Greek narrative present > Gothic preterite (was: translation of Gk. "cwrein")

[llama_nom]

--- In gothic-l at yahoogroups.com, "thiudans" <thiudans at ...> wrote:
>
> Thank you Giuseppe and Llama Nom! Now I have to go back over all my
> 'bi' usages :)
> 
> "scourge, whip" in v. 15 of the same chapter I have rendered *swipo
> (weak fem. < Gmc. *swipon). Usbliggwan did not lend itself to a noun
> nor did the Gmc. lexicon show such connections. I Suppose I could have
> made *flagailjo.
> 
> Do you have statistics on what percentage of narrative present forms
> in Greek were translated by preterite in Gothic? Whoever did most of
> the first chapter of John (from this list) has used the present in
> Gothic in this case.

I don't have any statistics, I'm afraid, but Streitberg comments:

Ein erzählendes Präsens findet sich nur als Nachahmung der Vorlage; in
der Regel wird jedoch das erzälende Präsens der Vorlage im Gotischen
in das Präteritum verwandelt.  Vgl. z. B. jah qaþ imma M 8,4 u. ö. --
ahma ina ustauh . EKBALLEI Mc 1,12 -- jah galiþun in Kafarnaum .
EISPOREUONTAI Mc 1,21 u. ö. (Elementarbuch 299, A. 1).

"A narrative present appears only in imitation of the source text;
generally however, the narrative present of the source text is turned
into the preterite in Gothic."

Mitunter wird auch, abgesehn von erzälenden Präsens, ein Präsens der
Vorlage durch das Präteritum wierdergegeben, vgl. z. B. J 14,9 swalaud
melis miþ izwis was . MEQ hUMWN EIMI (Elementarbuch 299, A. 2).

"Sometimes, aside from instances of the narrative present, a present
of the source text is rendered with the preterite."

On the other hand, he goes on to discuss the frequent use of a Gothic
present for a Greek perfect, where the reference is to a continuing
state of affairs that began in the past.

LN

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