Sounds and Inflect io9is of the Cyprian Dialect. 25 



3. The diphthongs -di, -qi, -wi {i.e. -a, -tj, -u) often lose their 

 I and appear as -d, -r\, -u. 



a) The examples of -d for -di have already been given above 

 (see § II, 4, 2). So far as can be seen they reveal no law. 

 Yet as we find forms in -d and -di side by side in the same 

 inscription, it is natural to assume a phonetic origin for the 

 shorter forms. These may have originated before initial 

 vowels, while -du was retained before consonants, though the 

 evidence is not sufficient to make this at all certain. 



b) Final tj stands regularly in the 3d sing, of the subjunc- 

 tive for -Tji, vis. in Xvai] Coll. 60, 29; avXijarj 126, 2; e^' 

 opv^T] 60, 12, 24, 25. Cf. Arcadian rvy^avr] Coll. 1222, 14; 

 e^V 1222, 26; Cretan KaraXvr] Cauer, Delectus^ 44, 69. 

 Deecke's " KZt) Coll. 126, 2, which he takes for^'At^T^i, is not 

 certain (see § 4, i). Final x\\. is nowhere retained in Cyprian, 

 so that Deecke's suggestion of "Tprji as the reading of Coll. 

 124, is un-Cyprian, apart from the general uncertainty as to 

 the genuineness of the inscription ; see p. 3. 



It is noteworthy that while we have frequent instances 

 of -di and -«i in Cyprian, -i\\. nowhere occurs, but always -q 

 instead. The Cyprian accordingly exhibits the same ten- 

 dency as other dialects, in which -r\\. is the first of the im- 

 proper diphthongs to lose its i. Cf. in the Therean inscrip- 

 tion (Cauer, Delectus^ 148), '^ciQf] H., 28; 97 vi., 20; el'Tr?/ viii., 

 9 ; but Twi KOLVML 11., 9 ; 'AvSpajopat iii., 2. This is physio- 

 logically natural, as the i being more closely related in sound 

 to ri than to w and d, would more easily be absorbed by a pre- 

 ceding 7] than by either of the other two vowels. (Cf Brug- 

 mann, Grundriss der Verglcichcnden Granwiatik, i., p. 121.) 



c) -«i {i.e. -w) loses the u and appears as -w in the following 

 instances : rwi Qeoi rco ^ KiroWwvi Coll. 74, i ; twl Qewi roy 

 TXcirat 27, I ; Tto 'TXdrai 28 ; 'A'n-6\{\)(ovi rM'TXarac 31, 4; 

 rflaipt {i.e. tm ^Oaipi) 45, I ; rco 'A7roX(A.)a)ft tco ^AfivKXcot 

 59t 3 j '^^ IpSiVL TO)i ^ A'\a{fji)7rptj drai 60, 8 ; rw ipwvi rcoi HSa- 

 \ivji 60, 31 ; Tco 'Ocrtpi 72, I ; TMi deo)i rco 'A7r6\{X}(ovt /2, 2 ; 

 root ^i[(yi] TO) ^A7r6\{X)a)vi, 75, 3 ; ro) 'A7r6X{\)(ovi rco Maytpio) 

 120, 2, 3 ; Tw 61WC Bcrl. Phil. IVoch., 1886, No. 42, col. 1323 ; 



155 



