PHILOLOGICAL GENIUS OF THE MODERN GREEK LANGUAGE. 74) 
substitutes a weak and feminine for a strong and masculine sound. ‘The like 
verdict must be pronounced on the itacising of the delicate sound of v, which was 
equivalent to the German i in Briider, and the Scotch wt in bluid, guid—a 
vulgarising of a fine sound to which the descent, when corruption once sets 
in, is very prone; as we find even now in Saxony, where Briidér is com- 
monly pronounced breeder, and in Aberdeen, where the south country guzd is 
squeezed out into gweed. 
Proposition X X VII.—It is another question altogether, how far the euphony 
of the Greek language, considered as an eesthetical product, has been affected by 
these corruptions. Latin was corrupted in a similar fashion, and came out of 
the process, not only not less, but, as some think, considerably more euphonious, 
in the shape of Italian and Spanish. The mere change from quantitative to 
accented poetry implies no absolute cacophony ; it is merely the introduction 
of a new rhythmical law, and the transference of the musical weight of a word 
in verse from one syllable to another. This the beautiful hymnology of the 
Latin Church sufficiently attests ; and no man of taste, who knows how to read 
these compositions, will speak less favourably of the unrhymed accented chants 
of the Byzantine Church, except, of course, in so far as he may feel the want 
of the pleasant recurrent sweetness of rhyme. 
xXaipe aorTHp, eudaivav Tov HALOv. 
xXaipe yaoTip evOéov capKkacews’ 
xaipe, Ot Hs veoupyetrat 7 KTlots 
xaipe Ot As Bpepoupyetras 0 xtlaorns 
xatpe, von avipevte.* 
Then, as to the effect of the excessive frequency of the feeble sound of 1, 
expressed by the term itacism, we must bear in mind that, though the modern 
pronunciation applied absolutely to certain picked lines of the ancient classics 
might produce a very petty vocal effect, it does not at all follow that the same 
result will be produced when the modern language is used by those who know 
how to handle it. Such a sequence of weak identical sounds, for instance, 
as occurs when the law of itacism is applied to a word like w\yOuvbein, does 
not exist m the Neo-Hellenic verb ; for the optative is obsolete. But further ; 
it seems to be quite certain, that if certain lines in classical Greek have their 
music marred by the application of the modern itacism, the harmony of the 
whole language is destroyed by the barbarous English pronunciation of the 
diphthong ov, in which the rude canine ow is substituted for the soft and 
velvety oo. And with regard to this beautiful ov, which the English so per- 
vert, it is a noticeable fact, that not only is it one of the most prominent sounds 
* SERGI, vuvos axaOiotos THs Meordxov. Anthol. Greca Carminum Christianorum, Christ et Para- 
nikas. Lips. 1871, p. 140. 
VOL. XXVII. PART I. H 
