[B-Greek] EPETEQH

Carl Conrad cwconrad2 at mac.com
Thu Nov 29 11:26:34 EST 2007


On Nov 29, 2007, at 11:12 AM, Litteral John wrote:

> In Daniel 6:17 Old Greek, I have run onto a word that is unfamilar to
> me.  KAI EPETEQH EPI TO STOMA TOU LAKKOU.  I imagine it means 'was
> thrown'  but I am unsure.  Thank you!

"was put" will do, I think. EPETEQH is aorist passive 3d sg.  
indicative of EPITIQHMI. This is an interesting example of  
phonological alteration of the verb root through assimilation with the  
voice-marker QH: through the principle of dissimilation of aspirates  
(the first of aspirates in the enclosing the same syllable is de- 
aspirated -- EP-E-QE-QH becomes EP-E-TE-QH. Of course the ancient  
difference between pronunciation of Tau and Theta -- at least in  
earlier Greek -- was not so pronounced. After Theta became a  
fricative, the difference is more pronounced, but I think that the  
morphological paradigm for TIQHMI and its compounds was already  
established before Theta came to be a fricative.


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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