[B-Greek] DEIKNUMI in the Imperative
Carl Conrad
cwconrad2 at mac.com
Wed Jan 14 05:24:24 EST 2009
On Jan 14, 2009, at 12:19 AM, George F Somsel wrote:
> My initial reaction was that δείκνυθι [DEIKNUQI] appears to
> be a passive form. A search of NA27, LXX, Apostolic Fathers and
> Josephus uncovered a few -Q- forms which were universally passives
> (with no DEIKNUQI appearing). BDAG also confirms that -Q- forms are
> passive.
Some confusion here, I think. And I think it's fair to say there's no
more confusing item of ancient Greek verb morphology than active
imperative endings, especially in the singular (-TE being universal
and regular in the plural!).
(1) For one thing, the "active" QI (TI when dissimilated as in passive
-QHTI forms) should not be confused with the QH "passive" (actually
middle-passive) voice infix.
(2) Mounce's BBG form DEIKNUQI is dead wrong for the present active
imperative; both DEIKNU and DEIKNUE are found, the former the
athematic form, the latter thematic, the reason being that the -NUMI
present tenses were pretty clearly the earliest -MI verb forms to
develop new thematic equivalents: DEIKNUW = DEIKNUMI (just as
considerably later AFIW became an equivalent form of AFIHMI before
ultimately supplanting it (cf. Smyth §746).
(3) It looks to me, then, that Mounce goofed in BBG, but then got it
right in MBG.
(4) There are more 2 sg. active imperative endings than most people
are ordinarily aware of:
(a) Thematic verbs use the thematic infix -E added to the tense-stem
(Present and 2 Aorist)
(b) Regular Athematic verbs (the -NUMI verbs, including, e.g. OLLUMI
= OLNUMI) use the simple present stem without any ending
(c) Irregular Athematic verbs (hISTHMI, DIDWMI, TIQHMI, -hIHMI) show
partial assimilation to thematic formation: hISTH is regular (present
stem with no added ending), DIDOU is contracted from DIDOE (thematic
vowel added to present stem), TIQEI is contracted from TIQEE (thematic
vowel added to present stem), -hIEI is contracted from -hIEE (cf.
Smyth §751)
(d) Irregular Athematic verbs use -S in the (2nd) aorist: DOS, QES, -
hES (forms of hIHMI are, of course, all compounds; a GNT form that's
common is the aorist 2 sg. imperative AFES).
(e) Irregular Athematic verbs use -QI in the (3rd) aorist: STHQI
(from ESTHN); since the "aorist passive" forms are really 3rd aorist
active forms with ACTIVE endings, they too use -QI: FANHQI (from
FAINW), DIALLAGHQI; as noted above, dissimilation of the Q in QI
occurs when the imperative ending follows upon the "passive" infix QH:
ARQHTI, BLHQHTI, etc. We also see this -QI imperative ending in the
irregular verbs EIMI and OIDA both of which show the 2nd sg.
imperative ISQI (ἴσθι), while the 2nd sg. imperative of EIMI
(εἶμι) "go" is IQI -- and this doesn't appear in the GNT.
I've tried to cover all the bases in the above summation, but it
wouldn't surprise me if something has been inadvertently omitted.
> ________________________________
> From: Stephen Baldwin <stbaldwi at hotmail.com>
> To: B- Greek <b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org>
> Sent: Tuesday, January 13, 2009 9:52:40 PM
> Subject: [B-Greek] DEIKNUMI in the Imperative
>
>
> Ladies and Gentlemen:
> An easy parsing question to greet the New Year.
> Again, I am striving for truth amid textbooks that say different
> things:
> This is what I have:
> DEIKNUMI 2S P-A-Imp
> Mounce MBG (ss71.3): DEIKNU
> Mounce BBG: (ss70): DEIKNUQI
> Smyth (ss419): DEIKNU
>
> So I think I'm questioning the accuracy of BBG.
> Robertson [p327] informs that indeed non-thematic imperatives were
> often just the stem and thus "forms like hISTH, DEIKNU are
> pertinent". This is a big vote against DEIKNUQI, as also is Smyth.
> He [Robertson] also says [as we know] that QI is used for non-
> thematic stems.
>
> So what am I to do with BBG's DEIKNUQI as present active imperative?
> Is it a legitimate Koine form for 2S-P-A-Imp?
>
> Any help appreciated!
>
> Steve Baldwin
> stbaldwi at hotmai.com
>
>
>
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Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)
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