κρινεῖ - Future Liquid Active Formation

[LearningGreek]

Mounce states that to create a future liquid active indicative you have the following:

Future active tense stem + tense formative (εσ) + connecting vowel (ο/ε) + primary active personal ending.

The example he gives is μεν + εσ + μεν > μενοῦμεν.

When I try to apply this logic to κριν which is a liquid (I think since it ends in ν) it does not match what I expect.

For example κρινεῖ.

κριν + εσ + ε + ι (σ drops out) > κριν + ε + ε + ι (εε contracts to ει) > κρινει + ι > κρινειι

What am I missing? Does the double iota cause the circumflex?

Thank you for your time and help.

[Stephen Carlson]

The primary active third person singular ending is -ει (not ε + ι), so *κρινέσει > *κρινἐhει > *κρινέει > κρινεῖ.

[LearningGreek]

I though that ε was the connecting vowel and ι was the personal ending. Are these two viewed as the personal ending when combined?

What you posted makes sense I am just confused because mounce has it broken out as separate: Future active tense stem + tense formative (εσ) + connecting vowel (ο/ε) + primary active personal ending.

Thank you for your time and help.

[Stephen Carlson]

I though that ε was the connecting vowel and ι was the personal ending. Are these two viewed as the personal ending when combined?

It’s a fusion that should not really be further broken down, certainly as far as the vowel contraction rules are concerned.

Mounce’s mnemonics may be helpful for the student in memorizing the forms but they need not have any historical reality behind them. Historically, the -ει ending comes from -ε (thematic/connecting vowel) + τ (third person singular) + ι (primary/present tense). But this τ dropped out very early in the history of the Greek language.

[LearningGreek]

Thank you for the clarification. Does this same logic apply with noun case endings?

He breaks those out in a similar fashion. I.e, he says the 2nd declension masc nom sg case ending is ς not ος.

[Jonathan Robie]

Thank you for the clarification. Does this same logic apply with noun case endings?

He breaks those out in a similar fashion. I.e, he says the 2nd declension masc nom sg case ending is ς not ος.

There are different ways to model the parts of a word in a morphology. If you look at two different grammars, they may use different systems. Stephen is modeling the ending differently than Mounce does.

Regardless of the model you are using, I think it's helpful to use Wiktionary to look up the actual surface forms of a word, e.g.

κρίνω

Or:

δῶρον

When you compare grammars, you will find that one says the 2nd declension masc nom sg case ending is ς, another will say it is ος, this has to do with theory and mnemonics and different approaches to teaching. You will find similar differences elsewhere. So you either have to (1) pick one grammar and stick with it, or (2) pick two or more grammars and really understand their models and why they differ - which is much harder for a beginner.

I would suggest (1) for your level, and Mounce is fine. After all, the real goal is to get to where you can read and do a bunch of reading, understanding what you read. Knowing the model behind a particular grammar and how it compares to other models is not as important, at least not now.

And if you choose Mounce, get one of these:

https://www.christianbook.com/zondervan ... /pd/262940

Use it as you read and have questions.