Reflexes of *r̥ and muta cum liquida in Epic Greek

Abstract

So far, we have encountered several compelling pieces of evidence for a regular development *r̥ > ‐αρ‐ in Ionic-Attic: τέταρτος, ταρφύς, καρτερός, and κάρτα. Furthermore, many formswith either ‐ρα‐ or ‐αρ‐ could be explained as analogical: u-stem adjectives such as κρατύς, πλατύς, βραχύς, s-stem nouns and adjectives like κράτος, θάρσος, and forms of comparison such as κράτιστος. In addition to this, wenoted that epic forms like κάρτος and κάρτιστοςwere artificially created. However, a body of forms remains where ‐ρα‐ must be the uninterrupted reflex of *r̥, as an analogical reshaping is simply not conceivable. Our main remaining task is to account for these forms. The evidence includes, among other forms, the aorists ἔδρακον and ἔπραθον (contrast δέρκομαι, πέρθω), the aorist subjunctive τραπείομεν of τέρπομαι ‘to enjoy oneself ’, the verbal noun δρατός ‘flayed’ (contrast δέρω), the adjective θρασύς (contrast θέρσος, and cf. chapter 4); and isolated words like τράπεζα and στρατός. Upon closer inspection, it appears thatmany such formswith ‐ρα‐ < *r̥ occur exclusively in poetry, and in EpicGreek in particular.1Moreover, when there are variant forms with ‐ρα‐ and ‐αρ‐, it is often possible to establish a distribution between these reflexes, as illustrated in Table 12 (next page). In all these cases, the forms with ‐ρα‐ are found exclusively in poetry, mostly in Epic Greek, and ‐αρ‐ is the only reflex found in Ionic and/or Attic prose texts. The forms with ‐ρα‐ are normally considered phonological archaisms that were preserved because of their metrical utility. Upon this view, forms like καρτερός, τέταρτος, and καρδίη allegedly arose by analogy in the Ionic vernacular(s) and were then introduced into Epic Greek, where they supplied metrical alternatives for the older forms with ‐ρα‐. As we have seen in the previous chapters, however, it is impossible to view καρτερός and τέταρτος as analogical or otherwise secondary formations: they must contain the regular outcome of *r̥. I will now first argue that the same holds for καρδίη / καρδία.