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Post-Nasal Deaspiration in Ancient Greek: Mirage or Reality?

  • Roberto Batisti

    Roberto Batisti is senior post-doc researcher on the ERC project “PURA – Purism in Antiquity” and adjunct professor of History of the Ancient Greek Language at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice. He received his PhD from the University of Bologna in 2014, where he worked as post-doc researcher from 2016 to 2020. His current research focuses on the linguistic theories of the Atticist lexica and their relationship to the historical development of Post-Classical Greek. He has published on topics in Classical (mainly Greek) linguistics and philology, and also maintains an active interest in the didactics of the Classical languages.
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Advances in Ancient Greek Linguistics
This chapter is in the book Advances in Ancient Greek Linguistics

Abstract

While Proto-Indo-European voiced aspirated stops are normally reflected by voiceless aspirates in Ancient Greek, it has long been noticed that they sporadically surface as voiced stops after a nasal. A regular sound change was first posited by Miller (1977a, 1977b), who identified the conditioning factor in the position of the accent: aspiration was lost at an early stage of Proto-Greek (before the devoicing of PIE voiced aspirates) in post-accentual syllables only. Such a development would be typologically well-supported: loss of aspiration is cross-linguistically common after nasals, and aspiration is generally weaker after the accent than in accented syllables. Nonetheless, the rule remains overlooked in standard reference works, and its scope has not yet been clearly defined. A fresh look at post-nasal deaspiration is all the more desirable since this rule interacts with other important (Proto-)Greek sound changes (Rix’s Law, Grassmann’s Law) and has implications for the etymological analysis of the Ancient Greek lexicon, providing a possible internal explanation for consonantal alternations often attributed to Pre-Greek substrate origin. This paper aims to establish the conditioning of post-nasal deaspiration, based on a thorough revision of all the potential evidence and counterevidence, including several forms not considered in previous research.

Abstract

While Proto-Indo-European voiced aspirated stops are normally reflected by voiceless aspirates in Ancient Greek, it has long been noticed that they sporadically surface as voiced stops after a nasal. A regular sound change was first posited by Miller (1977a, 1977b), who identified the conditioning factor in the position of the accent: aspiration was lost at an early stage of Proto-Greek (before the devoicing of PIE voiced aspirates) in post-accentual syllables only. Such a development would be typologically well-supported: loss of aspiration is cross-linguistically common after nasals, and aspiration is generally weaker after the accent than in accented syllables. Nonetheless, the rule remains overlooked in standard reference works, and its scope has not yet been clearly defined. A fresh look at post-nasal deaspiration is all the more desirable since this rule interacts with other important (Proto-)Greek sound changes (Rix’s Law, Grassmann’s Law) and has implications for the etymological analysis of the Ancient Greek lexicon, providing a possible internal explanation for consonantal alternations often attributed to Pre-Greek substrate origin. This paper aims to establish the conditioning of post-nasal deaspiration, based on a thorough revision of all the potential evidence and counterevidence, including several forms not considered in previous research.

