A grammar of the Homeric dialect - Wilbourhall.org

358 METRE. [384-
Under the heading of ' doubtful vowels '
should be classed, not
only the words in which the same letter may stand either for a
long- or a short vowel, as "Aprjs, durjp,
but also those in which the
change is shown by the i.
spelling, e. in which a short vowel
interchanges with a long vowel or diphthong as vos and :
vrjos,
OVOIMCL and owo/ma, &c. And with these variations, again, we
may place, as at least kindred phenomena, the doubtful syllables
which arise from the interchange of single and double consonants
: 'Obvo-a-evs and 'OSvo-ev?, 'AxiAAev? and 'A)(iA.e7;9.
As
we speak of doubtful vowels, these might similarly be called
'
doubtful consonants/
In all such words the variation of quantity may either mean
that there were two distinct forms between which the poet had
a choice, or that the quantity as it existed in the spoken language
was in fact intermediate. The former case would usually arise
when a vowel or syllable which had come to be short in the
spoken language was allowed to retain its older quantity as a
poetical archaism. In the latter case the poet could give the
syllable either metrical value or
; (as
in so many instances) he
might treat the syllable as ordinarily short, but capable of being
lengthened by the ictus, or by the pauses of the verse.
384.] Doubtful vowels appear to rise chiefly in two ways:
(i)
vowel : viz.
By the shortening of a long vowel or diphthong before a
a, in tAaos (a in II. i. 583, a in II. 9. 639., 19. 178).
t),
in the oblique cases of vrjvs (except the Dat. vrj't)
and of
several Nouns in -eus, as IlrjATJos, UrjXtos
: the forms rjfarcu
and earat (rj^ai): dqbjry and d^erj ( 80); rjvs and tvs,
\rfioToi and XcfrmJ (II. 9. 408)
; perhaps also in prjiKes,
677109, rfia, which shorten v\
when the case-ending is naturally
long (0pT}fjca>p, 7710)1;, ?)uoi>, &c. scanned w w ,
unless we
suppose contraction or synizesis).
t, in leposj Kovirj, Xir\v : Comparatives in -iw : Patronymics, as
Kpoviav : to/zez;, fy/xi (d^tei, &c.), tatro), and Verbs in -iw, as
ruo, duo
(51, i) probably also in the abstract Nouns in
:
-ir],
the i
being treated as long in vTrepoTrAtr/, TrpoOv^irj,
i>7roeti7, ari/u?;, aKO/^toTtry.
u, in Verbs in -uw (51, 4).
cj, in Tjfpcoos (
w ^ in Od. 6. 303) : T^O), leg. rjpa'i (II. 7. 453).
ai, in act for atet, e/uTrcuos (
w w in Od. 20. 379), and the Compound
^afjiaievvaL, x a f JLCLLevv^ s ' a^so Verbs in -