probably raised to by the fourth century BC.
was an
Allophone of , used before voiced consonants; was an allophone of used before velars, while , written (), was probably a voiceless allophone of used word initially.
There are three main classes of consonants:
- Stops. This include three subclasses: velars (), labials (), and dentals ().
- Sonorants are .
- Fricatives are .
In verb conjugation, one consonant often comes up against the other. Various
Sandhi rules apply.
Rules:
- : When two sounds appear next to each other, the first assimilates in voicing and aspiration to the second.
- ---This applies fully to stops. Fricatives assimilate only in voicing, sonorants do not assimilate.
- Before an (future, aorist stem), velars become , labials , and dentals disappear.
- Before a (aorist passive stem), velars become , labials , and dentals become .
- Before an (perfect middle first-singular, first-plural, participle), velars become , nasal+velar becomes , labials become , dentals become , other sonorants remain the same.
There are different schemes for compensatory lengthening, depending on where it happens. The differences are in whether becomes or , and whether and become the closed values and or the open ones and .
The indicative of past
Tense s adds (conceptually, at least) a prefix /e-/. This was probably originally a separate word, meaning something like "then", added because tenses in PIE had primarily
Aspect ual meaning. The augment is added to the
Indicative of the
Aorist ,
Imperfect and
Pluperfect , but not to any of the other forms of the aorist (no other forms of the imperfect and pluperfect exist).
There are two kinds of augment in Greek, syllabic and quantitative. The syllabic augment is added to stems beginning with consonants, and simply prefixes ''e'' (stems beginning with ''r'', however, add ''er''). The quantitative augment is added to stems beginning with vowels, and involves lengthening the vowel:
- a, ā, e, ē -> ē
- i, ī -> ī
- o, ō -> ō
- u, ū -> ū
- ai -> ēi
- ei -> ēi or ei
- oi -> ōi
- au -> ēu or au
- eu -> ēu or eu
- ou -> ou
Some verbs augment irregularly; the most common variation is ''e'' -> ''ei''. The irregularity can be explained diachronically by the loss of ''s'' between vowels.
Following
Homer 's practice, the augment is sometimes not made in poetry, especially
Epic poetry.
The augment sometimes substitutes for reduplication; see below.
All forms of the perfect, pluperfect and future perfect reduplicate the initial syllable of the verb stem. There are three types of
Reduplication :
- Syllabic reduplication: Most verbs beginning with a single consonant, or a cluster of a stop with a sonorant, add a syllable consisting of the initial consonant followed by ''e''. An aspirated consonant, however, reduplicates in its unaspirated equivalent: '' Grassmann's Law ''.
- Augment: Verbs beginning with a vowel, as well as those beginning with a cluster other than those indicated previously (and occasionally for a few other verbs) reduplicate in the same fashion as the augment. This remains in all forms of the perfect, not just the indicative.
- Attic reduplication: Some verbs beginning with an ''a'', ''e'' or ''o'', followed by a sonorant (or occasionally ''d'' or ''g''), reduplicate by adding a syllable consisting of the initial vowel and following consonant, and lengthening the following vowel. Hence ''er'' -> ''erēr'', ''an'' -> ''anēn'', ''ol'' -> ''olōl'', ''ed'' -> ''edēd''. This is not actually specific to Attic Greek , despite its name; but it was generalized in Attic. This originally involved reduplicating a cluster consisting of a Laryngeal and sonorant; hence ''h₃l'' -> ''h₃leh₃l'' -> ''olōl'' with normal Greek development of laryngeals. (Forms with a stop were analogous.)
- ''lelēpha'') because it was originally ''slambanō'', with perfect ''seslēpha'', becoming ''eilēpha'' through (semi-)regular change.
Greek, like all of the older
Indo-European Languages , is highly inflected. It is highly archaic in its preservation of
Proto-Indo-European forms. In Ancient Greek
Noun s (including proper nouns) have five
Cases (
Nominative ,
Genitive ,
Dative ,
Accusative and
Vocative ), three
Genders (
Masculine ,
Feminine and
Neuter ), and three
Numbers (
Singular ,
Dual and
Plural ).
Verb s have four
Moods (
Indicative ,
Imperative ,
Subjunctive and
Optative ), three
Voices (
Active ,
Middle and
Passive ), as well as three
Persons (
First ,
Second and
Third ) and various other forms. Verbs are conjugated in four main tenses (
Present ,
Aorist ,
Perfect , and
Future ), with a full complement of moods for each main tense, although there is no future subjunctive or imperative. (The distinction of the "tenses" in moods other than the indicative is actually mostly of
Aspect .) In addition, indicative forms of the
Imperfect and
Pluperfect exist, as do infinitives and participles for all corresponding finite combinations of tense and voice, excluding the imperfect and pluperfect.
''Hóti mèn humeîs, ô ándres Athēnaîoi, pepónthate hupò tôn emôn katēgórōn, ouk oîda: eg d' oûn kaì autòs hup' autōn olígou emautoû epelathómēn, hótō pithanôs élegou. Kaítoi althés ge hōs épos eipeîn oudèn eirkasin.''
How you, men of Athens, have been affected by my accusers, I do not know; but I, for my part, almost forgot my own identity, so persuasively did they talk; and yet there is hardly a word of truth in what they have said.
Plato, Apology
