Annotated Swadesh wordlists for the Greek group (Indo-European family).

Languages included: Ancient Ionic Greek (Herodotus) [grk-grh], Ancient Attic Greek (Plato) [grk-grp], Modern Demotic Greek [grk-ell], Southern Tsakonian [grk-tsd], Pharasa Greek [grk-phg], Cappadocian Greek (Aravan) [grk-cpg].

Data sources.

General:
Allen 1968 = W. S. Allen. Vox Graeca. A guide to pronunciation of classical Greek. Cambridge, 1968.

Blažek 2010 = V. Blažek. Glottochronological analysis of the greek lexicon: Modern, Tsakonian, Old and Mycenaean Greek. In: Graeco-Latina Brunensia 15/1 (2010): 17-35.

Browning 1983 = R. Browning. Medieval and Modern Greek. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983. // History of the Greek language in the post-classical era.

Edwards 1914 = G. M. Edwards. An English-Greek Lexicon. 2^nd ed. Cambridge, 1914.

LSJ = H. G. Liddell, R. Scott, H. S. Jones & R. McKenzie. A Greek-English lexicon. With a revised supplement. Oxford; New York: Clarendon Press; Oxford University Press, 1996. Electronic edition.

Schwyzer GG = E. Schwyzer. Griechische Grammatik. Bd. 1-4. München, 1939, 1950, 1953, 1971.

Vyatkina 2015 = А. О. Вяткина. Релевантные и нерелевантные признаки (к проблеме изоглосс в новогреческой диалектологии). Дипломная работа. Санкт-Петербург: Санкт-петербургский государственный университет, филологический факультет, 2015. // Bachelor’s thesis on modern Greek dialectology containing a number of dialectal Swadesh wordlists recorded by the author in the 2010s.

Yonge 1849 = C. D. Yonge. An English-Greek Lexicon. London, 1849.

I. Ancient Ionic Greek (Herodotus).

Godley 1920-25 = Herodotus. Translated by A. D. Godley. Vol. 1-4. Cambridge; London, 1920-25. // Greek text and English translation of The Histories of Herodotus.

Powell 1938 = J. E. Powell. A Lexicon to Herodotus. Cambridge, 1938. // Greek-English thesaurus for The Histories of Herodotus.

Stein 1882 = H. Stein. Summary of the dialect of Herodotus. Boston, 1882.

Stratanovskiy 1972 = Геродот. История. / Пер. и прим. Г. А. Стратановского. Статья В. Г. Боруховича. (Серия "Памятники исторической мысли".) Л.: Наука, 1972. // Russian translation of The Histories of Herodotus.

II. Ancient Attic Greek (Plato).

Brandwood 1976 = L. Brandwood. A word index to Plato. Leeds, 1976. // List of wordforms of the Greek text of Plato.

Burnet 1900-1907 = Plato. Platonis Opera (Oxford Classical Texts). Ed. by John Burnet. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1900-1907. // Greek text of Plato.

Cooper 1997 = Plato. Complete works. Ed. by John M. Cooper. Indianapolis / Cambridge: Hackett Publishing Company, 1997. // English translation of Plato.

Plato 1914-1935 = Plato. In Twelve Volumes (The Loeb Classical Library). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd. // Greek text and English translation of Plato.

Platon 1990-1994 = Платон. Собрание сочинений в 4-х тт. Общая редакция А. Ф. Лосева, В. Ф. Асмуса и А. А. Тахо-Годи. Москва: Мысль, 1990-1994. // Russian translation of Plato.

III. Modern Demotic Greek.

Arvaniti 2007 = A. Arvaniti. Greek Phonetics: The State of the Art. Journal of Greek Linguistics 8 (2007): 97-208.

Field records of 2006.

IV. Southern Tsakonian.

Anagnostopoulos 1926 = G. Anagnostopoulos. Tsakonische Grammatik. Berlin / Athen: Urania.

Deffner 1881 = Michael Deffner. Zakonische Grammatik. 1. Hälfte: Lautlehre. Berlin: Weidmann.

Deffner 1923 = Μιχαήλ Δέφνερ. Λεξικόν της τσακωνικής διαλέκτου. Αθήνα: Εστια. // Dictionary of the Tsakonian language, based on the Southern dialect.

