Quantitative metathesis
Encyclopedia
Quantitative metathesis (or transfer of quantity) is a specific form of metathesis
or transposition (a sound change
) involving quantity or vowel length
. By this process, two vowel
s near each other – one long, one short – switch their lengths, so that the long one becomes short, and the short one becomes long.
In theory, the definition includes both
and
but Ancient Greek
, which the term was originally created to describe, displays only the former, since the process is part of long-vowel shortening.
and Ionic
dialects of Greek, ēo and ēa often exchange length, becoming eō and eā.
This quantitative metathesis is more accurately described as one form of long-vowel shortening. Usually if quantitative metathesis affects a word, other kinds of shortening do as well, in the forms where quantitative metathesis cannot occur:
In general, the vowels affected by this shortening were separated by the Proto-Indo-European
semivocalic
versions of u or i, usually deleted in later Greek: w (written ϝ
or υ̯ ) or y (written ι̯ ).
form of the genitive singular in the masculine first declension
sometimes undergoes quantitative metathesis:
The Attic genitive singular Πηλεΐδ-ου Pēleíd-ou uses a copy of the second-declension
ending, which came from the same original form as the Thessalian Aeolic
ending -oio (used in Homer) — o-syo, thematic vowel o and case-ending -syo). The Homeric form comes from the same case ending, with the first-declension pseudo-thematic vowel ā.
(known as the "Attic declension
") lengthen the o, oi of the ending to ō, ōi. Sometimes this is quantitative metathesis:
But sometimes, when a long vowel occurs in the ending, ē is shortened to e without an accompanying lengthening of the vowel in the ending (but ou changes to ō to follow the other forms):
noun
s had, in Proto-Indo-European
, stems in -u or -i in zero-grade, -ew or -ey in short e-grade, and -ēw or -ēy in long ē-grade. Others had -āw with no variation in ablaut grade, which changed in some forms to ēw, by the Attic-Ionic ā → ē shift.
In many cases, the w or j was deleted, but sometimes it is preserved as the last element of a diphthong
(-eus, -aus).
Stems with ē underwent shortening in Classical Attic-Ionic, but early forms with long ē are preserved in Homer
to maintain the original meter. Some forms exemplify the quantitative-metathesis type of shortening:
The accent of the genitive singular of the last two words violates the rules of accentuation. Normally the long vowel of the last syllable would force the accent forward to the second-to-last syllable, giving *πολέως *poléōs and *ἀστέως *astéōs, but instead the accent remains where it was before shortening.
Other forms of these nouns shorten ē to e, but because the vowel of the ending is long, no quantitative metathesis occurs:
Some forms shorten ē to e before i according to the analogue of the other forms, but without lengthening the i:
Other forms involve no shortening, since they come from a short e-grade form of the stem. The accent of the genitive plural is sometimes irregular because it follows the analogue of the genitive singular:
forms:
Metathesis (linguistics)
Metathesis is the re-arranging of sounds or syllables in a word, or of words in a sentence. Most commonly it refers to the switching of two or more contiguous sounds, known as adjacent metathesis or local metathesis:...
or transposition (a sound change
Sound change
Sound change includes any processes of language change that affect pronunciation or sound system structures...
) involving quantity or vowel length
Vowel length
In linguistics, vowel length is the perceived duration of a vowel sound. Often the chroneme, or the "longness", acts like a consonant, and may etymologically be one, such as in Australian English. While not distinctive in most dialects of English, vowel length is an important phonemic factor in...
. By this process, two vowel
Vowel
In phonetics, a vowel is a sound in spoken language, such as English ah! or oh! , pronounced with an open vocal tract so that there is no build-up of air pressure at any point above the glottis. This contrasts with consonants, such as English sh! , where there is a constriction or closure at some...
s near each other – one long, one short – switch their lengths, so that the long one becomes short, and the short one becomes long.
In theory, the definition includes both
- long-short → short-long
and
- short-long → long-short,
but Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek is the stage of the Greek language in the periods spanning the times c. 9th–6th centuries BC, , c. 5th–4th centuries BC , and the c. 3rd century BC – 6th century AD of ancient Greece and the ancient world; being predated in the 2nd millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek...
, which the term was originally created to describe, displays only the former, since the process is part of long-vowel shortening.
Greek
In the AtticAttic Greek
Attic Greek is the prestige dialect of Ancient Greek that was spoken in Attica, which includes Athens. Of the ancient dialects, it is the most similar to later Greek, and is the standard form of the language studied in courses of "Ancient Greek". It is sometimes included in Ionic.- Origin and range...
and Ionic
Ionic Greek
Ionic Greek was a subdialect of the Attic–Ionic dialect group of Ancient Greek .-History:Ionic dialect appears to have spread originally from the Greek mainland across the Aegean at the time of the Dorian invasions, around the 11th Century B.C.By the end of the Greek Dark Ages in the 5th Century...
dialects of Greek, ēo and ēa often exchange length, becoming eō and eā.
