Science Fair Project Encyclopedia
Iota subscript
Iota subscript, Greek Υπογεγραμμένη is an indicator of diphthongs when the stem vowel is long.
Ancient Greek diphthongs ai, ei, oi were composed with a vowel and the letter iota. When original a, e and o were long (α, η, ω), the iota diphthongisation was spelled as ῃ and ῳ.
Because of this, the -i element of the diphthong became very vague. While the pronounciation of αι, ει and οι in modern Greek was simplified as e, i and i respectivelly, ᾳ ῃ and ῳ, were simplified as if subscript was absent.
Subscript was then obsoleted along the rest of the polytonic orthography.
Last updated: 10-10-2005 02:18:16
10-26-2009 08:16:03
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The contents of this article is licensed from www.wikipedia.org under the GNU Free Documentation License. Click here to see the transparent copy and copyright details