48 



EMERITUS PROFESSOR BLACKIE ON THE 









Now in this passage 







fa 



f irypav 



write 



e7r#/oct»v. 





For 



XapfjXuxrovv 



write \afaai\wrt 



» 



Tt]V 



» 



ayTJjv. 





)> 



oretAe 



>3 



oTeiXaTe. 



)> 



(xovacm'ipt 



>» 



^tOiva(TT///OtOl'. 





„ 



epOovp 



33 



e\6w(ri. 



>> 



Kapiravai? 



j» 



KwSwiXXS- 





33 



7Tia<T0W 



33 



7rie'£cocri. 



» 



ircnnras 



j> 



lepevg. 





33 



t 

 irapovv 



33 



eirapUKTi. 



» 



Kade 



?? 



eKCKTTO?- 





„ 



apvkvvovv 



33 



apvXvvcoart- 



33 



Sluko<s 



3) 



StaKovog. 





;> 



<rav 



33 



w? av. 



1) 



cri/ma. 



33 



a)?. 





33 



atcovirev 



33 



tjKovirev. 



33 



va 



33 



iva. 





33 



Saicpv^ovv 



33 



SaKpvovcri. 



33 



fiyovv 



3' 



eicfiaivovo-i. 





33 



n 



33 



at. 



M 



/3acri\eas 



33 



{3(X(Tl\€VS. 





>3 



o-unra 



„ 



aiunra. 



n 



TOVS 



33 



avTOis- 





33 



7raXe 



33 



iraXiv. 



» 



foe 



33 



%\0e. 





33 



fie 



33 



p.era. 



>> 



to arofia 



33 



TOV (TTOfXaTOS. 





33 



SlKU 



33 



IStKa. 



33 



GKprJT 



33 



acptere. 





33 



eivai 



33 



€(TTl. 



Now here we have thirty corruptions for only fourteen lines ; but some of them are 

 mere repetitions, and others are so slight as to be easily guessed ; not, certainly, amount- 

 ing to a new language in the sense that Spanish or Portuguese are new languages from 

 Latin, and Dutch a distinct species from German. Let us now classify, under distinct 

 heads, the deviations from the literary type which this and similar productions of the 

 unlettered Muse sporadically present. 



1. The loss of the infinitive mood, for which va for <Va with the subjunctive is the 

 regular substitute, as if we should say in English " I beg that you accept," for " I beg you 

 to accept." 



2. The loss of the optative mood — logically to be lamented, but practically of no 

 consequence — " I said so that you may not misunderstand me," being as intelligible as 

 " that you might not." In Greek this loss was facilitated partly by the multiform luxu- 

 riance of the verb, partly by the identity in pronunciation of oi and n, both being the 

 English ee, which appears regularly in the New Testament (see John iii. 25). 



3. The disappearance of the dative case is much more serious ; no doubt the accusative 

 is the case in most frequent use, and which strikes the ear more forcibly ; our language, 

 which is a history of losses, has done the same, " him " standing for the German ihm and 

 ihn ; but the Greeks have done worse ; along with the dative case they have lost the 

 preposition ev, with which it is naturally joined, and so for " in these circumstances," they 

 say, e<? ret? irepi<TTa<Tei<; Taurus, as in Scotch we say, " this man has muckle room in his 

 head, but there's na muckle intil't." 



4. Another equally, perhaps more serious loss, as more foreign from the genius of the 

 classic idiom, is the resolution of the tenses expressed in English by " have " and " had," 

 "will" and "should," into auxiliary verbs exactly as in modern languages — ei^a being 

 used for a pluperfect, and 6a for " will " and " would." 



