Featured Greek Grammar Glossary

Today I was working on a glossary of Greek Grammar Glossary (say that real fast 10 times ). I think it will be helpful to hand out to my students at the beginning of the fall semester, so I thought I would share it, since there have been a couple of new members recently who are studying Greek on their own.

The definitions in quotes are from the textbook I use, Learn to Read New Testament Greek (3rd ed.), by David Alan Black. Feel free to add your own definitions, or ones from this or other textbooks. I'll post two definitions at a time.

 

adjective—a word that describes a noun, such as “big,” “loud,” “fast,” and so forth.

affix—added letters that “indicate the function of the word in the particular sentence where it occurs” (p. 11). Affixes include prefixes, infixes, and suffixes (endings).

 

article—a short word that shows the definiteness or indefiniteness of another word. English has a definite article (“the”) and an indefinite article (“an” or “a”). However, Greek only has a definite article, and it is sometimes used differently from the

aspect—"the view of the action that the speaker chooses to present to the hearer” (p. 14). Think of aspect as the kind of action the verb presents. Aspect is more important in Greek than the time of the action.

Apparently aspect is a tough thing to comprehend for Greek students. I require my students to memorize Black's definition, some never do get it down, even after two whole semesters. Is it a millennial/Gen. Z thing? I dunno.

 

Forgot this one:

adverb--a word that modifies (adds information to) a verb, an adjective, or a different adverb. (Note the name "adverb," so it adds to a verb.)

 

clause—"a group of words forming a sense unit and containing one finite verb” (p. 10).

inflection—"refers to the changes words undergo in accordance with their grammatical function in a sentence” (p. 10). The inflection of a verb is a conjugation, and the inflection of a noun is a declension.

 

Mounce has useful comments comparing English and Greek grammar in his textbook.

 

I forgot to say that in cases where there is no page number listed, the definition is my own.

 

mood—"refers to the manner in which the speaker relates the verbal idea to reality” (p. 12). So, the Greek moods are: indicative (affirmation), imperative (command), subjunctive (possibility), and infinitive (verbal nouns). There is also an optative mood (wishing), but it is rare in the NT, occurring only 67 times, though common in classical Greek (p. 189),

morpheme—"the minimal units of speech that convey a specific meaning” (p. 4). So, here are some English morphemes: -ed, -ing, a-, etc. These have meaning, but they are not words.

morphology—the study of the sounds of a language

 

This is out of alphabetical order, but I figured it is needed:

Diphthong—two vowels pronounced together as one sound. In Greek the diphthongs are: αι (ai), ει (ei), οι (oi), υι (ui), αυ (au), ευ (ey), and ου (ou). I have fun teaching these. After writing them on the whiteboard I point to them in random order and have them holler out the pronunciation with an expressive voice, such as “ow,” “ooo!” "Oi!" (“Hey, you” in Japanese), etc.

 

For those of you learning Greek on your own, here's a helpful website: Ezra Project – Learn Biblical Greek and Understand the New Testament

However, I must admit that I take exception to the title of one of his resources, Greek Behind the Prof's Back.

 

noun—a word for a person, place, thing, or idea, such as “foot,” “bomb,” “textbook,” “Greek,” etc.

parse—to describe the part of speech and grammar of a word. Example: λόγος—noun: nominative singular masculine.

 

participle—a verbal adjective. It can be used like a noun in Greek when preceded by the article. English participles usually end with -ing or -ed.

particle—a word that has grammatical function in a sentence, but usually has no meaning. (Some grammars define this more broadly to include short words with meaning.) One Greek particle is γε, which simply strengthens meaning, but can carry the meaning of “Indeed” if the translator chooses to actually translate it.

 

To be more specific, morphology is the study of the morphemes of a language--sounds which are not words, but have meaning nonetheless. The study of merely the sounds of a language is phonology, as Bassoonery kindly pointed out.

 

You are completely correct. Thank you.

 

phoneme—"Phonemes are the smallest elements that contrast with each other in the phonological system of a language” (p. 3). A phoneme is a sound without meaning in a language. Greek phonemes (pronunciation) is generally close to English, except for ξ (Xi, pronounced like X in “wax”), and ψ (psi, pronounced “ps”).

Phonology—“The study of the sound systems of individual languages and of the nature of such systems generally” (P. H. Matthews, Oxford Concise Dictionary of Linguistics , p. 300).

 

pronoun—a word that takes the place of a noun, such as “he,” “she,” “him,” “her”