34 



THE POPULAR EDUCATOE. 



LESSONS IN GKEEK. II. 



VOWELS, CONSONANTS, PUNCTUATION, ETC. 



THE Greek alphabet, consisting of four-and-twenty letters, is 

 made up of seven vowels and seventeen consonants. The vowels 

 are o, e (17), i, o (o>), u. According to their quantity, long or 

 short, they may be divided thus : 



VOWELS. 



Short. Long. Doubtful, 



f, o. 17, <a. a, I, v. 



By "doubtful" is meant, that the vowels so termed are some- 

 times short and sometimes long : which they are, in any case, is 

 learnt by usage, particularly by the usage of the poets. 



By a union of vowels we produce 



at, an. 



THE DIPHTHONGS. 

 (i, fv. 01, rjv. 



Besides these there are the improper diphthongs, formed by 

 a, 77, or a>, and the iota subscriptum, or written under, as a, 77, <?. 



Both the proper and the improper diphthongs are long, or, in 

 other words, receive the stress of the voice in pronunciation. 



When two vowels commonly pronounced as one sound (a 

 diphthong) are pronounced separately, a diaeresis (separation) 

 is produced, which is denoted by two dots set over the second 

 vowel ; as, ei', o'i, av. 



The consonants are divided, first according to the organs 

 chiefly employed in pronouncing them. Thus, in uttering some, 

 we use the palate or upper part of the throat ; these are termed 

 gutturals (Latin, guttur, a throat). Others are designated 

 labials, being such as come mostly from the lips (Latin, labium, 

 a lip). Others, again, bear the name of linguals, from Latin, 

 lingua, a tongue. 



CONSONANTS. 



Gutturals. Labials. Linguals. 



f, 7, X- *"> #> # /* T > 5, 6, A, v, p, o-. 



Another division arises according to the different manner in 

 which the organs of speech act in their formation. Thus we 

 obtain 



The Bemi-vowels or liquids, A, /j., v, p ; the sibilant or hissing 

 sound, ff; the mutes, IT, K, r, , y, 5, (p, Xi 0. 



These nine mutes are also divided into three gutturals, three 

 labials, and three linguals. In this division regard is had to 

 the organs of speech. If, however, we give attention to the 

 predominant sound, then we classify these nine mutes thus : 

 1, those of the k sound ; 2, those of the t sound ; and, 3, those 

 of the p sound. Once more, they may be considered according 

 to the force or hardness of the utterance, and be separated into 

 three soft, three hard (or middle), and three aspirated. The 

 whole is presented in this tabular view of 



THE CONSONANTS CLASSIFIED. 



Soft. 



Gutturals /c, 

 Linguals T, 

 Labials ir, 



Hard. 

 y, 

 8, 

 )3, 



Aspirated. 



x> K sound. 

 6, T sound. 

 <j>, P sound. 



From a union of the mutes with the sibilant <r there are pro- 

 duced these 



DOUBLE CONSONANTS. 



ty (ps Psi) formed of ir<r, )8<r, <j>er. 

 (x Ksi) ,, /co", yff, x~' 



(z Zeta) 8<r.. 



Sometimes a vowel at the end of a word or syllable, standing 

 before another vowel which begins a word or syllable, is elided 

 or struck out, when we produce what is termed elision (Latin e, 

 out of, and Isedo, I dash). Instead of the elided vowel, an apos- 

 trophe ' is put. Elision takes place in all the prepositions ex- 

 cept irfpt and irpo. When prepositions are compounded with 

 verbs that begin with a vowel, the apostrophe is not used ; thus, 

 air' OIKOV is the elided form of oiro oi/cou, and air<pepoi/ is the 

 elided form of airo-tfyepov. 



When, however, the two vowels thus coming the one before 

 the ether, are melted or blended together, so as to form one 

 long syllable or diphthong, what is grammatically called crasis 

 (Greek, a mixing) takes place. Thus TO tiros by crasis or krasis 

 "becomes rovnros. By resolving the double vowel into its com- 



ponent parts that is, by the inversion of crasis or by dissolu- 

 tion you obtain the two words entire ; so TOVTTOS becomes TO 

 tiros ; also ra.ya.Qa. becomes TO, ayaBa. 



