probably raised to by the fourth century BC.
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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 .
See Also: Ancient Greek grammar
Greek, like all of the older , Future and Imperfect tenses are Imperfective in Aspect ; the Aorist Tense ( Perfective aspect); a Present-perfect , Pluperfect and Future Perfect (all with Perfect Aspect ). Most tenses display all four moods and three voices, although there is no future subjunctive or imperative. There are infinitives and participles corresponding to the finite combinations of tense, aspect and voice.
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.
Almost all forms of the perfect, pluperfect and future perfect reduplicate the initial syllable of the verb stem. (Note that a few irregular forms of perfect do not reduplicate, whereas a handful of irregular aorists reduplicate.) 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.
Reduplication is also visible in the present tense stems of certain verbs. These stems add a syllable consisting of the root's initial consonant followed by ''i''. A nasal consonant appears after the reduplication in some verbs.Palmer, Leonard. (1996). ''The Greek Language'' (p. 262). Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press.
See Also: Greek orthography
Ancient Greek was written in the Greek Alphabet , with some variation among dialects. Early texts are written in Boustrephedon style, but left-to-right became standard during the classic period. Modern editions of Ancient Greek texts are usually written with Accents And Breathing Marks , Interword Spacing , modern Punctuation , and sometimes Mixed Case , but these were all introduced later.
The following polytonic Greek text is from the Apology by Plato :
:
Transliterated into the Latin alphabet using a modern version of the Erasmian Scheme :
Hóti mèn humeîs, ô ándres Athēnaîoi, pepónthate hupò tôn emôn katēgórōn, ouk oîda: eg d' oûn kaì autòs hup' autōn olígou emautoû epelathómēn, hoútō pithanôs élegon. Kaítoi alēthés ge hōs épos eipeîn oudèn eirkasin.
Translated into English:
:Whether 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.
