Lesson XII: ἀνάσσω, ἁνδἀνω, ἔιρω, φέρω

[Pathawi]

Hey, all-

I've been working thru the lessons, & have taken some time out to ensure that I really know the vocab up thru Lesson XII completely. It's been helpful for me, in learning verbs' principal parts, to understand the patterns of sound changes. I know that some verbs will just be irregular, & that we might not be able to identify them as part of any pattern. But to the extent that this pattern-finding is possible, I'm trying to do it.

So, I'm stumped with ἀνάσσω, ἁνδάνω, ἔιρω, & φέρω.

I see that ἀνάσσω comes from ϝανακ-, so it makes sense that the future would be ἀνἀξω & the aorist ἤναξα. But why does the κ become σσ in the present? Does that pattern happen anywhere else in Homeric Greek?

With ἁνδάνω, the other forms drop the ν. Or the present adds it. Where does the ν go, or where does it come from?

What's with the π in the aorist of ἔιρω?

The various forms of φέρω seem to have absolutely nothing to do with one another. Is that correct? Do they come from different Proto-Indo-European roots?

Thanks for any help!

[modus.irrealis]

Hi,

I see that ἀνάσσω comes from ϝανακ-, so it makes sense that the future would be ἀνἀξω & the aorist ἤναξα. But why does the κ become σσ in the present? Does that pattern happen anywhere else in Homeric Greek?

In case you don't know, one of the most common ways of forming the present stem historically was adding -y- and then the -y- had various effects on the previous consonant, and in this case κy > σσ (Attic ττ) is a well-established sound change. It also occurs in verbs like φυλάσσω or κηρύσσω.

With ἁνδάνω, the other forms drop the ν. Or the present adds it. Where does the ν go, or where does it come from?

I'm not sure which ν you mean, but there both odd. Basically another common way to form the present stem was to infix an -ν- inside the root, but this verb also shows the additional suffix -αν- in the present. This combination is also pretty common:

μανθάνω < aorist stem μαθ-
λαμβάνω < λαβ-
λανθάνω < λαθ-
πυνθάνομαι < πυθ-

What's with the π in the aorist of ἔιρω?

These just go back to different roots, I don't think there's any connection.

The various forms of φέρω seem to have absolutely nothing to do with one another. Is that correct? Do they come from different Proto-Indo-European roots?

That's right -- these are different roots as well.

If you haven't seen it, there's a book by Sihler on Greek and Latin that I think you'll find very interesting if you want know about these sorts of questions.

[Pathawi]

Thanks!