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The Position of the Accent in Greek Words: A New Statement
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 February 2009
Extract
The accent of Greek (Ionic-Attic) orthotonic words was mobile with limited freedom of movement, i.e. it could not stand outside a definite zone at the end of the word. Had the limit of this zone been the same for all words and had the accent been allowed to stand anywhere within it (as is the case in Modern Greek), there would have been no problem. Unfortunately, the length of the accentuable zone did vary whatever the unit we use (2 or 3 final syllables; 3 or 4 final vocalic morae) and there was a place within it where the accent was prohibited (the penult vocalic mora of some words). Hence the problem of explaining these ‘irregularities’.
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- Copyright © The Classical Association 1972
References
page 113 note 1 Sonnenschein, E.A., Greek Grammar 13, (London, 1929), 132Google Scholar (quoted from W. S. Allen, op. cit. below, p. 115 n. 4, 12). Cf. Goodwin, W.W. and Gulick, G.B., Greek Grammar, (Waltham, Mass., 1958)Google Scholar, 28 (§§ 129b, c; 130; 132), or C. 
, (MoCKBa, 1948), 15 f. (§§56–65).
page 114 note 1 See Vendryes, J., Traité d'accentuation grecque 2 (Paris, 1929 1, 1904, 55;Google Scholar Jakobson, in TCLP, iv (1931), 166 f.;Google Scholar Jakobson, in Melanges J. van Ginneken (Paris, 1937), 25 ff.Google Scholar ( = Selected Writings i The Hague, 1962, 254 ff.); Trubetzkoy, N., in Scritti in onore di A. Trombetti (Milano, 1938), pp. 155 ff.Google Scholar; Trubetzkoy, N., Grundziige Phonologic (= TCLP, vii) (Prague, 1939).Google Scholar
page 114 note 2 Hence the sceptical attitude of Hermann, E.I, Silbenbildung im Griechischen in den andern indogermanischen Sprachen (Ergäanzungsheft zur Ztschr. f. vergl. Sprachforschung, ii 1923), 88 who believed that Greek accentuation was the historical result of successive action of three different laws (the ‘law of the three syllables’, the ‘law of the three morae’, and the law requiring the circumflex on the long penult when the final is short) and thus denied the existence of any single synchronic accentuation system in Greek.Google Scholar
page 114 note 3 J. Vendryes, op. cit. 55, 57 (cf. Gauthiot, R., La Fin de mot Paris, 1913, 215).Google Scholar This view is now upheld by Garde, P., L'Accent (Paris, 1968), 144f.Google Scholar
page 114 note 4 J. Vendryes, loc. cit.
page 114 note 5 R. Jakobson, in Z zagadnien poetyki (Prace ofiarowane Kazimierzowi Wóycickiemu) (Wilno, 1937), 72 ff. (Engl. transl. in Selected Writings, i. 262 ff).
page 115 note 1 Ibid. 73 (= Selected Writings, i. 263). should be noted that this formula states only the upper limit of recessive accentuation.
page 115 note 2 This concept was introduced by Kurylowicz, J., L'Accentuation des Langues indo-europeennes 2 (Wroclaw-Krakow, 1958)Google Scholar (1, Krakow, 1952), 107, and applied to Jakobson's formula by I. M. Tronskij (see next note).
page 115 note 3 H. M. 
, 1962), 51 ff.
page 115 note 4 Allen, W.S., in Bazell, C.E. et al. (eds.), In Memory of J. R. Firth (London, 1966)Google Scholar, 1 off. (cf. Allen, W.S., Vox Graeca (Cambridge, 1968), 111 ff.).Google Scholar
page 115 note 5 Ibid. 13 (cf. 14 n. 30 and Vox Graeca, 114). This formula also states only the upper limit of recessive accentuation (cf. above, n. 2).
page 115 note 6 With the sad exception of (II–C), which should be ‘dimoric’.
page 116 note 1 Tronskij's modification of Jakobson's formula (using the ‘final ensemble’ concept Kurylowicz) seems partly to avoid this complexity, for all the accentuable places are defined in it with reference to the ‘final ensemble’ (places (A), (B), and (C) respectively the final, the first, and the ‘first of but one’ morae of the ‘f. e.’). But all same difficulties re-emerge as soon as we attempt a synthetic definition of the ‘enaresemble’. See § 6 above.
page 118 note 1 This is a strong argument against scepticism such as E. Hermann's (see above, p. 114 n. 2).
page 119 note 1 ‘Cf. Allen, W.S., Phonetics in Ancient India (O.U.P., London, 1953/1961)Google Scholar, 87 (note by W. S. Allen).
page 119 note 2 W. S. Allen, in In Memory …, 10 and 13 nn. 10–16.
page 119 note 3 Ibid. 11.
page 119 note 4 The ‘pada’ (word-isolate) tradition was necessary ‘to ensure correct word-division in the transmission of oral texts’ (ibid. 11 and cf. 14 n. 21).