Hansen & Quinn, Greek: An Intensive Course, Unit 5
<I need to think about this one a bit longer>
Contents:
43. Passive Voice
43.1. Present Indicative Passive
43.2. Imperfect Indicative Passive
43.3. Present Subjunctive Passive
43.4. Present Optative Passive
43.5. Present Infinitive Passive
43.6. Aorist Indicative Passive
43.7. Aorist Subjunctive Passive
43.8. Aorist Optative Passive
43.9. Aorist Infinitive Passive
43.10. Future Indicative Passive
43.11. Perfect Indicative Passive
43.12. Pluperfect Indicative Passive
43.13. Perfect Infinitive Passive
43.14. Consonant Stems
43.14.1. Perfect Indicative Passive of Consonant Stems
43.14.2. Pluperfect Indicative Passive of Consonant Stems
43.14.3. Perfect Infinitive Passive of Consonant Stems
Unit 5 Vocabulary
43. Passive Voice
The material introduced in this section seems like a lot: all the passive forms of the progressive, aorist, and perfect aspects along with the future in the indicative, subjunctive, and optative. However, with the exception of the aorist passive, which in some ways does its own thing, these new forms can be divvied relatively simply into two groups: not-past time forms of the passive and past time forms of the passive.
Broadly speaking, we do the following to form the passive of all verbs except the aorist passive and future passive:
(i) add the expected aspect marker(s) to the base,
(ii) add either not-past time personal markers or past time personal markers,
(iii) adjust the connecting vowel according to aspect and mood, and
(iv) if the verb is past time indicative, add a past time marker prefix (ἐ/ or L/).
Core passive personal markers (without connecting vowels)
| not-past time | past time |
| /μαι /μεθα /σαι /σθε /ται /νται | /μην /μεθα /σο /σθε /το /ντο |
For instance, to form the 3rd person plural present progressive indicative active of ταγ/, add /J/ to mark progressive aspect and use the expected theme vowel:
φυλακ/J/ονται > φυλάττονται
To make this progressive subjunctive, keep the progressive aspect marker and lengthen the theme vowel:
φυλακ/J/ωνται > φυλάττωνται
To make this aorist subjunctive, instead of the progressive aspect marker use the marker of the sigmatic aorist /σ/. Remember that the time of the subjunctive, no matter its mood, is present:
φυλακ/σ/ωνται > φυλάξωνται
Now let’s make it past progressive (imperfect) indicative passive:
ἐ/φυλακ/J/οντο > ἐφυλάττοντο
The optative often uses past time personal markers, though it does not actually mark past time. We discuss why below. In the meantime, here’s how we make the progressive and aorist optative passive:
φυλακ/J/οι/ντο > φυλάττοιντο
φυλακ/σ/αι/ντο > φυλάξαιντο
With the exception of the aorist indicative, the passive forms of verbs are not much more complicated than this. For specifics, first we discuss present time formations of the passive. Then we address past time formations. From there, we turn to the optative, the aorist passive, and the future passive. Lastly, we show how infinitives are formed. In so doing, we mix up the subsections presented in Hansen & Quinn. However, this way we can show better the regular patterns of the passive.
43.1 Present Indicative Passive
where does this go now that I’ve decoupled the sections???? Remember that by “present” subjunctive we in fact mean progressive subjunctive, and the subjunctive is present regardless of the aspect. Remember also that verbs in the perfect aspect are present time. (The so-called pluperfect is a past time perfect.)
Present time verbs form the same way in the passive no matter the aspect or mood. The only variable is what connecting vowel they use.
The present progressive indicative passive is marked as progressive by adding progressive aspect markers. Most verbs are thematic, meaning that they use an ε or ο connecting vowel:
| BASE | progressive aspect marker | /ομαι /ομεθα /ει or /ῃ* /εσθε /εται /ονται |
*The 2nd person singular marker is /εσαι, where σ drops because it is intervocalic and /εαι, the form found in Ionic Greek, contracts to /ει or /ῃ.
| θαφ/τ/ομεθα > θαπτόμεθα | we are being buried |
43.3. Present Subjunctive Passive
The subjunctive is marked by lengthening the theme vowel. So the progressive subjunctive passive forms like this:
| BASE | progressive aspect marker | /ωμαι /ωμεθα /ῃ* /ησθε /ηται /ωνται |
* When σ drops from /ησαι the result is /ῃ, where η and α contract, and ι goes subscript.
