21st Century Classical Greek -- contracted verbs

We’re moving to section 3! The next review is lesson 53. By then we will cut several pages out of the old grammars, find that third modality, and get two more sections under our belts.

I’m doing two subsections at once because they start with high-frequency verbs.

δηλοῖ δέ μοι καὶ τόδε τῶν παλαιῶν ἀσθένειαν οὐχ ἥκιστα: πρὸ γὰρ τῶν Τρωικῶν οὐδὲν φαίνεται πρότερον κοινῇ ἐργασαμένη ἡ Ἑλλάς:

δοκεῖ δέ μοι, οὐδὲ τοὔνομα τοῦτο ξύμπασά πω εἶχεν, ἀλλὰ τὰ μὲν πρὸ Ἕλληνος τοῦ Δευκαλίωνος καὶ πάνυ οὐδὲ εἶναι ἡ ἐπίκλησις αὕτη, κατὰ ἔθνη δὲ ἄλλα τε καὶ τὸ Πελασγικὸν ἐπὶ πλεῖστον ἀφ᾽ ἑαυτῶν τὴν ἐπωνυμίαν παρέχεσθαι, Ἕλληνος δὲ καὶ τῶν παίδων αὐτοῦ ἐν τῇ Φθιώτιδι ἰσχυσάντων, καὶ ἐπαγομένων αὐτοὺς ἐπ᾽ ὠφελίᾳ ἐς τὰς ἄλλας πόλεις, καθ᾽ ἑκάστους μὲν ἤδη τῇ ὁμιλίᾳ μᾶλλον καλεῖσθαι Ἕλληνας, οὐ μέντοι πολλοῦ γε χρόνου [ἐδύνατο] καὶ ἅπασιν ἐκνικῆσαι.

Click on each of diloi and dokei and get the Wiktionary conjugation. Learn them.

Dilou means make apparent and Thucydides is saying “it seems to me”. Jowett, if you’re using his translation, often ignores this.

Dokei means think; Thucydides is saying “I think, I suppose.”

Dilou is part of an important class of non-mai verbs. You saw in faino and poieo that they dropped vowels in the first syllable of the root. Dilou and others drop a vowel in the second syllable of the root.

This class includes oikeo, inhabit, occupy, colonize.  In White, see page 248, section 781 for timao, honor. Notice that the vowel doesn’t always drop out; sometimes it converts into something else. Also notice the forms in parentheses which are conjectural original forms that have themselves contracted. Where there is a iota in this conjectural form, notice how often there’s a little hook under the remaining vowel; this represents the iota and you will also see it in  the singular of the -ois case.

Notice in Wiktionary that some of these verbs can have uncontracted forms. This is why you have to learn the verb, not what the grammar book says. You never know when you will come across a variant form.

And of course you have to recognize that the base meaning is not the only meaning of the verb, especially with Thucydides, whose meaning is often at the end of the lexicon entry. 

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21st Century Classical Greek -- review 2

So we’ve done another 20 lessons and here is what you should know about Classical Greek because of them.

Some initial vowels in Greek have a sort of “open quote” mark above them meaning that you huff a little before saying them. This is why they are transcribed with an “h” before them. Rho is always pronounced with the “h” after it, that’s why “rhythm” is spelled the way it is.

Conjugation of faino.

Conjugation of poeio.

Eventive verbs starting in alpha, whether it’s a prepositional prefix or not, do not take augment.

There is no “future perfect” tense and there is no perfective future aspect. The “future perfect” label was applied to imperfective conceptual passive voice, and it was dubbed “perfect” only because in Attic Greek it had reduplication. This basically means that in Classial Greek you can’t say “by that time I shall have finished.” If you have a contrary example in your favorite author, give us the citation – first making sure it’s in Classical Greek, not koine.

Passive voice exists only for -mai verbs and for imperfective non-mai verbs.

Executive voice exists only for non-mai verbs.

Everything else is base voice.

-mai verbs and non-mai verbs that mean similar things are used in different contexts. The -mai verb will be in a context that evaluates something; the non-mai verb will be in a context that can use a direct object.

