Pontic Language

Les titres des travaux épigraphiques et papyrologiques sont abrégés selon les recommandations de la Liste des abréviations des éditions et ouvrages de référence pour l'épigraphie grecque alphabétique, de l'Année épigraphique et de la Checklist of Greek, Latin, Demotic, and Coptic papyri, ostraca, and tablets.

In our paper, we reconsider the accepted viewpoint that the definite
postpositive article in Eastern Armenian should be classified as belonging
to the grammatical category of nouns. We demonstrate that an interplay
between various grammatical (morphological and syntactical) and
pragmatic (demonstrative, referential, and anaphoric) factors could be key
to understanding its functions. In modern Eastern-Armenian, the so-called
definite article may perform different functions, and the expression of
definiteness is only one of them. Bearing in mind that the diachronic origin
of the definite article is the demonstrative/possessive pronoun Նա (na) and
the enclitic -ն (-n) in classical Armenian, it seems that it would be more
adequate to categorize it as a demonstrative determinant. Upon some
grammatical constraints, it has also taken on various pragma-semantic
manifestations and functions; some of them have been grammaticalized,
and most of them depend on prototypical contextual features and speakers’
communicative intentions. The most important of these newer functions is that they are used as a marker of any part of speech in subject/object
positions. Complete grammaticalization occurs only in the accusative.
Keywords: Eastern Armenian language, definite article, grammaticalization, pragmaticalization, noun phrase, substantives, deixis

Η παρούσα ανακοίνωση έχει αντικείμενο την οργάνωση του τουρκικού εθνικού κινήματος στον Πόντο και τα πολιτικά και νομικά εργαλεία που αυτό ανέπτυξε για να εκκαθαρίσει την περιοχή από τα αλλόθρησκα και αλλογενή στοιχεία, όπως οι Έλληνες και οι Αρμένιοι. Ένα από τα πιο γνωστά ήταν τα λεγόμενα «Δικαστήρια της Ανεξαρτησίας» (İstiklâl Mahkemeleri), μια μορφή επαναστατικών δικαστηρίων που συγκροτήθηκαν με σκοπό να διώξουν ποινικά όσους αποτελούσαν δυνάμει απειλή για το νέο καθεστώς, πολιτικά ή στρατιωτικά, μεταξύ των οποίων και οι Έλληνες του Πόντου. Στο πλαίσιο των διώξεων αυτών, πολλοί Έλληνες του Πόντου διώχθηκαν και καταδικάστηκαν για αντεθνική δράση, συχνά χωρίς αποδείξεις, και πολλοί εξ αυτών εκτελέστηκαν, με σκοπό την τρομοκράτηση του πληθυσμού και την αποθάρρυνση της ενεργού ή παθητικής υποστήριξης στην ένοπλη αντίσταση. Στο πλαίσιο της παρούσας ανακοίνωσης θα εξετάσουμε πως συγκροτήθηκαν και λειτούργησαν τα δικαστήρια αυτά κατά την περίοδο 1920-1922, γιατί, ποιους και πόσους δίκασαν, και πως καταργήθηκαν όταν έπαψαν να είναι χρήσιμα στην εξουσία που τα συγκρότησε.

Ζαϊκόφσκαγια Τατιανα Βλαδλένοβνα, Οι μωμόγεροι στις πρωτοχρονιάτικες και γαμήλιες τελετές των σύγχρονων ελληνοποντίων στην Ατζαρία (Νότιος Καύκασος) // Αρχείον Πόντου. Τόμος 47. – Αθήναι: Επιτροπή Ποντιακών Μελετών. – σ. 155-185. [ανάτυπο]
Περιγραφή των δρώμενων των μωμογέρων των Ποντίων του Καυκάσου βάσει των επιτόπιων ερευνών.

This paper explores the nuanced realm of case syncretism, focusing primarily on its synchronic presence in Modern Greek (dialectal variety) and on the diachronic emergence of the phenomenon, classifying the distribution of syncretic cells in the nominal inflectional system of the language. This analysis shows that syncretism has been extended over time to many nouns, no longer limited either to neuter nouns or to the cells for the Nominative and Accusative. I suggest that the distribution of syncretic cells in Greek is influenced primarily by grammatical gender, but it is also affected by the productivity of each inflectional class, which I attribute to the morphomic (in terms of Aronoff [1994]. Morphology by itself: Stems and inflectional classes, vol. 22. MIT Press.) nature of the phenomenon. I propose a decisive new factor preventing a cell from participating in syncretic patterns: interparadigmatic similarity of affixes appears to block syncretism. Further, I examine the factors facilitating the development and expansion of syncretic patterns.

