A grammar of the Homeric dialect - Wilbourhall.org

373-] LENGTHENING BEFORE LIQUIDS. 345
s re VL()a$,
KaAin/fe, ore crevatro, ov TL jmaAa 8771;,
and the like.
crvv e ve-
These facts lead us to connect the lengthening now in question
with the peculiar doubling of the initial consonant which we
see in Compounds, as aTro-ppiVrco, v-ppoos, a-ppr]KTos, rpi-AAii(f)o$, e7n-o-p, &c.), or the Adverb Srju.
The same may
be said of paKos, priyw^i^ pvo^ai, prjros, pnrra), piov, also /u,a\aKoj,
jueAirj, vi(j)ds. Lengthening is also the rule, subject
to few
exceptions, with AtVo-o//at, Ao^o?, vtcfros, vtvpri, ptvos, poos, pafibos,
/oi'fa,
and some others (La Roche, H. U. pp. 47 ff.).
372.] Origin of the lengthening.* The most probable account
of the matter is that most of the roots or stems affected originally
began with two consonants, one of which was lost by phonetic
decay. Thus initial p may stand for fp (as
in Fpriy-vvfja), or ap
(as *o-peo)^ Sanscrit sravdmi) : Ai? is probably for XFis (with a
weaker Stem than the form seen in AeT-coy)
: vvos is for crvvos
(Sanscr. snus/id) : vify-as goes back to a root sneibh, (Goth, snaivs,
snow) : jjiolpa is probably from a root smer : (reA/a,a is for a^cAjita
(Curt. s. v.) and 8ei- in : det-z/o's &c. is for Sfet- (cp.
Sei'-Souta for
be-bFoiKo).
It is not indeed necessary to maintain that in these
cases the lost consonant was pronounced at the time when the
Homeric poems were composed. We have only to suppose that
fa& particular combination in question had established itself in the
usage of the language before the two consonants were reduced
by phonetic decay to one. Thus we may either suppose (e.g^)
that Kara poov in the time of Homer was still
pronounced Kara
o-pooy, or that certain combinations Kara-o-peco, eu-a-pooj, Kara
crpoov, &c. passed into Kara-ppeco, eu-ppoo?, Kara ppoov (or Kara
poov). There are several instances in which a second form of a
word appears in combinations of a fixed type. Thus we have
*
On this subject the chief sources of information are, La Roche, Homerische
Untersuchungen (pp. 49-65) ; Hartel, Homerische Studien (Pt. i. pp. 1-55) ;
and
Knos, De Digammo Homerico Quaestiones (Pt. iii.
225 ff.).