Oblique modality is the modality label of the verb “mood” formerly known as “subjunctive”. It is the second level of certainty, indicative being the top level. There is a third level but we’ve had no examples of it yet. Oblique is used for a fair certainty that evidence exists or an action will occur.

Indicative must be used in the protasis of conditionals if there is evidence that it is contrary to fact.

Future indicative is a promise and in a conditional has the nuance “if you can promise me that…”

Autos is not reflexive; it’s an intensifier or refers to a previously mentioned person, or it’s a version of a 3^rd person pronoun.

Eautou is more like a reflexive pronoun.

Comparatives and superlatives in adjectives, including the irregular malista and elakhista.

Adverbs derived from adjectives have omega sigma at the end instead of the adjectival masculine singular omicron sigma.

Noun case labels are confusing since they do not have uniform functions in all languages. The labels I will use are based on the plural endings. Nevertheless, you need to study each noun to be sure you know the conjugation.

1)         The -on case is used for negations like “is not there,” or “does not exist” or “does not have”.

2)         hupo plus the -on case for an animate noun is the instrumental for that noun.

3)         The -on case is applied to a noun that modifies a preceding noun, what they call “construct state” in Hebrew and idafa in Arabie.

21st Century Classical Greek -- passive

This is I 2.6, and it has some great grammar in it.

καὶ παράδειγμα τόδε τοῦ λόγου οὐκ ἐλάχιστόν ἐστι διὰ τὰς μετοικίας ἐς τὰ ἄλλα μὴ ὁμοίως αὐξηθῆναι: ἐκ γὰρ τῆς ἄλλης Ἑλλάδος οἱ πολέμῳ ἢ στάσει ἐκπίπτοντες παρ᾽ Ἀθηναίους οἱ δυνατώτατοι ὡς βέβαιον ὂν ἀνεχώρουν, καὶ πολῖται γιγνόμενοι εὐθὺς ἀπὸ παλαιοῦ μείζω ἔτι ἐποίησαν πλήθει ἀνθρώπων τὴν πόλιν, ὥστε καὶ ἐς Ἰωνίαν ὕστερον ὡς οὐχ ἱκανῆς οὔσης τῆς Ἀττικῆς ἀποικίας ἐξέπεμψαν.

Notice the ouk elakhisto, meaning “not least”. If you have been using the translations, specifically, Jowett, he turns this backward. He does that a lot with meanings; he also moves words and clauses out of the position in which Thucydides has them. So sometimes you have to go hunting all over his version to see what Thucydides means, and it is a waste of time, as well as destroying structures Thucydides uses to make his material memorable, such as parallelism.

But that’s not what I wanted to talk about for this subsection. I want to talk about auksithinai. Translating the Word Tool labels into our schema, we have an imperfective impersonal gerundive in a passive structure. The phrase also has a negation, mi.

In a sense this is an i.g. in a result clause, and the aspect we normally use for results is perfective. However, Thucydides’ meaning required that he use an intransitive phrase – which we would also do in English – and you can’t do that in perfective aspect in a non-mai verb, unless the verb itself has an intransitive meaning.

Now let’s look at that mi. It’s used with an adjective, mi omoios. As we know, that is supposed to mean “any likeness that might have existed, didn’t exist.” If Thucydides had used ouk, that would have meant “there could have been no likeness at all.”

Continuing the theme of migrations in this section, Thucydides is specifying that population increases in Athens occurred from an influx of refugees, strongmen who were thrown out of their polises after uprisings. The unstated alternative is that the other polises replaced population some other way, such as through reproduction.

Jowett gives the impression that this influx made the Attikan population larger than other places but Thucydides is saying that the increase occurred by a different mechanism. If Jowett is considering overpopulation as a reason for sending out colonies, well, we will soon see that Thucydides fails to make overpopulation a concern when he talks about the colonies of various metropolises. In fact, colonies in Greece were much like colonies set up by Britain, a way to ensure control of resources which became a source of money in trade and taxes. Besides, I’m just about to give still another reason why Athins sent these refugees out to colonies.

