[B-Greek] re: Movable *sigma*?!

R Yochanan Bitan Buth ybitan at mscc.huji.ac.il
Thu Jun 17 05:36:21 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".
>
>Carl EGRAPSEN:
>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."
 
EUXARISTW SOI, KARL(e)
Maybe this is a good starting example and incentive for learning to use
the Greek names, since movable sigma is otherwise a blank term. Using
the Greek name for things helps reinforce the 'otherness' of what people
are learning and perhaps reinforces or reminds us of the difference
between talking about a language from outside and being within a
language. 
NU EFELKUSTIKON  = GRAFOUSI ~ GRAFOUSIN
SIGMA EFELKUSTIKON  =  EK + S
 
ERRWSQE
 
Randall Buth
 

Randall Buth, PhD

Director, Biblical Language Center

www.BiblicalUlpan.org

buth at jerusalemschool.org

and Lecturer, Biblical Hebrew

Rothberg, Hebrew University

ybitan at mscc.huji.ac.il

 




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