Editing Ancient Greek (section)

==Morphology==
{{Main|Ancient Greek grammar}}
[[File:AGMA Ostrakon Cimon.jpg|thumb|[[Ostracon]] bearing the name of [[Cimon]], [[Stoa of Attalos]]]]

Greek, like all of the older [[Indo-European languages]], is highly inflected. It is highly archaic in its preservation of [[Proto-Indo-European language|Proto-Indo-European]] forms. In ancient Greek, [[noun]]s (including proper nouns) have five [[Declension|cases]] ([[nominative case|nominative]], [[genitive case|genitive]], [[dative case|dative]], [[Accusative case|accusative]], and [[vocative case|vocative]]), three [[Grammatical gender|genders]] ([[Grammatical gender|masculine]], [[Grammatical gender|feminine]], and [[Grammatical gender|neuter]]), and three [[Grammatical number|numbers]] (singular, [[dual (grammatical number)|dual]], and [[plural]]). [[Verb]]s have four [[Grammatical mood|moods]] ([[Realis mood|indicative]], [[imperative mood|imperative]], [[subjunctive mood|subjunctive]], and [[optative mood|optative]]) and three [[Voice (grammar)|voices]] (active, middle, and [[English passive voice|passive]]), as well as three [[Grammatical person|persons]] (first, second, and third) and various other forms.

Verbs are conjugated through seven combinations of [[Grammatical tense|tenses]] and [[Grammatical aspect|aspect]] (generally simply called "tenses"): the [[present tense|present]], [[future tense|future]], and [[imperfect]] are [[imperfective aspect|imperfective]] in aspect; the [[aorist]], [[present perfect]], [[pluperfect]] and [[future perfect]] are [[perfective aspect|perfective]] in aspect. Most tenses display all four moods and three voices, although there is no future subjunctive or imperative. Also, there is no imperfect subjunctive, optative or imperative. The infinitives and participles correspond to the finite combinations of tense, aspect, and voice.

===Augment===
The indicative of past [[Grammatical tense|tenses]] adds (conceptually, at least) a prefix /e-/, called the [[Augment (Indo-European)|augment]]. This was probably originally a separate word, meaning something like "then", added because tenses in PIE had primarily aspectual meaning. The augment is added to the [[Realis mood|indicative]] of the aorist, imperfect, and pluperfect, but not to any of the other forms of the aorist (no other forms of the imperfect and pluperfect exist).

The two kinds of augment in Greek are syllabic and quantitative. The syllabic augment is added to stems beginning with consonants, and simply prefixes ''e'' (stems beginning with ''r'', however, add ''er''). The quantitative augment is added to stems beginning with vowels, and involves lengthening the vowel:
* a, ā, e, ē → ē
* i, ī → ī
* o, ō → ō
* u, ū → ū
* ai → ēi
* ei → ēi or ei
* oi → ōi
* au → ēu or au
* eu → ēu or eu
* ou → ou

Some verbs augment irregularly; the most common variation is ''e'' → ''ei''. The irregularity can be explained diachronically by the loss of ''s'' between vowels, or that of the letter ''w'', which affected the augment when it was word-initial.
In verbs with a preposition as a prefix, the augment is placed not at the start of the word, but between the preposition and the original verb. For example, {{Lang|grc|προσ(-)βάλλω}} (I attack) goes to {{Lang|grc|προσ'''έ'''βαλoν}} in the aorist. However compound verbs consisting of a prefix that is not a preposition retain the augment at the start of the word: {{Lang|grc|αὐτο(-)μολῶ}} goes to {{Lang|grc|'''ηὐ'''τομόλησα}} in the aorist.

Following [[Homer]]'s practice, the augment is sometimes not made in [[poetry]], especially [[Homeric Greek|epic]] poetry.

The augment sometimes substitutes for reduplication; see below.

===Reduplication===
Almost all forms of the perfect, pluperfect, and future perfect reduplicate the initial syllable of the verb stem. (A few irregular forms of perfect do not reduplicate, whereas a handful of irregular aorists reduplicate.) The three types of [[reduplication]] are:
* Syllabic reduplication: Most verbs beginning with a single consonant, or a cluster of a stop with a sonorant, add a syllable consisting of the initial consonant followed by ''e''. An aspirated consonant, however, reduplicates in its unaspirated equivalent (see [[Grassmann's law]]).
* Augment: Verbs beginning with a vowel, as well as those beginning with a cluster other than those indicated previously (and occasionally for a few other verbs) reduplicate in the same fashion as the augment. This remains in all forms of the perfect, not just the indicative.
* Attic reduplication: Some verbs beginning with an ''a'', ''e'' or ''o'', followed by a sonorant (or occasionally ''d'' or ''g''), reduplicate by adding a syllable consisting of the initial vowel and following consonant, and lengthening the following vowel. Hence ''er'' → ''erēr'', ''an'' → ''anēn'', ''ol'' → ''olōl'', ''ed'' → ''edēd''. This is not specific to [[Attic Greek]], despite its name, but it was generalized in Attic. This originally involved reduplicating a cluster consisting of a [[laryngeal theory|laryngeal]] and sonorant, hence {{Transliteration|grc|''h₃l'' → ''h₃leh₃l'' → ''olōl''}} with normal Greek development of laryngeals. (Forms with a stop were analogous.)

Irregular duplication can be understood diachronically. For example, {{Lang|grc-latn|lambanō}} (root {{Lang|grc-latn|lab}}) has the perfect stem {{Lang|grc-latn|eilēpha}} (not *{{Lang|grc-latn|lelēpha}}) because it was originally {{Lang|grc-latn|slambanō}}, with perfect {{Lang|grc-latn|seslēpha}}, becoming {{Lang|grc-latn|eilēpha}} through compensatory lengthening.

Reduplication is also visible in the present tense stems of certain verbs. These stems add a syllable consisting of the root's initial consonant followed by ''i''. A nasal stop appears after the reduplication in some verbs.<ref name="Palmer1996p262">{{Cite book|title=The Greek Language |url=https://archive.org/details/greeklanguage00palm_715 |url-access=limited |last=Palmer |first=Leonard |author-link=Leonard Robert Palmer |year=1996 |publisher=University of Oklahoma Press |location=Norman, OK |isbn=978-0-8061-2844-3 |page=[https://archive.org/details/greeklanguage00palm_715/page/n273 262] }}</ref>