For instance:
| θαφ/τ/ωμεθα > θαπτώμεθα |
43.7. Aorist Subjunctive Passive
We will see later that the default marker of the aorist passive in Attic is /θη/. In the aorist subjunctive, all we see of this marker is /θ/. Because this marker marks aorist aspect and perfect voice, …….
43.11. Perfect Indicative Passive
The perfect indicative passive is athematic. That is, it uses no connecting vowel to join the base and its perfect aspect markers to the core personal marker. In fact, athematic formation is itself a marker of the perfect aspect:
| BASE with perfect aspect marker(s)* | /μαι /μεθα /σαι** /σθε /ται /νται*** |
* The perfect aspect marker /κ/ is only used in the active. So λε/λυ/κ/α > λέλυκα (active) but λε/λυ/μαι > λέλυμαι (passive).
** Intervocalic σ does not drop when it is the first letter of a base. So λε/λυ/σαι (perfect passive) > λέλυσαι, while λυ/εσαι (progressive active) > λύεαι > λύει or λύῃ.
*** The marker /νται is actually /Ṇται, which becomes /νται after a vowel and /αται after a consonant. Forms like λε/λυ/Ṇται > λέλυνται are unproblematic in that they are clearly 3rd person plural. But for speakers of Classical Attic, forms like φε/φυλακ/Ṇται > πεφύλακαται, while 3rd person plural, look like they are singular. So Attic Greek avoids the form entirely by using a perfect passive participle with a form of the verb “be” (for example πεφυλαγμένοι εἰσί—words and word forms we will learn later).
43.14.1. Perfect Indicative Passive of Consonant Stems
Many verb bases end in consonants and every personal marker begins with a consonant, so assimilation will be frequent. For the most part, though, in the context of the perfect passive we find assimilation occur primarily with stop consonants. Bases like βαλ/ will become βλα/ and avoid assimilation altogether (βε/βλα/μαι > βέβλημαι). So here is an overview of assimilation of stop consonants in the context of passive personal markers beginning with the 3rd person singular /ται. This is a lot of information, but assimilation occurs throughout Greek, so this will help make sense of many other forms we will encounter beyond the perfect passive.
τ is an unaspirated voiceless dental stop. Labial and velar stops will assimilate by deaspirating and devoicing if they aren’t that way already. So:
| πτ stays πτ βτ devoices and φτ deaspirates to become πτ | κτ stays κτ γτ devoices and χτ deaspirates to become κτ |
Thus:
| βε/βλαβ/ται > βέβλαπται |
| τε/ταγ/ται > τέτακται |
| θε/θαφ/ται > θέθαπται > τέθαπται |
When a dental combines with another dental, σ is inserted between them. It is a universal rule that dental stops drop before σ. Thus:
| πε/πειθ/ται > πέπειθσται > πέπεισται* |
* We will see later that the base of this verb is actually πιθ/.
As a result, it appears that the first dental in a cluster of dental stops becomes σ.
