Compensatory Lengthening - Greek

Greek

Compensatory lengthening is very common in Greek. It is particularly notable in forms where n or nt comes together with s, y (= ι̯), or i. The development of nt + y was perhaps thus:

  • *mont-yă → montsa (palatalization ty → ts) → mõtsa (nasalization and vowel lengthening) → mõssa → mõsa (shortening ss → s) → mōsa (denasalization, retention of long vowel) = μοῦσα "muse"

Forms with this type of compensatory lengthening include the nominative singular and dative plural of many participles, adjectives, and nouns, the 3rd person plural ending for present and future active of all verbs, and the 3rd person singular present of athematic verbs:

  • *πάντ-ς → πᾶς "every, whole" (masculine nominative singular)
  • *πάντ-ι̯ᾰ → *πάντσα → πᾶσα (feminine)
  • *πάντ-σι → πᾶσι (masculine/neuter dative plural)
  • compare παντ-ός (m./n. genitive singular)
  • *όντ-ι̯ᾰ → *όντσα → οὖσα participle "being" (feminine nominative singular)
  • *οντ-ίᾱ → *ονσία → οὐσία "property, essence"
  • compare ὀντ-ός (m./n. genitive singular, from participle ὤν "being",)
  • Doric ἄγ-ο-ντι → ἄγοντσι → Attic/Ionic ἄγουσι "they drive"
  • Doric τί-θε-ντι → *τίθεντσι → Attic/Ionic τίθεισι "he/she places"

Read more about this topic:  Compensatory Lengthening

Famous quotes containing the word greek:

    “Indeed, there is hardly the professor in our colleges, who, if he has mastered the difficulties of the language, has proportionally mastered the difficulties of the language, has proportionally mastered the difficulties of the wit and poetry of a Greek poet, and has any sympathy to impart to the alert and heroic reader.”
    —Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    “I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish Church, by the Roman Church, by the Greek Church, by the Turkish Church, by the Protestant Church, nor by any church that I know of. My own mind is my own church.”
    —Thomas Paine (1737–1809)

    “What is lawful is not binding only on some and not binding on others. Lawfulness extends everywhere, through the wide-ruling air and the boundless light of the sky.”
    —Empedocles 484–424 B.C., Greek philosopher. The Presocratics, p. 142, ed. Philip Wheelwright, The Bobbs-Merrill Co., Inc. (1960)