This quantitative metathesis is more accurately described as one form of long-vowel shortening. Usually if quantitative metathesis affects a word, other kinds of shortening do as well, in the forms where quantitative metathesis cannot occur:
- ēwo → eō (quantitative metathesis)
- ēws → ews (shortening of long diphthong before consonant)
- ēi → ei (analogical shortening)
In general, the vowels affected by this shortening were separated by the Proto-Indo-European
Proto-Indo-European language
The Proto-Indo-European language is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Indo-European languages, spoken by the Proto-Indo-Europeans...
semivocalic
Semivowel
In phonetics and phonology, a semivowel is a sound, such as English or , that is phonetically similar to a vowel sound but functions as the syllable boundary rather than as the nucleus of a syllable.-Classification:...
versions of u or i, usually deleted in later Greek: w (written ϝ
Digamma
Digamma is an archaic letter of the Greek alphabet which originally stood for the sound /w/ and later remained in use only as a numeral symbol for the number "6"...
or υ̯ ) or y (written ι̯ ).
First declension
The HomericHomeric Greek
Homeric Greek is the form of the Greek language that was used by Homer in the Iliad and Odyssey. It is an archaic version of Ionic Greek, with admixtures from certain other dialects, such as Aeolic Greek. It later served as the basis of Epic Greek, the language of epic poetry, typically in...
form of the genitive singular in the masculine first declension
First declension
The first declension is a category of mostly feminine nouns in Latin and Ancient Greek with the defining feature of a long ā...
sometimes undergoes quantitative metathesis:
- Πηλεΐδης Pēleídēs (patronymPatronymicA patronym, or patronymic, is a component of a personal name based on the name of one's father, grandfather or an even earlier male ancestor. A component of a name based on the name of one's mother or a female ancestor is a matronymic. Each is a means of conveying lineage.In many areas patronyms...
from Πηλεύς Pēleús: "PeleusPeleusIn Greek mythology, Pēleus was a hero whose myth was already known to the hearers of Homer in the late 8th century BCE. Peleus was the son of Aeacus, king of the island of Aegina, and Endeïs, the oread of Mount Pelion in Thessaly; he was the father of Achilles...
-son", AchillesAchillesIn Greek mythology, Achilles was a Greek hero of the Trojan War, the central character and the greatest warrior of Homer's Iliad.Plato named Achilles the handsomest of the heroes assembled against Troy....
)
- Πηλεΐδᾱο Pēleídāo → *Πηλεΐδηο *Pēleídēo → Πηλεΐδεω Pēleídeō (genitive singular; alternate form Πηληϊάδεω Pēlēiádeō in the first line of the IliadIliadThe Iliad is an epic poem in dactylic hexameters, traditionally attributed to Homer. Set during the Trojan War, the ten-year siege of the city of Troy by a coalition of Greek states, it tells of the battles and events during the weeks of a quarrel between King Agamemnon and the warrior Achilles...
)
The Attic genitive singular Πηλεΐδ-ου Pēleíd-ou uses a copy of the second-declension
Second declension
The second declension is a category of nouns in Latin and Greek with similar case formation. In particular, these nouns are thematic, with an original o in most of their forms. In Classical Latin the short o of the nominative and accusative singular became u.Both Latin and Greek have two basic...
ending, which came from the same original form as the Thessalian Aeolic
Aeolic Greek
Aeolic Greek is a linguistic term used to describe a set of dialects of Ancient Greek spoken mainly in Boeotia , Thessaly, and in the Aegean island of Lesbos and the Greek colonies of Asia Minor ....
ending -oio (used in Homer) — o-syo, thematic vowel o and case-ending -syo). The Homeric form comes from the same case ending, with the first-declension pseudo-thematic vowel ā.
Second declension
Nouns in a small subclass of the second declensionSecond declension
The second declension is a category of nouns in Latin and Greek with similar case formation. In particular, these nouns are thematic, with an original o in most of their forms. In Classical Latin the short o of the nominative and accusative singular became u.Both Latin and Greek have two basic...
(known as the "Attic declension
Attic declension
The Attic declension is a group of second-declension nouns and adjectives in the Attic dialect of Ancient Greek, all of whose endings have long vowels. In contrast, normal second-declension nouns have some short vowels and some long vowels...
") lengthen the o, oi of the ending to ō, ōi. Sometimes this is quantitative metathesis:
- Ionic ληός lēós (from λᾱϝός lāwós) → Attic λεώς "people"
- ληοί lēoí → λεῴ leōí (nominative plural)
But sometimes, when a long vowel occurs in the ending, ē is shortened to e without an accompanying lengthening of the vowel in the ending (but ou changes to ō to follow the other forms):
- ληοῦ lēoú → λεώ leṓ (genitive singular)
- ληῷ → λεῴ leōí (dative singular)
Third declension
Some third-declensionThird declension
The third declension is a category of nouns in Latin and Greek with broadly similar case formation — diverse stems, but similar endings. In contrast with the first- and second-declension endings, those of the third declension lack a theme vowel and so are called athematic.One distinguishing...
noun
Noun
In linguistics, a noun is a member of a large, open lexical category whose members can occur as the main word in the subject of a clause, the object of a verb, or the object of a preposition .Lexical categories are defined in terms of how their members combine with other kinds of...
s had, in Proto-Indo-European
Proto-Indo-European language
The Proto-Indo-European language is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Indo-European languages, spoken by the Proto-Indo-Europeans...