Kostakis 1951 = Αθ. Κωστάκης. Σύντομη Γραμματική της Τσακωνικής Διαλέκτου. Αθήνα: Institut Français d’Athènes. // Grammar sketch of the Tsakonian language.

Kostakis 1986-1987 = Θανάσης Π. Κωστάκης. Λεξικό της Τσακωνικής διαλέκτου. Τ. 1: Α-Ι; Τ. 2: Κ-Ο; Τ. 3: Π-Ω. Αθήνα: Ακαδημία Αθηνών. // Dictionary of the Tsakonian language, covering principal dialects.

Pernot 1934 = Hubert Pernot. Introduction a l’étude du dialecte tsakonien. Paris: Les Belles Lettres. // Grammatical sketch of the Tsakonian language with etymological portion.

V. Pharasa Greek.

Andriotis 1948 = Ν. Π. Ανδριώτης. Το γλωσσικό ιδίωμα των Φαράσων. Αθήνα: Γαλλικό Ινστιτούτο Αθηνών. // Grammar sketch with several wordlists of the Pharasa dialect of Modern Greek.

Arkhelaos 1899 = Ι. Σαραντίδης Αρχελάος. Η Σινασός: ήτοι θέσις, ιστορία, ηθική και διανοητική κατάστασις, ήθη, έθιμα και γλώσσα της εν Καππαδοκία κωμοπόλεως Σινασού. Αθήνα: Τυπογραφείον Ιωάννου Νικολαΐδου. // Ethnographical, historical and linguistic study on Sinasos, a Greek village in Cappadocia.

Dawkins 1916 = R. M. Dawkins. Modern Greek in Asia Minor. A study of dialect of Silly, Cappadocia and Pharasa. Cambridge University Press. // Grammatical and lexicographical description of Modern Greek dialects of Cappadocia and neighboring area (Cappadocian, Pharasa and Silli) supplemented with texts.

Karolidis 1885 = Παύλος Καρολίδης. Γλωσσάριον συγκριτικόν ελληνοκαππαδοκικών λέξεων: ήτοι η εν Καππαδοκία λαλουμένη ελληνική διάλεκτος και τα εν αυτή σωζώμενα ίχνη της αρχαίας καππαδοκικής γλώσσης. Σμύρνη: Ο Τύπος. // Grammar sketch and glossary of the Pharasa dialect of Cappadocian Greek.

VI. Cappadocian Greek (Aravan).

Andriotis 1961 = Ν. Π. Ανδριώτης. Το ιδίωμα του Λιβισιού της Λυκίας. Athens: Centre d'Études d'Asie Mineure. // Grammar sketch and glossary of the Livisi dialect of Modern Greek.

Kesisoglu 1951 = Ι. Ι. Κεσίσογλου. Το γλωσσικό ιδίωμα του Ουλαγάτς. Αθήνα: Γαλλικό Ινστιτούτο Αθηνών. // Grammar sketch and glossary of the Ulaghatsh subdialect of Cappadocian Greek.

Kostakis 1964 = A. Costakis. Le Parler Grec d'Anakou. Athens: Centre d'Études d'Asie Mineure. // Linguistic description sketch of the Anaku subdialect of Cappadocian Greek.

Kostakis 1968 = Αθ. Κωστάκης. Το γλωσσικό ιδίωμα της Σίλλης. Athens: Centre d'Études d'Asie Mineure. // Grammar sketch of the Silli dialect of Modern Greek.

Mavrokhalividis & Kesisoglu 1960 = Γ. Μαυροχαλυβίδης, Ι. Ι. Κεσίσογλου. Το γλωσσικό ιδίωμα της Αξού. Αθήνα: Γαλλικό Ινστιτούτο Αθηνών. // Grammar sketch and glossary of the Axo subdialect of Cappadocian Greek.

Phosteris & Kesisoglu 1960 = Δ. Φωστέρης, Ι. Ι. Κεσίσογλου. Λεξιλόγιο του Αραβανί. Αθήνα: Γαλλικό Ινστιτούτο Αθηνών. // Grammar sketch and glossary of the Aravan subdialect of Cappadocian Greek.

NOTES

I. Ancient Ionic Greek (Herodotus).

I.1. General.

