Attic reduplication
I am seeing something called Attic reduplication at least that is what I have heard commentaries, lexicons and Greek grammars say about 1 John 1:1. And to make matters worse I did not remember reduplication from my Biblical Greek studies in seminary. I am not familiar with Attic and do not have any Attic resources in my library. In 1 John 1:1, I can see the base word ἀκηκόαμεν is derived from ἀκούω. I base this on my study of grammars and interlinears. It is parsed as perfect, active, indicative. I know that some verbs beginning in a vowel reduplicate the entire first syllable. Based on Mounce’s grammar, A.T. Robertson's grammar and LSJ my understanding is that when a verb starts with a vowel, the ἀ would get longer, but the initial vowel plus consonant (ἀκ) would not repeat. Is that the case? How can I use Logos Bible Software to determine if this is in fact Attic reduplication? I asked a friend of mine who took Greek in seminary and he said it was a strange case and could not explain it further. Would this resource in Logos be helpful to my question? English–Greek Dictionary: A Vocabulary of the Attic Language by S. C. Woodhouse https://www.logos.com/product/15748/english-greek-dictionary-a-vocabulary-of-the-attic-language
I went through each of these factbook entries. https://beta.app.logos.com/search?kind=factbook&layout=one&q=%22Attic+reduplication%22&resources=allResources&source=searchPanel&syntax=v2
https://beta.app.logos.com/search?kind=all&layout=one&q=%22Attic%22+AND+%22+1+John%22&resources=allResources&source=searchPanel&syntax=v2 Got 53 hits but when restricted to 1 John 1 only got 3 hits.
ieul-article-p41_3.pdf This is something I read as well.
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If you have Mounce's The Morphology of Biblical Greek, there's a discussion about Attic Reduplication (https://beta.app.logos.com/books/LLS%3AMORPHBBCLGRK/references/page.72). It also uses ἀκηκόαμεν as an example.
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Logos also has a Grammar of Johnine Greek, which includes reduplication, and John 1.1 specifically.
"If myth is ideology in narrative form, then scholarship is myth with footnotes." B. Lincolm 1999.
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Ask Gemini "How and where does proto-Indo-European reduplication show in early Greek?" and check Wikipedia to get your Hellenic languages history correct including the relationship of Koine Greek to Alexander the Great.
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Proto-Indo-European (PIE) left its mark on early Greek through reduplication, a process where the initial part of a word is copied and used at the beginning. Here's how we see it in action:
Verb Tenses:
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Perfect Tense: PIE used reduplication with the vowel "e" to mark the perfect (past) tense. This influence is visible in Ancient Greek. For instance, compare "λύω (lúō)" meaning "I free" with its perfect tense form "λέλυκα (léluka)" meaning "I have freed."
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Present Tense: PIE also used reduplication, but with the vowel "i," for the imperfective aspect (ongoing or repeated action). Early Greek preserved this pattern in some verbs. A common example is "δίδωμι (dídōmi)" meaning "I give" (present) contrasting with its perfect form "δέδωκα (dédōka)" meaning "I have given."
Reduplication Patterns:
It's important to note that PIE reduplication wasn't a simple copy-paste. The reduplicated portion followed specific rules:
- Consonant Clusters: The exact form of the copied consonant depended on its features. This complexity is still seen in the way Greek handles consonant clusters at the beginning of verbs undergoing reduplication.
Examples and Resources:
For a deeper dive, you can explore these resources:
- Wikipedia article on Reduplication: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reduplication
- Article on Indo-European reduplication: https://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/113772
Reduplicative Futures – Koine-Greek may be of interest (intensive desideratives in PIE)
The Perfect System: Part I – Ancient Greek for Everyone (pressbooks.pub) rules of reduplication
in short google "koine Greek reduplication" should get you many articles of interest
Your all search yields more results if you remove the quote marks.
Orthodox Bishop Alfeyev: "To be a theologian means to have experience of a personal encounter with God through prayer and worship."; Orthodox proverb: "We know where the Church is, we do not know where it is not."
