In Ancient Greek

Ancient Greek

Ancient Greek is the stage of the Greek language in the periods spanning the times c. 9th–6th centuries BC, , c. 5th–4th centuries BC , and the c. 3rd century BC – 6th century AD of ancient Greece and the ancient world; being predated in the 2nd millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek...

 grammar, movable nu or movable N ( nû ephelkystikón "dragged onto" or "attracted to") is an ν

Nu (letter)

Nu , is the 13th letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals it has a value of 50...

 (n) placed on the end of some grammatical forms in Attic

Attic Greek

Attic Greek is the prestige dialect of Ancient Greek that was spoken in Attica, which includes Athens. Of the ancient dialects, it is the most similar to later Greek, and is the standard form of the language studied in courses of "Ancient Greek". It is sometimes included in Ionic.- Origin and range...

 or Ionic Greek

Ionic Greek

Ionic Greek was a subdialect of the Attic–Ionic dialect group of Ancient Greek .-History:Ionic dialect appears to have spread originally from the Greek mainland across the Aegean at the time of the Dorian invasions, around the 11th Century B.C.By the end of the Greek Dark Ages in the 5th Century...

. It is used to avoid two vowels in a row (hiatus

Hiatus (linguistics)

In phonology, hiatus or diaeresis refers to two vowel sounds occurring in adjacent syllables, with no intervening consonant. When two adjacent vowel sounds occur in the same syllable, the result is instead described as a diphthong....

) or to create a long syllable

Syllable weight

In linguistics, syllable weight is the concept that syllables pattern together according to the number and/or duration of segments in the rime. In classical poetry, both Greek and Latin, distinctions of syllable weight were fundamental to the meter of the line....

 in poetic meter

Meter (poetry)

In poetry, metre is the basic rhythmic structure of a verse or lines in verse. Many traditional verse forms prescribe a specific verse metre, or a certain set of metres alternating in a particular order. The study of metres and forms of versification is known as prosody...

.

Grammatical forms

Movable nu may appear at the end of certain forms of verbs, nouns, and adjectives. In grammatical paradigm

Paradigm

The word paradigm has been used in science to describe distinct concepts. It comes from Greek "παράδειγμα" , "pattern, example, sample" from the verb "παραδείκνυμι" , "exhibit, represent, expose" and that from "παρά" , "beside, beyond" + "δείκνυμι" , "to show, to point out".The original Greek...

s, it is usually written with a parenthesis to indicate that it is optional.

third person plural present and future
λέγουσι(ν) τιθέασι(ν)	"they say" "they place"	present
λέξουσι(ν)	"they will say"	future
third person singular perfect and past
τέθνηκε(ν)	"he has died", "is dead"	perfect
ἔλεγε(ν)	"he was saying"	imperfect
εἶπε(ν)	"he said"	aorist
ἐτεθνήκει(ν)	"he had died", "was dead"	pluperfect
third person singular present (athematic verbs)
τίθησι(ν)	"he places"
ἐστί(ν)	"it is"
third declension Third declension The third declension is a category of nouns in Latin and Greek with broadly similar case formation — diverse stems, but similar endings. In contrast with the first- and second-declension endings, those of the third declension lack a theme vowel and so are called athematic.One distinguishing...  dative Dative case The dative case is a grammatical case generally used to indicate the noun to whom something is given, as in "George gave Jamie a drink"....  plural
Ἕλλησι(ν)	"to Greeks"
πᾶσι(ν)	"to all"

Usage

Movable nu is used before words starting in a vowel to prevent hiatus

Hiatus (linguistics)

In phonology, hiatus or diaeresis refers to two vowel sounds occurring in adjacent syllables, with no intervening consonant. When two adjacent vowel sounds occur in the same syllable, the result is instead described as a diphthong....

.

• πᾶσιν ἔλεγεν ἐκεῖνα "he said those things to everyone"

It is omitted before consonants.

• πᾶσι λέγουσι ταῦτα "they say these things to everyone"

It is often used at the end of clauses or verses.

Sources

Herbert Weir Smyth

Herbert Weir Smyth

Herbert Weir Smyth was an American classical scholar. His comprehensive grammar of ancient Greek has become a standard reference on the subject in English, comparable to William Watson Goodwin's, whom he succeeded as Eliott Professor of Greek Literature at Harvard University.He was educated at...

, A Greek Grammar, par. 134.