GREEK LANGUAGE 2t 



but its language as well. The mountains which 

 cut off one little group or region from another 

 were barriers to the growth of a common lan- 

 guage, and thus a number of dialects were in 

 use in Greece before the dawn of the historic 

 period. These seem never to have been so 

 distinct, however, that inhabitants of one 

 region could not understand those of another. 

 The dialects of historic times are usually 

 grouped under three main divisions Doric. 

 Aeolic and Ionic, this latter including Attic. 

 The two former were more harsh and unculti- 

 vated than the Ionic, which with the Attic was 

 the chief literary language. The poems of 

 Homer are the oldest writings in the Ionic dia- 

 lect, but Homer's language was never a vernac- 

 ular the speech of one locality; it was always 

 a purely literary language. Later, the greatest 

 of Greek writers, Aeschylus, Sophocles, Eurip- 

 ides, Xenophon, Plato, used the Attic dialect, 

 and this has been adopted by scholars as the 

 standard of the ancient and classic Greek. 



Still later there arose a slightly modified 

 Attic, known as the "common dialect," which 

 the conquest of Alexander the Great made 

 widely prevalent. Plutarch and Lucian used 

 this form, and the New Testament was written 

 in it. 



All the alphabets of modern Europe may be 

 traced back to the Greek alphabet (see ALPHA- 

 BET), which was in its turn derived from the 

 Phoenician. Just when it was introduced is not 

 known, but there are inscriptions which date 

 from the seventh century B.C. There were 

 changes and developments in the alphabet after 

 its adoption, but as finally worked out it con- 

 sisted of twenty-four letters. Most of the con- 

 sonants were pronounced much like their Eng- 

 lish equivalents, but the vowel sounds more 

 closely resembled the German. Greek had also 

 the so-called "rough breathing" and "smooth 

 breathing'' marks, and three accents. These did 

 not, like an English accent mark, indicate 

 stress, but voice pitch. Originally, Greek writ- 

 ing, like the Phoenician, was from right to left, 

 later the direction alternated, "as an ox plows." 

 but from 500 B. c. a uniform direction from 

 left to right was followed. 



Modern Greek. The modern period of the 

 Greek language is generally considered to have 

 begun about A. D. 800. Considering the fact 

 that the changes which differentiate modern 

 Greek from the old "common dialect" have 

 been over a thousand years in the making, they 

 are not extreme. They do affect the language 

 in almost every department, however in pro- 



[1 GREEK LANGUAGE 



nunciation, in inflection and in vocabulary. 

 Just how great the differences in pronunciation 

 are it is impossible to determine, for scholars 

 are by no means agreed as to the exact pro- 

 nunciation of classical Greek; but it is certain 

 that six vowels and diphthongs which anciently 

 stood for different sounds are now pronounced 

 alike. As to syntax, the change has been from 

 the old, fully-inflected, or synthetic, character 

 to the analytic; that is. many old inflections 

 have been lost, and their places taken by 

 auxiliary words. The change in vocabulary has 

 consisted largely in the additions of words from 

 other languages ; but since modern Greece 

 became again an independent nation its writers 

 have united in an effort to banish these bor- 

 rowed words and to return in other ways to 

 the usages of classic Greek. Incredible as it 

 may seem, an educated Greek of the time of 

 Pericles (which see), if he could return to 

 earth, could read without great difficulty a 

 Greek book published in the twentieth century. 



As a Study in Schools. Greek, even more 

 than Latin, has lost much of its popularity as 

 a study in schools of every grade. About 1550 

 no less famous a person than Rabelais wrote to 

 a friend that Greek was "that without which it 

 is a disgrace for a man to style himself 

 scholar." Much of the preeminence then 

 granted to Greek still remains in European 

 universities; there the highest honors are 

 usually reserved for students of Greek and 

 Lafin. In the United States it was equally true 

 for many years that no man could be consid- 

 ered well educated unless he could read and 

 write 'Greek fluently. With the development 

 of American colleges and the broadening of 

 their curriculums, and especially since the 

 introduction of the elective system, Greek has 

 lost its position as a necessary part of educa- 

 tion. Greek is still studied in colleges and 

 even in high schools and preparatory school*, 

 but the number of students is falling off rap- 

 idly. Most colleges no longer require Greek 

 either for admission or for graduation, although 

 some colleges award special degrees, such as 

 Bachelor of Letters or Bachelor of Philosophy, 

 to students who have offered no Greek. In 

 preparation for the ministry, Greek is -mi 

 regarded as a requisite, but in nearly all other 

 professions it has become of secondary impor- 

 tance. 



The study of Greek is usually l>ogun in the 

 high schools with elementary work in grammar 

 and composition, followed by Xenophon'- 

 Anahasia and Homer's Iliad. The college 



