Greek Grammar in Greek

William S. Annis Scholiastae.org∗

February 5, 2012

Sometimes it would be nice to discuss grammar without having to drop back to our native language, so I’ve made a collection of Greek grammatical vocabulary. My primary source is E. Dickey’s Ancient Greek Scholarship. Over more than a millennium of literary scholarship in the ancient world has resulted in a vast and somewhat redundant vocabulary for many corners of grammar. Since my goal is to make it possible to produce Greek rather than to provide a guide to ancient scholarship — for which Dickey’s book is the best guide — I have left out a lot of duplicate terminology. In general I tried to pick the word that appears to inspire the Latin, and thus the modern, grammatical vocabulary. I also occasionally checked to see what Modern Greek uses for a term.

Parts of Speech

The Greeks divided up the parts of speech a little differently, but for the most part we’ve inherited their division.

• μέρος λόγου “part of speech” • ὄνομα, τό “noun” • ἐπίθετον “adjective” (in ancient grammar considered a kind of noun) • ῥῆμα, τό “verb” • μετοχή, ἡ “participle” (which we now think of as part of the verb) • ἄρθρον, τό “article” and also relative pronoun in the scholia • ἀντωνυμία, ἡ “pronoun”

– ἀναφορική “relative” – δεικτική “demonstrative” – κτητική “possessive,” i.e., ἐμός, σός, κτλ. • πρόθεσις, ἡ “preposition”

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1 • ἐπίρρημα, τό “adverb” but also covering some particles in the scholia • σύνδεσμος, ὁ “conjunction” but, again, also covering some particles in the scholia

There was no classical word that matched the contemporary notion of a particle, which were described by their function as either σύνδεσμοι or ἐπιρρήματα. The Puristic word for a particle is τὸ μόριον, which seems as good a choice as any, with the warning that in ancient grammarians sometimes the word is used to describe a part of speech (a variant of μέρος.)

Phonology

• λέξις, ἡ “word” (in grammatical texts λόγος means many things, but it doesn’t usually mean “word”) • συλλαβή, ἡ “syllable” • στοιχεῖον, τό “sound/letter” • φωνῆεν (-ήεντος) “vowel” • σύμφωνον “consonant”

Vowels may be:

• μακρόν “long” (μηκύνω “lengthen;” μηκύνομαι “be (scanned, used as a) long”) • βραχύ “short” (βραχύνω “shorten;” βραχύνομαι “be (scanned, used as a) short”) • κοινόν (δίχρονον) “common,” that is, it can be either long or short

Further a vowel may have:

• πνεύματα “breathings” • δασέα “rough” (δασύνω “to aspirate; to write with a rough breathing or aspirated consonant”) • ψιλά “smooth” (ψιλόω “write/pronounce with a smooth breathing or unaspirated consonant”)

There’s an extensive taxonomy for consonants. The most important words are:

• ψιλόν “bare” or unaspirated stops (π, τ, κ) • δασύ “aspirated” (lit., “hairy”) stops (φ, θ, χ) • μέσον “voiced” (lit., “middle”) stops (β, δ, γ)

The many marks of aspiration, accent and punctuation together are called αἱ προσῳδίαι:

• τόνοι, οἱ “accents;” verb τονόω “to accent,” οὐκ ὀρθῶς τονοῦται, “(it is) not accented cor- rectly.”

2 • syllables having an acute accent, ὀξεῖα (προσῳδία), are ὀξύτονος or, as a verb, ὀξύνειν; also describes words with an acute in the final syallable • paroxytone words (penult acute) are παροξύτονος, verb παροξύνειν • proparoxytone (antepenult acute) are προπαροξύτονος, verb προπαροξύνειν • words with a circumflex accent, περισπωμένη, are περισπομένος, verb περισπᾶν • penult circumflex are προπερισπώμενος, verb προπερισπᾶν • unaccented syllables are βαρύτονος, verb βαρύνειν

Other useful words:

• Contraction is ἡ συναίρεσις, verb συναιρέω. Vowel changes may occur κατὰ συναίρεσιν, as in, ἀπὸ “τῆς Σαπφόος” γίγνεται κατὰ συναίρεσιν “Σαπφοῦς.” • Crasis is ἡ κρᾶσις. Changes happen κατὰ κρᾶσιν, “by crasis,” as in κατὰ κρᾶσιν δέ, ὡς “τἀμά” ἀντὶ τοῦ “τὰ ἐμά.”

