Accute or Grave accent?

How can I learn to express my ideas in clear and intelligible Greek?
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WAnderson
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Joined: July 4th, 2011, 5:18 pm

Accute or Grave accent?

Post by WAnderson »

The question would apply to any word/text, though in this instance it's with regard to the word huion in Rev 12:5.

If I'm writing out the entire verse (kai eteken huion arsen etc.) then the accent over the omicron in huion is a grave ( ` ). But what if for my purposes I only want to refer to the word huion itself, or maybe just the phrase eteken huion? In that case would I write the word huion using an accute instead, i.e. as the word appears in a lexicon? If so, why is that?

Sorry for using tranliterations, I'm short on time and it's difficult for me to write/copy/paste Greek here.
Jason Hare
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Re: Accute or Grave accent?

Post by Jason Hare »

WAnderson wrote:The question would apply to any word/text, though in this instance it's with regard to the word huion in Rev 12:5.

If I'm writing out the entire verse (kai eteken huion arsen etc.) then the accent over the omicron in huion is a grave ( ` ). But what if for my purposes I only want to refer to the word huion itself, or maybe just the phrase eteken huion? In that case would I write the word huion using an accute instead, i.e. as the word appears in a lexicon? If so, why is that?

Sorry for using tranliterations, I'm short on time and it's difficult for me to write/copy/paste Greek here.
Why? Because the accent is naturally an acute. It only becomes grave because it is followed by another word without a pause.

ἔτεκεν υἱόν. = υἱὸν ἔτεκεν.
Jason A. Hare
The Hebrew Café
Tel Aviv, Israel
WAnderson
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Joined: July 4th, 2011, 5:18 pm

Re: Accute or Grave accent?

Post by WAnderson »

Thanks, I know it was a silly question. I learned about accents when I took Greek but the whole topic has become kind of a mish mash in my head, and I rarely write Greek, mainly just read it. There's a book available on accents (Carson?) that I should probably get.
Wes Wood
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Re: Accute or Grave accent?

Post by Wes Wood »

I believe there is Carson for NTG and Philomen Probert for Classical.
Ἀσπάζομαι μὲν καὶ φιλῶ, πείσομαι δὲ μᾶλλον τῷ θεῷ ἢ ὑμῖν.-Ἀπολογία Σωκράτους 29δ
Paul-Nitz
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Location: Sussex, Wisconsin

Re: Accute or Grave accent?

Post by Paul-Nitz »

Carsen's book is very good. If you are not writing Greek much, it's more than you need. Just read a basic description in just about any Greek beginning grammar. I write a lot of Greek and made a study of Carsen's book, but still have trouble with accents.

Yes, when quoting the single word υἱός (or referring to the actual form: υἱόν) you would accent it with an acute.

As an aside, if I understand correctly, if a person is writing Greek and referring to a certain word, they would precede it with τὸ. E.g. διὰ τί τὸ υἱὸν ἔγραψεν ὁ Ἰωάννης. [Why did John write "υἱόν"?]. Note, in my sentence, the interrogative τί breaks the normal rule of changing an accute to a grave when it is following by another word... If it were grave, τὶ , it would sound like "because of something" rather than "because of what?" Most mistakes in accenting make little difference in reading comprehension, but this is a case where a wrong accent could mislead a reader.

For some, the video James Tauber just created might help to understand the principle behind accentuation. He explains accents on the basis of mora/morae.
https://vimeo.com/191687615
Paul D. Nitz - Lilongwe Malawi
WAnderson
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Joined: July 4th, 2011, 5:18 pm

Re: Accute or Grave accent?

Post by WAnderson »

Thanks, Paul, you addressed the main question, which I didn't make very clear. My main question had more to do with style than grammar per se. Normally, in formal writing, if a source is quoted, it's quoted verbatim, including any odd punctuation and misspellings (noted by [sic] in brackets). So, that's what I was wondering when quoting the NT Gr text: if I'm quoting a short phrase, do I keep the accents as they appear in the text itself, or do I adjust them according to grammatical convention. Anyway, your answer helped.
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