hima-), Gr. (δυσ)–χιμο–ς; I.E. *stigh- (Skt. stigh-), Gr. στίχες;
I.E. gṷhen- (Skt. han-), Gr. θείνω (probably), φόνος. The palatal
and velar series cannot be distinguished in Greek; for the differences
between them resort must be had to languages of the satem-group,
such as Sanskrit, Zend or Slavonic, where the palatals appear
as sibilants (see Indo-European Languages). The labio-velar
series present a great variety of forms in the different Greek dialects,
and in the same dialect before different sounds. Thus in Attic before
o vowels, nasals and liquids, the series appears as π, β, φ; before e
and i vowels as τ, β (δ), θ; in combination with u, which led to loss
of the ṷ by dissimilation, κ, γ, χ. Thus ἕπομαι corresponds to the
Latin sequo-r, apart from the ending; βοῦς to Latin bos (borrowed
from Sabine), English cow; φόνος “slaughter,” ἕπεφνον, old Irish
gonim, “I wound.” Parallel to these forms with p are forms in the
Italic languages except Latin and Faliscan, and in the Cymric
group of the Celtic languages. The dental forms τ, δ, θ stand by
themselves. Thus τις (from the same root as ποῦ, ποῖ, πόθεν, etc.)
is parallel to the Latin quis, the Oscan pis, old Irish cía, Welsh pwy,
“who?” “what?”; Attic τέτταρες, Ionic τέσσερες “four” is
parallel to Latin quattuor, Oscan πετορα, old Irish cethir, old Welsh
petguar; τίσις is from the same root as ποινή. For the voiced
sound, β is much more common than δ before e and i sounds; thus
βίος “life,” from the same root as Skt. jīvas, Latin vīvus; βιός
“bowstring,” Skt. jyā, &c. In Arcado-Cyprian and Aeolic, π and β
often precede e and i sounds. Thus parallel to Attic τέτταρες
Lesbian has πέσσυρες, Homer πίσυρες, Boeotian πέτταρες; Thessalian
βέλλομαι, Boeotian βείλομαι alongside of Attic βούλομαι,
Lesbian βόλλομαι, Doric βώλομαι and also δήλομαι. In Arcadian
and Cyprian the form corresponding to τις was σις, in Thessalian
κις, where the labialization was lost (see the article on Q).
A great variety of changes in the stopped consonants arose in combination with other sounds, espey ḭ (a semivowel of the nature of English y), ṷ (w) and s; -τḭ-, -θḭ- became first -σσ- and later -σ- in Attic Greek, -ττ- in Boeotian (the precise pronunciation of -σσ- and -ττ- is uncertain): Attic ὁ-πόσος, earlier ὁ-πόσσος, Boeotian ὁ-πόττος, from the same stem as the Latin quot, quotiens; Homeric μέσσος, Attic μέσος from *μεθιος, Latin medius; -κḭ-, -χḭ- became -σσ-, Attic -ττ-: πίσσα “pitch,” Attic πίττα from *πίκḭα, cp. Latin pix, picis, ἐλάσσων, Attic ἐλάττων comparative to ἐλαχύς. δḭ and γḭ became ζ: Ζεύς (Skt. Dyāuṣ) ἐλπίζω from ἐλπίς, stem ἐλπιδ- “hope,” μαστίζω from μάστιξ, stem μαστῑγ- “lash.”
(d) The sound ṷ was represented in the Greek alphabet by ϝ, the “digamma,” but in Attic and Ionic the sound was lost very early. In Aeolic, particularly Boeotian and Lesbian, it was persistent, and so also in many Doric dialects, especially at the beginning of words. When the Ionic alphabet was adopted by districts which had retained ϝ, it was represented by β: βρόδον Aeolic for ῥόδον, i.e. ϝρόδον. In Attic it disappeared, leaving no trace; in Ionic it lengthened the preceding syllable; thus in Homer ὑποδείσας is scanned with ο long because the root of the verb contained ϝ: δϝει-. Attic has ξένος, but Ionic ξεῖνος for ξένϝος. Its combination with τ became -σσ-, Attic and Boeotian -ττ-, in τέσσερες, τέτταρες, πέτταρες for I.E. gṷetu-.