The Swadesh list for Herodotus' dialect has been compiled on the basis of the edition [Godley 1920-25] and the thesaurus [Powell 1938]. The English text is quoted after [Godley 1920-25]. The Russian translation is given according to [Stratanovskiy 1972]. (It should be obvious that neither Godley's nor Stratanovskiy's translations are strictly literal.)

We confine ourself to the proper text of Herodotus; this means that forms attested in quotations (direct speech, prophecies and so on) are normally excluded.

Each particular commentary is concluded by the section "General Ancient Greek", which contains various Ancient Greek words, attested someplace in the Ancient Greek corpus with the required Swadesh meaning. This section illustrates how many synonyms one would have to deal with, were one to decide to compile the Swadesh wordlist for the Ancient Greek language in general, using standard dictionaries (e.g., English-Greek [Edwards 1914] & [Yonge 1849] and Greek-English [LSJ]).

The following Swadesh items are not attested in Herodotus: 'green', 'liver', 'new', 'yellow'.

I.2. Transliteration.

Since Ancient Greek underwent a number of sound changes during the written period, not to mention dialectal diversity, it is impossible to propose a unified and phonetically exact romanization for the Classical Greek alphabet (see [Allen 1968] for detail). Provisionally, we propose the following table of transliteration, which is somewhat of a compromise between reconstructed pronunciation, alphabetic tradition, modern scholar pronunciation and etymology.

Greek Alphabet	GLD for Ancient Greek	GLD for Modern Demotic Greek
β	b	v
γ	g (n before κ, χ, γ, ξ, μ)	ɣ (y before e i; γ + unaccented i before a vowel as y; γκ as g; γχ as ŋx; γγ as g; γκ, γγ as ȡ before e i; γξ as ŋks)
δ	d	ð
ζ	zd	z (τζ as ʒ)
θ	tʰ	θ
κ	k	k (ȶ before e i; κ + unaccented i before a vowel as ȶ)
λ	l	l (λ + unaccented i between a vowel/pause and a vowel as ʎ)
μ	m	m (μπ as b)
ν	n	n (ν + unaccented i between a vowel/pause and a vowel as ɲ; ντ as d)
ξ	ks	ks
π	p	p (μπ as b)
ρ	r	r
ῥ	r̥
σ, ς	s	s (z before a voiced or a sonant; τσ as c)
τ	t	t (ντ as d; τσ as c; τζ as ʒ)
φ	pʰ	f
χ	kʰ	x (ẙ before e i; χ + unaccented i before a vowel as ẙ)
ψ	ps	ps
α	a	a
ᾱ	aː
ᾳ	aːy
αι	ay	e
αυ	aw	av / af
ᾱГɔ̄	aːw
ε	e	e
ει	ey	i
ευ	ew	ev / ef
η	eː	i
ῃ	eːy
ηυ	eːw	iv / if
ι, ι	i	i / y
ῑ	iː
ο	o	o
οι	oy	i
ου	uː	u
υ, ϋ	ü	i
ῡ	üː
υι	üy	i
ω	oː	o
ῳ	oːy
F	v
`	h [this phoneme was apparently lost in the dialect of Herodotus]
᾿	unnoted
V, V	V	ˈV
Ṽ	V̂

1. For Modern Greek, we transcribe orthographic geminates as single consonants.

2. In most varieties of Modern Greek, velar k g x ɣ are shifted to palatal ȶ ȡ ẙ y respectively before front vowels (i, e).

3. In Modern Demotic Greek, k g x ɣ l n (not in a consonant cluster) + unaccented i before a vowel are contracted into ȶ ȡ ẙ y ʎ ɲ respectively. After other single consonants CiV > CyV, if i is unaccented.

4. For Modern Demotic Greek, we transcribe {μπ, ντ, γκ, γγ} as plain voiced stops b d g. These phonemes are realized as prenasalized ᵐb ⁿd ᵑg in inherited words in archaic speech, but according to Arvaniti 2007, they are normally denasalized > b d g in modern Athenian koine of younger generations.

II. Ancient Attic Greek (Plato).

II.1. General.

