1 The third dream: aspects of the morphophonology of the Greek glide and palatals* Topintzi, Nina & Mary Baltazani Abstract. We explore the morphophonology of the Greek glide in prevocalic position, where it surfaces either as a palatal fricative or merges with a preceding consonant of the set [k, g, x, ɣ, n, l] to produce [c, ɟ, ç, ʝ, ɲ, ʎ]. We offer empirical evidence for the glide’s dual nature, both as an allophone of /i/ and as a distinct phoneme and we demonstrate how an account based on morphological paradigms captures alternations between vocoids versus lack thereof. Our analysis also sheds light on palatalization. We show that the palatals are allophones of the velars, both before front vowels, as traditionally assumed, but also before back vowels, a fact so far unaccounted for. Moreover, we demonstrate that palatals are derived through two processes, simple and extreme palatalization. Keywords: Greek, glide, morphophonology, Optimal Paradigms, palatalization (simple and extreme) 1. Introduction In his 1964 seminal paper, Householder defined the three most problematic areas Ν or ‘dreams’ in his own words Ν of Greek phonology, namely, accounts for the behavior and nature of affricates, voiced stops and the semivowel [j]. Half a century later, these issues still puzzle researchers and debate remains lively (on the semivowel [j] see Mirambel 1959; Koutsoudas 1962; Householder 1964; Kazazis 1968; Setatos 1974; Warburton 1976; Nyman 1981; Malavakis 1984; Nikolopoulos 1985; Deligiorgis 1987; Malikouti-Drachman & Drachman 1990; Rytting 2005). In the present work, we endeavor to provide an account of the third ‘dream’ by exploring the morphophonology of the Greek 1 semivowel, henceforth glide, focusing in particular on glides appearing in prevocalic position in CjV sequences. * We wish to thank two anonymous reviewers and the editors of Linguistics Unlimited, Thomas Doukas and Islam Youssef, for constructive feedback. All remaining errors are our own. 1 Throughout this paper, Greek refers to Standard Modern Greek, as spoken in e.g. Athens. If distinction with other dialects is in order, this will be spelled out explicitly. The following abbreviations are utilized in this paper: SMG = Standard Modern Greek, SG. = singular, PL. = plural, NOM. = nominative, GEN. = genitive, ACC. = accusative, voc. = vocative, FEM. = feminine, IMP. = imperative, 2/3 = 2 nd person, 3 rd person, KNL = velar obstruents, alveolar nasals and laterals, PAL. = palatalization, SP = simple palatalization, EP = extreme palatalization, GS = glide strengthening.