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‘Late’ Linguistic Innovations and Elimination of Hiatus in the Homeric Text

  • Albio Cesare Cassio
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Postclassical Greek
This chapter is in the book Postclassical Greek

Abstract

This contribution deals with ‘late’ linguistic material that either must have been in use at the time of the final compositional stages of the Homeric text, or may secondarily have crept into it as a result of oral recitations or scribal modifications. As it happens, some of these ‘new’ linguistic forms eliminate hiatus, not only verse-internally, but also between lines. This sheds some light on the neglected subject of episynaloephe - the smooth transition from the last sound of a line to the first sound of the following one - which must have played a more significant role than is usually recognized in the latest compositional phases of the Homeric text.

Abstract

This contribution deals with ‘late’ linguistic material that either must have been in use at the time of the final compositional stages of the Homeric text, or may secondarily have crept into it as a result of oral recitations or scribal modifications. As it happens, some of these ‘new’ linguistic forms eliminate hiatus, not only verse-internally, but also between lines. This sheds some light on the neglected subject of episynaloephe - the smooth transition from the last sound of a line to the first sound of the following one - which must have played a more significant role than is usually recognized in the latest compositional phases of the Homeric text.

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