[B-Greek] Etymology

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Sat Mar 29 06:23:14 EST 2003


At 10:32 PM -0800 3/28/03, Jerker Karlsson wrote:
>>>I'm also keen to know if it is significant that OUSIA was made from the
>>>participle stem and not the active stem, i.e does it because of this
>>>denote state rather than action. Looking at the examples above (APOUSIA,
>>>PAOUSIA, OUSIA, EXOUSIA) the all seem to bear the notion of a state,
>>>absence, presence, existence, *permitnce. Does this circumstantial nature
>>>of these words derive from the fact that they all are taken from the
>>>participle form or does it lie inherent in the stem ES itself?
>"Carl W. Conrad" <cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu> writes:
>>
>>The stem of the verb alternates between ES-, SE-, and SO-.
>
>In which forms of EIMI is the 0 and E vowel gradations present?


Actually I think that all the forms that appear in historical Greek can be
accounted for by ES-, although curiously the participle and subjunctive in
classical Attic and Koine are forms wherein all elements of the original
root/stem have evanesced and what remain is simply the thematic vowel O/E
with participial infix + case-ending or with lengthened thematic vowel W/H
and person-number endings. The Homeric participle was EWN/EOUSA/EON from
original ESWN/ESOUSA/ESON. It is Latin that shows partial assimilation to
thematic conjugation with an original (older Latin) SOM in 1st sg., SOMOS
in 1st pl. and SONT in 3d pl.
-- 

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Emeritus)
1989 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
WWW: http://www.ioa.com/~cwconrad/


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