🗣️ Accent

Greek accent in the fifth century BC was a pitch accent. The classical texts were written without accent marks; the marks were invented by the Alexandrian scholars (Aristophanes of Byzantium, about 200 BC, is credited with the system) and fixed by the grammarians of the imperial age (Herodian, second century AD). Everything an edition prints today is therefore a scholarly reconstruction of an oral accent, but it is a very stable one, and it is a part of the identity of a Greek word: it tells the quantity of a vowel, separates words that are otherwise spelt alike, and is part of the data a morphological analyser must carry.

This chapter gives the three marks, the limits on their position, the accent of nouns and verbs, the clitics, and the changes that contraction, crasis, elision and composition cause. Section references are to Smyth.

Contents

1. The marks and the terms
2. The limits: where an accent may stand
3. Accent on nouns and adjectives
4. Accent on verbs
5. Accent after contraction, crasis and elision
6. Proclitics
7. Enclitics
8. Anastrophe and the grave
9. Accent that distinguishes words
10. What accent was, and what became of it
11. Worked examples
12. How Mova handles it
13. Sources

1. The marks and the terms

Words are named by the place and mark of the accent (smyth-1920 §153):

• oxytone: acute on the last syllable, ποταμός; paroxytone: acute on the next to last, λόγος; proparoxytone: acute on the third from last, ἄνθρωπος;
• perispomenon: circumflex on the last, τιμῶ; properispomenon: circumflex on the next to last, σῶμα;
• barytone: a word with no accent on the last syllable (every one except the oxytones and perispomena).

The grave is a convention of the writing: the last syllable of a word that would be oxytone in isolation is written with a grave when another word follows without a pause (καὶ ἀγαθὸς ἄνθρωπος, but ἄνθρωπος ἀγαθός at the end of a clause). Interrogatives (τίς, τί) keep their acute.

2. The limits: where an accent may stand

The accent may stand only on one of the last three syllables of a word. Beyond that, two facts about the final syllable decide (smyth-1920 §§159–170):

• Short ultima. The accent may be on the antepenult (acute: ἄνθρωπος), on a short penult (acute: νόμος), or on a long penult (circumflex: δῶρον, σῶμα, μῆνιν).
• Long ultima. The accent can be only on the ultima (acute or circumflex: ἐγώ, σοφῶς) or on the penult with an acute (λέων, δαίμων, ἀνθρώπου, not *ἄνθρωπου).

The quantity is that of the vowel as in chapter 1, with one special rule: final -αι and -οι count as short (μοῦσαι, ἄνθρωποι, βούλομαι), except in the optative (λύσαι, βουλεύοι) and in the locative οἴκοι "at home" (against οἶκοι "houses") (smyth-1920 §169). Two further consequences:

• The accent shows the quantity of an α ι υ that is otherwise unmarked: in θάλαττα, δύναμις, μῆνις the final vowel is short, since the antepenult or a circumflex on the penult is allowed; in φίλος the ι is short (smyth-1920 §170).
• Where a word's ultima is lengthened by inflection, the accent changes position: ἄνθρωπος / ἀνθρώπου, μοῦσα / μούσης, λύω / λῦε (§§176–177).

3. Accent on nouns and adjectives

The persistent accent is the rule: the accent of a noun stays on the syllable it occupied in the nominative singular as long as the limits permit, and the mark changes only as the quantity of the ending requires. So, from an accent of the nominative: ἄνθρωπος, ἀνθρώπου, ἀνθρώπῳ, ἄνθρωπον, ἄνθρωποι, ἀνθρώπων; θάλαττα, θαλάττης. In the second declension the oxytone becomes perispomenon in the genitive and dative: θεός, θεοῦ, θεῷ, θεῶν, θεοῖς (§176c). The third declension has a number of fixed groups:

