Metathesis

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Fri Mar 15 16:42:22 EST 2002


At 1:16 PM -0500 3/15/02, Randy Leedy  wrote:
>Carl, you know I'm always working in great haste. I do see in one of
>your previous posts that you gave ETARPON and ETRAPON as alternative
>aorists; that one works. I shouldn't have missed it. May I plead  for
>a slight mitigation in my culpability for inattention, though? It
>appears to me to be your only "valid" example (measuring validity in
>terms of what I was looking for), put last in a list of other examples
>the "invalidity" of which conditioned me to overlook the last one.
>Where did you mention QARSOS and QRASOS in your earlier messages? Am I
>blind? Perhaps, especially if blindness can be produced by haste. :-)
>
>I will make it a point to get over to the Library and see Smyth since
>I can see now that he DOES have at least some examples of the kind of
>thing I am looking for. Thanks for the help, and accept my apology for
>my contribution to the testiness of our exchange.

I'm sorry, Randy. I thought I had mentioned QARSOS/QRASOS earlier, but
evidently I didn't; as I recollect there are others in Homer and in Ionic
dialect too, but I'm finding that instant recall is no longer automatic
with me--if it ever was. I really think there are more like this.

And I'm sorry for my bad temper; it did seem to me that those instances of
metathesis involving noun and verb forms are part and parcel of the whole
working of metathesis, inasmuch as in Greek it's usually a matter of vowels
that can readily switch from one side to the other of liquids and nasals.
-- 

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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