Page 1 of 1

Why doesn't the "eo" contract in phobeouai?

Posted: March 5th, 2012, 6:15 pm
by GlennDean
Hi:

I would have expected the present active indicative.1s of the verb "to fear" to be

phobovuai (i.e. phobe + o + uai ==> phobovuai since the "eo" contracts to "ov"

but for some reason the "eo" doesn't contract and the present active indicative.1s of "to fear" is listed as

phobeouai

What is the reason for time?

Thanxs!

Re: Why doesn't the "eo" contract in phobeouai?

Posted: March 5th, 2012, 10:29 pm
by Louis L Sorenson
Glenn,

I'm not sure where you got the form from. The middle (=I fear) is φοβέ-ομαι = φοβοῦμαι when contracted.
φοβέω (φέβομαι ‘flee in terror’; Hom. et al.; Wsd 17:9; Jos., Ant. 14, 456), in our lit. only pass. φοβέομαι (Hom.+; OGI 669, 59; SIG 1268 II, 17; pap, LXX, pseudepigr., Philo, Joseph., Just.; Mel., P. 98, 746 al.; Ath. 20, 2; R. 21 p. 75, 1) impf. ἐφοβούμην; 1 fut. φοβηθήσομαι; 1 aor. ἐφοβήθην (Plut., Brut. 1002 [40, 9]; M. Ant. 9, 1, 7; Jer 40:9; Jos., C. Ap. 2, 277; s. B-D-F §79).

Arndt, W., Danker, F. W., & Bauer, W. (2000). A Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament and other early Christian literature (3rd ed.) (1060). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Re: Why doesn't the "eo" contract in phobeouai?

Posted: March 5th, 2012, 11:05 pm
by GlennDean
Hi Louis:

I'm getting the form from two places:

#1: Basics of Biblical Greek by Mounce p.440 (this is 2nd Edition)

#2: The Analytical Lexicon to the Greek New Testament by Mounce p. 473

What is interesting is in both books they list the imperfect middle indicative.1s as εφοβουμην, so the εο in the imperfect has contracted to ου

Re: Why doesn't the "eo" contract in phobeouai?

Posted: March 5th, 2012, 11:14 pm
by Stephen Carlson
You should be aware that when Mounce and others list the verb in its lexical form, that lexical form is uncontracted. Since Mounce only lists the middle form of this verb, his glossary lists the lexical form as the uncontracted φοβέομαι.

You will never see the uncontracted forms in actual Koine texts. The uncontracted form is only for present the lexical form of the verb.

Stephen

Re: Why doesn't the "eo" contract in phobeouai?

Posted: March 5th, 2012, 11:21 pm
by GlennDean
Thanxs Stephen!

Re: Why doesn't the "eo" contract in phobeouai?

Posted: March 6th, 2012, 8:38 am
by Barry Hofstetter
Herodotus is a good place to find uncontracted forms. Ionic Greek, you know. But that's not Koine. :lol:

Re: Why doesn't the "eo" contract in phobeouai?

Posted: March 6th, 2012, 9:12 am
by Stephen Carlson
Barry Hofstetter wrote:Herodotus is a good place to find uncontracted forms. Ionic Greek, you know. But that's not Koine. :lol:
Reading Herodotus feels like someone took some ordinary Attic Greek and spilled a bunch of etas and other vowels into the typeset text.

Stephen

Re: Why doesn't the "eo" contract in phobeouai?

Posted: March 6th, 2012, 1:14 pm
by cwconrad
Stephen Carlson wrote:
Barry Hofstetter wrote:Herodotus is a good place to find uncontracted forms. Ionic Greek, you know. But that's not Koine. :lol:
Reading Herodotus feels like someone took some ordinary Attic Greek and spilled a bunch of etas and other vowels into the typeset text.

Stephen
Actually Ionic is much easier than Attic, so much so that there was once a professor at U. of Texas (Gareth Morgan) that regularly taught Ionic dialect in the first semester of Beginning Greek, then switched over to Attic in the second semester. The paradigms are simpler in Ionic and one can then learn the peculiar rules for treatment of long-α after ε, ι, ρ in Attic. Moreover, Herodotus is a lot of fun to read; he's one of the few Greek authors that you can start almost any place in the corpus and read with interest and pleasure. It's also a halfway house toward reading Homer. I don't know if Morgan's textbook is still available, but I had a copy at one time.