The Swadesh list for Plato's dialect has been compiled on the basis of the Greek edition [Burnet 1900-1907] and the thesaurus [Brandwood 1976]. The English text is quoted after [Plato 1914-1935] (The Loeb Classical Library). The Russian translation is given according to [Platon 1990-1994]. (It should be obvious that neither English nor Russian translations are strictly literal.)

We confine ourself to the proper text of Plato (ca. 425-348/347 BC); this means that we only use works that are conventionally assumed to have been written by Plato and we exclude forms attested in quotations (usually from Homer). According to the list of works by Plato offered in [Cooper 1997, v-vi], we exclude the following works: first, if "it is generally agreed by scholars that Plato is not the author" of these works (Second Alcibiades, Hipparchus, Rival Lovers, Theages, Minos, Epinomis, Definitiones, Notheuomenoi); second, if "it is not generally agreed by scholars whether Plato is the author" of these works (First Alcibiades, Greater Hippias, Clitophon, Letters, Epigrams).

The following Swadesh items are not attested in Plato: 'bark', 'fat', 'louse', 'worm'. In these cases it does not seem particularly risky to fill the slot with the corresponding term from other Attic authors of the same period: Xenophon (ca. 430-354 BC), Sophocles (497/496-406/405 BC), Aristophanes (ca. 446-386 BC). Nevertheless the slot 'worm' remains empty due to scantiness of data.

III. Modern Demotic Greek.

III.1. General.

The present Modern Demotic Greek 110-item wordlist is a compilation of three wordlists recorded by Aleksandra Evdokimova in Moscow, 2006 from three informants (two of them are from Athens, the third one is from Thessaloniki).

1) Yalamas, male, born 1960 in Athens, lives in Moscow, Athenian university, Ph.D., professor of MSU, Demotic native speaker.

2) Yanitsi, female, born 1970 in Athens, lives in Moscow, MSU Historical facultet, Ph.D., Demotic native speaker.

3) Patzis, male, born in the 1970's in Thessaloniki, lives in Moscow, high education, Demotic native speaker.

All three informants normally agree with each other as to the specific words elicited (for crucial discrepancies see the entries ‘to lie’ and ‘new’).

Alexei Kassian has transcribed and annotated A. Evdokimova’s wordlists.

III.2. Transliteration.

For transliteration, see the Ancient Greek sections.

IV. Southern Tsakonian.

IV.1. General.

The Tsakonian language consists of three dialects: Southern, Northern and Propontic. The Southern dialect is spoken in Leonidion (Λεωνίδιο), Tyros (Τυρός), Melana (Μέλανα Πέρα), Prastos (Πραστός), Agios Andreas (Αγιος Αντρέας) and some other villages. The Northern dialect is spoken in the villages Kastanitsa (Καστάνιτσα) and Sitena (Σίταινα). The extinct Propontic dialect was spoken in the villages Khavutsi (Χαβουτσί) and Vatika (Βάτικα).

To`dfa
The primary source for Southern Tsakonian is the dictionary [Deffner 1923] (based on the variety of the Prastos village). The second source is the 3-volume dictionary [Kostakis 1986-1987], which covers main Tsakonian dialects. For grammatical description, see [Pernot 1934] and additionally [Deffner 1881; Anagnostopoulos 1926; Kostakis 1951]. The main shortcomings of the dictionary and grammar by A. Kostakis, a Southern Tsakonian native speaker, is that these are somewhat prescriptive rather than purely descriptive; additionally, they are not free from typos. A very useful source is the bachelor's thesis [Vyatkina 2015: 57-65], which contains preliminary versions of Swadesh wordlists recorded in the 2010s in three Southern Tsakonian villages (Prastos, Tyros, Melana) and one Northern Tsakonian village (Kastanitsa). The preliminary lexicostatistical study in [Blažek 2010] was also somewhat useful for our purposes.

For the present Southern Tsakonian wordlist we generally rely on Prastos data.

As noted by [Browning 1983: 124], "Tsakonian looks like the descendant of a late form of Peloponnesian Doric already heavily contaminated by Koine". The Southern dialect is more distinctive than the Northern one; the latter is influenced by the Greek language to a greater degree. The extinct Propontic dialect was the one that was most affected by Greek. It should be noted that the only specific Doric forms, undoubtedly revealed in the Southern Tsakonian 110-item wordlist, are psil-ˈe 'eye' = Ancient Doric op-tíl-o-s {ὀπτίλος} id.; mic-ˈi 'small' = Ancient Doric miːkk-ó- {μικκός} id.; eȶˈu 'you (sg.)' = Ancient Doric tü {τύ} id.

