This is a new and enlarged edition of Professor Allen's highly successful book on the pronunciation of Attic Greek in classical times. In this edition, Professor Allen has in particular revised the presentation of the controversial question of stress; the chapter on quantity has been extensively recast; and an appendix has been added on the names of the letters of the Greek alphabet. In addition to the new material, the supplementary notes of the second edition are now incorporated into the main text making this a very convenient book to use.

The accent of many Greek words has long been considered arbitrary, but amid this inconsistency Philomen Probert discovers some striking features that give clues to the prehistory of the accent system. As well as giving a better understanding of the history of Greek accentuation, this study yields insights into aspects of Indo-European accentuation and into the effects of word frequency on language change.