A New Mora-Based Method of Teaching Classical Greek Accentuation

This article presents a new way to conceptualize and teach Ancient Greek accentuation in introductory courses and to reintroduce the topic to more advanced learners. The method entirely replaces the traditional approach, which is derived from ancient grammarians’ understanding of how the language’s pitch accent interacted with syllables and does not allow a compact or coherent presentation of how accentuation works. Using the concept of the mora—an abstract linguistic measure of vowel length that is more fundamental to Ancient Greek phonology than syllables when it comes to accentuation—we can reduce most accentuation to four rules that can handle most words in the language but require far less time and effort from students to master. After laying out a rationale for the new system and detailing its four rules, which can be presented in only one or two class sessions, the article discusses how this system applies to the most common morphology and offers pedagogical considerations and suggestions. It then offers additional analyses and discusses ways to approach more advanced topics