A grammar of the Homeric dialect - Wilbourhall.org

404.] DIGAMMA IN THE DIALECTS. 381
F in the body of a word are, the compound
and a ere'es), group of derivatives of aetSw (avXaFvbos, rpaya-
Fvbos, &c.).
The same rule applies to the Arcadian inscriptions,
which however are too few to be of importance. The further
progress of decay may be seen in the Doric dialect of Heraclea,
of which a specimen remains in the well known Tabulae lleracleenses
(of the 4th cent.).
We there find Fe, feros, Fibios, FLKCITL
and the compound ey-f^Ar^iWri = ( e-eiAr705*?}j). In
these forms the F is vocalised ; cp. Homeric avia^os ( = a-Fia)(os),
evade, raXavpivos.
It is necessary here to notice a group of uses of the F in which
it seems to have been developed from a neighbouring vowel (u or
The vowel
o).
usually precedes, as in Laconian edTJdofas, ebr/boFe,
Corcyrean apio-TtvFovTa, Boeotian EvFapa, fiaKtvFai, Cyprian
EvF\6u>v, EvFayopa), Kareo-Keufao-e : but we also find TAao-to/o
(Corcyr.), rikyaFos (Cypr.), Ti^oxapiFos (Cypr.), Fori (Locr.).
So perhaps the Boeotian avXaFvbos, rpayaFvbos, &c. (see above).
With the former instances we might compare Italian Genova,
Padova (for Genua, Padua) with the latter the n of Italian
;
uomO) uopo, the w of whole, the provincial English wuts for oats,
&c. With fort we should compare the form Na/^aKrios, also
Locrian. Both are exceptional, and indeed must be considered
as mere errors
*
: but they help to show how near F was to a
pure vowel sound. It is evident that this redundant F, growing
* The ordinary form NaviraKTOs occurs on the inscription 19 times, the
form with Naf - only once. Similarly against the single instance of fort are
to be set 2 instances of on, and 5 others of the Relative os, in the older
Locrian inscription. See Allen in Curt. Stud. iii. p. 252 ; Brugmann, ibid. iv.
p. 133, n. 57 : Tudeer, De digammo, p. 45.