We can mention at least the following likely Demotic loans in early 20^th century Tsakonian within the Swadesh wordlist: frˈu-a ‘bark’, pulʸˈi ‘bird’, kˈokal-e ‘bone’, ɲˈiẙ-i ‘nail’, sˈiɣ=nef-o ‘cloud’, xˈoma ‘earth’, čˈu- ‘to eat’, avuɣ-ˈo ‘egg’, ksˈinʒ-i ‘fat’, psˈar̝-i ‘fish’, yom-ˈat-e ‘full’, kal-ˈe ‘good’, prˈas-in-e ‘green’, ɕˈera-t-e ‘horn’, skotˈu-n-u ‘to kill’, ks=ˈer-u ‘to know’, c=aprˈu-kʰ-u ‘to lie’, škˈoȶ-i ‘liver’, makr̝-ˈu ‘long’, feŋgˈar̝-i ‘moon’, lem-ˈo ‘neck’, ɕinˈurɕ-e ‘new’, vrˈex-o ‘rain’, kocin-ˈe ‘red’, pe- ‘to say’, stˈe-k-u ‘to stand’, pˈi-e ‘who’, ɕˈitr̝in-e ‘yellow’, alˈarɣa ‘far’, kondˈa ‘near’, ˈac-i ‘salt’, kond-ˈe ‘short’, ften-ˈe ‘thin’, aˈer-a ‘wind’, xrˈon-e ‘year’.

During the last century, the following Demotic forms have additionally penetrated the Southern Tsakonian (Prastos) wordlist, according to the lexical data offered in [Vyatkina 2015: 57-61]: flˈuð-a ‘bark’, stˈiθ-o-s ‘breast’, pe=θˈen-u ‘to die’, avɣ-ˈo ‘egg’, yem-ˈat-e ‘full’, prˈas-in-o-s ‘green’, ɣˈon-at-o ‘knee’, vun-ˈe ‘mountain’, ˈonom-a ‘name’, lem-ˈo-s ‘neck’, ˈam-o-s ‘sand’, ðˈerm-a ‘skin’, koʎimb-ˈu ‘to swim’, aˈer-a-s ‘wind’.

Because of its mixed nature, the Tsakonian wordlist can hardly be used for lexicostatistical phylogeny of Ancient Greek dialects, not to mention for calibration of glottochronological formulae.

IV.2. Transliteration.

The following transliterational chart covers our principal sources:

Deffner, Kostakis	GLD
π	p
π̔, πφ	pʰ
μ͞π	b
μπ, μβ	mb
φ	f
β	v
μ	m
τ	t
τ̔, τθ	tʰ
ν͞τ, ν͞δ	d
ντ, νδ	nd
θ	θ
δ	ð
ν	n, ɲ (before i); ν + y or unaccented i between a vowel/pause and a vowel as ɲ
ν̑	ɲ
ν̣ (Deffner), ν̇ (Kostakis), νν	n (before i)
τσ	c
τζ (Deffner), τσ̑ (Kostakis)	cʸ
τζ (Kostakis)	ʒ
νδζ, ντζ	ʒ, nʒ
σ	s
ζ	z
τσ̌, τσχ	č
τζ̌	ǯ
ντζ̌	nǯ
σ̌, σχ	š
ζ̌	ž
τζ̑ (Kostakis)	ɕ (= Deffner’s tr̝)
ι̰, γι̰	y
χι̰	ẙ
κ	k (ȶ before e i)
κ̔, κχ	kʰ (ȶʰ before e i)
κι̰	ȶ
γ͞κ, γ͞γ	g (y before e i)
γκ, γγ	ŋg (ɲȡ before e i)
χ	x (ẙ before e i)
γ	ɣ (y before e i)
ν̇ (Deffner)	ŋ
λ	l, ʎ (before i); λ + y or unaccented i between a vowel/pause and a vowel as ʎ
λ̑	ʎ
ƛ, λ̣, λλ	l (before i)
ρ	r, rʸ (before i)
ρ̣	r (before i)
ρ, ρ̇, ρ̌, ρζ̌	r̝
ξ	ks
ψ	ps
α	a
αυ	av / af
α̈ (Kostakis)	ä
ε, αι	e
ευ	ev / ef
η, ι, ι, υ, ϋ, ει, οι, υι	i (unaccented i > y before a vowel)
ηυ	iv / if
ο, ω	o
ου	u
᾿, `
CC	C
V, Ṽ	ˈV

