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Is there any particular reason why "this year" and "last year" have these distinctive forms? Are there any etymologies or other derivations that explain it?
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THIS YEAR, εφέτος ή φέτος εφ- fr. επ- fr. επί + έτος
YEAR ***έτος (το) [του έτους, τα έτη, των ετών] αρχ. Ελ. Fέτος (F is the old digamma, I do not have the symbol, a v/w sound.) fr. I.E. wet- (year)
LAST YEAR πέρσι ή πέρυσι fr. I.E. peruti fr per-(beyond) + wt wet- (year)
NEXT YEAR του χρόνου χρόνος time or year, unknown origin. My theory is that it comes from Zeus' father, Kronos/ Κρόνος, who ate his kids, because there is a saying in my language that "Time eats it's children" and we are the children of Time
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It takes πέρσι as incorrect in this excercise. It should be fixed.
This sentence is for Greek to English -- if you have to enter Greek here, it was presumably a listening exercise.
In which case I don't think we can provide alternative spellings -- you have to spell it the way the voice pronounces it (with three syllables).
The English to Greek exercise that is the partner of this sentence (discussion here: https://www.duolingo.com/comment/21351111 ) should accept the spelling πέρσι.
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interestingly germanic has a word from the same root as greek for last year: πέρυσι, both going back to a proto indo european [peruti] the proto germanic form became [ferudi] and is the source for example of the danish and norwegian: i fjor (last year)
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Πέρυσι the same as in Ancient Greek= the last year, πέρσι is right too in Modern greek.
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Does that mean that του χρόνου is ambiguous between "of the year" and "next year"? Or does it consistently mean "next year"?
In theory, it's ambiguous, but in practice, it usually isn't.
I suppose one could construct a sentence such as "We will measure the length of the year" or "We will measure the length next year", but otherwise, it should be pretty clear which meaning is meant since one is used like an adverb, the other will be after a noun.
No, it is used specifically for last year. A "past year" would be "περασμένο έτος"/"περασμένος χρόνος"/"περασμένη χρονιά", because of course year can be in any of the three grammatical genders in Greek!
