied considerably in their control of English. Only three of the informants completed all five of the data-eliciting tasks. The following are the informants used in this study, with an encapsulated description of each.

A. Informants Who Arrived In the United States Before World War II

n Sex: F

Age: 65

Housewife; widow; bom, 1901, Halki, Dodecanese Islands (then Italian, now Greek); came to U. S. in 1923; returned to Greece in 1964 fo r 3 months to 16 visit relatives; went as far as 7th grade, i.e., 1st year gymnasium, in

Halki; English self-taught; was able to complete all five recording tasks— i.e. 1) socio-linguistic interview, 2) test sentences, 3) reading of

Prator's diagnostic passage, 4) reading of monolog from Manual of Foreign

Dialects. 5) completing Form U-A of English Usage Test; score on English

Usage T e st: 33.5; o ra l ratin g : 68. n Sex: M

Age: 73

Tailor, proprietor of dry cleaning business; bom 1894, Symi,

Dodecanese Islands (then Italian, now Greek); came to United States 1916;

returned to Symi 1925 to marry, and again in 1956 to visit relatives; went through 4th grade elementary and then apprenticed in Symi; no formal

education in English; completed only the socio-linguistic interview and

the test questions; score on oral rating sheet: 46.

#3 Sex: M.

Age: 67

Watchmaker, jeweler; bom 1899, Symi, Dodecanese Islands; came to

United S tates 1916; returned to Symi 1925 and again in 1929; went to school

7-8 years; learned English with private tutor for short time when first

arrived; then mostly self-taught; completed the socio-linguistic inter

view, the test questions and read the Prator diagnostic passage; score

on oral rating sheet: 80

#4 Sex: F

Age: 50

Housewife, bom 1916, Symi, Dodecanese Islands, came to United States

1937; went to gymnasium; studied English fo r one year at Bethel House, 17

Campbell, Ohio; formal training in "spelling" and "speaking"; completed the socir-linguistic interview, and only 147 of the test questions; score on oral rating sheet: 66.

#5 Sex: F

Age: 48

Housewife, widow; bom 1918 in Piraeus, Greece; lived in Symi,

Dodecanese Islands for 8 years as child; first came to United States when

3 years old, returned to Symi 1924-32, Piraeus 1932-40, and back to United

States 1940; completed gymnasium; studied English formally at Citizenship

School in United States for 2 months upon arrival; then mostly self-taught; completed socio-linguistic interview, test questions, and diagnostic pass age; score on oral rating sheet: 70.

#6 Sex: M

Age: 79

Retired craneman, baker; bom 1887, Limnos, Greece; came to United

States 1910; completed 3rd grade elementary school in Greece; no formal schooling in United States; English self-taught; comp'leted socio-linguistic interview and test questions; score on oral rating sheet: 38.

#7 Sex: M

Age: 80

Businessman; bom 1886, Kiaton, Corinth, Greece; came to United

States 1906; returned to Greece for one year in 1912 to fight in Balkan

War; attended elementary school In Greece; no formal schooling in United

States; English self-taught; completed socio-linguistic interview and 136 questions; score on oral rating sheet: 76. 18

#8 Sex: M

Age: 77

Retired restaurant proprietor; bom 1889, Samos, Greece; came to

United States 1910; returned to Greece for 4 months in 1920; went through 8th

grade In Greek schools; no formal schooling in United States; English self-

taught; completed socio-linguistic interview and test sentences; oral rating:

#9 Sex: F

Age: 71

Housewife; bom 1895, Constantinople, Turkey; lived in Samos 4 years,

Ikaria 3 years, and again in Samos for 2 years; lived in Alexandria, Egypt

6 years; went through 7th grade in Greek schools; came to United States 1921;

studied English in U.S. Citizenship School; completed socio-linguistic inter

view, test sentences and diagnostic passage; oral rating: 84.

#10 Sex: M

Age: 53

Proprietor of dry cleaning establishment; bom, 1912, Symi,

Dodecanese Islands; came to United States 1930; returned to Greece for

two-month visits 1947, 1962; went to school through first year gymnasium;

went to school in United States for 6 months; was taught English "pronun-

ciation"; completed socio-linguistic interview, test sentences, diagnostic

passage; oral rating: 76.

#11 Sex: F

Age: 65

Housewife; bom 1900, Nennita, Chios, Greece; came to United States

1921; returned to Greece in 1936 for 3 months and again in 1957 for 6 months; 19

2 years in Greek elementary school; no formal education or training in

English; completed socio-linguistic interview, test questions 1-87, and

167-213; oral rating: 64.

#12 Sex: M

Age: 71

Retired briclclayer in steel m ill; bom 1895, Halikamassus (Bodrum)

Turkey; came to United States 1920; learned English while working on

British ships; completed three years Greek elementary school; completed socio-linguistic interview and test questions; oral rating: 44.

#13 Sex: F

Age: 71

Housewife, widow; bom 1895, Stemnitsa, Arcadia (Peloponnesus),

Greece; came to United States 1921; went to 4th grade elementary school; went to school briefly in United States; citizenship classes given at home;

"learned Constitution"; completed socio-linguistic interview and test questions; oral rating: 34.

#14 Sex: F

Age: 66

Housewife, widow; bom 1900, Kliania, Crete, Greece; lived in Athens,

Piraeus, 1924-1928; came to United States 1928; returned to Greece 1932-

1935, and again 1952 and 1956; Greek elementary school through 4th grade; no formal education or English training in United States; completed socio-

linguistic interview, test sentences, diagnostic passage; oral rating: 80. 20

B. Informants Who Arrived in the United States After World War II,

#15 Sex: F

Age: 31

Housewife; bom 1931, Ksylokastro, Corinth, Greece; returned to

Greece for 3 months in 1964 to visit parents; graduate of Greek gymnasium; studied English in Greek schools for 3 years; completed socio-linguistic interview, test sentences, and diagnostic passage; oral rating: 92.

#16 Sex: M

Age: 41

Architectural engineer; bom 1925, Ammisos, Turkey; came to United

States 1950; returned for short visit to Greece 1963; graduated Teacher's

College in Athens; school in Ioannina for 1 year; graduated from the

National Polytechnic University, Athens; attended University of Pennsylvania

School of Fine Arts for 1 year; studied English for 2 months in Greece before coming to United States, 1 semester at University of Pennsylvania, and 1 month Wilson Teacher's College, Washington, D. C.; completed all five re cording tasks for this study; score on English Usage Test: 86.5; oral rating^: 92.

#17 Sex: F

Age: 28

Medical doctor; bom 1938, Drama, Macedonia, Greece; came to United

States 1959; returned to Greece 4 times to visit; studied medicine for 6 years in Italy; completed gymnasium in Greece; university work in United

States, specialization and residency; started to study English in 11th 21 grade; grammar translation; attended night school, Temple University for

English; completed interview, test sentences, and English Usage Test; score on EUT; 86.5; oral rating: 76.

#18 Sex: H

Age: 42

E le c tr ic a l e n g in e e r; form erly Commander in Greek Navy; bom 1924,

Athens, Greece; moved to Crete at very early age where he lived until 18 years of age; first came to United States in 1954 for 2-3 months and again in 1958 to stay; elementary school (6 years), gymnasium (6 years), and

Naval Academy (4 years) in Greece; graduate work In electrical engineering at University of Pennsylvania for 6 years; M.A. degree; studied English at

Greek Naval Academy for 1 year using "phonetic method," British influence; completed all five recording tasks for this study; score on English Usage Test:

89.5; oral rating: 90. CHAPTER I

THE SOCIO-CULTURAL BACKGROUND OF THE MODERN

GREEK AMERICAN ENGLISH CONTACT1

There are those who would argue that the first Greek to emigrate to the United States was Christopher Columbus, and that Greek immigration to the

United States began even before 1492.^ However, it is clear that mass Immi gration by Greeks to the United States began in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries (See Table 1).

There were some Greeks in America even before 1880, but they were but a handful. By 1870, there had been very little immigration from Greece. It began in 1870, very slowly at first, with only 210 Greeks arriving in the

United States between 1871-1880, the number gradually increasing to 2,038 between 1881-1890, and to 15,979 between 1891-1900. The figure suddenly jumps to 167,579 for the decade 1901-1910, and finally reaches a peak of 184,201 during the decade 1911-1920. By 1940, 430,398 Greeks had emigrated to the

United States; by 1962, 494,721. Figure 1 shows in graphic form the peaks and valleys of Greek Immigration from 1880-1962.

1The socio-cultural data presented in this chapter is based largely upon 1) Theodore Saloutos, The Greeks in the United States (Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 1964); 2) Evangelos Constantine Vlachos, The Assimilation of Greeks in the United States; with Special Reference to the Greek Community of Anderson. Indiana (Bloomington, Indiana University Depart ment of Sociology Ph.D. dissertation, June 1964); and 3) the socio-cultural chapter in the dissertation by P. David Seaman, op. c it. 2 See Saloutos, p. 21, and Vlachos, p. 51, for an interesting discus sion of this point and of Greek claims on other early explorers.

22 TABLE 1

IMMIGRATION FROM GREECE BY DECADES3

Decade Number

1821-1830 20

1831-1840 49

1841-1850 16

1851-1860 31

1861-1870 72

1871-1880 210

1881-1890 2,038

1891-1900 15,979

1901-1910 167,579

1911-1920 184,201

1921-1930 51,084

1931-1940 9,119

1941-1950 8,973

1951-1960 47,708

1961 3,124

1962 4,408

TOTAL f o r 142 y e a rs: 494,721

“'United States Department of Justice, Annual Report of the Immigration and Naturalization Service (Washington, D. C., US-GPO, 1962), pp. 42-44. F ig u r o GREEK IKTIGRA.TION TO THE UillTED STATESt 1 0 3 0 -1 9 6 2 ^ (in thousands)

^ Vlachos, p.66 25

Immigration from Greece was most intense between 1905 and 1915, the peak year being 1907 when 36,580 persons were recorded as immigrants from

Greece, i.e. about 1.5 per cent of the total 2,631,950 population of Greece for that same year,^ Table 1 and Figure 1 show a sharp decline in immigra tion from Greece in the decade 1921-1930 and s till more drastic decreases in the next two decades. The cause of the decline was the enactment of the

Immigration Quota Law of 192A. This law limited the annual nunher of immi grants to 2 per cent of each nation's residents in the United States in 1890.

The restriction of immigration, a policy which had begun before 1924, put an end to the great transatlantic immigration, and especially restricted the later immigrants from southern Europe. The quota system was continued by the McCarran-Walter Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 with the Greek quota finally being set at 308. The enactment of the Refugee Relief Act of

1953 offered new hope to many Greeks who s till wanted to come to the United

States. One of its provisions authorized the issuance of immigrant visas without requiring assurances of employment or housing for almost 2,000 from

Greece. An amendment to the act in 1954 authorized the issuance of special non-quota visas to Greece and other countries in either the refugee or relative preference groups. From 1946 to 1960, more than 56,000 Greeks entered the United States, chiefly as non-quota immigrants. The annual quota for

^Theodore Giannakoulis, "Introduction to the History of Greek- Americans," (in Greek) Argonautes. Vol. A (1959), p. 165; see also John F. Kennedy, A Nation of Immigrants (New York, 1964), p. 124.

^85th Congress 1st Session., Refugee Relief Act of 1953. Final Report of the Administrator of the Refugee Relief Act of 1953. As Amended (W ashington, 1954), pp. 12, 139-142. 26

Greece, as we have seen, was only 308 during this period. Their arrival on a year-to-year basis was as follows

1946 367 1951 4,447 1956 10,531

1947 2,370 1952 7,084 1957 4,952

1948 2,250 1953 1,603 1958 3,079

1949 1,734 1954 2,127 1959 4,507

1950 1,179 1955 6,311 1960 3,797

Of the estimated 38 million people who have emigrated to the United

States, less than 500,000 have been from Greece. (See Table 1). Speakers of Greek were the ninth largest group of immigrants in the United States in

1910, and tenth largest in 1960 (See Figure 2).

It should be emphasized that these United States census statistics are based upon the country of birth of the individual or his parents. Thus, they omit those Greeks who emigrated from such places as Egypt, Turkey, Italy and Cyprus. Half the informants interviewed for this dissertation, for example, would not have been included since they came from Turkey or from the Dodecanese Islands which were held by Italy until after World War II.

The same would be true of older immigrants from Crete, which did not become a part of Greece until 1913, and Cyprus which was a British crown colony until 1960.

^The figures for 1946-1947 are from Statistical Abstract of the States. 1949, p. 96; for 1947-1950, ibid., 1951, p. 94. The figures for 1951-1960 are from Annual Report of the Immigration and Naturalization Service (Washington, 1960), p. 43. m m

It:lian

P olish

Yiddish

rcnch

I960 arian 1910

m * Grer

g Figure 2. Immigrant Mother Tongues

^U. S. Bureau of the Census, I960 Census: United States Summary. General Social and Economic Characteristics. Figuro 3» P*XV» 28

Table 2 from Vlachos® compares the data of reported and estimated numbers of "Greek" immigrants to the United States according to four dif

ferent sources:

TABLE 2

DECENNIAL IMMIGRATION TO THE U.S. FROM GREECE, 1821 - 19AO ACCORDING TO VARIOUS SOURCES

Transoceanic Immigration C orrected Emigration emigration from total incl. of Greeks* from Greece Decade Greece A sia Minor to U .S. to U. S.

1821-1830 20 20 20

1831-1840 46 (49) 49 49

1841-1850 16 16 16

1851-1860 31 31 31

1861-1870 72 72 72

1871-1880 210 210 210

1881-1890 2,038 2,038 2,038

1891-1900 15,979 15,979 15,979

1901-1910 167,579 (173,513) 173,513 141,350

1911-1920 184,201 (196,119) 196,119 184,201

1921-1930 51,084 (91,639) 91,639 69,945

1931-1940 9.119 (plus 60.200) 9.138 21.903

T o ta l 1821-1940 430 , 398 539,619 488,557 437,084

* Departures from Greece including Greeks from various parts o f th e "unredeemed 11 Hellenic world.

9 Op. clt. , p. 72. 29

Columns (2) and (3) In Table 2 are particularly Interesting in that they purport to correct the United States Government's omission of Greeks from

Asia Minor and other parts of the "unredeemed" Hellenic world.

Another factor which complicates discussions concerning Greek lnani- gration is the general practice of the U. S. Census Bureau of tabulating only the first and second generations of immigrant groups and often lump ing these together in an aggregate "foreign stock." For example, Table 3 gives the totals of first- and/or second-generation Greeks in the United

States censuses for the past 110 years.^ The assun^tion seems to be that the third generation Is already assimilated into the "native stock."

On the other hand, leaders of the Greek community in the United

States who estimate the nunber of Greeks in this country no doubt count all

Greeks as an ethnic group and Include the third generation. One w riter on the subject says:

Perhaps the total nunber of Greek constituents in the United States is close to 600,000 or 700,000 persons of the first, second, and third generations.H

The Greek Orthodox Church estimates a total of 1,300,000 Greek-Americans

Thus, the literature on Greek immigration is full of discrepancies regard ing the numerical strength of Greeks in the United States. A factor which contributes largely to the confusion is the failure to distinguish between

^For 1850-1900, see Niles Carpenter, Immigrants and Their Children. 1920 (Washington, U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1927), pp. 78-79; 1940 Census: Nativity and Parentage of the White Population. Table 2, p. 20; 1950 Census; Special Reports. Table 13, p. 75; 1960 Census: United States Summary. Detailed Characteristics. Table 162, p. 366.

^Bambi Malafouris, Hellenes tis Amerikls. 1528-1948 (Greeks of America...) New York, 1948, pp. 335-336.

l^Greek Archdiocese, 1964 Yearbook, p. 423. 30

TABLE 3

GREEK STOCK IN THE U .S ., 1850-1960

Year Total 1st Gen. 2nd Gen.

1850 - 86 -

I860 - 328 -

1870 - 390 -

1880 - 776

1890 - 1,887 -

1900 - 8,515 -

1910 111,249 101,264 9,985

1920 228,055 175,526 52,083

1930 303,751 174,526 129,225

1940 326,672 163,252 163,420

1950 364,318 169,083 165,235

1960 377,973 158,894 219,079

"Greek Iranigration" and "iranigration from Greece." The former refers to all

Greeks considered as an ethnic group—i.e ., a group of people bound together by ties of cultural homogeneity—Irrespective of the country from which they emigrated. On the other hand, "iranigration from Greece" refers more specif ically to that group emigrating from Greece (according to the established frontiers of various periods) and includes all Greek citizens. As Saloutos points out, the issue seems to revolve around whose definition of "a Greek" one is willing to accept:

The exact nunber of Greeks reaching the U. S. probably w ill never be known. The Greek government failed to keep a record of depar tures, especially during the early years, and those it kept later 31

are incomplete. Furthermore, the Greek definition of a Greek is more Inclusive than the American—which complicates matters. Nationality, according to the Greeks, is eternal; it cannot be transferred or obliterated. If a man's father is a Greek, he also is a Greek, regardless of where he was bom or now lives. The U. S., on the other hand, accepts the country of a man's birth as the criterion of nationality. Whereas the American authorities considered persons bom of Greek parents in Bulgaria and Turkey.as Bulgars and Turks, the Greeks claimed them as G reeks. . . .

It is very likely that neither the statistical reports of the United

States Government nor the estimates of the Greek leaders in the United

States are entirely accurate. However, even though the U. S. Government statistics are partial or approximate they do give a better idea of the actual size of the first-and-second-generation Greek population than do some of the undocumented guesses s till current. Either 1,300,000 or 700,000 is quite a contrast with the actual 377,973 persons reported by the census of *.960 as tracing their parentage to Greece. The three-generation total of Greeks in America today is probably less than 500,000.

As we have seen, the peak decade for Greek immigration was 1901-

1910 with 184,201 Greeks arriving in the United States. Most writers on the subject attribute this great outflow of Greeks primarily to economic factors. To the failure of the current crop in the Peloponnesus, to heavy taxes, and to the generally bad economic conditions, Vlachos adds "the crushing weight of the traditional dowry system. Finding money for the purpose of marrying off Greek girls has always been a most difficult task in Greece. Many a brother and father came to the United States and regu larly sent back remittance to build the dowry of an unmarried sister or daughter.A lthough Vlachos assigns great importance to the economic

13 S a lo u to s, o p . clt.. p. 44.

14Vlachos, p. 57. 32 motive for emigration, he also takes account of other factors which con tributed to the great exodus from Greece at the turn of the century.

Among these he cites population pressures, unethical advertising and recruitment practices by steamship agents and prospective employers, the desire to escape from military service, and, in the case of Greek immi grants from Turkey, religious conflict between Moslems and C hristians.^

The majority of Greek immigrants were villagers and agrarians.

Despite this, however, very few of them settled on farms or in rural

areas in the United States. Instead, they followed an almost exclusively

urban pattern of settlement. Table 4 shows the urban pattern of settle ment of the Greek ethnic stock in the U. S. for the years 1920-1960. In

the reported figures of urban concentration, the Greeks present invariably

a higher percentage than any other ethnic group.

TABLE 4

PER CENT URBAN OF THE GREECE-BORN AND THE NATIVE WHITE OF GREEK OR MIXED PARENTAGE IN THE U. S. 1920-1960

Native white, Greek Year G reek-born or mixed parentage

1920 87.5 90.7

1930 91.3 91.0

1940 91.6 91.1

1950 - -

1960 93.4 -

15Ibid. . pp. 58-62 passim.

161960 Census: United States Summary. General. Social and Economic Characteristics , Table 100, p. 233. 33 Although the largest nunber of Greek Immigrants entered the United

States through New York, they did not stay there. They scattered to the various states and there they tried to work as small shopkeepers, retailers, and later as merchants and businessmen. They penetrated into all sections of the United States and entered a diversified field of economic activity. Today, large nusbers are located in New York, Philadelphia, and

Baltimore; large nusbers live in the Ohio valley and in the cities of Canton,

Akron, Warren, Cleveland and Youngstown. Chicago has a Greek population of about 50,000. Others have located in Savannah, Charleston and New Orleans.

A nunber of them have migrated to California. Thus, the Greeks, as a whole, are one of the most widely dispersed ethnic groups in the United States.

(See Table 5 for present regional distribution.)^-? There were, to be sure,

TABLE 5

DISTRIBUTION OF GREEK-AMERICANS, 1960

Region Total Greek Stock Per Cent

N o rth east 168,315 44.5

North Central 104,326 27.5

South 49,517 13.0

West 56,428 15.0

many large settlements of Greeks, but as a rule they did not congregate into

little colonies but preferred to live as individuals or small family groups near their place of business. The exception to the rule is the highly

1960 Census: United States Summary. Detailed Characteristics. Table 236, pp. 623-26. 34 concentrated Greek settlement of Tarpon Springs, Florida. However,_£he general tendency was, as for example in Mew York City, which itse lf has a large Greek population, for the Greeks to scatter over a large area rather than to settle in a small "Greek" district.

The tribulations of the early Greek Immigrants are thoroughly discussed and documented in the generally available Saloutos work mentioned above. None of these immigrants had any material wealth to speak of, none of them spoke English, nor, for that matter, any other language. This in ability to speak English, Saloutos tells us, explains why so many Greeks be came involved in menial employment when they first came to the United States.

Inability to speak English became a major problem, for it was difficult for the immigrant to find his way around the city, seek employment, and receive advice. English did not bear the slightest resemblance to Greek, he soon learned, except for the scientific and academic terms that were unrelated to his everyday needs. This language hurdle was overcome by the more energetic who attended classes in English for the foreign-born. Others learned English slowly by more leisurely methods; s till others never learned it, especially the older women. Those men who stuck together had to rely on the few words they learned from each other and their co-workers in factories, mines, and shops. This language barrier explains why in the beginning so many Greeks had to confine themselves to menial tasks.19

These early Greek immigrants were, for the most part, rural agrarians with a very limited public school education. From the moment they stepped on

American soil their troubles began. Not only could they not speak the lang uage, they did not understand the customs, and found themselves being despised by members of other ethnic groups who resented the competition for jobs. They felt unwanted and "xenoi" (strangers) in the new country. They were exposed

18 Thomas J. Lacey, A Study of Social Heredity as Illustrated in the Greek People (New York, Edwin S. Goram, Publisher) 1916, p. 53.

^Saloutos, o p . c i t . . p . 46 35 to unbelievable hardships, privations, and injustices. They not only suffered at the hands of foreigners, but also had to fight against exploitation by some of their own -ltrymen who had preceded them and who knew something of the

English language or pretended to know it. These unscrupulous men would re present themselves to the newly-arrived illiterate villagers as interpreters, guides and protectors, whereas in reality they were conscienceless exploiters trying to live at the expense of their less fortunate countrymen.

Those early immigrants who stayed in New York had difficulty finding jobs. They made the rounds of the many small shops in New York asking for work, only to be advised that the only jobs they were qualified for were as

candy peddlers or fruit peddlers in the streets of New York. Others sold

flowers at the churches and in the central thoroughfares. They bought baskets

or boxes, hung them around their necks, and walked the streets. These lowly

trades, then, were the trades in which the early Greek immigrants became en

gaged. Despite the fact that most of them, if not all, were peasants who knew how to farm, none of them turned to agricultural vocations. They all

insisted on living in the city, in these menial jobs, suffering all kinds of

injustices from the exploiters and the self-styled experts in the English

language.

Some of the Greek immigrants turned to the building of railroads or

the making of steel, but they too suffered at the hands of other Greeks who

had learned English and who had promised work to their countrymen only to

desert them when they arrived or to lead them to companies which, after one

or two weeks, would discharge them. Those who were kept on the job, after the

exhausting work of the day, would be forced to sleep in the company's boxcars

and sometimes on the ground. They prepared their own food, washed their own

clothes, and lived under very crowded and unsanitary conditions. They did 36 have one advantage over those who had stayed in the cities; they managed to keep healthy and vigorous by living in the fresh air.

Another group of immigrants gave themselves to shoe-shining in the shoe-shine parlors which the Greeks had managed to monopolize. S till others, though very few, went to work in cigarette factories.

The development and progress of these early Greek peddlers, railroad workers, steel workers, cigarette makers and bootblacks is little short of miraculous. Many of them have become wealthy, have reared families and have educated their children, and some have risen to positions of power and in fluence. Their progress is all the more miraculous when we consider that many of them s till have not achieved a very high proficiency in the English

language.

The pattern is always the same: The Greek immigrant would take any job that was available, often as a laborer in construction gangs or in the steel m ills, and as soon as he had accumulated a little capital of his own, he would launch into a small business enterprise of his own. Ross described

the dramatic economic ascent of the Greeks when he wrote:

. . .catering to the minor wants of the public admits of being started on the curb with little capital and experience. Once his foot is on the first step, the saving and commercial minded Greek climbs. From curb to stand, from stand to store, from little store to the chain ot stores, to branch stores in other cities. Such are the stages of his upward path.20

Once they had gained some capital, the main lines of business in which the

Greek immigrants later became engagec were restaurants, shoe-repair stores,

hat cleaning and dry cleaning establishments, hotels, flower trade, theatre

management and the tobacco industry. There has hardly been an American town

^Quoted in Xenldes, J. P ., The Greeks in America (New York, 1922), p. 81. 37 without its Greek restaurant or candy shop or shoe-shine parlor. Among the nationally important businesses the names of Stephanos, Anargyros and

Melachrinos became well-known in the tobacco industry. The l<*te Alexander

Pantages of Andros, Greece, and Spyros Skouras are well-known names in the film and theatre industries. Some of the finest textile weaving has been done by Greeks at Lowell, M assachusetts.^

While it is dangerous to attempt a description of national character, or to generalize about the character traits of any given people, the following stereotype of the Greek character is not without value in trying to understand Greek immigrants such as those who were interviewed for this study.

The typical Greek—if such there be—is usually a very excitable person. He can take offense at the slightest of insults. He dislikes discipline, even in his speech. He is a firm believer in democracy—a Greek word—together with its corollary freedoms, including the freedom of speech. This characteristic evidences itself, too, in his passionate espousal of a political cause. His patriotism is always ardent and unquestioned. He is always fanatically Greek, even when he has been transplanted, and his greatest dream, his most honored act, might well be the endow ment of a country school or institution in his native country. To further the age-old "great idea"—Greek supremacy in the Near-East—he has always contributed generously toward the establishment and upkeep of proselytizing institutions in the Near Eastern countries. And it is this intense nationalistic feeling that encourages him to live and work among his com patriots, as he does on South Halsted Street in Chicago and in other "Greek-towns" located in almost every large American c i t y .

The Greek, on the other hand, is a good mixer, perhaps because he is an inveterate conversationalist. He confines his camaraderie, though, to talking. Drinking—that is, drunkenness—is not typical of the Greek. This may be due to his almost uncanny canniness, which is strongest in his sense of busines. Here, in America, for instance, the Greek is almost always a businessman. He can seldom be found working for someone else. In Europe, even when he was a

^^-Thomas J. Lacey, Social Heredity, p. 48. plane owner, he was usually Che traveling salesman. The Greek wanes to get things done with the least expenditure of energy—a-quality not characteristic of the Greeks alo n e . 2

A more recent and more scholarly study of the cultural background of Greek villagers has been presented by anthropologist Ernestine Friedl. Professor

Friedl's description of the Greek's image of himself in relation to the Greek nation also contributes to an understanding of our Greek subjects, if only as a basis of comparison with the Hermans' less scientific, more impression istic description;

The villagers' awareness of and pride in their Greekness is profound. In 1956 when we were questioning the children as to what they wanted to be when they grew up, several boys answered that they hoped God would let them grow strong and sturdy so that they could be good soldiers and go to "Fight for Cyprus". Moreover, the villagers associate certain qualities with Greek ethnicity: the desire for political independence and the willingness to fight for it against overwhelming odds— they cite the evidence of the ancient Greek Battle of Marathon, of the revolution against the Turks, and of the refusal to give in to the Italians during World War II; the love of freedom in all spheres to the point of unwillingness to take orders from anyone—"Twelve Greeks, thirteen Captains," they say; cleverness and guile—they cite Odysseus and the success of Greek merchants the world over; the love of talk and of poli tical conversation in particular—they cite A ristotle's com ments on man as a political animal and illustrate his point by referring to the coffeehouse talk in Vasilika; the love of adventure, of peripetyes. of risk—they cite their preference for the Odyssey over the Iliad because the Odyssey has more vicissitudes; the hospitality extended to strangers often at the expense of the family—they cite Ksenios Zefs (Zeus, the patron of strangers) and the sheltering of individuals during the German occupation. This list does not exhaust the Greek qualities the villagers assign themselves. But the qualities and the ex amples given are included to show that the people of Vasilika think they have shared with the inhabitants of the country in historical continuity from classical Greek times, through Byzantium, into the present.^3 ^

^Herman, Manual. op. c it. . p. 372 ^Ernestine Friedl, Vasilika; A Village in Modem Greece. (New York, 1962), pp. 105-106. It is not surprising that items 48, referring to Constantinople, and 49, referring to Cyprus, in the socio-cultural questionnaire should receive such an overwhelming affirmative response from the informants. This is a reflection of "the Great Idea" referred to by the Hermans and which is described by Saloutos as follows:

This age-old crusade to unite all Greeks under one flag was frequently referred to as "the Great Idea." Its lofty aim was to revive the glories of ancient Greece and the Byzantine Empire by building a new Greek empire with Constan tinople as its seat, embracing the Balkans, Asia Minor, and the whole Near East. . . .

The patriotic Greek, whether living in Greece or not, believed in extending the influence of his country as far as Constan tinople and over the Islands inhabited by people speaking the 6ame language, worshiping in the same faith, and adhering to customs and traditions normally regarded as Greek. He was determined to incorporate large portions of the region north of Greece proper, to reclaim islands held by Turkish garrisons, and to annex at least a portion of the seacoast in Asia Minor where much of the commerce, wealth and Influence was under the control o f G reeks.

Thus, if abandonment of "the Great Idea" Is used as an index of the Greek

Immigrants 1 assim ilation in American culture, we would have to say that our

Informants have not been very well assimilated. However, their response to some of the other socio-cultural items suggests that some of the aspects of rural Greek culture which they brought with them are beginning to give way to the cultural patterns and attitudes of the larger American society.

For example, the responses to question 42 suggest that the desire of the older Greek-American parents to marry off their daughters and sons to per sons of Greek background is not as Intense as it once was. Another indi cation that our informants are receptive to change is their reaction to question 41. Whatever the merits of the dowry system may be for Greece,

it Is completely rejected by our Informants for the U. S. Also, whereas

“^Saloutos, op. cit., p. 16. 40 our in fo rm an ts came from a c u ltu re which d id n e t h o ld w ith e d u catin g women,

they unanimously responded in the affirmative to question 39.

Thus, while our informants have clung tenaciously to political attitudes relating to Greece such as "the Great Idea," there can be no doubt about their increasing acceptance of American cultural patterns and values. Such change with a measure of assimilation is, of course, inevit

able when people are exposed over a long period of time to a culture

d iffe re n t from th e ir own. I t would seem th a t, i f our small group of

informants are at all representative, out of the contact of the American

and Greek culture, a new hybrid culture is beginning to emerge. This culture

is a new composite, the "Greek-Amerlcan culture," which permits an accommo

dation of certain traditional and often idealized Greek cultural patterns

within the framework of the larger American society. CHAPTER I I

PHONEMIC ANALYSIS OF MODERN GREEK

Language, Family and Speakers^1

The Greek language is spoken by over eight million people inhabiting mainly two states, Greece and Cyprus. At least 95 per cent of the people of

Greece (8,388,553), O fficial Census of Greece, 1951) use Modem Greek as their mother tongue. It is the official language of the Kingdom of Greece and also one of the official languages of the Republic of Cyprus. About

80 per cent of the estimated 558,000 people of Cyprus speak the language.

