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Attic Declension
The Attic declension is a group of second-declension nouns and adjectives in the Attic dialect of Ancient Greek, all of whose endings have long vowels. In contrast, normal second-declension nouns have some short vowels and some long vowels. This declension is called Attic because in other dialects, including Ionic and Koine, the nouns are declined normally. History In Proto-Greek, Attic-declension nouns had long ᾱ ''ā'' and digamma (ϝ ''w'') before the endings. The Doric dialect preserved the ᾱ, but lost the digamma by the classical period. In the Aeolic dialect, the digamma was retained as upsilon (υ ''u''). In the Ionic dialect, the ᾱ changed to long η ''ē''. In Attic, η was shortened to ε ''e'' and, if possible, the vowel of the ending was lengthened to ω ''ō'' or (if it was a diphthong with iota) ῳ ''ōi''. *Doric νᾱός (Aeolic ναῦος) → Ionic νηός → Attic νεώς "temple" *:nāós (naûos) → nēós → neṓs *νηοῦ → νεώ ...
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Second Declension
The second declension is a category of nouns in Latin and Greek with similar case formation. In particular, these nouns are thematic, with an original ''o'' in most of their forms. In Classical Latin, the short ''o'' of the nominative and accusative singular became ''u''. Both Latin and Greek have two basic classes of second-declension nouns: masculine or feminine in one class, neuter in another. Most words of the former class have ''-us'' (Latin) or -ος ''-os'' (Greek) in the nominative singular, except for the r-stem nouns in Latin, and the "Attic" declension and contracted declension in Attic Greek (when these groups are considered part of this declension). The latter class, i.e. the neuter nominative/accusative singular, usually ends with ''-um'', in Latin and -ον (''-on''), in Greek, matching the accusative of the former. In Latin, the masculine words of the second declension that end with ''-us'' in the nominative case, are differently declined from the latter in the vo ...
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Upsilon
Upsilon (, ; uppercase Υ, lowercase υ; el, ''ýpsilon'' ) or ypsilon is the 20th letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals, grc, Υʹ, label=none has a value of 400. It is derived from the Phoenician waw . Etymology The name of the letter was originally just "υ" (''y;'' also called ''hy'', hence "hyoid", meaning "shaped like the letter υ"), but the name changed to "υ ψιλόν" ''u psilon'' 'simple u' to distinguish it from οι, which had come to have the same pronunciation. Pronunciation In early Attic Greek (6th century BCE), it was pronounced (a close back rounded vowel like the English "long o͞o"). In Classical Greek, it was pronounced (a close front rounded vowel), at least until 1030. In Modern Greek, it is pronounced ; in the digraphs and , as or ; and in the digraph as . In ancient Greek, it occurred in both long and short versions, but Modern Greek does not have a length distinction. As an initial letter in Classical Gr ...
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Ancient Greek Nouns
In Ancient Greek, all nouns are classified according to grammatical gender (masculine, feminine, neuter) and are used in a number (singular, dual, or plural). According to their function in a sentence, their form changes to one of the five cases (nominative, vocative, accusative, genitive, or dative). The set of forms that a noun will take for each case and number is determined by the declension that it follows. Cases The five cases of Ancient Greek each have different functions. Nominative The Ancient Greek nominative, like the Proto-Indo-European nominative, is used for the subject and for things describing the subject ( predicate nouns or adjectives): * : : "For Socrates was wise and just." Vocative The vocative is used for addressing people or things. It is frequently the same as the nominative in the singular and always the same in the plural. * : : "What you say is true, Socrates." Accusative The accusative is used for the object of a verb, and also after preposit ...
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Herbert Weir Smyth
Herbert Weir Smyth (August 8, 1857 – July 16, 1937) was an American classical scholar. His comprehensive grammar of Ancient Greek has become a standard reference on the subject in English, comparable to that of William Watson Goodwin, whom he succeeded as Eliott Professor of Greek Literature at Harvard University. Life He was educated at Swarthmore (A.B. 1876), Harvard (A.B. 1878), Leipzig, and Göttingen (Ph.D. 1884). From 1883 to 1885, he was instructor in Greek and Sanskrit at Williams College, and then for two years, he was reader in Greek at Johns Hopkins. From 1887 to 1901, he was professor of Greek at Bryn Mawr. In the latter year, he was called to Harvard as professor of Greek and in 1902, and he was appointed Eliott professor of Greek literature, succeeding Goodwin. From 1899 to 1900, he was professor of the Greek language and literature at the American Classical School at Athens. From 1889 to 1904, he was secretary of the American Philological Association and edit ...
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Synizesis
Synizesis () is a sound change (metaplasm) in which two originally syllabic vowels (hiatus) are pronounced instead as a single syllable. In poetry, the vowel contraction would often be necessitated by the metrical requirements of the poetic form. Synizesis is also understood to occur as a natural product in the evolution of a language over time. A tie may be used to represent this pronunciation: ''dē͡hinc'' (i.e., ''deinc''). Definition ''Synizesis'' comes from the Greek (''synízēsis'', "a sitting together") from (''syn'', "with") and (''hizō'', "I sit"). The term was used to describe this vowel change as early as the 2nd century CE, by the Alexandrian grammarian, Hephaestion. Ancient grammarians, such as Hephaestion, defined synizesis broadly as the “σύλληψις” (''syllepsis'', “a taking together (of sounds)”) of any two syllables. More contemporary scholarship has, however, recognised that, when so constructed, synizesis is given an unjustifiably br ...
