Tense and aspect comparison between Griko, Modern Greek and Italian for the indicative

Zeikos, Paris Alexandros

Abstract

This essay investigates how Griko, an Italiot-Greek language, spoken in Italy, forms verbs in comparison to Modern Greek and Italian, by focusing on the present tense, the imperfect, the past tense, the present perfect, the past perfect and lastly, the progressive aspect, as those are the tenses and aspects found in Griko. The primary findings suggest that the verbal morphology of Griko is somewhat cognate to that of Modern Greek, with some influence from Italian, primarily in the present perfect and the progressive aspect, due to Griko being in contact with Italian. The essay concludes by stating that Griko verbal morphology functions the same way as Modern Greek morphology does, due to both languages being typologically similar and due to both languages being derived from Ancient Greek, despite long contact with Italian.

Citation

Zeikos, P. A. (2021). Tense and aspect comparison between Griko, Modern Greek and Italian for the indicative. SOAS working papers in linguistics, 20, 49-71. https://doi.org/10.25501/SOAS.00035590

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: May 1, 2021
• Publication Date: Oct 1, 2021
• Deposit Date: Oct 4, 2021
• Publicly Available Date: Oct 4, 2021
• Journal: SOAS Working Papers in Linguistics
• Print ISSN: 1473-0855
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 20
• Pages: 49-71
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.25501/SOAS.00035590
• Keywords: Griko, Modern Greek, Italian, morphology, tense, aspect
• Publisher URL: https://www.soas.ac.uk/about/schools-and-departments/school-languages-cultures-and-linguistics/department-linguistics/soas