Augment

In linguistics, the augment is a syllable added to the beginning of the word in certain Indo-European languages, most notably Greek, Armenian, and the Indo-Iranian languages such as Sanskrit, to form the past tenses.

Indo-European languages

Historical linguists are uncertain whether the augment is a feature that was added to these branches of Indo-European, or whether the augment was present in the parent language and lost by all other branches (see also Proto-Greek).

Greek

Ancient Greek

In Ancient Greek, the verb λέγω légo “I say” has the aorist ἔλεξα élexa “I said”. The initial ε e is the augment. When this comes before a consonant, it is called the "syllabic augment", because it adds a syllable. Sometimes the syllabic augment appears before a vowel, because the initial consonant of the verbal root (usually digamma) was lost:^[1]

• *έ-ϝιδον → (loss of digamma) *ἔιδον → (synaeresis) εἶδον

When the augment is added before a vowel, the augment and the vowel are contracted, and the vowel becomes long: akoúō "I hear", ḗkousa "I heard". This is sometimes called the "temporal augment", because it increases the time needed to pronounce the vowel.^[2]

Homeric Greek

In Homer, past-tense (aorist or imperfect) verbs appeared both with and without an augment.

• ὣς φάτο — ὣς ἔφατο
  hṑs pháto — hṑs éphato
  "so he/she said"
• ἦμος δ᾿ ἠριγένεια φάνη ῥοδοδάκτυλος Ἠώς,
  êmos d' ērigéneia phánē rhododáktulos Ēṓs,
  "And when rose-fingered Dawn appeared, early-born,"

Modern Greek

Unaccented syllabic augment disappeared during the Byzantine period as a result of the loss of unstressed initial syllables. However, accented syllabic augments remained in place^[3] So Ancient ἔλυσα, ἐλύσαμεν "I loosened, we loosened" corresponds to Modern έλυσα, λύσαμε. ^[4] Temporal augment has not survived in the vernacular, which leaves the initial vowel unaltered: Ancient ἀγαπῶ, ἠγάπησα "I love, I loved", Modern αγαπώ, αγάπησα.

Sanskrit

Sanskrit had the augment a-, prefixed to past-tense verbs (aorist and imperfect). ^[5]

Other

• Phrygian seems to have had an augment.
• Classical Armenian had an augment.^[6]
• Yaghnobi, an East Iranian language spoken in Tajikistan, has an augment.

Non-Indo-European languages

The term has also been extended to describe similar features in non-Indo-Europeans languages. For example, in Nahuatl, the perfect ō- prefix is called an augment. It is also a common term in Bantu linguistics.

References

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