[gothic-l] accents

[MCLSSAA2 at FS2.MT.UMIST.AC.UK]

-------------------------- eGroups Sponsor -------------------------~-~>
GET A NEXTCARD VISA, in 30 seconds!  Get rates
of 2.9% Intro or 9.9% Ongoing APR* and no annual fee!
Apply NOW!
http://click.egroups.com/1/7872/8/_/3398/_/967709388/
---------------------------------------------------------------------_->

--- In gothic-l at egroups.com, jdm314 at a... wrote:
> A quick note: I don't think Wulfila invented [the diaeresis over
> word and syllable initial i's] as, believe it or not, I have seen
> it used in manuscripts written in Greek. I don't recall what the
> date was on those ...

The Greek rough and smooth breathing signs are classical Greek
letters and were originally the left and right halves of the eta
letter. (Eta was originally pronounced {h}, but it changed to long
{e}
because Athenian spelling was influenced there by Ionic dialect
spelling; Ionic dropped the initial {h} sound, and its name "he:ta"
changed to "e:ta".) I read that the other accents (which mostly mark
pitch-accent) were invented in a date AD by someone who wanted his
pupils to pronounce Greek correctly, like in a textbook that I saw
teaching Italian to English speakers that added extra diacritics to
distinguish open from closed {e} and {o}.

Greek puts umlaut / diaeresis over {i} and {u} after another vowel
when the two vowels are separate syllables and not a diphthong, e.g.
{oi"s} = "sheep". "diaeresis" is Greek for "taking apart". Perhaps
Wulfila wanted to remind readers literate in Latin that those {i}'s
were {i}'s and not to be pronounced {dzh} like in the usual way that
Latin and its descendants were pronounced by that time in the West.

> And usually the consensus seems to be to avoid high-ascii
> characters by not including acutes or macra ...

Ditto. High-order characters in email are the Chaos Bringer.



You are a member of the Gothic-L list.  To unsubscribe, send a blank email to <gothic-l-unsubscribe at egroups.com>.
Homepage: http://www.stormloader.com/carver/gothicl/index.html