1. The specific sound r̝ (like in Czech), which originates from r before i, is consistently transcribed in [Deffner 1923] as {ρ, ρ̇, ρ̌} (note that the difference between Deffner’s {ρ ~ ρ̇} and {ρ̌} is not clear, cf. [Deffner 1923: xvii, xix], we treat all three characters as r̝). According to later sources, this phoneme tends to shift to ž or r~rʸ in all or at least in the majority of Tsakonian varieties. The latter shift, > r ~ rʸ, was probably due to influence of the corresponding Demotic Greek forms.

2. It also seems that etymological clusters nasal + stop (mb nd nʒ ɲȡ ŋg) in Deffner’s forms, tend to lose the nasal component in the modern dialects, judging by the transcription in [Vyatkina 2015].

3. According to forms transcribed in [Vyatkina 2015], s c ʒ before i tend to shift > š č ǯ at least in the modern Prastos speech.

V. Pharasa Greek.

V.1. General.

Pharasa is a distinct dialect of Modern Greek, spoken in several villages of Cappadocia (and thus divided into close subdialects: Pharasa, Afshar-Köi, Kiska, Sati, Tshukuri, Giaur-Köi) till the 1923 population exchange between Greece and Turkey. It is supposed in [Dawkins 1916: 205-208] that Pharasa could actually represent an old Pontic colony, since the Pharasa dialect resembles Pontic Greek to a greater degree than Cappadocian Greek; see similar observations in [Andriotis 1948].

The primary source for the Pharasa dialect is the grammar, dictionary and text collection [Dawkins 1916] (this volume also includes data from previous linguistic publications). A more late description [Andriotis 1948], compiled after the population exchange, also provides useful information (Andriotis' data are influenced by standard Modern Greek to a greater extent than the language stage documented by Dawkins).

V.2. Transliteration.

The following transliterational chart covers our principal sources for Pharasa Greek and Cappadocian Greek:

Dawkins and Greek authors	GLD
π	p
π̔	pʰ
b	b
μb	mb
μπ	mp
φ	f
β	v
μ	m
τ	t
τ̔	tʰ
d	d
νd, ντ (Grk. authors)	nd
ντ (Dawkins)	nt
θ	θ
δ	ð
ν, ν̇	n
ν̑	ɲ
ν̥, ν̊	ᵐ ⁿ ᵑ (prenasalized stops in loans)
τσ	c
dζ, τζ	ʒ
νδζ, ντζ	nʒ
σ, ς	s
ζ	z
č, τσ̌, τσ̑	č
ǰ, τζ̌, τζ̑	Ǯ
ντζ̌, ντζ̑	nǯ
σ̌, ς̌, σ̑	š
ζ̌, ζ̑	ž
κι̯, κ̑	ȶ
gι̯	ȡ
γ, γι̯, ι̯, υ̯, ει̯, οι̯, j	y
χ, χ̑, χι̯	ẙ
κ, κ̇	k (ȶ before front vowels)
κ̔	kʰ (ȶʰ before e i)
g	g (ȡ before front vowels)
χ, χ̇	x (ẙ before front vowels)
γ, γ̇	ɣ (y before front vowels)
kh	x (before front vowels)
gh	ɣ (before front vowels)
ν̣	ŋ
ν̣κ, γκ (Grk. authors)	ŋk
ν̣γ, ν̣g, γγ (Grk. authors)	ŋg
q	q
λ, λ̇, λ̣	l
λ	ʎ
ρ	r
w	w
ξ	ks
ξ̌, ξ̑	kš
ψ	ps
ψ̌, ψ̑	pš
α	a
α̈	ä
ε, αι	e
η, ι, ι, υ, ϋ, ει, οι, υι	i
ο, ω	o
ο̈	ö
ου	u
ü	ü
ǝ	ɨ
αυ	av / af
ευ	ev / ef
ηυ	iv / if
᾿, `
CC (Grk. authors)	C
C-C (Grk. authors), CC (Dawkins)	CC
V, V, Ṽ	ˈV

1. Due to Turkish influence, both in Cappadocian and especially in Pharasa initial voiceless stops and affricates (p t k c č) may occasionally vocalize (> b d g ʒ ǯ); this results in a free interchange of voiceless and voiced variants of individual forms with etymological voiceless stops. In our transcription we normally present voiceless variants.

