No, George, that won't do at all; this is something I also tried to point
out when you were endeavoring to capture the -A- of the -SA- aorist as an
alpha privative: it doesn't work that way. Generally you can tell pretty
clearly when two distinct root elements are being combined together, as in
EPEI from EPI + EI, or EPEITA from EPI + EITA; but you really ought to look
at the sections on word-formation in the grammars; there are suffixes and
infixes that DO add particular elements of meaning, like the verb additive
-SIS (originally -TIS) for "process" or the verb additive -MA(T)
(originally -MNT) for result of verbal action--BUT you're not going to find
an "if" element appended to a noun stem immediately preceding a gender/case
ending. I think it can be said with pretty great certainty that a noun in
-EIA in Greek is built upon an original stem in ES-, Ey-, or Ef- to which
the -IA has been added; then the intervocalic -S-, -y- (consonantal I) or
-f- (digamma, consonantal U) evanesces, leaving the resultant combination
of stem + IA as -EIA. But the I here belongs to -IA and the -E- derives
from the noun or verb stem; there was never an -EI- in there that could be
said to be identical with EI = "if."
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University
Summer: 1647 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/