[B-Greek] MAI SAI TAI...and Mood

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at ioa.com
Thu Sep 29 15:32:31 EDT 2005


On Sep 29, 2005, at 3:02 PM, Mitch Larramore wrote:

> I read in Athenaze where the W, EIS, EI... Active
> endings indicate Mood, but that the Middle MAI, SAI,
> TAI... endings do not indicate Mood. Why is that?

I suppose because the MAI/SAI/TAI endings can be used with both  
indicative and subjunctive, e.g. indic. ERCOMAI, subj. ERCWMAi. On  
the other hand, W/EIS/EI are indicative, while W/HiS/HI are  
subjunctive active. It would be more accurate to say that -W/EIS/EI/ 
OMEN/ETE/OUSI are endings that COMBINE the thematic vowel O/E with  
the personal endings proper, whereas with -OMAI/ESAI --> Hi/ETAI/ 
OMEQA/ESQE/ONTAI the MP personal endings are distinguishable in all  
forms except the second singular, where a contraction following upon  
loss of intermediate Sigma has obscured the difference.


Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Emeritus)
1989 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad2 at mac.com
WWW: http://www.ioa.com/~cwconrad/




More information about the B-Greek mailing list