EAK nouns

I had posted that I was considering taking the accusative singular,
dropping a final -n if there was one. This works OK for 1st & 2nd
declension nouns, and for most masc. & feminine 3rd declension nouns. But
Philip Newton rightly pointed out some problems for 3rd declension neuters.

There are also some problems with a few common 3rd decl. masculines &
feminines, e,g.
The four so-called syncopated nouns πατ'ηρ (father), μητ'ηρ (mother),
θυγατ'ηρ (daughter) and γαστ'ηρ (belly) all have acc. ending in -έρα,
but when used in compounds or when formative suffixes are added they
always use the stems πατρ-, μητρ-, θυγατρ- and γαστρ- respectively. One
could assume a 'syncopated accusative', but that's somewhat contrived -
in any case it would make μήτρα a homophone meaning 'womb' or 'mother',
which is not satisfactory and can be avoided.

Also while nouns with accented final -ίς add -α to the stem for the
accusative, those which are unaccented generally form the accusative
with -ιν, so for example:
NOM.		ACC.		GEN.
ελπίς		ελπίδα		ελπίδος		(hope)
χάρις		χάριν		χάριτος		(grace, favor)

Are we to have EAK ελπίδα and χάρι? And is "bird" to be όρνι despite
derivatives like ornithology?

I previously suggested using the ancient Greek genitive, removing the
final -ς if there was one - but pointed out the problems. It now seems
to me that a more satisfactory solution, and more in keeping with the
spirit of "Latino sine flexione" would be to use the _dative_ singular
(dropping the 'iota subscript' of the 1st & 2nd declensions). Thus, for
example (I hope the table doesn't get hopelessly distorted):
ANCIENT  				MEANING						EAK
(Nom. & gen.)
χώρα, χώρας			land [f]						  χώρα
τιμή, τιμής				honor [f]					     τιμή
θάλασσα, θαλάσσης	sea [f]							θαλάσση
κριτής, κριτού			 judge [m]					     κριτή
άνθρωπος, ανθρώπου  person, human being [e]             ανθρώπω
φλέψ, φλεβός			vein [f]                                              φλεβί
γίγας, γίγαντος			giant [m]
γίγαντι
ελπίς, ελπίδος                  hope [f]
               ελπίδι
χάρις, χάριτος	                grace, favor [f]
        χάριτι
όρνις, όρνιθος                   bird [e]
                 όρνιθι
πόλις, πόλεως                  city [f]
                πόλει
ιχθύς, ιχθύος                      fish [m]
                  ιχθύϊ
βασιλεύς, βασιλέως      king [m]
     βασιλεί
πατήρ, πατρός                  father [m]
           πατρί
σώμα, σώματος               body [n]
         σώματι
γένος, γένους                    race, type, kind [n]
     γένει
ήπαρ, ήπατος                     liver [n]
               ήπατι
κρέας, κρέως                      meat [n]
               κρέαι
γόνυ, γόνατος                    knee [n]
               γόνατι
ούς, ωτός                            ear [n]
                      ωτί

Note:
i. [e] = epicene (masc. or feminine)
ii. The ancient forms are give *for convenience* with the modern
monotonic diacritics. Lest anyone is tempted to 'correct' me, I would
point out that I am very aware of the polytonic accents & breathings
(I've known them for half a century!) - but there seemed little point in
making the email more complicated.

Comments?


--
Ray
==================================
ray@carolandray.plus.com
http://www.carolandray.plus.com
==================================
TRADUTTORE TRADITORE

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