Apophony - Vowel gradation

The knowledge of apophony takes on great importance when studying the Greek language. Apophony consists in the vowel alternation which can occur both in the formation and inflection of words and verbs deriving from a single root. Apophony occurs also in Latin and Italian. Consider, for example, the Latin verb conjugation: many verbs have different vowels within present and perfect stems. Here are some examples:

A similar phenomenon can be observed also in Latin compound verbs resulting from a preverb attached to the original verb stem.The table below provides some examples:

It can be noted that only vowel duration is affected in many cases; in such instances a short vowel becomes long or vice versa. This phenomenon is called quantitative vowel gradation; whereas qualitative vowel gradation refers to all instances where the original vowel is replaced with a different vowel or even dropped .

In Greek, quantitative vowel gradation occurs mainly in the formation of some verb tenses. For example, verbs with the present indicative stem ending in a vowel undergo vowel lengthening in the formation of both sigmatic future and sigmatic aorist.

Ex. τιμά-ω, I honour, ᾰ of the present indicative stem is lengthened to ᾱ in the formation of sigmatic future. The form *τιμάσω with ᾱ then becomes τιμήσω owing to impure alpha, i.e.: not preceded by ε, ι or ρ.

Most of all, mastering qualitative vowel gradation enables us to recognize the one root in cognate words, even when they are seemingly inconsistent. This ability will make it easier to find our way amid the wealth of Greek lexical heritage.

A large number of roots show qualitative vowel gradation in the formation of the lexical system. Sometimes, roots appear in two apophonic grades: the weak grade and the strong grade, which usually feature the vowel sound e and the vowel sound o respectively. The following table displays some roots and their cognates in order to exemplify two-grade apophony. Notice the alternation of ε/ο in verbs and nouns respectively.

Three-grade roots are even more frequent. Apophony appears as zero-grade, weak grade and strong grade. The weak grande and the strong grade show the same ε/ο interchange as seen in two-grade roots, while zero-grade roots are characterized by the absence of vowels. In many instances, nasal or liquid consonants vocalized to α when they were part of consonantal clusters, otherwise they developed a secondary vowel.
See the table below for examples.

Careful observation of the page on word roots will provide valuable insight into apophonic occurrences in the formation of the Greek lexical system .