JJW Paragraphs 5-8

[booyah]

Hi all!

Can somebody explain what these terms mean? The book just tells me which Greek letters belong to each category, but it does not explain what the terms mean.

1. semivowels
2. liquids
3. sibilants
4. mutes
5. labial
6. palatal
7. lingual

Any help is much appreciated!

[chrisb]

Pages 9 and 10 of Goodwin's Greek Grammar (available on Textkit!!) have a decent explanation of the words you have cited.

The words 'labial, palatal and lingual' refer to the part of the mouth which is used to pronounce a letter. Thus [face=SPIonic][/face]p b f m[face=Arial][/face] are labials because the lips are used to produce the letters. Goodwin's divisions are:

labials [face=SPIonic][/face]p, b, f, m[face=Arial][/face]
palatals [face=SPIonic][/face]k, g, x[face=Arial][/face]
linguals [face=SPIonic][/face]t, d, q, s, l, n, r[face=Arial][/face]

Another way of classifying consonants is to divide them into semivowels and mutes. The semivowels are [face=SPIonic][/face]l, m, n, r, s, [face=Arial][/face] and nasal [face=SPIonic][/face]g[face=Arial][/face].
Of these, [face=SPIonic][/face]l, m, n, r [face=Arial][/face]are liquids,
[face=SPIonic][/face]m, n, [face=Arial][/face] and nasal [face=SPIonic][/face]g [face=Arial][/face]are nasals,
[face=SPIonic][/face]s[face=Arial][/face] is a spirant or sibilant.

The mutes are of 3 orders:
smooth mutes: [face=SPIonic][/face]p k t[face=Arial][/face]
middle mutes: [face=SPIonic][/face]b g d[face=Arial][/face]
rough mutes: [face=SPIonic][/face]f x q [face=Arial][/face]

Hope this goes some way to explaining!

Chrisb

[chrisb]

I've just looked at my reply to you, and I see that I have failed to get SPIonic to work! The letter q stands for theta, x for chi and f for phi.
Sorry!

Chrisb

[booyah]

thanks chrisb for your recommendation. goodwin's book helped out a lot!

[Jeff Tirey]

I agree that it's a good idea to take a look at Goodwin's Greek Grammar when you need further clarification.

This is no error on White's part - his First Greek Book is excellent. But it was written in the context of classroom use with an instructor. So White's FGB is at times a bit thin because he assumes the teacher will provide additional clarification.

good luck,
jeff