In the
Attic and
Ionic dialects of Ancient Greek,
ēo and
ēa often exchange length, becoming
eō and
eā. • Πηλεΐδης
Pēleḯdēs (
patronym from Πηλεύς
Pēleús: "
Peleus-son",
Achilles) :Πηλεΐδᾱο
Pēleḯdāo → *Πηλεΐδηο
*Pēleḯdēo → Πηλεΐδεω
Pēleḯdeō (genitive singular; alternate form Πηληϊάδεω
Pēlēïádeō in the first line of the
Iliad) The Attic genitive singular Πηλεΐδ-ου
Pēleḯd-ou uses a copy of the
second-declension ending, which came from the same original form as the ending
-oio (used in Homer) —
o-syo,
thematic vowel o and case-ending
-syo). The Homeric form comes from the same case ending, with the first-declension pseudo-thematic vowel
ā.
Second declension Nouns in a small subclass of the
second declension (known as the "
Attic declension") lengthen the
o, oi of the ending to
ō, ōi. Sometimes this is quantitative metathesis: :Ionic ληός
lēós (from *λᾱϝός
lāwós) → Attic λεώς
leṓs "people" :ληοί
lēoí → λεῴ
leōí (nominative plural) But sometimes, when a long vowel occurs in the ending,
ē is shortened to
e without an accompanying lengthening of the vowel in the ending (but
ou changes to
ō to follow the other forms): :ληοῦ
lēoú → λεώ
leṓ (genitive singular) :ληῷ
lēōî → λεῴ
leōí (dative singular)
Third declension Some
third-declension nouns had, in
Proto-Indo-European, stems in
-u or
-i in
zero-grade,
-ew or
-ey in short e-grade, and
-ēw or
-ēy in long
ē-grade. Others had
-āw with no variation in ablaut grade, which changed in some forms to
ēw, by the Attic-Ionic
ā →
ē shift. In many cases, the
w or
j was deleted, but sometimes it is preserved as the last element of a
diphthong (
-eus,
-aus). Stems with
ē underwent shortening in Classical Attic-Ionic, but early forms with long ē are preserved in
Homer to maintain the original
meter. Some forms exemplify the quantitative-metathesis type of shortening: • βασιλεύς
basileús (shortened from *βασιλήϝς
*basilḗws) "king" :
Homeric (early
Attic-
Ionic) βασιλῆος
basilêos (from βασιλῆϝος
basilêwos) → Classical Attic βασιλέως
basiléōs (genitive singular) :βασιλῆα
basilêa → βασιλέᾱ
basiléā (accusative singular) :βασιλῆας
basilêas → βασιλέᾱς
basiléās (accusative plural) • Attic ναῦς
naûs "ship" (from *νᾱῦς
*nāûs by shortening of
ā:
Latin nāv-is) :νηός
nēós (from *νᾱϝός
*nāwós) → νεώς
neṓs) (genitive singular) Other forms of these nouns shorten
ē to
e, but because the vowel of the ending is long, no quantitative metathesis occurs: → τεθνεώς
tethneṓs "dead" (masculine nominative singular:
perfect with
stative meaning) : *τεθνηϝότος
*tethnēwótos → τεθνεῶτος
tethneôtos (masculine/neuter genitive singular) ==See also==