Sounds and Inflections of tJie Cyprian Dialect. 29 



Meisterhans, Graunnatik der AttiscJieti InscJiriften^, p. 10; cf. 

 Meyer Gr. Gr.,'^ I.e. 



No dialect has preserved any instance in inscriptions of 

 the original formation. -OPFOw in inscription r-^ written 

 in the old alphabet, e.g. Coll. 1170, 2 (Elean) ; 1479, 'S 

 (Locrian), if not actually for -opy6<; (as read by Bechtel in 

 case of the latter inscription), may be taken as easily for the 

 contraction of -oopyo^ as of -oepyo'i. So also Attic STj/moup- 

 709 points no more clearly to -oepjot; than -oopyo';. The 

 Messenian dialect has Sa/jbiopj6<i Cauer Delect Jis^ 47, 119; so 

 also the Achaean, gig. 1542; Megarian, Coll. 3094, 19; Pam- 

 phylian, 1261, 3. 



In all these cases hap.iopyo'^ is to be derived from the 

 primitive form *haixi,o-op'y6<i by aphceresis of the first o. In 

 other words, we have the same law here as in the Cyprian 

 forms ©eo/cX,eo9, Ti/io/cXeo? mentioned above. The facts I 

 believe authorize us to assume at least for the Arcadian and 

 Cyprian the following law : When of three successive vowels 

 the first and second or the second and third are repetitions 

 of the same sound, one of the repeated vowels disappears. 

 This law also shows evidences of its operation even to a 

 wider extent than these two dialects ; e.g. Cretan Ylpiavaie'^; 

 for -iee? ciG. 2556, 30 ; Ionic j3opew for ^opeeco ; so also the in- 

 finitives of contract verbs in -dw, -i<a, -dw, *Ti/jidev (whence rt/xav) 

 for *Tifj,d€ev ; *</)tX,eey (whence (f)i\€iv) for ^(^ikieev ; ^iLaOoev 

 (whence fiiaOovv) for ^fiicrOoeev. 



The above explanation of Safitopyof; not only starts from 

 the form demanded by the signification of the compound but 

 explains its further development by a principle simple and 

 natural and abundantly illustrated in Arcadian, Cyprian, and 

 elsewhere. Spitzer's explanation (after Ahrens, De Graecae 

 Linguae Dialectis, I., p. 234) refers the word to a primitive 

 Safiio-epy6<;, whence Sani(opy6<; by contraction ; thence, by 

 shortening of the «, Safiiopyo'i. This shortening of a long 

 vowel when followed by a liquid -f consonant, though main- 

 tained by Brugmann {Grnndriss der VergleicJietiden Gmm- 

 matik, I., p. 463), does not seem as certain, by any means, as 



159 



