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EAK Adjectives, Article & Pronouns

From:R A Brown <ray@...>
Date:Sunday, May 13, 2007, 17:15
ADJECTIVES
============
The use of the compositional base (CB) form for EAK nouns does not seem
to have provoke any negative response, so I'll assume the same for
adjectives. These are somewhat more straightforward than nouns:

1ST & 2ND DECLENSION
Most have nominative endings in -ος (masc.), -η (fem.), -ον (neut.); if
however a vowel precedes the ending then the feminine ends in -α. These
nouns form by far the largest group of nouns in ancient Greek. We do
exactly the same as for the nouns of the 1st & 2nd declensions, i.e.
remove endings and add -ο (or, if you prefer, remove the final -ν of the
neuter), e.g: άγιο "holy", άξιο "worthy", μικρό "small, σοφό "wise".

Contracted forms
Adjectives in -εος and -οος were often contracted:
i. For those in -εος, (-ους) use the uncontracted form and apply the
rule above, e.g.
χρυσούς (χρύσεος), χρυσή (χρυσέη), χρυσούν (χρύσεον)
---> χρύσεο "golden" *
ii. Those in -οος  shall simply drop the ending of the uncontracted
form: e.g.
απλούς (απλόος), απλή (απλόη), απλούν (απλόον) --->
απλό "single"

*it may be that this adjective will be dropped in favor of an analytic
construction using the noun χρυσό "gold."

'Attic declension'
Where common Greek has an alternative, that should be used and the
normal rule applies, this rather than Attic ίλεως "gracious", we use
ίλαος to give EAK ίλαο
πλέως  "full" is deprecated in favor of the far more common πλήρης.
Adjectives in are considered under the 3rd declension.
Similarly the defective adjective σως "safe" (not used in the New
Testament) is deprecated in favor of the more common, and still
surviving, ασφαλής

3RD DECLENSION
Those adjectives which end in -ης (masc. & fem.), -ες (neut.) simply
drop the ending and add -ο, e.g. αληθό "true", ασφαλό "safe", πλήρο "full".

All other 3rd declensions adj. take the genitive singular (which is
common to all three genders) and remove the final -ς., e.g.
ευδαίμων (m. & f.) εύδαιμον (n.), gen.: ευδαίμονος ---->
ευδαίμονο
"happy, blest"

1ST & 3RD DECLENSION
These adjectives have masculine & neuter with 3rd declension endings,
and feminines with 1st declension endings.

Those adjectives in -υς (masc.), -εια (<-- -*ευια) (fem.), -υ (neut.)
simply use the neuter nom. & acc. form, e.g.
γλυκύς (masc.), γλυκεία (fem.), γλυκύ  (neut.) ---> γλυκύ "sweet"
θήλυς  (masc.) θηλεία (fem.), θύλυ (neut.) ---> θήλυ "female"

For all other adjectives of this type, take the genitive singular of the
masc. & neut. and remove final -ς, e.g.
NOM. μέλας (m.), μέλαινα (f.),  μέλαν (n.)
GEN. μέλανος (m.), μελαίνης (f.), μέλανος  (n.)	 ---> μέλανο "black"
and:
NOM. χαρίεις (m.), χαρέεσσα (f.),  χαρίεν (n.)
GEN. χαρίεντος (m.), χαριέσσης (f.), χαρίεντος (n.) --->
χαρίεντο
"graceful"
and:
NOM. πάς (m.), πάσα (f.),  πάν (n.)
GEN. παντός (m.), πάσης (f.),  παντός( n.) 	---> παντό "all"

IRREGULAR
The adjective πράος "mild" has 1st & 2nd. declension endings, but the
feminine uses a modified stem, thus πραεί-α. We ignore the stem change
of the feminine and form the EAK adjective from the masc. & neuter
according to the normal rules, i.e. EAK πράο "mild."

The two very common irregulars, μέγας "great' and πολύς "much" (plural:
"many"), simply use the neuter nom. & acc. thus:
μέγας μεγάλη μέγα ---> μέγα "great"
πολύς πολλή πολύ ---> πολύ "much, many"

DEFINITE ARTICLE
==================
The ancient Greek definite article was declined for the most part as
though it were a 1st and 2nd decl. adjective *τός, *τή, *τόν except that
the nominative masculine & feminine singular & plural drop the initial
τ- and replace it with /h/ in the non-psilotic dialects, and masculine
nominative singular drops the final -ς and  the neuter singular nom. &
acc. drop the final -ν. EAK will derive its definite article from *τός,
*τή, *τόν; therefore:
ο, η, τό --->	το "the"

Ancient Greek had no indefinite article; EAK therefore also has no
indefinite article.

