The problem of Iota in Ancient Greek ikhthys 'fish'

Abstract

This article focuses on the problem of word-initial iota in Ancient Greek ikhth.s 'fish', which has not yet received a wholly satisfactory explanation. It is suggested that it can be explained as a consequence of the word's hysterokinetic paradigm inherited from Proto-Indo-European, whose structure incurred an anaptyxis of schwa secundum, and the metathesis of the thorn cluster in the oblique stem in Proto-Greek, which only magnified the allomorphy, leading to subsequent analogical paradigmatic levelling. Two possible scenarios of how these processes could have progressed and culminated in the attested Ancient Greek word form are critically presented and evaluated.