In recent decades, agreement has attracted considerable interest in the field of Arabic linguistics and dialectology. Since the second half of the 20th century, there has been a growing concern for agreement regarding both Modern Standard Arabic and dialects. More recently, Bettega and D’Anna (2022) have provided a comprehensive survey of agreement in Arabic language and dialects from both diachronic and synchronic perspectives. One of the lacunas in their work concerns the agreement pattern of adjectives that possess a plural of the apophonic type in modern dialects. This paper aims to fill this lacuna. We add new data to bridge the gap represented by the lack of studies on the agreement type of adjectives featuring broken plurals. To achieve this, we analyze a small, yet representative, corpus of typologically similar Judeo-Arabic varieties spoken in various cities across Libya. Through our work, we attempt to shed light on agreement patterns with broken plurals in spoken Arabic.

«Tra tutti i titoli medievali nessuno è più magico di quello di imperatore di Trebisonda». Così sir Steven Runciman, grande bizantinista, riassunse il fascino millenario dell’ultimo Impero greco sulle rive del Mar Nero, nato nel 1204 e caduto nel 1461. In due secoli e mezzo divenne crocevia internazionale, favolosamente ricco, al centro di commerci, ambascerie, intrighi, magie. Marco Polo, Cervantes, Cagliostro, Foscolo, Offenbach, d’Annunzio: tutti, nella realtà o nella fantasia, sono passati dall’antica capitale dei Gran Comneni, la più nobile delle dinastie bizantine, esiliata per sempre da Costantinopoli. Per i lettori che vogliono sognare i misteri e le glorie di Trebisonda, e i viaggiatori che intendono esplorare le vie dell’attuale Trabzon e i monasteri perduti del Ponto, tra nebbie impenetrabili e foreste fatate, nelle pagine di questo libro rivivono storia e leggenda di un minuscolo impero nella realtà, ma di una superpotenza dell’immaginario medievale e moderno.

This paper offers further insights on the role of language contact in the reorganization of grammar based on data from two Modern Greek contact-induced dialects: Italiot varieties in contact with both the local Romance varieties and Standard Italian, and Cappadocian, in contact with Turkish. A contrastive investigation reveals interesting correlations and particularities in the reorganization of inflection of the examined systems. Acknowledging that simplification is not triggered solely by contact, we claim that the attested phenomena can be accounted for as temporary complexifications that head toward and ultimately result in simplification within the paradigmatic relations. The amount and type of complexity diverge significantly depending on the (in)compatibility factor among the systems in contact. Furthermore, in terms of loss, addition and replacement of features, our data show that, although replacement and loss are the most prevalent strategies used at the level of morpholog...

This article examines the nominal inflectional system of a group of Asia Minor Greek dialects (Dawkins 1910, 1916), which developed, in parallel with the fusional inflectional system, an agglutinative one due to language contact with Turkish. We argue that the 'old' fusional ending or the theme vowel was reanalyzed as part of the nominal stem. This novel structure was actualized by means of two competing options: in some dialects, the reanalysis was actualized transparently in all inflectional forms rendering an agglutinative pattern of inflection, whereas in dialects with limited agglutination the actualization took the form of a special type of vowel assimilation. More specifically, as part of the nominal stem, the 'old' theme vowel signals its merge with the root by allowing it to absorb some or all of its features. Formally, the phonological process is treated as an instance of INDIRECT LICENSING (Walker 2011), according to which the theme vowel acts as a trigger due to its privileged position as a segment of the categorizer n, i.e. the head of the stem.

Gender assignment has been studied in many languages and the assignment system is considered important particularly when it is related to determining the structure of the lexicon. Semitic languages show two genders, namely masculine and feminine. Nevertheless, it has been claimed that some nouns in Semitic languages can have common gender. Some linguists suggest number of criteria based on the classifications for number and gender in Semitic languages: masculine/feminine, animate/inanimate, human/non-human, individual/collective, concrete/abstract, singular/plural, and major/minor. Arabic, like other Semitic languages, determines gender of its nouns either through meaning or through form. So, grammatical gender is a way of analyzing nouns classes with relation to semantic features, like masculine, feminine, animacy, etc. It is a property of individual nouns regardless of their existing referents (if there are). There have been efforts by many researchers, trying to explain the processing of gender in comprehension. This paper discusses how gender is assigned to nouns in Saudi dialects where a supervised machine learning algorithm is used to test the predictiveness of gender in Arabic. The data show interestingly that the presence of some semantic and morphological features helps to predict the gender of nouns. It is not fully predictable but it is the start point for further investigations.

