Here you can discuss all things Ancient Greek. Use this board to ask questions about grammar, discuss learning strategies, get help with a difficult passage of Greek, and more.
I'm writing something in Greek and I'd like to know if something I'm doing is correct. Everytime I encounter a neuter plural ending in -α I use to elide this one, for example: π??βληματ ειχον (just can't figure out how to type Greek here ). Is this correct?
Look up the Greek Grammar by Smyth, pp 23-24, paragraphs 70-75 where there is a lot of discussion. To quote Smyth,
"Elision is the expulsion of a short vowel at the end of a word beginning with a vowel. An apostrophe marks the place where the vowel is elided."
I think you must be careful when using elision in the systematic and inexorable way you describe.
But Smyth §71 says:
"Elision affects only unimportant words or syllables, such as...and the final syllables of nouns, pronouns, and verbs."
The question is whether to call the α of π?οβληματα unimportant. I think the α is unimportant since there is no other possibility. Even with the α in μακ?α can only elide when its neuter plural, since the α of the feminine form is long, isn't it?
From what I can tell, the -α of the neuter plural is not graphically elided in prose, at least in the editions I have. For example, from Plato's Apology:
But it is elided in poetry, e.g. twice in the second line of the Iliad:
ἣ μυ?ί᾽ Ἀχαιοῖς ἄλγε᾽ ἔθηκε
Now I don't know how far poetic practice represents everyday speech, but I'd guess the standard thing to do would be to not indicate it in writing but to (possibly) elide the vowel in speech.
). Is this correct?