[B-Greek] -MI verbs

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Mon Sep 15 09:42:56 EDT 2003


At 5:48 AM -0700 9/15/03, Mitch Larramore wrote:
>'The original personal suffixes of the pres. indic.
>act. were -MI, -SI, -TI, -MEN, -TE, -NTI. The use of
>the thematic vowel gives us LU O MI, LU E SI, LU E TI
>(which by the classical period were modified into LUW,
>LUEIS, LUEI). (Jay page 17)

I think this is a bit of an oversimplification, although it's not
altogether wrong.

>What does 'thematic' vowel mean?

It is a vowel alternating between O and E that appears between the verb
stem and personal ending of all "thematic" paradigms (circular definition:
most of the verb morphoparadigms of ancient Greek are, in fact, thematic,
and it's easier to list the exceptions than to list all the thematic
morphoparadigms; the exceptions are: aorists in -SA-, perfects in -KA,
perfect middle-passives in, aorists (including all -QH- FORMS) IN
N/S/(T)/MEN/TE/SAN), present and imperfects in MI.)

>And, why did some -MI verbs stay as -MI verbs in the
>NT? (TIQHMI for example)

In all languages the most frequently used verbs in everyday discourse tend
to resist simplification or standardization; grammarians tend to call such
verbs and verb forms ("strong") as opposed to the "weak" forms which have
taken on a standardized form of inflection. In English such verbs are "be,"
"have," "go" and several verbs that form "strong" past tenses and past
participles ("drink/drank/drunk, fly/flew/flown); In Greek such verbs are
EIMI ("be"), hISTHMI/hISTAMAI ("stand"), DIDWMI ("give"), TIQHMI ("put,
place, set down") and hIHMI (mostly in compounded verbs, "let
loose"--EFIHMI, AFIHMI, etc.)

It is important (although it is not taught or brought to very deep
awareness of beginning students of Greek) to understand that ancient Greek
at all periods was a language in flux--in process of change from earlier
forms and usages to later forms and usages. One of many significant
illustrations of this is that fact that one finds in the GNT both
Omega-verb and MI-verb forms of AFIHMI/AFIW, one of the most common GNT
verbs for "forgive."
-- 

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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