La Colchide est une terre absolument fascinante autant par son héritage culturel que par l'ensemble des légendes les plus intéressantes et fascinantes de la zone interculturelle de l'ancienne Mer Noire depuis les temps les plus anciens comme Georges Dumézil s'est si bien appliqué à l'illustrer dans son magnifique ouvrage « Romans de Scythie et d'alentour » Comme toujours dans ces cas délicats où légendes se mêlent avec réalité, il peut se révéler complexe de pouvoir en faire la distinction.
C'est le but de cet exposé de présenter des pistes linguistiques et géographiques importantes pour réaliser des progrès significatifs sur la compréhension des interactions entre les anciens royaumes de Colchide et les cultures gréco-scythes.

In our contribution we first examine the system of gender in Modern Greek, placing emphasis on the grammatical means of the language, as well as their use and participation in the construction of social gender. We thus distinguish between morphological, lexical and social gender and refer to the reflection of social roles in Greek gender. We then turn to the main question, namely the way gender construction is reflected in the Word Thesaurus for Greek, which seems to follow the inadequate lexicographic practice of non-electronic dictionaries.

Why does man occur more frequently in the English language than woman does? Has the expression of gender evolved through the centuries or is it a non-changing linguistic universal? To what extent are inflections and word-formation processes able to convey gender in present-day English? This paper reviews a number of questions which have raised interest among scholars for many years, and which can now be reconsidered from a 21st-century perspective. To this end, the expression of gender is examined and illustrated from Old English to contemporary English to observe the alternatives which language provides and the differences in each of the periods covered. This allows taking a broad view of the state of the art, which seems necessary for an understanding of how biological sex can be expressed in the English language.

In this paper we discuss so-called P-drop, i.e. the omission of the preposition se 'at' in certain locative and directional contexts in Greek. We highlight the relevance of the simultaneous omission of the definite determiner and bring out the syntactic and semantic properties that the phenomenon at hand shares with pseudo-/semantic incorporation. We observe that P-drop is only possible with nouns that denote stereotypical locations, i.e. locations which are moved to or spent time at regularly, in order to perform there an institutionalized activity. Our proposal is to treat P-drop in Greek as another instance of pseudo-incorporation, which we implement syntactically as LF movement of the bare noun to the verb. The account derives the cluster of properties observed, while at the same time doing away with unpronounced P and D heads in the construction.

In this paper we discuss so-called P-drop, i.e. the omission of the preposition se 'at' in certain locative and directional contexts in Greek. We highlight the relevance of the simultaneous omission of the definite determiner and bring out the syntactic and semantic properties that the phenomenon at hand shares with pseudo-/semantic incorporation. We observe that P-drop is only possible with nouns that denote stereotypical locations, i.e. locations which are moved to or spent time at regularly, in order to perform there an institutionalized activity. Our proposal is to treat P-drop in Greek as another instance of pseudo-incorporation, which we implement syntactically as LF movement of the bare noun to the verb. The account derives the cluster of properties observed, while at the same time doing away with unpronounced P and D heads in the construction.

Different inflectional endings of masculine animate and inanimate nouns in the accusative are common to Croatian and Russian and constitute Differential Object Marking (henceforth DOM) in these two languages. Additionally, Russian nouns of all genders get DOM in the plural, making this feature even more consistent. In this paper we investigate the acquisition of DOM by Russian and Croatian children. Our longitudinal data reveal that in both languages DOM is acquired early. However, the acquisition route is different. While Croatian children erroneously extend the use of the Acc=Gen to inanimate forms, Russian children start with erroneously 0-marked animate forms and switch to erroneously overmarked (Acc=Gen) forms much later.

Ως μέλος της ψηφιακής κοινότητας διδασκόντων την Ελληνική ως ξένη / δεύτερη γλώσσα στην Τουρκία «Dialog-ος» δημιούργησα την κάρτα με τη λέξη «θαύμα» για τη δραστηριότητα «Η λέξη της ημέρας» που κοινοποιήθηκε στις 30-05-2021 από το μέσο κοινωνικής δικτύωσης του Sismanoglio Megaro – Consulate General of Greece in Istanbul.

The present study focuses on the decipherment and interpretation of the unique runic inscription carved on the zoomorphic pendant of Scandinavian jewelry traditions. The new Scandinavian zoomorphic pendant of 10th century, originating from the region of Middle Dniester, Republic of Moldova. The graffito and amulet have no direct analogies. In the research paper the runic inscription is interpreted as the protection magical spell. The runic inscription is based on the ideographic runes of the Elder and the Younger Futhark. The runic inscription of a similar nature with this combination of graphemes has not yet been known in runology, and is first encountered. The inscription made in Scandinavian runes is the first discovery of a runic inscription in Republic of Moldova and the same time is the first written evidence of the presence of the Vikings in the Dniester-Prut Region. The research methodology is based on a comparison of the runic formula of the zoomorphic amulet inscription wi...