• Monosyllables of the third declension accent the ending in the genitive and dative of all numbers: πούς, ποδός, ποδί, ποδῶν, ποσί; χείρ, χειρός, χερσί. The genitive plural of a few keeps the accent of the stem: παίδων, δμώων, Τρώων, ὤτων.
• Nouns in -ηρ (πατήρ, μήτηρ, θυγάτηρ, ἀνήρ, γαστήρ) drop the η in the genitive and dative singular and accent the ending in the genitive and dative singular (πατρός, πατρί) and in the dative plural (πατράσι), and the stem in the others (accusative πατέρα, genitive plural πατέρων). Their vocative retracts: πάτερ, μῆτερ, ἄνερ, θύγατερ.
• Neuters in -μα (σῶμα, σώματος) and in -ος (γένος, γένους) keep the nominative accent (§§205–210).
• First declension genitive plural. All nouns of the first declension carry a circumflex on the ending of the genitive plural (-ῶν): μουσῶν, χωρῶν, πολιτῶν, even when the nominative is not oxytone. The adjectives follow the masculine and neuter in the feminine: the feminine genitive plural of ἄξιος is ἀξίων, but of ἀγαθός it is ἀγαθῶν.
• Compounds. The accent of nouns and adjectives formed in composition is usually recessive: βάσις / ἀνάβασις, θεός / ἄθεος (§178). Proper names often differ from the common words they are formed on (Γλαῦκος from γλαυκός, Ἔλπις from ἐλπίς).

The accent of the adjective in its agreement follows the same persistence: ἀγαθός, ἀγαθή, ἀγαθόν; the participles and the third declension adjectives show their own patterns (chapters 4 and 10).

4. Accent on verbs

Verbs have recessive accent: the accent goes as far from the end of the word as the limits allow. The long or short quantity of the ultima fixes the place: λύω (long ultima → penult), λύομεν (short -εν → antepenult), λύει, ἔλυσα, ἐλύσαμεν, ἔλυσαν. The augment counts as a syllable: a form with an augment can be accented on it (ἔλυον, ἔπεμπον, ἔλειπον) and the accent cannot recede beyond the augment.

Exceptions to the recessive rule (smyth-1920 §§423–427):

• the infinitives, participles and verbal adjectives have fixed patterns of their own: aorist active infinitive λῦσαι, aorist passive λυθῆναι, perfect λελυκέναι, perfect middle λελύσθαι, second aorist active λαβεῖν, participle λύων, λύσας, λελυκώς, λυθείς;
• imperatives of the second aorist active, εἰπέ, ἐλθέ, εὑρέ, ἰδέ, λαβέ (oxytone), against the regular λάβετε, ἔλθετε; the second aorist middle imperative λαβοῦ;
• the subjunctives of the -μι aorists, which are contracted forms and follow the rules of section 5 (θῶ, θῇς, δῶ, γνῷ), and the contract verbs in general;
• the compounds with a preposition: the accent cannot go before the augment of the verb (ἀπῆλθον, not *ἄπηλθον, except in forms whose accent is on the preposition: ἄπελθε), and the second aorist imperatives of compounds recede (ἀπόδος, ἔξελθε, ἄπιθι).

Contract verbs and those of the -μι class have their own accent and are described where the forms are (chapters 8 and 9).

5. Accent after contraction, crasis and elision

Contraction (smyth-1920 §§171–172). If either of two syllables that contract had an accent, the contracted syllable takes one. A contracted antepenult has the acute (φιλεόμενος → φιλούμενος); a contracted penult has the circumflex when the ultima is short, the acute when the ultima is long (φιλέουσι → φιλοῦσι, φιλεόντων → φιλούντων). A contracted ultima has the acute when the uncontracted form was oxytone (ἑσταώς → ἑστώς), and the circumflex otherwise (φιλέω → φιλῶ). If neither syllable had the accent, the contracted syllable has none (φίλεε → φίλει). The ancient grammarians' explanation is that an acute followed by the underlying fall (grave) on the next mora gives the circumflex: the circumflex is the result of a rise-fall on one syllable.

Crasis (§173). The first word loses its accent: τἀγαθά (τὰ ἀγαθά), κἀγώ (καὶ ἐγώ).

Elision (§174). Oxytone prepositions and conjunctions lose their accent: παρ᾽ ἐμοῦ, ἀλλ᾽ ἐγώ. In other oxytones the accent is thrown back as an acute on the previous syllable (πόλλ᾽ ἔπαθον for πολλὰ ἔπαθον, φήμ᾽ ἐγώ for φημὶ ἐγώ). A circumflex does not result from this recession.

