PHILOLOGICAL GENIUS OF THE MODERN GREEK LANGUAGE. iy) 
as the full form éem$vpo. But further, the fact is that the curtailments of 
which we have spoken affect only a limited class of words ; and, singularly 
enough, the largest class to which apocope is applied contains a compensation 
which leaves the apocopated word as many syllables, or perhaps more than the 
original word of the classical tongue. ‘This apparent paradox arises out of 
that substitution of diminutives for the original word, which we have already 
noted as characteristic of the modern dialect. For the diminutive in Greek, 
and all the Aryan languages, while it lessens the idea, increases the magni- 
tude of the word, as in Bpédos, BpepidNov, petpa€, pepdxiov, od pE, capKdpior, 
and so forth, from which the consequence follows, that where a diminutive 
is systematically substituted for the simple word, and afterwards apocopated, 
the syllabic magnitude of the word is not dimimished. Sometimes it may even 
be increased, as audi, Tavdiov, Traits ; TOTAL, TOTAMLLOV, TOTALS ; YEpovTaxt, YEpov- 
TaK.ov, yepdovr.ov yépwv. If to these considerations we add the exuberant, am- 
plificative and expansive tendency of the Greek language, and its delight in the 
formation of new compounds (p. 12, above), we shall be prepared to believe 
that the existing Greek language is no wise inferior to its classical prototype in 
point of syllabic luxuriance, and the student of ARISTOPHANEs, whose ear swells 
with pleasure at the o¢paywWovvyapyoxouyrns, and other sesquipedalian luxuries 
of the jovial Attic comedian, will not be surprised at encountering yaB.apoxare- 
hurtos, oKovptrpoTrahapooTacTdés, €yypavroTracTopayos, and such like, in his meagre 
Byzantine follower. 
Proposition X XII.—The practice of substituting the diminutive regularly 
for the simple word, which we have just mentioned, deserves further the special 
remark, that besides being a characteristic of Italian, as in sorella, fratello, 
uccello, &c., it had its origin in the earliest classical times, as we see in the Latin 
oculus, from the old root éxxos (HEsycu), identical with dvyj, German auge, 
Sanscrit akshi, in auricula, Italian orecchia, for auris, and in the classical Greek 
Onpiovy, wediov, and’ a few others. In ArisTopHANES the frequent use of the 
diminutives must strike every reader; and we see here, as in most other in- 
stances, that what we call modern Greek is merely the natural development and 
full growth of tendencies deeply rooted in the heart, if not always visible on 
the surface of the classical tongue. 
Proposition X XIIJ.—The chapter of curtailment on which we have been 
dilating, so common in the progress of all languages, suggests, as its natural 
complement and counterpart, the chapter of addition or increment, whether 
that addition be real, that is, an appendage posteriorly added to the root, or only 
a part of the root, by change of circumstance brought to the surface after a 
long period of concealment, as happens to seeds sometimes by the process of 
