The Principles of Greek Grammar

350 Pages·29.066 MB·Greek-English

by  Bullions P.

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REESE LIBRARY
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PRINCIPLES
OF
GREEK
GRAMMAR;
COMPRISING THE SUBSTANCE OF THE MOST APPROVED
GREEK GRAMMARS EXTANT.
FOR THE
USB OF SCHOOLS AND COLLE*
BY REV. PETER BULLIONS, D. D.,
LATE PROFESSOR OP LANGUAGES IN THE ALBANY ACADEMY AUTHOROPTHE SERIES
OFGRAMMARS, GREEK, LATIN', AND ENGLISH, ON; THESAME
PLAN; AGREEK READER, ETC. ETC.
TWENTY- IMPROVED.
NEW TOEK:
PRATT, WOODFORD, FARMER & BRACE,
NO. 4 CORTLANDT STREET.
1854.
ENTERED,accordingtoActofCongress,in the year onethousand cignthundredand
fifty-three, by PETER BULLIONS, in the Clerk's office oftheDistrict Court
oftheUnitedStatesfortheNorthernDistrictofNew-York.
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PREFACE.
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THIS work has now been so long before the public, and is so
well known, that a detailed account of it is unnecessary. It is
sufficient to say,that theobjectintended tobeaccomplishedwas,
to provide a comprehensive manual of Greek Grammar, adapted
to the use of younger as well as of more advanced students in
our schools and colleges.
Time and experience have only strengthenedthe conviction,
long entertained, that no system ofGrammar will answer a good
purpose, for those who pursue this study at an early age, which
does not present the leading facts and principles in such a way
as to be easily committed to memory, and so to be always ready
for immediate application when necessary. This principle has
been steadily kept in view in preparing the following work, as
well as the othersbelongingto this series. The leading and fun-
damental principles have been reduced to definitions and rules,
brief, and easy to be committed to memory, and are rendered
comprehensive by being printed in large type; while, at the
same time,copious illustrations ofthese principles, and ofthe ex-
ceptions and varieties ofusage underthem, with every thing im-
portant to aid the advanced student, have been inserted in their
place in smaller type, in the form of Observations and Notes,
all ofwhich are numbered for the sake ofeasy reference.
When the leading parts of Grammar are first actually com-
mitted to memory, and then constantly applied in the inflection
of words, and in analyzing their forms, they soon become so
thoroughly understood and fixed in the memory as hardly ever
to be effaced, and to be always ready afterwards to accountfor
every form which words, in theirnumerous changes,assume,and
to solve every difficultyAcaused by these changes almost without
an'effort ofthought. student,though young, ifthus exercised
butfor one yearor two,has an immense advantage,in the future
prosecution ofhis studies, overthose who have not laid the foun-
dation oftheir success in athorough course ofdrilling.
In the preface to the first edition, a full statement was given
ofthe principal sources from which the materials here collected
were drawn, and which need not here be repeated. Suffice itto
PREFACE.
say, the authorhas not hesitated to avail himself of every assist-
ance within his reach, and to gather from every quarter, espe-
cially from the ample stores of German Philologists, whatever
appeared suited to his design. The labor of condensing and
arranging, and, to borrow a term from the printers' vocabulary,
justifyingthe several partswithdue regard to harmonyand pro-
portion, into one compact whole, has been very great.
I would beg leave, in this place, to call the attention of stu-
dents and ofteachers, who have not yet examined the subject, to
the method of analyzing and forming the tenses of the verb
which is here exhibited. No part ofGreek Grammarhas hither-
to proved so puzzling and harassing to the pupil as this. For
want of understanding the few simple principles, on which the
numerous changes in the form of the verb depend, they appear
to him intricate, arbitrary, and incomprehensible, to such a de-
gree as to render his prospect of fully mastering them almost
hopeless. That this is owing, in agreat measure, to the method
of forming the different tenses by deriving one/tense from
another to which it has some real or,fancied resemblance/ap-
pearsto me beyond a doubt. As there is nofoundation in truth
tor this mode of formation, so almost every writer, following
imagination as his guide, has proposed a different theory upon
the subject. One, for example, forms the perfect passive from its
own future. Another, with equal ingenuity, forms the future
from its own perfect, through the medium ofthe first aorist pas-
sive! Another supposes he has simplified the whole matter by
deriving every tense in the passive voice from its corresponding
tense in the active voice, by making the simple and natural
change of -ipoo into -(jpx^cro^tca, -co into -^//cro^cc, -tya into
-cp&qv, -%a into -#$^, -<jp# into -[i^ai, -%a into -y^a, and -xcc
into -pai,sometimes into -cpai. Another still, in order to arrive,
for example, at the first aorist passive, starts with the present
active, and, by a succession of stages, arrives at the end of his
journey, thus, crr^s'gpco, earQetya, sGTQeqa, eGTQappai,, earQanrai,
iGTQdy&rjv; and when he gets there, he finds he has missed
his way after all, for the first aoristofthe verb is not IcvQcicpdrjv
but latQSty&tjv; and to bring him thither, another rule has to be
