Hindsight

I first learned ancient Greek a long time ago. There was a break as I switched schools and majors, but I would work on translation, the New Testament in particular. Now, as far as my grammar, I wouldn't swear by it (I wouldn't so with anything), but one would think I would be fairly good. Sadly, I'm not. It took me a year of ancient Greek to understand English syntax and now it's taken me a year of German to understand Greek. Oddly enough, there are some interesting similarities between Greek and German. One in particular, for example, is the German 'verb final' and the Greek 'tmesis' (an anachronistic term for what some verbs have in Homer). These both have verbal particles separate from the main verb. My eyes were opened when I saw it in Homer, but only after I learned of the verb final in German. Hence, the more one studies about language in general, the better one recognizes how language works in specifics. Now, I believe I am ready to re-begin my Greek learning, and I have just re-begun. This led me to see things anew, and I am seeing the anew, and I am ashamed that I didn't see them before.
Today, as I was reviewing some verbs, I noticed some similarities in some Greek tenses. This, of course, was obvious, but it wasn't for me until today. I noticed that the aorist passive is based off of the aorist active. I know...I know...DUH! But, it never clicked until today. I was sipping some mediocre green tea in a well cooled Starbucks and was reviewing phero, and saw it! I later looked at other flash cards, and saw a similar phenomenon. I was pretty well convinced when I saw it in phero, because it's a strong verb, a very strong verb. It's present, future and aorist look nothing alike! (phero...oiso...egnekon..really?) If this consistency within aorists was found in that verb, I was sure to find it in others. I will continue tomorrow on other verbs and I might do some statistical calculations, but I don't know; it's been a long time since I've done stats. Let's hope I find something more interesting tomorrow whilst drinking some rich Frenchly pressed coffee.