THE MODAL PARTICLE IN GREEK

Abstract

Five forms of the modal particle are attested in ancient Greek (ἄν, κe, κeν, κᾱ, and κ’). This paper argues that ἄν is an inherited particle, and that the k-forms were the result of reanalysis of prevocalic οὐκ and eἰκ (i.e. eἰκ was reanalysed as eἰ κ’), supported by the vestiges of an old topicalising/conditional force of the I-E particle *kwe (which appears elsewhere in Greek as connective τe). The attested forms in Greek grew out of *kwe in contexts where an adjacent u caused the labiovelar *kw > k (West Greek κᾱ was influenced by indefinite *kwā). The form κeν is a creation of epic diction.