υ before ξ

Vasile Stancu
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Re: υ before ξ

Post by Vasile Stancu »

What do you think: supposing that the correct prononciation is [tevksis] or [tefksis], would the ε in the original greek word be a short vowel, or a long one?

I know that ε is always short, but in such circumstance the circumflex accent would have no meaning unless ευ is pronounced as a diphtongue, rather than a short vowel followed by a consonant. And if it is true that the accents started to be used at in a period of time which was relatively close (or perhaps overlapping) to the NT times, then the writers who applied the circumflex on words such as τεῦξις did so precisely as an indication that ευ was to be pronounced as a diphtongue.
Stephen Carlson
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Re: υ before ξ

Post by Stephen Carlson »

At the time the combination ευ became pronounced as ef/ev is about the same time that the vowel length distinctions were lost and both the acute and circumflex accents merged into a stress accent.
Stephen C. Carlson, Ph.D.
Melbourne, Australia
Vasile Stancu
Posts: 46
Joined: May 31st, 2011, 3:13 am
Location: Timisoara, Romania
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Re: υ before ξ

Post by Vasile Stancu »

Stephen Carlson wrote:At the time the combination ευ became pronounced as ef/ev is about the same time that the vowel length distinctions were lost and both the acute and circumflex accents merged into a stress accent.
I can understand this; however, can anybody describe a possible scenario where a writer, living in the time when accents were just employed in their incipient phase, writing the word τευξις and then reviewing his writing and deciding to place a circumflex accent on diphtong ευ, finalizing thus the word to be displayed as τεῦξις? What was in his mind in doing so? I insist: he was one of the first persons to ever place an accent on the words he was writing; whatever the pronounciation tradition/pactice of his time, what reason could he have to place an accent which would have no meaning in terms of actual pronounciation?
Stephen Carlson
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Re: υ before ξ

Post by Stephen Carlson »

Supposedly, the accents were invented in the 3rd cenutury BCE, at a time when ευ was an actual diphthong.
Stephen C. Carlson, Ph.D.
Melbourne, Australia
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