Pronunciation of the Ancient and Modern Greek Languages. 475 
1. Distinct statements of grammarians. 
2. Incidental notices in other ancient authors. 
3. Variations in writing of inscriptions and MSS. 
4. Phonetic spelling of cries of animals. 
5. Puns and riddles. 
6. The value of the respective letters in other languages employ- 
ing the same alphabet, especially Latin. 
7. The way in which Latin proper names are spelt in Greek, and 
vice versd. 
8. The traditions of pronunciation preserved in modern Greek. 
He concluded that, on the whole, the method of Erasmus ap- 
proached more nearly to the ancient pronunciation than that of 
Reuchlin. 
‘«« But,” he proceeded, ‘“‘ when we consider the untrustworthiness 
of each of these sources of evidence taken singly, and when moreover 
we find them often in conflict with one another, it cannot be ex- 
pected that the result should be very certain or very satisfactory. 
There are also other considerations which enhance the difficulty of 
the inquiry. As there were very marked dialectic varieties in Greece, 
so there may have been local variations even in Attica itself. 
“The pronunciation, too, changed from time to time. Plato gives 
us proof of this in the ‘ Cratylus.’ ” 
After quoting several instances, and showing that great changes 
both in pronunciation and spelling had taken place in modern lan- 
guages, French, Spanish, and English, ‘it would,” he said, ‘be 
hopeless to attempt to determine the pronunciation of any language 
by a reference to its orthography at a time when both were perpe- 
tually changing. But in the history of every nation there arrives a 
time when the creative energy of its literature seems to have spent 
itself; when, instead of developing new forms, men begin to look 
back and not forward, to comment and to criticise. ‘Then it is that 
a language begins to assume, even in minor and merely outward 
points, such as pronunciation and spelling, a fixity and rigidity 
which it retains with scarcely any change so long as the nation 
holds together. Such a period in Greek history was that which 
began with the grammarian sophists in the fifth century B.c., and 
culminated in Aristarchus and Aristophanes of Byzantium. In the 
spelling and pronunciation of Greek there was probably very little 
change from that time to the end of the third century a.p.” 
October 19.—Dr. Paget made a communication ‘“‘ On some Points 
in the Physiclogy of Laughter.”’ 
November 12.—The Public Orator read a paper (a sequel to that 
on May 21) ‘‘On the Accentuation of Ancient Greek.” 
The question of accents was not discussed in the Reuchlin and 
Erasmus dispute. At that time all pronounced according to the 
system of accents introduced by the Greeks of Constantinople, who 
first taught the ancient language to the Italians. 
It was probably in Elizabeth’s reign that we began to disuse the 
old pronunciation of vowels both in Greek and Latin; and concur- 
rently with this change we, as well as the other nations of Europe, 
