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.