4 



of the Greek Lan^ua^e. 



S31 



J 



urably received in our mother country, as well as by 



scholars 



period was even taught at our University 

 e now again following the general practice c 



But 



ed in Europe ; and they would feel as mucii ashamed to he ig 



pronunciati 



they 



ould of the letters them- 



selves 



Now 



tb 



f GreeTc 



less ample than in the case of the Hebrew 



they are probably more so ; for Hebrew is admitted by all to be 

 a dead language ; but GreeTc, though commonly called such, 

 can hardly with strict propriety be ranked in that class ; because, 

 though the form of it is somewhat changed, or, as we are accus- 

 tomed to say^ corrupted^ yet the body and substance of it^ (I mean 



the people of education^} and therefo 

 ^ion too, have been transmitted from 



e probably the jpro- 

 one age to another 



d-^ri^ 



^^^^ r 



down to our own times, by the same unmixed race of people, who 

 have always spoken it. and as the same language. Certain it is, 

 at the pronunciation has undergone no perceptible change since 

 the taking of Constantinople by the Turks, (nearly four hundred 

 yeas ago*,) from which period it may be traced back to the elev- 



enth century 



very high degree of certainty; and 



facts conspire to show, that no material change had taken place 

 for the seven or eight preceding centuries. 



f 



At the period of the taking of Constantinople, the learned and 

 accomplished Greeks, who are well known by the honourable ap- 

 pellation of the Restorers of Learnings and who were compelled 

 to seek refuge in Europe from the oppression of their Turkish 

 masters, taught their native language with their native pronuncU 

 ation ; and their European disciples at that time would no soon- 



_^ 



