Theme vowel

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Definition

Theme vowel is a morphological marker which indicates which is the declensional or conjugational class that a word belongs to.

Example

In Ancient Greek, nouns are grouped into three declensional classes. If a noun belongs to the first declension, the root is followed by the theme vowel -a-, and if it belongs to the second declension the root is followed by -o-: môus+a+n (acc.sg.), môus+a+y (nom.pl.) 'Muse', log+o+n (acc.sg.), log+o+y (nom.pl.) 'word'. Another term is 'extension vowel'.

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Links

References

  • Goodwin, W. 1894. Greek grammar, Macmillan, London.
  • Spencer, A. 1991. Morphological Theory, Blackwell, Oxford.
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