But the most effective of all elements in changing the appearance of Greek words was the sound s. Before vowels at the beginning, or between vowels in the middle of words, it passed into an h sound, the “rough breathing.” Thus ἑπτά is the same word as the Latin septem, English seven; ἅλ-ς has the same stem as the Latin sal, English sal-t; εὕω for εὐhω is the same as the Latin uro (*eusô). Combined with i or ṷ also it passes into h; ὑμήν, Skt. syūman, “band”; ἡδύς, Doric ἆδύς, Latin suā(d)vis, English sweet; cp. οἴκοιο for *ϝοικοḭο, νηός, Lesbian ναῦος “temple,” through ναϝός from *νασϝο-ς connected with ναίω “dwell.” Before nasals and liquids s was assimilated: μει-δάω, Latin mi-ru-s, English smile; νίφα, Latin nivem, English snow; λήγω, Latin laxus, English slack; ῥέω from *sreu-ō of the same origin as English stream (where t is a later insertion), imperfect ἔῤῥεον for *esreṷom; cp. also φιλομμείδης, ἀγάννιφος, ἄλληκτος.
After nasals s is assimilated except finally; when assimilated, in all dialects except Aeolic the previous syllable is lengthened if not already long: Attic ἔνειμα, ἔμεινα for the first aorist *enemsa, *emensa; but τόνς, τάνς, &c., of the accusative pl. either remained or became in Aeolic τοίς, ταίς, in Ionic and Attic τούς, τάς, in Doric τώς, τάς; cp. τιθείς for *τιθέντς, βάς for *βάντς, είς “one” for *sem-s, then by analogy of the neuter *sens. Assimilation of σ to preceding ρ and λ is a matter of dialect: Ionic θαρσέω, but Attic θαρρῶ, and so also the Doric of Thera: ἔκελσα, but ἔστειλα for *ἔστελσα. With nasals ḭ affected the previous syllable: τεκταίνω (*τεκτṋḭω), where ṋ is the nasal of the stem τέκτων, itself forming a syllable (see the article N for these so-called sonant nasals). Before ḭ original m becomes n; hence βαίνω with n, though from the same root as English come. Original ḭ does not survive in Greek, but is represented by the aspirate at the beginning of words, ἁγνός = Skt. yajnas; medially after consonants it disappears, affecting the preceding consonant or syllable where a consonant precedes; between vowels it disappears. A sound of the same kind is indicated in Cyprian and some other dialects as a glide or transition sound between two vowels.
(e) The most remarkable feature in the treatment of the nasals is that when n or m forms a syllable by itself its consonant character disappears altogether and it is represented by the vowel α only: τατός, Latin tentus, α- negative particle, Latin in, English un; ἁ-πλόος has the same prefix as the Latin sim-plex (sṃ). The liquids in similar cases show λα or αλ and ρα or αρ: τέ-τλα-μεν, πέ-παλται; ἔδρακον, θρασύς, θάρσος.
The ends of words were modified in appearance by the loss of all stop-consonants and the change of final m to n, ἔδειξε, Latin dixit; ζυγόν, Latin iugum.
Accent.—The vowel system of Greek has been so well preserved because it shows till late times very little in the way of stress accent. As in early Sanskrit the accent was predominantly a pitch accent (see Accent).
