[B-Greek] Changing an Acute Accent to Grave

David McCarley Opv at knology.net
Mon Sep 28 09:23:35 EDT 2009


I've been attempting to absorb some of the rules for accenting.  I've been
able to follow some of the rules, but I've run into something that is not
registering.  I keep waiting for a light to go off in my head but, so far,
no luck.  Here is the rule with which I am grappling: "An acute accent on
the ultima changes to a grave when it is followed by another word with no
intervening punctuation."  Consider the following examples:

If I write "ego eimi mathatos tou Xristos," two accenting issues arrise.
First, the acute accent in ego is NOT changed to a grave accent for some
reason.  Second, the acute accent in eimi is not only not changed but it is
totally removed.  Why are these exceptions made?

However, if I write "oi anthropoi esten oi mathatai tou Xristos," the acute
accent in mathatai appears not to be changed in the plural form.  Can
someone please explain why the basic rule applies with the singular form of
the word and does not apply on the plural form of this word?







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