Noun Accenting

Ken Smith kens at 180solutions.com
Tue Feb 6 16:24:23 EST 2001


Other folks here on the list may have different opinions, but I've never
found memorizing the accenting rules all that helpful.  Unless you're
actually wanting to write something original in Koine (not sure why
you'd ever want to), the accenting rules tend to be far more confusing
than they're actually worth.  There are occasionally times when they're
useful for figuring out which particular form of a word you're dealing
with, but even then, I find the context and/or  general reading
experience a lot more helpful than the accent rules.  (And remember, of
course, that accents are a modern projection back onto the GNT: none of
the earliest manuscripts have them.)

My first-year Greek prof made us memorize the accent rules for the quiz,
then basically told us we could forget them -- and I've taken his
advice.  (And forget about "moving on to anything more difficult".  The
accent rules were the most confusing and least helpful bit of Greek I
ever learned.  Compared to those, participles were a breeze.)

Ken Smith

> I am beginning to study the New Testament Greek language and 
> have a question about a word that is used in a book that I am 
> using as a guide. 
> The book is entitled, "New Testament Greek For Beginners" by 
> J. Gresham Mahen.
> 
> My question is this...in the case of a noun, is the 
> ultima..."pi, omicron, sigma" ( pos) long or short?  He says 
> that the ultima is long, but this confuses me drastically.  
> Can anyone help?  I'm just trying to grasp the accenting 
> rules before I attempt to move on to any more difficult.
> 
> Matthew Ooten
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