Ancient Greek Quantitative metathesis

1 ancient greek

1.1 first declension
1.2 second declension
1.3 third declension
1.4 participle

ancient greek

in attic , ionic dialects of ancient greek, ēo , ēa exchange length, becoming eō , eā.

this quantitative metathesis more accurately described 1 form of long-vowel shortening. if quantitative metathesis affects word, other kinds of shortening well, in forms quantitative metathesis cannot occur:

ēwo → eō (quantitative metathesis)
ēws → ews (shortening of long diphthong before consonant)
ēi → ei (analogical shortening)

in general, vowels affected shortening separated proto-indo-european semivocalic versions of u or i, deleted in later greek: w (written ϝ or υ̯ ) or y (written ι̯ ).

first declension

the homeric form of genitive singular in masculine first declension undergoes quantitative metathesis:

Πηλεΐδης pēleḯdēs (patronym Πηλεύς pēleús: peleus-son , achilles)


Πηλεΐδᾱο pēleḯdāo → *Πηλεΐδηο *pēleḯdēo → Πηλεΐδεω pēleḯdeō (genitive singular; alternate form Πηληϊάδεω pēlēïádeō in first line of iliad)

the attic genitive singular Πηλεΐδ-ου pēleḯd-ou uses copy of second-declension ending, came same original form thessalian aeolic ending -oio (used in homer) — o-syo, thematic vowel o , case-ending -syo). homeric form comes same case ending, first-declension pseudo-thematic vowel ā.

second declension

nouns in small subclass of second declension (known attic declension ) lengthen o, oi of ending ō, ōi. quantitative metathesis:

ionic ληός lēós (from λᾱϝός lāwós) → attic λεώς leṓs people
ληοί lēoí → λεῴ leōí (nominative plural)

but sometimes, when long vowel occurs in ending, ē shortened e without accompanying lengthening of vowel in ending (but ou changes ō follow other forms):

ληοῦ lēoú → λεώ leṓ (genitive singular)
ληῷ lēōî → λεῴ leōí (dative singular)

third declension

some third-declension nouns had, in proto-indo-european, stems in -u or -i in zero-grade, -ew or -ey in short e-grade, , -ēw or -ēy in long ē-grade. others had -āw no variation in ablaut grade, changed in forms ēw, attic-ionic ā → ē shift.

in many cases, w or j deleted, preserved last element of diphthong (-eus, -aus).

stems ē underwent shortening in classical attic-ionic, forms long ē preserved in homer maintain original meter. forms exemplify quantitative-metathesis type of shortening:

βασιλεύς basileús (shortened *βασιλήϝς *basilḗws) king


homeric (early attic-ionic) βασιλῆος basilêos (from βασιλῆϝος basilêwos) → classical attic βασιλέως basiléōs (genitive singular)
βασιλῆα basilêa → βασιλέᾱ basiléā (accusative singular)
βασιλῆας basilêas → βασιλέᾱς basiléās (accusative plural)


attic ναῦς naûs ship (from *νᾱῦς *nāûs shortening of ā: latin nāv-is)


νηός nēós (from *νᾱϝός *nāwós) → νεώς neṓs) (genitive singular)


πόλις pólis city


πόληος pólēos (from *πόληι̯ος *pólēyos) → πόλεως póleōs (genitive singular)


ἄστυ ástu town


*ἄστηος *ástēos (from *ϝάστηϝος *wástēwos) → ἄστεως ásteōs (genitive singular)

the accent of genitive singular of last 2 words violates rules of accentuation. long vowel of last syllable force accent forward second-to-last syllable, giving *πολέως *poléōs , *ἀστέως *astéōs, instead accent remains before shortening.

other forms of these nouns shorten ē e, because vowel of ending long, no quantitative metathesis occurs:

βασιλήων *basilḗōn → βασιλέων basiléōn (genitive plural)

some forms shorten ē e before according analogue of other forms, without lengthening i:

homeric βασιλῆi basilêi → attic βασιλεῖ basileî (dative singular)

other forms involve no shortening, since come short e-grade form of stem. accent of genitive plural irregular because follows analogue of genitive singular:

*πολέι̯-ων poléy-ōn → πόλεων póleōn (genitive plural — re-accented after genitive singular)


*ϝαστέϝ-ων


wastéw-ōn → ἄστεων ásteōn (also re-accented)

participle

the perfect participle of verb θνῄσκω thnēískō die undergoes vowel shortening, , quantitative metathesis in oblique forms:

*τεθνηϝώτς tethnēwṓts → τεθνεώς tethneṓs dead (masculine nominative singular: perfect stative meaning)


*τεθνηϝότος *tethnēwótos → τεθνεῶτος tethneôtos (masculine/neuter genitive singular)




^ cite error: named reference general invoked never defined (see page).
^ smyth, paragraph 214 footnote: dialectal first-declension forms
^ Πηλεύς. liddell, henry george; scott, robert; greek–english lexicon @ perseus project
^ paul kiparsky, sonorant clusters in greek , language, vol. 43, no. 3, part 1, pp. 619-635: sep. 1967
^ smyth, paragraph 238 c: transfer of quantity , shortening in attic declension forms
^ λαός. liddell, henry george; scott, robert; greek–english lexicon @ perseus project (end of entry)
^ smyth, paragraph 39: shortening of long vowel before long vowel
^ smyth, paragraph 270: stem variation of i, u-stems
^ smyth, paragraph 278: stem variation of au, eu, ou-stems
^ smyth, paragraph 40: shortening of long vowel before u, i, nasals, liquid + consonant
^ βασιλεύς. liddell, henry george; scott, robert; greek–english lexicon @ perseus project
^ smyth, paragraph 271: accent of genitive singular , plural of i, u-stems
^ smyth, paragraph 163 a: exceptions rules antepenult accent
^ smyth, paragraph 301 c: masculine/neuter endings perfect active participle