Ancient Greek for Everyone A New Digital Resource

Ancient Greek for Everyone: A New Digital Resource for Beginning Greek Unit 2 part 1: Introduction to the Greek Verb 2013 edition Wilfred E. Major wmajor@lsu. edu

Ancient Greek for Everyone This class AGE Unit 2: Introduction to the Greek Verb • You have learned the Greek alphabet and other components of the Greek writing system. • Now you begin learning Greek words: what they mean, how to form them, and how to understand them. • We begin with the most powerful category of Greek words, the part of speech called the VERB.

Ancient Greek for Everyone • A VERB describes an action. • An English verb by itself designates only the action that is taking place: run, stop, be, … • A Greek verb, however, normally communicates more information than just what the action is. • In fact, a Greek verb by itself usually communicates FIVE pieces of information:

Ancient Greek for Everyone • A Greek verb by itself usually communicates FIVE pieces of information: – – – Person Number Tense Mood Voice

Ancient Greek for Everyone • A Greek verb by itself usually communicates FIVE pieces of information: – Person: The subject of the verb, that is, who is the focus of the action – 1 st person = the speaker (I, we) – 2 nd person = person spoken to (you, y’all) – 3 rd person = anyone/anything else (he/she/it, they, or anyone/anything else you can name) – English uses separate words to indicate the person (subject).

Ancient Greek for Everyone • A Greek verb by itself usually communicates FIVE pieces of information: – Person – Number: whether the Person (subject) is singular or plural – singular = I, you, he/she/it, or any single subject – plural = we, y’all, they, or any plural subject – Tense – Mood – Voice

Ancient Greek for Everyone • A Greek verb by itself usually communicates FIVE pieces of information: – Person – Number: whether the person (subject) is singular or plural – English uses separate words to indicate the number of the person (subject) and marks a verb with a 3 rd person singular subject: runs, stops, is… – Tense – Mood – Voice

Ancient Greek for Everyone • A Greek verb by itself usually communicates FIVE pieces of information: – Person – Number – Tense: When the action happens (past, present, future) – Mood – Voice

Ancient Greek for Everyone • Tense: When the action happens (past, present, future) • English uses a combination of verb changes or additions and additional words to indicate the tense: – run, ran, have run, will run, do run, is running… – stop, stopped, have stopped, will stop, do stop, is stopping… – is, was, have been, is being…

Ancient Greek for Everyone • A Greek verb by itself usually communicates FIVE pieces of information: – – Person Number Tense Mood: This refers to the “mode” of the verb (most often indicating whether an action is real or hypothetical in some way). – Voice

Ancient Greek for Everyone • Mood: This refers to the “mode” of the verb (most often indicating whether an action is real or hypothetical in some way). • English uses additional words to indicate the mood: – to run, could run, might run, should run, would run… – to stop, could stop, might stop, should stop, would stop… – to be, could be, might be, should be, would be…

Ancient Greek for Everyone • A Greek verb by itself usually communicates FIVE pieces of information: – Person – Number – Tense – Mood: This refers to the “mode” of the verb (most often indicating whether an action is real or hypothetical in some way). – Indicative means the action is real. – Infinitive means the action without any time or subject. – Voice

Ancient Greek for Everyone • A Greek verb by itself usually communicates FIVE pieces of information: – – – Person Number Tense Mood Voice: This indicates the role the subject plays in the action.

Ancient Greek for Everyone • A Greek verb by itself usually communicates FIVE pieces of information: – Voice: This indicates the role the subject plays in the action. – Greek can distinguish three roles (voices): – Active: The subject causes the action • We run the program. • We stop the program. • I buy a drink.

Ancient Greek for Everyone • A Greek verb by itself usually communicates FIVE pieces of information: – Voice: This indicates the role the subject plays in the action. – Greek can distinguish three roles (voices): – Middle: The subject is part or all of the action • We run. • We stop. • I buy (myself) a drink.

Ancient Greek for Everyone • A Greek verb by itself usually communicates FIVE pieces of information: – Voice: This indicates the role the subject plays in the action. – Greek can distinguish three roles (voices): – Passive: The subject receives the consequence of the action • We are run by a computer. • We are stopped by a police officer. • The drinks are bought by me. – Note: In Classical Greek, the passive voice is rare, but it becomes more common in Koine Greek.

