Musical Evidence for Low Boundary Tones in Ancient Greek

Several scholars have suggested that in ancient Greek there was a low boundary tone at the end of a relatively small prosodic constituent such as a clitic group or maximal prosodic word. The boundary tone may phonologically motivate some puzzling pitch-accentual phenomena in the language. One is the diachronic pitch-peak retraction that led to the circumflex pitch accent (HL) on penultimate syllables (the “sōtêra rule”). Another is the intonational phrase-internal downstepping or deletion of a word-final acute accent (H); that conversion of an acute to a grave accent is known as “lulling” or “koímēsis”. If such a low boundary tone existed, its effects should still be audible in ancient Greek non-strophic vocal music, where there is a significant correlation between the pitch movement of the text and the movement of the melody to which it is set, i.e. between tone and tune. Specifically, proponents of such a low boundary tone would predict that the turning point between falling and rising melody, the “musical trough”, should center around the word-final mora or syllable. The present study provides the first full description of troughs in the Delphic Hymns and finds that they are indeed closely aligned with word-end. Furthermore, once other factors that could lead to word-final troughs are set aside, i.e. once potential confounds are controlled for, the association of the trough with word-end remains strong, suggesting that we should in fact reconstruct the low boundary tone

Discontinuity in Vedic Prose

What does hyperbaton mean in Vedic prose and under which conditions does it arise

Accentuation

The accent marks in modern editions of Ancient Greek texts primarily reflect the accentual system of an educated register of the Koine of the early 2nd c. BCE. In this system, phonological, morphological, and lexical factors conspire to associate a pitch accent with one syllable of each lexical word. The phonology of the language permits limited contrasts in accentual position (λιθοβόλος vs. λιθόβολος = lithobólos vs. lithóbolos) and type (ἰσθμοί vs. ἰσθμοῖ = isthmói ̯ vs. isthmôi)̯; in the latter case, the syllable marked with an acute accent hosts a High tone, and that marked with a circumflex hosts a High-Low falling contour tone. In any given form, the maximum number of phonologically licit accentual contrasts is three. Within the bounds set by the phonology, morphological, and lexical factors, e.g. the inherent accentual properties of particular suffixes, further determine the accentuation of a word. Comparison with related Indo-European languages, especially Vedic, shows that the Greek system developed from an earlier system that likely lacked a contrast in accent type but permitted more positional contrasts; Greek accentuation is more dependent on the rhythmic structure of the language

Wheeler\u27s Law

“Wheeler’s Law” refers to a phonologically conditioned accent retraction process reconstructed for an early pandialectal stage of Greek by which oxytone words became paroxytone if they ended in a heavy-light-light syllable sequence (HLL), e.g. *[poi̯ kilós] \u3e [poi̯ kílos] ‘multicolored’, *[dedegmenós] \u3e [dedegménos] ‘awaiting, expecting’ (LHLL). Note that word-final syllables ending in a short vowel followed by one consonant (e.g. [os]) count as light for Wheeler’s Law, just as they do for the Law of Limitation. The accent retraction was originally proposed by Benjamin Ide Wheeler (1854–1927) in 1885; for further insights, analysis, and references, see Probert 2006

Law of Limitation

The ‘Law of Limitation’ refers to a phonological process that limits how far from the end of a word an accent may be located: if the word-final syllable is light, the accent may be located as far from the end of the word as the antepenult, e.g. εὑρήματα[heu̯ rέːmata] ‘discoveries (nom./acc. neuter plural)’, ἐβούλευε [ebóːleu̯ u̯ e] ‘(s)he was deliberating (impf. 3 sg.)’; if the word-final syllable is heavy, the accent may be located as far from word-end as the penult, e.g. εὑρημάτων [heu̯ rεːmátɔːn] ‘discoveries (gen. n. pl.)’, βουλεύω [boːléu̯ u̯ ɔː] ‘I am deliberating (pres. 1 sg.)’ (Göttling 1835:21–28; Steriade 1988:273–275). For the Law of Limitation, a single word-final consonant does not affect weight. Final syllables ending in a short vowel (-V#) and those ending in a short vowel followed by a single consonant (-VC#) both count as light, e.g. βασίλεια [basílei̯ i̯ a] ‘queen (nom. sg.)’, βασίλειαν [basílei̯ i̯ an] ‘queen (acc.)’. All other syllable rhymes count as heavy, e.g. -VCC# in ἀστύτριψ [astútrips] ‘always living in the city’. Wordfinal diphthongs pose a slight complication. As for the Sotera Rule, word-final -οι [-oi̯ ] and -αι [- ai̯ ] are treated as light rhymes in -VC#, e.g. φιλόσοφοι [philósophoi̯ ] ‘philosophers’ like φιλόσοφος [philósophos] ‘philosopher’, βασίλειαι [basílei̯ i̯ ai̯ ] ‘queens (nom. pl.)’ like βασίλειαν [basílei̯ i̯ an], with the exception of 3 sg. opt. act. -οι [-oi̯ ] and -αι [-ai̯ ], which are treated together with all other word-final long vowels and diphthongs as heavy -VV# rhymes, e.g. παιδεύοι [pai̯ déu̯ u̯ oi̯ ], παιδεύσαι [paidéu̯ sai̯ ] like παιδεύω [pai̯ déu̯ u̯ ɔː] ‘I am educating’. Note that the -οι [- oi̯ ] of locatival adverbs such as οἴκοι [ói̯ koi̯ ] ‘at home’ are also treated as -VV# rhymes, but the evidence comes from the non-application of the Sotera Rule, not the Law of Limitation

