TOPICS

Accent and Accent-Marking in Ancient Greek

Contonation and Mora

The Last 3 Syllables and the Accents
•acute
•circumflex
•grave
•ultima
•penult
•antepenult
•more examples

Proclitics

Enclitics

Multiple Clitics

Traditional Terminology

Persistent Accentuation
• a- and o-declension
• consonant declension

Recessive Accentuation

The Last Three Syllables and the Accents (2 of 9)	Previous | Next

The acute accent ( ´ ) represents a rise in pitch over a short or long vowel. It may appear on A, P, or U. But it may appear on A only when U is short, because of the general rule of contonation and mora. The contonation includes the syllable with the acute and the following syllable, if there is one. The contonation is underlined in the following examples.

ἄνεμος – acute on short A (only with short U)
βούλομαι – acute on long A (only with short U)

ἀνθρώπων – acute on long P (U must be long: see rule)
δημοκρατία – acute on short P
πόνος – acute on short P

ὁδός – acute on short U
ἀρετή – acute on long U