Phonocentrism in Greece: Side Effects of Two Centuries of Diglossia

International audienceAccording to Anis [1], phonocentrism is the linguistic ideology claiming that written language is subordinated to speech, and autonomism is the ideology where written and spoken language are considered as equally important interacting systems. In the following we will prefix by a "γ-" (resp. "φ-") linguistic sub-disciplines applied to written (resp. spoken) language, e.g., γ-emics (resp. φ-ology), γ-morphology (resp. φ-morphology), etc., and more generally γ-linguistics (resp. φ-linguistics) [2]. Definitions, phonocentrism, γ-/φ-linguistics In ancient Greek, short φ-vowels had one mora, and long φ-vowels two morae. In modern Greek, all φ-vowels have equal length. But γ-vowels still carry length information (, are long, , are short). γ-syllables have γ-syllable length depending on γ-vowel, position, POS, morphology. In many dialects of ancient Greek, initial φ-vowels could be φ-aspirated. Currently φ-aspiration has vanished, but γ-aspiration remains, through the rough breathing γ-eme. Greek γ-syllable length, γ-aspiration In the 19th century, Greece has witnessed an increasing gap between the "purified" idiom (καθαρεύουσα) used by the State and taught in schools, and the "demotic" (δημοτικὴ) which was the natural evolution of byzantine Greek. [4] In the early 20th century, linguists amalgamated written language w/ purified language and speech w/ demotic language. They adopted Saussure's phonocentric ideology as an additional argument in favor of demotic. In 1941, Triantafyllidis standardized the grammar of demotic [6], and in 1982 γ-accentuation and γ-aspiration were abandoned by law. The Greek Language Issue γ-double articulation refers to the twofold structure of writing that consists of elementary meaningful units (γ-morphemes), in turn built of distinctive γ-elements (γ-emes). Thanks to iotacism, γ-syllable length, and γ-accentuation, γ-morphology of Greek is more elaborate than φ-morphology. E.g., ̸ = , ̸ = , ̸ = . Greek γ-morphology γ-aspiration enhanced access to semantics by etymological disambiguation: vs. , vs. , vs. . γ-accentuation used two dipoles: 1. acute/grave vs. circumflex, which indicated γ-syllable length: vs. , vs. , and fulfilled a redundant morphological function: vs. , vs. , where redundancy enhanced the reading process. 2. acute vs. grave, which had a redundant syntactic function: vs. , and a redundant discur-sive function: (ques-tion) (fact). Current practice is to use a single φ-stress accent: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . γ-aspiration/γ-accentuation In the 19th and early 20th century, transcription of foreign words took the following into account: 1. γ-syllable length: (Cambridge), (Verlaine), (Goethe), (Chau-cer), (Miele); 2. foreign γ-morphology: (volley), (train), (motocyclette); 3. γ-aspiration: (Hamlet), (Henri), (Hamburg). Cavafy's proposal of writing (York) with a smooth breathing [3] was thoroughly γ-autonomistic. Current practice denies γ-properties and relies solely on foreign φ-et-ics: (Cambridge), (Verlaine), (Goethe), (Chaucer), (Miele); (volley), (train), (motocyclette); (Hamlet), (Henri), (Hamburg). Transcription Before Triantaf. [6], hyphenation was 1. γ-morphological: , , , ; 2. based on foreign morphology for transcribed words: (Volkswagen), (Hildesheim), (Augsburg); 3. sensitive to prenasalisation: but , but , and but . Obeying [6] rules, current hyphenation is mechanistic: 1. , , , ; 2. (Volkswagen), (Hildesheim), (Augsburg); 3. = , = , = = . According to [5], mechanistic hyphen-ation is partly responsible for decreasing prenasalisation: γ-* influences φ-*. Hyphenation In their efforts to solve the Greek Language Issue, Greek linguists adhered to a phonocentric ideology whose side effects are the current practices of φ-stress-based accentuation, φ-etically-based transcription of foreign words, and mechanistic hyphenation