PHILOLOGICAL GENIUS OF THE MODERN GREEK LANGUAGE. 35 
deserving special consideration, the general dialect of the modern Greek, from 
the Byzantine lingo of ProcHopropRomus, to the Cretan of CorNnaro, and the 
Epirotic of the Klephtic ballads, certainly does present certain features of an 
A®olo-Doric physiognomy. Of this the dominance of the broad vowel a, not 
only in the nominative of all masculine agents, as above mentioned (p. 23), but 
in a large class of verbs, as in (yra@ for Cyret, werpa for perpet, doBara for 
dofetra, is in itself sufficient evidence. But besides this, we have the well- 
known Doric peculiarity of forming all verbs whose future is in € from a present 
in ¢ instead of a double o, according to the Attic usage ; thus, instead of tracow 
we have raw ;* and in this way has been formed a large class of modern verbs, 
as, dovalo, dwvdéw, doBepilo, poBepiEw, tpoudlw, tpowato. Of olism, the 
accusative plural of the first declension in a instead of a, as Movoas for Movcas, 
is a familiar example. On the other hand, it is not to be denied that there are 
some traces of Ionic also in modern Greek, as in the conversion of o or w into 
ov, and the use of the slender 7 for the broad a in certain adjectives in pos ; but 
I have not been able to confirm from my observation the strong remark of the 
late Viscount STRANGFORD on this point—one of the best authorities no doubt— 
to the effect that, ‘‘it would be easy to show two Ionisms for one olism or 
Dorism in modern Greek.t 
A kindred point to this dialectic physiognomy of the modern tongue is 
brought out by the occurrence in it of certain words, or forms of words, which 
anciently were confined to poetic usage, but have now passed into general cir- 
culation. The following is a short list of this type which I have collected :— 
cuyahds, (PINDAR). 
Bpox, for verds. 
oppatia,  oppara, Homer, for 6¢0adpos. 
Tpixvpia, storm at sea, for hathay. 
vootysos, for Tepmvds. 
KTUTA0, éw, Hom., for tumTo. 
KTpLov, xréap, HoM., for krnpa. 
apmeva, tackling, riggling, for oma. 
NuBddiov, from \iBas, for epor. 
Spocepds, for ndvs. 
TAXWOS, (CALI), for taxvs. 
aidovoa, a hall. 
The transference of such words from poetical into common usage is not 
a phenomenon that need excite any surprise. The popularity of a great 
* Aurens, De Dialecto Dorica. 
+ On Cretan and Modern Greek,” in the Appendix to Captain Sprar1’s “ Travels in Crete, 
vol. 1. 
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