[B-Greek] Consonantal iota

bgreek at ntresources.com bgreek at ntresources.com
Wed Aug 13 10:04:29 EDT 2003


> >Is what Mounce calls a consonantal iota the same thing as what Smyth 
> >calls a semivowel? Are these equivalent terms?

Carl commented:
> to Smyth's and it's what was used when I first learned Greek 
> half a century ago by Joe Billy McMinn; at Harvard Joshua 
> Whatmough used a simple Latin "y" and that's the convention 
> used by W. Sidney Allen (_Vox Graeca_). Andrew L. Sihler 
> (_New Comparative Grammar of Greek and Latin_) uses an italic 
> *y with the asterisk preceding it to represent the original ...

I just noticed that as I was re-reading your comparative phonology notes
when your post arrived.

Would I assume correctly then that ... ?

1. "consonantal iota" (Mounce & others) = "semivowel" (Smyth) = "consonantal
yod" 

and that

2. There are several conventions for representing this character in printed
texts, including:
   a. A "pointed caret" (like Unicode 032D) under an iota (Mounce)
   b. A "rounded circumflex" (like Unicode 032F) under an iota (Smyth)
   c. The English letter 'y' (either italicized or marked with asterisk)
(McMinn, Whatmough, Allen, Sihler)

My *guess* is that the use of the 'y' might be as much for font/typesetting
purposes as any other reason?

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Rodney J. Decker, Th.D., Assoc. Professor/NT
Baptist Bible Seminary, Clarks Summit, PA, USA
URL: www.NTResources.com  
PURL: purl.oclc.org/NT_Resources/
Email: <rdecker> at <NTResources.com>
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