This paper reports on the application of dialectometric techniques to measure the degrees of association between contact-induced and language-internal variation in inner Asia Minor Greek varieties (i.e., those of Cappadocian, Pharasiot, and Silliot). Our methods include correlative analyses (between pairs of the datasets and between them and two aspects of geography) as well as multidimensional scaling and cluster analysis (for each dataset), which allow us, on the one hand, to draw conclusions about the associations between contact-induced and language-internal phenomena as well as the distributions of dialects, and, on the other hand, to directly compare our results to those coming from traditional dialectology. The various analyses show that the two discerning factors are crucial in many ways as they define different landscapes. Interestingly, dialectometric results confirm non-dialectometric classifications only partially.

This paper offers further insights on the role of language contact in the reorganization of grammar based on data from two Modern Greek contact-induced dialects: Italiot varieties in contact with both the local Romance varieties and Standard Italian, and Cappadocian, in contact with Turkish. A contrastive investigation reveals interesting correlations and particularities in the reorganization of inflection of the examined systems. Acknowledging that simplification is not triggered solely by contact, we claim that the attested phenomena can be accounted for as temporary complexifications that head toward and ultimately result in simplification within the paradigmatic relations. The amount and type of complexity diverge significantly depending on the (in)compatibility factor among the systems in contact. Furthermore, in terms of loss, addition and replacement of features, our data show that, although replacement and loss are the most prevalent strategies used at the level of morpholog...

This paper presents an empirical study on the cross-linguistic influence of contact languages (Turkish, Georgian and Russian) in the domain of grammatical gender in Pontic Greek spoken by the Pontic-speaking community of Georgia. The study is based on corpus data collected during several periods of fieldwork within the Pontic-speaking community of Georgia. The questions addressed in the paper are: What innovations can be observed in the understudied variety in the gender domain, and, if any innovation is observed, are they due to the impact of contact languages? I argue that contact-induced changes in the gender domain manifest themselves in the assignment of gender to loan nouns, and contribute to the establishment of the default gender value. The main findings reveal that, in comparison with other Pontic varieties, this variety is on the one hand more sensitive to the animacy hierarchy, and, on the other, shows increased use of the feminine gender as a result of the incorporation ...

My newest article on two ancient languages, Pontic and Cappadocian Greek, both of which struggle to survive after the Greek Genocide. It is important to remember genocide just doesn’t involve ethnic mass killings, but also the destruction of culture and heritage, something the Turkish government has nearly been successful in doing to Greek heritage of Eastern Thrace and Asia Minor.

1 (1) a. Variation in the inflectional suffix Gri mandeḍḍi.n ~ Gri mandeḍḍo.n < Lat mantellum 'mantle, headkerchief' Gri kasteḍḍi.n ~ Gri kasteḍḍo.n < Lat castellum 'castle' Gri pekurari.m ~ Gre pekuraro.m < Lat pecorarius Gri giudiko.m ~ Gre giudici.m < It giudice 'judge' Gri merkanto.m ~ Gre merkanti.m < It mercante 'merchant' Gre kumpare.m ~ Gre kumpari.m < It compare 'godfather' b. Variation in gender Gre agrami.n ~ Gre agrami.f < Lat gramen 'grass' Gri kjurma.n ~ Gri kjurma.f < Lat ciurma 'group' Gri astriko.n ~ Gri astriko.m < Lat astricus 'a kind of mortar' Gre variḍḍo.n ~ Gre variḍḍo.m < Lat varulus 'warble fly' c. Variation in both Gri fiuro.m ~ Gre fiuri.n < It fioro 'flower' Gri favoro.m ~ Gre favuri.n < It favore 'favour' Gri lapistro.n ~ Gri lapistra.f < Lat rapistrum 'wild turnip' Gri barkuna.m ~ Gre barkuni.n < It balcone 'balcony' d. Variation in the formation of the plural Gri guai.n.pl ~ Gri guaita.n.pl < It guaio 'trouble' Gre suspiri.n.pl ~ Gre suspirja.n.pl < It sospiro 'sigh'

This article aims to test the general validity of borrowability scales by investigating contrastively two contact induced linguistic varieties of Greek. It tries to elucidate the factors that facilitate or inhibit the borrowability of free grammatical elements, which are usually considered as less amenable to transfer. It argues against the formulation of any borrowability scales of a generalized predictive power, even in cases where there is a common denominator. It suggests that factors such as the (in)compatibility between the two languages in contact, specific re-arrangements brought to the replica language, and the category of the items under investigation play a key role for the adoption of free grammatical elements. It demonstrates that while borrowability of free grammatical elements is not shown to be an exact mirroring of their ranking on the cline of lexicality-grammaticality, general tendencies seem to be at play.

