- Dialect of Chalkidiki
The "Dialect of Chalkidiki is a
dialect of the Greeklanguage spoken inChalkidiki (Khalkidiki, Halkidiki, Greek Χαλκιδική,Greece "'.
Regarding thewords , as in any otherlanguage , the old dialect (frοm the Greek "διάλεκτος" [di΄alektos] ) of Northern Greece and especially ofChalkidiki Prefecture , is divided into threeparts :"1. The extra Greek words used in the dialect
""2. The extra words of foreignorigin
""3. Thepronunciation of the words, and theintonation
"What prevails, however, and is heard is the pronunciation of the words is the “
Vowel Reduction”.The Greek language, as other languages of
Mediterranean countries, has five basicsounds of vowels, fivecardinal vowels :[i] ,
monophthongs ordiphthongs ι, η, υ, οι, ει
[e] , monophthong or diphthong ε, αι
[a] , monophthong α
[o] , monophthongs ο, ω
[u] , diphthong ουIt is well known in
linguistics (pronunciation ,phonetics ), that some vowels are created in the upper part of the [cavity] of themouth (high vowels) (in front [i] , in the back [u] ), others in the middle of the mouth (mid vowels) (in front [e] , in the back [o] ), and others in the nether part of the mouth (low vowels) ( [a] ).
As a rule thesounds of vowels that are to bearticulated in the middle or upper part, when they are not accented (stressed), they arereduced , i.e. they tend to be created in the upper or uppermost part. As a result the sound [e] is reduced to [i] , the sound [o] is reduced [u] , and the sounds [u] and [i] , insyllables (preceded byconsonants ), are reduced very much ( [i] becomes [j] , or even not sounded at all (lost) (not lost when with other vowels). One can find this also in other regions of the Greek mainlandExamples:
Αύριο θα πάμε (Θεσ)σαλονίκη, becomes: Αύριου θα πάμι (Θι)σαλουνίκj [΄avriu θa ΄pami (θi)salu΄nikj]
Έχει δουλειές στον Αη-Μάμα και στον Πολύγυρο, becomes: [Εχj δλειές στουν Αj Μάμα κι στουν Πουλύγjρου] . [stu bu΄liɣjru]See:
Varieties of Modern Greek
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