Re: TAKE 2nd verb page updatedc

On 11/1/07, R A Brown <ray@...> wrote:
> As I wrote the use of the definite article instead of a relative pronoun
> is found in Homer & some dialects.
Is Homer using the definite article instead of a relative pronoun? Or
is he using a relative pronoun, which is one the way to becoming a
definite article but hasn't completed the process yet, so it's still
available for its original use?

IIRC, the Greek definite article was originally a relative pronoun.

> εἰς τὸν τόπον τὸν ὁ Θεὸς σὲ ἔδωκεν
> into the+ACC place the+ACC the+NOM God you gave
> into the place which God gave you
That sounds like Thessaloniki Greek :) In northern Greece, they merged
dative into the accusative rather than into the genitive as in the
standard language.

My favourite example (which, alas, I didn't hear personally but was
told about) was a woman who wanted to get off a bus and asked the bus
driver to Άνοιξέ με από πίσω!

That is, in the local dialect, she said, "open up for me at the back",
but in the standard language, it would be "open me up from behind".
(Her interpretation would use Άνοιξέ μου in the standard language,
i.e. with the genitive form standing in for dative.)

Cheers,
--
Philip Newton <philip.newton@...>

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