A grammar of the Homeric dialect - Wilbourhall.org

l8o.] ACCENTUATION. 167
Cases, the general assumption made by the Greek grammarians
is that all Prepositions are oxytone. They do not recognise the
modern distinction according to which lv, els, and e are unaccented.
This distinction rests entirely on the practice of the
manuscripts (Chandler, p. 254), and apparently arises from the
accident of the smooth breathing and accent falling on the same
letter (Wackernagel, K. Z. xxix. 137).
Disyllabic Prepositions, however, are liable in certain cases
to become barytone. The exact determination of these cases was
a matter of much difficulty with the ancients, and unfortunately
we cannot now determine how far their dicta rest upon observation
of usage, and how far upon analogy and other theoretical
considerations. The chief points of the accepted doctrine are :
(1) The disyllabic Prepositions, except d/>t(|)t, dvru, avd, and
6id (except
also the dialectical forms Karat, viral, Trapai, aTrai,
virtip, Trport), are liable to ( '
Anastrophe that is to
;
say,
when
placed immediately after the Verb or the Case-form to which
they belong, they throw back the accent as
; Aovo-rj airo (
= airo-
\ova-rj), )^v Kara, w ITU, j^ax?7 tvt, Zecfrvpov VTTO, &c. Some held
that the insertion of 8e before the Preposition did not prevent
Anastrophe, and accordingly wrote So-e 6' OTTO, &c.
(2) Also, according to some, if the Prep, stands at the end of
a verse, or before a full stop (Schol.
A on II. 5. 283).
(3) Also, when it is equivalent to a Compound Verb ( 177) ;
as ezn, errt, Trepi, irdpa (for eu-eori, &c.).
So am (for avavTriQi)
;
although avd according to most authorities was not liable to
Anastrophe. Some wrote Trdpa yap 0eoi etVt /cat rj^Civ (II. 3. 440),
on the ground that in Trdp-eco-t the accent is on the syllable Trap-.
(4) Two Prepositions are barytone in the adverbial use,
airo when it is = aTioQev at a distance, and
exceedingly.
irepi when it is = Trepto-o-ws
To which some added VTTO (as rpo/xeet 5' VTTO yvia, &c.).
(5) Monosyllabic Prepositions when placed after the governed
word take the acute accent (as an equivalent for Anastrophe) ;
but only when they come at the end of the line. Some however
accented Od. 3. 137
KaAecrcrajue^a) ayopi]v es Trarra? 'A)(atouj.
Most Prepositions,
as appears from the Sanscrit accent, are
originally barytone, and the so-called Anastrophe is really the
retention of the accent in certain cases in which the Preposition
is emphatic, or has a comparatively independent place in the
sentence. Just as there is an orthotone eort and an enclitic eon
( ^7, i), so there is an orthotone Trept and a 'proclitic' Trept,
written Trepl before a governed Noun, but in reality unaccented.