50 A GLOSSARY OF LATER 



may appear, they regarded themselves as pure Greeks, in spite of their Slavic fea- 

 tures. 



The vSlavic language before its disappearance from Greece bequeathed to the Greek 

 a number of words (chiefly names of places), and some formative endings. See ^aXra, 

 jSeBoupiov, ^odvo<; or ^oedvo<;, /3oe'/3oSo?, /Soaa'Sf? or ^oXta'Se?, ^uKavov, ^ovTravo<;, in the 

 Glossary. 



For the formative endings, see Diminutives, below. 



The Russians, a branch of the Slavic family, at the instigation of the Byzantine 

 emperor, devastated Bulgaria in the early part of the ninth century.'^' In the reign 

 of Basil the Macedonian, they, together with other Slavic tribes, adopted the ritual and 

 the alphabet of Byzantium.'^ In the latter part of the twelfth century they assisted 

 the emperor against the Comani and Blachi.'^ 



RHYTini. 



§ 35. 



In ancient Greek the basis of rhythm is quantity ; that is, the metrical ictus regu- 

 larly falls upon a long syllable. The word-accent has no influence in versification ; 

 still the laws of the language requu-e that it should be rendered perceptible to the 

 car.'^' But as we are accustomed from infancy to regard accent as the only source of 

 rhythm, we find it difficult to preserve it in reading Greek verse metrically. 



Sometimes the accentual rhjthm of a Greek verse coincides with the quantita- 

 tive ; as, 



"Ovrtva fiev ^aaiXija kcu €^oj(ov dvtpa Ki'^eir}. II. 2, 188. 

 Tdo)v ovTii ofiola vor]iiara nijveXoTrecrj. Od. 2, 121. 

 MePTup, 09 p' 'OSfcr^o? d/j,viJ,ovo? r]ev iTa2po<;. Od. 2, 225. 



"1 Cede. H, 372 (A. D. 802 - 811). 



^-^ Gltc. 553. Anon. 362 seq. The Slavs adopted the common (or Ionic) alphabet, with the addition 

 of the obsolete r (foD), which they confounded with Z. But as this alphabet was found inadequate to expi-ess 

 all the sounds of the Slavic language, they added to it a number of new characters. 



123 NicET. G91 (A. D. 1195-1204). 



1-* AkISTOTEL. Elench. 4, 8 Tlapa 6e rfjU TTpocraSlav iv jxev Tois avev ypa(j>TJs diaXcKTiKots ov pabiov noirja-at 

 Xoyoi', eV 8e Tois yeypappkvois Ka\ 7ToiT]p.acn paKKov • ohv ical tov "Oprjpov tvioi hiopGovvrai irpbs Toiis ikiyxovras i>s droncos 

 (IptjKora " TO piv ov KaTaTTv6(Tai opfipo) " • \vova-i yap airb ttj Trpoa-abia 'XiyovTes to o v o^vrepov. Kal rrepi to ivimpiov 

 TOV 'Ayapepvovos, on ovk avTos 6 Zevs eiTTfv " SlBopfv 8f oi evxos apia-dm," aWa ra ivvirvia ivereWeTO hihovai. From 

 this passage we leara that ov was readily distinguished from ov (even when the latter was pronounced 

 without the rough breathing), and the first person hibopev from the Epic infhiitive Mopev. 



