# Remnants of Attic alpha



## bearded

Hello everybody

In ancient (Attic) Greek, adjectives like 'phoberòs, droseròs, etc' ended with alpha in the feminine singular (phoberà..), whereas in Modern Greek, eta(H) has prevailed.  In this respect - and talking in terms of the ancient dialect varieties - Modern Greek possesses a ''Ionic'' feature (I remember that Herodotos even wrote 'historie(with H) instead of 'historia')..
Now my question:
apart from 'deftera' (Monday - but the numeral is defteri), are there in Modern Greek any examples of feminine singular in -a (after rho P), or areas in Greece where such a pronunciation can still be heard?

Thank you in advance.


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## sotos

I suppose you have in mind the cases where the -ρά is accented. I don't think we have such adjectives in modern greek, but there are some historical ones, like Deftera, Kathara Deutera, Iera Odos etc. I am not sure but they might retain the -ρά adjectives in the local speak of Crete, like αρρωσταρά (instead of the common άρρωστη/αρρωστιάρα, sick). 
Many fem. adjectives in -ρα are formed with the suffix -άρης/-άρα, but in this case the accent is on the paraligousa (χαδιάρα, βρωμιάρα etc.).


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## Perseas

On this matter the rule is: 
When the *stem-vowel* of the adjective is preceded by a *consonant* (except *ρ*), the feminine ends in *η* (σο*φ*ός, σο*φ*ή), when by a *vowel* or *ρ*, the feminine ends in *α* (δίκα*ι*ος, δικα*ί*α & μικ*ρ*ός, μικ*ρ*ά).
I don't think it's about an Ionic feature that has prevailed, but it's rather a matter of uniformity which prevailed after a point of time. (I mean all feminine adjectives ended in η).
If I come up with some examples I' ll post later.

cross-posted with previous reply


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## qnk

Perseas said:


> On this matter the rule is:
> When the *stem-vowel* of the adjective is preceded by a *consonant* (except *ρ*), the feminine ends in *η* (σο*φ*ός, σο*φ*ή), when by a *vowel* or *ρ*, the feminine ends in *α* (δίκα*ι*ος, δικα*ί*α & μικ*ρ*ός, μικ*ρ*ά).



I'm a bit puzzled about your mentioning of *μικρά. *In my dictionary I can find only *μικρός, μικρή, μικρό. *There must be something else that I'm missing. I found in some places _Μικρά Ασία, Μικρά Αγγλία_, and nothing else of the sort. Can you help me? Thank you.


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## bearded

I suppose that, when he wrote ''the rule is...'', Perseas was referring to Ancient Greek.


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## Perseas

Yes, exactly, I was referring to Ancient Greek.


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## Nikolaos_Kandidatos

About the Cretan form αρρωσταρά, I really don't think it's a survival of ancient a after r, it's simply a case of deletion of the semivowel resulting from synizesis which is common in some places in Crete (i.e. αρρωσταριά -> αρρωσταρά, like ζεστασιά becomes ζεστασά in some Cretan idioms)


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