[B-Greek] non-augmented Aorist
Arie Dirkzwager
dirkzwager at pandora.be
Thu Feb 12 12:09:52 EST 2004
A little addition.
Slavic languages once had an aorist too. There are some relics.
As far as I remember there was no augment.
I looked up the matter in Z. Stieber, Zarys gramatyki porównzawczej jezyków
slowianskich, Warszawa 1989, p. 226ff.
There is only a large discussion about sigmatic and asygmatic aorists.
I think, with the message of professor Conrad, we can conclude (with
prudence) that the augment is probably a Greek innovation. But perhaps I am
too fast with my conclusions ......
Arie
Dr. A. Dirkzwager
Hoeselt, Belgium
e-mail dirkzwager at pandora.be
----- Oorspronkelijk bericht -----
Van: "Carl W. Conrad" <cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu>
Aan: "Mitch Larramore" <mitchlarramore at yahoo.com>
CC: "B Greek" <b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org>
Verzonden: donderdag 12 februari 2004 16:01
Onderwerp: Re: [B-Greek] non-augmented Aorist
> At 5:19 AM -0800 2/12/04, Mitch Larramore wrote:
> >One grammarian I am reading indicated that in some
> >early I-E languages (I assume that one he had in mind
> >was a predecessor to Greek) they had a non-augmented
> >Aorist. He then goes on to say about the Greek Aorist
> >in particular that "with the development of tense, the
> >augment was added." (Funk) If you go back far enough
> >in ancient Greek, do you find non-augmented Aorists?
>
> Yes, they're fairly common in Homeric poetry, sometimes used, sometimes
> not, often depending on whether the augmented or the unaugmented form fits
> more neatly into the hexameter metrical scheme. For instance, in the
> opening of the Odyssey,
>
> ANDRA MOI ENNEPE, MOUSA, POLUTROPON hOS MALA POLLA
> PLAGCQH, EPEI TROIHS hIERON PTOLIEQRON EPERSEN ...
> "Chant to me, Muse, the versatile man who very far
> roamed, when he had sacked the holy citadel of Troy ..."
>
> PLAGCQH is aorist of PLAZOMAI and has no augment, while EPERSEN is aorist
> of PERQW and IS augmented. But these unaugmented forms could not have been
> used in Homeric verse if they had not been legitimate forms in use in some
> dialects (the vocabulary of the Homeric "dialect" is actually a huge
> glossary of metrical jig-saw pieces that fit slots in the dactylic
> hexameter line and that derive from several different spoken Greek
dialects
> used by the itinerant bards who chanted the verses before audiences).
> --
>
> 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/
> ---
> B-Greek home page: http://metalab.unc.edu/bgreek
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>
>
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