Noun System.—The I.E. noun had three numbers, but the dual was limited to pairs, the two hands, the two horses in the chariot, and was so little in use that the original form of the oblique cases cannot be restored with certainty. Ionic has no dual. The I.E. noun had the following cases: Nominative, Accusative, Genitive, Ablative, Instrumental, Locative and Dative. The vocative was not properly a case, because it usually stands outside the syntactical construction of the sentence; when a distinctive form appears, it is the bare stem, and there is no form (separate from the nominative) for the plural. Greek has confused genitive and ablative (the distinction between them seems to have been derived from the pronouns), except for the solitary ϝοίκω = οἴκοθεν in an inscription of Delphi. The instrumental, locative and dative are mixed in one case, partly for phonetic, partly for syntactical reasons. In Arcadian, Elean, Boeotian, and later widely in N. Greece, the locative -οι is used for the dative. The masculine ā-stems make the nom. in most dialects in -ᾱς. The genitive is in -ᾱο (with ο borrowed from the o-stems), which remains in Homer and Boeotian, appears in Arcado-Cyprian as -αυ, and with metathesis of quantity -εω in Ionic. The Attic form in -ου is borrowed directly from the o-stems. In the plural the ᾱ and -o stems follow the article in making their nominatives in -αι and -οι instead of the original -ās and -ōs. The neuter plural was in origin a collective singular, and for this reason takes a singular verb; the plural of ζυγόν “yoke” was originally *iugā, and declined like any other -ā stem. But through the influence of the masculine and feminine forms the neuter took the same oblique cases, and like its own singular made the accusative the same as the nominative. In the plural of -ā and -ō stems, the locative in -αισι, -οισι was long kept apart from the instrumental-dative form in -αις, -οις.
The Verb System.—The verb system of Greek is more complete than that of any of the other I.E. languages. Its only rival, the early Vedic verb system, is already in decay when history begins, and when the classical period of Sanskrit arrives the moods have broken down, and the aorist, perfect, and imperfect tenses are syntactically confused. Throughout the Greek classical period the moods are maintained, but in the period of the κοινή the optative occurs less and less and finally disappears. The original I.E. had two voices, an active and a middle, and to these Greek has added a third, the passive, distinguished from the middle in many verbs by separate forms for the future and aorist, made with a syllable -θη-, τιμηθήσομαι, ἐτιμήθην, though in this instance, τιμήσομαι, the future middle, is often used with a passive sense. Other forms which Greek has added to the original system are the pluperfect—in form a past of the perfect stem with aorist endings. It merely expressed the perfect action in past time, and, except as derived from the context, did not possess the notion of relative time (past at a time already past), which attaches to the Latin forms with the same name. The future optative was also a new formation, betraying its origin in the fact that it is almost entirely limited to Oratio Obliqua. The aorist imperatives were also new; the history of some of them, as the second sing. act. παῦσον, is not very clear. The whole verb system is affected by the distinction between -ō and -mi verbs; the former or thematic verbs have a so-called “thematic vowel” between the root and the personal suffix, while the -mi verbs attach the suffixes directly to the root. The distinction is really one between monosyllabic and disyllabic roots. The history of the personal endings is not altogether clear; the -ō verbs have in the present forms for the 2nd and 3rd person in -εις and -ει, which are not yet elucidated. In the middle, Greek does not entirely agree with Sanskrit in its personal endings, and the original forms cannot all be restored with certainty. The endings of the primary tenses differed from those of the secondary, but there has been a certain amount of confusion between them.
The syntax of the verb is founded on the original I.E. distinction of the verb forms, not by time (tense), but by forms of action, progressive action (present and imperfect), consummated action (aorist), state arising from action, emphatic or repeated action (perfect). For the details of this see Indo-European Languages.
Bibliography.—(i.) A grammar of Greek, which will deal fully with the whole material of the language, is at present a desideratum, and is hardly possible so long as new dialect material is being constantly added and while comparatively so little has been done on the syntax of the dialects. The greatest collection of material is to be found in the new edition of Kühner’s Griechische Grammatik, Laut- und Formenlehre, by Blass (2 vols., 1890–1892); Syntax, by Gerth (2 vols., 1896, 1900). Blass’s part is useful only for material, the explanations being entirely antiquated. The only full historical account of the language (sounds, forms and syntax) at present in existence is K. Brugmann’s Griechische Grammatik (3rd ed., 1900).
