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This blog is intended to assist readers in learning koine (New Testament) Greek. Welcome!

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Fill in the missing letter





testing one two three
testing one two three
testing one two three

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Whither goest, blog mou?

Despite an overwhelming response from my legions of fans all over the world . . . .

I need to make some changes in this blog. I'm thinking of making it a general blog for both koine and modern Greek. Possibly a place, among other things, to link to my byki lists, etc.

Stay tuned! In the meantime, χαίρετε! Ευγενία

Saturday, February 21, 2009

Byki vocabulary list flashcards!

I have discovered a great new website: www.byki.com

This website allows you to download and use a flashcard program for various languages, including New Testament Greek.

And what's even better: the flashcards come with sound, and the words are pronounced using a modern Greek pronunciation.

Immediately below I have posted a blog which will give you an idea of how the flashcards work.

Χαίρετε!

Byki vocabulary list 2

Monday, February 16, 2009

τις, τί : not quite the same as τίς, τί



This is the paradigm for the Greek word meaning 'someone,' 'anyone', 'a certain one'


or


'something,' 'anything,' 'a certain thing', etc.


Notice again that the masculine and feminine forms are identical; they are both included only to make this clear.





Notice also a possible ambiguity: the masculine accusative singular is the same form as the neuter nominative/accusative plural.

The monosyllabic forms do not have an accent; the disyllabic forms have a placeholder accent only, on the second syllable. A placeholder accent indicates that these forms are enclitics, and will only receive an accent in use as the rules of accentuation require.

The accent is necessary to distinguish between τίς, τί and τις, τι. If there is an accent on the first or only syllable, the word is the former, and means 'who?', 'what?', 'why?', etc. Otherwise, the word is τις, τι.

Sunday, February 1, 2009

The interrogative pronoun τίς, τί

The paradigm for τίς, τί is as follows:

(The paradigm is in the usual order: masculine, feminine, and neuter, reading across; nominative, genitive, dative, and accusative cases reading down; the plural forms are listed below the singular forms.)


Notice that the masculine and feminine forms are identical; this is why the word is listed as τίς, τί instead of τίς, τίς, τί.


Notice also that each word has an accent, and that the accent on the two-syllable forms is on the first syllable.

The endings of τίς, τί follow, more or less, the endings of third declension nouns.









τίς, τί is an interrogative pronoun; that is, it introduces a question. The meaning is something like: who? which? what?


E.g., τίς λέγει; Who is speaking?

τί βλέπει; What is he/she saying?


The neuter singular form, τί, is also often used to mean 'why?'

τί λέγει ταύτα; Why is he/she saying these things?


τίς, τί must be distinguished from τις, τι. More on that in the next post.