THE MODAL PARTICLE IN GREEK

Abstract

Five forms of the modal particle are attested in ancient Greek (ἄν, κε, κεν, κᾱ, and κ’). This article argues that ἄν is an inherited particle, and that thek-forms were the result of reanalysis of prevocalic οὐκ and εἰκ (i.e. εἰκ was reanalysed as εἰ κ’), supported by the vestiges of an old topicalising/conditional force of the IE particle *kwe(which appears elsewhere in Greek as connective τε). The attested forms in Greek grew out of *kwein contexts where an adjacentucaused the labiovelar *kw>k(West Greek κᾱ was influenced by indefinite *kwā). The form κεν is a creation of epic diction.