[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/
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