Greek
In the Attic and Ionic dialects of Greek, ēo and ēa often exchange length, becoming eō and eā.
This quantitative metathesis is more accurately described as one form of long-vowel shortening. Usually if quantitative metathesis affects a word, other kinds of shortening do as well, in the forms where quantitative metathesis cannot occur:
- ēwo → eō (quantitative metathesis)
- ēws → ews (shortening of long diphthong before consonant)
- ēi → ei (analogical shortening)
In general, the vowels affected by this shortening were separated by the Proto-Indo-European semivocalic versions of u or i, usually deleted in later Greek: w (written ϝ or υ̯ ) or y (written ι̯ ).
Read more about this topic: Quantitative Metathesis
Famous quotes containing the word greek:
“Here Greek and Roman find themselves
Alive along these crowded shelves;
And Shakespeare treads again his stage,
And Chaucer paints anew his age.”
—John Greenleaf Whittier (1807–1892)
“The student may read Homer or Æschylus in the Greek without danger of dissipation or luxuriousness, for it implies that he in some measure emulate their heroes, and consecrate morning hours to their pages.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“That is a very good question. I don’t know the answer. But can you tell me the name of a classical Greek shoemaker?”
—Arthur Miller (b. 1915)