Rules of Accent

In our study of nouns (and later, of verbs), you will likely notice that the accent mark frequently changes its position. In order to understand why this happens, we must bear in mind that Koine Greek was not merely a written language, but a spoken language as well. When a phonetic pattern seems awkward to us (even though we often do not understand why it is) we have a tendency to stress a word differently (e.g., ceremony and ceremonial). This is true for Greek as well, but fortunately there are some guidelines to help us predict these changes. Note: For now it is best that you focus your efforts on understanding the endings of nouns instead of worrying about where the accent mark should appear. Rules of Accent (given on p. 159 in Essentials) 1. As pictured below, the acute accent can fall on any of the last three syllables,

the circumflex on the last two, and the grave only on the ultima. Antepenult Penult Ultima v v v : : ; 2. The acute accent cannot stand on the antepenult when the ultima is long;

in this case it will move to the penult. 3. The acute accent cannot stand on a long penult before a short ultima; in this case it will change to a circumflex accent. 4. The acute accent cannot stand on the ultima when followed immediately by another accented word; in this case it will change to a grave accent. 5. The circumflex accent can only stand on a long syllable. 6. The circumflex accent cannot stand on the penult when the ultima is long. 7. Diphthongs are considered long except where oi and ai end a word. 8. The accent in nouns is said to be retentive; that is, it remains on the same syllable as the nominative singular as nearly as the rules of accent permit. 9. The accent in verbs is said to be recessive; that is, it stands as far from the ultima as the rules of accent permit. Exercises: Circle the correctly accented word, and cite the rule(s) that apply. 1. a[ggelou ajggevlou 4. dou:lou douvlou 2. dou:loV douvloV 5. a[nqrwpoi ajnqrwvpoi 3. ajdelfovV kurivou ajdelfo;V kurivou 6. uiJoiv uiJoi:

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