[B-Greek] BBG: Elementary Parsing Question Contract Verbs

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Wed Sep 13 11:17:50 EDT 2006


My rule of thumb on contraction of vowels was that A-vowels prevail  
over E vowels, and O vowels prevail over BOTH A and E vowels; what  
throws a monkey-wrench into this is that long-A vowels early in Attic  
shifted into H forms.

For what it's worth, I have a compendium of Greek phonology (keyed  
more to
earlier Attic rather than to Koine) at:

	http://www.ioa.com/~cwconrad/Docs/CompPhon.pdf

On Sep 13, 2006, at 10:34 AM, Stephen Baldwin wrote:

> Hello Ann:
> I searched BBG and MBG for the answer and found none.
> But this lack of explanation is part of the problem and hence my  
> question.
> In the chapter 17, he lays out the rules for vowel contractions (EE  
> > EI)
> and in chapter 18 section 18 (18.18) he lists the paradigms for the  
> -AW -EW
> -OW verbs and in footnotes describes the morphology as I described  
> (for
> P-MP-I 2s):
> 3: (AGAPAW) AESAI > ASAI > AAI > AI > Ai
> 4: (POIEW) EESAI > ESAI > EAI > HI > Hi
> And looking at the footnotes it looks to me that Mounce is  
> contracting the
> contract vowel and the connecting vowel then dropping the sigma then
> contracting the contraction and the dipthong.
> It works out nicely in [3] but in footnote [4] above he contracts  
> EE to E.
> But in the previous chapter he told us that EE contracts to EI.  
> There is no
> explanation given for EE > E, and, having the type of mind I do, I  
> want to
> know what is going on, whether this is just irregular, whether  
> Mounce has
> not fully explained sthg or sthg else...
> MBG failed to provide any more info.
>
> In response to Mr. Tabuer's question
> " If the ending, after intervocalic sigma drop were actually EIAI,  
> would
> that invalidate the POIHi spelling?" I would have to answer "Don't  
> know". I
> don't know whether EIAI even contracts and if so, what it contracts  
> to.
> But if we were to drop the sigma first and then contract first the
> connecting vowel and the first ending vowel, that to me makes more  
> sense:
> hence:
> POIE + E + SAI > POIE + EAI > POIEHi > POIHi

It really is a matter of prior contraction of ESAI TO EAI TO HI, I  
think,
then of E-Hi to Hi.

To be more precise, ESAI contracts to Ai which shifted to Hi.

>
> But what do I know? I'm only a software engineer who'd rather study  
> greek!
> But the question arises because of the perceived inconsistency in  
> BBG and my
> impression that when we have contractions,  vocalic droppings, and  
> all the
> rest occurring simultaneously, the order in which these morphing  
> operations
> are executed makes a difference -- hence the question regarding  
> rules of
> precedence...
> (I recognise that learning the morphology this way is slightly  
> contrived,
> but this is what we're dealing with).
>
> Hope this makes sense!
>
> Rgds
> Steve
>
> Stephen Baldwin
> stbaldwi at hotmail.com
>
>
>
>> From: "Ann Nyland" <nyland at tsn.cc>
>> To: <b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org>
>> CC: "Stephen Baldwin" <stbaldwi at hotmail.com>
>> Subject: Re: [B-Greek] BBG: Elementary Parsing Question Contract  
>> Verbs
>> Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2006 08:19:55 +1000
>>
>> Hi Steve,
>> Would you give a direct quote from Mounce ("but for POIEW,  
>> according to
>> Mounce, the E contract and E connecting vowel contract to E"), or  
>> a page
>> reference?
>> Thanks,
>> Ann Nyland
>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Stephen Baldwin"  
>> <stbaldwi at hotmail.com>
>> To: <b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org>
>> Sent: Wednesday, September 13, 2006 5:34 AM
>> Subject: [B-Greek] BBG: Elementary Parsing Question Contract Verbs
>>
>>
>>> Ladies and Gentlemen:
>>> Please forgive this elementary question.
>>> But in reviewing contract verbs, I am slightly puzzled.
>>>
>>> AGAPAW P-MP-I 2sg is AGAPAi from AGAPA + E + SAI
>>> POIEW P-MP-I 2sg is POIHi from POIE + E + SAI
>>>
>>> The sigma is intervocalic and will drop, leading to a veritable  
>>> soup of
>>> vowels.
>>>
>>> According to Mounce, BBG 18.18, footnotes 3 and 4 describe the  
>>> morphology
>>> from the addition of the connecting vowel and the ending to the  
>>> final
>>> form:
>>> 3: (AGAPAW) AESAI > ASAI > AAI > AI > Ai
>>> 4: (POIEW) EESAI > ESAI > EAI > HI > Hi
>>>
>>> According to the above algorithm:
>>> 1. The contract vowel and the connecting vowel contract
>>> 2. The sigma drops
>>> 3. The final three vowels contract as a vowel+dipthong pair
>>>
>>> This works for AGAPAW above, but for POIEW, according to Mounce,  
>>> the E
>>> contract and E connecting vowel contract to E. This does not  
>>> follow the
>>> contract rules as I have learned them (E+E > EI). There doesn't  
>>> seem to be
>>> any explanation for this inconsistency (if indeed it is one).
>>>
>>> Have I missed something?
>>> Is there an explanation? Is the above method correct? Is the EE >  
>>> E merely
>>> an irregular form?
>>> I have searched in vain for clear precedence rules (to borrow the
>>> mathematical term) when it comes to morphology such as the  
>>> examples above.
>>> If anyone has any guidelines, I'd be pleased to hear from you.
>>>
>>> Thank you for your patience
>>> Steve
>>>
>>> Stephen Baldwin
>>> stbaldwi at hotmail.com
>>
>
>
> ---
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Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)
1989 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad2 at mac.com
WWW: http://www.ioa.com/~cwconrad/





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