, stems in -u or -i in zero-grade, -ew or -ey in short e-grade, and -ēw or -ēy in long ē-grade. Others had -āw with no variation in ablaut grade, which changed in some forms to ēw, by the Attic-Ionic ā → ē shift.
In many cases, the w or j was deleted, but sometimes it is preserved as the last element of a diphthong
Diphthong
A diphthong , also known as a gliding vowel, refers to two adjacent vowel sounds occurring within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: That is, the tongue moves during the pronunciation of the vowel...
(-eus, -aus).
Stems with ē underwent shortening in Classical Attic-Ionic, but early forms with long ē are preserved in Homer
Homer
In the Western classical tradition Homer , is the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, and is revered as the greatest ancient Greek epic poet. These epics lie at the beginning of the Western canon of literature, and have had an enormous influence on the history of literature.When he lived is...
to maintain the original meter. Some forms exemplify the quantitative-metathesis type of shortening:
- βασιλεύς basileús (shortened from *βασιλήϝς ) "king"
- HomericHomeric GreekHomeric Greek is the form of the Greek language that was used by Homer in the Iliad and Odyssey. It is an archaic version of Ionic Greek, with admixtures from certain other dialects, such as Aeolic Greek. It later served as the basis of Epic Greek, the language of epic poetry, typically in...
(early AtticAttic GreekAttic Greek is the prestige dialect of Ancient Greek that was spoken in Attica, which includes Athens. Of the ancient dialects, it is the most similar to later Greek, and is the standard form of the language studied in courses of "Ancient Greek". It is sometimes included in Ionic.- Origin and range...
-IonicIonic GreekIonic Greek was a subdialect of the Attic–Ionic dialect group of Ancient Greek .-History:Ionic dialect appears to have spread originally from the Greek mainland across the Aegean at the time of the Dorian invasions, around the 11th Century B.C.By the end of the Greek Dark Ages in the 5th Century...
) βασιλῆος basilêos (from βασιλῆϝος basilêwos) → Classical Attic βασιλέως basiléōs (genitive singular) - βασιλῆα basilêa → βασιλέᾱ basiléā (accusative singular)
- βασιλῆας basilêas → βασιλέᾱς basiléās (accusative plural)
- Attic ναῦς naûs "ship" (from *νᾱῦς *nāûs by shortening of ā: LatinLatinLatin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
nāv-is)
- νηός nēós (from *νᾱϝός *nāwós) → νεώς ) (genitive singular)
- πόλις pólis "city"
- πόληος pólēos (from *πόληι̯ος *pólēyos) → πόλεως póleōs (genitive singular)
- ἄστυ ástu "town"
- *ἄστηος *ástēos (from *ϝάστηϝος *wástēwos) → ἄστεως ásteōs (genitive singular)
The accent of the genitive singular of the last two words violates the rules of accentuation. Normally the long vowel of the last syllable would force the accent forward to the second-to-last syllable, giving *πολέως *poléōs and *ἀστέως *astéōs, but instead the accent remains where it was before shortening.
Other forms of these nouns shorten ē to e, but because the vowel of the ending is long, no quantitative metathesis occurs:
- *βασιλήων → βασιλέων basiléōn (genitive plural)
Some forms shorten ē to e before i according to the analogue of the other forms, but without lengthening the i:
- Homeric βασιλῆi basilêi → Attic βασιλεῖ basileî (dative singular)
Other forms involve no shortening, since they come from a short e-grade form of the stem. The accent of the genitive plural is sometimes irregular because it follows the analogue of the genitive singular:
- *πολέι̯-ων poléy-ōn → πόλεων póleōn (genitive plural — re-accented after genitive singular)
- *ϝαστέϝ-ων → ἄστεων ásteōn (also re-accented)
Participle
The perfect participle of the verb θνῄσκω thnēískō "die" undergoes vowel shortening, and quantitative metathesis in the obliqueOblique case
An oblique case in linguistics is a noun case of synthetic languages that is used generally when a noun is the object of a verb or a preposition...
forms:
- *τεθνηϝώτς → τεθνεώς "dead" (masculine nominative singular: perfect with stative meaning)
- *τεθνηϝότος *tethnēwótos → τεθνεῶτος tethneôtos (masculine/neuter genitive singular)
See also
- Metathesis (linguistics)Metathesis (linguistics)Metathesis is the re-arranging of sounds or syllables in a word, or of words in a sentence. Most commonly it refers to the switching of two or more contiguous sounds, known as adjacent metathesis or local metathesis:...
- Ancient Greek nouns: Vowel-stems