Greek I, Chapter 2
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This chapter continues the presentation of O-declension nouns, with particular attention to accents. In the previous lesson, I listed the relevant accent rules. Here the main points are:
- Accents on nouns are persistent when possible.
- Nouns with an acute accent on the penult do not change.
- Nouns accented on the antepenult, as ἄνθρωπος shift the accent to the penult when the ultima is long: ἄνθρώπου
- For accentuation, the nominative plural in -oi (and the a-declension -ai!) is treated as a short vowel.
The Genitive of Place From Which should remind us that Greek grammarians regarded the genitive case not primarily as expressing possession but as the case of origin. Thus is it is natural to use the genitive with a preposition to show whence someone is coming or going or departing
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I’m just getting used to the rules governing the accent marks again, based on whether a vowel is long or short.
Just for some observation and perhaps correction if needed: First the obvious, that ω and
η are always long, while ο and ε are always short. Also, α, ι, υ will be long if they have a macron or circumflex over them? That leaves diphthongs, except for oi and ai in the nominative singular of the ο and α declensions, which as you have pointed out are considered short. Iota subscript will only occur with a long vowel, η and ω. If I can get this down then the question of where to put an accent mark will be easier to understand.
α declensions, which as you have pointed out are considered short.
Please ignore the superfluous final sentence.
I like sequenced rules:
1) Yes, η and ω are always long, ο and ε always short
2) α ι υ can be either. In an ordinary Greek text, vowels are not marked by makrons–long marks–but they are in this text and should be memorized, which too few Greek students do. Circumflex accents can only be used on long vowels, so that is a help, but in an ordinary Greek book, you are expected to remember.
3) Diphthongs are always long except that the in the case of nominative endings of -o and -a declension nouns, they are counted as short.
4. Vowel quantities are important, A) in determining accent, as when a long ultima does not permit an accent to fall on the antepenult, but they are also of vital importance in poetic meter. In poetry, the nominative plurals of -o and -a declension words are treated as long.
[In first year of graduate school, the professor–Henry Immerwahr–asked which students knew vowel quantities. I don’t like raising my hand or volunteering anything including information, but when no one else did, I stuck my hand halfway up. Immerwahr, a German Jew who as a boy got sent to Italy, observed wryly, “Of course, you are the student of Walton Morris.
Thanks, Tom. Am listening. Kate
Questions from the Cornell children. First question: So does the letter Φ sometimes make a regular p sound as in φιλος as well as the ph sound as in αδελφος? And if so how does one tell which sound to use?
Second question: What do accents do? I know circumflexes tell you if a vowel is long or not, but what do acutes and graves tell you?
To the Cornell Clan, greetings. The easy answer to #1 is thanks for correcting my sloppy performance. A lifetime of reciting Greek to students and others who had not learned the language encourages laziness. It is worse now that I am studying modern Greek, where Φ is pronounced D and Δ is pronounced like the th- in “then.” It should be adelp’os. The ‘ indicates the bit of air coming through. Please always correct these lapses.
The accent marks were not designed to cause confusion or to give hint on long and short vowels. The Alexandrians, probably Aristophanes of Byzantium (though the expert on him denies it for what I take to be a personal defect rather than a rational reason). This Aristophanes, so we are told, was interested in music and in the rhythmical units of Greek lyric poetry, which he indicated by spacing. If we look at the Greek names, oxytone and barytone, we will understand that they referred to a high and a low tone. If unaccented syllables are assumed to be the sort of base, then the voice rises on an acute accent. The ancient grammarian Dionysios of Halicarnassos tells us the entire range was about five tones or notes, and it seems the acute/oxytone was about a third above the middle. Perhaps the barytone meant a fall of a tone or two, and the perispomenon a rise and fall on one syllable.
How do we render this? We don’t. I used to know a nice professor who recorded texts with pitch accents and I have heard another. They all sound ridiculous. (Sidney Allen says the same thing.) My dissertation director, who was a student of H.J. Rose, told me that Rose thought he was reading Greek with a pitch accent when he was really only raising his eyebrows.
Allen and others insist we should follow the Vedic (ancient Indian model). I am sure that is relevant but not very useful since those poets and readers are all dead long ago. Some Slavic languages have pitch accent, particularly the Eastern dialects of Serbo-Croatian. (The Montenegrins in the West are notoriously tone deaf.) In my limited experience, women in Belgrade have a beautiful manner. Their system has four tones: Long rising, short rising; Long falling, short falling. It does not sound artificial or like chant, but the voice slides easily and lightly up and down. It is not like Swedish, where it is mostly (so far as I can understand) a sort of sentence melody.
I know this has been boring and technical, but the answer is: put emphasis (and a slight rise if you want to try) on acutes; mo rise on grave accents and not much emphasis, but an accent–don’t forget to furl your eyebrows up and down–on ciircumflex.
I may try to illustrate the possibility in the next lesson, but it will be just a guess, more or less applying a bit of Serbian accentuation.
If anyone really wants to drive himself mad, consider that Dionysios also tells us that the word accents are taken acoount of in music. This statement has been misinterpreted to mean that Greek music simply followed the word accents, but we know it did not, but it was bad form to go down on an oxytone.
From the Cornell children: Thanks for clearing up the confusion. Will be working on adding more eyebrow movement.