94 Colorado College Studies. 



in similar cases. For the voc. the following equation may be 

 ventured upon: 



Voc, (ja-ipoi : stem of aa-C'w : : voc. -/5ot) : stem of !iou-q 

 that is, in each case the stem form is used for the voc. according 

 to the regular rule; but the final elements (digamma* and 

 " yod " ) are forced to pass into the corresponding vowels and 

 so become part of a diphthong by the Greek law which prevents 

 any consonant from being final, save '->, p, <?. This rule is plain 

 for the digamma: it may not be so clear for the "yod," as will 

 be shown below. However, analogy is quite sufiicient to estab- 

 lish the equation and make this explanation hold good. The 

 accent in both cases can be readily accounted for by the well- 

 known Indogermanic law that the accent of vocatives is reces- 

 sive.f The nom. remains te be accounted for. Professor Allen 

 mentions the fact that the old form ended in -oj. That this was 

 the original form has been made clear by certain inscriptions, 

 for example, those of the Corinthian dialect, of which a few 

 have been found. In these inscriptions names of women 

 appear in the nom., ending, as Cauer % writes them in -o with :- 

 subscript, which means of course that they were written in the 

 old alphabet and ended in 01. Just here it may be noted that 

 all other nouns of the third declension in Greek, except neuters, 

 end in a consonant, either the regular ending -<r or the final 

 consonant of the stem with a lengthening of the stem vowel. 

 If, then, the final iota of these old nominatives can be shown to 

 be a " yod " or y, the form is a perfectly normal one ending in 

 the consonant of the stem with the regular vowel lengthening 

 to -W-. This would account for the missing -? and make the form 



* That the stem of /3o[>-f is iiof-, in spite of Sanskrit guu-s, appears 

 from Lat. ho-s, gen. hov-is. Cf. Mailer's Handhuch, Zweiter Band § 24\ 

 The fact that the dialects show lepi/c for kpeix may be taken as evidence 

 that liaci'ulg, etc., ought also possibly to be classed as digamma stems. 

 See Gustav Meyer, Grieehische Grammatik, Zweite Auflage, § 323. 



t See American Jonrnal of Philology, Vol. IX, p. 16, Bloomfield, The 

 Recessive Accent in Greek. 



X See Cauer, Delectus Inscriptionum Grcecarum, p. 52. 



