Accenting of ἀποκρίνεσθέ

[Wes Wood]

Why does this particular word have two accents? When I was checking my accenting of this word, this is how it appeared in Perseus. I will make the font bigger below.


ἀποκρίνεσθέ

[Thomas Dolhanty]

Why does this particular word have two accents? When I was checking my accenting of this word, this is how it appeared in Perseus. I will make the font bigger below.

ἀποκρίνεσθέ

The only place I can find in the literature that it appears with two accents is when it is followed by an enclitic, where you expect the second accent on the ultima.

[Wes Wood]

I assumed the same thing. I suspected that the 'problem' was in the way that Perseus returned the entry. There was only one entry for the word in its database, and I believed that it pulled that form to display. I didn't have anything else to compare it to, and I am not comfortable enough with accenting rules to know if that were the reason or not. Since you have looked at it in other contexts (and are most likely much more comfortable with proclitics and enclitics), I am satisfied that is the answer. I just wanted to verify. Thank you!

[Thomas Dolhanty]

Yes, I’m sure you’re right; it was pulled from some context and the accent was not adjusted. I’ve done that a few times! Before an enclitic, a second accent is added to the word on the ultima - providing that neither the ultima nor the penult already has an accent, as in:

καὶ λέγουσίν μοι – Rev 12:10
ᾧ δέδωκάς μοι – John 17:11

This, of course, should be reflected in the pronunciation where the whole unit - preceding word + enclitic - is pronounced as one word with 2 accents.