Jesse Goulet wrote:For 1st aorist active and middle verbs in the indicative moods, the tense formative is "σα," but if the stem ends in a liquid consonant the tense formative is "α."
I'm just going through Mounce's explanation of the formation of 1st aorist active participles, where he says the tense formative is also "σα," but he never mentions anything about liquid stems in this section, so I'm wondering if liquid stems also use "α" here just like in their indicative form.
To make a long answer short: Yes.
Pr. Ind. A 1st sg. στέλλω; Aor Ind. A 1st sg. ἔστειλα Aor A ptc. στειλαντ-
Pr. Ind. M 1st sg. ἐντέλλομαι; Aor. Ind.M 1st. sg. ἐνετειλάμην; Aor M ptc. στειλαμεν-
The longer answer would go into the archaeology of the liquid aorists: the formative element -σα- originally linked with the root syllable of liquid verbs: e.g. ἔστελ-σα; since the -σ- falls between the liquid λ and a vowel, it becomes weak and evanesces, but the preceding ε lenthens by compensation to preserve the long syllable; the lengthening ε becomes ει.
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)