A grammar of the Homeric dialect - Wilbourhall.org

334 PARTICLES. [364.
in the orthotone and adversative 8e',
which stands to re and the
correlated re re somewhat as we have supposed
civ to stand to
Key and Key
Key.
364.] Original meaning of dv and KCV. The identity of the Greek dv with
the Latin and Gothic an has been maintained with much force and ingenuity
by Prof. Leo Meyer. The following are some of the chief points established
by his dissertation.*
1. The Latin an is used by the older poets in the second member of a
disjunctive question, either direct, as egone an ille injurie facimus ? or indirect,
as utrum scapulae plus an callus calli habeat nescio (both from Naevius). The use
in single questions is a derivative one, and properly implies that the question
is put as an alternative as
:
Plaut. Asin. 5. i, 10 credam istuc, si te esse hilarum videro. AR. An tu
me tristem putas ? do you then think me (the opposite, viz.} sad ?
Amph. 3. 3, 8 derides qui scis haec dudum me dixisse per jocum. SO. an
illut joculo dixisti ? equidem serio ac vero ratus.
In these places f we see how an comes to mean then on the contrary, then in the
other case, &c. So in Naevius, eho an vicimus ? what then, have we conquered ?
2. In Gothic, again, an is used in questions of an adversative character :
as in Luke x. 29 an hvas ist mis nehvundja (' he willing to justify himself, said x :
and who is my neighbour ? ' John xviii. 37 an nuh thiudans is thu l art thou a
king then ? '
3. These instances exhibit a close similarity between the Latin and the
Gothic an, and suggest the possibility of a Disjunctive Particle (or, or else}
coming to express recourse to a second alternative (if not, then \ and so
acquiring the uses of the Greek dv. This supposition, as Leo Meyer goes on
to show, is confirmed by the Gothic aiththau and thau, which are employed
(i) as Disjunctive Particles, or, or else, and (2) to render the Greek av, chiefly
in the use with the Past Indicative. Thus we have, as examples of aiththau
Matth. v. 36 ni magt ain tagl hveit aiththau svart gataujan thou canst not
make one hair white or black.
Matth. ix. 1 7 aiththau distaurnand balgeis (neither do men put new wine into
old bottles} else the bottles break.
John xiv. 2 niba veseina, aiththau qvethjau if it were not so, I would have toll
you [= it is not so, else I would have told you].
John xiv. 7 ith kunthedeith mik, aiththau kunthedeith &c. if ye had known
me, ye should have known &c.
Similarly thau is used (i)' to translate $ in double questions, as in Matth.
xxvii. 17 whom will ye that I release unto you, Barabbas or (thau) Jesus'? and
after a Comparative = ( than) frequently also : (2) in a Conditional Apodosis,
esp. to translate dv With Past Tenses, as
Luke vii. 39 sa ith vesi praufetus ufkunthedi thau this man, if fie were a
prophet, would have known.
* 'AN im Griechischen, Lateinischen und Gothischen, Berlin 1880. The parallel
between the Greek dv and the Gothic thau and aiththau was pointed out by
Hartung (Partikeln, ii. p. 227).
[ Taken from Draeger's H-istorische Syntax, i. p. 321, where many other
examples will be found.