Initial /wo/ in Greek

In a recent review Henry M. Hoenigswald brought into conjunction two facts of ancient Greek phonology which have in the past been considered separately. He did not, however, state categorically that they represent two facets of the same development, but merely suggested that they might. I hope to show in this paper that they are indeed connected, and that by treating them together we can clarify the phonology of the sequence /wo/ in Greek. The two facts are that the allomorph /a/ of the morpheme {negative prefix} occurs more frequently before /o/ and /o:/ than before any other vowel where one would expect the allomorph /an/; and that ‘prosodical digamma’ is absent in Homer before /o/ and /o:/, though it does occur before /oi

Linguistics · Lexicography and Language Studies · Linguistics and language evolution · Philosophy · Phonetics and Phonology Research