[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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