This entry is evidence that it's past my bedtime.

[redbird]

While it is good to have reference books, I don't really need to be going through dusty bits of my memory for -μι verbs while half asleep, even if someone did ask what the verb form of "hierophant" would be.

But if I'm going to do so, ειμι (I am) is an odd one to be working on. As far as I know, "be" is irregular in every natural language (and in English is not only irregular but "defective", having picked up forms from three distinct roots, as did both the Greek and Latin verbs for "carry," "fero" (it's basically the same in Greek, so I'll save myself typing the HTML entities)). [Does anyone know HTML coding that would indicate a smooth breathing over that ει?]Though, despite being the same present-tense form, they each acquired different past and future forms.

[I may delete this by tomorrow]

Comments

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

This isn't really on-topic, but I am interested in how you're keying in the Greek letters. I'm having a terrible time keying in Chinese.

Standard HTML

[the-magician.livejournal.com]

e.g.
ε ι μ ι is ε ι μ ι

http://www.htmlhelp.com/reference/html40/entities/symbols.html

there's a bunch of maths symbols and four card suits as well!

[redbird]

As the_magician implies, I'm typing the individual HTML entities, which is part of why I decided to spare myself entering φερω last night.

[zsero.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure that "be" should be described as irregular in Hebrew. Though it's completely omitted in many cases where it would be used in English; e.g. where English says "I am going", Hebrew says ani holech, "I going". Does that count as irregular? I wouldn't have thought so, but my knowledge of grammatical terms is minimal.

[nwhyte]

Well, it's certainly not a regular verb, whatever it is!

(Russian and I believe Lithuanian have similar constructions.)

[redbird]

I think that's what a linguist would call a "zero copula", meaning that "be" is omitted; this came up recently in a discussion on ozarque's journal, where she noted that there are languages where forms we'd consider adjective function as verbs, looking superficially like "It beautiful" or "She tall" when translated into English.

[nwhyte]

To write εἰμι:

(The easy way) I used this page.

(The hard way) look it up in the unicode directory where you find that ἰ gives you ἰ.

[redbird]

Your ιs are coming through as question marks here (Firefox browser, if that matters).

[nwhyte]

As you can tell from my own efforts, I've been testing this, and I think it's not the browser, it's a question of what fonts you have loaded.

[juuro.livejournal.com]

Came across you on friendsfriends-view. Given that you are brushing here on one of my favourite tidbits, I could not resist commenting.

In Finnish -- my Native -- the verb "to be" is regular. Except perhaps for some modification in person. And in the potential mode it switches to a different root.

infinitive: olla
In the examples, only second person singular is given.
present indicative: olet
past indicative: olit
past perfect indicative: olet ollut
plusquamperfect past indicative: olit ollut

present conditional: olisit
present potential (exception): lienet
present imperative: ole

present passive: ollaan

The Finnish grammar was formalised in the 16th century, with some refinements since then. But if the surviving dialects are any evidence, the verb "to be" was regular even before the scholars got their hands in the game.

Welcome

[redbird]

That is cool, though switching to a different root (lienet) is also a form of irregularity.

Still, a lot more regular than I am, you are, s/he is; or Soy, eres, es (Spanish).