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Greek

Wikis > WikiAccent > Non-Native Pronunciations of English > Greek

Below are listed some of the common issues facing native Greek speakers.  We have divided these issues into Sound (Phonemes), Prosody (Rhythm, Tempo, Stress, and Intonation), and Other Stuff (Other Stuff). 

Sound:

  • Can fail to aspirate /p/, /t/, /f/ at the beginning of a word
  • Can produce voiceless versions of stops, fricatives, and affricates at the ends of words
  • Substitute:

o   /s/ for /ʃ/

o   /z/ for /ʒ/

o   /ts/ for /ʧ/

o   /dz/ for /ʤ/

  • Greek speakers may pronounce the voiced stops with a nasal insertion /b/, /d/, /g/ as /mb/, /nd/, and /ŋɡ/
  • Voiceless stops /p/, /t/, /k/, when preceded by nasals, are voiced
  • When /s/ precedes /m/, /n/, or /l/ at the beginning of a word as in ‘smile’ it may be pronounced as a /z/
  • /r/ is trilled
  • Overpronounce /h/
  • Greek speakers will not distinguish between these vowels: /i/ vs. /ɪ/, /eɪ/ vs /ɛ/, /u/ vs. /ʊ/
  • Confuse /æ/ vs. /ʌ/ vs. /a/

Prosody:

  • Do not have a short reduced vowel equivalent to /ə/.  This affects the rhythm of English words and sentences as Greek speakers may give equal weight to each syllable

Other Stuff:

  • Final consonant clusters and some single consonants are difficult and vowels may be inserted after single consonants and at the end of English words that end in voiced consonants