[B-Greek] Greek Middle vs. Reflexive in various other languages

Mark Lightman lightmanmark at yahoo.com
Sun Jan 9 15:57:39 EST 2011


Vasile wrote

<In fact, who can tell that the -μαι -MAI of the Greek middle is not in
fact a particle whose role is that of a pronoun? It sounds as if it
were an enclitic like the -μοι -MOI or the -με -ME in other instances.
(This question was meant to be rhetorical, but maybe there is somebody
who can tell it; in that case, please do tell it).>

Hi, Vasile,

Are you asking whether at some earlier stage of pre-historic Greek, MAI SAI TAI 
were separate words that were detached from the verb?



 Mark L



FWSFOROS MARKOS




________________________________
From: Vasile Stancu <stancu.c.vasile at gmail.com>
To: b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org
Sent: Fri, January 7, 2011 9:15:34 AM
Subject: [B-Greek] Greek Middle vs. Reflexive in various other languages

'Various other languages' is, for me, for the moment, Romanian again,
and I hope you all bear a little bit more with me using it as a basis
for my explanations.

In my language, the reflexive verbs are conjugated according to the
active pattern, but they are always accompanied by reflexive pronouns
in the accusative or dative. Eversince I encountered the Greek middle,
I had the tendency to associate the Greek -μαι -MAI, -σαι -SAI, -ται
-TAI, etc. terminations with the Romanian MĂ TE SE reflexive pronouns.
The only difference in my imagination was that the former ones are
placed at the end of the words while the latter usually before them. I
say 'usually' because it is not at all uncommon to place them after
the verb. For instance, I say:

'MĂ DUC' = ἔρχομαι ERXOMAI = I go

Equally, I can say, just reshuffling the pronoun and verb (the 'U'
in-between has just an euphonic role):

'DUCU-MĂ = the same... (this arrangement sounds somewhat archaic, or poetical)

When I place the reflexive pronoun after the verb, I feel there is no
difference between the Greek middle and the Romanian reflexive.

In fact, who can tell that the -μαι -MAI of the Greek middle is not in
fact a particle whose role is that of a pronoun? It sounds as if it
were an enclitic like the -μοι -MOI or the -με -ME in other instances.
(This question was meant to be rhetorical, but maybe there is somebody
who can tell it; in that case, please do tell it).

Vasile Stancu
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