Nouns and Adjectives

• γένος, τό “gender”

– ἄρρεν “masculine” (also ἀρρενικόν, with the usual Ionic/Koine variation in ἀρσεν- for both) – θηλύ “feminine” (also θηλυκόν) – οὐδέτερον “neuter” • ἀριθμός, ὁ “number”

– ἑνικός “singular” – δυϊκός “dual” – πληθυντικός “plural” • πτῶσις, ἡ “case”

– εὐθεῖα “nominative” (also, ὀρθή) – γενική “genitive” – δοτική “dative” – αἰτιατική “accusative” – κλητική “vocative” – ἀπενεκτική “ablative” (in case you want to discuss Latin grammar) • κλίνειν “to decline” a noun

– κλίσις, ἡ “declension” • syntactic roles (from ἐνεργέω “to act”):

– ὁ ἐνεργῶν “the subject” – ὁ ἐνεργούμενος “the object”

3 For a noun “in” a case, use ἐπί + gen., παροξύνει καὶ ἐπὶ τῆς αἰτιατικῆς, “it is paroxytone also in the accusative.” The gender of a noun is described with the genitive or with κατὰ + acc., as in ἔστι δὲ τὸ “ἀμφόδου” ἐνταῦθα γένους οὐδετέρου· εὕρηται ὅμως καὶ κατὰ θηλυκὸν, “ἀμφόδου here is (of) neuter; it may also be feminine.” It may also be described with a simple predicate adjective, τὸ ὄνομοα γάρ ἐστι θηλυκόν. Adjectives may be:

• συγκριτικόν “comparative” • ὑπερθετικόν “superlative”

Verbs

Verbs have —

• ἔγκλισις, ἡ “mood”

– ὁριστική “indicative” – προστακτική “imperative” (lit., “commanding”) – εὐκτική “optative” – ὑποτακτική “subjunctive” – ἀπαρέμφατος “infinitive” • διάθεσις, ἡ “voice”

– ἐνέργεια, ἡ “active,” adj. ἐνεργητικός – πάθος, ὁ “passive,” adj. παθητικός – μεσότης, ἡ “middle,” adj. μέσος • πρόσωπον, τό “person”

– πρῶτον “first” – δεύτερον “second” – τρίτον “third” • χρόνος, ὁ “tense”

– ἐνεστώς “present” – παρεληλυθώς “past” – παρατατικός “imperfect” – παρακείμενος “perfect” – ὑπερσυντέλικος “pluperfect” – ἀόριστος “aorist” (lit., “indefinite,” also used to describe a class of pronouns) – μέλλων “future” • συζυγία, ἡ “conjugation”

Verb conjugation is described by accenting except for the -μι verbs:

4 • βαρύτονος the ordinary ω-verbs, since they have recessive accent • περισπώμενος “contract verb” (since they often have circumflex accents in the present) • εἰς -μι λήγων “ending in -μι”

A verb may be:

• μεταβατικόν “transitive” • ἀμετάβατον “intransitive”

Dialects

Most often dialectical features are described with adverbs, but verb forms exist, too.

• ἀττικῶς, ἀττικιστί, ἀττικίζω “Attic” • αἰολικῶς, αἰολιστί, αἰολίζω “Aeolic” • ἰακῶς, ἰαστί; ἰωνικῶς, ἰωνιστί “Ionic” • δωρικῶς, δωριστί, δωρίζω “Doric” • κοινῶς “Koine”

ἡ “ἐν” πρόθεσις συντάσσεται κοινῶς μὲν δοτικῇ, ἀττικῶς δὲ γενικῇ ἐλλειπτικῶς, “the preposition ἐν is construed with the dative in Koine, but in the genitive elliptically in Attic.”

