Word accents

[psilord]

Ok, I'm stuck. The accenting rules of Homeric Greek are stumping me. I read this web page http://socrates.berkeley.edu/~ancgreek/accenthtml/accentuation.html
but I still can't figure out how to accent simple words like [face=SPIonic]nou=soj[/face] through the various paradigms. Can someome illustrate the exact reasoning behind the accenting of that particular word with all of its cases?

If I get good enough and detailed responses, I'm willing to collate all of them, with examples and excersizes, and make a pdf out of it.

Thanks.

[Paul]

Hi,

Following the paradigm for [face=SPIonic]nou=soj[/face] as presented in Pharr 679, and remembering that substantives try to keep the accent in the same syllable:

Singular:

N - word is accented on the penult. Penult is long AND ultima is short -> accent is circumflex.

G - ultima is long -> accent must be acute

D - same rule as G

A - same rule as N

V - same rule as N


Dual:

N.A.V - same rule as G
G.D. - accent on antepenult (allowed only if ultima is short) must be acute

Plural:

N.V. - the oi diphthong in ultima is considered short for determining accent. Hence same rule as N singular

G - same rule as G singular

D - same rule as G.D. dual for [face=SPIonic]nou/soisi[/face] or, for [face=SPIonic]nou/soij[/face], same rule as G singular

A - same rule as G singular

If your question really boils down to "why does the nominative singular take a circumflex rather than an acute?", that's harder. There is no requirement that an accented long penult followed by a short ultima must take a circumflex.

But, if you learn the form in the dictionary along with its accent, you can usually figure out how the accent changes as the word inflects.

Cordially,

Paul