What were eta's steps to ioticism?

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Stephen Hughes
Posts: 3323
Joined: February 26th, 2013, 7:12 am

What were eta's steps to ioticism?

Post by Stephen Hughes »

Is there any consensus about how eta of Homeric Greek arrived at its (mostly) ioticism of Modern Greek?

The three thoughts that I can come up with to trace the path are either:
  • diphthongisation where the ē became ei and then the i element dominated, or
    something like vocalic prothesis where ē became jē and then lost the ē and vocalised the j or
    Narrowing of the vowel for some reason.
Is there one of those ideas that has been more accepted than others as an explanation?
Γελᾷ δ' ὁ μωρός, κἄν τι μὴ γέλοιον ᾖ
(Menander, Γνῶμαι μονόστιχοι 108)
RandallButh
Posts: 1105
Joined: May 13th, 2011, 4:01 am

Re: What were eta's steps to ioticism?

Post by RandallButh »

There is an extra item to consider. Eta (long, front, low) must be kept separate from ει (long front mid) at the end of the classical period because ει went up to ι about 450-550 years before η moved up to ι.

At the time that η finally moved up (150-200CE), length had already dropped out of the system so it was less likely a result of diphthongization and more likely a squeeze from having three emic heights on the front side of the vowel system. The η moved away from ε/αι and into the arms of ι/ει.

(PS: we need to be talking about phonemes here and not symbols because η was not written in Homer's time, the ε symbol was used for both long and short forms of its phonemic vowel position.)
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