Reasoning/Spirited: Updates on Classical Greek Accent Rules

Before I took Greek Prose Composition, I had a really difficult time understanding the rules of Greek accentuation. I wrote up this post originally using Eleanor Dickey's unpublished Greek Prose Composition because I found it to be a really useful guide. Doing some more review this summer, I found that there were a bunch of irregularities that I didn't account for in the original so I am adding them in now. Most of these additions come from Hansen and Quinn's Greek: An Intensive Course. There may still be mistakes or obscure portions in here, so comment or email me if you notice anything that is incorrect or confusing.

As a side note, if anyone can teach me how to do a unicode breve above a vowel it would be much appreciated.

Vowel Quantities:

• ε and ο are always short
• η and ω are always long
• α, ι, υ can be long or short
• ει, υι, αυ, ευ, ου, ᾳ, ῃ, ῳ are always long. 
• αι and οι can be long or short depending upon circumstance.[1] They are long when:
• They are not at the end of a word
• When they end a verb in the optative
• When they end locative adverbs (e.g. οἴκοι)
• In some interjections (e.g. αἰαῖ)

Accent Types:

• There are three types of accents: acute (´), grave (`), and circumflex (^/~)
• The acute accent (´) can appear over any of the last three syllables (antepenult, penult, and ultima).
• If the last syllable is short, the acute vowel may stand on the antipenult, irrespective of the vowel quantity of the penult (the sort of exception to this rule is contract verbs. See verbs).
• If the last vowel is long, the acute accent must sit on the penult or the ultima. The one exception to this rule is in cases where the ultima is long by quantitative metathesis-- i.e. the quantities of the two final vowels are switched-- some nouns retain the accute accent on the antepenult even though the manifested form has a long ultima).
• The grave (`) accent may only appear on the ultima
• It may appear over long or short vowels
• It may only appear when it replaces an acute accent when another word follows without pause unless the following words is an enclitic.
• The circumflex accent (^) may only appear over the penult and the ultima
• It can only stand over a long vowel
• It must appear over a long penult when the ultima is short
• It may not appear over over a long penult when the ultima is long

Verbs:

• Most finite verbs have recessive accents (they go as close to the beginning of the word as possible). However, most non-finite forms have persistent accents.
• Recessive accents generally appear over the antepenult or penult unless there is a contraction.
• In the optative, αι and οι are long at the end of a word. However, αι and οι are short when they are the final letters in other verb forms.[2]
• Contract Verbs (and other contract words) have accents that reflect the uncontracted form of the words
• If the accented syllable is not the one that contracts, there is no effect on the accent.
• If the accented vowel is the first of the two vowels that contract, the resulting vowel will have a circumflex
• If the accented vowel  is the second vowel in the contracted pair, it will have an acute accent. 
• The example of παιδευσαι: παίδευσαι 2nd person singular aorist middle imperative (αι is short), παιδεύσαι 2nd person singular aorist active optative (αι is long), παιδεῦσαι aorist active infinitive (accent is persistent).

Nouns (and adjectives when noted):

