[B-Greek] Protean ECW
Barry
nebarry at verizon.net
Fri Sep 4 09:10:56 EDT 2009
--------------------------------------------------
From: "Mark Lightman" <lightmanmark at yahoo.com>
Sent: Friday, September 04, 2009 8:24 AM
To: <b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: [B-Greek] Protean ECW
>
> I know the root of ECW is supposed to be SEC,
> but in the New Testament alone this word shows up
> as εχ, (ανεχω) εκ, (ανεκτος) ἑξ, (ἑξις) σχε, (σχεδον)
> σχη, (σχημα) ισχ, (ισχυω) οχ, (ενοχος) ουχ, (ευνουχος)
> and ωχ (συνευωχεομαι.) What’s the point of having a root
> if you are allowed to take any form you want? What, I’d
> like to know, does this verb have to hide, that it so
> polymorphically conceals itself like some lexigraphical Proteus?
>
> Sorry, but I had to get this off my chest. Thanks for listening.
>
> Transliteration is below.
>
> EC, (ANECW) EK, (ANEKTOS) hEX, (hEXIS) SCE (SCEDON)
> SCH, (SCHMA) ISC, (ISCUW) OC (ENOCOS) OUC (EUNOUCOS)
> and WC (SUNEUWCEOMAI.)
Hey, Mark, there is an old joke that once Latin and Greek were pure, simple
languages, easy to learn, with maximal communicative content. As ancient
times drew to an end, the teachers of both languages met in a council and
said, "Our world is drawing to a close, and soon it will be medieval times.
Do we want the future people to think we are simpletons, with these easy
languages?" And so they preceded to reinvent the languages to be complex
and difficult, rewrote everything up to that point, and left us with what we
have today... :)
Seriously, there are good linguistic reasons for these stem changes, but the
best thing to do is just learn them as you go along. Remember, reading
Greek is an art, not a science... :)
N.E. Barry Hofstetter
Adjunct Faculty, Classics @ Montclair
http://www.montclair.edu/
Classics Instructor, The American Academy
http://www.theamericanacademy.net/
And me: http://my.opera.com/barryhofstetter/blog
More information about the B-Greek
mailing list