6. Proclitics

Ten monosyllabic words have no accent of their own and lean on the following word (smyth-1920 §179): the forms of the article that begin with a vowel (ὁ, ἡ, οἱ, αἱ); the prepositions ἐν, εἰς (ἐς), ἐξ (ἐκ); the conjunction εἰ "if"; ὡς "as, that, to"; and the negative οὐ (οὐκ, οὐχ). A proclitic takes an accent in a few cases (§180): οὐ at the end of a sentence (ἢ οὔ; "or not?"), ὡς in the sense of οὕτως (ὥς), a proclitic before an enclitic (ἔν τινι), ὥς in poetry after its noun.

7. Enclitics

Enclitics lean on the preceding word and usually lose their own accent (smyth-1920 §§181–187). They are:

• the personal pronouns μοῦ, μοί, μέ; σοῦ, σοί, σέ; and (poetic) οὗ, οἷ, ἕ;
• the indefinite pronoun τις, τι in all cases (τινός, τινί, τινά, τινῶν, τισί, including τοῦ, τῷ for τινός, τινί) and the indefinite adverbs που, πῃ, ποι, ποθέν, ποτέ, πω, πως; the same words as interrogatives are not enclitic and accent the first syllable or the ultima: τίς, τί, ποῦ, πῇ, ποῖ, πόθεν, πότε, πῶς;
• all dissyllabic forms of the present indicative of εἰμί (εἰμί, ἐσμέν, ἐστέ, ἐστί, εἰσί) and φημί (φησί, φαμέν, φατέ, φασί), but not εἶ and φῄς;
• the particles γε, τε, τοι, περ, and the suffix -δε in ὅδε.

The accent of the word before the enclitic (§183):

When several enclitics follow each other, each takes an accent from the next and only the last has none: εἴ πού τίς τινα ἴδοι ἐχθρόν "if anyone anywhere saw an enemy" (§185, from Thucydides).

The enclitic is orthotone (keeps its accent) in these conditions (§187): when it is emphatic, as in a contrast (ἢ σοὶ ἢ τῷ πατρί σου), or at the beginning of a clause (φημὶ γάρ); after a word that has suffered elision (πολλοὶ δ᾽ εἰσίν); when a dissyllabic enclitic follows a paroxytone (φίλοι τινές); and, among the oxytone prepositions, after them (ἐπὶ σοί, not ἐπί σοι). The form ἐστί is written ἔστι at the beginning of a sentence, when it expresses existence or possibility, and after οὐκ, μή, εἰ, ὡς, καί, ἀλλά and τοῦτο (εἰ ἔστιν οὕτως "if it is so"). The difference between existential ἔστι and copulative ἐστί is thus visible in the accent only. Sentence 1.2.8 of the Anabasis uses both:

An. 1.2.8 · tlg0032.tlg006 ἔστι δὲ καὶ μεγάλου βασιλέως βασίλεια ἐν Κελαιναῖς … τοῦ δὲ Μαρσύου τὸ εὖρός ἐστιν εἴκοσι καὶ πέντε ποδῶν "there is also a palace of the Great King at Celaenae … and the width of the Marsyas is twenty-five feet"

ἔστι begins the clause and is existential: it keeps its accent. ἐστιν follows εὖρός: the properispomenon εὖρος takes an additional acute on its last syllable, and the enclitic loses its own accent (§183c). The final ν is the movable ν of chapter 1.

8. Anastrophe and the grave

Anastrophe (ἀναστροφή) throws the accent of a disyllabic preposition back to the first syllable when it follows its noun: τούτων πέρι "about these things" for περὶ τούτων. In Attic prose only περί follows its case; in poetry the other disyllabic prepositions do too, except ἀντί, ἀμφί, διά (smyth-1920 §175). In Homer the same occurs with a preposition after its verb in tmesis (λούσῃ ἄπο for ἀπολούσῃ). The compound πάρα (πάρεστι "it is possible") and ἔνι (ἔνεστι "there is in it") are anastrophe of a preposition for a compound with εἰμί.

The grave (§154): the acute on the ultima becomes a grave when the word is followed immediately, without punctuation, by another word that is not an enclitic. In editions this appears everywhere (καὶ, πρὸς, ἀγαθὸς), and the oxytone character of a word is then visible only from its isolated form.

