In Attic-Ionic Greek, nouns with dental stems show two types of accusative singular endings, depending on the position of the accent:
If the accent is on the final syllable of the stem, the accusative ending is -α, e.g. ἀσπίς, acc. sg. ἀσπίδα.
Otherwise (i.e. in recessively accented nouns), the accusative ending is -ν, replacing the dental of the stem, e.g. χάρις, acc. sg. χάριν.
Does this distinction appear in other dialects too?
I'm mostly wondering about Aeolic, which has general recessive accentuation, so there's no possible accent distinction. How does Aeolic form the accusative singular of dental stems?
But I'd also like to know how this shows up in other dialects (West Greek, Arcado-Cypriot). Is it an Attic-Ionic innovation, or is it Proto-Greek, or something in between?
Buck and Smyth seem to say nothing on this question, which on the face of it may mean that other dialects behave like Attic-Ionic and/or that we have no evidence, but I haven't checked any of the specific dialect handbooks.
ETA: some more info from Chantraine (Morphologie historique 66-7): it seems there are some attested forms in -α from recessive-accent nouns; he lists ἔριδα, ὄρνιθα/ὄρνιχα (the latter from Pindar), χάριτα, ὄπιδα. He then adds "en revanche, l'on ne trouve jamais que πατρίδα", but I don't know if he's talking about that specific noun or the final-accent class as a whole (which seems more likely). This is interesting, but still doesn't give a clear picture of the dialectology and history of these forms (nor does it answer the Aeolic question).
