Some of you might be interested in this discussion of the development in the Indo-European languages, including English, of those little words in Homer such as ὲπὶ that function as preverbs or adverbs or prepositions (I'm thinking of you, Paul, even though you're not Indo-European).
http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p ... ent-538265
Homeric prepositions/preverbs
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- Paul Derouda
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Re: Homeric prepositions/preverbs
Interesting indeed. On a related note, I don't remember anyone ever comparing Homeric verbs in "tmesis" with English prepositional verbs (or whatever they are called) - put up with, look forward to, do in, etc. To me it seems pretty obvious they have a common origin at least in part. Perhaps comparing them might even achieve a pedagogical end, since for some reason tmesis often seems to be particularly difficult feature for many.