From: clayton stirling bartholomew (c.s.bartholomew@worldnet.att.net)
Date: Tue Dec 30 1997 - 06:32:31 EST
I seldom fuss about things like this but occasionally when I see a noun from
the third declension iota, upsilon or sigma stems I look it up in Smyth to
review how these work.
The rule that James Efird (p. 80, A Grammar for NT Greek, Abingdon 1990) gives
for determining the third declension stem seems to lack something. He says
"The stem is determined by the removal of the -OS from the genitive singular
form." E.V.N. Goetchius also states that the stem of a third declension noun
can be "deduced" from the genitive singular (The Language of NT, #147 remark
#3). However the process of deduction is not spelled out very clearly.
I don't see how this works with the Upsilon, Iota or Sigma stems. The genitive
singular of BASILEUS is BASILEWS, the stem is BASILEU- which cannot be
"derived" from the genitive singular unless you throw in some extra rules
about vowel contraction.
Can anyone state a complete set of lucid rules for determining the stem of a
third declension noun which will clarify all cases including Upsilon, Iota or
Sigma stems?
This may be a tall order but I suspect that I am not the only person that gets
confused about this.
-- Clayton Stirling Bartholomew Three Tree Point P.O. Box 255 Seahurst WA 98062
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