Sounds and Inflections of the Cyprian Dialect. 1 1 



to the vulgar aveOr^Ke. Meister's conjecture of 6{ix)^a\yTc\ 

 {Berl. Phil. IVoch., 1887, No. 52, col. 1644) is not at all 

 certain. 



The origin of this monosyllabic form (frequent also in Les- 

 bian, c.o-. ovredrjv CoLL. 3 1 1, 8, 34; ovdevra 3 1 1, 39, and in 

 Thessalian, e.g. ovypa^el Coll. 361, A, 11 ; B, 24; ovypdyjreiv 

 345, 21) is not clear. Whether av-d, ev, 6v- represent three 

 originally different forms of the same root (i.e. weak, strong, 

 and ablaut), 6v- finding its correspondent in German an, and 

 dv being for tj^v {cf. Avestan a7i-a, for nn-a ?) is a question too 

 difficult and complicated to be entered into here. One thing, 

 however, seems certain, that unless dv and 6v- do stand to 

 each other in the relation suggested, they are not etymologi- 

 cally connected, but originally different words, like jxerd, ireSd ; 

 crvv, ^vv. 



As to the use of dv and 6v-, Meyer {Gr. Gr.^ § 55) thinks 

 that ov- was the form originally employed before consonants, 

 dv before vowels, and that ov- occurs before vowels, as in 

 Thessalian and Cyprian, by a subsequent extension of its 

 proper use. But this view lacks sufficient foundation. It is 

 based upon too slender evidence, drawn from the Lesbian, 

 which certainly admits of other interpretation {cf. Meister, 

 Griechische Dialckte, L, p. 50). 



Beside the above-quoted Cyprian forms with ov- we find 

 also dvkQrjKe Coll. 17, 2 ; ^6, i ; in the second instance in an 

 inscription from the same locality as 72 ; 74 ; 75, which all 

 have oveOr^Ke ; also dve-, i.e. dveOrjKe, in one of the fragments 

 published by Sayce in Befl. Phil. Woch., 1884, No. 21, where 

 Sayce erroneously takes dve- as dve, comparing Homeric rjvov 

 ohov 7 496. {Cf Voigt, Studia Nicolaitana, p. 69.) 



On vveOrjKe, Coll. 45, 3, for oveQiqKe, see below, § 9, 4. 



2. The o for v in WovUri, Deecke's earlier reading of Coll. 

 41, disappears with the changed reading of that inscription 

 (see Bezs. Beitr., xi., p. 317). 



3. 'Aix6{v)Ta, Coll. 147, if correct, would speak for the sim- 

 ilarity of o and V in this dialect, especially before nasals. Cf 

 below, on vvedrjKe, § 9, 4. 



141 



