A Merry Christmas to you all! I’m doing a College 101 course in Greek and we’re using Hillard and Botting and Abbot and Mansfield. At the moment, we’re doing comparatives. My problem is with αληθης type adjectives. According to Abbot and Mansfield (p.50), the stem of αληθης is αληθες. Huh? Unless I am very much mistaken αληθης is an adjective of the ευγενης type the genitive of which is ευγενους . Now since I’ve grown used to deriving the stem from the genitive (is this a bad habit from my Latin course?), i sort of expect the stem of αληθης to be αληθ (αληθouς - ouς = αληθ). Clearly, I’ve gone wrong somewhere. Any help will be greatly appreciated since I cannot continue my lessons on the comparative until I sort out this stem problem.
P.S. Is there any way I can use SPionic on this forum? I’m using Greek polytonic and the input (and lack of accents) is killing me.
Now since I’ve grown used to deriving the stem from the genitive (is this a bad habit from my Latin course?), i sort of expect the stem of αληθης to be αληθ (αληθouς - ouς = αληθ).
Well, from a historical perspective, the stem really is ἀληθεσ-. However, by the time of attested Greek, a single sigma between vowels dropped out. Here’s the development:
Well, from a historical perspective, the stem really is ἀληθεσ-. However, by the time of attested Greek, a single sigma between vowels dropped out. Here’s the development:
So how am I meant to deal with adjectives the historical development of which I don’t know? I mean I have this adjective: ἀσφαλής. Going by the model of εὐγενής I am tempted to derive ἀσφαλ as the stem hence ἀσφαλότερος but I’ve got a feeling that will be incorrect. How do I go about the matter?