Contonation

Greek Learning Greek
1

I have just recently begun studying Attic Greek and do not fully understand the accentuation system. The question I have concerns the reasons why the acute can only be on the antepenultimate syllable if the ultima is short. Does every word in Greek follow the rule that only one mora can follow contonation? I have not been able to find a site which thoroughly explains the logic and reasoning behind the rules of contonation and mora.

2

I don’t know if there is a logical rational; it may just have been how the language developed. It might be noteworthy though, that Latin too only accents the antepenult if the ultima is short. You might check out this page though about PIE stress.

http://www.geocities.com/caraculiambro/Caraculiambro/Stress.html

3

This may or may not help.

This is by William Annis, a global monitor to Textkit.
http://www.aoidoi.org/articles/epic/accent1.pdf
http://www.aoidoi.org/articles/epic/accent2.pdf

This covers things a bit different but may help in some of the why as well as the how.
http://socrates.berkeley.edu/~ancgreek/accenttutU/accentuationU.html

there are other comments in this thread that may be of intrest.
http://discourse.textkit.com/t/basic-question-about-accent-marks/4285/1

hope this helps :smiley:

4

It is the penultima syllaba, not the ultima one that causes the change of the place of the accent in Latin words… :unamused:

5

so are you saying that it is not a rule in Latin that you must have a minimum of one mora after contonation?

6

A Latin word can be accented on the antepenult regardless of the length of the ultima: córpori, lítterae, cópiis, sapiéntia (abl.), império etc.