• Except where noted, nouns and adjectives have persistent accent
• Nouns take their persistent accent from the nominative singular form. Third declension nouns have special accent paradigms that somewhat alter this.
• Adjectives take their persistent accent from the neuter nominative singular form.
• If the ultima is accented, circumflexes tend to appear in the oblique cases (genitive and dative) while acute accents tend to appear in nominative, vocative, and accusative. e.g. ἀγοράς is accusative while αγορᾶς is genitive.
• First Declension Nouns
• Feminine first declension nouns ending in α have a short α except when the α is preceded by ε, ι, or ρ, in which case the ᾱ is long (with a few exceptions)
• NOTE: feminine first declension nouns with a short α ending have recessive accents except on the genitive plural ῶν which is always accented with a circumflex.
• Genitive and accusative plural ᾱς (α is long)
• For masculine first declension nouns ending in ᾱς, the α is long.
• All nouns of the first declension have the genitive plural ῶν which is always accented with a circumflex, irrespective of accentuation rules. This is not true of first declension adjectives
• First and Second Declension Nouns and Adjectives
• If the basic accent is on the ultima, it is an acute in the nominative, vocative, and accusative, but a circumflex in the genitive and dative of both singular and plural in all genders
• Third Declension
• Third declension nouns ending in α, the α is always short
• Third-declension neuter nouns ending in -ς (e.g. γένος) have recessive accent, except on the gentitive plural, which takes a circumflex: -ῶν.
• Monosyllabic nouns of the third declension accent the stem of the nominative, vocative, and accusative, but accent the ultima of the ending of genitive and dative. Generally, the genitive plural takes a circumflex.
•  Although γυνή, γυνικός is not a monosyllabic noun, it is accented like one.
• τίς, τί the interrogative pronoun/adjective is monosyllabic (and essentially third declension), but the accent always stays on the first syllable (rather than switching to the ultima in genitive and dative).
• Words of the πόλις-type have accent that stays on the same syllables throughout the paradigm, irrespective of the rules of accent. This is because of quantitative metathesis.
• βασιλεύς-type and some other words have paradigm-specific rules.
• In the βασιλεύς-type, the nominative, dative, and vocative singular have accents on the ultima; dative and vocative have circumflexes. In the plural, the nominative/vocative and dative have circumflexes (in the nominative/vocative on the ultima and int he dative on the penult), while the genitive and accusative both have acute accents on the penult.

Enclitics: (e.g. τις, τε, ποτέ, ἐστί)

• enclitics have no accent of their own and follow accented words, whose accents they affect
• If the accent of the preceding word is on the ultima and it is acute and the word is followed by an enclitic, it does not change to grave.
• If the preceding word word has an accent on the penult:
• If the accent is acute
• and the enclitic is a single syllable, the enclitic takes no accent
• and the enclitic is more than on syllable, the enclitic takes an accent on its ultima (either acute or circumflex depending upon the length of its final vowel)
• If the accent is a circumflex
• there is no change to the preceding word irrespective of the number of syllables of the enclitic and the enclitic takes no accent
• If the preceding word has an accent on the antepenult, it adds a second acute accent on its own ultima, irrespective of the number of syllables of the enclitic.
• If several enclitics appear in succession, each one takes an accent on its penult, except for the last in the series.
• If some disyllabic enclitics are placed at the beginning of a clause or a sentence, they take a grave accent on the final syllable (or an acute accent if they are followed by a pause). 
• ἐστί, at the beginning of a sentence, is not an enclitic and it takes an acute accent on the penult: ἔστι
• If an enclitic follows an elided syllable (of a wierd either enclitic or not), it receives an accent.

Proclitics: (e.g. ἐκ, οὐ, εἰ, ὡς)

• Proclitics have no accents of their own and are accentually joined to the following word.
• If followed by an accented word, they cause no change
• If followed by an enclitic, they take an acute accent (from the enclitic)

Addendum: Fun Facts from Class:

• Greek words for the positions of acute accents: ὀξύς (sharp, pointed, quick, swift) τόνος (musical note) the idea being that the accent gives a rise in pitch (musical tone) to the vowel.
• ὀξύτονον-- acute accent on the ultima
• παροξύτονον-- acute accent on the penult
• προπαροξύτονον-- acute accent on the antepenult
• Greek words for the positions of circumflex accents: περι (around) σπώμενον (from "I drag") the idea being that the musical pitch is dragged back to its origin by the accent
• περισπώμενον-- circumflex on the ultima
• παραπερισπώμενον-- circumflex on the penult

Endnotes

1. In this section I am referring to the fact that they are long or short for the purposes of accentuation. In terms of meter, αι and οι are almost always long (although και can be long or short depending upon what is necessary for the metrical pattern).
2. This may not be the case if you are reading a text with iota addscripts instead of iota subscripts, in which case ᾳ, which is long, can be written as αι.