Mi-verbs

-mi verbs are a class of athematic verbs in Ancient Greek. The name derives from the first person singular form of the verbs in the present indicative active, which is the dictionary form. The person marker is -mi, e.g. ειμί (eimí, I am), δίδωμι (dídōmi, I give), φημί (phēmí, I say) etc. The conjugation of mi-verbs differs from the much more common thematic, or "omega" (-ω, -ō), conjugation. Mi-verbs were "regularised" (transformed to their -o counterparts, or replaced altogether) in the Koine era and the transformation was almost complete by Byzantine times, with some vestiges of the -mi conjugation surviving only in the Passive voice in Modern Greek.

Mi-verbs are an extremely ancient feature of Proto-Indoeuropean grammar. Sanskrit verbs are exclusively -mi verbs, Latin verbs are exclusively -o verbs, whereas Ancient Greek verbs can be either. The typical example used to illustrate this is the Sanskrit verb bhárami, Latin fero, Greek φέρω, phérō, (I bring).

External links

• Verbs ending in -mi

Sources

• Greek Grammar, Herbert Weir Smyth. Harvard University Press. (1920) 0-574-36250-0