>While preparing lessons for "Little Greek 101", I realized that I have some
>questions about movable nu and the iota subscript:
>
>Re: Movable Nu
>
>In the UBS 3rd, I think that most of the present active forms of verbs do
>not omit the nu. Does anybody know if there are present active forms that do
>omit the nu? Someone suggested that older editions tend to omit the nu, and
>newer editions tend to insert it. Is this true?
In the UBS4, the 3rd Pl appears without the nu in the following passages;
Matt. 18:10; Luke 16:29 (in a quote); John 10:14 (different from 3rd ed.);
Acts 17:7;
Acts 19:38; and Rev. 9:4. There are a few instances (at least 3) where the
pres. act ptc in the dative pl. occurs without the nu. You are right tho
that in the vast majority of occurances with the 3rd pl. and dat. pl ptc.
the nu appears.
There are a lot of differences here in the various editions of the GNT.
The TR tends to have far more instances of the nu being absent. There
developed in the 12th and 13th centuries a rule concerning the use of the
nu movable. When a verb form with SI, SE, KE came before a word that
started with a consonant, the nu was left off. When it came before a word
that began with a vowel the nu was included. An interesting ms that shows
that development is min. 1346. It was written near the end of the 10th
cent, but corrected in the 13th century closer to the Text behind the TR.
In hundreds of instances the corrector blotted out the nu before a word
that started with a consonant.
>
>Is this subscript used only for:
>
>1. the last syllable of a word
>2. the vowels O, A, and W
>3. dative case
>
The subscript is used under the A, H, and W, not the O. It does occur in
the middle of some words like ZWiOGONEW. It is used for ending of the
dative sing. of first and second declension nouns, pronouns, adjectives,
and participles.
The formation of Ai, Hi, Wi are referred to as improper dipthongs which
results from monophthongization. See any morphology.
Grace,
Carlton Winbery
Fogleman Professor of Religion
Louisiana College
Pineville, LA 71359
winberyc@popalex1.linknet.net
winbery@andria.lacollege.edu