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THE MODAL PARTICLE IN GREEK

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 June 2016

Stephen Colvin
Stephen Colvin*
Affiliation:
University College, London
*
*E-mail: s.colvin@ucl.ac.uk
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Abstract

Five forms of the modal particle are attested in ancient Greek (ἄν, κε, κεν, κᾱ, and κ’). This article argues that ἄν is an inherited particle, and that the k-forms were the result of reanalysis of prevocalic οὐκ and εἰκ (i.e. εἰκ was reanalysed as εἰ κ’), supported by the vestiges of an old topicalising/conditional force of the IE particle *kwe (which appears elsewhere in Greek as connective τε). The attested forms in Greek grew out of *kwe in contexts where an adjacent u caused the labiovelar *kw > k (West Greek κᾱ was influenced by indefinite *kwā). The form κεν is a creation of epic diction.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Cambridge Classical Journal , Volume 62 , December 2016 , pp. 65 - 84
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2016. Published by Cambridge University Press 

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