In this paper we present a model and a classification of graphemic genderneutral writing methods, we explore current practices in French, Ger man, Greek, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish languages, and we investigate in teractions between genderneutral writing forms and regular expressions.

Les Cahiers Balkaniques, fidèles à leur mission, réunissent en priorité les travaux des membres du CREE-Inalco à l'occasion de colloques, journées d'études ou tables rondes, sans négliger bien évidemment les apports extérieurs enrichissants. 2 Ce numéro 43 regroupe donc les travaux d'un Colloque international « Les Balkans dans la décennie 40 : écritures testimoniales » organisé les 22 et 23 novembre 2013 dans les locaux de l'Inalco, rue des Grands Moulins à Paris (organisateurs : Christina Alexopoulos, Joëlle Dalègre, Giorgos Galanès, Ioanna Papathanassiou, Frosa Pejoska-Bouchereau, Maria Thanopoulou, Sophie Vassilaki) et ceux de deux Journées d'études géographiques consacrées à la Grèce et à la ville d'Athènes, le 9 décembre 2013 et le 10 février 2014 (organisateurs : Meropi Anastassiadou, Vincent Gouzi, Mélanie Nitti-Der Haroutounian). D'autres collaborateurs nous ont envoyé des communications qui figurent, bien entendu dans ce numéro. Le titre Questions d'identité vient de ce que dans toutes ces communications parfois très différentes, les identités, niées, combattues, affirmées ou mises en avant constituent une ligne sous-jacente omniprésente.

Most English loans are nouns and their morphological adaptation is achieved in the sense required by the inflected organization of Romanian language; In some cases, the adopted forms of assimilation also depend on the peculiarities of the grammatical structure of the language of origin. The classification and assimilation of English nouns by Romanian raise issues concerning gender and number categories. Lack of gender differences in the flexion is the characteristic that makes the classification of English in Romanian rather difficult.

The PIE gender system consisted of two genders, most likely animate and neuter; the earliest manifcstations of feminine gender were derivational and involved the suffix *-h 2 , which in origin derived abstract nouns. This suffix also gave origin to the neuter nomìnativeaccusative plural, formerly a collective rather than a count plural. The semantic development is accompanied by morphological change: in the case of the neuter nomìnative-accusative plural, a derivational suffix became an inflectional ending, while, in the case of feminine gender, a derivational suffix became the marker of an inflectional class. The two morphological developments are different, and there is no reason for assuming that one of them implied the other. However, when discussing the semantic aspect of the change, it is generally assumed that either collective preceded feminine or the other way around. In my paper I suggest a different solution by considering that the two developments must be kept separated.