9. Accent that distinguishes words

Accent separates words that spelling alone would confuse. This is the practical reason why accents cannot be dropped in a Greek tokeniser:

10. What accent was, and what became of it

The ancient grammarians describe the acute as a rise of about a musical fifth on one syllable, the circumflex as a rise and fall on one long syllable, and the grave as the absence of the rise. The accent on the last syllable fell to a lower pitch when other words followed (the grave). By the second to third centuries AD, in the Koine, the pitch accent became a stress accent and the vowel quantity disappeared as a distinction; this is why the accent marks of Byzantine copyists have no effect on pronunciation in Modern Greek except to place the stress, and why metrical poetry of the late empire is written by counting accents (manual grc-x-koine, chapter 2).

11. Worked examples

Il. 1.1 · tlg0012.tlg001 μῆνιν ἄειδε θεὰ Πηληϊάδεω Ἀχιλῆος "sing, goddess, the wrath of Achilles son of Peleus"

μῆνιν: properispomenon (long penult, short ultima: circumflex). ἄειδε: imperative, recessive, on the first syllable. θεὰ: oxytone θεά, grave before the next word. Πηληϊάδεω: paroxytone, long ultima -ω (Ionic genitive) forces the acute on the penult. Ἀχιλῆος: circumflex on the long penult, since the ultima -ος is short.

Pl. Ap. 17a · tlg0059.tlg002 ὅτι μὲν ὑμεῖς, ὦ ἄνδρες Ἀθηναῖοι, πεπόνθατε ὑπὸ τῶν ἐμῶν κατηγόρων, οὐκ οἶδα "what effect my accusers have had on you, men of Athens, I do not know"

ὅτι is paroxytone (acute on the first syllable). μὲν: oxytone-grave before another word. πεπόνθατε: proparoxytone (perfect indicative; the ultima -τε is short). ὑπὸ: grave of ὑπό. κατηγόρων: paroxytone with long ultima. οὐκ: proclitic, no accent. οἶδα: properispomenon (long penult, short ultima).

12. How Mova handles it

• Data. All Greek sources in the Mova corpora carry polytonic accents; the Perseus editions and the PTNK treebank are in NFC with the precomposed acute (tonos), the grave and the circumflex (chapter 1, section 13). The grave is a writing convention: PTNK and the Perseus text keep it, and any comparison between sources must fold ` to ´ if the oxytone is the object of the lookup.
• Lemmas. The UD treebanks give the lemma in the accented citation form (ποιέω, θεός, ἐγώ). In PTNK the lemma of the article is ὁ and every case form carries Definite=Def and PronType=Art (chapter 5).
• Enclitics and accent. The accent shifts added by an enclitic (ἄνθρωπός τις, φίλοι τινές) make the same word appear in two forms in the text. A lemmatiser must either keep a table of the extra-accented forms or fold the final acute. No such module exists in Mova yet; the neural parsers used as witnesses (Stanza, Trankit, UDPipe) learn the shifted forms from the training data.
• Homographs. Where the accent is the only difference (ἡ / ἥ, τίς / τις, ποῦ / που, ἔστι / ἐστί, ἢ / ἦ) the treebanks do not agree on how to record it, which is a measurable trap for a model trained on one and tested on another (counts from the three PTNK files and the train parts of Perseus and PROIEL, 2026-10-22):

Mova keeps the accent in the text. An accent-stripping pre-processing, common in Greek NLP for noisy OCR, loses these distinctions and should be flagged as lossy.

• Gap. Mova has no accent-based morphology (the quantity of the final syllable and the position of the accent are decisive for a contract verb's form, section 5). The UD baseline for Ancient Greek PTNK (train → dev, 2026-10-22) is LAS 74.41 with Mova's own tags and 78.29 with gold tags; a module that analyses the accent would be one of the sources of the missing four points, but we have not measured that.

13. Sources

• Smyth, H. W. 1920 (smyth-1920): §§149–187 (the accent, the proclitics, the enclitics), §§423–427 (verb accent). The Perseus text is CC BY-SA and is paraphrased.
• Goodwin, W. W. 1892 (goodwin-1892): the accent rules, public domain.
• Kühner–Blass–Gerth (kuhner-1890): the Greek accent in the first volume, public domain.
• Homer, Plato, Xenophon: Perseus canonical-greekLit (CC BY-SA 4.0).

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