The Sanskrit Source of the Tocharian 4x25-Syllable Meter

Were Tocharian meters influenced by Indic meters, and if so, to what extent? Since the outset of Tocharian studies, the prevalent opinion has been that the Tocharian metrical tradition, which is shared by both Tocharian languages, is independent of the Indian tradition. In Sieg and Siegling\u27s original formulation, Die tocharische Metrik scheint selbständig dazustehen und nicht der indischen entlehnt zu sein (1921:x).1 The supposed independence of the metrical form of Tocharian poetry may seem surprising given that the poetic texts are translations and adaptations of Buddhist Sanskrit originals. Furthermore, the Tocharian Buddhists did adopt the form of narration known as campū, in which prose and verse alternate.2 However, Tibetan shows that it is possible to retain and modify indigenous meters for the translation/adaptation of Sanskrit texts

\u3cem\u3eGreek and Latin from an Indo-European Perspective\u3c/em\u3e (Book Review)

Review of the book, Greek and Latin from an Indo-European Perspective edited by Coulter George, Matthew McCullagh, Benedicte Nielsen, Antonia Ruppel, and Olga Tribulato. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 200

The emergence of foot structure as a factor in the formation of Greek verbal nouns in -μα(τ)-

This study is concerned with the relationship between word formation and foot structure in Ancient Greek. Evidence for foot structure in the language has previously been primarily sough in patterns of versification and in accentual phenomena, especially the recessive accent calculus.2 Here, I offer an analysis of a change in word formation that affected the productive class of verbal nouns in -μα(τ)I- (§2). I propose that the innovative word formation pattern reflects Trochaic Shortening, a process whereby word-final H(eavy)L(ight) syllable sequences are converted to LL sequences (§3.1). Since Trochaic Shortening is though to be found only in languages with moraic trochaic feet, the analysis presented here corroborates studies such as Golston 1990 that have analyzed Greek as such a language on the independent grounds (§3.2)

Introduction

The present volume unites fifteen studies on language and meter. For the most part, the articles began as lectures delivered during the interdisciplinary conference on Language and Meter in Diachrony and Synchrony, which was hosted in Munich from September 2nd-4th, 2013 by the Department of Historical and Indo-European Linguistics at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München. The study of language and meter has profited from numerous advances over the last several hundred years. Scholars have produced accurate editions of poetic texts, added linguistic theory to description, utilized quantitative methods to test hypotheses, and provided descriptions and analyses of a relatively broad range of metrical traditions. To quote an influential handbook article on meter (Brogan 1993: 781), Linguistics, texts, theory, and data- these are the essential preliminaries. At the turn of the 21st c., pretty much everything still remains to be done. In our view, the contributions to this volume make a respectable amount of headway on numerous fronts. In the following overview, we intend to give a sense of the breadth of topics and traditions treated in the contributions as well as their relationship to previous scholarship

Language and Meter

In Language and Meter, Dieter Gunkel and Olav Hackstein unite fifteen linguistic studies on a variety of poetic traditions, including the Homeric epics, the hieratic hymns of the Ṛgveda, the Gathas of the Avesta, early Latin and the Sabellic compositions, Germanic alliterative verse, Insular Celtic court poetry, and Tocharian metrical texts. The studies treat a broad range of topics, including the prehistory of the hexameter, the nature of Homeric formulae, the structure of Vedic verse, rhythm in the Gathas, and the relationship between Germanic and Celtic poetic traditions. The volume contributes to our understanding of the relationship between language and poetic form, and how they change over time.https://scholarship.richmond.edu/bookshelf/1318/thumbnail.jp