[B-Greek] Origin of the Infinitive

Stephen C. Carlson scarlson at mindspring.com
Mon May 10 09:45:18 EDT 2004


Kevin Smith <kgsmith at webmail.co.za> wrote:
>I hope this is not off-topic, but I am curious as to how EINAI shifted
>from an infinitive in Koine to an indicative in Modern Greek.

I wouldn't assume that EINAI "shifted" (the infinitive had been
lost or replaced for quite some time) instead of supposing that
Mod Gr EINAI was erected independently on analogy of EIMAI
and EISAI in the first and second persons, respectively.  The
history of Greek shows strong pressures of analogy in the
formation of this verb.

Stephen Carlson

--
Stephen C. Carlson, 
mailto:scarlson at mindspring.com 
"Poetry speaks of aspirations, and songs chant the words."  Shujing 2.35



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