Η Νϋα Ελληνικό εύναι πλοϑςια ςε διαλεκτικϋσ ποικιλύεσ, οι οπούεσ χρηςιμοποιοϑνται ςτον καθημερινϐ λϐγο, ενώ υπϊρχουν και κϊποιεσ γλωςςικϋσ ποικιλύεσ που περιορύζονται ςε ςυγκεκριμϋνεσ ομϊδων πρεςβϑτερων/ γερϐντων και αντιμετωπύζουν το φϊςμα τησ εξαφϊνιςησ και εξϊλειψησ (Trudgill , Κοντοςϐπουλοσ 2001). Εντοϑτοισ, οι διαλεκτικϋσ ποικιλύεσ μελετόθηκαν ελϊχιςτα, αν και περιϋχουν αξιοςημεύωτη εμφϊνιςη φαινϐμενων για τη γλωςςολογικό ανϊλυςη. Αυτϐ το διαλεκτικϐ μωςαώκϐ οφεύλεται ςε μεγϊλο βαθμϐ ςε ςυγκεκριμϋνεσ ιςτορικϋσ, πολιτικϋσ και κοινωνικϋσ ςυνθόκεσ και περιςτϊςεισ που χαρϊχτηκαν ςτην Ιςτορύα του Νεϐτερου Ελληνικοϑ Κρϊτοσ, που απελευθερώθηκε απϐ την Οθωμανικό Αυτοκρατορύα ςτισ αρχϋσ του 19 ου αιώνα και κατϊ την αρχικό του ςϑςταςη περιλϊμβανε τισ γεωγραφικϋσ περιοχϋσ τησ Πελοποννόςου, τησ τερεϊσ Ελλϊδασ και κϊποιων νηςιών. Ϊωσ τϐτε, διϊφορεσ ομϊδεσ τησ ςϑγχρονησ Ελλϊδασ ϋκαναν εςωτερικό μετανϊςτευςη ςτο νεοςϑςτατο κρϊτοσ (π.χ. απϐ Κρότη, Μακεδονύα και Δωδεκϊνηςα), ενώ παρϊλληλα ϋνασ ςημαντικϐσ αριθμϐσ Ελλόνων διαλεκτϐφωνων προςφϑγων μετακινόθηκαν απϐ την Σουρκύα (Μικρϊ Αςύα και Πϐντοσ) ςτην Ελλϊδα, με το πϋρασ τησ Μικραςιατικόσ καταςτροφόσ το 1922 και την ανταλλαγό πληθυςμών. όμερα, η Κοινό Νϋα Ελληνικό εύναι κυρύωσ βαςιςμϋνη ςτην Πελοποννηςιακό διϊλεκτο, ενώ οι διϊλεκτοι απϐ τα υπϐλοιπα γεωγραφικϊ διαμερύςματα εντϐσ και εκτϐσ Ελλϊδοσ δημιουργοϑν ϋνα ιδιαύτερο, ξεχωριςτϐ και ποικιλϐχρωμο γλωςςικϐ μωςαώκϐ, οι οπούεσ χρόζουν ϊμεςα να περιγραφοϑν, να αναλυθοϑν και να διατηρηθοϑν, προτοϑ αυτϋσ εξαλεύψουν παντελώσ. Εντοϑτοισ, προσ τη ςυγκεκριμϋνη κατεϑθυνςη δεν ϋχουν γύνει ςοβαρϊ και ςυςτηματικϊ βόματα ϋρευνασ. την Ελλϊδα υπϊρχει απϐ το 1908 ϋνα εθνικϐ ερευνητικϐ κϋντρο ςτην Ακαδημύα Αθηνών, το οπούο ενδιαφϋρεται για γραπτϊ και προφορικϊ διαλεκτικϊ δεδομϋνα, αλλϊ τα διαλεκτικϊ δεδομϋνα δεν εύναι ψηφιοποιημϋνα, τα περιςςϐτερα εύναι αδημοςύευτα με αυξημϋνεσ δυςκολύεσ πρϐςβαςησ για τουσ εξωτερικοϑσ ερευνητϋσ. Μηψηφιοποιημϋνα διαλεκτικϊ δεδομϋνα εντοπύζονται παρϊλληλα ςε ςυγκεκριμϋνουσ ςυλλϐγουσ και οργανιςμοϑσ απϐ πρϐςφυγεσ απϐ κϊθε γωνιϊ τησ Ελλϊδοσ, ϐπωσ για παρϊδειγμα το Ιςτορικϐ Αρχεύο των Μικραςιατών Ελλόνων ςτη Θεςςαλονύκη, το κϋντρο Μικραςιατικών ςπουδών, η Ϊνωςη Ποντύων ςτην Παναγύα ουμελϊ Ημαθύασ, αλλϊ ϋχουν ςυλλεχθεύ κυρύωσ με ιςτορικϊ κριτόρια και ςτϐχουσ και φυςικϊ δεν ϋχουν ταξινομηθεύ και κατηγοριοποιηθεύ ςυςτηματικϊ. Η πρώτη ςυςτηματικό προςπϊθεια ψηφιοπούηςησ, καταλογογρϊφηςησ και κωδικοπούηςησ διαλεκτικών δεδομϋνων ϋγινε απϐ το Εργαςτόριο Νεοελληνικών Διαλϋκτων του Πανεπιςτημύου Πατρών με την υλοπούηςη τησ ηλεκτρονικόσ βϊςησ GREED, η οπούα περιϋχει γλωςςολογικϊ και μετα-γλωςςολογικϊ corpora. Αυτϊ τα δεδομϋνα ςυλλϋχθηκαν απϐ ϋρευνεσ πεδύου, ϐπου καταγρϊφηκαν δεδομϋνα φυςικόσ και αυθϐρμητησ ομιλύασ με ςτϐχο το ςχηματιςμϐ μιασ αντιπροςωπευτικόσ εικϐνασ τησ γλωςςολογικόσ κατϊςταςησ ςυγκεκριμϋνων γεωγραφικών και κοινωνικών περιοχών τησ Ελλϊδοσ. Παρϊλληλα, γύνεται προςπϊθεια ςυλλογόσ και διαλεκτικών χειρογρϊφων και διαφϐρων κειμϋνων, βιβλύων, ϋντυπων ςυλλογών, ώςτε να δημιουργόςουμε ϋνα ΑΓΓΕΛΙΚΗ ΡΑΛΛΗ, ΔΗΜΗΣΡΙΟ ΠΑΠΑΖΑΦΑΡΙΟΤ & ΑΘΑΝΑΙΟ ΚΑΡΑΙΜΟ e-Proceedings of 4 th Modern Greek Dialects and Linguistic Theory 8

