[B-Greek] Protean ECW

Carl Conrad cwconrad2 at mac.com
Fri Sep 4 11:32:28 EDT 2009


On Sep 4, 2009, at 8:24 AM, Mark Lightman wrote:

>
> 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.)

This is one of those roots with Umlaut/Vowel-gradation, having e- 
grade, o-grade, and zero-grade root-forms, in this instance, SEC, SOC,  
and SC respectively.
Spending some time studying phonetics, including the way vowel- 
gradation works in verb-forms, is helpful to one attempting to learn  
the paradigms and understand cognate forms of words. Smyth's section  
on phonology in part I of his grammar is helpful. I prepared a little  
compendium on Greek phonology for my first-year students several years  
ago; it could stand some revision, but it's available as a PDF file at
http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/docs/CompPhon.pdf


Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)






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