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Digammatic words

Posted: Thu Apr 06, 2006 1:45 am
by annis
I have sometimes wanted a list more convenient than digging into Seymour, Benner or Monro, so I produced a list from all three: Words with Digamma in Epic.

Posted: Thu Apr 06, 2006 2:58 am
by Chris Weimer
What's the reason for εξ (six) to be placed in this category? Does it not follow the pattern like the rest of the s->h words?

Posted: Thu Apr 06, 2006 12:22 pm
by annis
Chris Weimer wrote:What's the reason for εξ (six) to be placed in this category? Does it not follow the pattern like the rest of the s->h words?
I'll have to dig into that, since I simply lifted it from Seymour's list. It's true that the list I present isn't exactly "words that started with digamma" but "words which regularly cause hiatus or lengthen preceding short syllables." Most of these were w-, but some were sw-.

Posted: Thu Apr 06, 2006 6:43 pm
by swiftnicholas
That's a great idea Will, thanks. I was surprised to see Ἴλιον on the list, I didn't realize that.

I noticed one thing in the first paragraph, "The starting point my list", presumably "of" or "for my list".

And I noticed that Ἑκάτη wasn't on the list, which would put you one up on Cunliffe. :) And when I checked Cunliffe just now for Ἑκάτη, to avoid looking stupid, I also noticed some words which aren't on the list, but some of these might just fall under ἑκάς....

ἑκάε?γος
?κάτε?θεν
ἑκατηβελέτης
ἑκατηβόλος
ἕκατος
ἑκηβόλος

Posted: Thu Apr 06, 2006 10:34 pm
by annis
Chris Weimer wrote:What's the reason for εξ (six) to be placed in this category?
Now that I've had time to check my books...

Six shows a varied ancestry among the IE languages. Some go back to *seks, some to *sweks (Sihler). Monro cites several cases of not only hiatus but syllable-closing before ἕξ which would suggest Greek was in the *sweks group.

Posted: Thu Apr 06, 2006 10:42 pm
by annis
swiftnicholas wrote:I noticed one thing in the first paragraph, "The starting point my list", presumably "of" or "for my list".
Drat. Thank you.
And I noticed that Ἑκάτη wasn't on the list, which would put you one up on Cunliffe. :)
I checked the index nominum to both the Iliad and the Odyssey. Homer not once mentions Hecate.
And when I checked Cunliffe just now for Ἑκάτη, to avoid looking stupid, I also noticed some words which aren't on the list, but some of these might just fall under ἑκάς....
Hmm. I should work in some comment about compounds.

Posted: Fri Apr 07, 2006 8:18 am
by Chris Weimer
Thanks William for the clarification. I had forgotten about the *seks v. *sweks variation. I did know that. Great job, by the way!

Posted: Fri Apr 07, 2006 1:18 pm
by annis
Chris Weimer wrote:Thanks William for the clarification. I had forgotten about the *seks v. *sweks variation. I did know that.
I didn't know that, so I'm happy to have done the digging.

Posted: Mon Apr 10, 2006 6:50 pm
by swiftnicholas
annis wrote:I checked the index nominum to both the Iliad and the Odyssey. Homer not once mentions Hecate.
Well, I guess I didn't try hard enough to avoid looking stupid. :) But that's very interesting. I've come across it a couple of times in the Hymn to Demeter, but searching Greek hexameter on Perseus, I see that it occurs again in epic only in one section of the Theogony. At least I learned something new....

Thanks again for the list!

Posted: Mon Apr 17, 2006 11:43 pm
by Bert
I was reviewing my vocabulary in preparation for Iliad-β when I came across δό?υ δου?ός τό
According to Cunliffe, the spelling was influenced by the Digamma.
I am not sure if this is important for the purpose of your list but I mention it in case it is.

Posted: Wed Apr 19, 2006 12:27 pm
by annis


Posted: Wed Apr 19, 2006 1:08 pm
by Chris Weimer
Does δο??ός affect the scansion at all? I wouldn't think so...

Posted: Wed Apr 19, 2006 11:25 pm
by Bert
What is the fourth letter in δο??ός? (On my screen it looks like something midway between an Alpha and an Omicron.)

Posted: Wed Apr 19, 2006 11:27 pm
by Chris Weimer
It's the digamma.

Posted: Wed Apr 19, 2006 11:36 pm
by Bert
Thanks. So what does a lower case Digamma look like? It appears a lot like the "at" sign. (@)
And what is the keystroke for it?

Posted: Thu Apr 20, 2006 12:33 am
by annis


Posted: Thu Apr 20, 2006 12:34 am
by annis
Bert wrote:Thanks. So what does a lower case Digamma look like? It appears a lot like the "at" sign. (@)
Both large and small a digamma should look a lot like 'F'.
And what is the keystroke for it?
That will depend on your keyboard input method/program.

Posted: Thu Apr 20, 2006 1:13 am
by Bert
annis wrote:
Bert wrote:Thanks. So what does a lower case Digamma look like? It appears a lot like the "at" sign. (@)
Both large and small a digamma should look a lot like 'F'.
Maybe my unicode font (from Keyman) does not include any of the obsolete letters so it gives me this @ looking thing.
annis wrote:
And what is the keystroke for it?
That will depend on your keyboard input method/program.
What is it in SPIonic.
My unicode font has very similar keying to Spionic

Posted: Thu Apr 20, 2006 12:08 pm
by annis
Bert wrote:What is it in SPIonic.
Uppercase 'V'.

Posted: Sat Apr 29, 2006 6:59 pm
by Bert


Posted: Sun Apr 30, 2006 5:47 pm
by annis
Bert wrote:Here are a few. (I never realized there are that many. These five are from two pages of Cunliffe.)
ῥάκος
Words starting with rho are a little difficult. Most of the time (and nearly without exception in later poetry) any final short vowel before a word starting with ῥ is scanned long, regardless of the etymology of the rho.

This may require another separate note at the bottom. :)