Speaking Grammatically

Greek grammatical vocabulary was far more lush than what I have given here. In addition to this vocabulary there are certain habits of syntax, as well as specialized uses of well-known words, that are common in grammatical commentary. Because ancient Greek didn’t have quotes, a word or phrase under discussion is generally brought into the grammar of the sentence by tacking τό onto it. So one may speak of τὸ μείρω, “the verb μείρω.” However a particular part of speech might take the article matching the term for that part of speech, such as ἡ ἐπί, “the (preposition) ἐπί.” Since computers these days offer both quotes and underlines you should mark off a word or phrase with more than just τό, to avoid confusion. Letters and parts of words (such as inflectional endings) in the ancient commentaries generally had an overline, but there’s no reason not to indicate endings in the usual modern way, with a leading dash. Finally, words under discussion usually have their accent in dictionary form. Since many grammatical terms are nominalized adjectives, they will typically agree with whatever grammatical term has been dropped. For example, words related to tense will often agree with χρόνος, though they may also agree with ῥῆμα, the part of speech. Just as in English, a full grammatical description of a word may result in quite the pile-up, οὐδὲν ῥῆμα ὁριστικὸν ἑνικὸν πρῶτον πρόσωπον, “no indicative, singular first person verb...”

5 When citing the usage of an author, use παρά + dat., as παρ’ Ὁμήρῳ. A characteristic habit of a particular author may be indicated with εἴωθα, as in εἴωθε δὲ τοῦτο ποιεῖν ὁ Θουκυδίδης, “T. often does this.” πρός + acc. can mean “goes with,” in the grammatical sense, τὸ “σύν” πρὸς τὸ “αὔξῃς,” “σύν goes with αὔξῃς.” Grammatical agreement is indicated with συμφέρεται + dat., as in τὰ ἄρθρα· συμφερόμενα γὰρ τοῖς ὀνόμασιν, “the articles: agreeing with the nouns...” To not agree is expressed with ἀδιαφορέω with κατά + acc. indicating the feature in which the concord is missing, as in ἀδιαφορεῖ καὶ κατὰ τὴν πτῶσιν καὶ κατὰ τὸν ἀριθμόν. To discuss spelling, διά + gen. is usual, διὰ τοῦ α γράφεται, “it is written with an alpha.” When discussing word endings λήγει εἰς Χ is used, as τὰ εἰς -μι λήγοντα ῥήματα, “verbs ending in -μι.” The verb is often omitted, though it is also common for a word to “have” an ending, τὸ “αἰδώς” καὶ “ἠώς” εἰς -ους ἔχουσι τὴν γενικήν, οἷον αἰδοῦς καὶ ἠοῦς “αἰδώς and ἠώς have the genitive in -ους, e.g., αἰδοῦς and ἠοῦς.” The usage of a word may be described with παραλαμβάνω, “use,” or in the passive to describe grammatical phenomena (“be found, occur, admit”) as in ἐπὶ αἰτιατικῆς ἔσθ’ ὅτε παραλαμβανο- μένη, “occurs sometimes in the accusative.” Another word is συντάσσω “arrange, place together, construct” with the dative of case, Ἀλεξίων συντάσσει τῇ γενικῇ τὴν πρόθεσιν, “Alexion uses the preposition with the genitive.” Or in the passive, ἡ “διά” πρόθεσις οὐ μόνον γενικῇ συντάσσεται ἀλλὰ καὶ αἰτιατικῇ, “the preposition διά is used not only with the genitive but also the accusative.” Another: τὸ “βασιλεύω” συντάσσεται γενικῇ. Note that the case name sometimes uses the article, sometimes not. When something is omitted the usual verb is λείπει or ἐλλείπει, as in ἐλλείπει ἡ ἐν, “the (preposition) ἐν is omitted” or πολλάκις λείπει τὸ ῥῆμα, “the verb is often omitted.” The perfect passive of σημειόω (σεσημείωται) is used to note exceptions, as in σεσημείωται τὸ “ὦ γύναι” noting the unusual vocative of γυνή. When giving examples of usage, use οἷον “e.g., such as.” This is a common prose use of οἷον. When the word order is tricky, a reordered version of a phrase is introduced with τὸ ἑξῆς. The usual word for “meaning” (of a word, a phrase, etc.) is ἡ διάνοια. A definition is ὁρισμός, ὁ, the verb “define” is ὁρίζομαι. A copy of a manuscript is usually τὸ ἀντίγραφον, in which a text φέρεται “is transmitted.” The ἀντίγραφον itself ἔχει “has” words, examples, etc. One may also speak of the παράδοσις, ἡ “tra- dition,” though in modern textual criticism this word is often brought into English, “paradosis,” meaning the text as it has reached us, free of recent editorial tinkering.