Gender assignment has been studied in many languages and the assignment system is considered important particularly when it is related to determining the structure of the lexicon. Semitic languages show two genders, namely masculine and feminine. Nevertheless, it has been claimed that some nouns in Semitic languages can have common gender. Some linguists suggest number of criteria based on the classifications for number and gender in Semitic languages: masculine/feminine, animate/inanimate, human/non-human, individual/collective, concrete/abstract, singular/plural, and major/minor. Arabic, like other Semitic languages, determines gender of its nouns either through meaning or through form. So, grammatical gender is a way of analyzing nouns classes with relation to semantic features, like masculine, feminine, animacy, etc. It is a property of individual nouns regardless of their existing referents (if there are). There have been efforts by many researchers, trying to explain the processing of gender in comprehension. This paper discusses how gender is assigned to nouns in Saudi dialects where a supervised machine learning algorithm is used to test the predictiveness of gender in Arabic. The data show interestingly that the presence of some semantic and morphological features helps to predict the gender of nouns. It is not fully predictable but it is the start point for further investigations.

This article deals with the replacement of the genitive by the accusative plural in the nominal inflection of various Modern Greek dialects. The aim of the article is to provide an explanation of the factors that triggered this unusual development that is not found in the majority of the Modern Greek dialects and Common Modern Greek. Apart from presenting the data on its dialectal distribution, it will be argued that the phenomenon is an extension of the already established pattern of the accusative-genitive syncretism in the personal pronouns that can be found almost everywhere in the Modern Greek-speaking world.

This paper is about the lexicographic principles set and adopted for the design and development of the tridialectal dictionary of Greek dialects in Asia Minor, one of the deliverables of the THALIS research programme &quot;Pontus, Cappadocia, Aivali: in search of Asia Minor Greek&quot;. To serve the aims and objectives of the research programme, the dictionary will be electronic (e-dictionary), available online. In macrostructural terms, it will include a total of 7,500 entries; ca. 2,500 entries from each of the three local dialects of Asia Minor Greek studied by the programme, namely, Pontic, Cappadocian and Aivaliot. The microstructure will be organized in accordance with international lexicographic practice and will incorporate all formal, semantic and pragmatic information that will be hyperlinked to multimedia resources, offering the user a rich and reliable reference experience on the dialectal vocabulary of Asia Minor Greek.

The PIE gender system consisted of two genders, most likely animate and neuter; the earliest manifcstations of feminine gender were derivational and involved the suffix *-h 2 , which in origin derived abstract nouns. This suffix also gave origin to the neuter nomìnativeaccusative plural, formerly a collective rather than a count plural. The semantic development is accompanied by morphological change: in the case of the neuter nomìnative-accusative plural, a derivational suffix became an inflectional ending, while, in the case of feminine gender, a derivational suffix became the marker of an inflectional class. The two morphological developments are different, and there is no reason for assuming that one of them implied the other. However, when discussing the semantic aspect of the change, it is generally assumed that either collective preceded feminine or the other way around. In my paper I suggest a different solution by considering that the two developments must be kept separated.

The paper considers gender assignment of deverbal nouns, originally present participles, in Swedish. The perspective is diachronic. The corpus consists of a choice of Swedish texts from 1225-1732. The results show that nouns denoting entities ranking higher in the Animacy hierarchy show tendencies to be placed in the utrum gender (originally masculine and feminine genders) and nouns denoting mass, collective or abstract referents to be assigned neuter gender. This tendency is visible throughout the history of the Swedish language.

Platonic Investigations / Платоновские исследования 15.2 (2021): 241–330.
The publication presents a commented Russian translation of Book Ⅻ: On Animals of the Etymologies by Isidore of Seville (c. 560-636). Isidore may be considered the last intermediary between ancient and mediaeval scholarship in the West, picking up his material from all kind of sources and doing his best to somehow arrange these membra disiecta and transmit the assembled crumbs of knowledge further on. To be sure, he was not the first to undertake this translator's task. Isidore relied heavily on his predecessors, from the earlier Latin encyclopedists, grammarians and lexicographers (Varro, Verrius Flaccus, Pliny the Elder, Servius Honoratus, etc.) who had ensured the transition of knowledge from the Greek world, to the principal Fathers of Church, first of all Augustine and Jerome. Isidore certainly had only secondhand access to the earlier sources. His work is a peculiar web of more or less distorted quotations or rather "reposts", his language a vitiated scholarly Latin, which the proposed Russian translation has attempted to somehow approximate.

