On 2006-04-07 15:38, Rob wrote:
> Just out of curiosity, where did the Greek accentuation come from?
The contrast between *bHoró- and *bHóro- was neutralised in the second
members of Gk. compounds because of Wheeler's Law (the retraction of
accent from the last syllable to the penult in dactylic words, e.g.
*poik^iló- 'many-coloured' > Gk. poikílos). Wheeler's Law operated
regularly if the second member had an initial cluster (making the
antepenult heavy by position), e.g. *patro-ktonós > patroktónos
'parricidal' or if the first member ended in a long vowel or a closed
syllable, e.g. *bou-kolós > boukólos 'cowherd', *aig-polós > aipólos
'goatherd', *bou-pHonós > boupHónos 'ox-slaying', *sun-pHorós >
sumpHóros 'profitable'. The retraction was then analogically generalised
in compound words even if they didn't meet the original structural
description of Wheeler's Law.
Piotr