Lengthened α in dative plural of aorist participles

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Andrew Chapman
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Lengthened α in dative plural of aorist participles

Post by Andrew Chapman »

I am reading through Funk's Beginning/Intermediate Grammar of Hellenistic Greek.

At 2471.2, he says that 'The dative plurals (masculine and neuter) of all participles with stems in -ντ- lose the -ντ- and lengthen the preceding vowel in compensation. He gives ἱστᾶσι(ν) as an example, and I think that the circumflex may be indicating the lengthening of the α, but then he gives λύσασι, and doesn't seem to explain why this doesn't apparently follow the rule. Am I missing something, or is this an exception to the rule?

Andrew

P.S. similarly with feminine singular nominative (and presumably accuative): ἱστᾶσα but λύσασα.
cwconrad
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Re: Lengthened α in dative plural of aorist participles

Post by cwconrad »

Andrew Chapman wrote:I am reading through Funk's Beginning/Intermediate Grammar of Hellenistic Greek.

At 2471.2, he says that 'The dative plurals (masculine and neuter) of all participles with stems in -ντ- lose the -ντ- and lengthen the preceding vowel in compensation. He gives ἱστᾶσι(ν) as an example, and I think that the circumflex may be indicating the lengthening of the α, but then he gives λύσασι, and doesn't seem to explain why this doesn't apparently follow the rule. Am I missing something, or is this an exception to the rule?

Andrew

P.S. similarly with feminine singular nominative (and presumably accuative): ἱστᾶσα but λύσασα.
The accent on aorist participles is recessive; although the alpha in λύσασι is indeed long, since the ultima is short, the accent recedes to the antepenult· λύσας, λύσᾱσα, dat. pl. λύσᾱσι.
Present participles of the -μι verbs are regularly accented on the stem syllable: τιθείς, τιθεῖσα, dat. pl. τιθεῖσι; ἰστάς, ἱστᾶσα, dat. pl. ἱστᾶσι; διδούς, διδοῦσα, dat. pl. διδοῦσι; δεικνύς, δεικνῦσα, dat. pl. δεικνῦσι
οὔτοι ἀπ’ ἀρχῆς πάντα θεοὶ θνητοῖς ὑπέδειξαν,
ἀλλὰ χρόνῳ ζητέοντες ἐφευρίσκουσιν ἄμεινον. (Xenophanes, Fragment 16)

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)
Andrew Chapman
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Re: Lengthened α in dative plural of aorist participles

Post by Andrew Chapman »

cwconrad wrote: The accent on aorist participles is recessive; although the alpha in λύσασι is indeed long, since the ultima is short, the accent recedes to the antepenult· λύσας, λύσᾱσα, dat. pl. λύσᾱσι.
Present participles of the -μι verbs are regularly accented on the stem syllable: τιθείς, τιθεῖσα, dat. pl. τιθεῖσι; ἰστάς, ἱστᾶσα, dat. pl. ἱστᾶσι; διδούς, διδοῦσα, dat. pl. διδοῦσι; δεικνύς, δεικνῦσα, dat. pl. δεικνῦσι
Thanks very much, Carl. Did you mean to write λύσᾱσα, and λύσᾱσι with two accents? I can only find λύσασα and λύσασι. If the accent recedes to the antepenult because the ultima is short, why doesn't that happen with ἱστᾶσα and ἱστᾶσι, which seem to have the same last syllables? Or is this just one of those things?

Andrew
cwconrad
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Re: Lengthened α in dative plural of aorist participles

Post by cwconrad »

Andrew Chapman wrote:
cwconrad wrote: The accent on aorist participles is recessive; although the alpha in λύσασι is indeed long, since the ultima is short, the accent recedes to the antepenult· λύσας, λύσᾱσα, dat. pl. λύσᾱσι.
Present participles of the -μι verbs are regularly accented on the stem syllable: τιθείς, τιθεῖσα, dat. pl. τιθεῖσι; ἰστάς, ἱστᾶσα, dat. pl. ἱστᾶσι; διδούς, διδοῦσα, dat. pl. διδοῦσι; δεικνύς, δεικνῦσα, dat. pl. δεικνῦσι
Thanks very much, Carl. Did you mean to write λύσᾱσα, and λύσᾱσι with two accents? I can only find λύσασα and λύσασι. If the accent recedes to the antepenult because the ultima is short, why doesn't that happen with ἱστᾶσα and ἱστᾶσι, which seem to have the same last syllables? Or is this just one of those things?
What I meant to do was put a macron over the alpha in those forms -- that's an indication that the vowel is long; it is not an accent. Also, as I indicated previously these present participles of μι verbs are accented on the stem-syllable.
οὔτοι ἀπ’ ἀρχῆς πάντα θεοὶ θνητοῖς ὑπέδειξαν,
ἀλλὰ χρόνῳ ζητέοντες ἐφευρίσκουσιν ἄμεινον. (Xenophanes, Fragment 16)

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)
Andrew Chapman
Posts: 265
Joined: February 5th, 2013, 5:04 am
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Re: Lengthened α in dative plural of aorist participles

Post by Andrew Chapman »

Thanks a lot, Carl, I think I've got it now. Sorry you had to repeat your point about the stem syllable - I hadn't grasped the point that in the aorist of the ω verbs the stem is one syllable removed from the adjectival endings by the tense formative σα.

Andrew
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