DIACRITIC MARKS INTRODUCTION |
Hellenistic Diacritics multiaccented polytonic system |
STRESS: Okseia-Vareia Perispomene |
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Modern Diacritic Marks: monotonic system |
Stress: just the mark ' over the vowel that is louder. At binary vowels, it is placed on the second. Monosyllabic words are not stressed at all (except to distinguish identical ones).
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HELLENISTIC DIACRITIC MARKS polytonic (multiaccented) system (since 1982 the monotonic system is official) click glyphs &#...; for GREEK EXTENDED FONT-CODES. See various diacritics of the polytonic greek system. |
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STRESS DIACRITIC MARKS: (tones) τόνoς [`tonos] (tone) plural:τόνoι [`toni] |
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help: GREEK ALPHABET
i.p.a. for greek |
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S T R E S S |
symbol and name |
position |
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/ |
oξεία [o`ksia] okseia |
↑DESCRIPTION It looks like leftward-stroke / and the acute accent (the french «accent aigu»). |
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↑PRONUNCIATION: louder syllable. Before prosody was lost it would have been pronounced in an acute way as carrying the voice further ahead, up. |
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\ e.g. ὰ |
βαρεία [va`ria] vareia |
↑DESCRIPTION It looks like right-stroke / and the french «accent grave». |
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↑PRONUNCIATION: Louder syllable. Presumably it had to do with the general tone of voice (giving the impression of non-ending phrase). The nuance was so subtle, that only philologists insisted on using it during modern times (while okseia and perispomene were of standard use till 1982). |
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~ e.g. ᾱ or α̃ or ᾶ |
περισπωμένη [perispo`meni] perispomene |
↑DESCRIPTION A bit like «accent circonflexe». Its shape varies. I like the wavy shape ~. |
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↑PRONUNCIATION: Louder syllable. From its name, it is supposed to represent an up-and-down intonation. |
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↑ BREATHING DIACRITIC MARKS πνεύμα [`pnevma] (pneuma) plural:πνεύματα [`pnevmata] |
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The alexandrian scholars wanted to mark the ancient /h/ sound that occurred at the beginning of some words, which was already lost during their hellenistic times. They created the daseia mark (aspirate). Oddly, instead of leaving alone all the normal arctic (beginning) sounds, they also created the opposite sign: psile, which indicated the abscence of any sound. |
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B R E T H I N G |
‘ |
δασεία [δa`sia] daseia |
↑latin name: spiritus asper |
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’ |
ψιλή [psi`li] psile |
↑latin name: spiritus lenis |
MODERN GREEK DIACRITIC MARKS |
STRESS MARK |
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All you have read above, all this complicated polytonic system with its little marks and gadgets is obsolete now. In 1982 a law was passed to abolish polytonic (multiaccented) spelling which had no pronunciation impact for centuries and centuries. Of the hellenistic accents only one stress mark remained at the strongest syllable, so now we have a monotonic script. |
DIALYTICS |
From the word: διαλύω dia-lyo= un-tie, dis-solve. |
examples of greek diacritics |
AI αι or with stress on second component αί = [e] But άι αϊ αΐ = [ai] or [ai] EI ει or with stress on second component εί = [i] But έι εϊ εΐ = [ei] or [ei] OI oι or with stress on second component oί = [i] But όι oϊ oΐ = [oi] or [oi] AY αυ or with stress on second component αύ = [af] or [av] But άυ αϋ αΰ = /ai/ EY ευ or with stress on second component εύ = [ef] or [ev] But έυ εϋ εΰ = /ei/ OY oυ or with stress on second component oύ = [u] But όυ oϋ oΰ = /oi/ |