NT Greek verbs (trevor)

yochanan bitan ButhFam at compuserve.com
Mon May 1 16:58:54 EDT 2000


shalom Trevor,
 
I agree with you. 
Now you may say that i can't do that because i'd be disagreeing with
myself. Well, I agree and haven't changed my mind. ?!?

(Buth egrapsen:)
>> tw Pete Slevin cairein
>>
>> a Greek 501 verbs isn't a bad idea.

(trevor egrapsen:)
>As a Little-Greeker I tremble in fear and trepidation when I say this to
>Randall Buth: I disagree.
>
>One of the least used books amongst my Swedish language books is "201
>Swedish Verbs". It's been nearly 15 years since I started with Swedish and
>in all that time I can recall only using 201 once (to find the
conjugations
>of "att beda" to pray as it happens). It just does not get used. I reason
>that I'd do the same with a 501 Greek Verbs.

I heartily agree that a 501 verbs would be one of the LEAST used language
books. For most languages I have never owned a '501 verbs'. Never missed
them. They are not for language learning but for reference, like for your
one verb. 
But for Greek I would love to have one with a special twist, one that is
historically oriented. Notice the indeterminencies (sp?) in BDF's
description of Koine verb morphology and development. 
I need to be able to actively control the language in order to speak and
that means ending up in 'corners' of the language where it's not always
clear what the preferred forms would have been. It would be nice to have a
Koine collection for reference. Fast reference means reliable tables, not a
prose explanation of how the form ended up the way it did. Tables can list
more than one form for a slot if needed, too. (e.g. DUNASAI~DUNHi 'you are
able')

For example, imagine a Greek professor running a three-week old intro Greek
class and needing to tell a student:
"Pour the water into the cup!" 
Out of his mouth rolls . . . uh, just what rolls out? 
 .?.?.   to udwr eis to poterion
[A reference to CEW/CUNNW and the irregularities of CEW's vowel, and
compound forms with ek- and en/g- is not much help.] You would think that
both big and little greeks would be able to say something so simple.

Of course, we 'cheat' and just say -- GEMISON TO POTHRION UDATOS. --which
the student does, thereby learning some Greek, unaware of the professor's
internal tensions... 

PIE TO UDWR. (o maqhths pinei) KALWS. 
GEMISON TO POTHRION OINOU. (auto gemizei) 
DOS AUTO TH MAQHTRIA.
KALWS. 
KAQOU. EUCARISTW SOI.  
DIYW. TIS TW DIDASKALW QELEI OINON DOUNAI ?
ANASTHQI, ELQE ...
legei o didaskalos tois maqhtais . 

errwso
Randall Buth



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