| 7. Linguistic Exegesis The verse opens with homos {ὅμως | hómōs} ‘likewise’, functioning as a conjunctive adverb that links this illustration to the preceding discussion about intelligible speech. The neuter plural subject ta apsycha {τὰ ἄψυχα | tá ápsycha} ‘the lifeless things’ is immediately qualified by the participial phrase phonen didonta {φωνὴν διδόντα | phōnḗn didónta} ‘giving a sound’, highlighting that even inanimate instruments can produce audible output. The correlative structure eite aulos eite kithara {εἴτε αὐλὸς εἴτε κιθάρα | eíte aulós eíte kithára} introduces two representative instruments, maintaining a balanced parallelism. The conditional clause ean diastolen tois phthongois me do {ἐὰν διαστολὴν τοῖς φθόγγοις μὴ δῷ | eán diastolḗn toîs phthóggois mḗ dō̂i} uses ean with the aorist subjunctive do to express a real condition: “if it does not give a distinction in the tones.” Here diastole {διαστολή | diastolḗ} ‘distinction’ is the direct object, and tois phthongois {τοῖς φθόγγοις | toîs phthóggois} ‘in the tones’ specifies the sphere of variation. The main interrogative clause is introduced by pos gnōsthēsetai {πῶς γνωσθήσεται | pôs gnōsthḗsetai} ‘how will it be known’, followed by articular participles to auloumenon and to kitharizomenon {τὸ αὐλούμενον ἢ τὸ κιθαριζόμενον | tó auloúmenon ḗ tó kitharizómenon} functioning as substantives, ‘what is being played on the flute or what is being played on the harp’. The Greek maintains strict parallelism between the two instruments and between condition and result, which the translation preserves by mirroring the conditional structure and using repeated phrasing for the two articular participles to foreground the need for recognizable, differentiated sound. |