παλίντονος

The Ancient Greek feminines to u-stem adjectives (e.g. ἡδεῖα ‘sweet’ to ἡδύς) diverge from their Old Indic counterparts in terms of accentuation (cp. Ved. svādvī´ ). Homeric Greek possesses a couple of corresponding archaisms with oxytone accent (θαμειαί, ταρφειαί); in this paper, I will propose that Greek in fact runs the gamut, showing recessive accentuation as well, specifically in stems that have been “demorphologized” (e.g., λίγεια). This threefold accentuation provides a unique window onto the diachrony of accents in the prehistory of Greek. I bring to bear previously undertreated, and untranslated, evidence from ancient grammarians to bolster my position. Beginning from this reexamination, I turn to the controversial class of nouns in -υια, which have been held to show extraordinarily archaic properties of accent and ablaut. I propose that these nouns reflect not archaisms, but inner-Greek innovations.