It is also spoken in parts of neighboring countries (Italy and Turkey) and by many additional thousands throughout the world, including nearly 500,000 in the United States. Minority groups in various countries of the Near East,

Africa, and elsewhere speak Greek. The Greek-speaking community in Turkey, especially around Istanbul, is the largest in the Near East and the commun ity in Egypt, notably in Alexandria and also in Cairo, is sizable. In lesser numbers, Greek speakers are found in Lebanon, Syria, the Sudan, the Congo area, and elsewhere. Greek is an Indo-European language and is thus re lated to English. Because of this relationship, Greek is similar to English although at first sight the two languages may seem quite different.

^This section is based largely on Manolis Triandaphyllidis, Neoelllnlki Grammatiki (tis Dhimotikis), Athens, 1941; George D. Thomson, The Greek Language. Cambridge, 1960; Donald C. Swanson, Vocabulary of Modem Spoken Greek, Minneapolis, 1959; George N. Hatzidakis, Syntomos Istoria tis Ellinikis Glossis (Brief History of the Greek Language), Athens, 1915.

41 42

Greek has been spoken in the same area for several thousand years and one form of it, the Classical Greek of the fifth and fourth centuries

B. C., was the vehicle of one of the world's great literatures. A later, somewhat different form of Greek, koine. was the original language of most, or possibly all, of the New Testament. Greek was widely used throughout the Near East during later centuries, but during the four centuries of the

Ottoman occupation it became limited almost exclusively to conversation and ecclesiastical usage, with only relatively little literary activity. In the eighteenth century a renaissance of Greek national spirit took place which led again to more extensive use of the Greek language, especially after the establishment of Greek independence in 1830.

Like all languages, Greek has undergone various changes in pronun ciation, grammar, and vocabulary throughout its long historical course.

During the nearly four hundred years of the Ottoman occupation, when it was not much used as a written language, many changes had taken place in Greek, and when people began to write it again more widely there was considerable uncertainty as to how to proceed. Writers tried to imitate the spelling, grammar, style, and vocabulary of earlier Greek, even that of the Classical period. Gradually a norm became established which consisted basically of modem spoken Greek but with a strong Classical overlay. This kind of

Greek, called Katharevousa ("puristic") is still the language of formal speech and much writing. It is the language used or attempted in Parlia ment, the courts, the schools, the church, in books, in oratory, and when ever a feeling for formal correctness or traditional style is evident.

Needless to say, no Greek speaks only this kind of Greek; everyone learns ordinary spoken Greek as a child and continues to use it all his life for 43 most conversation. The "pure” Greek is learned in school and on formal occasions and is added, in varying amounts and varying degrees of correct ness, to the basic spoken Greek.

The other kind of Greek, called Phi mo tiki ("popular"), is the ordinary spoken language of everyday speech and usage among the majority of people. Unlike the puristic form, the popular idiom retains many foreign words that have been drawn during the course of later Greek history from Latin, the Romance languages, the Slavic languages, Albanian, and most of all from Turkish, including some of its Arabic and Persian loanwords.

Some writers have used Dhimotiki in their literary work, and more and more of it is appearing in print.

Possibly the standard Greek of the future will turn out to be this

"popular" Greek minus some of Its particularly slangy and dialectal features and with considerable classicization in vocabulary. At the present time both varieties of Greek exist side by side and a considerable range of variation in between the two may also be found. For instance, both are found in the idiom used by most educated Greeks (which is called Kathomilounenl. meaning "spoken" language). It is reasonably accurate to state that liberal and le ftist newspapers generally adhere to the popular idiom while a good many newspapers of other leanings fairly consistently use a modified puristic form, but it is also true that, in a single issue of a given news paper, the different idioms and their combinations may be found depending on the individual preferences of the writers.

^For a more complete discussion of the differences between "pure" and "popular" Greek and the convergence of the two see: George C. Pappageotes and James Macris, "The Language Question in Modem Greece"; Fred W. Householder and Costas Kazazis, Studies in Modem Greek III: "Greek Triglossia"; P. Sapountzis, C. Sapountzis and Carlton Hodge, Greek Intermediate Reader. "Introduction"; B.E. Newton, "Ancient and Modem Greek," Greece and Rome. VIII (1960), pp. 124-127; D.C. Swanson, Vocabulary of Modem Spoken Greek. "Introduction," pp. 9-21; see also the several entries in Swanson's Modern Greek Studies in the West. 44

As we have seen, modern Greek constitutes the present stage In the natural development of the language from Classical Greek through koine or

New Testament Greek and Byzantine or Medieval Greek to the present day.

The writing system of Greek—that is, the alphabet and the conventions of spelling—is based chiefly on the facts of the language as it existed al most 2500 years ago, although the actual modem form of the letters, espe

cially of the lower case letters and the accent marks, was devised many

centuries later. Since it is based on the facts of so long ago, the spelling

of Modem Greek is not a satisfactory guide to the modem pronunciation. The

two most noticeable difficulties are the ambiguous spelling of certain con

sonant sounds by pairs of letters and the spelling of certain vowel sounds

in several different ways.

For example, the letter "8" stood for the sound of our "b" in

Classical Greek but has come to represent the sound of our "v" in Modem

Greek; so to write the sound [b] in Modem Greek the pair of letters "un"

is used, which can also stand for the sound [nib] and [mp]. This kind of

device is used for some other consonant sound also: e.g., "vt" for [d],

[nd], and [ n t] ; 'V" for [g], fo g ], and fok].

On the other hand the number of different vowel sounds in Greek has

decreased considerably since ancient times while the spelling has remained

more or less the same. The most striking example of this is the spelling

of the frequently occurring sound [i] (close to our [i] in "machine"): it

^ ii 4 ii ii „ „ ti ii _ ii ii,- ir ii it m ri ii ii may oe spelled ei, 0 1 , n* n» o r u» o r i* The net result of all this is that while it is relatively easy to

determine the pronunciation of most Greek words from their spelling, it is

quite difficult to determine the correct spelling of words only from their

pronunciation. 45

Dialects and their Differences

Most of the recent descriptions of Modem Greek have been based on the language spoken In present-day Athens. Since many of the informants interviewed for this study speak dialects which vary from present-day

Athenian speech, a review of the regional varieties of Modem Greek is in order.

The d ialects of Modem Greek have developed out of the old spoken koine. Most of these have no relation to the Ancient Greek dialects, al though the koine is based on the Attic dialect. After Athens had become the leading state of Greece, all the ancient dialects, with one exception, died out under the influence of the "common language." The dialect of

Laconia, whose capital, Sparta, was a strong rival of Athens, did not die out, but seems to have continued its development down to the present day.

This dialect survives only in a restricted area on the eastern coast of

Greece, and is known as Tsaconian. Like the ancient Laconians the Tsaconians pronounce the "u" as /u/, rather than the customary /i/ of Modem Greek.

Thus, in this dialect, [yindka], 'w ife,' 'woman,' is pronounced [yundka] and [psixf], 'soul,' is pronounced [psuxd]. But although there are many A affinities between the two dialects, many scholars still doubt the deriva tion of Tsaconian from the ancient Laconian.

Besides Tsaconian, ^ there are several other dialects in Modem Greek, and they differ considerably from one another phonologically and morpholog ically. In the mainland of Greece, in Aegena, Euboea, and the Ionian Islands, the accented vowel in the endings "£o," "£a," " 1 0 ," " \a ," is preserved and

tsaconian is, in reality, not merely a dialect but a completely different, mutually unintelligible language. 46

does not occur as [y] as Is usually the case. Thus, what are normally

rendered [pefiyd], 'children,' and [milya], 'apple tree,' are pronounced

[peSfa] and [milda], In this same territory, [y] frequently occurs as

[z] as in [zl] instead of [y£], 'earth,' and [mazeritsf] instead of * [mayeriki], 'cookery.' In parts of this general region [k] occurs as [ts]

and [i] as [u]; thus [skflos], 'dog* is pronounced [stsulos] and [kilya],

'stomach,1 is pronounced [tsulid].

In the first volume of his great Neoelliniki Grantmatiki. Manoli

Triandaphyllidis^ establishes two major phonological isoglosses on the basis of which he divides the regional dialects of Modem Greek into four major groups. The first isogloss, originally outlined by George N.

Hatzidakis in his Sintomos Istorla.^ runs east and west, dividing the dia

lects into a north and south group. The line of division is approximately

the 38th degree of latitude. In the northern parts of Greece, the un

stressed vowel system is reduced from five/i, e, a, o, u/ to three /i, a,

u,/ whereas in the southern dialects the unstressed vowels /i, e, a, o, u/

correspond to the stressed ones /£, e, a, o, u/. That is, unstressed /e/

and J o / become /i/ and /u/, and unstressed /i./ and /u/ disappear, leaving

only certain modifications in the sounds of the preceding consonant. Thus,

the word 'I greeted,' occurs as [xeretisa] in the southern

speech and [xfretsa] in the northern. Triandaphyllidis uses this example

to mark the North-South isogloss in his dialect map o£~Greece, an adapta

tion of which may be found on the next page (Fig. 3).

/ L Manoli Triandaphyllidis, Neoelliniki Grammatiki. Athens, 1941, pp. 66-68; see also his dialect map of Greece, facing page 80.

5Athens, 1915, pp. 112-116. FIGURE 3 DIALECT MAP OF MODERN GREEK ACCORDING TO TRIANDAPHYLLIDIS f£l Ul_ *1

■ N

N. f

- — . S ' . ..>:-* ^*v. 7 X'PiTet \ J------

. \ 'V / j » n,. S^V ^i/ i II :3 >l ■ s ^ * A P v / :••'

i \ I ^

ctvffbij XnpxS { *“ «f /:'V.7lg )\) S tV,7 j

Seaft of f-'ilfs ->ete. . ^0 “~ 1C3 48

The northern group comprises: Central Greece (except A ttica), northern Euboea, Epirus, Thessaly, Macedonia, and Thrace; the northern islands of the Aegean; Samos and Pontos (in Turkey). While Samos (see

Figure 4) is below the 38th parallel, and thus well within the area of southern Greek, the north Greek character of the dialect of the island is account'd for by the fact that its people came from the north during an earlier mass transmigration of populations. Within this major North-

South division, Triandaphyllidis presents a second north-south line which Is set on the basis of the treatment of the old dative object.

Such verbs as /6ino/ 'I give' and /ldyo/ 'I say, tell' are preceded by the accusative case (rather than the genitive) of the pronoun in the most northern part of Greece—i.e. /se Sino/ north of this isogloss, and

/su Sino/ south of it. (See Figure 3).

The second major isogloss runs north and south, dividing the dia lects into an East and West group. The line of division, according to

Triandaphyllidis, is approximately the 44th degree of longitude.*’ In his eastern group, Triandaphyllidis includes the Dodecanese Islands and "some other islands of the Aegean, Chios, Naxos, etc. as well as Cyprus and Asia

Minor."7

Triandaphyllidis bases his East-West division primarily on the preservation of the final /-n/, especially in nouns, as in /ton uranon/

'the sky* as opposed to /ton uran6/, /tin manan/ 'the mother* as opposed to

/tin m&ia/, /to yrdman/ 'the letter' as opposed to /to yrdma/, /to stdman/

'the mouth' versus /to stdma/.

^Neoelliniki Graimiatiki. p. 67. Triandaphyllidis is probably using Ferro longitude, the ancient method. The island of Ferro, or Hierro, in the Canaries is about 18" West of Greenwich. Much of eastern Europe uses Ferro. Ferro 44- ca. 26 Greenwich.

7Ibld. FIGURE 4 REGIONAL MAP OF GREECE

f f t \

± CrZ f* M r f j — CC/Jr'--' J T .O . V ^

■f __(■ =■

il! ^ * » * h i ■ > d 50

Triandaphyllidis gives as another mark of East Creek the occurrence of voiceless alveo-palatal [ s ] for the voiceless palatal [ x ] before /i/ and /e/, as in [trd£i] 'he runs' for [trdxi] and [sdvl] ’hand' for [x£ri]. A ^ This feature is very common in Crete as well as in the Cyclades.

Another feature which marks East Greek, Triandaphyllidis tells us, is the postposition of the pronominal object—i.e ., /6ino to/ instead of

/to <5ino/ for 'I give i t .’ The former marks his East Greek as against West

Greek. However, the postponed object is sometimes used in Crete and in many of the Cyclades, the Dodecanese, and Cyprus as well: e.g.* /parakald se/

'I beg you,' /fdmi mu/ 'he brings me,' /ayap 6 se/ 'I love you,' for

/se parakald/, /mu fdm i/, and /se ayapd/.

As a consequence of the intersection of Triandaphyllidis* two major isoglosses the Modem Greek dialects fall into four geographically corre lated groups: Northwestern, Northeastern, Southwestern, and Southeastern.

After making his East and West division, Triandaphyllidis discusses his other points of dialectic variation. Altogether he marks the boundaries of seven selected linquistic phenomena. Five of these we have already dis cussed above; the following is a recapitulation of them:

1. The preservation of the final /-n/*

2. The alteration of unstressed vowels.

3. The use of the accusative instead of the genitiveof the pronoun.

4. The substitution of alveo-palatal [ s ] forpalatal [ x ]

before front vowels.

5. The post-posltlon of the unaccented pronominal object. The rerain in g two are:

6. The loss of nasals before /b,d,g/ word medially: e.g. /kub£/

'button' /madar£ni/ 'tangerine,' /agalya/ 'embrace', Instead

of /kumb£/, /mandarini/, /ajjgalya/. This feature Triandaphyllidis

assigns to Northern Greece around the Aegean (i.e., eastern

Central Greece and Thessaly, eastern Macedonia, Thrace, many

islands of the Aegean ( i . e . , M ytilene, e t c . ) , C rete, and the

Ionian Islands. He shows it as an lsogloss, using the opposi

tion /adras - andras/ as his exaaple, in his dialect map (See

Figure 3 and Figure 4).

7. The retention of the syllabic and/or the temporal augment: e.g.,

/eS£nete - Senate/, 'you were tying,' / eSenomaste - Senomaste/,

'we were tying o u rselv es.' In the use of the augment he makes

three divisions: 1) Mainland Greek (Central Greece, or Sterea

Ellas) uses only the accented syllabic augment, which Is the

usage followed in general modem demotic. 2) The Cyclades

and the dialects around the Peloponnese, Athens, Megara, Aegina,

and the r e s t, keep the sy lla b ic augment whether stressed or

ms tressed. 3) The dialects of the Dodecanese use both the

syllabic and something which corresponds to the temporal aug-

nant; e.g. the past of /ayapd/ 'I love1 is not /aya^isa/ but

/eydpisa/. In all these island dialects there is a strong

preference for the /i—/ augment: /ifiya/ 'I left,' not /dfiya/.

Of course, other phonological lsoglosses cut across Triandaphyllidis*

dialect groups, but they are less extensive geographically. There are also

lexical and grammatical isoglosses that could be drawn for Modem Greek, but

since this paper is concerned primarily with pronunciation we have limited FIGURE 5 MAP OF GREECE SHOWING BIRTHPLACES OF INFORMANTS

L W .sS /

\ j »

inj:< ,

- -V‘ e r r ~ $ % s b V Ofrlfcesr

t n 5 :a fe of M«'m 53 ourselves largely to pronunciation features. Triandaphyllidis would have been the first to admit that there are no absolute lines of division In

these continuous linguistic areas, but only lines to be drawn between the

areas covered by single phenomena, and that coincidence between such lines

is all we can ever mean by a division between dialects.

With his idea of Eastern and Western Greek, Triandaphyllidis has made a significant contribution to Greek dialectology. It is not possible, however, to make a definitive classification of the Greek dialects on the basis of his work alone. Considerable research has already been done by

individual scholars. What is most sorely needed, however, is a dialect

a tla s of Modem Greek modelled a f te r such monuments of scholarship as The

Linguistic Atlas of the United States.

The classification of the Greek dialects made by Triandaphyllidis

is obviously incomplete and shows a considerable amount of overlapping.

There is reason to believe that his divisions should not be accepted un

q u a lifie d ly . N evertheless, T rian d ap h y llid is' scheme seems v a lid when

tested against the Greek spoken by the informants interviewed for this

study. Figure 5 locates the birthplace of each of the Informants. It will be noted that each of the major phonological isoglosses is represented.

The Phonology of Modem Greek

The description of the Demotic Greek phonemic system has been the Q subject of considerable controversy among linguists for several decades.

g For a synopsis of this controversy see Section 2.0 of Luigi Romeo, "Toward a Phonological Grammar of Modem Spoken Greek" in Papers in Memory of George C. Pappaceotes (Special Publication No. 5 of the Linguistic Circle of New York [■Supplement to Word XX: 3 December 1964]); and Fred W. House holder, "Three Dreams of Modem Greek Phonology," Ibid. . pp. 17-27. 54

The nunfcer and types of phonemes described have fluctuated upward and downward as each scholar who has dealt with Dhimotiki proceeded to create his own phonemic system, either in ignorance of the work of previous linguists, or in an attempt to achieve greater economy, symmetry, or sinplicity.^ There seems to be no disagreement in regard to the vowel system. The consonant system, however, has been subject to numerous different interpretations.

Andre Mirambel in his work La laneue grecoue taodeme1^ lists 21 consonant phonemes as follow s:

p t k s ts

b d 8 z dz

f 6 X

V 6 J Y

m n

On the other hand, B. E. Newton, in his "The Rephonemicization of

Modern G r e e k , l i s t s 15 consonant phonemes as follows:

P t k

f 6 X

V 6 Y

m n

g Among those who have analyzed Greek are: Eric Hamp, in the Greek journal Athena LXV (1961), 101-128, and in Proceedings of the IVth Inter national Congress of Phonetic Sciences. (Mouton, 1962), p. 641; B.E. Newton, in Lingua X (1961), 275-284; others include Koutsoudas, op.c it..; D.C. Swanson, in "English Loanwords in Modem Greek," Word XIV (1958) pp. 26-46; A. Mirambel, La langue grecque mode me (Paris, 1959); P.W. Householder, et al'. Reference Grammar of Literary Dhimotiki. (Bloomington, 1964), pp. 1-27. 10Paris 1959, pp. 19-21.

^0p. c it.. Lingua (1961) 55

Newton eliminates the voiced stops entirely from the inventory. He Justifies this with the following argument:

With regard to the segments [b,d,g,] the facts are not so complex. In most Athenian pronunciations these sounds occur to the exclusion of their voiceless counterparts after nasals and before [z]. Initially they are also heard frequently with segments other than [z] following, as in (a)-words of Greek etymology resulting from apocope of forms in [enb-, end-, eng-] such as [beno] 'I enter' and (b) foreign borrowings such as [bar] 'bar'. But speakers who possess this initial [b,d,g] often introduce it with a nasal when the preceding work, particularly if it is of proclitic nature, ends in a vowel. They will say [0anbdno] 'I shall be entering'. Other speakers do not seem to possess this initial voiced stop and always use [tb, nd, ng] instead of it. Thus, the voiced stops, when in word-initial position and followed by a segment other than [z], contrast with the homorganic voiceless stop but are complementary to, or in free variation with, the cluster consisting of homorganic nasal + themselves; elsewhere they are complementary to the voice less series: [ddmaj 'female dancing-partner' contrasts with [tdma] 'offering* but speakers who pronounce [ddma] either never say [nddma] or do so with no semantic distinction.

In view of the extensive complementation of the voiced and voice less series of stops it seems uneconomical to posit /b,d,g/ for the sake of those relatively rare words which are pronounced by some speakers uniformly or occasionally with initial [b,d,g]. As such segments never co n trast with [mb, nd, n g ], i t seems preferable to regard them as allophonic variants of /p,t,k/ occurring after a nasal and before /z/ and to state that in the sequence juncture + nasal + stop, the nasal has an allophone consisting in the voicing of the following stop. Thus /emporos/ 'merchant* will be read [dmboros], /mpdno/ as [bdno] or [mbdno].^

H ouseholder's*^ inventory coincides with Mirambel's which in turn

has been accepted by Swanson.^ Householder argues for the Inclusion of

the voiced stops with the following statement:

I will not say that there are no educated Athenian speakers who fail to discriminate [b], [mb], and [mp], whether it is by using only one of the three, by using two or three in conditioned alternation, or by using two or three in absolutely free variation (the same for all words), but I have not found such a speaker. I am willing to accept the testimony of various informants that there are village dialects of this sort, but village dialects are not the question here. There is, beyond any doubt, for the majority (at least) of speakers of educated standard Greek a four-way contrast

12Ibid., pp. 283-284. ^R eference Grammar, op. c i t . ^Review of Miranbel's work in Language XXXVIII (1962). 56 at all 8top positions: /p/, /mp/, /nib/, /b/; /t/, /nt/, /nd/, /d/; /k/, /nk/, /ng/, /g/, as well as /c/, /nc/, /nj/, /j/. The func tional burden of this is, of course, remarkably low.15

"Educated standard," says Householder, "is spoken by a majority of the

Greeks under thirty who are resident in cities.

Hamp,^ in his most recent analysis, would list the consonants of

Greek as follow s:

p t ts k E

(b d dz g) i

f e 8 X

V 6 Z Y j

m n

Thus, Hasp classifies the voiced stops and affricates as allophones of their voiceless counterparts. In the elimination of the voiced stop series /b,d,g/ and the voiced affricate /dz/ from the inventory of phonemes,

Hamp is in accord with Newton. Both these scholars seem to suggest that

[b], [d] and [g] should be written as /mp, /nt/, /nk/ in accordance with the conventional Greek spelling. They claim that [mp], [mb] and [b] are either in conplementary distribution or absolutely free variation in all words. Hamp explains his position as follows:

One can judge from various aspects of the reaction of Greek speakers that they hear voiced stops and affricates in typical European lan guages as being nasal, because for all Greek except acculturated

150p. c it.. "Three Dreams," pp. 23-24.

^ Ibid., footnote 10, p. 24.

^Personal communication. 57

varieties often heard in Athens, a voiced phone occurs either (1) automatically preceded by a nasal segment, or (2) in free variation with nasal plus voiced stop segments, or (3) selec tively in complementation with nasal plus voiced segments. (X therefore analyze a l l forms of modem mainland Greek, with the exception of certain northern dialects where syncoples have oc curred to occlude this, with nasal clusters composed of nasal plus stop. Thus Greek has only one series of stops, Indifferent to voicing.)

The crux of the dispute, then, is this: the cluster aasal-plus-a- followlng-stop appears In two variants: 1) many speakers pronounce the nasal, and 2) many others do not. For example, when some Greeks say the words "uirdpyiras" 'o ld man, u n cle,' "vTdvopa*" 'I dress m yself,' and

"yicap\{;e\" 'brays,' they pronounce the initial consonants as [b], [d], and [g]. Other Greeks on the other hand, pronounce the 6ame words with a hormorganlc nasal in front of these consonants; i.e ., [mbarmbas],

[ndiriome], [ngarfzo], Medially, one hears both pronunciations for 'man':

[andras] and [adras]. This in fact is the basis of one of Triandaphyllidis' IQ isoglosses. Since both pronunciations are common, the question is:

Which one do we accept as "standard?" Similarly lexical variants found in the provinces may still be used on the same social and educational level as their Athenian equivalent and therefore belong in the lexicon of

"standard" Greek. This is a common phenomenon in Greek (as in many other languages); and it Is, indeed, questionable whether the Athenian should be allowed (and If so to what extent) to outweigh the others.

18 Op. d t . , Proceedings.

19 T riandaphyllidis, op. c i t . See the discussion supra on regional varieties of Greek. 58

Householder’s conclusion on chis matter is that:

The [b,d,g] problem depends mainly on a) whose assertions about Greek speakers you are willing to believe, and b) what dialect you choose to consider standard. . • *

The informants used in this study include both '’oldtlmers" and

"newcomers" among Greek immigrants. The "newcomers" were city dwellers and, for the most part, better educated than the "oldtlmers." The dia lects brought over by the earlier Immigrants, most of whom were villagers, were rural dialects. In some cases, if not all, the speech of these immi grants has remained the same, despite the time that has elapsed, and their original dialects have been preserved despite the fact that they may have changed in Greece itself. On the other hand, the "newcomers," by virtue of their exposure to Athens and to Athenian Greek, if only while they were being educated, are likely to have lost all trace of their local dialects.

Most of Householder's informants are recently arrived, well-edu cated young Greeks who speak the Athenian "standard." It is understandable, therefore, that his analysis should reflect the facts of that particular kind of Modem Greek.

On the other hand, Hamp's contention th at Athenian Greek is but an acculturated variety of the language has much to commend it. In this con nection, the following quotation from anthropologist Dorothy D. Lee is p e rtin e n t:

The city Greeks consider themselves very different from the peasants. There is a vogue for peasant handicrafts but not for peasant atti tudes. Urban Greeks like to take on the ways of foreigners. . . Many French and English words are used in their speech. They take

^Op. cit. . "Three Dreams," pp. 26-27. 59

on the attitudes of the Western world. . . The difference reaches its greatest Intensity as between the educated Greeks and the peasants, who, though literate, have no high education.^

The total population of greater Athens is 1,852,709. But most Athenians at one time or another were villagers. The proportion of this population who are "native Athenians" is probably very small. In any case, the re mainder of the 8,388,553 people of Greece speak something other than the

Athenian dialect. It does not seem reasonable, therefore, to impose the speech of the minority on the majority and label it "standard Greek."

Nevertheless, it has recently become fashionable to consider the well-educated Athenian as the speaker of Standard Greek. In antiquity the dialect of Attica evolved as the basis of the koine, i.e., Standard

Hellenistic Greek; in recent modem history (and in the twentieth century more than in the nineteenth century) the new capitol of the young Greek state, arbitrarily chosen and not more than an insignificant country town with a brilliant name as its main asset, attracted large masses of popula tion, coming from all parts of the country,—swelling the population of the city to over a million inhabitants. The Peloponnesian dialect became, in certain ways, the nucleus of the new Athenian standard. To the linguist and dialectologist, the situation means various things.

It establishes an intersection of two dichotomies: the area of the standard form of speech (as distinct from non-standard) overlaps the area of urban vocabulary (as distinct from provincial). This leads to an interesting pattern of evaluation: since urban is equated with standard, non-urban or 'dialect' is often equated with substandard.

21 Dorothy D. Lee, "Greece," in Cultural Patterns and Technical Change, edited by Margaret Mead, New York, p. 59. 60 In Greece the development of mass communications has not been as

extensive as it has been in some other cultures. Therefore, the cultural

and with it the linguistic contrast between urban and provincial (i.e., both rural and small town) communities is still very strong.

In this paper we are dealing with both urban and rural speakers

of Modem Greek. Rather than enter into the controversy, we prefer to

accept two alternative analyses of the language, treating them as analyses

of two dialects, and keeping both analyses constantly in mind as we analyze

the American-English pronunciation of our Greek informants. We associate

one analysis with "Educated Standard Athenian" after Householder, and the

other with "Modem Mainland Greek," after Hamp. Thus, we select Koutsoudas'

analysis as a starting point. The phonology of modem Greek as he describes

1962), is as follows:

P t k

b d g

f e s X

V 6 z Y

m n

1 V r y In the above transcription, Koutsoudas' [j] is written phonemically as /y/

and not as /yj/, the latter being preferred by Koutsoudas for purposes of

sim plifying the morphophonemic description of certain verbs. This /y / is

in te rp rete d by Koutsoudas as a p a la ta liz in g phoneme, which p a la ta liz e s the

consonant which it follows. According to Koutsoudas, this /y/ consonant

may occur following any consonant prevocalically, in which environment, 61

In the case of the velars /k g k x y/, palatal allophones, viz. (kY, gY,

y)» occur simultaneously. In our transcription, we prefer to accept

Householder's solution in which he places /y/ with /k, x, g, y, /, 1/ in a set of Palato-Velars all of which occur palatalized before /!/ or /e/ and v e la r before / a / , /o /, /u /, except f y / which is velar only and occurs only before /a, o, u/ and /y/ which is palatal only and occurrent before a ll vowels

The consonants of Athenian Greek are tabulated according to their manner and position of articulation in the following Table 6. Palatalized consonantal possibilities are shown in parentheses.

In Athenian Greek, according to Koutsoudas, there are n i n e t e e n ^ consonant phonemes resu ltin g from combinations of the manner and p o sitio n of articulation designated in the chart. The symbols by which they are represented are given below with their distinctive features and positional v a ria n ts .

/p/ - voiceless fortis bilabial unaspirated stop: [p], as in /p£ra/ 'I took'

/b/ - lenis bilabial unaspirated stop: [b}, as in /bira/ 'beer'

It/ - voiceless fortis dental unasplrated stop: [t], as in /tora/ 'now*

Id/ - voiced lenis dental unaspirated stop: [d], as in /dora/ 'Dora' f k / - voiceless fortis velar unaspirated stop: [k], as in /koma/ 'comma* [c], palatal before /i,e,t,s/ /kimame/ 'I sleep' ^ [k], palato-velar before /r,y/ /kyalya/ 'binoculars'

22 Reference Grammar, op. cit.. p. 3. 23 Twenty-one if we treat the sequences [ts] and [dz} as unit phonemes. Miranbel, La langue, op. cit.. p. 21, and Householder, op. cit.. Reference Grammar. pp. 2-3, consider, them phonemes. Koutsoudas regards them as c lu sters of two phonemes each. TABLE 6

GREEK CONSONANT PHONEMES

Point of A pical Palatal

Articulation

Manner -p of

Articulation

Stops vl vd

Affricate vd

vl Fricatives vd

Groove vd

Nasals vd

Laterals vd

Median vd

T vd 63 /g/ - voiced lenis velar unaspirated stop: [g}( as in /gdma/ 'eraser' [}]> palatal before /i,e,t,s/ /angfstri/ 'a hook' IgJ, palato-velar before /r,y/ /angyd/ 'pot'

/f/ - voiceless flat labio-dental fricative: [f], as in /faros/ 'lighthouse*

/v/ - voiced flat labio-dental fricative: [v], as in /varos/ 'weight'

/0/ - voiceless flat inter-dental fricative: [e], as in /eiki/ 'case' (receptacle)

/5/ - voiced flat inter-dental fricative: [6], as in /6iki/ 'case' (legal)

/x/ - voiceless flat velar fricative: [x], as in /xdmo/ 'on the floor' [c], palatal before /i,e,t/, /vroxi/ 'rain' ^ [x], palato-velar before /r,y/ /xyoni/ 'snow*

/Y/ - voiced flat velar fricative: [Y], as in /Yamo/ 'wedding' Ej]» pa'1 tal before /i,e ,t/, /yindka/ 'woman* [y ], palato-velar before /r/, /yrafo/ 'I write*

/s/ - voiceless alveolar groove fricative: [s], as in /sail/ 'shawl'

/z/ - voiced alveolar groove fricative: [z], as in /zali/ 'dizziness'

/m/ - voiced bilabial nasal: [m], as in /misi/ 'he hates' labiodental before /f,v/, /simfond/ 'I agree'

/n/ - voiced alveolar nasal: [n], as in /nisf/ 'island* [n], dental before /t,d,0,d/, /dnQos/ 'flower' (nj, velar before /k,g,x,y/ /dlenxos/ 'report card'

/l/ - voiced alveolar lateral: [1], as in /lfya/ 'few'

( i f - voiced alveolar flap: [r], as in f iiy a f 'ruler' (measuring stick)

/y/ - voiced palatal glide: [y], as in /pyo£/ 'who'; /xydni/ 'snow'; /aftyd/ 'ears'. 64

I f we accept Hamp's or Newton's analysis regarding nasals plus voiced stops, then we would have to eliminate /b,d,g/ from the inventory of Greek phonemes and consider them as allophones of / p ,t , k / . They would be w ritte n phonemLcally as the nasal + stop clusters /mp/, /nt/, /nk/. Thus, our de scrip tio n s of the voiceless stop phonemes would have to be changed as follow s:

/p / - Voiceless fortis unaspirated bilabial stop: [p], as in /p ira / *1 took' (/p/ has the allophones [b], [mp], and [nb] [b], after /m/ except which are either in complementary distribu before / s / and / t / , tion or absolutely free variation in all /mpampdki/, [babaki] words: [b] occurs initially and after conso 1 cotton' nants; [mp] before /s/ and /t/; [nb] in [mp] before /s/ and /1/, free variation with [b] elsewhere, i.e., /kompsos/ 'elegant' the sequence [nb] may optionally be reduced [mb ]^[b ], /mpampas / [nbanbds-babas] 'father*

/t/ - Voiceless fortis unaspirated dental stop: [t], as in /tora/ 'now' (/t/ has the allophones [d], [nt], and [d j, before /z / and a fte r [nd] which are either in complementary /n/, /tzitzikas/ distribution or absolutely free variation [dzfdzikas] 'cridket' in all words: [d] occurs initially and /kantfna/ [kadfna] 'canteen' after consonants; [nt] before /s/ and /t/; [nt], before Is I and / 1 /, [nd] in free variation with [d] elsewhere, /fntsa/ 'inch' i.e ., the sequence [nd] may optionally [nd]*[d], /ntanta/, [ndanda« be reduced to [d]. dada] 'children's nurse', /antras/, [andras or adras] 'man'

/k/ - Voiceless fortis unaspirated velar stop: [k], as in /kdma/ 'comma' (/lc/ has the allophones [g], [nk], and [g], before /z / and a fte r [ng] which are either in complementary /n/ except before /s/ distribution or absolutely free varia /t/, /zinkzank/ [zigzag] tion in all words [g] occurs initially ' zig-zag1 and a f te r consonants; [nk] before / s / [qk], before Is/ and It/ and /t/; [ng] in free variation with /elenktfs/ 'auditor' [g] elsewhere, i.e. the sequence [gg] tngM gl, /tankd/ 'tango' may optionally be reduced to [g]^) 65

Phonotactics: The Consonant Sequences of Greek^

Distribution of Consonants

All the consonants which we have described above occur in utterance- initial and in medial position (intervocalically). All except /y/• may precede or follow any of the five vowels; / y / precedes only /u/, /o/, /a/-- never /i/, /e/. In utterance-initial position there are clusters of two or three dissimilar consonants. Table 7 from Koutsoudas^S shows the two- consonant clusters of Athenian Standard Greek. The following Table 8 is our adaptation of Koutsoudas' table and shows the two-consonant clusters of what we have styled Modem Mainland Greek—i.e ., the consonant system of modem Greek with the voiced stops eliminated from the inventory. As may be seen from these Tables, both systems admit two-consonant clusters in utterance-initial and medial position. According to Mirambel and House holder, the twenty most frequent consonant clusters are: /st/, /ks/, /nd/,

/ft/, /tr/, /pr/, /zm/, /mb/, /vr/, /sk/, /

/xt/, /ps/, /ly/, /sp. The initial three-consonant clusters /str/» /skn/,

/spl/, /ski/, /skr/, /spr/, /sfr/, are also possible: /stratds/, 'array,'

/sknfpa/, 'mosquito,' /splfna/, 'spleen,1 /sklfrosis/, 'sclerosis,'

/skrdfa/, 'prostitute,' /sprdxno/, 'I push,' /sfrayfzo/, 'I seal.'

