[B-Greek] Third aorist; varieties of the Aorist
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Tue Jul 27 18:03:39 EDT 2004
Forwarded for: "David Dawson" <David_Dawson at ibi.com>
To: <b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: Third aorist; varieties of the Aorist
Date: Tue, 27 Jul 2004 15:02:23 -0400
(If you are still there 3 years later.)
The first Greek textbook I ever used (but did not finish) 40 years ago, had been
published about 1900 and referred to a 3rd aorist in just the way you describe,
so the term was once in some use. I?m afraid it may have been banished by some
arbitrary don. I note that Chase and Phillips, ca. 1935, refers to an
?irregular 2nd aorist?, which makes as much sense as referring to the 2nd
declension as ?irregular 1st declension?, since these forms are neither
irregular nor 2nd aorist. It may be that ?2nd? was traditionally used to refer
to any non-standard forms, so ?3rd? would once have been ?2nd?, but that?s just
a guess. I was once taught that the 3rd aorists obey regular rules: they have
these distinct endings; they are usually the intransitive form corresponding to
a transitive 1st aorist; they never have a middle voice; they show the simplest
form of the verb stem, which consists of one or two consonants followed by one
vowel (in rare cases two). So much for ?irregular?.
Since the endings in ?N ?S -null -MEN ?TE ?SAN are so common, I would prefer to
reserve the term ?3rd aorist? for actual aorist actives and not use it for
pluperfects, passives, -MI verb imperfects, and optatives; but this is a minor
quibble in comparison with your great taste in agreeing with me on the major point.
I have a Greek textbook from 1850 that presents the aorist of DIDWMI, for
example, as EDWN, EDWS, EDW, EDOMEN, EDOTE, EDOSAN in alternation with a 1st
aorist EDWKA. By my standards, we would have to call this a 4th aorist.
David Dawson
More information about the B-Greek
mailing list