[B-Greek] how do we know that hIHMI is the causative of EIMI

Carl Conrad cwconrad2 at mac.com
Sun Nov 18 08:07:22 EST 2007


On Saturday, November 17, 2007 10:11:41 PM, Mark Lightman wrote:

> Intermediate Liddell & Scott p. 377 under hIHMI says "Radical sense:  
> to set a going, put in motion, being the Causal of EIMI (ibo)."
>
>   I certainly agree that this verb is one of the most difficult  
> ones, both in form and meaning.  If it's true that in had a yodh,  
> it's connection with EIMI is is even more farfetched, but it seems  
> to me that in compounds at least "cause to go" is more accurate than  
> the traditional "hurl."  (I've often wondered what is the difference  
> between "hurling" and "throwing" (BALLW!)

(1) It's true that Intermediate L&S says this; are you aware that  
Intermediate L&S is based on the 1889 7th edition of the L&S  
unabridged? It's over a century out of date. You said that "the  
lexicons say that ... " -- what other lexicon(s) did you find this  
notion in? You will not find any attempt at etymology for hIHMI in the  
best online edition of LSJ (http://archimedes.fas.harvard.edu/pollux/)  
nor in the latest print edition (LSJG,1996).

(2) What you'll actually find in LSJ by way of definitions is
	1. "release, let go"; 2. of sounds, "utter"; 3. (a) "hurl", (b)  
"thow, shoot"; 4. of water, "let flow, spout forth"; 5. "send", of  
living beings
to list only meanings given for the active voice.

There Intermediate L&S is a pretty weak resource to lean on for  
anything more than quick glosses, and anyone seriously interested in  
developing competence in Greek ought to want more than quick glosses.

>
> On Nov 16, 2007, at 8:12 PM, Mark Lightman wrote:
>
>> The lexicons say that hIHMI is the causative of EIMI
>
> What lexicon actually states that? hIHMI (ἵημι) is certainly not
> related etymologically to either EI)MI/ (εἰμί) "be" or EI)=MI
> (εἶμι) "go."
>
>> but since the root of the former appears to be an iota and the root
>> of the later appears to be an eta with a rough breathing, how do we
>> know this.?
>
> The root of hIHMI (ἵημι) is probably originally yH/yE, although
> for practical purposes in Greek linguistic history it is hH/hE (ἡ/
> ἑ). The root of EI)MI/ (εἰμί) "be" is SE/ES (σε/εσ); the
> root of =MI (εἶμι) "go" is EI/I (ει/ι). The present-tense form
> of hIHMI (ἵημι) is not the root but a reduplicated stem hIH  
> (ἱη/
> ἱε)) derived from a probable original yIyH/yIyE. What the three
> verbs have in common is not the root but the fact(s) that they are all
> MI verbs and that hIHMI and EIMI "be" have historical forms that
> involve loss of a root consonant ("S" in the case of EIMI "be", "y" --
> consonantal iota/yodh -- in the case of hIHMI. The roots are indeed
> different.
>
>> I mean, what would the rule be?  "When the root of a Greek verb is a
>> single vowel you can make the causative by changing it to another
>> unrelated vowel and aspirating it?"  There can't be other examples,
>> can there, or do you have to go to Indo-European, or is this just a
>> theory.  It does make sense, though.  To AFIHMI sins is to cause
>> them to go away.
>
> I'm really curious about what lexicon you got this information from.
> It is certainly true that a fundamental sense of hIHMI is "let go" in
> the sense of "project" or "emit" -- but there's no relationship
> between the Greek verb hIHMI and the Greek verb for "be" or for "go."
>
> hIHMI and its compounds constitute a sizable headache for students of
> ancient Greek, (a) because the lost initial consonant impacts the
> phonetics of both the uncompounded and compounded forms of the verb;
> (b) because the uncompounded verb is extremely rare, while the
> compounded forms of -(h)IHMI are quite numerous; and (c) because the
> compounding of prefix and the aspirated form of the verbal root
> confounds matters all the more: one  must be able to discern that
> EFIEMAI derives from EPI and hIEMAI and that KAQIHMI derives from KATA
> and hIHMI. I remember that at one point in my undergraduate days,
> while struggling through a text from Herodotus in Ionic dialect with
> all its phonetic alternatives from Attic forms, I came to the
> conclusion that if I couldn't guess at once about a verb form
> otherwise analyzable but having indications of a hH or hE somewhere in
> the heart of things, I should look it up in the lexicon under the
> prefix involved plus hIHMI.


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





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