Medially there are clusters of as many as four consonants, although these are rare. These four-consonant clusters have /k/ or /f/ as the first

24 The information and some of the examples presented here are based largely on the work of Koutsoudas, Householder, and Mirambel, as v e rifie d by ray own observations and checked in Crighton's Large Greek English Dictionary. Athens, 1960.

Verb Morphology, op. cit., p. 9. 26 Householder, Reference Grammar, p. 7. 66

TABLE 7

ATHENIAN STANDARD GREEK

I n i t i a l (and Medial) Two-Consonant Clusters*

P t k b d g f 6 X V 6 Y s z m n 1 r y p 2 1 pf 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 t te ts tm tn t l t r ty k & k£> kx ks km kn 11 k r Is b bl_ b r by d dz dl dy

S g<* gl 1 1 EL f f t fk ia is fs fn 11 Is IS e 0m SSL 11 i s IS

X xp xt - S i xm xn xl xr 2£L

V vd vy vz vm vn vl vr XL d i s is

Y yd yin jn s i XL XL s *2. St sk sf 12. sx 2 1 z zb zv zx zm zl z r zy m mp mb mf mv Ton tny n nt nk nd ng n0 nx nd nY ns US

1 IP It lk lb Id If 10 lv Id lY Is lm Is r *P r t rk rb rf r0 rx rv rd *Y rs rm m r l ry y

♦Underlined clusters occur both Initially and medially; the remaining clusters occur only medially. 67

TABLE 8

MODERN MAINLAND GREEK

I n it i a l (and Medial) Two-Consonant Clusters*

P t k f e XV d Y s z m n 1 r y p 2 1 2 l 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 SX t te ts tm tn t l t r ty k hi ke kx ks km kn klk r i£X f 1 1 fk 1 1 fx fs fn fll l lx 6 6n e l 6r ix

X xp xt M xm xn xl xr XX V vd XL vz vm vn vl vr XX d hix y 1± ym XU X l XI XX

X s2. s t sk sf 1 1 sx sx z zv IX zm zl zr zy m mp mf rav mn J2X n n t nk nQ nd nY ns SX

1 IP I t lk If 16 lv Id lY Is lm ix

r rp r t rk rf r0 rx rv rd ry rs rm m r l ry y

^Underlined clusters occur both initially and medially; the remainder occur only medially. 68 member, / s / as the second mesber and / r / as the fin a l menber of the clu ste r;

/kstr/ in hkstratfa/, 'military expedition'; /kspr/ in /ekspres/, 'express'; V V and /fstr/ in/afstria/, 'Austria.' All the simple initial consonants may also occur medially.

For clusters in utterance-final position, we follow Householder,27 who distinguishes between A) "ordinary vocabulary of Greek origin and structure," and B) "recent loanwords" from various sources. Class A words end only in 1) vowels, 2) -/n/ or 3) -/s/. In Class B words /p, t, k, b, g,

f, x, s, z, v, 1, r, n, m; (all consonants except /d, 6, y , 6, y/) occur in

utterance-final position: /dzfp/, 'jeep,! /pikAp/, 'phonograph,' /koddk/,

'kodak,' /mpar/, 'bar,' /sofdr/, 'chauffer,' /trdm/, 'streetcar.' Only the

clusters /ts, dz, ks, st, If, lm, rts, nks/ occur finally,in such borrowed words as /radts/, 'match,' /film/, 'film ,' /s6rts/, 'shorts,' /ngdlf/, 'golf,'

/tdnks/, 'tanks,' /trdst/, 'trust.'

The distribution of Greek phonemes in connected speech has been another

source of controversy among linguists because of the continuous stream of borrowings from other languages and from various stages of ancient and modern

"dialects." Mirambel^ and Macris^ do not recognize the occurrences in

Modern Greek of any fin a l consonants o th e r than - / s / and - /n / . Swanson, in

reviewing Mirambel's La langue greque mode m e. 30 disagrees with this position

saying: "Although these phonemes are statistically very frequent, this rule

2^Ibid. , pp. 4-5. 28 La langue. op. c i t . , p . 54-5.

29English Loanwords. op. clt.. p. 57.

300p . pit. 69 is not valid, since we must consider the presence of recent loans in Modem

/ Greek, such as (from English) bridz (the card game), d2£p. tank(s). or from > # <51 French liker. spor. Romeo, in turn, disagrees with Swanson,

. . .on the ground that in most problems of borrowing and of languages in contact there are often structural boundaries which, though allowing the "import," still forbid the assimilation of the new Tf (terminal in final position) into dimotilei. This is not a phenomenon of Modem Greek only, but based on general p rin c ip le s. . . The admission of from American jeep or from French liqueur and the lik e in to Greek would imply th at dimotiki (in i t s syntag- matic correlations) may theoretically accept any final consonant from borrowing. But the evidence rejects this supposition when we see that the tendency, if not the rule, of dimotiki is to "naturalize" in due time any borrowings by adding a vowel or any other morphologi cal signal which has a parallel in the language. Otherwise, how would we explain th at English BAR becomes uirdpa [bara] in American Greek where it should have not, and undo (bar) in Greece where it is still a foreign word? The so-called "problematic words" such as bidfa and ptitinga (English bluff and pudding) tell us that they are borrow ings old or popular enough to have acquired Demotic morphological garb, while dzip (

Householder almost solves this problem completely by his distinction between

class A and class B words. Nevertheless, he admits that ". . .virtually all

Greek words and in either a vowel or /s/ or /n/. . ."33 and that class B

items are ". . .as a whole. , .very infrequent."34 Householder cites one

other interesting fact of frequency:

. . .clusters of nasal plus (homorganic) voiced stop are con siderably more frequent medially than voiced stop alone (i.e., mb, nd, ng, than intervocalic b, d, g. . .) and far more frequent than nasal plus voiceless stop (which is found only in type B words).

3^-Language XXXVIII (1962), p. 195.

33"xoward a Phonological Grammar. . op. cit.. pp. 73-74, footn ote 27.

33Reference Grammar, o p . c it . . p. 11.

3*Ibid.. p . 4. 70

The explanation of this is, of course, historical; until loanwords from various languages (especially Turkish and Italian) upset the balance, medial b, d, g were always preceded by a nasal, while p, t, k, never were. This is what linguists call "complementary dis tribution", and would imply that at that time p and b were allo phones of a single phoneme. There may be some local dialects even today in which this is still tru e . 35

Earlier, Householder admits that, although all consonants occur in initial position and intervocalically, ". . .in some dialects b, d, g,j, [dz] are always preceded by a nasal.These facts of relative frequency regarding the troublesome [b], [d], [g], and the apparent hospitality of Athenian

Greek for "foreign" forms, sounds, and clusters, are reminiscent of the

distinction we have been trying to make between Modem Mainland Greek and

Educated Athenian Standard. Henceforth in this paper we shall refer to the

former as Standard Dialect A and the latter as Standard Dialect B.

The Vowel System of Greek

We have already noted that there is general agreement among linguists

in regard to the vowel system of Greek. Both on experimental grounds and on

the basis of previously published research the Greek vowels may be repre sented as follows:

i u

e o

The quality of these vowels can be described with reasonable accuracy by

two basic dimensions: the High-Low, and the Front-Back. The High-Low

35I b i d ., p . 6.

36Ibld. . p. A. 71

dimension refers to how close the tongue is to the roof of the mouth—'that is, how high or low in the mouth it is. For example, the vowel of /pfna/,

’hunger' is higher than the vowel of /pana/, ’diaper.’ In Greek there are

three distinctive heights, called, logically enough, High, Mid, and Low.

The Front-Back dimension refers to the position where, for the production

of a given vowel, the air passage between the tongue and the roof of the mouth is narrowed. For example, the vowel of /pdna/, 'pen,' is farther

front ("fronter") than the vowel of /p6no/» 'pain,' or of /punta/, ’chill,’

In the production of the Greek vowels, there are three distinctive

areas of the tongue which can be raised: Front, Center, and Back. The fol

lowing representation (Table 9) of the vowel difference divides both the

front-back and high-low dinnnsions in to three segments each and combines

these into a single chart depicting the distinctive features of articulation in the formation of the Greek vowels.

A feature concomitant with the dimension high-low is oral aperture.

The lower the tongue position, the greater the opening of the mouth. There

fore, the mouth is opened widest for /a/ because it has the lowest tongue position, and least widely for /i/ and /u/ because they have the highest

tongue p o sitio n s. The high vowels ft I and /u/ are sometimes called "close"

vowels; the mid vowels /e / and /of are sonetimes called "half-open" vowels;

and the low vowel /a/ is sometimes called an "open" vowel. Besides the two

principal dimensions—high-low and front-back—probably the most important

additional dimension is that connected with rounding or spreading the lips.

In Greek, it is necessary to distinguish the two lip positions: either they

are rounded (as in saying /o, u/) or they are unrounded (as In saying /i, e,

a/). Another dimension of some value is tense-lax, corresponding to TABLE 9

GREEK VOWEL PHONEMES AND THEIR AT .LOPHONES

Unrounded Rounded Front Central Back tHrru/Tr/Jff] ru-uwr«jf«] • High /Tens^7 U (closcj 1 f i t ^ J puh la-' /

1 '*ckar

IfTieJ ColLS]toJiol

Mid /Lax7 (ha!f~open) e o V 71 o f / / •pa i" k ’ i

i Ha-]CZJLfl M *} JI

Low ‘ - i ■ (open) d

// ■ ; : i

1 clfoj>et*' • ... ■ 73 fortis-lenis among the consonants. The tense vowels are articulated with greater muscular tension of the tongue than the corresponding lax vowels.

The Greek vowels /i/ and /u/ are tense, whereas /e/ and /o/ are lax.

The following statements of distribution account for the occurrence <3 *f of positional variants.

All stressed vowels in initial and medial position are somewhat

longer than unstressed vowels or vowels in final position. Thus, each vowel has a lengthened allophone [i*, e*, a", o*, u#] in non-final position when stressed .

All vowels in initial and medial position are slightly nasalized

* j# when followed by a nasal consonant. Example: [ma*na] 'm other'; [tz^nd]

'mosque.1

All unstressed vowels are slightly centered. Examples:

'when'; [e*n^] 'one'; [pri*k^] 'dowry.'

When the high vowels /i/ and /u/ occur unstressed in voiceless sur

roundings, (i.e., when followed by a voiceless consonant or in utterance-

final position) they may have voiceless allophones [i] and [u] in free

variation with their voiced counterparts. Examples; [

speech.

Koutsoudas has observed that /!/ has a glided allophone [i] and

/e/ has a mid close front unrounded allophone [e]®®: [maimu] 'monkey';

[le*i] or [le*I] 'he says.'

■^These statements rely heavily upon the work of Koutsoudas, Householder, and Mirambel.

"A Contrastive Analysis," op. cit.. p. 212. 74

Swanson^* has observed that /a/ has an allophone [a] in short unstressed words: [ s^s parak^ld] 'I beg you, please'; [a6i*na] 'Athens.'

As Householder points out^O there are few restrictions on the dis tribution of Greek vowels. Any vowel can occur initially or finally within an utterance. In interjections any vowel can occur as the sole constituent of an utterance ( \'l 'd! *hl IS! o\SI }. Medially any vowel may occur be fore any consonant or after any consonant, except that /!/ and /e/ cannot follow I'il.

All possible sequences of vowels occur. There are clusters of two identical vowels, two dissimilar vowels, or three dissimilar vowels.

Examples:

1. Clusters of identical vowels:

/piitrs/ 'poet'

/Qiikds/ 'sulfuric'

/nootropfa/ 'mentality'

/aedos/ 'innocent*

/aardn/ 'Aaron'

/avradm/ 'Abraham'

2. Clusters of two different vowels:

/ai6fa/ 'disgust*

/6eds/ 'God'

/adratos/ 'invisible'

/laoyraffa/ 'folklore' /aktio/ *1 hear* /9datro/ 'theatre*

39Vocabulary. op. cit.. p. 37.

^ Reference Grammar, op. c it. , p. 4* 75

3. Clusters of three dissimilar vowels:

/neoelinikd/ 'modern Greek'

/ayla£a/ 'Aglaia'

/xrisoxofa/ 'jewelry shops'

/aYoniao/ 'I struggle'

Syllable structure

The vowels constitute the nucleus of a sy lla b le . In two-vowel sequences containing unstressed /u/, the /u/ will be non-syllabic, pro nounced like English /w/; /uu/ does not occur in Greek. If we use the symbol £ to represent consonants and consonant c lu ste rs, and the

symbol V to represent vowels, we may illustrate the canonical shape of

Greek words as follows:

Class A words: (C) (C) (C) V (C)

Class B words: (C) (C) (C) V (C) (C) (C)

Thus, a syllab le in modern Greek may consist of a vowel or of up to

three consonants followed by a vowel. Any syllable except the last one

may beclosed by a liquid (/r/, /l/) or a nasal (/m/, /n/). In class A words only /-n/ or /-s/ may occur in absolute final position in a closed

syllable*

Prosodic Features of Greek: S tress. Rhythm* Juncture, and Intonation Patterns

No utterance can be made in Greek without i t s carrying an intona

tion pattern, the components of which are stress (relative prominence of

syllables), pitch (highness or lowness of tone), and terminal junctures

(certain features which signal the phrasing in speech). 76

Stress

Modem Greek is usually taught as having two levels of stress, strong and weak: one syllable (or vowel) is simply stressed or un stressed. In this paper we will assign the symbols /'/ (acute accent) to strong stress and /*/ (dot accent) to weak stress. The weak stress will be marked only when necessary to the discussion. The fact that stress is distinctive in modern Greek can be demonstrated by minimal pairs like the following:

/p6te/ ’when' — /pot£/ 1 never’

fk la/ ’other’ — /ala/ 'but'

/kanis/ 'you do' — /kanfs/ ’no one'

/xdros/ 'space' — /xor6s/ 'dance'

/mfsos/ 'hate' — /misds/ 'half'

/matya/ 'eyes' — /matykj 'glance*

/pfno/ 'I drink' — /pin6/ 'I'm hungry'

/pdrno/ 'I take' — /pern 61 'I p a ss'

/ndmos/ 'law' — /nomds/ 'province, district'

/dksoxi/ 'excellent' — /eksoxi/ 'country-side'

/vrdmikos/ 'dirty/ -- /vromikos/ 'bromic acid'

/ tzami/ 'window g la ss / — /tzamT/ 'mosque'

/kapelas/ 'tavern keeper' — /kapelas/ 'hatter'

In the first of each of these pairs, the first syllable is more promi nent (’'accented1’); in the second, the last syllable. Often when these words are said, there are accompanying features in the rise and fall of pitch—the pitch contour—which contribute to the prominence of the

accented syllable. 77

As we have seen above in the discussion on the distribution of

Greek vowels, strong stress increases the loudness of the vowel affected in any position in the utterance and slightly lengthens it in utterance initial and medial position. There is no lengthening of vowels in final position even with strong stress. Thus, in [ya*l£] 'milk' the accented

[a] is longer than the unaccented [&]; in [6e*ldt£] 'you want' the ac cented [e] is somewhat longer than the unaccented [£] 1s; in [po*s£]

'how much* the accented [o] is longer than the unaccented [o]. But if the strong stress falls on the vowel of the last syllable, there is no lengthening; that is, the /i/ in [ps^mi] 'bread* is not longer than the

/o/, and the /a/ in [k^la] 'good, well* is not longer than the first, unaccented /a/.

Certain short words like /ine/ 'he, she it is' are strongly stressed in some sentences and weakly stressed in others, according to their role within a given sentence. If there is at least one strong stress within the utterance, it occurs on only one of three vowels: the last (ultimate), second to the last (penultimate), or thir^ to the last vowel (antepenultimate) in the utterance: /si

/arxiepiskopos/ 'archbishop,1 /Istoria/ 'history, story,' /katastrofi/

'catastrophe,' /tf/ 'what.'

Certain particles and pronominal forms are weakly stressed; for

example, forms of the definite article, some forms of pronouns, the prep

osition /se/ 'you,' etc. Many of these weakly stressed short words are

linked In pronunciation with the preceding word. Examples of such

"proclitics" are the weak forms of the personal pronoun, the articles, 78 prepositions, conjunctions, and particles: /to Gasos/ 'the forest';

/i kiria/ 'the lady'; /o kirios/ 'the gentleman'; /mu fpe/ 'he told me'; /tu yr&fo/ 'I write to him'; /na/ 'that'; /Ga/ 'w ill'; /ke/ 'and.'

When linked with the following word ("enclitic"), if the pre ceding word bears strong stress on the antepenult, that strong stress is shifted to the ultima ("demoting" the other to weak), e.g.:

/to pukamiso/ -- 'the shirt*

/to pukamiso tu/ — 'his shirt'

/taftokfnito/ — 'the automobile'

/taftokinito mu/ — 'my automobile'

/tonoma/ — 'the name'

/tonoma mu/ — 'my name1

Rhythm

Greek is a syllable-timed language. That is, the unit of tempo is the syllable, and the syllable length has relatively little correla tion with stress. Syllables are not regularly longer simply because they are under a strong stress or at the center of an intonation pattern.

The syllables tend to come at more-or-less evenly recurrent intervals—

so that as a result, phrases with extra syllables or vowels are only

slightly shortened or modified. Since modem Greek weakens unaccented

vowels to only a negligible degree, its syllabic rhythm, based on an

alternation of vowels and consonants, is one of its mostconspicuous

accoustic effects. Every syllable is almost equally long, giving a

machine-gun effect. Pitch

According to Hamp,^ Greek has two levels of pitch: (1) low pitch and (2) high pitch. These may be represented graphically as steps in a musical scale:

High pitch in Greek usually coincides with strong stre ss in a word and there is usually only one strong stress in a word.

Juncture

The term juncture describes the ways in which speech segments are connected. In other words, juncture defines the kinds of transition between sounds in a language. As mentioned earlier, the phenomena which characterize phrase ends are analyzed as terminal junctures. In addition to two levels of pitch, Greek has three such terminal junctures: termi nal falling, synbolized by an arrow pointing downward /+/; terminal rising, symbolized /+/; terminal level, symbolized / |/.^

Within phrases, a very special characteristic of Greek is that words are run together as if they were just one word. These short phrases are single units pronounced in connected speech as if they formed one word.

Examples of such units have already been given above in the discussion on

^The Verb. op. cit. . p. 102, Athens, 1961. 12 Cf. Hamp, ibid.. where the symbols ////, / 1 /, and /+/ are used for 'abrupt terminal,' 'diminishing terminal,' and 'phrasal terminal,' respectively. 80 stress. They are: article with noun, noun with possessive pronoun, negative particle with verb, etc. In Greek, strong stress falls mainly on content words (nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc.) rather than on form words (articles, conjunctions, prepositions, etc.) which are usually treated as unemphatlc even when they bear a written accent. The fol lowing are some examples:

Please give it to me

^ / t oe TrapaictxAw va you to o o ae is

^s£p&r£k&lo* j ^n&muto^ 60sis^

I like bathing in the moonlight

^ou apfcei vd tcoXupru pe t 6 eyYctpi

^■muaresi^ | ^nakolimbo^ | ^matofengari^

Within phrases in Greek, therefore, it may be said that there is only one contrast of juncture: Close versus open. Close juncture is the kind of transition a native speaker of Greek makes as he passes from syllable to syllable and from word to word. Open juncture, on the other hand, is the kind of audible pause that comes at-the end of a breath group after a terminal contour.

In close juncture, when words come together in phrases, phonetic

adjustments are made between them, resulting in the loss (elision) or

change (assimilation) of one or more sounds.

A. Elision: In a group of two closely connected words of which

the first ends and the second begins with a vowel, one of these vowels

may disappear in normal colloquial speech. 81

1) The vowels may be the same, e .g .: 4 /ti ine/ >/tine/ - 'what is it'

/to oniro/ >/toniro/ - 'the dream'

/sta ala/ >/stala/ - 'to the others'

/tu uranu/ >/turanu/ - 'of the sky'

2) The vowels may be different. In this case the /a/ prevails over all other vowels, and others prevail in the order /o,u,e,i/, which gives the following results:

/a/+/a, o, u, e, i/>a

i / 0 /+ / 0 , u, e , i / > 0

/u/+/u, e, i/ >e

/ i / + / i / >i

e . g . :

/mu a rd si/ >/m aresi/ - 'I lik e i t '

/se ayapd/ >/sayap6/ - 'I love you'

/<£la e6o/ >/ela6o/ - 'come here'

/to aloYo/ /taloYo/ - 'the horse'

/ti ine afto/ >/tinafto/ - ’what is this'

/deka eksi/ >/dekaksi/ - 'sixteen'

/to eskase/ >/toskase/ - 'he escaped'

/pu £se/ >/puse/ - 'where are you'

/tu efiose/ >/tu6ose/ - 'he gave him'

/pende fmisi/ >/pendemisi/ - 'five-thirty'

3) In some cases a final vowel may also be elided before

a consonant. In the case of /apo/ 'from ' and /s e / 'to ' followed by the

definite article elision is almost always made:

/se tin eldSa/ /stin elaSa/ -'to Greece' /se tin p6li/ >/stimb6li/ - 'to the city*

/apo tin e^i /aptinela$a/ - 'from Greece'

/apo tin pdll/ >/aptimb61i/ - 'from the city’

/mdsa sto spfti/ >/mestosp£ti/ - 'in the house*

/pare to/ >/parto/ - 'take it'

/suto ipa/ >/st6pa/ - 'I told you' the commonest words liable to elision of final vowel are:

Articles: /to/ /tu/ /ta/

Particles: /0a/ /na/

Unemphatic (weak) Personal Pronouns: /me/ /s e / / t o / /tu /

Conjunctions: /ke/ /ala/

Prepositions: /se/ /apo/ /me/ /kata/ /para/ /ya/

4) E lisio n of fin a l /n /:

In connected speech the final /n/ is preserved (sub

ject to assimilation), if the next word begins with a

vowel or stop consonant; but it is elided if the next

word begins with a continuant consonant:

/ton dndra/ - 'the man*

/ton drdpo/ - 'the manner'

/tom bate^a/ - 'the father'

/to filo/ - 'the leaf'

B. Assimilation: In connected speech a sound in one word may be

modified by juxtaposition with a sound in another word. Assimilation

occurs in Greek, where not only one of the two sounds, but both of them

may be changed. But it is only made between words which are spoken

quickly together without a pause. and have close grammatical relation to each ocher. It is most often made between article and noun, and between negative particle and verb;

1) n + p>nb

n + ps>mbz

n + b>mb

n + t>nd

n + ts>ndz

n + k>Qg

n + ks>r)gz

n + g>rjg

e.g.

/ston pirea/ > / stombirea/ - 'to Piraeus'

/ton psefti/ > /tombzefti/ - 'the liar*

/stin banka/ > /stimbanka/ - 'to the bank*

/san ton i6 a / > /sandonifia/ - 'when I saw him'

/stin+tsdpi/ >/stindzdpi/ - 'in the pocket*

/tin+kdri/ > /tingori/ - 'the daughter'

/6en+ksero/> /dengzero/ - 'I don't know' V }/ /ton+grdmise/ > /tongrdmise/ - 'he threw him down'

2) /s /> /z / before /b dgmlnfvdzyy/

/ o yds mu/ > /oydzmu/ - 'my son*

/tis+zofs/ > /tiz(z)ofs/ - 'of life'

Intonation

In Greek several utterances may be distinguished from each other

solely by the movement of the pitch of the voice. The general pattern of Greek intonation is as follows:

1) Sentence final fall in pitch is associated with

a s se rtio n s , commands, and in te rro g a tiv e word

questions. Examples:

The fath er is very good.

*opat€ras^ | ^ine p&l£^ j ^kilos^ +

Please give it to me.

^separak£lo^ | ^namutSfidsis^ +

How is the job going?

^■pos* | *pai^ | ^ififilya*- +

In questions with question words, however, an

in itial rise in pitch is very common among Greeks,

giving the following alternative rendition:

2pos ^ I ^ a i1 I Hfiu1 lya1 +

2) A final rise in pitch (occasionally pre-final,

with final fall) is associated chiefly with yes-

or-no questions. Examples:

Will you go on foot?

1eiipSte1 | ^metip66ya2 f

Didn't you see her hat?

iides1 I 1to kipelotis2 + 85

3) As we have mentioned earlier Greek words have only

one strongly-stressed (higher-pitched) syllable

per word.

Unfortunately, little research on Greek intonation has been pub lished to date. We have made passing reference above only to a few rele vant tendencies that we have observed. More research on Greek intonation, and specifically instrumental studies with sound spectrographs and other electromechanical devices are sorely needed.

Sound and Spelling in Greek

The Greek Alphabet

The letters of the Greek alphabet are the following:

Letter Name of Letter

A a &X

B 0 BiVra /v ita /

r y yayya /yiiaa/

A 6 6£Xxa /6 d lta /

E E t^iXov /e p silo n /

Z ; Chxa / z f ta /

h n fix a / f t a /

0 0 Qfixa / e f ta /

I \ Swxa /y o ta /

K K < duir a /kapa/

A X Xdy (fi) 6a /lam6a/

M y yO /m i/

N v vO /n i/ 86

L e tte r

- K 5* /k s f /

0 o *6y imp ov /omikron/

n u ITl /p f/

p p pw fx6/

I 0 afyya /sfyma/

8 oiyyaTEAitfd /sfytna teliko/ used only at end of a word T T xoO /tat/

T u vtyiAov /ip s ilo n /

4 $ /ti/

X X X' /x£/ V tp ipr /p s l/

n u &ydya /otneYa/

Pronunciation of the Greek Letters

Pronunelation

a I at 'ctSeX4>6s /afielfds/ 'brother*

6 h i BiESAfo /vivlfo/ 'book'

Y Cy I before a,o»u,ou and consonants: yaAa /ydla/ 'milk*

fy] before e» ax, n, v, ex, oi: YeuPY^s [ye£ryd*s] 'farmer'

£ /£/ £aoos /£dsos/ 'forest'

e /e / £6u /e£d/ 'h e re '

; /z/ C^OTn /zdsti/ 'heat' n /!/ •v'vep,a. /im dra/ 'day' 87

Letters Pronunciation

6 /e / OaXaooa /9alasa/ 'sea'

i / i / \6£a /l£ea/ 'idea'

K /k / ecaAd /kald/ 'good'

A / l / AoYos /lofos/ 'word,' 'reason'

u /m/ ydQnya /ma6ima/, 'lesson'

V Ini vep6 /nero/ 'water*

S /k s/ £evos /ksenos/ 'stranger'

0 lol oAfyo /ollyo/ 'a little'

IT fat nfiXi /pall/ 'again'

P /if poXdi /rolol/ 'watch,' 'clock'

0 I*] before 8 > Y, 6 . C, P, v , p ;

/kozroos/ 'world*

S [■) If the next word begins with the abov consonants : Tfls Map fas

/tlzmarfas/ 'Mary's'

0 , S [«] elsew here: odXi /sail/ 'shawl* rtfs’kvvas /1 is anas/ 'Anna's'

t It! ra0£pva /taverna/ 'tavern,' 'bar'

0 HI oyeTa /iyfa/ 'health'

* Iff

X [x] before <*» o, u» ou, and consonants: yapd /xara/ 'j oy'

before e, at, n, i, u, ei, o\: xfXta fxi*lya] 'a thousand' /p s / /psix£/ 'soul' Y ijiux^ w lol Spa /

Sounds W ritten with a Sequence of Two Letters

a\ /e/ axpa /dma/ 'blood*

ex /i / e\vot\ /ine/ 'is'

ox fif ex' xioXAof /1 p o ll/ 'th e many'

ou /u / ootfira /supa/ 'so u p 1

nu /a f / before 0, £» w, o , x, , x» 'J'*

auxds /aftos/ 'he'

favf elsewhere: ctuyfi /avyo/ 'egg*

eu /ef/ before 0, ic, £, tt, o , t , , x»

eux

/ev/ elsewhere: euXoyfa /evolyia/ 'blessing'

ux /I/ puiya /miya/ 'fly*

yy [qg] ayyeAos /angelos/ 'angel*

yx [g] at the beginning of a word usually:

yxpcpd /gremds/ 'cliff'

[g] or within a word xisually: tD«] , pndyieos [bangos]—[bagos] 'bench*

[i)k] w ithin a word rarely :

pirdyxa [nibanka] 'bank'

YX [ tjx] cXeyxos [elenxos] 'a u d it ,' 'inspection*

pit [b] at the beginning of a word usually:

piropw [boro] 'I can'

[b] or within a word usually: [inbl . ^ pirdppxas [barmbas] [barbas] 'uncle*

[mp] within a word rarely:

Xdpita [lampa] 'lamp' 89

vt [d] at the beginning of a word usually:

vtouXdira [dulapa] 'c lo s e t'

[d] within a word usually: or [nd] ’ctvipas [andras] [adras] 'man*

[nt] within a word rarely:

ycvxcs [mdntes] 'mints'

to /ts/ Tofirx /tsdpl/ 'pocket'

t£ /dz/ TCfxtitcas /dzfdzikas/ 'locust'

It will be noted from the above that the pronunciation of

pit, vt , In the middle of a word varies according to the particular word,

and from one speaker to another. Thus, the nasal is sometimes omitted,

leaving simply [g, b, d]. More rarely they are pronounced as [^k, mp, nt]* See the discussion of the Greek consonants supra regarding the nasal-plus-voiced stop consonants and their various Interpretations.

