[B-Greek] EPILELHSMENON

Randall Buth randallbuth at gmail.com
Tue Feb 12 06:05:56 EST 2008


Carl egrapse
> On the other hand, LANQANW/LANQANOMAI is an irregular verb whose
principal parts should be committed to memory early in the study of
Greek. The root analysis I've discussed is all secondary analysis. The
Greek speaker/writer knows
EPILANQANOMAI, EPELAQOMHN, EPILELHSMAI
the  same way that the English speaker/writer knows
GO, WENT, GONE or SING, SANG, SUNG.>

We are singing the same tune. I am very appreciative of seeing the
forms EPILANQANOMAI, EPELAQOMHN, EPILELHSMAI
laid out for the student.

I would only add that
LANQANW/LANQANOMAI itself should be separated into two separate
verb paradigms for the student.
LAQEI~N LANQA'NEIN 'to be hidden, unobserved'
should be learned in the active only. (+ future LHSOMAI, no active)
[[ I couldn't find a middle or passive in GNT, ApFath, LXX, Philo,
(Jos, Pseudep,
Plut.)
except for Jos Ant 9.168, 19.356 LAQOMENOS,
Sibyl 12.292 ELAQONTO, and
once in the million words of Plutarch OMOLOGOYNTI LAQESQAI THS
EYXHS 'to the one admitting to forget the vow'.
These may all be explained as literary 'extrapolations' from EPILAQE'SQAI. ]]

EPILAQESQAI EPILANQANESQAI tinos  'to forget +gn' is very common and
should be learned as the middle pattern for this root.
The basic principle would be "use real words", [and "don't learn paradigms with
words that almost don't exist."]

Many of us have done far to much of that for far too long so that we
have quite an
artificial gridwork in our 'language'. KAGW PRWTOS TWN AMARTWLWN.
I raise this point because I sometimes meet teachers who claim that 'using a
language' will cause students to learn errors, as though learning
systems within
a foreign language like English will better protect them. Students end
up saying
things like ISTHSI for ESTHKE, or when meeting ESTHKE in a text they think
that a valid option of ESTHKE//ISTHSI existed for the writer.
I find the opposite, that using a language keeps forcing someone to clean
things up.

ERRWSO
-- 
Randall Buth, PhD
www.biblicalulpan.org
χάρις ὑμῖν καὶ εἰρήνη πληθυνθείη
שלום לכם וברכות
randallbuth at gmail.com


More information about the B-Greek mailing list