Ancient Greek for Everyone • A Greek verb by itself usually communicates FIVE pieces of information: – Person – Number – Tense – Mood – Voice PARSING: To “parse” a Greek verb means to identify the above five qualities about a specific verb form.

Ancient Greek for Everyone • PARSING: To “parse” a Greek verb means to identify the five qualities about a specific verb form. • For example, a specific verb form could be – Third person – Singular – Present – Indicative – Active • Once you know these five items and the verb’s meaning, you have identified the verb completely and understand what it means.

Ancient Greek for Everyone AGE Unit 2: Introduction to the Greek Verb • Now you have learned the what information a Greek verb conveys about an action. • Next we learn how a Greek verb conveys this information. • You have seen how English verbs change, make additions or use additional words to convey information.

Ancient Greek for Everyone • I am running. • You are running. • She is running. • We are running. • Y’all are running. • They are running. Building a Greek Verb Consider the verbs in the above sentences

Ancient Greek for Everyone • runningi • runningyou • runningshe • runningwe • runningy’all • runningthey Building a Greek Verb Now IMAGINE verbs like this!

Ancient Greek for Everyone • I do stop. • You do stop. • He does stop. • We do stop. • Y’all do stop. • They do stop. Building a Greek Verb Consider the verbs in the above sentences

Ancient Greek for Everyone • stopdoi • stopdoyou • stopdohe • stopdowe • stopdoy’all • stopdothey Building a Greek Verb Now IMAGINE verbs like this!

Ancient Greek for Everyone Building a Greek verb • Those imaginary verbs work basically the way verbs work in Greek. • Greek verbs for the most part communicate person, number, tense, mood and voice by adding parts to the verb, rather than by using additional words. • Building verbs this way can seem strange at first, but to a Greek, piling on words they way English does seems strange. Neither is better or more difficult, but they are different.

Ancient Greek for Everyone Building a Greek verb • To begin building a Greek verb, start with the “stem. ” • The stem tells you what action the verb describes: δεικ = “show”

Ancient Greek for Everyone Building a Greek verb • All the verbs in this unit are in the present tense. • So the stem needs a marker that says the verb is in the present tense. • Adding a -ν- to the stem typically marks a verb as in the present tense. It will be easier to pronounce this verb by adding –νυ–. • So now the stem looks (and sounds) like this: – δεικνυ = “show” (in the present)

Ancient Greek for Everyone Building a Greek verb • So now the verb is in the present tense. • The most common mood of Greek verbs is the indicative (which means the action is real). This is also effectively the default mood for verbs. • All the verbs in this unit are in the active voice, so the following verb forms are – Present tense – Indicative mood – Active voice

Ancient Greek for Everyone Building a Greek verb • To indicate person and number, the verb needs distinct endings, which are as follows: • -μι = I (1 st person singular) -μεν = we (1 st person plural) • -ς = you (2 nd person singular) -τε = y’all (2 nd person plural) • -σι = (s)he, it (3 rd person sing) -ασι = they (3 rd person plural)

Ancient Greek for Everyone • δείκνυμι – I show, am showing, do show. • δείκνυς • δείκνυμεν – We show, are showing, do show. • δείκνυτε – You show, are showing, do show. • δείκνυσι – (S)he/it shows, is showing, does show. – Y’all show, are showing, do show. • δεικνύασι – They show, are showing, do show. Building a Greek Verb The Present Indicative Active of δείκνυμι

Ancient Greek for Everyone • From Unit 1: Placing the accent: – On most Greek words, the “recessive” rule determines the placement of the accent. This means: – If the last syllable of the word contains a single short vowel, the accent “recedes” two syllables: – δίδοτε – It can recede only to the last short vowel sound of this syllable (never to the first part), so the accent appears as an acute (“/”): – ἄνθρωπος, δώσετε (= δοόσετε)

Ancient Greek for Everyone • From Unit 1: Placing the accent: – On most Greek words, the “recessive” rule determines the placement of the accent. This means: – If the word has only two syllables and the last syllable of the word contains a single short vowel, the accent “recedes” to the first syllable: – δότε – or the first part of a long vowel sound: – δῶρον (= δόορον)