Double consonant letters, apart from yy, are pronounced as if

theywere single sounds: &XXos /&los/ 'other'; 'dppos /dmos/ 'sand';

cKicXnofa /eklisia/ 'church.'

Summary of Vowel L e tte rs :

Letters Pronunci ation

a ■ a

e 0 1 ■> e

t , ei, 0 1 , n , u , ui ■ i

o - fat ■ o

ov ■ u 90

Summary of Consonants:

L etters Pronunciation

y before a, o, ou, «, and consonant letters,

except in groups yyt y*

before cu, ct ei, n, n, \, ot, u except after y

YY at the beginning of a word g w ithin a word

Ye i when not pronounced yi y

Y' when not pronounced y i y y* at the beginning of a word usually g (sometimes within a word)

within a word usually DS

within a word rarely & YU when not pronounced yi y

yin y

e 6

K except after y k

X 1

u m

jnr at the beginning of a word usually b (sometimes within a word)

within a word usually nib

within a word rarely nap 91

v n

vt at the beginning of a word usually d (sometimes within a word)

within a word usually nd

within a word rarely nt

£ ks

71 P

P *

o except before 0, y, y, pir s

before 0, y» y, yir z

s s

t except before c t

tc dz

4> f

X before a, o, ou, w, and consonant letters x

before a\, e,e\, n» n> t i, o\, u x i|> PS

Punctuation Marks

The following are the punctuation marks of Greek: % [ . ] - period

[ , ] - comma

[ I ] - exclamation point

[ : ] - the colon

[ 1 ] - the apostrophe 92

[ - ] - Che hyphen

[ " ] - the dieresis

[ () ] ” parentheses

Greek uses the semicolon [;] for a question mark; and the raised point

[•] for a semicolon (sometimes for a colon, also).

Accents and Breathings

There are three kinds of accent-marks used over vowels in Greek

orthography: acute ('), grave O , and circumflex ('). In the ancient

language they were indicators of high pitch, low pitch, and a combination

of low and high respectively. Today, all three of them are used with no

difference whatsoever, to indicate stress on a vowel. They are written

over a vowel or to the left side of it if the vowel is a capital letter.

In addition to the accents there are two marks called breathings, which are found over an initial vowel, written just to the left of the

acute or the grave accent, or just underneath the circumflex accent. Of

these macks n e ith e r the rough breathing (c )» which showed th a t a word be

gan with h in the ancient language, nor the smooth breathing (*), which

showed absence of h_, means anything in the pronunciation of Modem Greek.

When Greek words are written entirely in capitals, neither accents

nor breathings are written (e.g. EAAAAA for EXXdda /elada/, 'Greece').

If there is a stress on any vowel that is written with two letters

(e.g. at., for /e/, ej^ for /i/, etc.), the accent is written over the

second of the two letters, as in vaf /ne/ 'yes,' yiXet /mill/ 'he speaks.'

The breathings come in the same position, e.g. e*\va\ /£ne/ 'is ,'

c(koo\ /£kosl/ 'twenty,' ot /i/ 'the (m.p. or f.p.).' CHAPTER III

ANALYSIS OF ENGLISH SOUNDS

As we have seen in the last chapter, the literature describing

Modem Greek phonology is extensive and diverse. The literature describing English phonology is even more extensive and linguists have disagreed even more strongly about English than about Greek.^ In the case of English, however, it has been the vowels which have caused the greatest controversy, whereas the description of the consonants no longer poses a serious problem. This is exactly the reverse of the

Greek situation, where, as we saw in Chapter II, the vowels have been generally agreed upon, but the consonants were s till the subject of heated scholarly debate.

The analysis of English phonemes presented here is th a t of a normalized system of American English based largely upon the descrip tions of Trager and Smith and Bowen and Stockwell.^ This choice is made on the basis of wide acceptance and simplicity for teaching

*See H. A. Gleason, Jr., An Introduction to Descriptive Linguis tics . Chapter 19, and especially 19.7-19.2?., New York, Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1961, for an excellent but brief summary of the various inter pretations of English phonemics, especially as concerns the vowels. See also James A. Sledd, "Rev. Outline of English Structure by Trager & Smith." Language. 31:312-335, 1955.

^Trager, George L., and Smith, Henry L. Jr., An Outline of English S tru ctu re : Bowen, J . Donald, and Stockw ell, Robert P ., The Sounds of English and Spanish.

93 94

purposes. As in the case of Greek, the analysis is presented in the

following order: segmental phonemes (consonants and vowels), and supra-

segmental or prosodic features (stress, juncture, pitch). These are

followed by a brief statement on orthography.

Consonant uhonemes and th e ir allophoncs^

The consonants of English can be classified according to the

following chart (See Table IQ) on the basis of manner and position of

articulation. The English consonants may be described almost wholly

within the framework we have used for the Greek consonants. Two

English phonemes, /h / and fxf, require special consideration and are

discussed separately below. The phonemes /w/ and /y / are termed con

sonants in their occurrence before vowel nuclei because in this posi

tion they pattern like all the other consonant phonemes, and in force

ful articulation have the phonetic features of fricative consonants.

The consonants of English with their distinctive features are

— the following:

/p/ - voiceless bilabial stop: pin - tapping - tap

/b/ - voiced bilabial stop: bin-tabbing - tab

/t/ - voiceless apico-alveolar stop: tin - latter - hat

/d/ - voiced apico-alveolar stop: din - ladder - had

/k/ - voiceless dorso-velar stop: cane - backing - tack

/g/ - voiced dorso-velar stop: gain - bagging - tag

/c/ - voiceless alveo-palatal affricate: chin - batches - rich

V /j / — voiced alveo-palatal affricate: gin - badges - ridge

If/ - voiceless labio-dental fricative: fin - safer - beef

^The analysis of consonant phonemes and their allophones is, for the most p a rt, drawn from Trager and Smith. TABLE 10

ENGLISH CONSONANT PHONEMES

Point o f L abial Apical P a la ta l D orsal G lo tta l

Articulation Manner

o f •H •d Articulation

Stops v l vd

A ffricate. vd

S l i t v l Fricative; vd

Groove v l vd

N asals vd

Resonants Laterals vd

Median vd

F la p s vd /v/ - voiced labio-dental fricative: vim - saver - leave /e/ - voiceleaa apico-dental fricative: thigh - ether - loath /fi/ - voiced aptco-dental fricative: thy - either - loathe /a/ - voiceless apico-alveolar groove fricative: sip - racer - rice tzf - voiced apico-alveolar groove fricative: zip - razor - rise Is/ - voiceless alveo-palatal groove fricative: shell - Asher - ruche /z/ - voiced alveo-palatal groove fricative: - -azure -rouge^ /m/ - voiced bilabial nasal: mail - summer - ram /n/ - voiced apico-alveolar nasal: nail - sinner- ran /n/ “ voiced dorso-velar nasal: --— - singer - rang /l/ - voiced apico-alveolar lateral: look - miller - reel /r/ - voiced apico-alveolar retroflex semivowel: rook - mirror - rear /w / - voiced bilabial semi vowel: wait - await - — - lyl - voiced alveopalatal semivowel: Yale - bayou ------/h/ - glottal oral fricative: hall - ahead ------

As may be seen from the above l i s t , two of the consonant phonemes

In/ and /z/ never occur initially. As we have defined /w/ and /y/> and

as we shall define /h/ and Irl below, they do not occur finally. These

facts account for the blank spaces in the examples which were given above

to i l lu s tr a te the consonant phonemes of English in three d iffe re n t p o sitio n s: word in itial, word medial and word final.

The phoneme fhl is a special case. Sounds which are called fri

catives are produced with friction at some specific point in the vocal

tract. The significant feature of /h/ is aspiration or the release of a

breathy-sounding stream of air without accompanying local friction. The

a rtic u la tio n of /h / does not require the vocal organs to assume any

particular position. During articulation, the vocal organs therefore

^Soik » speakers do not use /z/ in word-final position but pronounce rouge as /ruj /, garage as /ger4^/, etc. take on the p o sitio n of the next following phoneme. The p o sitio n a l variants of /h/ are thus said to be conditioned, or "colored," by the surrounding sounds. That is, in the production of /h/ the vocal organs take on the position of the next following phoneme. If this next phoneme is a vowel, the result is an /h/ with the quality of this vowel — or, in other words, a voiceless vowel with cavity friction. This means that /h/ has a large number of allophones, depending on the vowel which follows.

Some scholars have been tempted to call English /h/ a voiceless vowel.

We choose to call it a consonant, however, on the grounds that it patterns like other consonants and that to do so facilitates our comparison with

Greek. Thus, we analyze /h/ as a glottal-oral fricative. It occurs initially and medially between vowels. It is usually voiceless in Initial position and has frlction-noise onset, while medially it is voiced, with sharp decrease in force of utterance.

The re tro fle x / r / is also somewhat d if f ic u lt to c la s sify . I ts articulation Involves little restriction or friction in the mouth. There is no contact between the tongue and any part of the roof of the mouth.

In pre-vocalic /r/, the tongue is retroflexed (bent backward), with the tip just behind the alveolar ridge. There is also noticeable lip rounding when it occurs at the beginning of words, as in run, ram, right, rim, red.

Thus, the bulk of the articulatory evidence points to assigning /r/ to the vowels. The only phonetic support for calling it a consonant comes from those dialects of American and British English that pronounce /r/ with a flap of the tongue against either the backs of the upper teeth or the alveolar ridge, as in the word three or (in the British Isles) words merry. very, etc. But, again, we have other good reasons for calling /r/, like

/h /, a consonant: patterning, and facilitation of subsequent comparisons with Greek. Thus, we analyze /r/ as a retroflex (or retracted) semivowel 98 which has three main allophones — off-glide or syllabic prefinally

and finally, the frictionless flap-like [xJ initially and medially between

vowels, and the fric a tiv e [xj before vowels after /t,d/.^

car run try

fur pry dry

cart fry butter

b ird merry

Some American d ialects have no fin a l [&]. However, they have

some movement of the tongue that corresponds to the symbol [xj

The following statements of distribution hold for the positional

variants of the remaining English consonants:

Voiceless stops /p, t, k/ are congruently patterned; /p/ is

bilabial, /t/, alveolar, and /k/, velar. They are aspirated ^p', t1,

k'7 when they occur initially and medially before stressed vowels, and

optionally finally.

peal tend cat

appeal attend occur

play tray clay

In medial position before weak vowel or sonant (/r, 1, m, n,/)

and after /s/, they are unaspirated [p , t , kJ. This allophone is also

optional in final position.

paper biting pocket

Bplll still skill

^Trager, G. L., and Bloch, B., "The Syllabic Phonemes of English," Language. 17:238, 1941.

^Structural Notes and Corpus. pp. 16-17. 99

Before another atop and often finally, they are unreleased

tP» t, It].

lip pot kick

napkin hatpin actor

One other allophone of /t/ Is [t] which occurs after strong vowels before weak vowels. It Is often voiced and so short as to be a flap, as In water and cl tv. ^

The point of articulation of the phoneme /k/ varies according to the vowels which come after It. It Is fronted before front vowels and backed before back vowels.

Voiced stops /b, d, g/ are also congruently patterned. Each Is

articulated in correspondence with its voiceless partner /p, t, k/.

In initial position these three phonemes have voiceless onset—[)?b,

Ad, §&]• They are p la in voiced— [b, d, g]—In medial p o sitio n , and

they have voiceless ending in final position— [b^, d*, g§l.

beg dip gun

rubber ladder beggar

rub red rug

The variants in place of articulation of /g/ are like those of

/k /.

/c» 37 Voiceless and voiced affricates. The former is made up of

a voiceless blade alveolar stop followed by a voiceless alveolar hushing

sibilant, and the latter is the same combination voiced, /c/ has only one

allophone— [c]—in all positions, /j/ may have voiceless onset initially,

and voiceless close fin a lly , thus— , j, $%].

J Trager, G. L., "The Phoneme /t/, A Study in Theory and Practice," American Speech. 18:146, 1942. 100 church judge

teacher budget

/f, v/ Voiceless and voiced labio-dental fricatives, /f/ has one allophone — [fj — in all positions. The allophones of /v/ are like those of /b, d, g, j/ — with voiceless onset initially, plainvoiced medially, and with voiceless close finally — [Yv, v , vY}.

fin vain

coffee living

wife live

/8,6/ Voiceless and voiced interdental fricatives, /0/ has one allophone -- [6] — in all positions. /6/ has allophones like those of /v/, etc., therefore — l§5,6, 6* ]. Medial /6/ is rare, and initial

/6/ is restricted to a few common pronoun-like words -- the, this. that. etc.

th in thine

pithy wither

myth bathe

/s, z/ Voiceless and voiced alveolar groove sibilants, /s/ has one allophone — [s] — in all positions, while the allophones of

/z/ are similar to those of /v/ and /&/. Thus [5z, z, z5].

see zone

missing roses

miss rose

/s, z/ Voiceless and voiced alveo-palatal sibilants. They have one allophone each — [s, z]. /s/ occurs in all positions; /z/ occurs medially; and finally in a few words, in which it may have voiceless end ing 101

shoe

pushing measure

push rouge

/m, n,n/ Voiced nasals, articulated bilabial, alveolar, and velar respectively, /m, n/ occur in all positions; /n/ occurs medially before unstressed vowels (of suffixes) and finally. In their final positions, all of them are longer. Before /t/ between a stressed and on unstressed syllable, /n/ combines with it to make a nasal flap.

map nun

summit fancy singing

dam man r in g

hunting

/l/ Voiced alveolar lateral. It has two outstanding positional variants in English. They are called, impressionistically, "bright" fLj and "dark" fkj. The articulatory difference is to be found pri marily in the position of the tongue. The back of the tongue is some what higher in articulation of dark fk j. Its occurrence is limited to syllable-final position, as in the words table, full. B ill. Tilden.

B rig h t ClJ occurs elsewhere as in like, look, leak, lack, luck.

/m, n , 1 , r/ are syllabic when they occur in syllable final after other consonants, including /m, n, 1 /, except for the sequence /lm/.

bottom common

button final

bottle collar

b u t t e r

In initial position, the semivowel /y/ is a palatal on-glide with front vowel timbre, and /w/ is a rounded on-glide with back vowel 102 timbre. Finally, /y/ results in high front off-glide, and /w/ in close

lip-rounding.

yes we

you woo

by how

boy

Consonant Clusters**

The following lists of consonant clusters cover virtually all

the clusters possible in the initial and final positions in the word.

No attempt has been made to draw up a list of clusters occurring in

the medial position because many of the combinations given for the

initial and the final positions also occur in the medial position. Also,

many of those listed for the final position can be converted to medially

occurring clusters by the addition of a suffix to the word in which they

occur finally. In the stream of speech, the number of combinations of

consonants which may occur at the end of one word and at the beginning

of the next and thus form a cluster is practically lim itless.

(A) Consonant Clusters occurring in the Initial position in

a word

(1) Clusters of two consonant sounds

/ 0 r — / three, through, throat i i shred, shrine, shriek

/fr—/ free, fry, fruit /gr--/ green, grown, grass 1 7

£ cross, cry, crowd / b r — / break, bread, bright I /pr—/ press, pray, proud i drop, draw, dry

/ t r ~ / try, train, track

®The analysis of consonant clusters is drawn partly from Fries, C. C., Teaching and Learning English as a Foreign Language, and Jones, L. G., "English Consonantal Distribution," For Roman Jakobson. pp. 245-253. 103

/ f l — / fly, flow, flame / 0W— thw art (not common)

/kl—/ cloud, clock, climb /kw— quick, queen, quite

/p i” / please, plane, play / tw— twin, twice, twelve

/ s l ~ / sleep, slow, slice /sw— sweet, swim, swing

/g l— / glad, glass, glow / dw— dwell, dwarf 1 1 1 ► * * ► o’" o’" blue, blow, bleed /gw— Owen (not common)

/hw— why, which (alterna tiv e [w— ]) /fy — / few, future, fury

/ky—/ cube, cure, queue /sk — skin, sky, school

/py— / pure, pupil, pew /sp — speak, spot, sport

/ty — / tune, tutor, tube / s t — stick, stay, study

/vy— / view /sm— small, smoke, smart

/by— / beauty, bureau, bugle /sn — snow, snake, sneeze

/dy— / dew, d u rin g , duty / s f ~ sphere, spherical

/ b y - / hue, huge, human /sv — s v e lte (n o t common)

/ny— / mute, music, mutual

/ny— / new, nucleus

/ 0y~ 7 thew (not common)

/sy — / suit (alternative [s—]) i i lute (alternative [ 1 —])

(2) Clusters of three consonant sounds

/s k r — / scream, scrub, screw / s p l - -/ split, splendid, splash

/skw—/ square, squeeze, squeak /spy- -i sp u rio u s, spume, spew

/sky— / skewer / s t r - -/ string, strike, strong

/s k i— / sclerosis (not common) /s ty - -/ stupid, student, studio

/ s p r —/ spring, spread, spray 104

(B) Consonant clusters occurring in the final position in the word

(1) two consonant Clusters sounds o

/—0s/ maths, deaths, births —ts/ cats, parts, sets

/—fs/ laughs, chiefs, puffs —ns/ tense, once, since

/—ks/ picks, takes, box —Is/ false, else, pulse

/—ps/ cups, hopes, lapse

—mp/ camp, lamp, pump

/—6z/ soothes, bathes, loathes —sp/ gasp, rasp, lisp

/—vs/ lives, gives, moves —Ip/ help, gulp, pulp

/—gz/ bags, dogs, legs

/—bz/ rubs, sobs, mobs —nk/ sink, bank, think

/—dz/ heads, needs, roads —sk/ ask, desk, task

/—mz/ conies, times, names —lk/ milk, silk, bulk

/—n z/ means, owns, towns

/—nz/ sings, songs, hangs —mf/ nymph, lymph, triumph

/—1z/ tells, feels, miles —If/ self, golf, gulf

* /—ft/ laughed, puffed, left —nj/ change, lounge, hinge

/—kt/ looked, worked, act —lj/ bulge, indulge, divulge

/“ pt/ hoped, tapped, kept v /—st/ passed, forced, list —nc/ pinch, lunch, bench

/—st/ pushed, wished, fished — l c / belch

/—ct/ watched, reached, marched

/—nt/ went, hint, sent

/—It/ belt, felt, salt 105

—6 d/ soothed, bathed, loathed -d9/ width, hundredth

-vd/ lived, moved, saved —nd/ tenth, ninth, seventh

~gd/ begged, tugged, pegged —m0 / warmth

—bd/ rubbed, sobbed, webbed —n®/ length

■-zd/ used, raised, caused —16/ health, wealth

¥ —jd/ lodged, aged, charged

—tad/ formed, seemed, harmed — d/ banged, belonged, hanged

—nd/ owned, pinned, kind —Id/ pulled, filed, told

—lm/ film, elm, realm

—f 0 / f i f t h — lb / bulb

—p 0 / depth —lv/ solve, valve, delve

—t 8 / e ig h th — I s / Welsh

(2) Clustersconsonant of three sounds

—fts/ lifts, gifts, shifts — f 0 s / f i f t h s

—kts/ acts, facts, pacts — p 6 s / depths

—pts/ adopts, erupts, adapts — t 6 s/ eighths

—sts/ lists, posts, tests —dd&/ widths, hundredths

—nts/ wants, hints, tents —n 0 s / te n th s

--Its/ belts, melts, faults — n 0 s / len g th s

—mps/ camp8 , lam ps, pumps —ndz/ ends, kinds, lands

—sps/ gasps, rasps, lisps —ldz/ holds, builds, folds

—-lps/ helps, gulps, pulps 106

—qks/ sinks, banks, thinks —lmz/ films, elms, realms

—sks/ asks, desks, tasks —lbz / bulbs

—Iks/ milks, sulks, hulks —Xvz/ solves, valves, selves

—If©/ twelfth

—mfs/ nymphs, triumphs —k s 0 / s ix th

— Us/ gulfs —nd 8 / thousandth

—-kst/ mixed, boxed, text —mft/ triumphed

—pat/ lapsed —lft/ engulfed

—tst/ blitzed

—nst/ danced, rinsed, bounced —net/ pinched, lunched, punched

—1st/ pulsed, waltzed, convulsed —lift/ belched (not common)

— n st/ amongst

—let/ welched (not common)

—rapt/ camped, pumped, jumped

—spt/ gasped, rasped, lisped —njd/ changed, lounged, ranged v —lpt/ helped, gulped, pulped —ljd/ bulged, divulged, indulged ^

—nkt/ banked, linked, thanked —lvd/ solved, delved, shelved

—s k t/ asked, basked, masked —lmd/ filmed

—lkt/ milked, sulked, bulked

(3) Clustersonsonant of four sounds

—mpst glimpsed — I f 6 s/. twelfths

—tapts/ tempts, attempts —k s 6 s / s ix th s

—k s ts / texts —nd 6 a/ thousandths 107

Distribution: English Consonants, general.

All consonants occur initially (between pause and vowel) except

/ * / and /n /.

All consonants occur in initial clusters except the affricates

(/c/ and /j/), / 6 /, /z/, /h/, /z/ and /n /.

All consonants occur finally (between vowel and pause) except /h/,

/w/, and /y/. v All consonants occur in final clusters except /h/, /z/, /w/, /y/.

Sequences of Identical consonants do not occur.

English Vowel Nuclei^

Here we make one chief departure from the method used to describe the Greek vowels. Because of the phonetic characteristics of English vowels, we find it advantageous to speak of syllabic nuclei (a vowel is the nucleus of a syllable) rather than merely of vowels. The term syllabic nucleus is intended to cover arrangements of vowels and vowel-like sounds spoken by most Americans. There are both simple and complex nuclei. A simple nucleus is a single vowel. A complex nucleus, or diphthong, is a single vowel followed by a glide, or semivowel. In English there are al together fourteen vowel nuclei. Seven of these are like / \y/ in feel in that they end with an off glide. Seven are like the vowel nucleus of fill

/fil/ which does not contain an off glide.

The vowel system described below is a normalized system for

American English. English has, between one dialect and another, extremely wide variation in the vowels. This normalized system Includes the vowel

^This analysis of vowel phonemes is based on that proposed by Stockwell and Bowen in their Sounds of English anl Spanish, op. clt. 108 contrasts that are most widely shared by speakers of American English.

Seven simple nuclei occur in English syllables with strong stress. These seven stressed vowels or full vowels are:

l \ i sit, bit, bin, fill, fizz, Rick

u t set, bet, Ben, fell, fez, wreck

/as / sat, bat, ban, jazz, wrack

/ a / sot, pot, don, rock

h ! sought, bought, dawn, fall, lawn, hawk

to /10 putt, but, done, lull, does, luck

/»/ soot, put, could, full, hook

Their articulatory positions relative to each other are shown in the following chart:

s i t so o t

U] s e t s u t

soughat

[a] s o t

The complex nuclei (diphthongs) consist of combinations of simple nuclei and glides, either /y/ (toward a higher, tenser, fronter tongue

lOstockwell and Bowen write this central vowel with the phonetic symbol /*/• 109

position) or /w/ (toward a higher, tenser, backer tongue position and greater lip rounding:

/iy/ see, seat, beat, bean, feel, fees, reek

/ey/ say, sate, bait, bane, fail, faze, rake

/ay/ sigh, sight, bite, dine, file, eyes, like

/oy/ soy, quoit, loin, boil, boys

/aw/ sow, bout, down, foul, boughs

/ow/ sew, boat, roan, foal, foes, coke

/uw/ sue, boot, moon, fool, booze, Luke

the articulatory positions of the complex nuclei relative to each other are shown in the following chart:

b e a t boot

ow i t b o atba

aw oy bite bout boy

It w ill be noted that the simple nucleus /ae/ is unmatched by a complex nucleus, whereas /a/ is matched by two complex nuclei, one with /y/ and one with /w/. 110

The articulatory positions of both the simple and complex nuclei are shown below:

[uw]

ley] [ow]

o otea t bo o tbe

b i t pu t

b a it b o at

b e t b u t

bat bought, boy

bite pot bout

The above constitute the stressed vowel syster i English, Three additional final symbols are used by Stockwell and Bowen for the central unstressed vowels of English: /4/ as in sofa, roses./tv/ as in city, panic,

and /iw/ as in value. pillow. However, since /4y/ closely resembles the n u c le u s 1 /iy/ and /i/, /4w/ resembles the nucleus /ow/, and /£/ bears a

close resemblance to /a/ when it appears in open syllables, we shall dis

pense with these symbols in our transcription and use /a/ for both the Ill stressed sad unstressed central vowels, distinguishing between them only by stress marks.

The fourteen vowel nuclei are tabulated below:

S tre s s e d Vowel Phonemes

F C B (Rounded) High uw

Mid ey ow

Low ae

/a y / /aw /

Thus, the following are the vowel phonemes of American English described according to distinctive features of articulation:

S tre sse d

/ t y / high-front-tense: b e a t

/ i / high-front-lax: b i t

/e y / mid-front-tense: b a it

/ e / mid-front-lax: bet

/ae / low-front-lax: bat

/ a / low-central-lax: h o t

/»/ mid-central-lax: b u t

/= / mid-back-lax: brought

/ow / mid-back-tense: b o at

/u / high-back-lax: book 112

/v>w/ high-back-tense: boot

/ay/ /a/ + glide toward bite higher, tenser, fronter tongue p o s itio n :

/aw/ /a/ + glide toward bout higher, tenser, backer tongue posi tio n :

/oy/ /a/ + glide toward, boy e tc .

Unstressed

/o/ low-central-lax: sofa

Before /r/ In those varieties of standard English which "pro nounce the r" before consonants and boundary elements, certain contrasts of nuclei are often lost: /iy/, /\/ > /i/; /ey/, /e/, /ae/ > /e/; /uw/,

/u/ > /o/; and ow/, /o/ > /o/. Before /r/, then, the syllabic nuclei which generally occur are these:

\ u beer boor

e a o b e a r b u rr bo re

ay a aw dire bar dour

Positional variants of English vowel nuclei vary to a certain extent from region to region. The length of vowels is more or less patterned as observed in seer, seen, seed, cease, seat. The vowel is longest before voiced sibilant, rather long before nasal and voiced stop, somewhat long before voiceless sibilant, and shortest before voiceless stop.**-

^Trager and Smith, An Outline op. cit.. p. 19. 113

One vowel never follows another In English without either a consonant, semivowel, or glottal stop occurring between. The phono logical restrictions of English are such as never to permit a vowel cluster. Sequences of two vowels rarely occur in English, and when they do, a glottal stop must break the sequence.

Syllable Structure

The canonical shape of American English words is:

Prosodic Features of American English: Stress, Rhythm, Juncture, Intonation Patterns 12

In to n a tio n

In describing English intonation, it Is usual to posit four pitch levels and three terminal contours.

Pitch levels are numbered from low to high: /l, 2, 3, 4/.

Terminal Junctures are: /+, 4 , j/. These junctures are characterized as follows:

/+/: a terminal rise in pitch ending at a level higher than that of the preceding pitch level but lower than that of the next higher pitch level.

/+/: a terminal fall in pitch ending at a level lower than that of the preceding pitch level but not as low as the next lower pitch level

(where one exists), a diminution in loudness, and frequently a lengthening of terminal segments. When the preceding pitch level is /l/, the loudness

^For the analysis and many of the examples in this section 1 have relied heavily upon the work of Francis Juhasz and William Nemser in their "Contrastive Study of Hungarian and English Phonology," Project No. 70. ACLS Research and Studies in Uralic and Altaic Languages, xerographed, Bell & Howell Co., Cleveland, Ohio, 1964. 114

diminution Is usually accompanied by a fall in pitch to a level below /l/.

/[/: a sustained pitch level characterized chiefly by an absence of the positive features for either /t/ or /+-/.

An Intonation contour consists of two or more pitch levels and a terminal juncture.

Among the principal intonation patterns are the following:

Final Contours:

(1). The most common final contour is 12311 with terminal fall.

Examples:

2how 3are youl+

2Good 3morningl+

2Open your 3booksl+

2This is a 3bookl+

This contour is often used to signal statements, imperative requests, questions with question words (i.e., questions that are not answered with "yes" or "no").

(2) The /233/ contour, with terminal rise is the question signal

(i.e ., questions that can be answered with "yes" or "no").

Examples:

2ls this a 3book3f * 2Are you going 3home3t

2Did you leave a 3tip3+

All these utterances are recognized as questions by English speakers because of the /233/ intonation contour. 115

(3) Most tags are characterised by the pitch patterns /222/ or

/111/ and sometimes /333/.

Examples:

2This is a piece of 3paperl | lherel+

2 sit 3down2 2j0hn2+

2You didn't leave It cm the 3bus3 | 3dld y o u 3 t

Tag patterns may end either with falling (e.g. "here," "John") or rising (e.g., "did you") pitch endings.

English differs from most other languages in the m ultiplicity of its question tags. These may also end either with falling or rising pitch endings. The falling intonation indicates a conviction on the part of the speaker that his statement is correct. The rising intonation indicates a certain doubt on the part of the speaker of the correctness of his sta te m e n t.

Exam ples:

^You're ^coming* | 3arenit y 0 u*+ (Speaker is fairly certain.)

2You're 3Coming2 | 2 a re n 't 3you3+ (Speaker doesn't know, wants more information.)

^This i s n 't h is^ only job^ | ^is it+ (Fairly certain.)

2This isn't his3 only job2 j 2is 3it3f (Meeds more confirm ation.)

(5) When a /232/ pattern ends with a rising pitch, it signals

something tentative.

Exam ples:

2But I saw him 3yesterday2+

2l wouldn't have 3thought so2f 116

(6 ) The pattern of address often occurs as /232/ with falling pitch ending*

Examples;

?Mr. 3Jones?+

3Hother?+

(7) Counting is often done in /233/ pattern with a falling pitch ending.

Examples:

2twenty-3onel + ?twenty-3twol + 2twenty-2three1+

or, with a rising pitch ending:

2twenty-2one3 i 2twenty-2two3 t 2twenty-2three3f

Non-Final Contours.

Generally speaking, intonation patterns that end with sustained pitch level (1 ), are non-final.

(1) The most common type of non-final Intonation contours is

/232/, as in the first phrase of these examples:

2They're not 3boys2 j 2th ey're 3menl+

2ls John3 Jones2 | 2a 3teacher3+

(2) A non-final /231 / suggests finality, and so makes the phrase seem as if it were ending.

Examples:

2Mister 3jonesl | lls out teacher^

2pull over that 3chairl j lover therel+

The second phrase in both examples is almost an afterthought. Only the sustained pitch level (|) makes another phrase necessary. 117

(3) A fairly common non-final pitch ending is the level Ill'll type, as in the first phrase of these examples:

2He asked 2 | 2are you going ^home^t

2 1 s a id 2 j 2please don't go ^home1+

This is the usual pattern for front tags, and often introduces a direct q u o tatio n *

(A) If, however, anon-final /222/ pattern ends with a rising pitch, it expresses something quite different.

Examples:

2 0 h yes2 + 2 i th in k sol+

2Maybe2 t 2but I'm n o t 3 c e rta in l+

Usually phrases with these patterns express doubt or a suspension of judgement, e. g, "Maybe."

Internal Juncture.

