206 EFFECTS OF SENTENCE STRUCTURE ὃ 236—


likely to be wrongly divided, thus giving rise to
Consequences NeW forms; (0) final and initial conso-
of the fusion of nants willbe assimilated and one or other
Sik may disappear, thus again giving rise
to new forms; (c) final vowels may either disappear
or become consonantal before the initial vowel of a
following word, and, if the consonantal form of the
vowel affects the previous consonant, may give rise
to new forms; (d) if the forms originated in these
three ways continue to subsist side by side, they
may be specialised in different usages, and may no
longer be felt as at all connected, or one dialect
may keep one form and another dialect its variant.
237. (a) This generally arises from the similar-

ity of the case ending of the article or some such
word to the initial sound of the word which is
affected. Thus in Greek τὰς-στεγάς is divided tas
Words wrongly Teyas and hence a byform arises τέγος,
divided. _réyn, and the verb τέγω by the side of
the older στέγος, στέγη, στέγω. So also τοὺς
μικρούς, τοὺς *pepdaréous, etc., lead to rods σμικρούς,
τοὺς σμερδαλέους, and ultimately to a complete set
of forms with initial s, which had. been lost earlier
by a general Greek law (§ 202). The pronoun
ὁ δεῖνα “a certain one” is supposed to be a wrong
division of 65¢+another pronominal element.’ If
any further change takes place in the form of an
initial combination of consonants, the byform may


1 This interchange goes back to Indo-G. times, the Germanic ἢ
languages (Eng. thatch) showing a form without s-, for initial s¢-
would remain unchanged (§ 103, i.).
