On Attic Prosody

Aelius Herodianus, Περὶ Ἀττικῆς προσῳδίας, Grammatici Graeci 3.2, Lentz, Teubner, 1868

Open Greek and Latin · CC BY-SA 4.0

Cloned and adapted by Humanitext, with ongoing edits.

This work is a collection of fragments from the grammatical treatise "On Attic Prosody" by the ancient Greek grammarian Herodian, focusing on the rules of accentuation in the Attic dialect. Preserved through citations in ancient scholia and lexicons, the text examines the specific pronunciation and spelling conventions of Attic Greek. The discussion centers on detailed analyses of individual words, such as the adverb "kragon" (κραγόν), the noun "phoriamos" (φωριαμός)—noting its proparoxytone accentuation in Attic—and the noun "eilyos" (εἰλυός). Through these examples, the work contrasts the standard Greek accentuation rules with the unique phonological characteristics of the Attic dialect. Ultimately, these fragments reveal the systematic methods employed by ancient grammarians to observe and codify the nuances of their language.