Along with the three terminal junctures, /+, + , |/, a fourth juncture must be recognized, the internal juncture /+/. This internal Juncture is roughly definable as a transition between phonemes represented by terminal, as opposed to medial, allophones.

Internal juncture may be illustrated in a variety of segmental and accentual contexts:

f r e e + Danny fre e d + Annie

that + school that's + cool

may + k i l l make + i l l

Jack + skies Jack's + keys 1X8

lc + sighs it's + eyes

flight + wrap fly + trap

yellowed + rug yellow + drug

S tre ss

Four degrees of stress are usually posited for English. They may be Illustrated with the following forms:

r v r 7 r 7 /w 7 toll-house tall house their house th e house make-up make lunch make up macaw phone-book(s) phone Brooks your book(s) some book(s)

sit-dow n s i t here s i t down sedan pig-pen b ig pen my pen a pen

The stress system is closely integrated with the intonational

system. A primary stress normally occurs on the center of the intona

tion, i.e ., on the syllable with the penultimate pitch level, and termi

nal junctures must separate such occurrences:

^They bought a ^station-wagon^+

^Have you ^seen it^+

^No^ t ^not^ yet^+ The distinctive status of English stress is illustrated by minimal pairs

like the following: ✓ in s e r t in s e r t

in c re a se In c re a se v pdrm lt p erm it 119

suspe&t su sp ect

incline incline

perveft pervert / Import im port

As we note, In all of the cited pairs, the alternation of the stress patterns /'" / and /*"/ is correlated with alternations between nominal and verbal grammatical categories. In addition, analogous pairs like the following are numerous:

combine combine ^ , cdndufct conduct

cdnsott consdrt

d d clid e d e c lin e

ddcre&se decrease

prdsedt present

rdjefct r e jd c t

Rhythm

English is a stress-timed language. Stressed syllables occur as nearly as possible at regular intervals of time. Unstressed syllables are fitted in between the stressed and reduced or are weakened. The length of the stressed syllable depends on the number of unstressed syllables following it. Syllables are regularly longer simply because they are under strong stress or at the center of an intunation pattern. 120

Sounds and Letters of Englishl3

Vowels

Sound itte r Examples A / \y/ ee meet e be

e . . . e mete

ea sea * ae C aesarian

eo poeple

oe amoeba

e l re ceiv e

ie b e lie v e A/ i machine

ey key

ay quay

i h i t

ie siev e

e England

ee been (in American English)

0 women

u busy y myth u i b u ild

13See James P. Soffieti, "Why Children Fall to Read: a Linguistic Analysis," Harvard Educational Review 25.63r84 (1955). Most of the examples given here are from this source, as rearranged, expanded, and modified by Francis Adkins Hall and Eleanor H. Brenes in Spelling Patterns, Ithaca, New York, pp. 2-3, and by Robert A. Hall, Jr. in Sound and Spelling in English, New York, 1961, pp. 17-22. 121

Sound Letter Examples

/ey/ ei veil

e a s te a k

ey obey

a. ..e gate

a i p a in

ao gaol (British spelling of j a i l ) au gauge

ay ay

/ e / e s e t

ea le a th e r

ae aesthetic

e i h e i f e r

ie frie n d

eo leo p ard

oe foetid (alternative fo r f e tid ) a i s a id

a any

u bury

/ae / a hat

a i p la id

ay p ra y e r

au laugh

/a/ a father

e se rg e a n t

e a h e a r t

o h o t Sound Letter Examples

/ a / u cup

o son

ou couple

oo flo o d

oe does

a along

al mountain

ia parliament

e l v i l l e i n

eo dungeon

i e a s ily

oi porpoise

/o / o o rd e r

oa b road

ou ought

a t a l l

ah Utah

a l talk,

au f a u lt

aw raw

fowf o•■•e note

oa road

oe . doe

oh oh

ou s o u l Sound Letter Examples

ow flow

eo yeoman

au hautboy

eau beau

ew sew

p u t /«/ u ou should

oo book

o w olf

!\f*/ u . . .e ru le ue flu e

ui f r u i t

eu maneuver

ou group

ew grew

o» • .e move

oe canoe

wo two

/*/ u just (adv.)

1 c h ild re n

Consonants

tyf y you

1 union

J h a lle lu ja h 124

Sound Letter Examples

/w / w w e ll

u q u ie t

/p / P pen

PP sto p p e r

/ t / t te n

ed walked

th thyme

t t bottom

/ k / c cash

cc account

cch b acch an al

ck back

ch c h a ra c te r

cq a c q u a in t

cque sacque

cu b is c u it

k keep

q barbeque (now the normal spelling of this word, by actual count)

qu liq u o r

/ b / b bed

bb robber /d/ d den

dd la d d e r

ed p u lle d Sound L etter Examples

/ g / g 8iv e

gg egg

gh ghost

gu guard

/ £ / f f e e l

f f m uffin

gh rough

ph p h y sics

/0/ th thin

/v/ v visit

w f liv v e r

f of

ph Stephen

/ 6/ th then

Is/ s s i t

8S lOSS

s c scene

sch schism

c c ity

i l l sh sh ip

ce ocean

ch machine

c l s p e c ia l

s su g ar

sch s c h is t Sound Letter Examples

sci conscience

se nauseous

s i mansion

s s tis s u e

ssi mission

t i m ention

/ z / * zone zz dazzle

s has

ss scissors

s c d isc e rn

x Xenophon

/2/ g garage

s measure

si division

z azure

z i b r a z ie r

j£j ch church

tc h patch

t n a tu r a l

te righteous

ti question

/ j / j J u st d - graduate

dg Judge 127 Sound L etter Examples

d i s o ld ie r

g magic

gg exaggerate

/m/ m mi le

mm hammer

/n / n n a i l

nn banner

/n/ ng ring

n p ink

/ l / 1 love

11 c a l l

/ r / r red

r r c a r ro t

rh rh esu s

/h / h h i t

wh who

Sound Combinations

/ay/ i...e bite

i hig h

a i a is le

ay aye

e i h e ig h t

ie t i e

ey eye

uy buy

y sky Sound L etter Examples

/aw/ ou out

ou now

/ay/ ol boil

oy toy

/yuw/ u...e use

eau beauty

eu feud

ew few

le u adieu

ue cue

lew view

yu...e yule

yew yew

you you

l 9tl e r term

e a r learn

i r t h i r s t

o r worm

y r m yrtle

a r l i a r

/al/ ul cult

u l l m ull

o l p is to l

11 p i s t i l 129

Sound Letter Examples e l tin s e l

le handle

a l sandal

/way / wi • • • e wi le o i choir

/w3/ o...e one

/hw/ wh which

/kw/

/k s / * CHAPTER IV

CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS: THE TWO SYSTEMS IN CONFLICT

Many linguists and specialists in language teaching are convinced that one of the major problems in the learning of a second language is the

Interference caused by the structural differences between the native lan guage of the learner and the second language, A natural consequence of this conviction is the belief that a careful contrastive analysis of the two languages offers an excellent basis for the preparation of instruc tional materials, the planning of courses, and the development of actual classroom techniques.

Phonemic analyses of Greek and English have been presented in

Chapters II and III respectively. The purpose of this chapter is to make a contrastive analysis of Modem Greek and (American) English in order to locate the sim ilarities and discrepancies of the two sound systems, and thus Identify the areas of difficulty for Greek learners of English. This chapter is also intended to be a guide in the preparation of teaching materials in English for native speakers of Greek.

The contrastive analysis is presented below in the following order: Greek and English consonants, Greek and English vowels, Greek and English suprasegmental features, Greek and English orthographies.

130 131

The Consonantal Systems of Greek and English In Contrast

The consonant systems of Greek and English may be represented and contrasted as in Tables 11 and 12 and Figures 6 and 7.

Pedagogical Implications

As may be seen In the contrastive charts and tables, the English consonant phonemes which are not found In any position in Greek are:

/w/, /«/, /c/, /z/» /j/» and /h/. These sounds will be difficult for

Greek speakers to produce in all positions because they do not belong to the Greek sound system.

Before front vowels Greek speakers will tend to substitute Greek

/u/ for /w/ since these sounds are close in articulation. Before back vowels, however, it may be expected that Greek /y /, which Is the phoneme next closest in articulation to /w/, will be substituted. It may also be expected that /y/ will precede the /u/ which is substituted for /w/ be fore front vowels; i.e ., 'west' /west/ might be pronounced /uest/ or

/yuest/. Because /w/ is labialized, some confusion may also be expected between /w/ and /v/.

A comparison of English /h/ and Greek /x/ reveals considerable phonetic sim ilarity. They share voicelessness and friction quality, but differ by being produced at different points of the speech tract. There w ill therefore be a tendency on the part of Greek speakers to substitute

/x/ for /h/. Further, when /h/ is followed by front vowels (i.e., ty, i, ey, e, ae) Greeks will tend to substitute for it the palatal allophone of /x/» i.e ., [ xl* Speakers of Eastern Greek who regularly substitute alveo-palatal [ s ] for f £] before front vowels can be expected to sub stitute [ s ] for English /h/ when it is followed by front vowels. 132 TABLE 11

CONSONANTS OF ATHENIAN GREEK AND AMERICAN ENGLISH IN CONTRAST

E G

P P b b

t t

d d

c - / t s /

J - / t s /

k k g g £ f

v v

6 6

8 S

Z Z v 8 - / s /

Z " / * /

m m

n n

n - [n]

1 1

r - til y y w - /u/,/y/, /v/ h - /x/~txJ» Ixl 133 TABLE 12

CONSONANTS OF MODERN MAINLAND GREEK AND AMERICAN ENGLISH IN CONTRAST

E G

P P b - [b, i

t t

d ~ [d, i

1/ c - / t s / V j - / t z / k k

g - [g.

f f

V V

e 6

6 3

s s

z z

V s - / s / ✓ z - fzt

m m

n n

b - Cn]

1 1

r - / r /

y y

w - /u /j

h - /x/ FIGURE 6

ATHENIAN GREEK AND AMERICAN ENGLISH CONSONANTS CONTRASTED

ENGLISH GREEK :

f t U j T f j K } : f>b t j ! ; ; ; ; ! f v ( / L I : f V ®

• f » " ! s z [ j : S 2 L * ? ? J *

Krt r> p ; m -w

r - - i i---- r I----- * ■ / U J L - J V '___i - C O • j \ □ ■*

• \ ' 4*. *

C0K50SAHT PHONEMES • .. . -» • FIGURE 7

MAINLAND GREEK AND AMERICAN ENGLISH CONSONANTS CONTRASTED

/h d Q £ /i// Mfi X'-Afi/D ENGLISH GREEK p|5 tQj jcj j Kg j»£bJ tpl a K \ i

/ y ^------c V. ® r -—t $2 '-sz: sz L-J * ; c?' / r r ® j [fl iiJ l’j y C j a . ©

CONSONANT PHONEHES 136

Modern Greek Consonants h i / p f r a / ' I to o k ' /x/ Ixamo/ 'on the floor*

/b / / b f r a / 'b e e n ' h i /yamo/ 'wedding'

It / , / t 6 r a / 'now h i / s d l i / 's h e lv e '

Id/ /d<5ra/ 'D o ra ' h i /z & li/ 'dizziness' h i /kdm a/ ' comma' h i /m is£ / 'h e h a te s '

/g / /gdma/ 'e ra s e r* h i / n i s f / 'is la n d *

/ f / /f d r o s / ' lighthouse' III / l f y a / 'fe w '

/v / /v d ro s / 'w e ig h t' h i, /r£ y a / ' r u le r t (measuring stick) / 6 / / 6 f k i / ' case* (receptable) h i / y i a t £ / 'w hy?'

/5/ / 6 f k i / 'case (legal)

English Consonants

/p / p in / p i n / h i s ip / s i p /

/b / b ln / b i n / h i ZIP / s i p /

/ t / t i n / t i n / lit sh ip / s i p /

/d / d in /d i n / l i t rouse /ruw z/

/k / came /keym / /m/ man /m aen/

/g / g ain /g e y n / h i n a i l /n e y l/

/ c / chin / c m / h i sin g /s.irj/

V / j / .gin /jm/ hi I i 2 . / l i p / hi f in / f i n / h i rip. / r i p /

h i vim /v im / h i wine /w ayn/

/e/ th ie h /Bay / h i /y e s /

/«/ thy /Say / hi h o t / h a t / 137

The sounds /s/ and /z/ and Che sounds /c/ and /j/ are all absent from Che Greek sound system* Thus:

/a/ will tend to be substituted for /s/

/z/ will tend to be substituted for /z/

/ts/ will tend to be substituted for fcf

/tz/ will tend to be substituted for /j/

In Modem Mainland Greek, Bince [b], [mb], and [mp],are either in complementary distribution or absolutely free variation, we can expect speakers of that dialect of Modem Greek not to be able to hear or pro duce the contrast between such American English phonemic minimal pairs as

'b u b b le 1 /babal/ and 'bumble' /bambal/, 'stubble' /stsb^l/ and 'stumble'

/stombal/, etc.. The same w ill occur with the analogous sets [d], [nd],

[nt], and [g], [ng]» [nk]. Indeed, the voiced stops [b], [d], [g], very rarely occur medially in any dialect. Thus, It is to be expected that most G-reeks w ill experience considerable difficulty In avoiding the intro duction of some nasal sound medially before voiced stops and, by exten sion, before final voiced stops, resulting in confusion between such final contrasts as 'hand* /haend/ and 'had' /haed/. This situation is further complicated by the conventional Greek orthography in which no d iffe re n c e is made between m edial [nfc] and [b ]—both a re s p e lle d " y s" ; or between [nd] and [d]—both spelled "v t "; or between [ng] and [g]~ both spelled "yic".

The Greek apicals /t/ and Id/ are articulated on the back of the upper front teeth whereas their English counterparts are articulated on 133 thealveoiat™ ridge. This difference In position of articulation results in interference which, while frequent in occurrence, is of very minor n a tu r e .

Sub phonemic differences are also apparent in the manner of articulation among the liquids between the flap articulation of Greek /r/ and the retroflex articulation of the English phoneme /r/, and the con sistent palatality or “clearness" of Greek /l/ but the velarlty or "dark ness" of the post-vocalic allophone of English /l/. Thus, Greek speakers can be expected to sifcstltute the Greek apical flap for the English con sonantal /r/ phoneme. This interpretation extends to English /r/ in all positions: rise, fear. Harry. etc.. Greek speakers will also tend to substitute the Greek apical flap for the English allophone [t] of the phoneme /t/ which occurs between a stressed vowel and an unstressed vowel,

as in water and city. Similarly, Greek speakers of English will tend to substitute Greek non-velarized /l/ for all allophones of English /l/, both non-velarized and velarized.

Also, the phenomenon of strong aspiration in the voiceless stops

/p, t, k/ is unique to English, where, as we have seen in Chapter III,

it occurs in syllable-initial position before stressed vowels and op

tionally in syllable-final position. This feature of aspiration plays

an important enough role in the actual functioning of English that when

Greek speakers fail to produce it, native speakers of English are likely

to interpret the voiceless phoneme as its voiced counterpart. Thus, if

/ a Greek speaker produces [pin], a native speaker of English would not be

su re w hether he s a id [j/Vn] o r [b in ]. . 139

Moreover, as also noted in Chapter III, English /b /, /d/, /g/,

/ v / , / 6 /, /z/ have a voiceless off-gllde In final position. For exanple, when "eyes" and "runs" are pronounced, the voicing of the final /z/ is not preserved to the end. Put simply, the voicing dies away so that the

last part of the /z/ is a kind of /s/. This was represented in Chapter

III as [z£]. This voiceless off-glide is likely to be interpreted by

Greek speakers as a voiceless final consonant, causing them to produce

voiceless sounds in final position where voiced sounds are called for;

e.g.: [Sis] instead of /dyz] and [rans] instead of /ran*/. Further, ve

have noted in Chapter II that the only voiced final consonant sound which

occurs with any frequency in Greek is /n/. Other final consonant sounds,

when they do occur in Greek, are for the most part voiceless. Greeks

will therefore have difficulty with English final voiced stops (/b/, /d /,

/g/) and fricatives (/v/, / 6 /, /z/) even though these sounds may not

present difficulty when occurring in other positions. Thus, there is

likely to be confusion between these voiced sounds and their voiceless

counterparts; e.g., in die pairs rib/rip, bad/bat, dog/dock, rise/rice,

price/prize. We have also seen in Chapter II that final consonant sounds,

with the exception of the frequent /s/ and /n/ and the rare /l/ and /r/,

are practically non-existent in Modem Greek. On the other hand, a very

high proportion of Greek words end in vowel sounds. Hence, Greeks w ill

tend to introduce an intrusive vowel sound after final English consonant

sounds: e.g., /mdke/ for /m£yk/.

Consonant Sequences of Greek and English in Contrast

The in itial and medial consonant clusters of Greek and English

may be represented and contrasted as in the following table. 140

TABLE 13

THE CONSONANT SEQUENCES OF GREEK AND ENGLISH IN CONTRAST (Initial and Medial Clusters)

E G E G ✓ Pr p r hw **

t r f t 9w -

- V f r f r fy fy

g r • 00 ky ky

dr dr my my

k r k r by -

er 8 r py py

, V b r b r vy vy

V s r - hy -

St S t ty -

sp sp dy -

sm - ny ny

sk sk iy iy

sn - sy sy

V s f s f cy - s i jy

P i P i ✓ s t r s t r k l k l s p r sp r b l b l s p l s p l f l f l skw - - g l i/ s k r sk r dw - . sky sky kw - s k i s k i tw - spy - sw — s ty - 141

Pedagogical Implications

As may be seen from Table 13, most English In itial consonant

clusters w ill not prove difficult for Greek speakers, since similar

clusters also occur in Greek. Those likely to cause some difficulty, however, w ill Include:

1) Those containing an English sound not found in Greek;

for example!

(a) /aI as in /srfrap/ 'shrimp'

(b) clusters containing /w/: /kw/ as in /kwayet/ 'quiet,'

/tw/ as in /twfnz/ 'twins,' /sw/ as in /swfyt/ 'sweet,'

and /skw/ as in /skwer/ 'square.'

2) Those containing a voiceless sound plus a nasal or /l/;

for example: /sm/ as in /smal/ 'sm all,' /an/ as in /snow/

/snow,' and /si/ as in /si

w ill be pronounced /z/ either by assimilation or by analogy

with similar words: thus, 'small' will be pronounced /zmal/, / v just as Smyrna Is pronounced /zmlma/*

Certain medial clusters in English words are also likely to cause

difficulty. For example, any of the numerous clusters containing sounds

such as /s/, /c/, or /j/, (e.g., 'ash-tray,' 'pinching,' 'judging') which

are not found in Greek, w ill be hard for Greeks to pronounce. Medial

clusters spelled with an "x" are likely to be misleading. For exanple,

exact is likely to be pronounced /eksaekt/ (or /eksekt/) instead of

/fgzaekt/ or /egzaekt/, because of the very common Greek prefix pro

nounced /eks/. The fundamental reason for such a substitution is that

Greek contains the cluster /ks/ but not the cluster /gz/; but this is 142 further conplicated by the fact that the /ks/ cluster Is very frequent

In Greek and Is represented In English in borrowed words, such as exotic and exoteric, by one spelling, 'x ,' for two pronunciations, /ks/ and /gz/.

When a medial cluster contains one or more voiceless sounds plus one or more voiced sounds (excluding /1/ and /r/) Greek speakers, because of the tendency of assimilation In Greek which was noted in Chapter III, are likely to voice or devoice both because of attraction of the adjoining sounds. Thus, football, blackboard, obscure, eggshells, absent are likely to be rendered /ftidbol/, /bla£gbard/ (both sounds voiced), /apskydr/,

/ekselz/, aepsent/ (both sounds voiceless) respectively, all other sounds being correct* A special problem is presented, of course, in the case of the medial clusters /-rap-/, /-nt-/, and /-nk-/ (see the discussion above on nasal and stop clusters). Medial clusters may contain combina tions where Greeks will be likely to insert a support vowel. This phe nomenon may occur within words or between words in a sentence.

We have seen in Chapter II that, except in recent loanwords, final consonant clusters are practically non-existent in Greek. In the case of

English, the final clusters form a well-established and organic part of the English phonological system while in Greek, on the contrary, most final clusters occur only in words which are relatively recent borrow ings from other languages, and which are felt to be, to varying degrees, foreign intrusions in the phonology. Thus, most of the English final clusters w ill prove difficult for Greeks who w ill tend to mispronounce them, either by the insertion of a support vowel or by the modification of one or more elements of the cluster. The few clusters where no dif

ficulty is likely to be experienced are /ps/, /fs/, /kB/, /nks/, /lm/ U 3

FIGURE 8

GREEK AND ENGLISH VOCALIC SYSTEMS

GREEK

Front Central Back (Rounded)

High

Mid

Low

ENGLISH

Front Central Back (Rounded)

uw High

ow Mid

Low ae /a y / 144 and / all of which may occur in Claaa B (borrowed) words. Clusters containing the sounds /s/, /c/, or /j/ are likely to prove most trouble some. Where all the sounds in a cluster are voiced* Greek speakers are likely to pronounce all the sounds voiceless* because there are few* If any, voiced clusters In Greek. Thus* 'dogs*' 'bags,' and 'figs' are likely to be pronounced as 'docks,' 'backs*' and 'fix ' respectively.

Greeks are also likely to fail to distinguish between voiced and voice less clusters such as 'caps/cabs*' and 'safes/saves,' Special difficul ties are likely to be encountered with final clusters containing /n/.

As already noted earlier* Greeks are likely to confuse /nt/, /nd/, and

/d/, since they distinguish between none of these in either spelling or meaning. Hence, triple contrasts such as 'bent/bend/bed*' 'lent/lend/ led*' and *stunt/stunned/stud,' are likely to be lost in both perception and production. In clusters containing a mixture of voiced or voiceless

8 tops with other types of sounds, the stops may be modified* through the process of assimilation* by surrounding sounds, and confusion is likely to occur between pairs of words such as 'built/build*' 'colts/colds,'

'false/falls,' and 'shelf/shelve.'

The Vowel Systems of Greek and English In Contrast

The vowel systems of Greek and English may be represented and contrasted as in Figure 8 . As may be seen from Figure 8 , E n g lish ex hibits a more finely-graded aperture scale that Greek* with five degrees among f ro n t vowels* two among c e n tr a l vow els, and fo u r among back vowels* while in Greek there are two* one, and two degrees of aperture among front, central* and back vowels respectively* 145

Greek Vowels

/ l / /p in a / 'h u n g e r 1

/ e / /p e n a / 'pen*

/ a / /p a n a / * diaper*

/ o / /p o n o / ’p a in 1

/ u / /p u n ta / • c h i l l '

Enelish Vowels

/v y / be*. / b i y t /

/ v / b lc / b i t /

/ey / b a i t /b e y t/

/ e / b e t /b e t /

/ae / b a t /b a e t /

/ a / b u t / b a t /

/uw / boot /b u w t/

/ o / book / bu k / lawj b o at /b o w t/ fr! bought / b o t /

/ a / co t / k a t /

/a y / b ite /b a y t/

fry! boy /b o y /

/aw / bo u t /b a w t/ 146

Pedagogical Implications

Greeks learning English must master five distinctive degrees of aperture among both front and back vowels as against three in their own language. Figure 9 compares the English and Greek vowel systems in such a way as to show approximate correspondences. It is apparent from

F ig u res 8 and 9 that Greek speakers w ill have a great deal of trouble in acceptably approximating the American English vocalic nuclei. This involves expanding the five vowels of Greek to do duty for the fourteen vowels of American English. Obviously many distinctions will be lost, resulting in extensive underdifferentiation of phonemes.

It may be anticipated that Greek speakers of English w ill fail to differentiate the English pairs /\y, i/ (beet, bit), /e, set (bet, bat)

/uw, u/ (Luke, hook), cases where one Greek phoneme overlaps phonetically with two English phonemes. The major difficulty w ill lie in the tendency of Greeks to make their near-equivalent of one sound in each pair do duty for both English sounds. The Greek central vowel /a/ is phonetically most similar to English /a/ and will thus usually be identified with the letter rather than with English /ae/. Similarly, the phonetic overlap between Greek /o/ and English /cw/, w ill lead to identification of these units (see Figure 10). English /a/ in stressed position will most often be identified with Greek /a/ and thus the English /o,a/ distinction

(caught, cut) w ill be lost. It should be noted that all these pairs except o/a w ill be even more likely to be confused because the Greek sound is In each case midway between the two English sounds in point of

articulation (see Figure 10). 147

FIGURE 9

GREEK AMD ENGLISH VOWELS CONTRASTED: APPROXIMATE CORRESPONDENCE AND LIKELY SUBSTITUTIONS

» -1 ' FIGURE 10

GREEK AND ENGLISH VOCALIC SYSTEMS: ARTICULATORY POSITIONS RELATIVE TOEACH OTHER FRONT CENTRAL BACK (Rounded)

HIGH

MID J

LOW 148 149

Greek learners of English w ill typically Identify the English com plex nuclei (diphthongs) of the front and back series with the correspond ing front and back simple vowels of Greek (See Figure 9):

English Greek

\y 1

ey e

uw u

ow o

Therefore, these English coup lex nuclei (diphthongs) w ill be rendered as simple nuclei (monophthongs)* Strictly speaking, diphthongs as we know them In English do not occur in Greek. All Greek vowels are "pure," or monophthongal, I.e ., relatively uniform throughout their utterance.

Greek speakers w ill therefore have difficulty in becoming accustomed to diphthongal combinations of English such as /ey/, /ow/, etc.. For ex ample , since none of the vowel sounds involved in the triple English con trast cot/caught/coat, *kdt, lo t, kowt/, is a Greek sound Greek speakers w ill tend to use a fourth, un-English sound (the Greek /o/) to represent all three of these English vowel sounds. In the process, they w ill tend to ignore the diphthongal nature of /ow/ as a means of separating these sounds. However, as we have seen in Chapter II, combinations of vowels do occur in Greek and may approach the effect of our diphthongs (or com plex nuclei) in rapid speech. A close approximation to English diphthongs is possible in the following conblnatlons'

Greek English

/ o i / /°y / / e i / / cy / 150

Greek E nglish

/ a i / /a y /

/a u / /aw/

/o u / /ow/

By stressing the first element and speeding up the second element

In such combinations, Greek speakers may succeed In acceptable rendition of these English diphthongs. However, the merging of the two sounds In each case Is often far from being as complete as In English diphthongs.

The diphthong likely to cause the most serious difficulty is /aw/, which may readily be confused with /o/ as Is Paul/pole. law/low, saw/so. etc.

The only English vowel sound for which an almost exact equivalent exists in Greek is /e/ as In let, pet. Even this is not an exact equiva lent to Greek /e/, which is higher and tenser than the English /e/, but the Interference likely to be caused by substituting Greek /e/ for English

/e/ is negligible.

The two simple vowels of English to which there are no equivalent or close approximations in Greek are /ae/ and /a/ (both stressed and un stressed). The sound /ae/ w ill prove difficult for Greek speakers to

recognize and produce, and It w ill very often be confused with /e/ which w ill be substituted for it, leading to the confusion of such words as

men/man, bet/bat, head/had. The sound /ae/ w ill sometimes be confused with stressed /®/» which w ill also be substituted for it, leading to the

confusion of such words as drunk/drank, luck/lock, and much/match.

The general substitution of the neutral vowel /a/ in English for

many vowels in weakly stressed syllables w ill present difficulty to Greek 151 speakers, as this type of substitution occurs in Greek with only one vowel, /a/, only when it is the last sound in a word, and then only in rapid speech. It is by no means characteristic of the language.

Greek vowels generally retain their full value (relatively speaking) in weakly-stressed syllables.

The sound /a/ before /r/ will probably be the greatest single source of vowel difficulty for Greek students. No Greek sound approaches it, and Greeks will tend to substitute for it either /o/ or a pronuncia tion Influenced by the written form, so that first, for example, would tend to be pronounced /fdrst/, /fdrst/, or even /ffrst/.

The Prosodic Features of Greek and Greek in Contrast

S tre ss

We have seen in Chapters II and III that while Greek has two levels of stress, strong 1*1 and weak /•/, English has four, primary /**/, secondary /"/, tertiary /"/, and weak /*/. The four stresses of English may be illustrated in the phrase elevator operator which may be repre sented as follows:

dlevktor dper&tor

The correspondence between the English stresses and those of Greek is roughly this:

E nglish Greek

Primary /'/ Strong 1*1

Secondary / “/

T e rtia ry Weak / • /

Weak / / 152

The general pattern of English word stress will not be difficult

for Greeks to master, since their own type of word stress is similar in certain respects. We have seen in Chapters II and III that in both

English and Greek, stress is distinctive. That is, it signals differ ences in meaning. This may be illustrated by coopering the meanings in the following pairs:

E n g lish

(v erb ) (noun)

/ i n s e r t / / i n s e r t /

/fm p o rt/ /im p o rt/

Greek

/p in b / /p in o /

( I d rin k ) (I *m hungry)

/p o te / /p & te/

(when) (never)

Thus, in both languages, stress may occur on various syllables in words.

All Greek vowels, whether stressed or not, are relatively short, and keep

more or less the same quality in all positions. Unstressed vowels are

not weakened in Greek as they are in English, as may be illustrated by

the pronunciation of the following Greek-Engllsh cognates:

Greek English

monotonous /mondtonos/ /miand tanas/

synonymous /slndnimos/ /sandnamas/ 153

The problem encountered by Greeks with English word stress, however, w ill not be in pronouncing words with stresses on different syllables, but simply in remembering or predicting the stress in words

of two or more syllables, where English is relatively unpredictable.

This is particularly difficult for Greeks because, in their own lan

guage, stress is shown in both writing and print by accent marks. Thus,

Greeks who try to read or speak English w ill find the large variety of

English stress patterns a major stumbling block.

Fhythm

Differences between the rhythm patterns of Greek and English can

be summarized by stating that Greek rhythm is syllable-timed while Eng

lish rhythm is stress-timed. This difference in rhythm can be indicated

as follows, using longer lines to indicate longer syllables and shorter

lines to indicate shorter syllables:

English Speaker

What do you think he*s going to do?

Greek Speaker

What do you think he is going to do?

Thus, the Greek way is to make every syllable almost equally long, giv

ing a machine-gun effect, whereas the English way is to make the louder

syllables longer. The two languages divide up their time differently.

In general, however, English sentence stress is not greatly dif

ferent from Greek. The existence of weakly stressed words in a sentence

is to some extent shown in Greek by the absence of an accent mark on

some words of one syllable (enclitics and proclitics), while other mono

syllabic words with sentence stress have an accent mark. 154

Also, the English tendency toward reduction of syllables between syllables carrying sentence stress Is to some extent paralleled In Greek by the omission of sounds (elision) in the stream of speech, which Is very widespread in rapid colloquial Greek.

Nevertheless, Greek sentence stress Is still syllable-timed rather than stress-timed, and there is no reduction of weakly stressed vowels to the neutral vowel /»/ except for final /a/ when It Is unaccented.

This highly characteristic feature of English rhythm and the regularity of time intervals between stresses w ill therefore be quite foreign to Greek speakers and w ill present difficulties in both production and recognition.

P itc h

English has four significant pitch levels and Greek has only two.

Using the lowest nunber for the lowest pitch, and the highest for the highest pitch, we nunfcer them /l/, /2/, /3/, /A/ for English, and 1/1,

/2/ for Greek. The two in Greek are spaced closer together than the four in English, in a fashion analogous to the musical notation below.

E n g lish Greek

In both languages high pitch coincides with strong stress in a word and

there is only one strong stress in a word.

Ju n c tu re

Both Greek and English have three terminal Junctures, symbolized

as follows: /+/ terminal falling; /t/ terminal rising; /(/ terminal level. 155

Internally within phrases, both Greek and English have open and close juncture. In addition to these junctures, however, another juncture has been recognized for English, the internal juncture /+/, sometimes referred to as "plus juncture," "open transition," "boundary element," or "disjtincture."