PRONOUNS (PART 1)
===================
(a) DEMONSTRATIVE PRONOUNS
Although their declensions are slightly irregular in ancient Greek, they
basically use 1st & 2nd declension endings, so we shall derive the EAK
forms in a similar way to 1st & 2nd decl. adjectives.

Ancient Greek had three demonstrative: a general demonstrative ούτος (=
French: ce, cette), one stressing nearness όδε (= French: ce...ci,
cette....ci) and the other stressing distance εκείνος (= French:
ce....là, cette.....là).

Of these:
- εκείνος has the same endings as normal 1st & 2nd declension
adjectives, except that the nom. & acc. neuter lacked the final -ν,
therefore we use exactly the same rule as the adjectives to derive the
EAK word;
- όδε declines the same as the definite article with -δε appended,
therefore the EAK is also the definite article with -δε appended;
- ούτος is declined for the most part as though it were a 1st and 2nd
decl. adjective *τούτος, *τούτη, *τούτον except that the nominative
masculine & feminine singular & plural drop the initial τ- and replace
it with /h/ in the non-psilotic dialects; the feminine throughout, and the
neuter plural nom. & acc. use ταύτ- instead of τούτ-; the neuter
singular nom. & acc. drop the final -ν. EAK will derive its pronoun
demonstrative *τούτος, *τούτη, *τούτον according to the normal rules.

 From this it will be seen that:
ούτος αύτη τούτο ---> τούτο "this/ that" [general demonstrative]
'οδε ήδε τόδε ---> τόδε "this (here)"
εκείνος εκείνη εκείνο ---> εκείνο "that (there)"

(b) PERSONAL PRONOUNS (NON-REFLEXIVE)
i. First & Second persons

The singular forms are unbound words in all four cases, but also have
bound enclitic forms for the acc., gen. and dative. Is there any form of
these words that could be said to be the 'compositional base' in ancient
Greek? In fact there is. Both singular pronouns have forms to which the
formative suffix -θεν (denoting origin, "from") is attached. With nouns
this is always added to the compositional base, not to any actual case
form, e.g. οίκος  "house, home" ---> οίκο-θεν "from home". With these
two singular pronouns we find it always added to the accusative
(non-enclitic) form, thus εμέθεν "from me, mine" and σέθεν "from you,
yours". We may, therefore, safely derive the EAK words εμέ and σε.

The plural forms show a bewildering variety of forms in the different
ancient dialects. Analogy was clearly at work; this has continued to the
modern language where the ancient and Koine forms have been completely
remodeled. Moreover it is not clear what the compositional base of these
pronouns would be; arguably in Attic and Koine it would be ημέ- "we, us"
and υμέ- "you (pl.)". I propose, however, to ignore the protean pronouns
and use the word λαό "people"  in a manner analogous to the modern
Chinese use of -men. So:

εμέ = I, me
σε = thou, thee, you (sing.)
εμέ-λαό = we, us
σε-λαό = you (plural)

2. Third person.
Ancient Greek of the period we are considering didn't have a single
regular 3rd person pronoun. For the nominative, if one wished to
express it (the verb alone was sufficient, so it was only expressed for
emphasis) one used one of the demonstratives, ούτος being the most
common. The oblique case were expressed by using the oblique case of
αυτός. But the problem from our point of view is that this word had
other meanings also in ancient Greek, namely:
i. as an emphasizing adjective like Latin _ipse_, meaning "myself",
"yourself"m "herself", "themselves" etc according to the word emphasized;
ii. between the article and noun with the meaning  "(the) same" (hence
English _t-auto-logy_).

EAK must use αυτό with the first meaning (and may use the second meaning
also, as it is defined by word order); we therefore cannot sensibly use
αυτό also to mean "he, him, her, it, they, them."

I propose that EAK does exactly what Latin did, i.e. don't both with
having a specific 3rd person pronoun; use demonstratives substantivally.
(I will deal with reflexives another time).

More to follow. Watch this space.

--
Ray
==================================
ray@carolandray.plus.com
http://www.carolandray.plus.com
==================================
Nid rhy hen neb i ddysgu.
There's none too old to learn.
[WELSH PROVERB]

Replies

Philip Newton <philip.newton@...>
Philip Newton <philip.newton@...>
Philip Newton <philip.newton@...>