Notice the superlative dinatotatoi, “the strongest”. If the refugees coming to your city-state are deposed strongmen, do you let them stay?

So the first thing the Athinaians did was grant these people honorary citizenship, politai gignomenoi, turn them into citizens. It was a two-edged sword. It kept them from feeling resentment toward Athins. It also brought them under Athins’ laws, and Athins shipped them out to colonies for the sake of the city’s peace.

Eventually Thucydides does say that the number of refugees was too much for the city to handle. That says something about how many cities hated the strongmen that ruled them.

Notice the structure of the first phrase. Thucydides brings forward paradeigma to tell his audience what this subsection is about. From that he hangs what he is giving an example of, “this claim” and says it’s ouk elakhiston, which a lot of Victorian writers could have translated as “not inconsiderable”. Now that he has raised audience expectations, he gives the topic he will use for the rest of the section, metoikias es ta alla, people expelled into other polises. Then he says that this is not the way polises outside of Attika expanded.

Then he tells why these rejects were rejects, and how they were treated in Athins. 

Fact-Checking the Torah -- no surprises here.

In 2016 I wrote about a religious controversy manufactured by the press to fill out their bucket list on covering religion. 

https://pajheil.blogspot.com/2016/06/fact-checking-torah-wrapping-up-digs.html

I said there that the mass media publications did not cover radiocarbon data. Here is the first test. The dates, as the paper notes, are anomalous, so there was probably a contaminant. 

https://projects.iq.harvard.edu/files/gojw/files/hodginssupplementalreport2013v4.pdf

At any rate, you can't write about "Jesus" 200 years before he supposedly lived. It doesn't even fit the dates of Yehuda ibn Perachiah's student who was called Yeshu ha-Notsri and lived in the time of King Alexander Jannai, the Hasmonean.

The next year a new test showed that the papyrus (separately from the ink) dated between 600 and 900 CE, that is, during the so-called dark ages. 

https://gospelofjesusswife.hds.harvard.edu/radiocarbon-dating

To save the concept invented by the mass media, which at least supports that Jesus was a real person, articles then suggested that the fragment was part of a copy of something of the right age. 

https://harvardmagazine.com/2014/04/jesus-wife-fragment-appears-real

The problem is, nobody has ever been able to establish a chain of custody because, as I said in the original post, nobody really knows who the people are whose names are associated with the "find". (See the More Questions section.)

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/gospel-jesus-wife_n_5206932

Some of you who haven't read my blog are saying in disgust that the Talmud refers to the  Christian Jesus. I can send you my total study of that urban legend but I do cover it on the blog.  The Reader's Digest version is it was invented by a Jew hater who never read Talmud and the concept has been a tool of Jew haters ever since.

http://pajheil.blogspot.com/2016/12/fact-checking-torah-pranaitis.html

http://pajheil.blogspot.com/2016/12/fact-checking-torah-er-twins.html

http://pajheil.blogspot.com/2016/12/fact-checking-torah-sources.html

I'm writing about this today because 11 people read that top blog entry in the last 24 hours and I thought I ought to tell the rest of the story about the papyrus. I found a long blog post by somebody else that goes through all the urban legends about Jesus, including the Da Vinci Code, but that writer did not give direct links to the science. I sent them to him (?) after I found them. Before I published this. 

I appreciate the interest and it gave me the impulse to do the rest of the research. Enjoy!

Knitting photo album

I have a basic pullover pattern that the designs below will fit onto. This version of it includes info on fitting your size, using different yarn weights, and sleeve lengths. The pattern is designed to let you work as fast as possible and, as far as possible, have a wearable top when you finish knitting. Enjoy! 

You can't tell which posts show which examples so here's an album with links to the posts.

Fair Isle

reproduction Shetland lace Queen Susan shawl  (I didn't make one but..)

Retro 1929 tuxedo knit  

Top-down raglan  

Argyle  

Aran  

Houndstooth  

Norwegian gensers

Mariusgenser (Setesdal tradition)

Fana (Bergen tradition)  

Sirdal tradition  

Lofoten tradition (?)  

