§ 17. ν is appended to certain endings in σι or ε before a pause or a vowel.
§ 18. There are several other less important rules, and some exceptions to most of the above.
§ 19. A long vowel or diphthong is used as an equivalent for two (usually short) vowels in immediate succession, or as a compensation for the omission of a consonant, sometimes for both.
§ 20. The changes in the union of two vowels are various, depending upon their comparative strength, position, and relation to the long vowels, or diphthongs respectively. They are readily learned by practice.
§ 21. Compensation is not always thus made for the omission of a consonant. Sometimes the omission occurs too far back in the derivation to be easily traced.
§ 22. A final vowel is sometimes elided before another vowel, and its place indicated by the apostrophe, (').
§ 23. There are several dialects, which chiefly affect the vowels, (like provincial pronunciation;) but in later Greek (to which the New Testament belongs) they were merged in "the common dialect," the Attic pre-dominating.
NOUNS.
Nouns are of three declensions, three genders, three numbers, and five cases, all indicated by changes of termination.
§ 24. The declensions (numbered 1, 2, and 3) are only different modes of inflection.