[B-Greek] Help with Ionic Greek

Richard Ghilardi qodeshlayhvh at juno.com
Fri Aug 7 03:02:22 EDT 2009


Hello James,

Perhaps the following from James Morwood's book, "The Oxford Grammar of
Classical Greek" may prove helpful.

<<begin quote>>
Some key features of Herodotos' Ionic dialect

The Greek after the equation marks is Attic.
1) Herodotos often has H where Attic has A (long) (especially after E, I,
R): hHMERH = hHMERA (day); PRHGMA = PRAGMA (business, affair).
2) Herodotos uses -EW for the genitive singular of nouns like NEHNIHS ( =
NEANIAS, young man): NEHNIEW = NEANIOY.
3) Herodotos uses -EWN for the genitive plural of nouns like TIMH,
QALASSA, XWRH, KRITHS: PERSEWN = PERSWN (of the Persians). (This is
contracted in Attic.)
4) Dative plurals of the first and second declensions end in -SI: AGROISI
(fields), TOISI (definite article), TOYTOISI (these).
5) Herodotos uses SS (like the NT) where Attic has TT: QALASSA = QALATTA
(sea), PRHSSW = PRATTW (I do).
6) Herodotos can have:
        EI for Attic E: KSEINOS = KSENOS (foreigner, guest, host)
        OY for Attic O: MOYNOS = MONOS (alone)
        HI for Attic EI: OIKHIOS = OIKEIOS (private, home-grown).
7) Herodotos often does not contract verbs ending in -EW which would
contract in Attic: FILEW = FILW (I like), POIEEIN = POIEIN (to make).
NOOS (mind) does not contract.
8) Herodotos often does not contract nouns which have contracted forms in
Attic (see p. 31), e.g. GENOS (race): gen. sg. GENEOS = GENOYS, nom. &
acc. pl. GENEA = GENH. Compare SEO = SOY (of you).
9) Herodotos can have EY in place of Attic EO or OY: SEY (for SEO = SOY,
of you), MEY = MOY (of me), POIEYMENA (for POIEOMENA = POIOYMENA, things
being done), POIEYMEN = POIOYMEN (we do).
10) Herodotos uses forms identical with the definite article as the
relative pronoun, though the masculine nom. singular of the relative is
hOS as in Attic.
11) With a few exceptions, there were no 'h' sounds in Ionic. Thus
aspiration is often omitted: APIKNEOMAI = AFIKNEOMAI (I arrive); METIHMI
= MEQIHMI (I let go).
12) The following Herodotean forms are well worth noting:
        Herodotos                                                        
                  Attic
        EMEWYTOY (gen.)                myself                            
   EMAYTOY
        hEWYTOY (gen.)                    himself                        
      hEAYTOY
        EWN, EOYSA, EON                  being                           
      WN, OYSA, ON
        KOIOS (hOKOIOS)                   of what kind                   
POIOS (hOPOIOS)
        KOTE (hOKOTE)                       when                         
        POTE (hOPOTE)
        KWS (hOKWS)                          how                         
          PWS (hOPWS)
        MIN (acc. - enclitic)                him, her                    
       no comparable form
        hOI (dat. - enclitic)                 to him, to her, to it      
 rare in Attic [1]
        WN                                              therefore        
                 OYN
[1] except as an indirect reflexive (see pp. 148-149).
<<end quote>>

What is affirmed above about Attic may also be said of H KOINH of the NT
except for hOI (dat. - enclitic) which is not rare in the NT but
nonexistent.

Yours in His grace,

Richard Ghilardi - qodeshlayhvh at juno.com
West Haven, Connecticut USA

====================================================================

On Thu, 6 Aug 2009 23:07:22 -0400 James Bowick <james at bowick.com> writes:
> Hi folks,
> 
> My background in New Testament Greek is not giving me the 
> information I need
> as I try to venture into the Greek of Herodotus.  I am hitting forms 
> that
> are not familiar from Koine and are also not in the Attic grammar I 
> found in
> our library  (the closest I could find).  Any suggestions on how to 
> deal
> with this?
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> James Bowick
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