Advanced grammar from Rouse: ἠμί
Rouse – the well known author of A Greek boy at home – never ceases to delight with his grammatical and stylistic inventions — sometimes so strikingly rare that they surely deserve a closer look!
- The first occurrence comes in chapter VIII. Ο ΜΩΡΟΣ:
ἀλλὰ μήν, ἦ δ’ ὅς, οἷός τ’ εἰμὶ σιωπᾶν. — but indeed, I am capable of keeping silent.
2. Then again in chapter VIIIα. Ο ΜΩΡΟΣ ΜΑΛ’ ΑΥΘΙΣ:
ὁ δὲ μῶρος, γελάσας, «ἄλλ’, ἦ δ’ ὅς, συγγνώμην ἔχε μοι!» — and the fool, laughing, said: “forgive me!”
3. Or in the amusing episode about the demanding parrot (VIIIζ. ΨΙΤΤΑΚΟΣ):
ὁ δὲ ξένος, “πολλά [ἄλλα λέγω], ἦ δ’ ὅς· πεινῶν γὰρ κελεύει σιτία φέρειν…” — to which the guest replies: “I could say much more — for when he’s hungry, he orders food to be brought…”
4. And there are several similar cases. But even from these three examples you’ve surely noticed something missing in the translation — that curious little phrase ἦ δ’ ὅς. Let’s unpack it.
5. At first glance, this expression looks puzzling: something like a particle ἦ combined with a relative pronoun, but without any subordinate clause to follow? As often happens, the best place to start is Rauch’s clean and practically designed dictionary, where we find a partial explanation:
ἦ· ἔφη. ἦ δ᾽ ὅς· ἔλεγεν, εἶπεν. ἦν· ἔφην.
6. Chantreine’s Etymological Dictionary (p. 413) tells us more: ἦ is the imperfect indicative active, 3rd singular, of the rare verb ἠμί — to speak (Homeric, Attic). The most ancient form is precisely this imperfect ἦ (“he said”) used after direct speech in Homer; among Attic writers, it survives fossilized in the formula ἦ δ᾽ ὅς. From it was later derived the 1st person ἦν δ᾽ ἐγώ — I said. In the present tense, the forms of this verb were remodeled after φημί, though they remained extremely rare: ἠμί (used for emphatic repetition, Aristoph.), ἠσί / ἠτί (Alcman), ἦσι (Sappho).
7. Frisk aptly called these forms an Erstarrtes verbum dicendi — a “frozen verb of saying.”
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8. Reconstructing from the 3rd singular present ἠτί, scholars propose an original root ηκτ-, linking it to Classical Armenian *asem (“I say”) and Latin aio. Already by antiquity, the verb had grown obscure: the grammarian Arcadius (De accentibus) notes, “φημί, ἀπὸ τοῦ ἠμί,” that is, he regarded φημί as derived from ἠμί. Interestingly, the presence of the relative pronoun in this formula puzzled not only us — Philostratus already drops it: “ἦ δ’ ὁ Νεῖλος.”
9. Thus, this verb is defective, lacking a full paradigm. The attested forms are:
Persona | PRAESENS | IMPERFECTVM
1 sing. | ἠμί | ἦν
2 sing. | — | —
3 sing. | ἦσι, ἠσί, ἠτί (Doric) | ἦ
1 plur. | — | —
2 plur. | — | —
3 plur. | — | —
10. Finally, a few examples from the classics to refresh your sense of its usage:
ἦν δ’ ἐγώ
ἦ δ’ ὅς
ἦ δ’ ὃς ὁ Γλαύκων (Plato)
ἦ δ’ ὃς λέγων (Aristophanes)
You can find these chapters from Rouse’s textbook written, sounded and commented, with vocabularies, exercises and explanations, in our AKRO app (on Apple Store or Google Play).