Chapters in this book

  1. frontmatter I
  2. Preface V
  3. Contents IX
  4. List of Figures and Diagrams XV
  5. List of Tables XVII
  6. Abbreviations XXI
  7. Part I History of the Greek Language, Phonetics, Morphology
  8. Linguistic Variation and the Study of Ancient Greek Dialects 3
  9. Open Questions in Ancient Greek Phonology: Some New Evidence from Enclitics 33
  10. Post-Nasal Deaspiration in Ancient Greek: Mirage or Reality? 65
  11. Greek Verbs in -βω: A Survey 81
  12. Action Nouns in -τιζ/-σιζ as Second Members of Nominal Compounds in Greek 93
  13. The Syntax and Semantics of ([N+V]V) Verbal Compounds in Ancient Greek 107
  14. Σκορακίζω: ‘Curse (by Saying ἐζ κόρακαζ)’. About Delocutive Derivation in Ancient Greek and Performative 127
  15. Part II Lexicon, Semantics
  16. Nature-based Metaphors as Body-part Terms in Ancient Greek: On καρπόζ ‘Wrist’ and ἀστράγαλοζ ‘Ankle(Bone)’ 147
  17. Grammaticalization of Adverbs in Ancient Greek: The Case of Homeric μάλα 159
  18. Smells like Metonymy 179
  19. Cultural Reconstruction through Linguistic Analysis: The Case of AG ταρχύω and ταριχ∊ύω 195
  20. On Hom. ἐπίφρων and πρόφρων in View of Homeric Human Physiology 211
  21. Analytical Constructions and Synthetic Encoding of Complex Predicates at the Semantics-Pragmatics Interface 225
  22. Part III Syntax 1: Clause
  23. Number Agreement of a Predicate in Singular with Two or More Coordinated Noun Phrases in Nominative in Homer 247
  24. The Construction of the Verb μιμνήσκομαι in the Homeric Language 261
  25. On a Double Case Construction in Ancient Greek: The Whole-Part Construction in Homeric Greek 279
  26. Taking Stock of Greek Support-Verb Constructions: Synchronic and Diachronic Variability in the Documentary Papyri 297
  27. Hyperbaton in Herodotus: A Functional Discourse Grammar Perspective 315
  28. Adverb Placement in Demosthenes’ First Philippic 335
  29. Case Attraction in Infinitive Clauses: A Distributive Account 351
  30. Part IV Syntax 2: Verb and Modality
  31. Dangling between Diachrony, Register and Atticism: A Language Ecology Approach to Modal Morphosyntax in Post-Classical Greek 373
  32. Information Source and Epistemic Modality in the Classical Usage of ἀνάγκη and ἀναγκαῖον 389
  33. The Preverb ἀντι- in Ancient Greek: From Space to Reciprocity 409
  34. Part V Syntax 3: Coordination and Subordination
  35. Null-Subject Genitive Absolute and Co-Referentiality in 5th Cent. BCE Ionic and Attic Prose 435
  36. On the Oblique Optative in Ionic and Attic Prose Completive Sentences with ὥζ and ὅτι: Remarks Towards a Comparative Study 451
  37. Relativization of Syntactic and Semantic Functions in Classical Greek: A Case Study Based on Sophocles’ Heptad 467
  38. Backgrounding, Theticals and Periphrastic τυγχάν∊ιν 483
  39. βούλ∊ι/-∊σθ∊, θέλ∊ιζ/-∊τ∊ Plus Subjunctive in Classical Greek: Subordination or Coordination? 499
  40. Relative Clauses in Septuagint Greek: Some Preliminary Remarks 515
  41. Addition Clauses in Ancient Greek 535
  42. Pragmatic and Discursive Functions of Non-Canonical Conditional Sentences 553
  43. The Mixed Pattern and the Other Conjunctive Strategies in Herodotus’ Greek: An Analysis from a Typological Perspective 569
  44. Participle Constructions in Post-Classical Greek: The Example of the “Confessions” of Asia Minor 587
  45. Part VI Pragmatics and Discourse
  46. Caesurae, Cola, and Discourse Acts: A Functional Discourse Grammar Approach to Homeric Colometry 609
  47. Vocative and ‘Terms of Address’ in the Odyssey 627
  48. The Pragmatics of Rhetorical Questions in Sophocles’ Tragedies: An Analysis of Antigone and Electra 641
  49. Verbal Impoliteness in Greek Oratory: The Case of οὗτοζ 659
  50. From Disjunct to Connective: The Particle οὖν in Herodotus’ Histories and its Association with Anaphoric Elements 671
  51. On the Use of the Interjection ὦ in the Dialogues of the Odyssey: An Analysis of (ὦ) γέρον, (ὦ) γύναι, and (ὦ) ξ∊ῖν∊ 683
  52. Structure and Function in Catalogic Discourse: The Case of Iliadic Androktasíai 701
  53. Part VII Digital Research
  54. Linguistic Annotation for a Catalog of Ancient Greek Authors and Works 721
  55. Formulaic Networks as Prototypical Categories: Combining the Ancient Greek Dependency Treebank with the Ancient Greek WordNet for a Pilot Study on the Iliad 737
  56. Linguistic Complexity in Ancient Greek: Sentence Complexity and Digital Treebanks 759
  57. Representing Semantic Roles in Greek Treebanks 777
  58. “Proleptic” Arguments in the Greek Treebanks 795
  59. Tongue, Language or Noise? Word Sense Disambiguation in Ancient Greek with Corpus-Based Methods 813
  60. List of Contributors 829
  61. Index Locorum
  62. Index Rerum
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783111648644-003