ivinzv.,en"teVdernbesarwlhyicahs cdhaarnkgeasstohfetrhoeadfuthuerehaisntoaloreoafdythteravpeelrlfeedct;
active, and into a of the perfect passive, take s again in the first
aorist; as, ecrQaTtrcu, fiCT^'g^?." What can be more perplex-
ing and arbitrary than such a process? Itis fortunate for the
rising generation that such a system is beginning to pass awav,
PREFACE. V
and to Professor Theirsch,ofGermany,must we regard ourselves
as chiefly indebted for the deliverance. Throwing aside the
complicated systems of rules and exceptions which such theories
had rendered necessary,he directs to the more simple and philo-
sophical method of observing and stating the fact, that the root
or stem runs unchanged, or but slightly so, through the whole
verb; and that one part differs from-another inform, only in the
part prefixed and addedto the stem, and that in all verbs these
parts are nearlythe same. Instead, therefore, of forming one
tense from another by a tedious and complicated process, every
tense is formed at once immediately from its root by simply an-
nexing the proper tense-ending,and prefixing theaugment in the
tenses that require it. Thus, for the sake ofcomparison, instead
ofthe laborious and clumsy process above; in order to form the
1 aor. passive of crr^xjpco, all that is necessary is to annex the
aorist tense-ending -ttyi> to the root GtQzy, prefixing the aug-
ment, and it is done, you have eGTQs'y&qv at once; and so it is
with every other tense.
The whole system offorming thetenses fromthe root,accord-
ing to this method, is given in a brief space ( 93); and all its
modifications, as applied to the different classes of mute, pure,
and liquid verbs, occupy only about three pages. By forming
the tenses in this way, the Greek verb will be found a simple,
regular, and beautiful structure, as all that belongs to the lan-
guage is. And I hesitate not again to say,,after many years'
further experience, and after repeated examinations of other the-
ories,thatinmy opinion"this method, for beauty,simplicity, and
philosophical accuracy, greatly surpasses every other system of
analysis; and that a more minute, familiar, and certain know-
ledge ofthe Greek verb can be obtained, with much more ease,
and in a shorter time, by studying it in this way than in any
other."
REVISED EDITION.
New plates for this workhavingbecomenecessary, the oppor-
tunitythus offered has beenembraced, tocorrectsuch errors and
inaccuracies as had been observed, to make such additions and
improvementsasweredeemedimportant, to add to the value and
completeness of the work, and to render it still more worthy of
the public favor. In afewinstances, the mode ofexpression has
been slightly changed, partly to render it more accurate, and
partly to make the Series of Grammarsstill more uniform. For
VI PREFACE.
this reason, also, a few changes have been made in the arrange-
ment of the matter but none of these are of such a nature or
;
extent as to alter the character of the book, or prevent its being
used in the same class with the former editions. These changes
are chiefly the following: The general rules for the accents have
been added to 5-1, and the special rules for each declension,
and for verbs, have been transferred from 209 to their respec-
tive declensions, &c., in order to be studied in their place; and
the rules for contractions, in the first and second declensions,
have been transferred to these declensions respectively; so that
all that belongs to each declension will be found in its proper
place under that declension. The analysis of the terminations
ofverbs, formerlyin the Appendix, has been added to 91 ; and
the table ofcontract verbs, also in theAppendix,has been placed
after the Paradigm of the Verb, pp. 136, 137. The sections on
Numerals have been placed before the sections on the Compari-
son of Adjectives, in accordance with the arrangement in the
English and the Latin Grammar. And lastly, the section on
theAnalysis ofSentences hasbeen enlarged,andtransferredfrom
the Appendix to its place immediately after the Syntax. By
these changes of arrangement, the several articles affected by
them have been rendered more compact and complete and the
;
matter belonging to them, being brought together, is less scat-
tered than before. As a consequence ofthis, however, the pages
in this edition do not correspond to those informereditions and
;
also the section numbersfrom 18 to 41 ofthe former edition,
and from 51 to 59, have been changed, while the matter in
eachsectionremainsthesameas before. In order toobviateany
difficulty from this cause in the way of reference, a list of these
sections, indicating the change ofnumber, is given on p. xii.
Thus have the Grammars belonging to this series, viz., the
Analytical and Practical Grammarofthe English Language, the
PrinciplesofLatin Grammar,and the Principles ofGreekGram-
mar,been thoroughly revised,and, it is hoped,greatlyimproved;
greater similarity and uniformity have been effected both in ex-
pression and arrangement, the references from one work to
another, for explanation and comparison, have been greatly in-
creased in number, and in all, a running series ofnumbers, from
beginning to end, for the convenience of reference, has been in-
troduced. No labor or expense has been spared to render this
whole series ofelementary books unique, practical, accurate, and
comprehensive. Each work, though connected with the others
as a series, is complete in itself, and being equally remote from