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DMB said:
Logos also has a Grammar of Johnine Greek, which includes reduplication, and John 1.1 specifically.
I am not referring to the Gospel but to the 1st letter of John. Does it discuss that passage?
Phil Quigley said:If you have Mounce's The Morphology of Biblical Greek, there's a discussion about Attic Reduplication (https://beta.app.logos.com/books/LLS%3AMORPHBBCLGRK/references/page.72). It also uses ἀκηκόαμεν as an example.
I do not own this resource. Can you copy the discussion if it is short enough to be under fair use?
Thanks for the links MJ.
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Attic reduplication basically describes a phenomenon where word formation changed over time. I can't imagine it being relevant at the lexical level.
Look in your LXX, and instead of γινομαι (Koine) as a lemma you'll see γιγνομαι. And instead of γινωσκω (Koine) you'll see γιγνωσκω. That extra little gamma is in there thanks to attic reduplication, which (for that word family, anyway) elided out over time (γιγν is harder to say than γιν).
To my understanding, "attic reduplication" helps explain word formation (especially hard phoneme repetition) and differences or similarities between the Greek of other eras, basically.
Rick Brannan | Bluesky: rickbrannan.com
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Christian Alexander said:DMB said:
Logos also has a Grammar of Johnine Greek, which includes reduplication, and John 1.1 specifically.
I am not referring to the Gospel but to the 1st letter of John. Does it discuss that passage?
Phil Quigley said:If you have Mounce's The Morphology of Biblical Greek, there's a discussion about Attic Reduplication (https://beta.app.logos.com/books/LLS%3AMORPHBBCLGRK/references/page.72). It also uses ἀκηκόαμεν as an example.
I do not own this resource. Can you copy the discussion if it is short enough to be under fair use?
Thanks for the links MJ.
§32.6 Attic reduplication. This is a special form of reduplication that applies only to certain words in the perfect. If one of these verbs began with α, ε, or ο followed by a single consonant, the vowel and consonant were both reduplicated, and the original stem vowel was then lengthened (α } η). In other words, the word underwent both a reduplication and a lengthening. Cf. Smyth §446, Funk §344. ἀκούω *ακου } ακακου } ἀκήκοα v-1a(8)William D. Mounce, The Morphology of Biblical Greek, ed. Verlyn D. Verbrugge (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1994), 72–73.0 -
Thanks Rick. It seems to be very logical.
Rick Brannan said:Look in your LXX, and instead of γινομαι (Koine) as a lemma you'll see γιγνομαι. And instead of γινωσκω (Koine) you'll see γιγνωσκω
Confirmed.
What are a good source on word formation in biblical Greek?
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Christian Alexander said:
What are a good source on word formation in biblical Greek?
Mounce, William D. The Morphology of Biblical Greek. Edited by Verlyn D. Verbrugge. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1994. for topics similar to reduplication
I can't recall the title of the book that covers morphology at the root/affix level. Nor do I recall the rules for going from PIE to Greek - I rely on Beekes' Etymological Dictionary of Greek (2 vols.) | Logos Bible Software
These four together - grammatical morphology [inflection], lexical morphology [derivation], non-morphological methods [compound, blend, back-formation, etc.], and historical development of words cover word formation fairly well.
Orthodox Bishop Alfeyev: "To be a theologian means to have experience of a personal encounter with God through prayer and worship."; Orthodox proverb: "We know where the Church is, we do not know where it is not."
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Christian Alexander said:
What are a good source on word formation in biblical Greek?
First, I think I got general "reduplication" conflated with "attic reduplication". Apologies.
The book MJ is referring to may be J. Harold Greenlee's "A New Testament Greek Morpheme Lexicon". There's a copy you can check out for an hour at a time at archive dot org: https://archive.org/details/newtestamentgree0000gree
Rick Brannan | Bluesky: rickbrannan.com
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That resource looks good Rick. I will check it out in a bit.
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