[B-Greek] Liquid Aorists
Carl W. Conrad
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Fri Oct 24 13:37:29 EDT 2003
At 1:37 PM -0400 10/24/03, Glenn wrote:
>When root words that end with a liquid are put into the aoristic tense the
>SA drops out and they undergo an internal lengthening. This lengthening, in
>turn, causes a root change. e.g. MENW becomes EMEINA.
>
>My question is, does this make the aoristic form of the verb a first or
>second aorist? It has the followed the rules of a first aorist but changes
>its root like a second aorist.
No, the liquid aorists are all FIRST aorists as indicated by their
consistent conjugation with alpha-endings. The original sigma may have
evanesced but there is always the lengthening of the preceding vowel to
indicate the form. What distinguishes them from SECOND aorists is that the
second aorist has the same thematic conjugation with varying vowel Omicron
before M or N, Epsilong elsewhere. Of course it is true that some second
aorists by the NT era are being conjugated with alpha-endings (EIDA, EIPA
for EIDON, EIPON) and ultimately all past tenses (Modern Greek) are
conjugated with those alpha endings. But the Alpha-aorists (First aorists)
and Thematic aorists (Second aorists) are pretty clearly distinguished
still in the Hellenistic,i.e. NT Koine era.
--
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/
More information about the B-Greek
mailing list