Explanation of Linguistic Notation
Slashes / can appear before, after, or surrounding Greek letters. They mark boundaries of word units (namely, bases and markers). For instance, ἐ/λιπ/ες is the Greek word ἔλιπες, “you left behind,” segmented into a past time marker ἐ/, a base λιπ/, and a personal marker /ες. Letters that include / (like ἐ/, λιπ/, and /ες) are not complete words.
Throughout Reading Morphologically bases appear in blue and markers in red: ἐ/λιπ/ες. Final forms (that is, complete words) are in bold: ἔλιπες.
Slashes / around Latin letters indicate the pronunciation of nearby Greek letter(s). For instance, /elipes/ shows how ἔλιπες is pronounced.
L stands for “lengthen.” When it precedes a base that begins with a vowel, it means that you lengthen that vowel. In this environment L/ may be a past time marker (for instance, L/ἀκου/σ/α > ἤκουσα, “I heard”) or a perfect aspect marker (for instance, L/εὑρ/κ/α > ηὕρηκα, “I have found”).
Elsewhere, L means that you lengthen the previous vowel. In this environment /L marks the masculine nominative singular of nouns and adjectives (for instance, πατέρ/L > πατήρ).
The rules for how vowels lengthen can be found here [link].
Ø is the symbol for zero, or nothing. It means that the given form uses the absence of a marker as a marker. Thus, the technical name for it is “zero marker.” For instance, ἄστυ/Ø means that we make the nominative singular ἄστυ, “town,” by adding nothing to the base.
J is a symbol called yod and represents the glide /y/. It is not a Greek letter. On its own, /J/ is a progressive aspect marker. It is also found in /Jα/, a marker used to make feminine adjectives.
reading morphologically 