250 



NOTES AND QUEKIES. [2nd S. VI. us.. Sept. 25. '58. 



gum recta Pronunciatione seripserunt, 2 vols. 4to., 

 and a summary of the arguments which chiefly 

 make for the Byzantine party will be found in the 

 'ApxoioAo7ia 'EAATyciKo of Gregorius leromonachus 

 Paliurites, printed at Venice in 1815, vol. ii. p. 

 309. J. Emeeson Tbnnent. 



partially used in Germany : e. g. /3=r, 7=y (ex- 

 cept before a and o), S'=th (in this^, ixn-=b, and 

 X=^ch, in German. T. J. Buckton. 



Lichfield. 



The present English method was settled in the 

 time of Erasmus (Southey's Omniana). The pro- 

 nunciation of the Greek child, as represented, is 

 correct in modern Greek, and is that which was 

 adopted by Reuchlin. But both are deviations 

 from the ancient method. Both confound three 

 distinct things : 1, length of syllables (quantity) ; 



2, elevation and depression of voice (accent) ; and 



3, syllabic emphasis (Jtctus)* \ and both mispro- 

 nounce certain vowels and consonants. To arrive 

 approximately at the ancient pronunciation, varied 

 however in different ages and places in Greece and 

 her colonies, comparative philology must be re- 

 sorted to. There are many Greek words adopted 

 into the Syriac and Arabic, as also into the 

 Russian language, besides proper names. The 

 Septuagint version, in respect of names and un- 

 translated words, being compared with the He- 

 brew, together with the Hexapla of Origen, which 

 gives the pronunciation of Hebrew in Greek let- 

 ters, will furnish the student with a close approxi- 

 mation to the ancient pronunciation of Greek, 

 due allowance being made for the conventional 

 alteration in the sound of a Greek word, to adapt 

 it to the idiosyncracy and vocal powers of the 

 other languages named. 



The English Universities have treated the 

 Greek and Latin tongues as the lawyers have the 

 Norman-French. The assumption in these cases 

 is, that as the true pronunciation is lost, we may 

 speak Greek, Latin, and Norman- French after 

 our own fashion. When a learned English Doc- 

 tor of Divinity waited on the Pope, a few years 

 ago, to open out to him a scheme of church union, 

 the Pope was unable to understand the Doctor's 

 English-Latin, and to the Doctor the Pope's 

 Italian-Latin was equally unintelligible. Fortu- 

 nately the Doctor's wife understanding Italian, 

 the Pope and the Doctor discussed their theolo- 

 gical politics through that medium. 



The pronunciation of modern Greek, and the 

 method of Erasmus, may be learnt from Burnouf s 

 Methode pour etudier la Langue Grecque, p. 2. The 

 French and German grammarians have not adopted 

 the modern Greek method, although in some in- 

 stances it represents the ancient method, and is 



* For example, in librarian, the ascending accent is on 

 the first S3'llable U, and on the third ri; the descending 

 accent is on bra and an (the second and fourth syllables) ; 

 the ictus, or syllabic emphasis (what in English is called 

 accent), is on the second syllable. (See Sheridan's Ai-t of 

 Reading, p. 75.). The ictus is the forte in music, and the 

 accent is the note above or below. 



E. F. D. C. tells us he met a modern Greek 

 who pronounced &v, in &v6pconos, as we enunciate 

 the word can^t; and your correspondent asks, 

 " whence did we obtain our pronunciation of 

 Greek ?" I beg E. F. D. C.'s attention to a re- 

 mark or two. 



1. He mistakes. The Greek did iiot so pro- 

 nounce &u. His sound was like our an in ant or 

 fan. I have spent sixteen years among the Greeks ; 

 know their language much as I know my own ; 

 and affirm that a is thus sounded in Audpuiros, as it 

 is almost uniformly. The exceptions are few ; 

 such as hvyaT-qp, daughter, where it is like a m 

 carit, or as in father. 



2. If your correspondent dip into Anthony 

 Wood's Antiquitates Oxonienses, he will find that 

 our mode of pronouncing Greek originated in a 

 lark, and in the laziness of Greek Professors at 

 that University. When Greek was first studied 

 at Oxford, it was pronounced just as it is noiu in 

 living Greece. For example : gacriKevs was vasi- 

 lefs ; SdvSpov was thenthroti, th as in then, not as in 

 thin ; and rhv irarepa was torn hatera, the v becom- 

 ing 7n by euphony with tt, and -n- becoming § by 

 euphony with c, sounded m. 



3. Idle Professors at Oxford, disliking the 

 trouble of learning this true system of sounds, 

 fell into the habit of pronouncing each Greek 

 letter as we in English sound our corresponding 

 letter. Thus e became b, not v ; and so of the 

 rest. Though fines were ordained at Oxford, all 

 was in vain. Such is the real and disreputable 

 origin of what we gravely call " our English sys- 

 tem" — system ! ! 



4. Though oicr enunciation of Greek characters 

 is the very antipodes of that of living Greeks, it 

 is certain that the latter is that of ancient Greece 

 too. I have a manuscript by me proving this ; but 

 fear of expense prevents its publication. 



5. Should any one long to see proof that the 

 sounds of the living Greeks are precisely those of 

 the purely classic ages, let him address me as 

 below. Shekidan Wulson. 



23. New King Street, Bath. 



WORDS ADAPTED TO BEATS OF THE DKCM. 



(2"* S. i. 94. ; ii. 339.) 



Le Tambour will not, I think, find in any 

 work a printed collection of words adapted to 

 military drum-beats or bugle- calls. The Grub 

 Street rhymes which have reached our day have 

 been transmitted orally from the mouth of one 

 drummer or bugler to his successor ; and so on, 