Labial stops (π, β, φ) combine with the σ of the 2nd person singular marker /σαι to create ψ, and velar stops (κ, γ, χ) combine to create ξ:
| βε/βλαβ/σαι > βέβλαψαι |
| τε/ταγ/σαι > τέταξαι |
| θε/θαφ/σαι > θέθαψαι > τέθαψαι |
Dental stops (τ, δ, θ) drop before σ:
| πε/πειθ/σαι > πέπεισαι |
The 2nd person plural /σθε also begins with σ. Again, dental stops (τ, δ, θ) drop before σ. However, to avoid the difficult cluster ψθ and ξθ that should result from bases in labial stops (π, β, φ) and velar stops (κ, γ, χ), σ drops, and the stop aspirates before θ:
| πε/πειθ/σθε > πέπεισθε |
| πε/πεμπ/σθε > πέπεμφθε |
| φε/φυλακ/σθε > πεφύλαχθε |
As for the 1st person singular /μαι and 1st person plural /μεθα, μ is a voiced labial nasal consonant. Labial stops (π, β, φ) fully assimilate before μ:
| βε/βλαβ/μαι > βέβλαμμαι | βε/βλαβ/μεθα > βεβλάμμεθα |
Velar stops (κ, γ, χ) become the voiced velar nasal sound called angma, represented phonetically with /ŋ/, pronounced like English ng (as in “singing“), and written with γ in Greek (see ἄγγελος):
| φε/φυλακ/μαι > πεφύλαγμαι | φε/φυλακ/μεθα > πεφυλάγμεθα |
Bases that end in dental stops (τ, δ, θ) look like they end in σ. Recall 3rd singular πέπεισται and 2nd singular πέπεισαι. So speakers regularized the paradigm and used σ also before μ:
| πε/πειθ/μαι > πέπεισμαι | πε/πειθ/μεθα > πεπείσμεθα |
As for the 3rd plural, recall that speakers of Attic Greek did not like forms like πε/πειθ/Ṇται > πεπείθαται, so they used a participle with the verb “be” that we will learn later.
…
Vocabulary
The first column (left) lists the base of nouns, adjectives, verbs, and adverbs. Words that do not decline, like prepositions and conjunctions, have no base. When the meaning of a word (right) differs from that in the book, it is because the book’s definition is outdated.
| ἀργυρο/ | ἄργυρος, ἀργύρου, ὁ | silver |
| ἀργύριο/ | ἀργύριον, ἀργυρίου, τό | small coin, money |
| ἀρχ/ | ἄρχω, ἄρξω, ἦρξα, ἦρχα, ἦργμαι, ἤρχθην | rule, have command of |
| βλαβ/ | βλάπτω, βλάψω, ἔβλαψα, βέβλαφα, βέβλαμμαι, ἐβάβην or ἐβλάφην | hurt, harm |
| γά/ | γῆ, γῆς, ἡ | earth, land |
| διδάσκαλο/ | διδάσκαλος, διδασκάλου, ὁ | teacher |
| δόξα/ | δόξα, δόξης, ἡ | expectation, belief, reputation |
| θάνατο/ | θάνατος, θανάτου, ὁ | death |
| ἀθάνατο/ | ἀθάνατος, ἀθάνατον | deathless, immortal |
| ἱερό/ | ἱερός, ἱερά, ἱερόν | holy, sacred |
| ἱερόν, ἱεροῦ, τό | shrine, sacrificial offering | |
| ἱκανό/ | ἱκανός, ἱκανή, ἱκανόν | sufficient, capable |
| ἵππο/ | ἵππος, ἵππου, ἡ or ὁ | horse |
| κίνδυνο/ | κίνδυνος, κινδύνου, ὁ | danger |
| λίθο/ | λίθος, λίθου, ὁ | stone |
| μακρό/ | μακρός, μακρά, μακρόν | tall, long |
| μικρό/ | μικρός, μικρά, μικρόν | small, little, short |
| πεδίο/ | πεδίον, πεδίου, τό | plain |
| πιθ/ | πείθω, πείσω, ἔπεισα, πέπεικα, πέπεισμαι, ἐπείσθην (in all forms of the verb presented here, the base πιθ/ appears as e-grade πειθ-) | persuade |
| πολέμιο/ | πολέμιος, πολεμία, πολέμιον | hostile |
| πραγ/ | πράττω, πράξω, ἔπραξα, πέπραχα or πέπραγα, πέπραγμαι, ἐπράχθην | do |
| πρώτο/ | πρῶτος, πρώτη, πρῶτον | first |
| ὑπό | under; with gen. it can mean “by” expressing agent | |
| φόβο/ | φόβος, φόβου, ὁ | fear |
| φοβερό/ | φοβερός, φοβερά, φοβερόν | fearful |
reading morphologically 