Ancient Greek for Everyone • From Unit 1: Placing the accent: – On most Greek words, the “recessive” rule determines the placement of the accent. This means: – If the last syllable of the word contains a long vowel sound, the accent “recedes” only one syllable: – διδότω. – It can recede only to the second part of this syllable, so the accent always appears as an acute (“/”): – παραδώσω (= παραδοόσω = παραδοόσοο)

Ancient Greek for Everyone Spell it Like It Sounds! • Remember: A word ending in -σι can add a final -ν (“nu -movable”) to make pronunciation easier: – For example, εἴκοσι εἶσι εἴκοσιν εἶσιν. – This added -ν has no meaning; it simply helps pronunciation. – For the verb δείκνυμι, this means δείκνυσι and δεικνύασι can appear as δείκνυσιν and δεικνύασιν. It does not affect their parsing, meaning or translation.

Ancient Greek for Everyone • The second most common mood of Greek verbs is the infinitive (which refers to the action without person, number or tense, so it needs only a single ending). • The ending –ναι signals the verb is in the infinitive. • δεικνύναι – “show” in the infinitive mood (mode) • This form is the present, infinitive, active. • Note the placement of the accent. • We will learn the meanings and translations of the infinitive mood while reading passages.

Ancient Greek for Everyone • A Greek verb by itself usually communicates FIVE pieces of information: – Person – Number – Tense – Mood – Voice PARSING: To “parse” a Greek verb means to identify the above five qualities about a specific verb form.

Ancient Greek for Everyone • PARSING: To “parse” a Greek verb means to identify the above five qualities about a specific verb form. • For example, δείκνυμι is – First person – Singular – Present – Indicative – Active • All of the above information, plus its stem meaning, tells you that this form means “I show, ” or “I am showing” or “I do show. ”

Ancient Greek for Everyone • When translating a Greek verb into English, – Do not worry about using two, three or more words in English to translate just one in Greek. The two languages build their words differently. – Try to see the action that the Greek verb describes. Then use the English that describes that same action. – Sometimes you have multiple ways to translate a verb. Choose the way that works best in English. – For example, δείκνυμι (first person, singular, present, indicative, active) legitimately translates as “I show, ” or “I am showing” or “I do show. ” Choose the one that works best in English.

Ancient Greek for Everyone • VOCABULARY: Although a Greek verb can morph into many different forms, it is listed in a dictionary (Greek “lexicon”) under just one form: – First person – Singular – Present – Indicative – Active • For example: δείκνυμι show

Ancient Greek for Everyone Examples of Vocabulary entries • ἀπόλλυμι kill, destroy • δείκνυμι show • μίγνυμι mix

Ancient Greek for Everyone • μίγνυμι • μίγνυμεν – I mix, am mixing, do mix. • μίγνυς – You mix, are mixing, do mix. • μίγνυσι – (S)he/it mixes, is mixing, does mix. – We mix, are mixing, do mix. • μίγνυτε – Y’all mix, are mixing, do mix. • μιγνύασι – They mix, are mixing, do mix. Building a Greek Verb The Present Infinitive Active is μιγνύναι

Ancient Greek for Everyone Building a Greek verb • The stem of ἀπόλλυμι is: – ολ = “kill, destroy” – ολνυ ολλυ = “kill, die” (in the present) • The combination –λν– always changes to –λλ– in Greek. • In practice, Greek always adds a prefix to this word, ἀπ(ό), meaning “away, ” similar to the way English can say “kill off. ” Thus the stem actually looks (and sounds) like this: – ἀπολλυ = “kill, destroy” (in the present) – This verb is rare except in this compounded form.

Ancient Greek for Everyone • ἀπόλλυμι – I kill, am killing, do kill. • ἀπόλλυς – You kill, are killing, do kill. • ἀπόλλυσι – (S)he/it kills, is killing, does kill. • ἀπόλλυμεν – We kill, are killing, do kill. • ἀπόλλυτε – Y’all kill, are killing, do kill. • ἀπολλύασι – They kill, are killing, do kill. Building a Greek Verb The Present Infinitive Active is ἀπολλύναι

Ancient Greek for Everyone • Next – practice with ἀπόλλυμι, δείκνυμι, μίγνυμι • The practice sheet provides all the forms of these three verbs. We will draw forms at random from a hat, and you need to (1) say the word out loud (2) parse the form and (3) translate it into English. – start AGE Unit 2 part 2: Six Common Greek verbs.