GlennDean wrote:Thanxs Carl for the info! I'll update the textbook I use with the info that the aorist active stem is *ειπ,
Glenn
I would 'amen' Carl's explanation, but for pedagogy of teaching Greek there is a more basic point.
Please remember
to use real words, and only real words, when teaching beginning Greek.
It is counterproductive to use roots and rules as the conduit into a fluent use of a language.
In this case, that means teaching words like εἰπεῖν. If Greek teachers don't understand this during the first year Greek course they will set their students backwards and make things more difficult for students to press into fluency.
And of course I must now add the caveat for the simple reason that if the above is not understood, and it is routinely misunderstood in the halls of ancient language pedagogy, a false conclusion is inevitably made. So FTR, I am 100% in favor of teaching etymology and the history of the Greek language or any language, even English. It just isn't the conduit into fluency, it is part of a secondary historical understanding of a language. It has it's rightful place in studies and training, but after a basic fluent core has started to be developed. And a historical understanding of a language is vital to research and analysis. Vital. So is fluency. Vital. But training a student to think primarily through rules slows down or even blocks fluency. And that leads to one of many pedagogical ironies: reducing a language to abstract and compact rules does not lead to faster learning or arrival at fluency and higher level reading skills.