hETEROS vs ALLOS

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Thu Aug 15 21:25:40 EDT 2002


At 5:44 PM -0700 8/15/02, waldo slusher wrote:
>It seems that classical Greek writers were somewhat
>careful to use these two words in such a way as to
>take advantage of their differences. ALLOS being one
>and another of the same or similar kind, and hETEROS
>one and another of a different kind altogether. Was
>this distinction ALWAYS followed in classical Greek?
>
>I understand languages go through change, but is there
>any reason when this distinction could have been
>beautifully preserved in a NT text, that the author
>did not always avail himself to this nicety. It's one
>thing for the distinction to have become blurred, but
>it is yet another thing to not take advantage of what
>was presumedly known to first century people (I am
>assuming first century readers or hearers knew of that
>older distinction since 2000 years later many have
>quite easily discovered it.)

I think we need to think of linguistic change in a more sophisticated way
than this: linguistic change is not like a simple transition of a physical
element from a solid state to a liquid state to a vaporous state. It is
more a matter of new usages coming into currency long before older usages
have gone out of currency. I think there are many who spoke and wrote Greek
in the Hellenistic era who DID use ALLOS and hETEROS in the same
distinctive way as older Greek had used them, but one factor supporting the
distinction had almost completely gone out of usage: the existence of a
DUAL number in addition to a SINGULAR and PLURAL number. Attic and Homeric
Greek knew of hO OFQALMOS (the eye), TW OFQALMW (the two eyes), and hOI
OFQALMOI (eyes--more than two of them). hETEROS spells out that the item
referred to by it is distinct from only one other; ALLOS spells out the the
item referred to by it is different from one or more others.

I don't doubt that the distinction between ALLOS and hETEROS might have
been explained to speakers of Hellenistic Greek who didn't observe it in
their speech and writing; my guess is that they would have shrugged their
shoulders and said something like "So what?" or "ALLA PROS TI?"
-- 

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Emeritus)
Most months:: 1647 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu OR cwconrad at ioa.com
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/



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