At 4:11 PM -0600 2/13/98, Justin wrote:
I have started to study classical greek and have
noticed some differences in the vocabulary words being slightly
different (i.e. the word for sea has two tt instead of the
two ss). Did the spelling of all the words that have the
double consants tt change to ss? If yes, why
did this change?
Thanks, Justin
Attic Greek spells words like QALATTA and those verbs based
on guttural stems (e.g. PRATTW, KHRUTTW, etc.) with -TT-, while Ionic
Greek pronounced them as -SS- and represented them thus--and as it is
Ionic forms that prevailed in the wake of Alexander's victories and his
successors' colonization of the east, the Ionic forms are more common
in the Koine. That's not the whole story, but it is the story, I think,
so far as those particular forms are concerned. Ionic elements did not
prevail so generally in other areas or pronunciation and spelling,
however.
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics/Washington University
One Brookings Drive/St. Louis, MO, USA 63130/(314) 935-4018
Home: 7222 Colgate Ave./St. Louis, MO 63130/(314) 726-5649
cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu OR cconrad@yancey.main.nc.us
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/