ἐκεῖνος γάρ, ὥς φησιν, οἶδε τίνα τρόπον οἱ νέοι διαφθείρονται καὶ τίνες οἱ διαφθείροντες αὐτούς.
Trial translation: For that-man, so he-says, knows how the young are being corrupted and who-are the-ones corrupting them.
I need coaching on how the interrogative and the relative work together in the following two pairs:
τίνα τρόπον οἱ
τίνες οἱ
Is this a pair of abbreviated questions, each with an appended relative clause? Or have I gone down the grammar rabbit-hole?
τίνα τρόπον is “in what way?” i.e. “how?” Adverbial acc. or acc. of respect.
τίνες is simply “who?” “who (are) the (ones) corrupting them” τίνες (εἰσὶν)
Both here introduce indirect questions. There’s no relative (that would be οἵ with accent), each οἱ is just the definite article.
Your translation is fine.
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Oh, many thanks, mwh. Overlooking that particular accent matter is what sent me down the grammar rabbit hole.
Is it weird to have a noun clause after a verb of noun without a ὅτι/ὡς, or is it assumed that the τίνα τρόπον plays that role?
With ὅτι/ὡς we’d have an indirect statement (“he knows that …”), but these are indirect questions (“he knows how … and who …”). There’s nothing weird about it.