Sounds in juxtaposition within and between Greek words are subject to loss or change through assimilation and elision. In English, similar but not the same changes occur. Assimilation caused by Juxtaposition of nasal plus stop sounds is a strong characteristic of Greek which may be carried over into the English pronunciation of Greeks, especially if they fail to recognize plus juncture.

In to n a tio n

In view of these differences in stress, pitch, and juncture between

Greek and English, it is to be expected that Greek speakers w ill encounter considerable difficulty with English intonation. This is particularly true of the intonation of question tags, of which English has an abundance, and which may end either with falling or rising pitch endings. Similarly, Eng- ligh non-final pitch endings of the type /2 3 2 +/ in expressions of leave taking are likely to be troublesome. When carried over into Greek, this pattern is inappropriate and carries with it implications of insincerity.

A few of the common non-Greek interference patterns that are found in Eng lish are these:

2 Good 3 moming 2 | 2 B f ll 2 + 2Good ^ bye 2 t

2Fine 2 | 2thanks 2 + 2 Good2bye 2 t

2 Hw ^are ydu^ + 2Mmy ^ thanks +

How Are ydu + 156

Greek speakers are likely to encounter difficulty In producing and rec

ognizing these and other English intonation patterns. The result will be un-English intonation. The Greek speaker's pitch sequence may even

differ so markedly from the English speaker's as to convey unintended

implications. That is, a mild Inquiry may be Interpreted as anger,

annoyance, impatience or the like. Even though English intonation and

Greek in to n a tio n may have much in common, u n -E n g lish in to n a tio n i s lik e ly

to be produced by faulty rhythm and uniform vowel length.

The Orthographic Systems of Greek and English in Contrast

The following list compare the English and Greek alphabets. The

first two letters, when they appear side by side, are the printed capi

tal and lower case letters of English and Greek respectively. The next

two letters are the capital and small handwritten letters of the two lan

guages. Contrastive statements appear to the right.

English Greek Letters Letters

Three of the English letters are the same as the

a Greek letters. In English, ' replaces the %j£ x a of Greek. 'A' In English is sometimes pronounced like the Greek letter 'A .' At other times, how a. CL ever, it is pronounced very differently; hence,

this is a likely source of trouble for Greeks. 157

E nelish Greek Letters Letters

B B Three of the English letters are the same as the

b 6 Greek letters. In English, 'b' replaces *3’ In

Greek. Since Greek 'B' is pronounced /v/ instead

of /b/, this letter is likely to be a serious

source of difficulty for Greeks.

C - This letter has no counterpart in Greek; hence, it

c - is likely to cause trouble for Greeks, who will be

^ - completely unfamiliar with it. Further, the fact

£ - that it is sometimes pronounced like the Greek

letter 'I ' and sometimes like the Greek letter 'K ',

w ill add to a Greek's confusion.

D A Only one of the English letters is the same as in

d 6 Greek. Since Greek V^' is pronounced /$/ in ste a d jfif ^ of /d/, the tendency on the part of a Greek speaker

I / "HI be to confuse the two.

E E The small letters are different in English. The

e c English *E' is sometimes pronounced like the Greek i t letter fE.' At other times, however, it is pro- j! £ nounced very differently; hence, it is a likely

source of trouble for Greeks. 158

“English Greek Letters Letters

F - This letter has no counterpart In Greek; hence, it

f - is likely to cause trouble for Greeks who may con 3 - fuse it with the Greek 'r .' It is pronounced like / the Greek letter *$.' Once it Is learned, there fore, and associated with the Greek letter * $,' it

should not be a great problem for Greek learner.

G . This letter has no counterpart in Greek; hence, it

8 - must be learned as a completely new letter by Greeks, & - who w ill be unfamiliar with it. Greeks soon learn to associate it with the pronunciation of 'yk' /g/

I at the beginning of words. However, since it is

sometimes pronounced /j/, it causes difficulty for

G reeks.

H H The printed and written capital letters are the

h n the same as Greek 'H* /ita /. Greeks may be tempted n to pronounce it /l/. They soon learn to associate X /p. it with Greek 'x' and pronounce it /x/.

I i These English letters are quite similar to the Greek

i \ letters. The English 'I' is sometimes pronounced

like the Greek letter *1.' At other times, however,

J it is pronounced very differently; hence, this is a 9 JU likely source of trouble for Greeks. 159

E nglish Greek Letters Letters

English 'J* has no counterpart In Greek and Is thus

likely to cause trouble for Greeks, who will be com-

pletely unfamiliar with It. %i Three of the English letters are quite similar to

the Greek. The English letter 'K' Is pronounced x x . like the Greek letter 'K.' It should not be a JL us great problem for Greeks.

L - This Is a completely new letter for Greeks. It Is

1 - pronounced like the Greek letter 'A.* Once It Is

- learned and associated with the Greek 'A* It should

\ - not be a great problem for Greeks.

M M The printed and written capital letters are quite

m y similar In English and Greek. The English 'M* Is

pronounced like the Greek 'M . 1 It should pose no

yJ'71' problem for Greeks.

N N The printed and written capital letters are quite

n v similar In English and Greek. The English 'N* Is

% J c pronounced like the Greek letter *N.' However, the ^ y small English written letter Tn* resembles the small

written Greek letter 'n' /ita/ and the two are likely

to be confused by Greeks In the early stages of

learning English. 160

English Greek Letters Letters

0 0 The English letters are the same as the Greek letters,

o o The English 'O' Is sometimes pronounced like the

® Greek '0.' At other timesf however, it Is pronounced O & quite differently and is thus a likely source of

trouble for Greeks.

The English 'P' is pronounced like the Greek letter

letter However, because it resembles the Greek $ letter *p»' which Is pronounced /r/, this letter is P likely to be a source of difficulty for Greeks.

Q - This letter has no counterpart in Greek and is thus

q - likely to cause trouble for Greeks who will be com-

^ - pletely unfamiliar with it. It is particularly

^ - troublesome in that it is always accompanied by 'u.'

R - This letter has no counterpart in Greek and is likely

r - to cause trouble for Greeks, who will be completely

unfamiliar with it. It is pronounced like the

fl/ - Greek letter 'p *1 *n some dialects it is not pro

nounced at all. The small written letter, '/T' /*/

may easily be confused with the small written Greek

letter 'y',' /n/. 161

E nglish Greek Letters Letters

The printed and written capital letters will be un-

0 (8 familiar to Greek speakers. The small English let** J Z ters are the same as those used In Greek at the end of a word. There Is only one form of small written 6 ** and printed 's' In English. That Is, English does

not use a different form In the middle or at the be

ginning of a word. 'S' In English is sometimes pro

nounced like the Greek letter and sometimes like

the Greek letter 'Z.'

T T The printed and written capital letters are the same

t t in English and Greek. 'TT in English is pronounced £ v t like the Greek letter 'T.' U - This letter has no counterpart in Greek. It is

u - sometimes pronounced like the Greek letters 'ou.'

% M-

V T This is an unfamiliar letter for Greeks. It Is pro-

v u nounced like the Greek letter ' g.' The capital and

CjJ small written letters may be confused with the handwritten Greek 'If' and 'o' (ypsilon). 162

E nglish Greek Letters Letters

W - This letter Is also unfamiliar to Greeks. It may

w be confused with Greek handwritten (pi) . or

- ' l/J' (omega).

M f

X X Though the shape is similar to the Greek 'X,1 this

x x letter must be learned by Greeks as a new letter.

3L It must be associated with the Greek letter 4 % and not confused with the Greek *)(.1

Y T Though the shape is s im ila r to the Greek c a p ita l

y u letter 1T* (ypsilon), it must be associated with the

Greek letter 'y ' as in 'y e p o s ' (old man). There ) w ill be a tendency to confuse it with the Greek 1T' V 1 (ypsilon) and 1 (handwritten ^).

Z The printed capital letter is the same as the Greek.

C’ It is pronounced like the Greek letter 'Z.' £ D 2-5

As may be readily seen by the above comparison of the Greek and

English alphabets, the usual difficulties in learning a foreign language are greatly accentuated In the case of Greeks learning English because they are accustomed to a different alphabet. The greatest difficulties will arise when a Greek tries to read English, since in the English alpha bet there are some letters which are unfamiliar to Greeks. However, the 163

difficulty is compounded by the fact that many printed or written letters

exist in common in the two alphabets, but represent different sounds in

the two languages. Thus, a Greek learner of English w ill be tempted, in pronouncing a word he sees for the first time in his reading, to attach

to each familiar letter the sound he would normally attach to it in Greek, which is often quite different from the sound to be attached to it in

English. There are more confusing sim ilarities between the handwritten

versions of Greek and English than there are in the printed script ver

s io n s .

English punctuation is also likely to cause confusion for Greek

learners since Greek uses slightly different punctuation. The Greek

punctuation system was presented in Chapter II. The most important dif

ference between Greek and English punctuation is that the semi-colon (;)

is used in Greek where English uses a question mark (?), which is unknown

in Greek. The only other significant difference between the punctuation

of the two languages is that Greek uses a single dot above the line (•)

in place of the English colon (:) and semi-colon (;).

Although Greek spelling is not entirely phonetic—i.e ., each

letter does not always represent only one sound and each sound is not

consistently represented by only one letter--it does follow consistently

certain definite patterns without exceptions (see Chapter II). The Greek

learner of English therefore finds the lack of conformity between English

spelling and pronunciation (see Chapter III) very troublesome.

Also, since by and large every letter in Greek is pronounced,

Greek learners of English w ill tend to pronounce every letter they see

in English words such as name, climbed, £sychology, etc. CHAPTER V

VERIFICATION OF FINDINGS

The sim ilarities and differences between the Greek and English phonological systems have been discussedT and the areas of difficulty in English pronunciation for Greek speakers have been located in

Chapter IV. Thus* the first of the two procedures necessary in the analysis of the Greek-English language contact situation—i.e .. the for mulation of the "dialinguistic" description—has been completed. The second procedure is the pragmatic validation of the resultant findings through observation of interference data. The purpose of this chapter, therefore, is to verify those findings. The data for the verification were the tape-recorded speech in English of 18 Greek informants. Four types of prepared English materials were used in eliciting the data.

First was the Preliminary Socio-Linguistic Interview Schedule, consist ing of SO questions, which is discussed at length in the Introduction and in Chapter I. Second was the questionnaire consisting of 213 test sentences,^- based upon the results of the contrastive analysis. The third item was the "Diagnostic Passage" which accompanies Prator's

Manual of American English Pronunciation.^ The fourth item was the

*See Appendix B for the complete questionnaire. 2 Prator, op. clt. See Appendix B for the complete passage.

16 A 165 monolog entitled "The Deaf Chef" from the Manual of Foreign Dialects by

Lewis and Marguerite H e r m a n . 3 The recording of each informant required an average of about one hour. The recorded tape was then played back several times. The writer listened to and transcribed the recorded speech of each informant in phonetic script. The various types of inter ference which occurred were then tabulated and compared with the types of errors which the contrastive analysis had predicted would occur. The phonetic norm used in the tabulation was the American-English pronuncia tion of the author, normalized in accordance with the Stockwell-Bowen analysis of American-English vowels. The deviations from the norm were

grouped in terms of segmental, prosodic, and orthographic interference.

The various types of data-eliciting material served different purposes. The linguistic test questions served for the verification of

difficulties in the pronunciation of English segmental phonemes—vowels,

consonants, and consonant clusters. The "Diagnostic Passage" served primarily for English prosodic elements—stress, juncture, pitch, and

rhythm—as well as for orthographic elements.

The material from the socio-lingulstic questionnaire, though

originally meant to serve as an "ice-breaker" and to put the informants

at ease, also supplied pertinent information regarding the socio-cultural

background of the Greek-English contact, as well as some passages of

spontaneous conversation between each informant and the w riter; it also

served as a basis for determining oral-aural proficiency. The monolog

"The Deaf Chef" served as a basis of comparison between the findings of

^Herman, op.. c it. See Appendix B for the complete passage. 166 the contrastive analysis and the representation of the Greek "accent" in the Manual of Foreign Dialects by Lewis and Marguerite Herman.^

It was originally intended that data collected front the socio- linguistic interview would be used to account for exceptions not covered by the contrastive analysis or which defied linguistic classification.

However, to account precisely for each language deviation, each case of

"abnormality ' 1 would have to be examined separately with careful considera tion of the extra-Unguis tic factors affecting each individual informant.

It must be conceded, however, that such an approach would obscure the general picture of English as it is spoken by Greek immigrants. Our approach, therefore, w ill be to present in summarized form what we have observed of the phonological tendencies in the English pronunciation of

Greek immigrants, and to devise from these observations a systematized abstraction of the Hellenic-English idiom. It is hoped that such an abstracted Greek-English system w ill be useful in devising practical materials and techniques for teaching English to Greek speakers. Con versely, an Interesting by-product of such a description would be the development of improved materials for teaching the Greek-English idiom

to actors for more authentic representation of the Greek "dialect" on

radio, stage, and screen.

Greek-English. a phonological system in transition

The test questions used in this study were developed in an at

tempt to suggest the principal aspects of the phonological system used

4 Ib id . 167 by Greek immigrants who had acquired only a limited proficiency in Eng lish but who, from the day they arrived in the United States, were re quired to communicate in the latter language, if only as a matter of s u rv iv a l.

The set of 213 test sentences was constructed with the purpose of Investigating the perceptual and productive interpretation of English sounds by speakers of Greek-English. All the sentences contained certain sounds and sound combinations which, as the contrastive analysis had pre dicted, might present special problems for the Greek speaker of English.

Special attention was given to the following aspects of Greek-English phonology: (a) the differentiation between simple and complex vocalic nuclei /xy-i, sy-e, o-ow, u-uw; (b) the extent of distinctive differentia tion of vowels in the low-front /ae/, low-back /a/, and central /a/ areas;

^ V V ^ (c) the distinction between s-s, z-z, ts-c, dz-j; (d) the distinction between /r/ and /r/; (e) the distinction between labial semivowel /w/ and labial fricative /v/; (f) the distinction between velar fricative /x/ and glottal fricative /h/; (g) the phonetic distinction between "dark"

[1 ] and "light" [ 1 ]; (h) the distribution of the velar nasal /n/; (i) the phonetics of the aspirated stops [p’t'k*]; (j) the initial, medial, and final clusters of English; and (k) the Intervocalic flap [t].

The subjects were the 18 Greek immigrants described in the Intro duction and in Appendix A. Their proficiency in English ranged from 34 to 92 on the English Usage Test of Georgetown University.^ Some of the informants operated entirely within the phonological system of Greek, quite

5 See Appendix C for description of the test and interpretation of test scores. 168 unaware of Che wide divergence between their pronunciation and that of native speakers of English. Others had achieved near-native proficiency in the perception and reproduction of English sounds. It was anticipated

that a formal analysis of the informants' pronunciation could reveal a phonological system in transition, one composed exclusively neither of

Greek nor of English elenents, but combining elements of both types in

an Independent, coherent system. The results of the test questions seem

to confirm this expectation.

The phonological svstem of the Greek-English Idiom

The following are summaries and reformulations of the findings which resulted from the administration of the test questions and other

data-elldting materials.

Interpretation of English vowels

The correlation between the English vowels which served as models

and the Greek-English replicas which they elicited may be summarized as

fo llo w s:

English Model / / Greek-English Replica f 1 X

ey e , e i

e , a

u 169

English Model / / Greek-English Replica \ 1

ow) o ') a a , o

a /'e, a, o a before ryJ (e, i, o ay a i

oy o i

aw au

Interpretation of the English consonants

The following chart lists the English consonant models and the

replicas they typically elicited from the Greek-English informants.

Only those models and replicas which were our main concern* as deter

mined by the contrastive analysis are included:

English Model / / Greek-English Replica f 1

w w, y , u , v

sV s , s

v v c c , ts v v z z , z V 4/ j j, tz, dz

h h , x , x

n n, ng, g, nk, n ✓ r r» r

b p , b , mb, mp

d t, d, nd, nt, t

g k. g» ng, nk 170

English Model / / Greek-English Replica \ 1

v v , f

6 d, 6 , d

z z, s

1 , i

p p t T

k K

From the data summarized above, the following conclusions may be drawn:

As was to be expected, the difficulties in English pronunciation

for Greek speakers are primarily the result of the projection of the

Greek system into English. The deviations in the pronunciation of the

English segmental phonemes may be classified into four types— 1) phonemic,

2) phonetic, 3) allophonic, and 4) distributional. The first and fourth

types of deviation include English sounds and clusters whose mispronuncia

tion by Greek influence can cause misunderstanding. The second and third

types are subphonemLc deviations and include English sounds whose mis pronunciation by Greek influence results in a heavy foreign accent but

are understandable.

Most of the consonant mispronunciations of our informants are phonemic

deviations. The substitution of /s/ for /s/; /z/ for /z/; /ts/ for /c/; ¥ /tz/ for /j/; and /y/, /u/, and /v/ for /w/, all lead to misunderstanding;

e.g., /so/ for /sow/; /televfzyon/ for /t^lovizsn/; /m£ts/ for /ir^o/;

/tzdtz/ or /dzddz/ for /jej/; /yeoman/ for /wiSman/, /u£st/ for /w fst/, and

/v&ts/ for / w q c / . A case of orthographic interference may be seen in the 171 tendency to occasionally pronounce English /b/ as /v/ and English /d/ as

/ if. The Greek letters "8 ," /v/ and "A," /if resemble and are occasion ally transliterated as English "B" and "D." Hence* among the Items in our corpus* we find Items such as /kdrv/ for /kerb/ *c»rb,' and /fl 6 r i 6 a / for /floreda/.

It is worth noting* In this connection* that In the speech of our informants* the substitution of /s/ for fsf and /ts/ for fcf was n o t as common as might have been expected from the predictions of the con trastive analysis. This may be explained by the fact that many of the

Informants came from Eastern Greece* where* as we have seen in Chapter II* the voiceless alveo-palatal [s] occurs regularly before front vowels.

Thus it would not be difficult for speakers of East Greek to recognize and reproduce that sound* as distinct from other sounds. Interestingly enoughi Informant #1 regularly substituted [s] for English /h/ before front vowels where other Greeks would have used [x]. In reading'The

Deaf Chef" dialog* every time she would encounter the printed word "he" she would say "she." She continued to make this substitution even after the difference between these two sounds was brought to her attention.

Similarly* this informant substituted fcf for /k/ before front vowels: e.g.* she would Bay [xatcelks] for [hatkeyks] just as in Greek she

regularly pronounced the name of her home island as [xilci] instead of

[xalki]. These results would seem to suggest that* in any language con

tact situation* dialect differences must be taken into account for both

languages* for learners with different regional backgrounds in their

native-language speech habits may encounter different problems in

learning a foreign language. 172

Some of our ocher informants also had no trouble distinguishing between /s/ - /a/ and /ts/ - /c/. They were not speakers of East Greek.

These Informants, however, had demonstrated a much higher proficiency In

English than had some of the speakers of East Greek and had reached the point in their bilingual development where they were able to perceive

and reproduce these sounds without difficulty. Thus, In the representa-

tion of the Greek-English composite we have listed /s/ and /s/ as allophones of the same hypothetical Greek-English phoneme, suggesting that

the Greek-English idiom is in a state of transition regarding its phonemic

Inventory and that this Inventory w ill continue to fluctuate depending

upon the ability of its speakers, as an Integrated speech community, to

accommodate their native language habits to those of American English.

In the chapter on the socio-cultural background of the Greek-English con

tact, we fotsid that the Greek-Amerlcan culture is a viable hybrid. So

too, it would appear, is the Hellenlc-Engllsh language.

Informant #1, as well as informant #4, regularly substituted /d/

f o r / 6 / in such words as "the" and "this," despite the fact that /6 /

exists in most dialects of Modem Greek. Similarly, informant #2 occa

sionally substituted /t/ for /9/ as in /ffft/ for /fff 6 /. These substi

tutions could not have been predicted on the basis of a dialinguistic

analysis in terms of any current linguistic formulations. Thus, these

particular deviations cannot be accommodated by present language contact

theory. Results of this sort would seem to suggest that a revision of

certain tenets of language contact theory might be necessary.

Another serious deviation found in the pronunciation of our in

formants was the regular devoiclng of English voiced consonants in final 173

position. That is, final [b, d, g, v, 6 , z] were regularly heard as the corresponding phonemes [p, t, k, f, 0, s]. This defect in voicing is crucial because the voiced-voiceless contrast is pervasive through the

English stops and fricatives. The substitution of /v/ for /w/ as in the speech of Informant # 2 —e.g., [v£ski] for [w£sk\], [vork] for [werk],

[vAt] for [wot] and [vAj[t] for [w€yt]~is also a phonemic deviation which obstructs commmication.

The problem in the pronunciation of English consonant clusters falls wder the fourth category of deviations and is equally serious to that of single consonants, particularly, as we have seen in Chapters 11 and IV, with regard to final clusters. Here, the tendency among the in formants was simply to drop and/or devoice all final clusters and any or all of their members. By carrying over Greek cluster habits into English, the Greek speakers commit phonemic errors. There are in our data many occurrences of such items as [zmdl] for "small," [zn 6 ] for 'snow,' and

[zlfp] for 'sleep.'

The majority of deviations in the production of English vowels may be subsumed under the Greek Immigrants' general tendency toward monophthongal pronunciation of English diphthongs. Technically stated, by reference to English, Greek-English exhibits underdifferentiation of the pervasive aperture distinction between the hlgih-front vowels (ty-i), high- back vowels (uw-u), mid-back vowels (ow-d), and mid-front vowels (ey-e).

This underdlfferentlatlon extends also to the contrast between the sinple vowels /e-ae/. As predicted in the contrastive analysis, the Greek immi grants tended to wderdlfferent!ate the contrast between the mid-central 174

vowel /a/ before /r/ and /a/: e.g., [vork] for /w£rk/, [ 8 ortln] for

/dertiyn/, [torn] for /tdm /. These deviations are crucial In that they actually interfere with communication. They, too, are phonemic deviations.

As an example of phonetic deviation in the American-English pronun ciation of Greek immigrants may be seen in the tendency to carry over

Greek phonetic habits into English in the substitution of the familiar palatalized or "light" [1] of Greek for the unfamiliar valorized or "dark"

[i] of American English. This is a subphonemic deviation which results in heavy foreign accent but is nonetheless understandable.

' An exanple of allophonic deviation may be seen in the Greek immigrants* tendency to substitute his phoneme /r/ for the English flap allophone [t] as in /water/, /sitiy/, etc.. Furthermore, where medial /t/ occurs before an unstressed vowel most Americans use this special flap • allophone /t/. Some Americans have no distinction in this position between

/t/ and /d/ so that pairs such as kittv-klddv. catty-caddy, sound alike.

Thus, the Greek speakers* substitution of his flap /r/ in medial inter vocalic positions is a very close approximation of the English allophone

[t]. Indeed use of this sound in the appropriate environments may serve as a sign that a particular Greek Bpeaker has begun to accommodate his native language habits to those of the secondary language. Examples: not at all - [n$ratol], headache - [z£rik], what's the matter - [vatsamara], shut upl [sar$p], water - [yu$re], kitty - [kfri].

When Greek allophones are in free variation, the Greek speakers'

tendency to transfer the Greek distribution of those sounds into the

English system may result in phonemic deviation, confusion, and sometimes, 175

Incomprehensibility. Examples of this type of deviation may be seen in

the Greeks' rendition of the English voiced stops when they are in medial position. The tendency to precede such stops with a homorganic nasal can

destroy the contrast between such minimal pairs in our corpus as: trouble/

Trunfcull (county in Ohio); stubble/stunfcle; sediment/sentiment, stuple/

symbol, etc. The underdifferentiation of English /n/ and /n/ by our in-

formants was virtually total. Examples: /sin/, /sink/ or /sing/ for

/ s i n / .

As was to be expected from the comparison of Greek and English

phonology (Chapter IV), the deviations which actually occurred in the tape

recorded data were, for the most .part, in the areas of linguistic dif

ferences between Greek end English. For instance: 1) Those sounds which

Greek does not have, like [w, s, c, z, j, r, h, etc.]. ]) Those con

trasts which Greek does not use, but which English does, such as voiced

final: voiceless final consonants and consonant clusters. 3) Those

allophonic features which are different in Greek and English, like (a)

velar ("dark") and palatal ("light") /l/, (b) medial, Intervocalic /t/

and /d/. A) Those free variations in Greek which do not occur in

English, like (Modern Mainland) Greek [nb] for [b], [nd] for [d], [ng]

for [g}» /*>/ for /n/.

The transcribed data indicates that the informants experience

difficulties with English prosodic and orthographic elements. The dif

ficulties with prosodic elements themselves are presented below in three

main groups—stress, juncture, and pitch. 176

Difficulties In stress

1* There was much substitution of full vowels for weak stressed

vowels, both in isolated words and in sentences. The result was an un-

English stress pattern with nearly equal weight on each syllable.

Examples: [sfrtdnll] for sartanli], [environment] for [anvayremnant],

[e(ri)dz£sment] fcr [ejestment], [admfresyon] for [aedmlreysan],

[e(n)dyu££sy6 nal] for [ejeklysenal], [televizycn] for [televizsn].

2. The primary stress occurs on the wrong syllable. Examples:

United St&tes > [yunfil stets] beefstdw > [(m)b£fstt^] h 6 t c&kes [h&tkdks]

Dill of fdre [(m)bilofer] stewed primes [stupruns]. Many of the In

formants could not distinguish either in production or recognition

between paper cups and paper cups, paper bags or paper bags.

3. The reduction of syllables In a word, which, in most cases,

results in the omission of a vowel. Examples: [yunAlstets] for

/yuwnftytedastdyts/ [sttint] for [sttidant] v D ifficulties in juncture

The informants tended to assimilate medial consonant clusters,

producing such renditions as [apsolfitU] for [aebselOwtli] [ 6 kplan]

fo r [ 6 gpl&ent] [fudbol,] for [futfol] [eksdtik] for [egztftlk]

Difficulties in pitch

A majority of those informants who read the Diagnostic Passage

had difficulty with the rise-fall intonation of tag questions such as:

^Their classes certainly aren't 3their only jobs,2|2are theyl+

^Their classes certainly aren't their^ only jobs,1Pare they^t 177

They rendered this sentence with rising Intonation , In effect Indicating some dotbt as to the correctness of their statement rather than with falling Intonation which would Indicate conviction that this statement is correct.

D ifficulties in orthography

Confusion caused by orthographic factors was interspersed through" out the material but was exemplified more specifically in the reading of the Diagnostic Passage in such hypercorrect spelling pronunciations as: preferred, followed, worshipped, inclined. CONCLUSION AND APPLICATIONS

In Chapter V it was suggested that the abstracted Greek-English phonological system might be useful in the authentic representation of the Greek "dialect" on stage, screen, and radio. Our predecessors in this endeavor were Lewis and Marguerite Herman in their Manual of

Foreign D ialects.^ While they have done yeoman service in providing us with a very valuable handbook, they suffered from the disadvantage that Greek phonology and its comparison with English had not been the subject of much scholarly research in their time. Using the informa tion which we have derived from the contrastive analysis and the reconstruction of the Greek-English idiom in previous chapters, we are now prepared to present the following "normalized" transcription of "The Deaf Chef."2

* OP• c i t .

^ (y) ~ optional pronunciation; more likely to occur before u, o, a, in that order; the combination (y)u may often be substituted for by /v/f especially before /a/, /o/, in that order. /m, n, n7 - represents likely rendition in Modern Mainland Greek; absence 61 these bracketed phones would be more likely for Athenian speakers.

178 179

THE DEAF CHEF

Has fellow, Nick Popolous, he come my place look for job. "I 1 (^)uAS 'a'K '■pojid/uj'l'jti Hem m*i pk* I*lK fo f ' xt good chef," he say me, "make good hamburger—all kinds lunch for highclass y*\\ ' } * D j 1 j1 al Kn'n lonii -f* r w i’W u bl1l-of-fare." Has greenhorn, you know—no speak so good English like me. ,(pUiAS^C^y}$*'l'hX6£h, ly* * * o *) ’no 1f>iK **1 0 * '* So I say him, "You hire," and I put him In kitchen. I stand by showcase . f 5 o «4 **sr jc<•*»'/'yaV ftif '|V * /*** & 'm b

Chef, he got stewed prunes. "Hey, you! what's the matter?" I say, "I 1 * 5 6 ' I ' )ji'4 *~jr& *lxyu '/'(flOAts*?**- ) r x ’ cu s t y tKi holler for beefstew." He scratch head. "I don't know, he say, "1 think ^ a /e r -fair *G*}bi'{ytt»'i* )ti s K fe l* '4 * * / vo n or/ f ^ / l Sey ^ 9 a.i you holler for stewed prunes." So I get beefstew, go back to customer. ytL YtCler f o ^ s h i p f ^5 '4 f5o AitpHjet Eri)b!4stv>* h£lCa}tnn*r*v Comes in next another fellow. "Hotcakes," say he want. "Hotcakes!*.' 'K

you7" 1 holler. "You don't know I order hotcakes? You make beefsteak, yx »| *aj yaJz f£, 1 y• H i * h1 1 ^ 5 Ji 5 D)33 rft ^ i * 5 ^* lutstSn^ r x ' 4 I holler, "You no hear good maybe, no?" He say again, "What?" Is plenty '*U hc<£lcr' l'y<* tnwtwjbi sei ^ enough for me. "Get out of here" I holler, "get out of my place before V hA f foy mi 'J'&JjtvaVe )S Ai l ^cdler yc m*i p k * ' jtmlbi-fifor I throw you out!" How do you like that? Deaf chef! yu auAwt t'^xd.fyn I x

One of the chief advantages of the transcription used above, as compared to that used by the Hermans, Is that It attempts to system atically represent the sounds of the Greek-Engllsh idiom in a consistent fashion vlth a non-to-one relationship between sound and symbol. Using the descriptions of the Greek-Engllsh phonology presented earlier, together with specially devised exercises and drills similar to those in the Hermans' Manual, anyone Interested in authentically representing the English pronunciation of a Greek immigrant should be able to do so without much difficulty.

The data presented in Chapter V indicated the particular areas in the English sound system upon which Greek speakers would have to concentrate in order to acquire mastery of American-English pronun c ia tio n .

Those who believe that the most important function of language is communication emphasize early and Intensive phonological training for students who are Interested in learning a foreign language. They believe that the best pronunciation is the one that attracts the least attention to Itself. Among the most serious distractions in the channel of communication, inadequate pronunciation is the most obvious, one of the most persistent, and one of the most difficult to eliminate. This dissertation has been devoted to examining in detail the striking differences between Greek and English pronunciation. The Greek speaker comes to English with an already highly developed set of speech habits in his own native language. The teaching of English pronunciation to

Greeks must, therefore, be done in a systematic and methodical manner, based upon the results of contrastive linguistic analyses such as the 181 one presented here If the Greek-speaking habits of a lifetime are to be countermanded. The Greek learner of English has two immediate pronun ciation needs. They are: 1) the recognition of sounds as they function in the stream of English speech; and 2) the production of these sounds in an acceptable manner. Unless he has been exposed to efficient in struction in English at a very early age, the Greek learner of English w ill speak in a way which has been described comprehensively as a

"foreign accent." In order to be able to understand what is meant by a "Greek accent," we must understand not only why the foreign learner speaks as he does, but also why, for a considerable time, he finds

English a difficult language to hear.

Among the many features of a foreign accent is the faulty production of single sounds. As we have seen from the contrastive analysis, English has a number of sounds which do not occur In Greek.

Thus, it is the very nature of the English sound system that causes the

Greek learner's difficulty. The fact that English vowels are longer when final or before voiced consonant sounds than they are when they precede voiceless consonant sounds is another source of foreign accent for Greek speakers who tend to pronounce English vowels with the same uniform vowel length that exists in their language. S till another

feature of Greek accent in English is the un-English rhythm which results when Greeks transfer the syllable-timed rhythm of Greek to English utter ances which require stress-timed rhythm.

