Does any Greek word have a geminate consonant after a long vowel?

Question

I recently noticed a pattern in loans from Hebrew into Greek: the letter šin (or sin, or łin if you're really archaic) is transcribed σσ after a short vowel, σ elsewhere.

My knowledge of Classical Hebrew and Aramaic is weak, so this gemination might be a feature of those languages for all I know. But off the top of my head, I also can't think of any Greek word with a doubled consonant after a long vowel.

Does any such word exist? Metrical evidence won't do us any good here, since the doubled consonant would make the syllable long by position—but η and ω have their length shown clearly in writing.

score 8 · Accepted Answer · answered Jun 25 '19 at 05:50

8

There is the word γλῶσσα and a great number of other words derived from it. Here is a list of words containing -ωσσ-, giving more examples.

answered Jun 25 '19 at 05:50

Joonas Ilmavirta

113,294
21
192
587

1

And Attic glôtta! – Cerberus Jun 25 '19 at 17:32
@Cerberus Indeed! I should have rummaged deeper into the attic of my memory for suitable glottary. – Joonas Ilmavirta Jun 25 '19 at 17:37
1

♦: Or dive deep into the isogloss, which must lie somewhere in the Aegean. – Cerberus Jun 25 '19 at 19:42

score 8 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 25 '19 at 16:35

There are quite a few, actually. Just to add some more examples:

ἥττων "less"

πράττω "do" (impv. πρᾶττε shows the length)

πλήττω "strike"

μᾶλλον "more"

ἤλλαγμαι, pf. m./p. of ἀλλάττω "exchange"

ἡλλόμην, impf. of ἅλλομαι "jump"

Does any Greek word have a geminate consonant after a long vowel?

2 Answers2

Linked