Language/Ancient-greek-to-1453/Grammar/Negation

Ancient Greek Grammar - Negation

Hi Ancient Greek learners! 😊
In this lesson, we will learn about negation in Ancient Greek. Don't hesitate to look into these other pages after completing this lesson: Ancient Greek Alphabet, Ancient Greek cases, Reciprocal Pronouns & Aspect in the Ancient Greek Verb.

Negation is the process of expressing a negative statement or idea. In Ancient Greek (to 1453), there are several ways to express negation.

Negative Particles

Negative particles are words that are used to express negation. The most common negative particle in Ancient Greek (to 1453) is οὐ (ou). It is used to negate verbs, adjectives, and adverbs.

Examples

Ancient Greek (to 1453)	Pronunciation	English Translation
οὐ λέγω	ou lego	I do not say
οὐκ ἔστιν	ouk estin	It is not
οὐκ ἀγαθός	ouk agathos	Not good
οὐ μακρός	ou makros	Not long

Another negative particle is μή (mē). It is used to negate nouns, pronouns, and adjectives.

Examples

Ancient Greek (to 1453)	Pronunciation	English Translation
μή τις	mē tis	No one
μήτε...μήτε	mēte...mēte	Neither...nor
μή φίλος	mē philos	Not friendly
γυναικὸς μή...	gynekôs mi ..	Not a woman

Negative Adverbs

Negative adverbs are words that are used to express negation. The most common negative adverb in Ancient Greek (to 1453) is οὐδέ (oude). It is used to negate verbs, adjectives, and adverbs.

Examples

Ancient Greek (to 1453)	Pronunciation	English Translation
οὐδέν λέγω	oude lego	I do not say
οὐδέν ἔστιν	oude estin	It is not
οὐδείς ἀγαθός	oude agathos	Not good
οὐδείς μακρός	oude makros	Not long

Another negative adverb is οὐδείς (oudeis). It is used to negate nouns, pronouns, and adjectives.

Examples

Ancient Greek (to 1453)	Pronunciation	English Translation
οὐδείς τις	oudeis tis	No one
οὐδείς μήτε...μήτε	oudeis mēte...mēte	Neither...nor
οὐδείς φιλος	oudeis philos	Not friendly
οὐδεμία γυνή	oudemîa gunē	Not a woman

Indefinites and negation in Ancient Greek

The history of Greek negation is interesting for theoretical understanding of negation systems Homeric Greek already shows signs of a diachronic development:

there are two series of negative indefinites, an older plain one and a newer emphatic one. The system exhibited by Classical Greek is very relevant for our understanding of the syntactic factors that shape Negative Concord. Classical Greek is a non-strict Negative Concord language.

Ancient Greek has two complementary negators: οὐ (with variants οὐχί and οὐχ), and μή, the former of which is mainly used in assertive statements and the latter in orders and wishes.

The distributional difference between οὐ and μή also holds true for their compounds, negative pronouns, adverbs and conjunctions, such as οὐδείς/μηδείς (nobody, none) οὐδέν/μηδέν  (nothing) οὐδαμοῦ/μηδαμοῦ  (nowhere ) οὔτε/μήτε (and not) οὐδέ/μήδε (and not, not even ) etc.

The two Ancient Greek negators (οὐ and μή), which function as markers of sentence negation, are usually positioned before the verb, as separate words, e.g. οὐ στέργει, (doesn’t love), μὴ στέργε (don’t love :imperative). Unlike in some other languages, in Ancient Greek a single sentence may contain two or more negative morphemes.

This comprises the cases of:

1. co-occurrence of negators of different kinds, i.e. association of οὐ + μή and μή + οὐ
2. co-occurrence of identical-kind negators, either objective (οὐ ~ οὐδείς : no one,  οὐ ~ οὐδέν : nothing, οὐ ~ οὐδαμῶς : in no way, οὐ ~ οὐδαμοῦ : nowhere etc.), or subjective  : μή ~ μηδείς, μηδέν, μηδαμοῦ, μηδαμῶς, etc.

The present article will focus on the co-occurrence of a negator and a negative pronoun or adverb (or some other compound negative) of the same kind, with the morpheme οὐ:

1. Xen. Anab. 4.4.8. "οὐ γὰρ ἑώρων πολέμιον οὐδένα... :  for there was no enemy within sight. A sentence like “I didn’t say it to nobody” can only have a positive reading, that is, it is a sentence with double negation, meaning “I said it to somebody.” The corresponding negative sentence would then be “I didn’t say it to anybody”. if the last negation in a clause is a compound negation, such as οὐδέν, μηδέν : nothing, the negations reinforce each other, i.e. the meaning of the sentence as a whole is negative, as in the following cases:
2. Soph. Ant. 96–97 πείσομαι γὰρ οὐ τοσοῦτον οὐδὲν :  for I will not suffer anything so terrible
3. Dem. 5.15 μὴ θορυβήσῃ μηδείς :  Let nobody vociferate! if the last negation in a clause is simple negation, i.e

Author

➡ Marianthi

• Ευγενική χορηγία που στοχεύει να βοηθήσει μαθητές ή μη, απανταχού της Γης, που επιδίδονται στην εκμάθηση της ελληνικής γλώσσας!
• Contribution bénévole visant à aider les personnes, partout dans le monde, qui sont engagées dans l'apprentissage de la langue grecque !
• Voluntary contribution aimed at helping people, all over the world, who are committed to learning the Greek language! 

Other Lessons

• Ancient Greek conditional clauses
• Tenses
• Ancient Greek Interjections
• Orthographic signs: Spirits
• Possessive pronouns
• The degrees of adjectives in Ancient Greek
• The Middle Voice of λύω : λύομαι
• Personal pronouns
• Reflexive Pronouns
• Aspect in the Ancient Greek Verb

• Article, verb or relative pronoun?