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Programme: accepted abstracts

Abstract ID: 1065

Part of Session 162: Urban linguistic practice and performance in the Greek-speaking city (Other abstracts in this session)

“You sound Nicosian”: Speech melody as an urban identity marker.

Authors: Themistocleous, Charalambos
Submitted by: Themistocleous, Charalambos (University of Cyprus, Cyprus)

Recent variationist research on Cypriot Greek indicates that ‘Nicosian’ is an identifiable acrolectal urban register of the Cypriot Greek koiné (Tsiplakou 2009, in prep.). This study examines two distinct intonation contours which are identifiable as indexing a distinctly ‘Nicosian’ identity, namely the ‘hello’ tune and the High Rising Terminal (HRT) contour in statements. The ‘hello’ and HRT tunes are strikingly absent from both Standard Greek, the ‘H’ variety in Greek-speaking Cyprus, and from more mesolectal or basilectal registers of Cypriot Greek.

The ‘hello’ tune resembles the tune used in punch lines of jokes about blondes. The tune consists of two parts, namely a L+H* L-H% followed by a H*L-H%. It appears to be an innovation favored by young Nicosian females but dispreferred by males. It surfaces mostly in in-group settings and it typically signals irony and/or condescendence; metapragmatically, it also arguably indexes a kind of ‘urban affectation’. The High Rising Terminal (HRT) statement contour (popularly known as ‘uptalk’) is a fairly recent phenomenon whereby a tonal pattern that sounds superficially interrogative is used with utterances that are clearly intended as statements (cf. Ladd 2008: 125-7). Arguably, the HTR is also a fast-spreading innovation especially among younger dwellers of Nicosia. The Nicosian HRT is similar in its functions to the HRT statement contour found in New Zealand and New York (cf. Ching 1982, Warren & Britain 2000, Britain 1992); it is deployed mainly as a politeness strategy, reducing the pragmatic cost of imposition on the addressee, especially when a request is intended.

This paper presents an experimental study exploring the structure of the tonal pattern of the ‘hello’ and the HRT tunes and comparing them to the CG polar question tonal pattern. Furthermore, a perception and a rating experiment exploring attitudes towards these two melodic patterns are presented, the results of which indicate that both melodies are identified as Nicosian innovations, i.e. as an integral part of the emergent Cypriot Greek urban register.

References:

Britain, D. 1992. Linguistic change in intonation: the use of high rising terminals in New Zealand English. Language Variation and Change 4: 77-104.

Ching, M. 1982. The question intonation in assertions. American Speech 57: 95-107.

Ladd, R. 2008. Intonational Phonology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Tsiplakou, Stavroula. 2009. Code-switching and code-mixing between related varieties: establishing the blueprint. The International Journal of Humanities 6, 49-66.

Tsiplakou, S. in prep. Charting Nicosian: properties and perceptions of an emergent urban dialect variety.

Warren, P. & Britain D. 2000. Intonation and prosody in New 'Zealand English. In A. Bell & K. Koenraad (eds) New Zealand English. Wellington: Victoria University Press, pp. 146-172.