Intervocalic Sigma in third declension nouns

Brent Hudson brent at riveroflifembchurch.com
Fri Nov 16 17:52:46 EST 2001


With respect to third declension nouns whose stems end in a dental; is there
an established rule/reason why the intervocalic sigma does not drop out in
the dative plural (e.g., ELPISI ).  This is not mentioned specifically in
Mounce's Morphology of Biblical Greek (n-3c(1-3)) or in Smyth (120).  Smyth
says that S will remain because of phonetic change or analogy but I'm not
sure if this applies here.  I was wondering if it is related to the loss of
the D or if the I in the ending is consonantal.  Obviously this is not a big
deal, I'm just curious. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Brent Hudson

Moncton, NB
Canada




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