Didache (and MI imperatives)

Keith Thompson KAT at kneptune.demon.co.uk
Thu Nov 8 15:28:45 EST 2001


Hi!
  My beginning grammar doesn't say much about MI conjugation forms, but 
lists them all in a table using DIDWMI, hISTHMI and TIQHMI. For aorist 
middle imperatives the forms of DIDWMI and TIQHMI are 'DOU' and 'QOU' 
(and aorist middle hISTHMI is not listed), is this incorrect? So I 
assumed the aorist middle imperative of DUNAMAI would be something like 
'DUNOU' (or if it's DUNA+OU, DUNW). I wasn't thinking about contract 
vowels at all, it didn't occur to me that they are lengthened before 
Sigma - DUNHSAI not DUNASAI if it follows the W conjugation. So does 
DUNAMAI follow the MI or W conjugation in the aorist tense? Are both 
forms used with all MI verbs or do certain verbs follow the MI 
conjugation whilst others follow W?
  As for the meaning of the imperative, the idea I had was 'neither 
should you be powerful', meaning not forceful in getting your stuff 
back. But is the DUNAMAI imperative never used?
  Thanks again for the help, and for the advice about BAGD. It seems to 
get mentioned here quite a lot, and in one of my grammars and lexicons 
it constantly says 'see BAGD', and it's only the New Testament and other 
Christian literature that I read in Greek so it's perfect for my needs.

EN CRISTWi
Keith Thompson (Manchester, UK)
Email:keitht at kneptune.demon.co.uk
Mobile email: koff at t-motion.co.uk

-- 
Keith Thompson



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