The rise of dipthongization in Elean

This paper aims to explain the source of diphthongal outcomes for the Second Compensatory Lengthening in several varieties of Ancient Greek on the basis of a phonetically motivated misperception. In discussing this sound change, I will focus on the distributional outcomes in Elean, a Northwest Greek dialect, which shows a lengthened outcome medially and a diphthongal outcome word-finally. I argue that this distribution was conditioned by a series of complex developments involving the analogical restoration of a sandhi variant which then underwent diphthongization.