2. Aspirated stops (pʰ tʰ kʰ) occur in some Cappadocian subdialects such as Axo [Mavrokhalividis & Kesisoglu 1960] and are also sporadically attested in Andriotis’ transcription of Pharasa [Andriotis 1948].

VI. Cappadocian Greek (Aravan).

VI.1. General.

As described in [Dawkins 1916], at the beginning of the 20^th century before the 1923 population exchange between Greece and Turkey, the Greek language of Cappadocia consisted of at least two distinct dialects. The first one is Cappadocian Greek or Cappadocian proper, spoken in almost 20 villages [Dawkins 1916: 13 ff.] (having been thus divided into a number of subdialects). The minor western dialects of Silli and Livisi are close to Cappadocian [Dawkins 1916: 204]. The second distinct dialect is Pharasa, spoken in several villages.

Among Cappadocian subdialects [Dawkins 1916: 13 ff.], one can mention at least the following lects: Anaku, Aravan, Axo, Delmeso, Dila, Fertek, Ghurzono, Malakopi, Misti, Phloita, Potamia, Semendere, Silata, Sinasos, Trokho, Ulaghatsh (Uluağaç). The Greek language of these villages is Turkized and at the same time influenced by standard Modern Greek to different degrees. Dawkins writes that Delmeso "is now the best representative of what Cappadocian Greek must have been before it was as thoroughly Turkised".

The primary source for the Cappadocian dialect is the grammar, dictionary and text collection [Dawkins 1916] (this volume also includes data from previous linguistic publications, such as [Arkhelaos 1899] on Sinasos). There are also grammar sketches and glossaries of a number of individual Cappadocian subdialects compiled by Greek authors after the 1923 population exchange: Anaku [Kostakis 1964], Aravan [Phosteris & Kesisoglu 1960], Axo [Mavrokhalividis & Kesisoglu 1960], Kastellorizo [Komninos 1970], Ulaghatsh [Kesisoglu 1951]; and, in addition, Livisi [Andriotis 1961], Silli [Kostakis 1968].

Subdialects of Cappadocian Greek may seriously vary with phonetic shapes of individual forms, but it remains unclear whether there are lexical discrepancies within the 110-item wordlist between the subdialects (the most evident case is 'wind', cf. also 'person' and 'green'). For the head forms in the GLD wordlist we generally rely on data of the Aravan subdialect [Dawkins 1916; Phosteris & Kesisoglu 1960]. Relevant forms from other subdialects, if they differ phonetically, are quoted in the notes.

Several Swadesh items are missing from the available Aravan sources ('feather', ‘horn’, ‘leaf’, ‘liver’, ‘new’, ‘red’, ‘tail’, ‘tree’, ‘yellow’); in such cases it does not seem particularly risky to fill the slot with the corresponding term from other Cappadocian subdialects.

For the transliterational chart, see the section on Pharasa Greek.

Database compiled and annotated by:
Ancient Greek (Herodotus): A. Kassian, June 2011 / revised March 2014 (minor corrections) / revised May 2014 (minor corrections) / revised October 2018 (minor corrections).
Ancient Attic Greek (Plato): A. Kassian, May 2014 / revised August 2017 (three vacant slots were filled from other Attic authors) / revised October 2018 (minor corrections).
Modern Demotic Greek: A. Evdokimova (field records) & A. Kassian (comments), March 2014 / revised May 2014 (minor corrections) / revised August 2015 / revised September 2015 (minor corrections).
Southern Tsakonian: A. Kassian, August 2015 / revised September 2015 (minor corrections).
Pharasa Greek, Cappadocian Greek (Aravan): A. Kassian, September 2015.