Re: Themetic and Athematic Conjunctions

From: Carl W. Conrad (cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu)
Date: Mon Mar 08 1999 - 16:19:42 EST


At 3:40 PM -0500 3/8/99, Nicholas Wynder wrote:
> Im having a hard time following the example of Athemetic conjunctions
>that is given in Carl Rucks' Ancient Greek. The table explaines Themetic
>conjunctions well but not Athematic. Can some one explain to me what letter
>or letters changes to what during this exchange.
>Nicholas Wynder

This is not a simple question. Only DEIKNUMI will show a fully consistent
pattern--and that will work for all of the -NUMI type. The basic rule is
that you have (in the ACTIVE of the Present and Imperfect) a long-vowel
form of the stem in the singular, a short vowel form of the stem in the
plural--but in verbs of the -NUMI sort there's no indicator in the spelling
that the -U- changes.

DIDWMI, TIQHMI, and -hIHMI (I write it that way because there are more
compounds than simple forms of hIHMI) are more complex because even in the
classical Attic, which you're learning in Ruck, these verbs are beginning
to assimilate to Omega-verb patterns, particularly in the imperfect where
you see

EDIDOUN (from E-DIDO-ON)
EDIDOUS (from E-DIDO-ES)
EDIDOU (from E-DIDO-E)

but the plural is regular:
E-DIDO-MEN
E-DIDO-TE
E-DIDO-SAN

ETIQHN (from E-TIQH-N)
ETIQEIS (from E-TIQE-ES)
ETIQEI (from E-TIQE-E)

but the plural is regular:
E-TIQE-MEN
E-TIQE-TE
E-TIQE-SAN

hIHN (from hIH-N)
hIEIS (from hIE-ES)
hIEI (from hIE-E)

but the plural is regular

hIE-MEN
hIE-TE
hIE=SAN

The MP forms are really quite regular:
DIDOMAI/DIDOSAI/DIDOTAI/DIDOMEQA/DIDOSQE/DIDONTAI
TIQEMAI/TIQESAI/TIQETAI/TIQEMEQA/TIQESQE/TIQENTAI
hIEMAI/hIESAI/hIETAI/hIEMEQA/hIESQE/hIENTAI

The aorists of these verbs are so wildly irregular (you may see EQESAN or
EDOSAN, but you are just as likely to find EQHKAN or EDWKAN and foolishly
imagine that these are perfect-tense forms when they're not!) that you
simply have to memorize them. One rule-of-thumb I made for myself way back
as a sophomore in college was this: if a verb form, after analysis has
removed all prefixes, augments, reduplications, mood-signs, and endings,
shows a stem or root with E, IE/EI or H, then it would be wise to consult
the lexicon to see if it fits one of the forms of hIHMI found in one or
another Greek dialect.

I doubt if this is much help, but it's what I tell my first-year students
when we come to these verbs before advising them to memorize the whole #*!
conjugation of these verbs.

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics/Washington University
One Brookings Drive/St. Louis, MO, USA 63130/(314) 935-4018
Home: 7222 Colgate Ave./St. Louis, MO 63130/(314) 726-5649
cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu OR cconrad@yancey.main.nc.us
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/

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