The Greek speaker's pitch sequences often differ markedly from the

English speaker's, thus resulting in un-English intonation. English has 182

Its own characteristic sequences which differ from those used in Greek*

These four features, then, are the principal characteristics of what may be called a "Greek accent" In English. Other features of the English sound system which are likely to accentuate the Greek speakers' d iffi culty In acquiring authentic American-English pronunciation are:I)the relative laxness of a number of sounds and the diphthongal nature of a number of vowel sounds; 2)the uncertain position of maximum stress in multi syllabic words {3)the high frequency of the midcentral vowel /~* 7 , the d is tribution of which is the key to English sentence rhythm4 4) the high frequency of consonant clusters. Greeks, whose native language as we have seen, is strongly vocalic, find these clusters particularly difficult, especially in final position.

These features of a "Greek accent" have been discussed and amply illustrated in preceding chapters. With these features revealed by the contrastive analysis, we must now rearrange them for pedagogical purposes in an order which will constitute a hierarchy of difficulty. It is necessary to determine which features will be most difficult to master and which w ill be easiest in order to sequence teaching materials and pronun ciation lessons in the most effective way. The preferred pedagogical sequence for teaching pronunciation to Greeks is as follows:

(1) Basic intonation features and patterns (including stress, pitch, Juncture, and rhythm). All things considered, the Greek learner is far more likely to understand English speech and be understood if he speaks English with a good rhythm and intonation than if he speaks it with a high degree of accuracy in his sounds, but with staccato rhythm and un-

English intonation. Uncertain position of strong stress in multisyllabic 183 words Is very troublesome to Greeks. Greek lacks "plus" juncture, and

the propensity of the language for assimilation Internally and across word

boundaries, especially with nasals and stops, and for elision of vowels

between word boundaries, causes serious problems for Greeks learning

E nglish.

(2) Week stressed vowels. Vowel reduction under weak stress is

conspicuously characteristic of English. The reverse is true of Greek,

which has virtually no reduction under weak stress. English is extremely

persistent In this detail, which is the key to English sentence rhythm.

(3) Strong-stressed vowels and diphthongs. The much greater

variety of English tends toward underdifferentlatlon of contrasts, which

leads to misunderstanding. It is very difficult for Greeks to become

accustomed to diphthongal combinations of vowel sounds, which are very

common in E nglish.

(4) Alveo-palatal affricates /c, J/ and groove fricatives /s, z/.

These do not exist in Greek. Substitution by moat approximate Greek

phones /ts/, /tz/, /e, z/ leads to phonemic deviations and misunderstanding.

(5) Voiced stop-spirants. The tendency of Greeks, especially

speakers of Modern Mainland Greek, to introduce homorganlc nasals before

these sounds leads to confusion between such contrasts as bubble/bumble,

etc., placing these problems high among those generated by consonantal

c o n f lic ts .

(6) Voiceless stops /p, t, k/. Potentiality of mishearing when

pronounced without aspiration places these above consonants like /h/ that

may in fact be more difficult to learn to produce correctly. English

Intervocalic it/ resembles Greek /r /. 184

(7) Resonants (/r/, /w/, /l/) and glottal fricative /h/. These

are a major source of heavy Greek accent. Substituting /// or /u/ for /w/t

flap /r/ for retroflex /r/, velar fricative /x/ for /h/, "dark" /I/ for

'light," do not cause misunderstanding; /v/ for /w/ Is phonemic though not

a regular substitution.

(8) Nasals, (including velar /n/ which Is phonemic In English,

allophonlc in Greek)and palatals.

(9) Fricatives. These sounds have close equivalents in Greek.

However, voiced /v/, /6/, /*/ are troublesome In final position where

they tend to be devoiced by Greeks.

(10) Consonant clusters. Many of these are serious problems

indeed, especially in final position. They are low in this sequence only

because they cannot be corrected efficiently until the shape of their

individual elements is reasonably familiar. Major source of heavy Greek

accent are the initial clusters /si/, /sn/, /sm/, /sr/ which tend to be

pronounced /zl/, /zn/, /zm/, and /sr/.

(11) Other intonation features and patterns.

In the sequencing of vowels and consonants, attention must be given,

selectively, in the following sequence:

1. The segments that cause misunderstanding.

2. The segments that produce obvious accent.

3. AH others.3

Three especially useful devices for teaching pronunciation are 1) comparison

drills, 2) contrast drills, and 3) pattern drills. "Contrast drills are

^Stockwell and Bowen, The Sounds o f English and Spanish, op. c l t . 185 the nucleus of ell productive practice on pronunciation.4 The following is a representative set of contrast drills on the simple and complex nuclei of American English:

A y- i\f tat I d /*/

e a t as i t b a it p et - p a t

b eat m b i t bate b e t - b a t

h e a t m h i t ta le bed - bad

fe e t m f i t s a il said sad

/»/ /»/ A»w/ /u/ /ow l /»/ /»/ (before

co t - cut boot - book low law Butt

hot - hpt food - foot hole - h a ll b ird

not - nut pool - p u ll pole - Paul h u rt

pop - pup Luke - look coal - c a ll fern

cop cup s u it - soot boat - bought s h ir t

These drills can be done in chorus or individually, down the columns or from one member of a pair to another. Small-sized classes (12-15 students) should be able to get through a good deal of chorus work on all the words, and individual checking on one contrast pair from each of the sets is no more than 10 to 15 minutes. When done in such a concentrated manner, the average student can learn to make a distinct contrast by the second drill period. To make these correct articulations matters of automatic habit, however, requires a great many periods of corrective reading and other practices, extending over weeks, months, and often enough, years. These drills can also be used as tests of auditory perception, the teacher pro nouncing one of a pair, and the student responding with the other member of the pair.

4Ibid.( p. 127. 186

Drills of these types are available in a large variety of English pronunciation drill books. It is assumed that the teacher is himself a native speaker of English or that he will use an acceptable model for his students to Imitate. An acceptable model is a person whose own pronun* elation would never be misunderstood among native speakers or call atten- tlon to itself as conspicuously accented. A language is heard before it is spoken. Since faulty discrimination will almost certainly result in faulty production, students should be given regular sound recognition d rills. Sound recognition drills should precede sound production drills.

They should also be included in review sessions.

In the elementary and Intermediate stages of instruction it is inevitable that a considerable amount of time must be spent in teaching, drilling, and reviewing the sounds of English. However, simple exercises in rhythm and Intonation can, and should, be given from the very beginning.

Of course, none of the preceding discussion should be taken to mean that pronunciation should at any time be taught for long to the exclusion of grammatical and lexical structure.

The restrictions on immigration to the United States which were estab lished by the Immigration Quota Law of 1924 have recently been lifted by an amendment to the Immigration and Nationality Act so that by 1968 thousands of new immigrants w ill begin to enter the United States. Among these, no doubt, will be a large number of Greeks. This study has sought to provide a sound basis for approaching the teaching of English to Greeks.

It would be criminal if the new immigrants were not provided with adequate materials and instruction in the English language so that they might be 187

Able to better realize their full potential as citizens of the United

States. The hypothetical reconstruction of the Greek-Engllsh Idiom, based on dlalingulstic analysis, can serve as a point of departure for foreign language instruction. This composite, hypothetical Idiom, pin points those areas of greatest potential difficulty for Greek learners of

English and provides a systematized target at which teachers of future

Greek immigrants can direct their efforts for the purpose of providing

the best possible instruction. In effect, instructional efforts can be most efficiently directed toward "destroying" or bypassing" the salient

features of the hypothetical Greek-Engllsh dialect and thus preventing

the formation of a "Greek accent" In new immigrants from Greeks. Even

the preliminary and cursory investigation performed here has given us new insights Into the nature of the Greek-Engllsh Idiom. Especially with the lifting of restrictions on Immigration, more such hypothetical reconstructions of languages of immigrant groups at various transitional stages of language acquisition will be needed. These studies can be used to evaluate progress In language acquisition, to observe students exposed to competing pedagogical methods for the purpose of determining

their relative effectiveness, and to observe a large variety of languages

In contact, permitting the formulation of more general conclusions. Full-

scale Investigations of this nature are important not only for language

pedagogy but also for language contact theory and even for general linguistic

theory* It seems obvious that the study of such composite linguistic struc

tures will one day shed Important light on the general nature of language

I t s e l f . APPENDIX A

INFORMANTS

The following individuals participated in the tape recording sessions for this study. The socio-cultural and linguistic background of each informant is given anonymously on the following pages:

Mrs. Bessie Alatis Mrs. Froso Mastorldes 3071 Pennsylvania Avenue 501 C o its v ille Road W eirton H eights, W. Va. Campbell, Ohio

Mrs. Stella Anaston Mrs. Andronikl Mastromlchalis 1248 E. 12th Street 618 Prospect Place Eddystone, Pa. Alexandria, Va.

Dr. Effie Arampatsou Mr. C hristos P a p a sifak is Jefferson Memorial Hospital 228 Walnut H ill Lane Walnut & 11th Sts. Havertown, Pa. Philadelphia, Pa. Mr. Gus P eran tin ld es Mr. Philocles Anthopoulos 278 Park Drive 695 W. Walnut Lane Campbell, Ohio Philadelphia, Pa. Mrs. Harriet Perantinldes Mr* Peter Dandalldes 278 Park Drive 407 Candy Lane Campbell, Ohio Anherst, Ohio Mr. Manuel Psaros Mrs. Despina Fllotsis 260 W etzel S tre e t 606 Lee Avenue Weirton Heights, W. Va. Youngstown, Ohio Mrs. Kathy Rlgas Mr. Gus F llo ts is 719 W. LaClede 606 Lee Avenue Youngstown, Ohio Youngstown, Ohio Mr. Sam Rlgas Mr. A ris to tle M astorldes 775 Sherwood 501 C o lts v llle Road Youngstown, Ohio Campbell, Ohio Mrs. Fotoula Vlahos Mr. B ill N. M astorldes Bates Street 514 C o its v ille Road Oakland, Pittsburgh, Pa. Campbell, Ohio

188 189

Other valuable a ssista n c e was given by the following (among many others too numerous to list):

Miss Ann Alatls Mr. Michael Glannaros 3071 Pennsylvania Ave. 1737 Kenview Road Weirton Heightsf W. Va. Colunfeus, Ohio

Mr. Charles 1. Alatis Mrs. Dekea Mastorides 3801 Monticello Blvd. 514 C o its v ille Road Cleveland Heights, Ohio Canpbell, Ohio

Mr. Efstathios Alatis Mr. S o tlrlo s M astorldes 3071 Penna. Ave. 611 Coitsville Road Weirton Heights, W. Va. Campbell, Ohio

Mr. John A la tis Mrs. Tltlka Mastorldes 257 Wetzel Street 611 C o its v ille Road W eirton, W. Va. Campbell, Ohio

Mrs. Penelope M. Alatis Mr. Hippocrates Mastromichalls 5108 5utton Place 618 Prospect Place Alexandria, Va. Alexandria, Va.

Mrs. Maria Anthopoulos Mrs.: Mary Papasifakis 695 W. Walnut Lane 228 Walnut H ill Lane Philadelphia, Penna. Havertown, Pa.

Mrs. Despina Dandalides Mrs. Katina Psaros 121 Carson Drive 260 Wetzel Street Chardon, Ohio W eirton H eights, W. Va.

Dr. George Dandalides Mr. Tom Rigas 121 Carson Drive 719 W. LaClede Char don, Ohio Youngstown, Ohio

Mr. T. P. Delianides Mrs. Frances Vlahos 916 Ju n ip er Place 215 Dunbar Drive Alexandria, Va. Pittsburgh, Pa.

Mr. John D ill Mr, Lou Vlahos 407 Candy Lane 215 Dunbar Drive Anherst, Ohio Pittsburgh, Pa. Mrs. Stella Dill 407 Candy Lane Amherst, Ohio 190

INFORMANTS: Background

'< The following socio-cultural and linguistic Background informa tion for each informant was excerpted from the taped Interviews:

1. Name 2. Date of Interview 3. Address 4. Age 5* Occupation 6. Place of birth 7. Residence in other parts of Greece 8. Place of parents' birth 9. Parents' names 10. Parents' residence 11. Native (first) language 12. Date of a rriv a l In the U. S. 13. Return vlsit(s) to Greece 14. Residence in other countries 15. Residence in other parts of U. S. 16. Marital status 17. N*me of Spouse 18. birthplace of spouse 19. Name of spouse's parents 20. Nunber of children 21. Children's names 22. Education in Greece 23. Education in U. S. 24. First exposure to English 25. Method used to learn English 26. Length of English study in Greece; in U. S. 27. Attitude towards Greeks learning English 28. Self-evaluation of ability to understand English 29. Self-evaluation of ability to speak English 30. Self-evaluation of ability to read English 31. Self-evaluation of ability to write English 32. Use of English in daily business 33. Attitude on foreign language learning 34. Attitude toward children learning Greek 35. Children's competence in Greek; method acquired 36. Attitude toward superiority of Greek over English 37. Attitude regarding relative difficulty between English and Greek

11 ‘ . /

'' 191

38. Attitude towards boys attending college 39. Attitude towards girls attending college AO. Attitude towards obedience to elders 41. Attitude towards dowries 42. Attitude towards boys marrying Greek girls In U. S. 43. Church affiliation 44. Regularity of church attendance 45. Regularity of spouse's church attendance 46. Regularity of children's church attendance 47. Attitude toward foreign travel 48. Attitude toward Constantinople as Greek city 49. Attitude toward Cyprus as a part of Greece 50. Attitude coward increased Immigration of Greeks to U. S. 192

Inform ant No. 1

1. Female 2. Wednesday, June 23, 1965 3. Alexandria, Virginia 4. 64 5 . Housewife 6. Halki, Dodecanese Island, Greece 7. Rhodes, Dodecanese Island, 1921-1923 8. H alki 9. Hippocrates, Stergoulia 10. H alki 11. Yes 12. 1923 13. Yes, 1964 (3 months, to visit friends, relatives) 14. No 15. California, (10 years) 16. Widowed 17. Michael 18. H alki 19. Demi trio s 20. Yes, 3; 2 boys, 1 girl 21. James, Hippocrates, Stella 22. 7th grade; yes 23. No 24. The first year arrived in America 25. By hearing other people talk 26. 3 - 4 years to understand; - No 27. Yes - sorry I didn't go to school 28. Yes, a little bit 29. Not everything 30. Yes 31. No, j u s t name 32. Yes 33. Yes 34. Yes 35. Yes, read, w rite; went to Greek school in Weirton . Va. 36. Like them both; the same 37. the same 38. Yes 39. Yes 40. Oh Yes; Yes; Yes 41. No 42. Oh, if they like American girls—the same 43. Orthodox Church 44. Sometime 45. Yes 46. Yes, sometime 47. Yes 48. Yes 39. Yes 50. Yes 193 Informant No. 2

1. Male 2. June 27, 1965 3. Campbell, Ohio 4. 72 5. Tailor, dry cleaning business 6 . Syml, Dodecanese Island, Greece 7. No 8. Syml 9 . Father, Nicholas; Mother, Fotlni 10. Syml 11. Yes 12. 1916 13. Yes, (1925-26, to marry); 1956, 9 mos., (to visit) 14. A lexandria, Egypt; Bombay, In d ia 15. Tarpon Springs 16. Yes 17. Dekea 18. Syml 19. Theodore, Penelope 20. Yes; 2, 1 boy, 1 girl 21. Nicholas, Penelope 22. Grade school (Demotlko) Pretty nice 23. No 24. Customers to store, writing prices on paper, learned from business 25. In business 26. No 27. Yes 28. Understand only for business and can get along there 29. Yes 30. No 31. No 32. Yes, p r e tty good 33. Yes 34. Yes 35. Yes, Home, Greek school 36. I like both 37. I like both 38. Yes, I like to see go to college 39. Sure 40. Yea; yes; yes 41. Style for Greek town; No 42. Yes, except where love takes over 43. Greek Orthodox Church 44. Yes s i r l 46. Yes 47. Yes 48. Old s to r y , Yes 49. Yes 50. Yes 194

Informant No. 3

1. Male 2. June 30, 1965 3. Campbell» Ohio 4. 67 5. Watchmaker, Jeweler 6. Syml, Dodecanese Island, Greece 7. No 8. Syml 9. Nicholas, Fotlnl 10. Syml 11. Yes 12. 1916 13. Yes, 1925 (to see r e la tiv e s ) ; 1929 14. France, 1937 (married there) 15. Yes, Tarpon Springs, Florida, 2 years (1916-18) 16. Yes 17. Frances 18. Syml 19. Savas, Evdokia 20. Yes, 2; 1 boy, 1 girl 21. N ich o las, Fay 22. Seven-eight years; Fair 23. No 24. Lessons in Tarpon Springs, Florida; at home, private 25. books, tutor 26. In United States, reading all the time 27. Yes 28. No 29. Yes 30. Yes 31. F a ir 32. Yes, very much 33. Yes 34. A bsolutely 35. Yes, went to Greek school connected with the church 36. Greek is a beautiful language 37. About the same 38. Yes 39. Yes 40. Yes, Yes, Yes 41. 1 don't think so 42. Better If you can, but doesn't matter very much 43. Greek Orthodox Church 44. Yes 45. Yes 46. Yes 47. Yes, very much 48. Yes, absolutely 49. Yes 50. Yes 194

Informant No. 3

1. Male 2. Jane 30, 1965 3. Campbell, Ohio 4. 67 5. Watchmaker, Jeweler 6. Syml, Dodecanese Island, Greece 7. No 8. Syml 9. Nicholas, Fotlni 10. Syml 11. Yes 12. 1916 13. Yes, 1925 (to see r e la tiv e s ) ; 1929 14. F rance, 1937 (m arried th ere) 15. Yes, Tarpon Springs, Florida, 2 years (1916-18) 16. Yes 17. Frances 18. Syml 19. Savas, Evdokia 20. Yes, 2; 1 boy, 1 girl 21. N icho las, Fay 22. Seven-eight years; Fair 23. No 24. Lessons In Tarpon Springs, Florida; at home, private 25. books, tutor 26. In United States, reading all the time 27. Yes 28. No 29. Yes 30. Yes 31. F a ir 32. Yes, very much 33. Yes 34, Absolutely 35. Yes, went to Greek school connected with the church 36. Greek is a beautiful language 37. About the same 38. Yes 39. Yes 40. Yes, Yes, Yes 41. I don't think so 42. Better If you can, but doesn't matter very much 43. Greek Orthodox Church 44. Yes 45. Yes 46. Yes 47. Yes, very much 48. Yes, absolutely 49. Yes 50. Yes 195 Informant No. 4

1. Female 2. June 30, 1965 3. Campbell. Ohio 4. 49 5. Housewife 6. Syml, Dodecanese Island, Greece 7. No 8. Syml 9. Savas, Evdokia 10. Syml 11. Yes 12. 1937 (October 23) 13. No 14. France (enroute to U. S.) 15. No 16. Yes 17. Aristotle (Arist) 18. Syml 19. N ich o las, F o tin l 20. Yes, 2; 1 boy, 1 girl 21. Nicholas, Fay 22. Gyrmaslum; Fair 23. 1 year, Campbell, Ohio 24. School in Campbell, Ohio 25. Some spelling, speaking; at Bethel 26. Not at all; One year; Self 27. Yes 28. Not now, but yes In the beginning 29. Yes 30. So and so 31. No - so and so 32. Yes, helped me a lot 33. Yes 34. Yes 35. Yes, went to Greek school 36. I can't say 37. I can't say 38. Yes 39. Yes 40. Y es; Yes; Yes 41. No 42. Yes 43. Greek Orthodox Church 44. Yes 45. Yes 46. Yes 47. Yes 48. 1 hope so 49. Yes 50. Yea 196 luiormanc No. 5

1. Female 2. June 30, 1965 3. Canpbell, Ohio 4. 47 5. Housewife 6. Piraeus, Greece 7. Syml, Dodecanese Island for 8 years (as a child) 8. Syml 9. Pachos; Marigo (maria) 10. Piraeus (Mother now in Rhodes) 11. Yes 12. 1920 (3 years old); returned in 1940 13. Back to Syml (1924-32); Piraeus (1932-40) ' 14. Portugal (10 days) 15. No 16. Yes 17. Gus (Constantine) 18. Syml 19. Theodore, Penelope 20. Yes; two; both boys 21. Theodore, Paul 22. Graduated from gymnasium; yes 23. No 24. After arrival, couple months to learn English 25. Citizenship School - teacher, books 26. 2 months; Now, by TV, children, etc. 27. Yes 28. I can understand 29. Yes 30. Fair (modest) 31. Yes 32. Yes 33. Yes 34. Yes 35. Yes; speak at home, Sunday School 36. Can't compare 37. C an 't say 38. Yes 39. W ell, Yes 40. Yes; Yes; Yes 41. Not necessary 42. Yes 43. Greek Orthodox Church 44. Yes 45. Not too regularly 46. Yes 47. Yes 48. I wish someday 49. Yes 50. Yes 197 Informant No. 6

1. Male 2. Ju ly 8, 1965 3. Anherst, Ohio 4. 78 5. Retired - craneman (42 years); baker for many years 6 . Llnnos Island, Greece, (city, Kandnla) 7. No 8. Llnnos, Greece 9. John, Antonia 10. Llnnos 11. Yes 12. January 7, 1910 13. No 14. Alexandria, Egypt, 1909 (three months) 15. New York, Penna., Illinois, Utah, Nevada, Iowa, finally settled in Lorain, Ohio 16. Yes (widower) 17. E le n i 18. Llnnos 19. Stelios; Stelllanl 20. 4; 3 boys; 1 g i r l 21. B ill, John, George, Stella 22. Third grade Yes 23. No 24. When arrived In U. S. 25. Bought Greek-Engllsh dictionary; speak to people outside 26. No 27. Got to learn English 28. Half and half 29. Don't think so 30. Little bit 31. Half and half 32. Sure 33. Sure 34. Yes 35. Yes - Greek school 36. C a n 't say 37. No 38. Must go 39. Must go 40. Yes; Yes; Yes 41. Just Greek country has that trouble; No 42. W ell, mixed up 43. Greek Orthodox Church 44. Yes 45. Yes 46. Well, half and half 47. Y es, sure 48. Well, sometime gonna get it 49. Nobody knows 50. Yes 198 Informant No* 7

1. Male 2. July 10, 1965 3. Youngstown, Ohio 4. 79 5* Business man 6. Klaton, Corinth, Greece 7. No 8. K laton 9* Constantines, Helen 10. K laton 11. Yes 12. 1906 13. Yes, 1912 (to fight In Balkan War - 1 year) 14. No (enroute to U. S. - Italy, etc.) 15. Butler, Penna. (business) 16. Yes 17. Penelope 18. Ksylokastro, Corinth, Greece 19. Vlaslos, Christine 20. Yes; 2, 1 boy, 1 girl 21. Constantine, Helen 22. Public school (Demotlkon) Pretty good 23. No 24. Just come and go In U. S. 25. Mix with people 26. First 6 years dealt and lived only with Greeks"later only in b u sin e ss 27. I think big mistake by the Greek gov't. Give Latin and French in school, not Eng. You can speak English In any part of the w orld 28. 1 understand—for ray business, 1 talk nice 29. Yes 30. 1 read but I can't pronounce (I do understand) 31. Copy; 01 can w rite 32. Oh, Yes 33. Yes 34. Yes, they talk 35. Yes—at home and Greek school 36. Well, I think Greek language is best 37. For me, yes 38. Oh yes 39. Yes 40. Up to parents, train to respect parents; Yes; Yes 41. Not in this country 42. No answer 43. Greek Orthodox Church 44. Most of the Sundays 45. Yes 46. Well daughter, yes 47. Oh, yes 48. You ask met Huh! Naturally. Constantinople should be International City 49. Naturally; belongs to Greece 50. Yes, if law can be changed in Washington 199

Informant No. 8

1. Male 2. Friday, July 9, 1965 3. Youngstown, Ohio 4. 76 5. Retired restaurant business 6 . Samos I s la n d , G reece, (town o f Hora) 7. No 8. Samos 9. Gerasslmos, Pareskevo 10. Samos 11. Yes 12. 1910 13. Yes, 1920; wanted to stay permanently (for 4 months) 14. Alexandria, Egypt; Messina 15. No 16. Yes 17. D espina 18. Cons ta n tin o p le , Turkey 19. John, Argyro 20. Yes, 3; 2 boys, 1 girl 21. George, John, Mary (Paraskevo) 22. 8th Year 23. No 24. In business; sometime dictionary 25. Sometime I have dictionary 26. None 27. Yes 28. Yes 29. Well, I do my Job 30. I read, understand newspaper but not every word 31. A little bit 32. Yes 33. Yes s i r 34. Yes s i r 35. Yes - went to Greek school 36. Yes 37. Yes, I know 38. Yes 39. Yes 40. Yes; Y es; Yes 41. In old country, people are crazy for it 42. Yes 43. Greek Orthodox Church 44. Yes 45. Yes sir, every Sunday 46. Yes 47. Yes s i r 48. Yes s i r 49. Yehl 50. Yes 200

Informant No* 9

1. Female 2 . Ju ly 9 , 1965 3. Youngstown, Ohio 4. 70 5. Housewife 6. Constantinople, Turkey (6 years) 7. Samos Island (4 years); Ikaria, (3 years); Samos (2 years) 8. Samos 9. John; Argyro 10. In Samos m ostly 11. Yes 12. 1921 13. No 14. Alexandria, Egypt (6 years, from ages 17-23) 15. No 16. Yes 17. Gus (C onstantine) 18. Samos 19. Gerassi mo s, Paraskevo 20. Yes, 3 2 boys, 1 girl 21* George, John, Mary 22. To seventh grade; good student 23. No 24. Soon as I came to this country 25. From neighbors; dictionary 26. No; In U.S., Citizenship School 27. Yes 28. No 29. Well, I think so 30. I think so 31. No, but I can read 32. Oh y e s, very much 33. Oh yes, sure 34. Yes, they know, too 35. Yes—Greek school 36. Well, English good, but Greek is better 37. I don't think so—they say "All Greek to me" 38. Yes 39. Oh yes 40. Oh yes; yes; yes 41. Yes 42. Yes 43. Greek Orthodox Church 44. Yes 45. Yes 46. Yes 47. It is I 48. I hope so 49. That will be all right 50. Yes 201

Inform ant No. 10

1» Male 2. July 10, 1965 3. Campbell, Ohio 4 . 53 5. Dry cleaner 6. Syml, Dodecanese Island, Greece 7. No 8. Syml 9. Theodore, Penelope 10. Syml; Caspbell, Ohio 11. Greek, Yes 12. June, 1930 13. Yes, twice, for visit—1947, 1962 (two months each time) 14. Italy, just in passing 15. No 16. Yes 17. Harriet 18. Piraeus, Greece 19. Pachos, Mari go (Maria) 20. Y es, 2 boys 21. Theodore, Paul (Pachos) 22. First year in gymnasium; No 23. Yes, 1930, for six months. Campbell, Ohio 24. In school, in Campbell 25. Learn ABC's, pronunciation 26. None - 6 months 27. Yes 28. No 29. Oh yes, I take care of my own business 30. Not too good, I can get along 31. No 32. Oh yes 33. Yes, they should do 34. Yes , 35. They only speak it — at home 36. I couldn't say 37. Yes, harder 38. Yes, they should 39. Should go for one-two years 40. Way it should be; yes; yes 41. No—school is her dowry 42. Yes 43. Greek Orthodox Church 44. Not too much 45. Yes, she goes 46. Yeh 47. I t i s 48. Should give it back to Greece 49. Yeh 50. No; shortage of men in Greece 202 Informant No. 11

1. Female 2. Monday, July 12, 1965 3. Weirton, West Virginia A. 65 5 . Housework 6 . Nennlta, Island of Chios, Greece 7. No 8. Chios, same place 9. Father, Gus; Mother, Angela 10. Chios 11. Yes 12. 1921 13. 1936 (3 months); 1957 (6 months) 14. No 15. No 16. Yes 17. E f s ta th i0 8 18. Inla, Island of Cyprus 19. Father, John; Mother, Maria 20. Yes, 7: 4 boys, 3 girls 21. John, Jimny, Charlie, Despina, Anna, Manuel) > Frances 22. 2 years - very good student, but ray teacher no good 23. No 24. 1922 - customers come in store, I talk 25. 1 talk myself, I catch myself; customers come in 26. None None No 27. Yes 28. No 29. I speak English - that's all right 30. I read 31. L i t t l e b i t 32. Yes , s l r 33. Well, I try to catch any language - Yes 34. Yes, sir 35. Yes sir, everyone - I speak in house, go to Greek school 36. Both are good 37. No, long as you know Greek, not hard to learn English 38. Everyone of them 39. Everyone of them 40. Yes, Yes, Yes 41. No 42. It's all right 43. Orthodox 44. Yes 45. Yes 46. Yes 47. Yes 48. Yes 49. Yes 4 50. Yes 203 Informant No. 12

I. Male 2. July 12, 1965 3. Weirton, West Virginia 4. 70 5. Petroum l 6. Allkarnasos, Petrouml, Smyrna 7. No 8. Petroum l 9. George, Marfolia 10. Petroum l 11. Yea 12. 1920 13. No 14. France (no length of time) 15. Youngstown, Ohio, for six years 16. YeB 17. K ath erin e 18. Crete, Island, Greece 19. John, Mary 20. Yes, 4; 2 boys, 2 girls 21. Marfolia, George, Mary, Johnny 22. 3 years, Demotlkon; Yes 23. No 24. From working on English ship 25. By talking to other people 26. None 27. Well, yes 28. No 29. Yes 30. Yes 31. No 32. In work 33. Yes 34. Yes 35. Yes; Greek sc h o o l, a t home 36. Well, no; can't say 37. Yes, harder 38. Yes 39. Oh yes 40. Oh yes; yes; yes 41. No, I don't like 42. Yes 43. Greek Orthodox Church 44. Oh yes 45. Oh yes 46. Yes 47. Well, It Is 48. Oh ye8—we1 re going to take It 49. Oh yes 50. Well, yes 204 Inform ant No. 13

1. Female 2 . J u ly 12. 1965 3. Pittsburgh, Penna. 4. 70 5. Housewife 6. Stemnltsa, Arcadia, Greece 7. No 8. Stenail tea 9. Louis, Katherine 10. S tem n ltsa 11. Yes 12. 1921 13. No 14. No 15. Toledo, Ohio (8 months) 16. Yes (widow) 17. James 18. Stemnltsa 19. Harry, Zaphiroula (Zephyr) 20. Yes, 3 boys 21. Harry, Louis, George 22. Fourth grade 23. To study English*—a little bit 24. Pittsburgh (1927) 25. Citizenship classes in own home 26. Little while 27. Yes 28. No 29. Yes 30. Read 31. Write a little 32. Sure 33. Yes 34. Yes 35. Yes, learn at home; Greek school 36. ------37. No, Greek is harder 38. Sure 39. ------40. Sure; yes; yes 41. Yes 42. Yes 43. Greek Orthodox Church 44. Yes, every Sunday 45. Yes 46. Yes 47. ------48. Yes 49. Yes 50. If they want 205

