I have recently noted, while looking up a definition, that a minority of those words derived by prefixation with δῐᾰ- have their accent on the -ᾰ- of the prefix, which seems strange to me because, though it has a high pitch in the preposition, it has a medium pitch in the prefixing form. Some of the few words exhibiting this are δῐάζωμᾰ, δῐᾰ́νοιᾰ and δῐᾰ́πτωμᾰ. See a full list here: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Category:Ancient_Greek_terms_prefixed_with_δια- Why should the stress/high pitch ever be on the -ά- thusly?
"Stress" in words derived using δια-
- Thread starter Michael Zwingli
- Start date
The forms in the list can be better explained if we assume that when δῐᾰ- is prefixed to nouns, the accent is always on the prefix, except if not allowed by the three-syllable-rule (according to which the stress can be only on one of the last three syllables of an ancient Greek word), in which case it moves to the first syllable that can be stressed.
Firstly, thank you! There is one thing, though, that I don't understand.
Why should this be so, when the prefix...the combining form of the preposition, is "unstressed"?
Who says so, if the evidence says otherwise?
What does this mean? Like if you're just describing the prefix, you'll just write δια- with no accents, because the prefix on its own is entirely neutral with respect to accentuation; only full words have an accent. But in the context of a word, any syllable can be accented within the rules of what position is legal. It doesn't have anything to do with δια- in particular, as far as I know.
Yes, in fact all third-declension neuter nouns are always recessive.