. AND BYZANTINE GREEK. 71 



The character /2 is a modification of O, and is the latest of all the new letters of the 

 Greek alphabet. It must have been introduced before the age of Callias, the poet ; for 

 he mentions it in one of his plays.'°^ Its ancient name is simply '/l. 



The adjectives /iiKpdv and /leya were appended to O and 12, respectively, when 

 the latter ceased to be distinguished in pronunciation from the former. These adjec- 

 tives have reference not to the characters O and fl, but to o, w."'' The names O fiiicpov 

 and fl /j,eya often occur in the rules of Chceroboscus, and of other, succeedmg gram- 

 marians. 



It has been asserted that O and f2 were once distinguished from each other by their 

 size. But this is not confirmed by mscriptions, in which stands for o, w, ov. The 

 character 0, indeed, was often made smaller than the other letters, but never with refer- 

 ence to quantity. And in inscriptions of the Alexandrian and Koman periods, all the 

 round letters, namely, O, ft, &, are often smaller than the other letters in the same line.''' 



It must be added here, that Suidas places words beginning with an fl between E and 

 O, evidently because in his time O and fl were confounded with each other. 



In modern Greek no distinction is made between and S2. 



§ 49. 

 The Vowel T. 



In the Phoenician alphabet V is one of the forms of Waw. The Greeks changed it 

 into the vowel which has F (Fai) or Aiyamia) for its corresponding consonant. Originally 

 it was the same in form as the Latin V, but it was modified afterwards into Y and T, 

 and finally into y and v. The ancients had no other name for it than 'r.'^s 



When the sound of the diphthong 01 could no longer be distinguished from that of 

 r, the schoolmasters found it necessary to designate the latter by the epithet yjriXov, 



15' Callias apud Athen. 10, 79. Plat. Cratyl. 393 D. Argument, ad II. 24 'o vUw "EKTopa narpl 



\vTpa>v TTopev ojkvs A;;^i\Xei;9. 



1^* The character <o was introduced about the middle of the third century before Christ. Inscr. 4694. 

 Bekkek. 709 To yap a To peya <TvvT(6eip.hov iarlv « dCo vv, rj cK dCo oo. That IS, a has the appearance of vv 

 or 00 united into one figure. 



155 Feanz. pp. 149. 231. 



156 Callias apud Athen. 10, 79 'y Trapou *!; that is, 'Y tvMch stands near *r. Plat. Cratyl. 393 D. 



Argument, ad II. 20 'Y jiaKapav cvowr) koI (j)i\omi ovpaviavav. Athen. 10, 81. 



According to Eustathius, Y was called "Y/x by the Cohans. But this must be an error, for no Greek word 



ends in M. EuST. 1192, 20 'On 8e t6 Y oroip^ciov "Y^ Xe-youcii' oi AioXeis iiera yjfiXrjs oiKfim tdft (^iKaiTiKoi yap 

 (IcTiv cVl TTacnv) viro tS>v flSoriav naai napa8(8oTai. 



