Re: Two accents in one word??

Carl W. Conrad (cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu)
Mon, 6 Jan 1997 18:29:37 -0600

At 7:33 AM -0600 1/6/97, Carlton Winbery wrote:
>Jim Beale wrote;
>>
>>Both the 3rd edition and the 4th ed. of the UBS GNT has the form
>>PNEU/MATI/ in Romans 1:9. This couldn't possibly be correct, could
>>it?
>>
>Jim, the rule of accent is that if a word with an acute on the antepenult
>(third from last syllable) or a circumflex on the penult (second from
>last), it receives a second accent (acute) on the ultima (last syllable).

This is true IF, AND ONLY IF, the word in question is followed by an
enclitic (an accentless word that is deemed, for purposes of pronunciation
and accentuation, an addendum to the preceding word). In Romans 1:9 the
enclitic that follows is MOU. The reason for this is the instinctive horror
felt by a Greek speaker for an accent (pitch-mark in reality) more than
three syllables from the end of a word.

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University
One Brookings Drive, St. Louis, MO, USA 63130
(314) 935-4018
cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu OR cwc@oui.com
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/