Contract imperatives and accent.

Greek Learning Greek
1

Hello all,

Quick (and likely silly) questions:

Why do contract imperatives throw their (acute) accent back in a manner not consistent with the general rule [Smyth 171(b), 424(c)]:

eg: (e contract) ποιέ-ε = ποί-ει, but ποιέ-ει = ποι-εῖ, (o contract) δηλό-ετε = δηλοῦτε, but δηλό-ε = δήλ-ου ?

Also, why in the contract imperative ὁρ-ᾶτε does the circumflex stand on a short vowel?

Regards,
Paul

2

Hello there! Welcome to the forums by the way :slight_smile: Can I give you a hint? :wink: (look under the “big ten rules”).

Why do you accent the uncontracted imperative so? It’s ποίεε → ποιεῖ, δήλοε → δήλου. Apart from very specific cases, the accent goes as high as the last vowel will allow it to.

As for ὁρ-ᾶτε: The vowel is most definitely long; The vowels that result from a contraction are always long.

3

Thank you very much for your prompt and helpful reply.

I am still uncertain why the accent on the stem is δήλο- when forming the imperative when it is δηλό- when forming a verb in the present tense?

Thank you again,
Paul

4

Actually, both the present indicative and imperative have a recessive accent, as far back as
possible according to the quantity of the ultima.

δηλό-ο-μεν > δηλοῦμεν ; δήλο-ε > δήλου.
ὁρά-ω > ὁρῶ ; ὁρά-ε-τε > ὁρᾶτε.

See Smyth §423 and the exceptions in §424 ff.

5

Thanks Nate, I had glossed over the rules at Smyth §166 et seq, which your post brought to my attention, and which same information I should have gleaned from Irene’s post. I must endeavour to be more careful in future.

Thank you all,
Paul

6

Nate’s absolutely correct. Notice the endings that are added.

ποιε + ει - Here the long combination ει causes the accent to pull onto the ε.
ποιέ + ει > ποιεῖ - The accent remains on the syllable that was contracted.

ποιε + ε - Here the accent is not pulled toward the end of the word, since the vowel is short.
ποίε + ε > ποίει - The accent remains on the syllable before the contraction.

I think you’ll find that it’s consistent. The accent is placed on the syllable as if there were no contraction.

Uncontracted: ποιέω, ποιέει, ποιέεις, ποιέομεν, ποιέετε, ποιέουσι(ν)
Contracted: ποιῶ, ποιεῖ, ποιεῖ, ποιοῦμεν, ποιεῖτε, ποιοῦσι(ν)

In each case, the long vowel/diphthong pulls the accent back. This doesn’t happen with the short vowel in the imperative singular.

Make sense? :slight_smile: