[B-Greek] Question on 1 Peter 3:9 TOUNANTION

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Fri Jun 22 21:37:17 EDT 2007


On Jun 22, 2007, at 3:26 PM, George F Somsel wrote:

> Sorry, I wasn't around when this happened so I can't say.

I wasn't there either, but I can at least tell you what the  
linguistic historians surmise:

I don't know whether it's true of all languages, but it's true of the  
few that I know of that continguous vowels whether within words or  
between word-ends and word-beginnings of the following word quite  
commonly contract or elide.

In Greek we have numerous instances of vowel contraction within words  
that are sufficiently common that we have to know how to conjugate  
the contract verbs in AW, EW, and OW.

There are three combinations that regularly produce in contraction  
what is called the "spurious" diphthong OU ("spurious" to distinguish  
it from the OU that represents an original sound); these combinations  
are O + O, E + O, and O + E; in each the O vowel prevails and the  
contraction produces what was thought to be a long closed O (like the  
"o" in "blow"?)

Crasis or "mixing" (Greek KRASIS or κρᾶσις from KERANNUMI  
κεράννυμι "mix") is the term applied to conraction of a final  
vowel or diphthong of one word with the initial vowel or diphthong of  
a second word; it is conventionally marked by the "coronis" which is  
indeed identical in form to the smooth-breathing mark but is placed  
over the resultant contracted vowel or over the second vowel of a  
resultant contracted diphthong: TOUNANTION τοὐνάντιον  
derives from TO ENANTION τὸ ἐνάντιον.

Contraction and crasis do go back all the way in written Greek using  
the Phoenician-derived alphabet (I've never seen it argued for Linear  
B!).

As for the Koine Greek of the New Testament, the written language  
would not show either accents or breathing marks or crasis-marks. My  
guess is that the form TOUNANTION that you read in 1 Peter 3:9 is  
what would commonly be pronounced when the two words TO ENANTION are  
spoken -- they might be separated more frequently in the written  
form, but the contracted form is what was more likely spoken.

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)

> ----- Original Message ----
> From: Jerry Reimer <Jerry at lsm.org>
> To: Calvin Lindstrom <pclindstrom at yahoo.com>; B-Greek <b- 
> greek at lists.ibiblio.org>
> Sent: Friday, June 22, 2007 2:14:16 PM
> Subject: Re: [B-Greek] Question on 1 Peter 3:9 TOUNATION
>
>
> Just a word (probably too late; others have spoken very well  
> already) on the mechanics.
>
> The omicron of the definite article (to) has come into close  
> contact with the initial vowel (epsilon) of enantion, the word that  
> follows the article. Thus, there is contraction (called crasis:  
> transliteration of the Greek word krasis meaning mixture; when  
> vowels get mixed up with each other a third thing comes out). The  
> omicron and the epsilon contract and produce upsilon. Acdcording to  
> Dana and Mantey (page 86), in printed Greek texts there will be a  
> coronis (looks like a smooth breating mark) above the vowel which  
> came out of the contraction (in this case, an upsilon). The upsilon  
> which comes out of the mix should not be confused with the genitive  
> form of the definite article as if it were a combination of tou and  
> enantion.
>
> A further question that I would like to pose is, is this phenomenon  
> (crasis) an example of spoken Greek becoming written Greek? That  
> is, is crasis ephonically derived or is this a long-standing,  
> classical (or Homeric) item? Even if it is an ancient issue, is it  
> something that was moved out of common speech into written texts?  
> Since it is common for any speaker of any language to run words  
> together, is that what is happening here in I Peter and elsewhere  
> when crasis gets involved?
>
> Jerry Reimer
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Calvin Lindstrom [mailto:pclindstrom at yahoo.com]
> Sent: Friday, June 22, 2007 11:27 AM
> To: B-Greek
> Subject: [B-Greek] Question on 1 Peter 3:9 TOUNATION
>
>
> I have a question on the usage and derivation of TOUNANTION in 1
> Peter 3:9. Accordance Bible Software notes it as being from the
> article and parses it as accusative, neuter, singular. I don't
> understand this derivation. Any insight others might provide would be
> appreciated.
>
>
> Calvin Lindstrom
> Church of Christian Liberty
> Arlington Heights, IL
> www.christianliberty.com






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