[B-Greek] Movable *sigma*?!

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Wed Jun 16 19:20:34 EDT 2004


At 8:04 PM -0300 6/16/04, Brent Hudson wrote:
>See Smyth sec. 136.  It's mostly about hOUTWS and EX.  With only two words,
>perhaps it should be called the "so-called movable sigma".

I would agree that this is an altogether unsatisfactory name for what is in
fact a euphonic practice: insertion of a sigma before a vowel in a
following word. Actually the "movable nu" is not very well named in English
either, since it too was originally a euphonic device to prevent hiatus
between an -E- or -I- ending and another word beginning with a vowel. The
Greek term is NU EFELKUSTIKON; LSJ glosses the adjective EFELKUSTIKON here
as "suffixed." Literally it means "dragged along behind."


>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: b-greek-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org
>> [mailto:b-greek-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of
>> bgreek at ntresources.com
>> Sent: Wednesday, June 16, 2004 7:50 PM
>> To: b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org
>> Subject: [B-Greek] Movable *sigma*?!
>>
>> Perhaps to my shame, I have never heard of a "movable sigma."
>> But in reading tonight from the Introduction to the Editio
>> Critica Maior of James (v. 4, pt. 1, text vol., p. 17*) I
>> find the statement, "all orthographica are recorded except
>> for the movable sigma and the movable nu." I know about
>> movable nu (that's basic first-year info), but in more than
>> 30 years of working with Greek, I don't remember any
>> reference to movable sigma.
>> (Perhaps that's more an indication of my memory than anything
>> else! :) Can someone enlighten me as to the situations in
>> which a sigma may be movable?
>>
>>
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-- 

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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