Sounds and Inflections of tJie Cyprian Dialect. 53 



(as given by Deecke, Index to Coll. I., i) but is rather the 

 gen. plu. modifying the preceding iralhwv. Cf. To<i TralSa^ to<; 

 'OvacriXcov 60, 23. 



The explanation of this genitive formation is exceedingly 

 difificiilt. The view of Ahrens {P/iilologns, xxxv., 13) that an 

 original formation in -«s has changed its -s to -v, for which 

 Ahrens compares the Dor. ending -|ies {^^-g- 6/ji(ofM6Ka/u,e<i) by 

 the side of the ordinary -|x€v (Xeyo/xev) hardly needs refutation. 

 The view first advanced by Deecke-Siegismund (Curtius' 

 Stndien, vii., p. 232) identifying this formation with that seen 

 in the Arcadian genitive rcovl (Coll. 1222, 38), which they 

 took as T(ov-L, is hardly correct, since Arcadian Tav[v]i in the 

 same inscription line 53 points to a suffix -vi. The existence 

 of this latter seems also to be confirmed by the Thessalian 

 forms in -v£, ro-ve Coll. 345, 20, et pass.; rd-ve 345, 23, 45. 



More plausible than Ahrens's view is that put forward' by 

 Deecke {Bezs. Beitr., vi., p. 71). Deecke thinks the ending 

 -wv arose by confounding the gen. sing, in -w with the gen. pi. 

 The V in the latter (see § 23, 2) had an extremely weak 

 sound, according to Deecke, so that the form apparently ter- 

 minated in -0), at least when followed by an initial consonant. 

 Hence after the analogy of d{v)0pdi7r(o, i.e. -w{y) as a pendant 

 to d{y)dpuiTT(»iv in the gen. plu., we find also in the gen. sing. 

 d{v)9p(o'7r(ov as a pendant to d{v)6pM'rr(jd. Deecke refers to 

 the early Latin accusatives, sed, med, ted, which are correctly 

 regarded by him as having developed from original se, me, te 

 after the analogy of the duplicate ablative forms sed, se ; ted, 

 te ; med, me. Cf. Osthoff, Zur GescJiichte des Perfects im 

 Indogermanischen, p. 128 ; Stolz, Lateifiische Grammatik, 



§90. 



Against this view of Deecke's it must be urged that except 

 in the few words already mentioned above (§ 23, 2, 3) 

 final V does not exhibit a tendency to vanish in Cyprian. 

 Even before consonants it is regularly written, e.g. iraihwv 60, 

 II ; Ka(Tiyv7]T(ov 70, 14. Hence the assumption is not justi- 

 fied that final v in the gen. plu. was characterized by the 

 "ausserste Lautschwache" which Deecke claims, and the con- 



183 



