220 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY 



From Homer to the Attic Tragedians, every age had its peculiarities. 

 From the Attic Tragedians to the Alexandrian period ; from the 

 Alexandrian period to the establishment of Christianity and the By- 

 zantine Empire ; through all the mutations of culture and thought 

 during the long existence of that empire, down to the time of the 

 Crusades; from that time to the capture of Constantinople by the 

 Tui'ks, and the subjection of the Greeks to the dominion of the Sultan ; 

 during the three centuries and a^half of Turkish oppression, — the lan- 

 guage was constantly adapting itself to the condition of the times, 

 but it remained essentially Greek. Of the Modern, as well as of the 

 Ancient Greek, there were many contemporary varieties spoken by the 

 inhabitants of the JEgean Islands, the Asiatic coasts, and the Phanar 

 in Constantinople, by the Rayas of Thrace, Macedonia, Epirus, and 

 Thessaly, and by the population of Central and Southern Greece 

 and of the Ionian Islands. The dialects of some of the islands, to 

 adopt Mr. Clyde's statement, were more or less corrupted with the 

 Italian ; those of Asia Minor, Thrace, Thessaly, Boeotia, and Attica 

 were corrupted with the Turkish ; the dialects of Macedonia, Epirus, 

 and Peloponnesus were corrupted with the Slavonic. This division is 

 not to be taken as exact. Many Turkish words obtained a general 

 currency throughout Greece, and the same may be said of some Sla- 

 vonic and Italian words and phrases. 



" When, towards the close of the last century, a revival of the spirit 

 of nationality in the Gi'eek race commenced, the literaiy men, with 

 Coray at their head, began the systematic improvement and purifica- 

 tion of the language. In this process three courses were suggested : 

 first, to adopt the Modern or Romaic as it then existed ; second, to re- 

 store the Ancient Greek ; third, to purify the Modern from its corrup- 

 tions, to retain its inflections and syntax, and to supply its deficiencies 

 from the treasure-house of the Ancient Greek. The last of these three 

 courses was seen to be the best, and was favored and supported by 

 the ablest men. Turkish, Italian, and Slavonic words were expelled 

 from the language, and the vocabulary has been enlarged to meet the 

 necessities and demands of the present age, by taking pure Ancient 

 Greek words, and by making new compounds out of old Hellenic 

 roots. This process has gone steadily on for half a century, and the 

 language now established in Greece, taught in the schools, written in 

 the newspapers and literary journals, spoken in the legislative halls, the 