This paper aspires to offer further insights on the mechanisms underlying (micro-)variation and change in the organization of nominal inflection and investigate their possible consequences in the architecture of the grammar. Claims and proposals put forward are exemplified through data from Propontis Tsakonian, forming part of the Tsakonian dialectal group. Even though Tsakonian is in the center of interest for modern linguistic research, Propontis Tsakonian has not been studied in equal depth as the Peloponnesian one, as a result of the historical circumstances under which this specific subgroup evolved1 which disfavoured the documentation and description of ample dialectal material (but see Costakis 1951; 1956, 1969, 1986-1987; Makris 1952). A thorough analysis of dialectal data in hand reveals a very strong tendency towards the minimization of the operative inflectional classes (cf. Ralli 2000, 2002 on the organization of inflection classes in Modern Greek) realized mainly in the...

The morphological processes of diminution and augmentation, widely known as evaluative morphology, is a well studied topic in linguistic theory and various theoretical accounts have been put forward in order to define their status in grammar (see among others Anderson 1985, 1992; Bauer 1997; Scalise 1984, 1988, 1994). In this paper, we presume that evaluative morphology, at least in Greek, is placed at the derivational end of the morphological continuum (cf. Melissaropoulou & Ralli 2008). More specifically, following Melissaropoulou & Ralli (2008) Greek diminutive suffixes are considered to be heads of their constructions on the basis of certain criteria: a) the unjustifiable / unpredictable irregularities and gaps in the inflectional paradigms of diminutives; b) the specialization in meaning or the change of a semantic feature they cause to the base; c) the transmission of the morphosyntactic features of gender and inflection class to the derived forms and d) their being subject to...

In this paper we discuss so-called P-drop, i.e. the omission of the preposition se ‘at’ in certain locative and directional contexts in Greek. We highlight the relevance of the simultaneous omission of the definite determiner and bring out the syntactic and semantic properties that the phenomenon at hand shares with pseudo-/semantic incorporation. We observe that P-drop is only possible with nouns that denote stereotypical locations, i.e. locations which are moved to or spent time at regularly, in order to perform there an institutionalized activity. Our proposal is to treat P-drop in Greek as another instance of pseudo-incorporation, which we implement syntactically as LF movement of the bare noun to the verb. The account derives the cluster of properties observed, while at the same time doing away with unpronounced P and D heads in the construction.

The paper considers the anomalous use of definiteness and gender in Bulgarian noun phrases containing hypocoristic names, nicknames or sometimes even legal personal names. Proper names of people, being semantically definite, usually do not take the definite article in Bulgarian. But in the cases considered it is just the opposite-in informal conversation, in fiction or in ironic statements the use of a definite article is either obligatory or facultative depending on the formal and semantic features of the names. The factors to trigger the anomalous use described may be the female sex of the designee, the less typical ending of the noun, its being grammatically neuter or its inclusion in an attributive phrase. Thus the female legal personal names (e.g. Marija, Elena) may take a definite article on some special occasions (Marijata, Elenata) but male legal personal names (e.g. Boris) cannot. Male legal or hypocoristic names ending in-o (Stojko, Borko<Boris) never take the definite article, male names ending in-e may or may not take the definite article (Bore/Boreto<Boris) but female names ending in-e always take the definite article in colloquial Bulgarian (Marčeto<Marija, Lenčeto<Elena). What is more, their attributes are in the neuter and not in the feminine (hubavoto Lenče<hubavata Elena). Male hypocoristic names ending in-a, even those derived from family names, always take the definite article (Penata<Penev, Vucata<Vucov) but their attributes are in the masculine. Corresponding forms without an article (Bore, Marče, Lenče, Pena, Vuca) are used as vocatives or sometimes as predicatives. The phenomenon is stylistically marked which means that the choice of such noun phrases is pragmatic, but the rules which determine the use of definiteness and gender in them are grammatical. These are particular rules which operate in a minority of situations and contradict the general rules operating in the majority of contexts. Some of them are rigid but others are optional and introduce additional nuances into the statement. The phenomenon can be interpreted as a Balkan linguistic feature partially mani-Valentin Gešev: Anomalous use of definiteness and gender in some types of noun phrases in Bulgarian fested in Bulgarian. Its occurrence in folklore texts might qualify it as relatively old.

The present paper examines the development of Differential Object Marking (DOM) in child Hebrew. In Hebrew, DOM distinguishes definite from indefinite objects. Object case-marking is obligatory only with definite objects (pronouns, proper names, and definite nouns), but not with indefinites (Givón 1978). The study analyzes DOM usage in naturalistic speech samples of three Hebrewspeaking girls, between ages 1;5–3;0. The findings point to a gradual development of DOM whereby initially only a small set of case-marked objects is used, expanding over time to include a broader array of lexical categories, with more lexical elements marked in each category. The girls’ acquisition of DOM was almost flawless, suggesting that they may have access both to universal semantic features and to language specific properties early on.