Greek ómorfos

A discussion of the peculiarities of languages and the differences between them.
Brazilian dude
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Greek ómorfos

Postby Brazilian dude » Thu Oct 13, 2005 10:15 am

I was wondering if Greek óμορφοσ (ómorfos) comes from eu (fine, like in euphemism) + something related to shape or form, as in morph, amorphous, and anthropomorphize. Is it possible that eu evolved into o in Modern Greek?

Brazilian dude
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Flaminius
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Postby Flaminius » Thu Oct 13, 2005 10:51 am

Don't know squat about Modern Greek but,
1. Ordinary σ cannot stand at word-final position.
2. Judging from personal names, Classical Greek 'eu' tends to be realised as 'ev' in Modern Greek.
3. This does not exclude the possibility of /eu/ becoming /o/ (perhaps long?).

Flaminius

Brazilian dude
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Postby Brazilian dude » Thu Oct 13, 2005 11:12 am

You're right about the σ, Flam, I should have used a ς. I hadn't seen I had typed the former, because that's normally what you get when you type omorfos having the Greek font. The Greek ς is where the w is (at least mine).

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badandy
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Postby badandy » Mon Oct 24, 2005 2:33 pm

omorphos probably comes from
'omorphos pronounced with an h
(known as rough breathing in Greek class)
from homo ('omo = same) -homonym,homogenous
+ morphos -shape
the rough breathing didnt make it into modern Greek and now the X (chi) makes the h sound

eu didnt change to o, it is now ev (pronounced ef)

thank you=eucharisto=a fairy's toe
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Brazilian dude
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Postby Brazilian dude » Mon Oct 24, 2005 2:47 pm

But ev is pronounced ev before voiced consonants and vowels, right?

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floating_leaf
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Postby floating_leaf » Thu Oct 27, 2005 4:20 pm

Hello everybody! I am new here!

According to Triantafillides' dictionary the word ομορφιά comes from the ancient ευμορφία (evmorfia) but vm is simplified to mm and eventually to single m.
I hope I helped you!



:oops: Sorry if my english is not that good :oops:

Stargzer
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Postby Stargzer » Thu Oct 27, 2005 4:32 pm

Hello everybody! I am new here!
. . .
:oops: Sorry if my english is not that good :oops:
Welcome, floating_leaf! Come back often!

. . . and don't worry about your English; whatever your native language is, I probably can't speak it! :wink:
Regards//Larry

"To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them."
-- Attributed to Richard Henry Lee


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