[B-Greek] (2nd) Aorist Infinitive of ERCOMAI (ἔρχομαι)

Murray Hogg muzhogg at netspace.net.au
Mon Oct 27 16:50:57 EDT 2008


Hi Barry,

Yep - I'm aware that only indicatives augment.

Indeed, in a round-about sort of a way this knowledge was largely the problem as EVERY reference I have (and siting at home a half-an-hour drive from the college library I really don't have much <smile>) shows the Aorist of ERCOMAI as HLQON with no reference to an unaugmented stem.

My problem was (1) knowing that the aorist indicative is HLQON; (2) only suspecting with minimal confidence this is an augmented form, (3) knowing the infinitive has no augment, and so (4) just wanting to confirm my "deconstruction" of the indicative WITH augment to the infinitive WITHOUT same.

So the real question was, I suppose, is/was whether HLQON actually includes an augment or not. My guess - and thanks to Carl for his response - was that it does, that it's addition to the aorist stem ELQ- causes a lengthening of E to H and hence John 1:43 has EXELQEIN (unaugmented because infinitive) rather than EXHLQEIN.

Now that I know the reasoning is sound, I'll be a bit more confident with this sort of thing in future (although currently I am feeling VERY pleased with myself for being so very clever in the first place!!! <smile>).

Many thanks to yourself and Carl Conrad for taking the time to respond.

Blessings,
MH.

Barry wrote:
> 
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Murray Hogg" <muzhogg at netspace.net.au>
> To: "B-Greek List" <b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org>
> Sent: Monday, October 27, 2008 12:31 AM
> Subject: [B-Greek] (2nd) Aorist Infinitive of ERCOMAI (ἔρχομαι)
> 
> 
>> Hi Folks,
>>
>> Sometimes solutions to problems seem so simple one is SURE the problem 
>> has been misunderstood and this is one of those times! Unfortunately, 
>> I can't find the answer to my question in a lexicon, so I was hoping 
>> some kind soul would look over the following and let me know if my 
>> reasoning is sound.
>>
>> Basically, I've been puzzling over the morphology of EXELQEIN 
>> (ἐξελθεῖν) from John 1:43 and it seems obvious that the word is built 
>> on the Second Aorist stem of ERCOMAI - which stem would be ELQ- (right?)
>>
>> So the Second Aorist Indicative (with augment) is E + ELQ + ON (ἦλθον)
>>
>> While the Second Aorist Infinitive (no augment) is ELQ+EIN (ἐλθεῖν)
>>
>> As I say, this seems so simple that I'm perplexed!
>>
>> Any feedback on the validity of the above would be greatly appreciated!
> 
> Just to clarify, you know that only indicatives augment, right?  The 
> other moods, the infinitives, and participles do not...
> 
> N.E. Barry Hofstetter
> 
> Fecisti nos ad te et inquietum est cor nostrum, donec requiescat in te...
>    -- Augustine, Confessions 1:1
> 
> http://mysite.verizon.net/nebarry/
> http://my.opera.com/BarryHofstetter/blog/
> 



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