[B-Greek] PETESQAI flying
Randall Buth
randallbuth at gmail.com
Fri Sep 25 16:20:26 EDT 2009
On Fri, Sep 25, 2009 at 10:44 PM, Carl Conrad <cwconrad2 at mac.com> wrote:
>
> On Sep 25, 2009, at 3:20 PM, Randall Buth wrote:
>
>> Some maybe good news
>> Part two of Volume Two was published in 1920, so the verb PDFs may
>> be public domain by all counts.
>>
>>
>> As mentioned, Howard is a nice start, but when wants to say
>> 'I flew'
>> or
>> 'I will fly'
>> the verb will not be listed, even though highly irregular, because only
>> the regular PETOMAI (present) is in the NT.
>>
>> Job 20:8 has EPTH for 'he flew'.
>>
>> but the Thomas Infancy Gospel has PETΑSQENTA as an
>> aorist participle, which shows a different formation for this verb.
>> Thomas Infancy would produce EPETΑSQH 'he flew', and
>> Attic Greek also attested EPTATO.
>> And the Sybil even has IPTATO (>IPTAMAI present)
>>
>> Which is why one needs to check things out.
>> We can conclude that flying was irregular before the advent of airplanes.
>
> But this also nicely illustrates a prevailing tendency in linguistic change
> in Hellenistic Greek:
> The older MP forms of PETOMAI in the aorist, whether the athematic EPTH and
> EPTATO, tend to take QH forms later, while still bearing a "middle"
> semanatic value (intransitive verbs of motion tend to be middle). Surely
> nobody would try to associate a passive meaning with PETASQHNAI.
>
> Carl W. Conrad
> Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)
>
I'm in full agreement on the direction of change.
My only question is which form I want in my own ideolect. I currently
use the old EPTHN 'I flew', with canonical/LXX backing to boot.
If I went to EPETASQHN I would probably want to switch to
PETHSOMAI (PETASOMAI?) instead of my current PTHSOMAI.
And I feel comfortable that Luke and Epiktetos would understand me,
either way.
Still, it would be nice to know a little more about 1st century usage.
I don't have Gignac to check, or TLG.
Can anyone check out aorist and future PETESQAI between
Polybius and Galen (skipping ARGONAYTIKA of course)?
EYXARISTW YMIN
IWANHS
--
Randall Buth, PhD
www.biblicalulpan.org
randallbuth at gmail.com
Biblical Language Center
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