  

1963 Spinnerin top  

Bottom up raglan yoke 

Bottom up raglan mono-color 

Andalusian stitch: 

Summer top with selvage armhole 

Customized Celtic braid 

Brioche raglan pullover: 

French/Breton jersey  

with faux set-in sleeves

scrap socks  

Tunic and skirt with gores  

Icelandic jumper 

Norwegian  Dovrekofta 

Eye of Partridge washcloth 

Basque stripe and sleeveless top down tee                            

using up leftover yarn  

 See this post for I-cord piping for bottom, side edges, and top of a project, such as housewares.

Three versions of double knit including reversible patterns 

Three versions of rib, including Fisherman's rib and Shaker's rib. 

The Jamieson & Smith Shetland wool jumper version of a cotton sweater

Twisted stitch, a Styrian Celtic tradition  

Valldal at Sandnes Garn  

Myrdal at Sandnes Garn  

Others to come: Another British tradition; and whatever else I dig up to do.

21st Century Classical Greek -- dia

This week we have short, straightforward sections, I 2.3-5.

μάλιστα δὲ τῆς γῆς ἡ ἀρίστη αἰεὶ τὰς μεταβολὰς τῶν οἰκητόρων εἶχεν,

ἥ τε νῦν Θεσσαλία καλουμένη καὶ Βοιωτία Πελοποννήσου τε τὰ πολλὰ πλὴν Ἀρκαδίας, τῆς τε ἄλλης ὅσα ἦν κράτιστα.

Learn malista and ελάχιστα elakhista as “most [of all]” and “least [of all]”. They are irregular superlatives.

The first clause has the verb at the end, so the order is SOV. This is very common in Greek, so always identify the subject or topic and verb; what’s in the middle is going to be the object of the verb or an appositive to the subject/topic.

διὰ γὰρ ἀρετὴν γῆς αἵ τε δυνάμεις τισὶ μείζους ἐγγιγνόμεναι στάσεις ἐνεποίουν ἐξ ὧν ἐφθείροντο, καὶ ἅμα ὑπὸ ἀλλοφύλων μᾶλλον ἐπεβουλεύοντο.

Meizous is the comparative of mega, “big”.

The regular comparative of both adjectives and adverbs is -tera and the superlative -taton, as in aksiologotaton from section 1.

And finally, learn poieo, “make, do”, a high frequency verb both alone and with prefixes as in subsection 4.

The structure here is a prepositional phrase as the topic. Where is the verb? It’s enepoioun. The subject of that verb is eggignomenai, and so we have TSOV. The topic links this subjsection to the previous one.

Eftheironto is a problem. The morphology is base voice, the aspect progressive. It is not a -mai verb, yet Middle Liddell gives us mostly passive – that is, intransitive – meanings for it. But look at II and the example ei mi ftherei, “if you don’t depart”. That’s intransitive, but it suits our context.  What does this subsection discuss except reasons why people left their turf?

Jowett follows Middle Liddel to destruction – or rather, “ruin”. The communities weren’t ruined, a true passive concept. They did depart their turf, and the subject of migrating away from one’s home is also covered in subsection 5:

τὴν γοῦν Ἀττικὴν ἐκ τοῦ ἐπὶ πλεῖστον διὰ τὸ λεπτόγεων ἀστασίαστον οὖσαν ἄνθρωποι ᾤκουν οἱ αὐτοὶ αἰεί.

Learn dia, “through, because of”. You’ll mostly see it with the -on case, but notice that it sometimes shows up with the -ous case. It means pretty much the same thing regardless of the noun case, which causes a problem for the old grammars. Ek can also mean “because of”, as you saw in subsection 3.

All of the old grammars try to generally define oblique noun cases, the -on case being a departure from something and the -ous case being the approach to something, while the -ois case is supposed to mean within a space or time.

However when you study dia you find it it means “during” with both cases. This is close to the claimed nuance of the -ois case.

Old grammars also describe the -ous case as being part of an expanse, but with dia the -on case certainly takes on that nuance.

Finally, notice that dia plus either case is a kind of instrumental.