The Greeks paid great attention to euphony, or pleasing 

 sound. Consequently they studied to prevent two vowels from 

 coming into immediate succession, so as to cause an hiatus or 

 stoppage of the flow of the sound such a stoppage as would 

 take place, if instead of saying an hiatus (Latin, a gaping), we 

 were to say a hiatus. To avoid this unpleasant suspension of 

 the breath, we, in English, convert a into an. In the same 

 way, and for the same purpose, the Greeks employed an v at 

 the end 



1. Of the dative plural in <ri, and adverbs of place ending in 



ffi : as, irafftv e\ea ; r] Vl\a.Ta.iaaiv r}ytfj.ovia. 



2. Of the third person singular and plural ending in in, as 



rvirrovaiv t/xe ; riQvffiv fv ry Tpairefo ,- also with <TTI, as 



tffTLV ffJ.01. 



3. Of the third person singular in f, as eTtnrrev e/ie. 



4. Of the numerals, as tiKoffiv avSpes; but not always; there- 



fore we find also eucocri avSpfs. 



Eegard to euphony also led the Greeks to drop the a in the 

 adverb OVTOIS before a word beginning with a consonant : thus, 

 6vTcas firoit^ffef ; but dvro) iroifta. 



Thus the preposition tic, as in K TTJS eipyvris, becomes e 

 before a vowel, as e| tip-nvris. 



The same practice obtains in the negative owe (not, no), as 

 OVK cuo"xpos> ov KaAos ; also, ov% rjSvs. In the last example the 

 aspirate in r)8vs requires the aspirated form of K, that is x> imme- 

 diately before it, for in Greek only letters of the same kind go 

 together, that is, a soft sound with a soft sound, a hard with a 

 hard, and an aspirated sound with an aspirated sound. But of 

 this matter I shall have more to say by-and-by. 



The points employed in punctuating Greek are few ; by the 

 original writers points were not at all used. The comma, the 

 period, and the note of exclamation are employed as in English. 

 What with us is called the semicolon is used in Greek as a note 

 of interrogation ; and the colon is one dot placed at the top of 

 the word, thus 



Colon Ei Aeas- 



Period . irai/res ws &>^n\oyt]ffev. 



Interrogation ; ns TO.VTO. eironjcrei/ , 



PRELIMINARY INSTRUCTION IN THE VERB. 

 Before I proceed to treat of nouns I must say a few worde 

 respecting the verb, inasmuch as without some knowledge of the 

 verb you will be unable to form sentences, as I intend you 

 should from your earliest acquaintance with the Greek grammar. 

 Parts of the verb tivai, to be, are indispensable. I here put 

 down such as you will want, together with the corresponding 

 English, or what is commonly called "the meaning." 



PARTS OF THE VERB (ivat, TO BE. 



fifii, I am. s or ei, thou art. iffQi, be thou. 



rTt, he, she, or it is. TJP, he, she, or it was. tana, let him be. 

 fieri, they are. ijo-av, they were. eare, be ye. 



Observe that tffTi and ei<n become CCTTIV and ticrtv before a 

 word beginning with a vowel. 



Observe also that the Greek ecm is the Latin est, and the 

 English is. 



In the Greek language verbs have three voices, whereas in 

 Latin and in English verbs have only two. If in English I say 

 I strike, I express myself in what is called "the active voice; " 

 but if I say J am struck, I express myself in what is termed 

 " the passive voice." These two voices exist in Greek thus 



Active. Passive. 



I strike. TUTTO/ICII, I am struck. 



Here you observe that the passive is made by adding to the 

 root TVTTT the suffix 0/j.a.i, instead of the letter &>, by which the 

 first person singular of the active is formed. 



The Greeks have a third voice. In the present tense this 

 voice is not distinguished in form from the passive ; being the 

 same word TVTTTO/J.O.I. In signification, however, the third voice 

 diiitrs from the active and the passive. This third voice, under 

 the name of the middle voice, denotes a reflex action, that is, an 

 action which turns back on the agent or actor, as TWO-TOUCH, 1 

 beat myself. 



