Ancient Greek accent

In Ancient Greek, accent varies from word to word, but there are rules of accent determining where it can fall and what type it can be.

Tonoi

In Ancient Greek the rules for placing the accent (tonos; tonoi in the pl.), depend on the length of the vowel in the last syllable and in the syllable being accented; one syllable of a word was normally accented with a tonos. Unlike Modern Greek, this was a pitch accent, meaning that the accented syllable was pronounced at a higher pitch than the other syllables; Dionysius of Halicarnassus states that the interval was approximately that of a fifth in music. In standard polytonic orthography (invented in the Hellenistic age, but not adopted universally until Byzantine times), the acute accent (ὀξεῖα) is used to indicate a simple accented syllable. In long vowels and diphthongs the accent could fall on either half (or mora) of the syllable: if it fell on the first mora, so that the syllable had a high tone followed by a low tone, it is indicated in polytonic orthography by the circumflex (περισπωμένη):

/éè/ = /ɛ̂ː/ = ῆ (the /e/s are not really two and not really instances of /e/; this is a symbolical approximation in order to present the rising/falling tone effect),

e.g. Ἀθῆναι (Athens NOM; the αι diphthong in this case is, or is treated as being, short),

but

/eé/ = /ɛ́ː/ = ή (likewise),

e.g. Ἀθήνας (Athens ACC; -ας is -ᾱς).

The accent can only fall on one of the last three syllables of a word, and if the last syllable contains a long vowel or diphthong, it can only fall on one of the last two syllables, though there are some exceptions to the latter, e.g. NOM sing. πόλις, pólis, GEN sing. πόλεως, póleōs, IPA: [póleɔːs] (unless, that is, the supposed exceptions should be considered a case of, for example, hidden, underlying synizesis).

The circumflex can only fall on the last two syllables, and only if that syllable contains a long vowel or diphthong.

An acute accent on a final syllable (except before a pause or an enclitic word) is regularly (according to specified rules) replaced in the orthography by a grave accent (βαρεῖα); this may indicate a lowering of tone or a lower tone in that syllable, but the evidence from ancient authors is unclear on this point:

'Μακρὰ συλλαβή.', "long syllable",

but

'Συλλαβὴ μακρά.', "long syllable" (the difference in the order of the words might, e.g., indicate different emphasis).

If the penultimate syllable is accented, it normally has the circumflex if it contains a long vowel or diphthong and the last syllable contains a short vowel, otherwise it has the acute. An accented final syllable can have either the acute (or grave) or the circumflex.

In most inflected forms, word-final -αι and -οι – but not -αις, -αιν, -oις or -oιν – are, or are treated as if they were, short.

Mora

The mora is a unit of vowel length. Short vowels have one mora, and long vowels and diphthongs have two morae.

• short:
  • ᾰ, ε, ῐ, ο, ῠ (sometimes αι, οι)
• long:
  • simple vowels:
    • ᾱ, η, ῑ, ω, ῡ
  • diphthongs:
    • in ι:
      • ει, υι; ᾳ, ῃ, ῳ (sometimes αι, οι)
    • in υ:
      • αυ, ευ, ου; ᾱυ, ηυ, ωυ

Syllables

Only the three syllables at the end of the word can be accented. In English they are called – names derived from Latin – the ultima ("last"), penult ("almost last"), and antepenult ("before the almost last"). Their names in Greek – they have, more or less, the same meaning - are respectively λήγουσα, παραλήγουσα and προπαραλήγουσα.

Length of accented vowel

The length of a vowel determines what type of accent it can take. The acute is placed on short and long vowels, but the circumflex only on long vowels or diphthongs.

Grave

The grave accent indicates no accent or low pitch. In modern convention, it is used only to replace an acute at the end of a word (except before a pause), but it was once written on all unaccented vowels. Like the acute, it falls on both short and long vowels.

Acute

The acute indicates a vowel accented on its last mora. On a short vowel, it represents one accented mora; on a long vowel or diphthong, it represents one unaccented and one accented mora.

	morae
	1	2
short vowel	´
long vowel		´

Alternatively we can use arrows to graphically display and represent rise of tone.

	morae
	1	2
short vowel	⬈	⬈
long vowel	⬈
time ⇢

Circumflex

The circumflex can only fall on long vowels or diphthongs, because it is a compound accent. It is formed from one accented and one unaccented mora, in that order.

	morae
	1	2
long vowel	´	`

This, shown, as before, graphically with arrows representing rising and falling tones, would be:

	morae
	1	2
long vowel	⬈	⬊
time ⇢

Length of ultima

The accent in recessively accented words naturally falls back toward the beginning of the word. The length of the vowel in the ultima determines how far it can fall. When the ultima is short, accent can fall back to the antepenult; when the ultima is long, accent can only fall on the penult (Exception to this rule are those triple-stems that initially had a long penult and a short ultima but underwent quantitative metathesis, e. g. πίστος, πίστηος > πίστεως and πόλις, πόληος, πόλεως).

Short ultima

When the vowel in the ultima is short, accent is placed on the antepenult or (if the word is two syllables) the penult. The penult takes a circumflex if its vowel is long, and an acute if it is short.

• with antepenult:
  • ἄνθρωπος
• without antepenult:
  • δῶρον (long penult)
  • πάθος (short penult)

Long ultima

When the vowel in the ultima is long, accent is forced forward to the penult. The type of accent is an acute, never a circumflex, no matter what the length of the penult.

• long penult:
  • ἀνθρώπου
  • δώρου
• short penult:
  • πάθους

Summary

This rule has a simpler summary: the morae between the accented mora and the last mora cannot belong to different syllables. This is best shown by placing words (here, σῶμα, σώματος, σωμάτων, φῶς) in a table, with consonants and morae of vowels divided into individual cells.

rest	V́	C	V	C	V	C
s	ó		o	m	a
so	ó	m	a	t	o	s
soom	á	t	o		o	n
ph	ó				o	s

See also

• Ancient Greek phonology
• Pitch accent
• Syllable
  • Ultima (linguistics)