Chapters in this book

  1. frontmatter I
  2. Preface V
  3. Contents IX
  4. List of Figures and Diagrams XV
  5. List of Tables XVII
  6. Abbreviations XXI
  7. Part I History of the Greek Language, Phonetics, Morphology
  8. Linguistic Variation and the Study of Ancient Greek Dialects 3
  9. Open Questions in Ancient Greek Phonology: Some New Evidence from Enclitics 33
  10. Post-Nasal Deaspiration in Ancient Greek: Mirage or Reality? 65
  11. Greek Verbs in -βω: A Survey 81
  12. Action Nouns in -τιζ/-σιζ as Second Members of Nominal Compounds in Greek 93
  13. The Syntax and Semantics of ([N+V]V) Verbal Compounds in Ancient Greek 107
  14. Σκορακίζω: ‘Curse (by Saying ἐζ κόρακαζ)’. About Delocutive Derivation in Ancient Greek and Performative 127
  15. Part II Lexicon, Semantics
  16. Nature-based Metaphors as Body-part Terms in Ancient Greek: On καρπόζ ‘Wrist’ and ἀστράγαλοζ ‘Ankle(Bone)’ 147
  17. Grammaticalization of Adverbs in Ancient Greek: The Case of Homeric μάλα 159
  18. Smells like Metonymy 179
  19. Cultural Reconstruction through Linguistic Analysis: The Case of AG ταρχύω and ταριχ∊ύω 195
  20. On Hom. ἐπίφρων and πρόφρων in View of Homeric Human Physiology 211
  21. Analytical Constructions and Synthetic Encoding of Complex Predicates at the Semantics-Pragmatics Interface 225
  22. Part III Syntax 1: Clause
  23. Number Agreement of a Predicate in Singular with Two or More Coordinated Noun Phrases in Nominative in Homer 247
  24. The Construction of the Verb μιμνήσκομαι in the Homeric Language 261
  25. On a Double Case Construction in Ancient Greek: The Whole-Part Construction in Homeric Greek 279
  26. Taking Stock of Greek Support-Verb Constructions: Synchronic and Diachronic Variability in the Documentary Papyri 297
  27. Hyperbaton in Herodotus: A Functional Discourse Grammar Perspective 315
  28. Adverb Placement in Demosthenes’ First Philippic 335
  29. Case Attraction in Infinitive Clauses: A Distributive Account 351
  30. Part IV Syntax 2: Verb and Modality
  31. Dangling between Diachrony, Register and Atticism: A Language Ecology Approach to Modal Morphosyntax in Post-Classical Greek 373
  32. Information Source and Epistemic Modality in the Classical Usage of ἀνάγκη and ἀναγκαῖον 389
  33. The Preverb ἀντι- in Ancient Greek: From Space to Reciprocity 409
  34. Part V Syntax 3: Coordination and Subordination
  35. Null-Subject Genitive Absolute and Co-Referentiality in 5th Cent. BCE Ionic and Attic Prose 435
  36. On the Oblique Optative in Ionic and Attic Prose Completive Sentences with ὥζ and ὅτι: Remarks Towards a Comparative Study 451
  37. Relativization of Syntactic and Semantic Functions in Classical Greek: A Case Study Based on Sophocles’ Heptad 467
  38. Backgrounding, Theticals and Periphrastic τυγχάν∊ιν 483
  39. βούλ∊ι/-∊σθ∊, θέλ∊ιζ/-∊τ∊ Plus Subjunctive in Classical Greek: Subordination or Coordination? 499
  40. Relative Clauses in Septuagint Greek: Some Preliminary Remarks 515
  41. Addition Clauses in Ancient Greek 535
  42. Pragmatic and Discursive Functions of Non-Canonical Conditional Sentences 553
  43. The Mixed Pattern and the Other Conjunctive Strategies in Herodotus’ Greek: An Analysis from a Typological Perspective 569
  44. Participle Constructions in Post-Classical Greek: The Example of the “Confessions” of Asia Minor 587
  45. Part VI Pragmatics and Discourse
  46. Caesurae, Cola, and Discourse Acts: A Functional Discourse Grammar Approach to Homeric Colometry 609
  47. Vocative and ‘Terms of Address’ in the Odyssey 627
  48. The Pragmatics of Rhetorical Questions in Sophocles’ Tragedies: An Analysis of Antigone and Electra 641
  49. Verbal Impoliteness in Greek Oratory: The Case of οὗτοζ 659
  50. From Disjunct to Connective: The Particle οὖν in Herodotus’ Histories and its Association with Anaphoric Elements 671
  51. On the Use of the Interjection ὦ in the Dialogues of the Odyssey: An Analysis of (ὦ) γέρον, (ὦ) γύναι, and (ὦ) ξ∊ῖν∊ 683
  52. Structure and Function in Catalogic Discourse: The Case of Iliadic Androktasíai 701
  53. Part VII Digital Research
  54. Linguistic Annotation for a Catalog of Ancient Greek Authors and Works 721
  55. Formulaic Networks as Prototypical Categories: Combining the Ancient Greek Dependency Treebank with the Ancient Greek WordNet for a Pilot Study on the Iliad 737
  56. Linguistic Complexity in Ancient Greek: Sentence Complexity and Digital Treebanks 759
  57. Representing Semantic Roles in Greek Treebanks 777
  58. “Proleptic” Arguments in the Greek Treebanks 795
  59. Tongue, Language or Noise? Word Sense Disambiguation in Ancient Greek with Corpus-Based Methods 813
  60. List of Contributors 829
  61. Index Locorum
  62. Index Rerum
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