I know this StackExchange is dedicated to Latin, but since one for Greek/Ancient Greek is currently under proposal, I was advised to post my question here after having posted it on Linguistics. I am hoping to get some direction, especially given I am not the only person interested in this problem.
I am currently in the process of translating a text from one language into another, and the original uses a compound noun that can either be translated into English as "fly-eating" (losing the original's charm) or a fancy quasi-medical term involving "-phagia". I have tried searching for rules regarding Ancient Greek compound nouns' formation but could not unearth a definite algorithm.
The word for "fly" would be myia and -phagia could be appended at the end to signify "eating". I would appreciate it if someone with better knowledge of Ancient Greek could help me combine the two together, and I would love to see some scholarly articles on this topic. Surely there are some rules that medical scientists and jurisprudents follow when giving names to new terms?
sumelic and I think that a "linking O" should be used (resulting in "my(i)ophagy"), however, we also realise that might get the resulting word linked with terms like "myophagy" (muscle-eating) and "myopia" that are in no way related to flies. 'tis quite a conundrum.
Update: the fly-related part of the question has been answered over at Linguistics. However, I am still looking for resources and (ideally) an algorithm for properly constructing such nouns. The rules do not seem as straightforward as they are in, say, German. There are at least a few words that seem to fall out of the "linking O" set: genealogy (γενεά + λόγος), koretomia (κόρη + τέμνω) - to name a few (I haven't found too many though).
Is there a rule for avoiding homographs? Like in the case with my(i)o-?