long alpha in dia?
Posted: October 13th, 2017, 12:30 pm
Friends,
I was asked why compound verbs with dia augment with eta, but compound verbs with para augment with epsilon. For example, parakaleo becomes the imperfect parekaloun with the epsilon augment, but diakoneo becomes the imperfect diekaloun (with an eta augment).
My suspicion is that the alpha in dia is long, so when the Greeks augmented the compound verb that used it, they in a sense made it even longer by making the augment an eta (instead of switching to the short epsilon).
So does anyone know if the alpha in dia is long? Is there a reference that shows vowel values in prepositions?
Thanks,
David McClister
I was asked why compound verbs with dia augment with eta, but compound verbs with para augment with epsilon. For example, parakaleo becomes the imperfect parekaloun with the epsilon augment, but diakoneo becomes the imperfect diekaloun (with an eta augment).
My suspicion is that the alpha in dia is long, so when the Greeks augmented the compound verb that used it, they in a sense made it even longer by making the augment an eta (instead of switching to the short epsilon).
So does anyone know if the alpha in dia is long? Is there a reference that shows vowel values in prepositions?
Thanks,
David McClister