Pronomen Abundans and Pronomen Coniunctum. A ... - DWC

PRONOMEN ABUNDANS AND PRONOMEN CONIUNCTUM 109
7.1.3. "Oç(Tlç) ~ onov. As the sense of the relat. pronoun had become
weaker, onov, which meant as much or rather as little as oç(Tlç), was
able to obtrude itself. This penetration must have begun in simple clauses,
where onov gradually lost its local sense. This development has been
described in 3.2.1 and 3.2.2 41 °.
7.2. Relative Pronoun + Pronomen Abundans ~ "Onov + Pronomen
Coniunctum?
7.2.1. Does it appear ~n the texts?
The texts do not give a decisive answer to the question whether this
development took pI ace or not. One does not find examples of onov followed
by a pronomen coniunctum in the texts of the 5th, 6th, or 7th centuries.
This is the crucial period in which the two idioms (or should we speak
of one and the same idiom 1) have met. If this meeting has not taken
place in the texts, it must have happened within the spoken language.
And here I touch the greatest problem of all, viz. th at the developments
around onov have taken place not in the texts, but within the spoken
language, and thus invisibly and unverifiably for us.
7.2.2. Did the pronomen abundans occur in colloquial speech?
The texts of the period and before the period when onov came into
use as arelat. pronoun do not offer many examples of the pronomen
abundans, not such a quantity at least and not in that kind of texts
(papyri, for instance) that it can be maintained with some certainty that
the pronomen abundans frequently occurred in the spoken language.
Only if that would be the case, could one say that people were so accustomed
to use resumpt. pronouns in relat. clauses that they continued
doing it, when onov came into use.
7.2.2.1. In Ancient Greek and the Koine. There are some reasons to
suppose that the pronomen abundans occurred in the spoken language of
the 5th and 4th centuries B.C. 411 . The classical authors used it very seldom.
There are stronger arguments for its occurrence in colloquial speech
during the Koine-period. Some of them have already been mentioned in
I 2.6.2. And there are two more: 1. a considerable weakening of the relat.
pronoun has actually taken place, 2. it appears that there is nothing against
assuming that relat. connection is also used in colloquial speech 412.
7.2.2.2. The examples of the pronomen abundans found in the late Koine
have been discussed in 2.1. The majority of them occur in hagiographic
410 Another argument supporting this theory is the fact that around the same
time (5th-6th century) the pronomen abundans disappears from the texts. This
must have been caused by an artificial revival of the traditional relat. pronoun,
which may be considered as proof of its disappearance from the living language.
See 7.3.1.1.
411 See I 1.7 and, especially, 2.6.1.
412 See 5.5.