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Μενέλαος
In Greek mythology, Menelaus (; grc-gre, Μενέλαος , 'wrath of the people', ) was a king of Mycenaean (pre- Dorian) Sparta. According to the ''Iliad'', Menelaus was a central figure in the Trojan War, leading the Spartan contingent of the Greek army, under his elder brother Agamemnon, king of Mycenae. Prominent in both the ''Iliad'' and ''Odyssey'', Menelaus was also popular in Greek vase painting and Greek tragedy, the latter more as a hero of the Trojan War than as a member of the doomed House of Atreus. Description In the account of Dares the Phrygian, Menelaus was described as ". . .of moderate stature, auburn-haired, and handsome. He had a pleasing personality." Family Menelaus was a descendant of Pelops son of Tantalus. He was the younger brother of Agamemnon, and the husband of Helen of Troy. According to the usual version of the story, followed by the ''Iliad'' and ''Odyssey'' of Homer, Agamemnon and Menelaus were the sons of Atreus, king of Mycenae and Aero ...
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Homeric Greek
Homeric Greek is the form of the Greek language that was used by Homer in the ''Iliad'', ''Odyssey'', and Homeric Hymns. It is a literary dialect of Ancient Greek consisting mainly of Ionic, with some Aeolic forms, a few from Arcadocypriot, and a written form influenced by Attic. It was later named Epic Greek because it was used as the language of epic poetry, typically in dactylic hexameter, by poets such as Hesiod and Theognis of Megara. Compositions in Epic Greek may date from as late as the 5th century CE, and it only fell out of use by the end of Classical antiquity. Main features In the following description, only forms that differ from those of later Greek are discussed. Omitted forms can usually be predicted from patterns seen in Ionic Greek. Phonology Homeric Greek is like Ionic Greek, and unlike Classical Attic, in shifting almost all cases of long to : thus, Homeric for Attic "Troy", "hour", "gates (dat.)". Exceptions include nouns like "goddess", and the genit ...
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Circumflex Accent
The circumflex () is a diacritic in the Latin and Greek scripts that is also used in the written forms of many languages and in various romanization and transcription schemes. It received its English name from la, circumflexus "bent around"a translation of the el, περισπωμένη (). The circumflex in the Latin script is chevron-shaped (), while the Greek circumflex may be displayed either like a tilde () or like an inverted breve (). For the most commonly encountered uses of the accent in the Latin alphabet, precomposed characters are available. In English, the circumflex, like other diacritics, is sometimes retained on loanwords that used it in the original language (for example, ''crème brûlée''). In mathematics and statistics, the circumflex diacritic is sometimes used to denote a function and is called a ''hat operator''. A free-standing version of the circumflex symbol, , has become known as ''caret'' and has acquired special uses, particularly in computing ...
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Acute Accent
The acute accent (), , is a diacritic used in many modern written languages with alphabets based on the Latin, Cyrillic, and Greek scripts. For the most commonly encountered uses of the accent in the Latin and Greek alphabets, precomposed characters are available. Uses History An early precursor of the acute accent was the apex, used in Latin inscriptions to mark long vowels. Pitch Ancient Greek The acute accent was first used in the polytonic orthography of Ancient Greek, where it indicated a syllable with a high pitch. In Modern Greek, a stress accent has replaced the pitch accent, and the acute marks the stressed syllable of a word. The Greek name of the accented syllable was and is (''oxeîa'', Modern Greek ''oxía'') "sharp" or "high", which was calqued (loan-translated) into Latin as "sharpened". Stress The acute accent marks the stressed vowel of a word in several languages: * Blackfoot uses acute accents to show the place of stress in a word: soyópokists ...
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Ultima (linguistics)
In linguistics, the ultima is the last syllable of a word, the penult is the next-to-last syllable, and the antepenult is third-from-last syllable. In a word of three syllables, the names of the syllables are antepenult-penult-ultima. Etymology Ultima comes from Latin ''ultima (syllaba)'' "last (syllable)". Penult and antepenult are abbreviations for ''paenultima'' and ''antepaenultima''. Penult has the prefix ''paene'' "almost", and antepenult has the prefix ''ante'' "before". Classical languages In Latin and Ancient Greek, only the three last syllables can be accented. In Latin, a word's stress is dependent on the weight or length of the penultimate syllable; in Greek, the place and type of accent is dependent on the length of the vowel in the ultima. See also *Pitch accent **Acute accent ***Oxytone, paroxytone, proparoxytone **Circumflex ***Perispomenon, properispomenon **Grave accent ***Barytone *Rhyme *Stress (linguistics) *Syllable References *Herbert Weir Smyth Herber ...
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Quantitative Metathesis
Quantitative metathesis (or transfer of quantity) Smyth, ''Greek Grammar''paragraph 34on CCEL: transfer of quantity is a specific form of '' metathesis'' or ''transposition'' (a sound change) involving ''quantity'' or vowel length. By this process, two vowels near each other – one long, one short – switch their lengths, so that the long one becomes short, and the short one becomes long. In theory, the definition includes both :long-short → short-long and :short-long → long-short, but Ancient Greek, which the term was originally created to describe, displays only the former, since the process is part of long-vowel shortening. Ancient Greek In the Attic and Ionic dialects of Ancient Greek, ''ēo'' and ''ēa'' often exchange length, becoming ''eō'' and ''eā''. This quantitative metathesis is more accurately described as one form of long-vowel shortening. Usually if quantitative metathesis affects a word, other kinds of shortening do as well, in the forms where quantitati ...
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