Informant No. 14

1. Female 2. August 7, 1965 3. Eddystoue, Fenna. 4. 65 5 . Housewife 6. Hanlon, Crete (village of Harvata) 7. Athens, Piraeus (1924-28) 8. Both from Selino, Crete 9. Markoa, Fotlna 10. C rete 11. Yes 12. 1928 13. 1932-35 (to live permanently); 1952; 1956 (1 year) 14. No, just visiting 15. C asper, Wyoming (4 y e a rs) 16. Yes (widow) 17. Anthony 18. C rete 19. John, Eleni 20. Yes; 3; 2 girls, 1 boy 21. Helen, Mary, John 22. Demotlkon, up to fourth grade; not so good 23. No 24. With neighbor 25. L ittle dictionary and conversations with doctor (became very ill for long time after arrival to U. S.) 26. Never; by neighbors; no 27. Yes, everybody 28. English I can understand 29. No (to o m odest) 30. I try but I don’t, I can read, but I can't write 31. No, I don't 32. Yes 33. Yes 34. Yes 35. A little ; spoke to them; returned to Greece in 1932 until 1935—they went to school 36. I don't think so 37. Yes (Greek is easy to pronounce) English Is difficult in s p e llin g 38. Yes 39. Yes—more so for girls because they have families and should be educated 40. Yes; yes; yes 41. No . 42. Well, yes 43. Greek Orthodox 44. Yes 45. ---- —— 46. Sometimes 47. Very; educational 48. Yes 49. Yes 50. Yes 206

Inform ant No. 15

1. Female 2. July 9, 1965 3. Youngstown, Ohio 4. 31 5. Housewife 6. Ksylokastro, Corinth, Greece 7. No 8. Ksylokastro, Corinth, Greece 9. George, Irene 10. Ksylokastro, Corinth, Greece 11. Yes 12. November 5, 1955 13. Yes, to visit parents in 1964 (three months) 14. France, Italy, just for few days 15. No 16. Yes 17. Tom 18. Youngstown, Ohio 19. Peter, Zacharo 20. Yes, 3 girls 21. Zara, Renee, Pamela 22. Graduated from gymnasium Yes, good student 23. No 24. In Greece 25. Books 26. 3 years in Greece; not in America, now only from talking and listening to children 27. Yes 28. No 29. Well, enough to get around 30. Yes 31. Yes; trouble with spelling 32. Yes 33. I do 34. Y es, I do 35. They understand, speak a little ; spoke in Greece on visit 36. I think it Is 37. No, It isn't 38. Yes, 1 do 39. Yes 40. Yes they should; sometimes; sometimes 41. In this country, no; in Greece they have to 42. The older ones, they should; things are different now so not necessary 43. Greek Orthodox Church 44. Yes 45. Yes 46. Yes, every Sunday 47. Y es, i t i s 48. Yes 49. I do 50. Yes 207 Informant No. 16 1. Male 2. August 7, 1965 3. Philadelphia, Penna. 4. 41 5. Architectural engineer 6. Asmlsos (Asia Minor) 7. Yea—Ioannlna and other parta of Greece 8. Father, Ammisos; Mother, Brousaa 9. Alexandria, Egypt; Athena, Greece 10. Ammlaoa 11. Yea 12. 1950 13. Yea; vacation, 1963 14. Canada (1 year) 15. Washington, D. C. (short period) 16. Yes 17. M arla 18. Athens 19. DionyBus, Angeliki 20. Yes; 2 -1 boy, 1 girl 21. Alexander; Angeliki Athena 22. Through Teachers College In Athens; 1 year In Ioannlna; back to National Polytechnic University 23. One year to Univ. of Penna., Fine Arts School; fair 24. TWo months before coming to U. S. (1951) 25. By self-using self-teaching book and friends 26. 2 mos; one semester at Univ. of Penna., 1 mo. at Wilson Teachers College, Washington, D. C.; No 27. Well, everyone who lives In country should learn the language 28. At a univ.—It was easier; became* more difficult when started liv in g away from sch o o l environm ent 29. Yes ' 30. Yes 31. Yes 32. Couldn't do work without the knowledge 33* Definitely think so 34. Definitely—yes 35. Yes—they're quite young (will send to school) 36. Difficult to say 37. Eng. grammar seems ridiculous—no grammar; pronunciation is more difficult 38. Yes 39. If they’re willing and able 40. Yes, to certain extent 41. No 42. In general, people of same backgrounds, more the possibility of getting along better 43. Greek Orthodox Church 44. No 45. No 46. When children become proper age 47. Yes 48. Should be TAKEN BY THE GREEKS 49. Yes 50. Yea 208

Informant No. 17

1. Female 2 . August 7, 1965 3 . Philadelphia, Penna. 4 . 28 5 . Medical doctor 6 . Drama, Macedonia 7. Salonika, Greece 8 . Father, Thrace (Saranta Ekkllsies); Mother, Froussa 9 . Christos, Theodore 10. S a lo n ik a 11. Yes 12. 1959 13. Yes—four times, to visit 14. Studied medicine in Italy (4 years); travelled throughout Europe 15. No 16. No 17. ------— 18. 19. 20. ------21. ------22. Gymnasium in Greece; good student 23. University (specialized, residency) Yes 24. Since 11th grade 25. Teacher was not so good; grammar, translation 2 6 . Off and on every year since 11th grade; Temple School; nowr- when I find time; at first I didn't want to learn English 27. Of co u rse 28. No 29. Oh yes 30. Yes 31. Yes 32. Yes 33. Yes— s u re 34. Yes 35. ------36. Cannot compare 37. I think—Yes 38. Sure 39. Yes, obvious 40 . Y es; y e s ; yes 41. Depends on the country 42. Not necessarily 43. Greek Orthodox 44. Not regularly—occasionally 45. ------46. Yea 4 7 . Sure 4 8 . Yes 49. Yes 50. If they want 209 Informant No. 18 1. Male 2. August 8. 1965 3. Havertown, Penna. 4. 42 5 . Electrical engineer 6. Athens, Greece 7. Crete (from very young age to age 18) 8. Father, Hania, Crete; mother, Athens 9. Emmanuel, Aikaterini 10. Athens 11. Yes 12. 1954 (two-three months); again in late 1958 13. No 14. Yes—all over the world; travelled in the Navy 15. No 16. Yes 17. Mary 18. C asper, Wyoming 19. Anthony, Stella 2 0. Yes— 2 boys 21. M anuel, Mark 22. Elementary, 6 years; gymnasium, 6 years; Naval Academy, 4 years; good student 23. Graduate School of Electrical Engineering at Univ. of Penna. (last six years 1959-65) 24. Naval Academy at age 18, 1 year In Greece; rest picked up by self 25. Phonetic method at Academy; British influence 26. 1 year in Greece, rest picked by self; No 27. Certainly yes 28. No 29. Certainly yes 30. Yes 31. Q uite w e ll 32. It's helped me a lot_- no trouble expressing myself 33. Yea— very much em phasized 34. Certainly yes 35. They speak now, oldest one writes some; we speak to them; very limited in church Greek school 36. It has beauty and perfectness of its own 37. I don't think so 38. Certainly yes 39. Yes 40. Of course; yes; yes 41. Depending on place in which she lives 42. I would prefer it, but it's not a must 43. Greek Eastern Orthodox Church 44. Yes 45. Yes 46. Yes 47. Certainly yes 48. Constantinople is Greece; should be given back soote time 49. Yes, certainly 50. Why n o tl APPENDIX fl

PRELIMINARY SOCIO-LINGUISTIC INTERVIEW SCHEDULE

Please answer the following questions In English:

1. What is your name?

2. What is today's date?

3. Where do you live? (a) Street address; (b) City; (c) State; (d) Telephone.

A. How old are you?

5. What work do you do? (What is/was your profession/intended profession)

6 . What pa r t o f , o r what town in Greece were you b o m in?

7. Have you lived in other parts of Greece? If so, where and when?

8. Where were your parents bom?

9. What are/were your parents' names?

10. Where do/did your parents live? '

11. Is Greek the first language you learned as a child? If not, what language did you first learn to speak?

12. When did you first come to the United States?

13. Have you ever been back to Greece? Why? When? How long did you sta y ?

1A. Have you ever been to other countries besides Greece and the U. S.? Where? Why? When? How long?

15. Have you ever lived in other parts of the U. S.? Where? Why? When? How long?

16. Are you married?

17. What is your husband's/wife's name?

18* Where was your husband/wlfe bom?

19. What are/were the names of your husband's/wife's parents?

20. Do you have any children? How many? Boys or girls?

210 211

Interview Questions Continued

21. What are your children's names?

22. How far did you go in Greek schools? Elem? Gymnasium? Univ? Were you a good student?

23. Have you ever gone to school in the U. S.? If so, where? When?

How long? Were you a good student?

24. Where and when did you start to study English?

25. How did you learn English? What method did you use?

26. How long did you study English 1) in Greece? 2) in the U. S.? 3) are you studying English now? Where? How?

27. Do you think Greeks in America should learn English?

28. Do you have trouble understanding English as it is spoken where you liv e ?

29. Do you think you speak English well enough to take care of your everyday business?

30. Do you think you read English well?

31. Do you think you write English well?

32. Has your knowledge of English helped you in your business/profession?

33. Do you think people should learn foreign languages?

34. Do/Would you want your children to learn Greek?

35. Do your children know Greek? If so, how did they learn it?

36. Is Greek a better/more beautiful/more literary/more cultural language than English?

37. Is English a harder language than Greek?

38. Do you think boys should go to college?

39. Do you think girls should go to college?

40. Do you think children should obey their parents? their older brothers? their older sisters?

41. Do you think a girl should have a dowry before she marries?

42. Do you think Greek bays should marry Greek girls in the U. S.? 212

Interview Questions Continued

43. What church do you belong to?

44. Do you go to church regularly?

43* Does your husband/wife go to church regularly?

46. Do your children go to church regularly?

47. Do you think travelling to foreign countries is educational?

48. Do you think Constantinople should be given back to Greece?

49. Do you think Cyprus should become a part of Greece?

50. Do you think more Greeks should be allowed to come to the U. S.? 213

QUESTIONNAIRE

TEST SENTENCES:

I. Translaclon.

1. f i l l Fill the cup. 2. fe e l 1 don't feel good.

3. b i t The dog bit the man. 4. beat The f a th e r beat h is son.

5. ric h That man is rich. 6 . reach 1 can't reach it.

7. shot He shot the gun; He drank a shot of whiskey(shot-glass) 8. sh o rt That man is short.

9. much 1 e a t too much. 10. March The month is March.

11. p u ll Pull the rope. 12. pool He went to the swimming pool.

13. f u l l This cup is full. 14. fo o l He tried to fool me.

15. men I see two men. 16. man I see one man.

17. much She loves him very much. 18. match Give me a match. _

19. head My head hurts. 20. had 1 had p len ty of money once.

21. drunk The man got drunk. 22. drank He drank too much.

23. sh o rt The man is s h o rt. 24. a h ir t He lost his shirt.

25. force He tr ie d to force me. 26. f i r s t He was the first.

27. to rn The d ress is to m . 28. tu rn 1 have to turn right. Test Sentences Continued

29. lawn He mowed th e lawn. 30. learn English is hard to learn.

31. born I was born in Greece. 32. burn Watch out you don't burn it.

33. boro I waa born in Greece. 34. bone I broke my bone.

35. Paul Paul is a good man. 36. pole That's a telephone pole.

37. caught The cat caught the rat. 38. coat Give me my coat.

39. law This is the law. 40. low You have to stoop low.

41. saw I saw him. 42. sew 1 know how to sew.

43. tee th The dentist pulled two teeth. 44. breathe 1 can't breathe.

45. r ic e ;p r ic e Give me some rice pudding. What's the price? 46. r is e ;p r iz e The cake has to rise. He won a prize.

47. le a f The leaf fell from the tree. 48. leave 1 leave tonight by train.

49. safe The th ie f s to le the s a fe . 50. save I try to save my money.

51. mop The mop f e l l on the flo o r. 52. rib He broke his rib.

53. b at He hit the ball with the bat. 54. bad He is a bad boy.

55. lock Don't forget to lock the door. 56. dog The dog b i t the man.

57. back I hurt my back. 58. bag 1 put the potatoes in the bag.

59. sin g 1 can't sing. 60. sin g e r She's a good singer.

61. tongue I 'll cut out your tongue! 62. tango 1 like to tango. Test Sentences Continued 215 63. simple The lesson is sim ple. 64. symbol The l e t t e r A is a symbol.

65. c en ter 1 went to the center of town. 66. sender A man who sends is a sender.

67. bumb le The bumble bee stung him. 66. bubb le 1 like to take bubble baths.

69. rhumba 1 like to rhumba. 70. rubber Tires are made of rubber.

71. fin g er 1 cut my finger 72. fig u re She has a nice figure.

73. sen t He sent me a letter. 74. send I'm going to send him a letter.

75. sand There’s lots of sand on the beach 76. sad H e's a very sad man.

77. v e st I have a red vest. 78. west San Francisco is In the West.

79. sew I like to sew. 60. show 1 went to the show.

81. sour Vinegar is sour. 82. shower He took a shower.

83. s e l l I'm going to sell my house. 84. s h e ll Oysters have a hard shell.

85. passes He passes by here every day. 86. ashes He put the ashes in the ashtray.

87. pass His car passed mine. 88. push Push the door.

89. shop He owns a small shop. 90. chop 1 lik e lamb chops.

91. shoe I lost my shoe. 92. chew You have to chew your food w e ll.

93. wash I wash my face every day. 94. watch. His watch is broken.

95. dish She broke the dish. 96. d itch He fell in the ditch. Teat Sentences Continued. 216

97. cats Cats eat rats. 98. match Give me a match.

99. heads Some monsters had two heads. 100. judge The judge is very w ise .

101. shrimp 1 like shrimp.

102. q u iet Please be quiet. 103 twins These two boys are twins. 10 A. sweet Sugar is sweet. 105. square The box is square.

106. sm ile He sm ile s. 107. sm all The box is small.

108. snow We didn't have much snow this year 109. snake He sees the snake. 110. slow Speak slowly please* Drive slow. 111. sleep I can't sleep.

112. ash try He broke the ashtray. 113. pinching He was pinching the girls.

114. exact ly What time is it exactly7 115. e x o tic Greece is an exotic country.

116. fo o tb a ll He kicked the football. 117. blackboard She wrote on the blackboard. 118. eggplant I like eggplant.

119. change Give me my change. 120. orange She gave him an orange.

121. fix Please fix the radio. 122. fig s 1 like figs.

123. cups She broke two cups. 124. rib s She broke two rib s .

125. safes The s to re has two s a f e s . 126. saves He saves h is money.

127. w rite He writes every day. 128. rid es He rides the bus.

129. leaves The tr a in leaves to d ay . 130. f i f th s He drank two fifths of whiskey.

131. once Once upon a tim e. . . 132. ones Give me five ones and one five. Test Sentences Continued. 217

133. since Since when did you start smoking? 134. sins He has many sins.

135. this book 1 like this book.

136. like that Give me one like that.

137. in town He lives in town. 138. downtown She vent downtown. 139. had to I had to leave.

140. 1 hid two balls. 141. 1 h i t two b a lls .

142. 1 like television. 143. 1 like pumpkin pie.

144. Change the light bulb. 145. Change the light bulbs*

146. Paper cups. 147. Nylon stockings.

148. 1 came by bus.

149. Which is b e tte r?

150. Do you have your baggage?

151. 1 think maybe 1 can help you.

152. Let's grab the baggage.

153. 1 spent two days th e re .

154. He didn't do it.

155. Don't you want to go now?

156. How's the food there?

157. My name is Jim .

158. That's just the trouble.

159. The baggage is at the station.

160. This food is good.

161. Good morning, Mr. Smith.

162. 1 need a stamp. T est Sentences Continued.

163. His home is in Chicago.

164. That's a hard question.

165. The bus comes h ere.

166. He's going with her.

167. Good morning.

168. Good evening.

169. Good n ig h t.

170. Good afternoon.

171. Goodbye.

172, How are you?

173. How do you feel7

174. Hurry upl

175. Shut upl

176. What's the matter?

177. How do you like that?

178. He's a student.

179. 1 don’t understand.

180. Are you ready?

181. B reakfast

182. 1 like cheese.

183. Give me the bill-of-fare

184. Give me codfish.

185. Give me lamb chops.

186. Give me roast beef.

187. Give me lamb stew .

188. Give me beef stew. Test Sentences Continued

189. Give me milk.

190. Give me rice pudding.

191. I'm hungry.

192. Give me mushrooms.

193. Give me cabbage.

194. Give me beefsteak.

195. Give me peaches.

196. Give me stewed prunes

197. Scrambled eggs.

198. Fried eggs.

199. Soft boiled eggs.

200. Hard boiled eggs.

201. Pancakes.

202. Hotcakes.

203. C h e rrie s.

204. Beer.

205. Strawberries.

206. L obster.

207. Porkchops.

208. Bacon.

209. Jelly, jam.

210. M ustard.

211. R o lls.

212. Hundred percent.

213. Thank you very much. 220

THE DEAF CHEF

(Adapted from a character In the Hermans' series of dramas written for "This Is Life" on the Mutual Network.) (Nick Voutsas stands outside his little restaurant and discusses the chef problem with his friend, Nick Patras, and tells him of one, Nick Popolous, who applied for a job.)

Was fellow, Nick Popolous, he come my place look for job. "1

good chef," he say me "make good hamburger—all kinds lunch for highclass bill-of-fare." Was greenhorn, you know—no speak so good English like me.

So I say him, "You hire," and 1 put him in kitchen. I stand by showcase wait for customer. Comes in fellow he want beefstew. "Beefstew," I holler for chef he should make. Then I go get beefstew for customer.

Chef, he got stewed prunes. "Hey, youl what's the matter?" I say, "I holler for beefstew." He scratch head. "I don't know," he say, "I think

you holler for stewed prunes." So 1 get beefstew, go back to customer.

Comes in next another fellow. "Hotcakes," say he want. "Hotcakes1" I

holler for chef he should make. So I go back to kitchen for hotcakes.

What I find? Hotcakes? No I Beefsteak? Yehl "What’s the matter with you?"

I holler, "You don't know I order hotcakes? You make beefsteak. You no

understand English good?" He say, "What?" "What's the matter?" I holler,

"You no hear good maybe, no?" He say again, "What?” Is plenty enough for

me. "Get out of herel" I holler, "get out of my place before I throw you

outl" How do you like that? Deaf chefI 221

DIAGNOSTIC PASSAGE

1. Let me tell you, my friend, that when students from other countries come to study In the United States, their classes are certainly not their only job — are they* 2. For a little while the problems of adjustment to the new environment may make it impossible to devote very much thought to school work. 3. The recently arrived student must find out for himself the answers to many questions. 4. Shall he change the customs he has always followed in eating his three full meals each day?

S. What clothing should he choose? 6. Ought he to wear those wretched blue jeans the boys here have, or should he cling to the coats and ties he had usually preferred at home? 7. He is inclined to feel admiration for the scale of living, the big yards, the well kept houses, and the gocd educational equipment. 8. But he doesn't understand how everyone can be in such a hurry, as if time were a god to be worshiped. APPENDIX C 222 American Language Institute Georgetown University W ashington 7 , D. C.

DESCRIPTION OF* "THE ENGLISH USAGE TEST" ,

Two forms of this test, Forms A and B, are currently available for use by the Department of State's consular offices in determining English proficiency. At the request of a U. S. college or university, one of the forms w ill be given to a foreign student applying for admission*

Test length: Form A: 100 three-choice items (all of the same style) with a testing time of 1 hour after directions have been given. Form B: 150 three-choice items (all of the same style) with a testing time of 7 5 minutes after directions have been given.

Scoring range and procedure ;^0n both Form A and B, the scoring range is 0 - 100 expressed in percent. On Form A, the score is determined by talcing the number right minus ^ the number wrong; on Form B, the number right minus jr the number wrong multiplied by 2 / 3 to give a scoring range of 0 - 1 0 0 .

Test materials: (1) Reusable test booklet (2) Self-scoring answer pheet ( 3 ) Instruction sheet for administrators and scorers (£) Practice test of 12 items to familiarize the candidate with the type of test before the test administration (copy attached).

Test content; Test content is based on an analysis of typical classroom errors in a number of specified areas. The distractors (wropg answers) are designed to reflect characteristic errors made by learners of a variety of language backgrounds. Several categories of grammatical problems are included, the main ones, with illustrative items taken from Forms A and B, being listed below.

(1) Noun, adjective and pronoun forms.

Ex. I No, thank you; X have (some) (any) (other). ABC Ex. II There are (six woman) (six womans) (six women) in the class. A B C

(2) Sentence structure and word order.

Ex. (Always she doesn't my letters answer.) (She doesn't answer always my A B letters.) (She doesn't always answer my letters.) C

( 3 ) Verb tenses, forms, modals, etc.

Ex. I They though^ his statement (were false) (would be false) (be false). A B C Ex. II Wo saw them (leaving) (to leave) (having left). ABC 223

(U) "Idiomatic usage/' including choice and use of prepositions. I Ex. I They'll he late to class, hut we (won't) (aren't) (don't). ’ A B C Ex. II The tourists (got off) (descended) (got down) the bus at the corner. ABC Ex. I l l Mr. Smith comes home (in ) (on) (hy) t r a i n . ABC

Interpretation of Scores on Forms A and B;

Score Range 0 - 6 9 ^: Persons in this range are not ready for university work in the United States. They should enroll in a full-time, intensive course in English until able to demonstrate English proficiency beyond this range.

Score range 70 - 8 U/j ; Persons in this range have fair to good command of English. If they are admitted to an American university, they should take a reduced academic load and he enrolled in a special class of English for foreign students. It is questionable whether they could do successful work in a regular freshman English course.

Score range 65 - 100#; Persons in this range can carry a full academic load in an American university, including, at their adviser's discretion, the regular freshman English course (rather than a special course for foreign s tu d e n ts ).

ORAL INTERVIEW

In addition to ''The English Usage Test," an oral interview is usually given using the "Oral Rating Sheet" devised at the American Language Institute. For information see the enclosed copy of the "Oral Rating Sheet" and Part I of the English Testing Guidebook hy David P. Harris. ORAL RATING FORM 224 for Rating Language Proficiency in Speaking and Understanding, English

Name of applicant ...... Date

Name of interviewer...... Place------

I. COMPREHENSION

5. Understands everything; no adjustments in speed or vocabulary are needed.

...... 4. Understands nearly everything at normal speed, though occasional repetition may be necessary.

.3. Understands fairly well at slower-than-normal speed with some repetition.

2. Obviously has trouble understanding; frequent adjustments in speed and vocabulary are necessary.

1. Understands only very general conversational subjects at slow speed with frequent repetitions. » 0. Cannot be said to understand even simple conversational English.

II. PRONUNCIATION (including word accent and sentence pitch)

.... 5. Speaks with few (if any) traces of "foreign accent."

4. Pronunciation understandable, but one is always conscious of a definite "accent."

...... 3. "Foreign accent" necessitates concentrated listening and leads to occasional misunderstanding. Words and sentences must sometimes be repeated.

._...... 2. Many serious errors in pronunciation (e.g., still sounds like steel, laws sounds like loss), word accent (words are frequently accented on the wrong syllable), and sentence pitch (statements have the "melody" of questions, etc.). Frequent repetitions are required.

...... 1. Very hard to understand because of sound, accent, pitch difficulties.

0. Pronunciation would be virtually unintelligible to "the man in the street."

III. GRAMMAR AND WORD-ORDER

...... 5. Uses English with few (if any) noticeable errors of grammar or word-order.

...... 4. In general uses "good English," but with occasional grammatical or word-order errors which do not, however, obscure meaning (e.g., "I am needing more English," "He gave to me the letter").

3. Meaning occasionally obscured by grammatical and/or word-order errors.

. 2. Grammatical usage and word-order definitely unsatisfactory; frequently needs to rephrase construc tions and/or restricts himself to basic structural patterns (e.g., uses the simple present tense where he should use past or future).

... 1. Errors of grammar and word-order make comprehension quite difficult.

0. Speech so full of grammatical ond word-order errors as to be virtually unintelligible to "the man in the street." IV. VOCABULARY 225

...... 5. Use of vocabulary end ''Idioms" is virtually that of a native speaker of English.

4. Rarely has trouble expressing himself with appropriate vocabulary and "idioms."

3. Sometimes uses inappropriate terms and/or round-about language because of inadequate vocabu lary.

. 3. Frequently uses the wrong words; speech limited to simple vocabulary.

I. Misuse of words and very limited vocabulary make comprehension quite difficult.

0. Vocabulary is inadequate for even the simplest conversation.

V. GENERAL SPEED OF SPEECH AND SENTENCE LENGTH

...... 5. Speech speed and sentence length are those of a native speaker.

...... 4. Speed of speech seems to be slightly affected by language problems.

. 3. Both speed of speech and length of utterance are apparently affected by language difficulties and limitations or by native language habits.

...... 2. Speed of speech and length of utterance seem tlrongly affected by language difficulties and limi tations or by native language habits.

1. Speed of speech and length of utterance are so far from normal as to make conversation quite difficult.

0. Speech is so halting and fragmentary, or affected by native language habits, as to make conver sation with "the man in the street" almost impossible. "i COMMENTS;

TOTAL RATING ...... (25 possible points)

x 4 ...... (multiply by 4 to convert score to percents)

THE AMERICAN LANGUAGE INSTITUTE, GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY Wh Mii|I « ii, 0. C. m s BIBLIOGRAPHY

Public Documents

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U. S. 89th Congress, H.R. 2580. Public Law 89-236. An Act to Amend the Immigration and Nationality Act. . . . October 3, 1965

Books

The American Language Institute. English Usage Test. Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University, 1963.

Atkinson, B. F. C. The Greek Language. 2nd ed. London: Faber and Faber, 1933.

Bloomfield, Leonard. Language. New York: Holt, 1933.

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Chomsky, Noam. Syntactic Structures. The Hague, Mouton, 1957.

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Crlghton, William. New Greek-English Dictionary. 2 volumes. Athens: Alexandrou Fllopoulou, 1960.

Ferguson, Charles A., and William A. Stewart, eds. Linguistic Reading Lists for Teachers of Modem Languages. Washington: Center for Applied Linguistics, 1963.

Fishman, Joshua A. et al. Language Loyalty in the United States: The Maintenance and Perpetuation of Non-English Mother Tongues by American Ethnic and Religious Groups. The Hague: Mouton, 1966.

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Gage, W. W. Contrastive Studies in Linguistics: A Bibliographical Checklist. Washington, D.C.: Center for Applied Linguistics, 1961.

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Hall, Robert A., Jr. Linguistics and Your Language. 2nd ed. New York: Doubleday, 1960.

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Herman, Lewis Helmar, and Marguerite Shalett. Manual of Foreign Dialects for Radio. Stage and Screen. Chicago: Ziff-Davis Publishing Company, 1943.

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Householder, Fred W. and assistants. English for Greeks. Washington: American Council of Learned Societies, 1954.

. Kazazls, Kostas, and Koutsoudas, Andreas. Reference Grammar of Literary Dhlmotlkl. Bloomington, Indiana University, 1964. (Part II of International Journal of American Linguistics 30:2 (April 1964; and Publication 31 of Indiana University- Research Center in Anthropology, Folklore, and Linguistics).

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Jakobson, Roman; Fant, G.; and Halle, H. Preliminaries to Speech Analysis: The Distinctive Features and Their Correlates. Institute of Technology, Massachusetts: 1955, 58pp.

Jones, Daniel. The Phoneme: Its Nature and Use. Cambridge, England: W. Heffer & Sons, Ltd., 1950.

Kahane, Henry and Renee, and Ralph L. Ward. Spoken Greek. New York: Holt, 1946.

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Koutsoudas, Andreas. Verb Morphology of Modern Greek; A Descriptive Analysis. Bloomington, Indiana: Research Center In Anthro pology, Folklore, and Linguistics, 1962.

Lacey, Thomas J. A Study of Social Heredity as Illustrated In the Greek People. New York: Edwin S. Govam, Publisher, 1916.

Lado, Robert. Linguistics Across Cultures. Ann Axbor: University of Michigan Press, 1961.

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Moulton, William G, The Sounds of English and German. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1962.

Pike, Kenneth L. The Intonation of American English. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1954.

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Abel, James W. "Greek and English Consonants," Speech Monographs. XXXIV, No. 1 (March 1957) 1-9.

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Kahane, Henry and Renee. "Problems in Modern Greek Lexicography," in Problems In Lexicography. 249-62. 232 . "Syntactic Juncture In Modem Greek," Language 21 (1945), 93-95.

Kahane, Renee. "Some Sandhi Phenomena In Modem Greek," Modem Language Notes 57 (1942), 39-45.

Kazazls, Kostas. "Greek Handwriting," Part II of Householder's Studies In Modem Greek for American Students.

. "Greek Spelling," Part I of Householder's Studies In Modem Greek for American Students.

Kenyon, John S. "Cultural Levels and Functional Varieties of English,” College English 10 (1948), 31-36; reprinted In Allen's Readings in Applied English Linguistics. 215-22.

Koutsoudas, Andreas and Olympia. "A,Contrastive Analysis of the Segmental Phonemes of Greek and English," Language Learning. XII (1962), 211-230.

Lado, Robert. "Teaching General American j: to Spanish-Speaking Students," Language Learning 1:20-23 (July-September 1948).

Lontos, Sotlrios S. "American Greek," American Speech 1 (1926), 307-10.

Macrls, James. "Changes in the Lexicon of New York City Greek," American Speech. Vol. XXXII, No. 2 (May, 1957), 102-109.

Moulton, William G. "Classification of Pronunciation Errors," The Modem Language Journal. Vol. XLVI-, No. 3 (March, 1962), 101-109.

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Pappageotes, George C. and Macrls, James. "The Language Question in Modem Greece," Word. Special Publication No. 5, Volume 20, Nunber 3 (December, 1964), 53-59.

Pring, J. T. "Greek of Macedonia," Le Maltre Phonetloue. No. 99 (1953), 6.

Romeo, Luigi. "Toward a Phonological Grammar of Modem Spoken Greek" Word Special Publication No. 5, Volume 20, Nusfeer 3 (December, 1964), 60-78.

Soffletti, James P. "Why Children Fail to Read: A Linguistic Analysis," The Harvard Educational Review (1955), 25: 63-84.

Swanson, Donald C. "English Loanwords in Modem Greek," Word. XIV, No. 1 (1958), 26-46. 233

. Review of Verb Morphology of Modern Greek, By Andreas KouCsoudas, Language 40 (1964)., 273-75.

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Wallace, Betty J. "A Technique for Teaching Postvocalic American English / 1 / to Spanish Americans," Language Learning 1:22-25 (Aprll- June, 1948).

Ward, Ralph L. "The Loss of Final Consonants In Greek," Language 22 (1946), 102-108.

Welnreich, U riel. "Linguistic Convergence In Immigrant America," George town University Monograph Series on Languages and Linguistics 7 (September, 1954), 40-49.

. "On the Description of Phonic Interference," Word 13 (1957), 1-11.

. Rev. of The Norwegian Language in America, by Einar Haugen, Word, XI (1955), 163-168.

Unpublished Material

Berger, M. The American English Pronunciation of Russian Immigrants. New York: Columbia University Ph.D. dissertation, 1951.

Kruatrachue, Foongfuang. Thai and English: A Comparative Study of Phonology for Pedagogical Applications. Bloomington: Indiana University Ph.D. dissertation, 1960.

Macrls, James A. An Analysis of English Loanwords in New York City Greek. New York: Columbia University Ph.D. dissertation, 1955.

Nemser, William Joseph. The Interpretation of English Stops and Inter- dental Fricatives by Native Speakers of Hungarian. Ph.D. dissertation, Columbia University, 1961.

. "A Contrastive Study of Hungarian and English Phonology." Project No. 70, ACLS, Research and Studies in Urablc and Altaic Languages, Cleveland, Ohio: Microphoto Division, Bell and Howell Co., 1964. (Xerographed)

Seaman, David P. Modern Greek and American English in Contact: A Socio- Linguist ic Investigation of Greek-Amerlcan Bilingualism in Chicago, Ph.D. dissertation, Indiana University, 1965.

Vlachos, Evangelos C. The Assimilation of Greeks In the United States, with Special Reference to the Greek Community in Anderson, Indiana. Bloomington: Indiana University Ph.D. dissertation, 1964.