Acoustic data about the Griko vowel system

This paper aims to give an acoustic description of the vowel system of the Greek varieties spoken by elderly speakers in Calimera and Martano (Grecìa Salentina, Italy). The analysis is based on the observation of the dispersion of the frequency values of formants. Acoustic measurements have been taken for 220 vowels in stressed position from a selection of isolated words uttered by four informants. Formant values have been detected on the acoustic spectra of the different vowel qualities and results have been compared on F1-F2 and F3-F2 diagrams, thus confirming similar areas of existence for the same vocalic phonemes described by Profili (1986) for the variety of Griko spoken in Corigliano d’Otranto. On the basis of this speech make-up, our study presents a preliminary acoustic description of two slightly different vocalic systems for the last generation of mother-tongue speakers. The data have been compared with similar vowel realisations of Modern Greek presented by Arvaniti (1999) and Fourakis et alii (1999). As in Standard Modern Greek, the Griko system displays a symmetric organisation (with distinct distribution for mid vowels) and fairly stable formant patterns throughout each vowel. A similar comparison with other Sallentinian varieties spoken in the same area allowed us to isolate the elements of convergence/divergence to and from the different vowel systems.