Re: [tied] Underlying Circumflex in Greek

Peter was surely thinking of final accented syllables; that is the only environment where Greek intonations can contrast. In paroxytones the kind of accent on the penultimate syllable is non-contrastive, being predictable from the quantity of the final: acute before a long nucleus, circumflex before a short one (with minimal complications, e.g. the endings -ai and -oi, -mai, -sai, -tai, -ntai count as short). Mnemonically, this amounts to accenting the last-but-two vocalic mora in this calss of words. In proparoxytones (words with antepenultimate accent) the acute is obligatory, cf. <pneûma> (= /pnéuma/): <pnematos> (= /pneúmatos/).

Piotr

----- Original Message -----
From: Richard Wordingham

To: cybalist@yahoogroups.com

Sent: Thursday, October 10, 2002 12:45 PM

Subject: Re: [tied] Underlying Circumflex in Greek

--- In cybalist@......, "P&G" <petegray@......> wrote: > >What is the evidence for the difference between acute and circumflex > >in Greek ever being anything other than a matter of where the accent > >is placed? > > If the last syllable is long and takes the accent, it may be acute or > circumflex. The circumflex is often (?always) the result of contraction. > Compare /tro:s/ acute = trojan, and /pho:s/ circumflex = light, the latter > from /phaos/. Writing moraically, and with seven one mora vowels to avoid ambiguity over ee and oo, the contrast is /trOÓs/ v. /pHÓOs/, a contrast of placement of the pitch accent. (The letter omega derives from double omicron.) The cicumflex does not always arise from contraction. The sequence of accented long plus short gets the circumflex (except in a few contractions), thus /pHéuge/ 'flee!', compared to /épHeugon/ 'I was fleeing'. Richard.

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