suffix: some parts of words are
common to many and impart a
common sort of meaning to the
words they are part of, e.g. in
English the word-ending –ing,
which, added to a verbal stem
(q.v.) makes a substantive (that
has also occupied the place of
present participle) denoting the
performing of the action as such;
such parts are named "suffix"
when they constitute the last part
of the word; words that in no way
consist of stem and suffix are in a
minority. In the above, only the
underlined words are not readily
seen to be composed.
this grammar the thematic vowels
have been fixed onto the
following part or parts of the
form and these endings have
been given a separate place in the
conspectus of verb forms
syllable: (more extended) words
may be divided for the sake of
treatment into bits that are
grouped round the vowels (q.v.):
every vowel or diphthong with
preceding and/or following
consonants (q.v.) constitutes a
syllable; languages all have their
own rules for the divisions
unvoiced: property of
consonants, meaning that the
vocal chords are silent while they
are being articulated (p, t, k)
syntax: making statements in a
certain language is not just a
matter of stringing words
together haphazardly; there are
rules concerning the construction
of separate words into sentences:
the collectivity of these rules is
named the ‘syntax’ of that
language
temporal: giving or introducing
information as to the moment of
the action
thematic: in many Greek verb
forms (and in many other kinds
of form in a lot of languages) one
may find a vowel (in Greek ε/ο)
that contributes nothing to the
meaning, but seems to be present
only to form a connection
between other parts that do
contribute to the meaning: these
are called ‘thematic’ vowels; in
vowel: sound produced by the
speech organs without any partial
or complete blockage of the flow
of breath, such as a, e
unit of conjugation: a set of
forms consisting of a presentindicative, a past-indicative, a
subjunctive, an optative (all these
with 3 persons sg and 3 pl), an
imperative (2&3rd sg and 2&3rd
pl), an infinitive, a participle
(with a full set of agreeing forms);
these forms all share phase and
genus
user: the speaker or writer of
language
verb: word denoting an action or
being in a state that counts
among it’s forms some denoting
person, tense, mood etc. (e.g.
have, has, had, having)
vocative: case used by the user to
address the (immediate) recipient
by his name or other quality;
often, but far from always, the
nominative is used
voice: type of verb forms that
express one of three relationships
between subject and action: active
(subject performs action), passive
(subject is subjected to the action)
and middle or medium (subject is
also direct or indirect object);
another word for this is genus
voiced: a property of consonants,
meaning that the vocal chords are
heard as the consonant is being
articulated (b, d, g)
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