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 (3 of 9)	Previous | Next

The circumflex accent (, also or ) represents a rise in pitch over the first mora of a long vowel followed by a return to standard pitch over the second mora of the same vowel. Thus the whole contonation occurs within a single syllable. The circumflex cannot appear over a short vowel, since a short vowel is too short to allow time for both rise and fall. It may appear on P or U, but never on A. It may appear on P only when U is short, because of the general rule of contonation and mora.

In addition, it is a rule in ancient Greek that an accented long P that is followed by short U must have the circumflex. Conversely, an accented long P that is followed by long U must have the acute.

στρατιῶται – circumflex on long P (only with short U)

δῶρον – circumflex on long P (only with short U)

ἀρχαῖος – circumflex on long P (only with short U)

ὁδοῦ – circumflex on long U

ἀρετῇ – circumflex on long U