participles & EINAI
Richard Ghilardi
qodeshlayhvh at juno.com
Sat Jul 27 11:30:32 EDT 2002
James,
On Sat, 27 Jul 2002 21:28:16 +1000 James Forsyth <james at bigbeing.com.au>
writes:
[snip the participles]
> I have a question which may encroach into modern Greek territory.
> The
> active infinitive of EIMI is EINAI (with a circumflex and smooth
> breathing
> above the first iota). In a Greek book on chess I saw today (SKAKI
> 1) it
> said "hO LEUKOS EINAI MAT" and similarly "hO MAUROS EINAI MAT" (once
> again
> the circumflex and breathing were the same). In these cases white,
> then
> black, were delivering checkmate. Is this the same EINAI? I
> realise it
> may be stretching it to think that "takes", "mates" or "checkmates"
> means
> the same as the infinitive of EIMI. But does it?
>
EINAI is not the infinitive of EIMI in MG. MG has no infinitive. Here is
the morphoparadigm for EIMI in MG:
EIMAI EIMASTE
EISAI EISTE
EINAI EINAI
MG uses NA + UPOTAKTIKH (subjunctive) where English uses an infinitive:
QELW NA EIMAI ENAS AMERIKANOS.
I want to be an American.
O MAUROS EINAI MAT.
Black is mate (checkmated).
Yours in His grace,
Richard Ghilardi -- qodeshlayhvh at juno.com
New Haven, CT USA
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