The Greek Language and Dialects. 1. The inhabitants of ancient Greece called themselves Hellenes ("Enves), and their country Hellas ('EMλás). The name Hellenes was applied also to the members of the same race, dispersed by colonization over the islands and coasts of the Mediterranean. By the Romans they were called Graeci, and hence are known to us as Greeks. Their language-the Greek-is connected with the languages of the Indians, Persians, Romans, the Slavonic, Germanic, and Celtic nations. These are all kindred languages, and together form the IndoEuropean family of languages. 2. The Hellenes referred themselves for the most part to three principal divisions, Aeolians, Dorians, and Ionians. To these belonged three groups of dialects: the Acolic, spoken in Aeolis, Bocotia, Thessaly, and elsewhere; the Doric, in Peloponnesus, Isthmus, and north-western Greece, also in Crete and Caria, Sicily and southern Italy; the Ionic, in Ionia and Attica, and in most of the Aegean islands. The Aeolic and Doric groups were more closely related to each other than either was to the Ionic. In each group the various dialects differed somewhat from each other; and the Aeolic dialects in particular were very unlike. As regards the written works which have come down to us, it is enough to specify the following forms: 3. a. The Aeolic of Lesbos, found in the lyric fragments of Alcaeus and the poetess Sappho (600 B. C.). B. C.) and b. The Doric, found in the lyric poetry of Pindar (470 the bucolic (pastoral) poetry of Theocritus (270 B. C.). Attic dramas in their lyric parts contain some Doric forms. guage of Pindar has some peculiarities derived from the Aeolic, and still more from the Epic. c. The Ionic, including (1) The Old Ionic, or Epic, found in the poetry of Homer and Hesiod (before 700 B. C.). In all the poetry of later times (though least of all in the dramatic dialogue) we find more or less admixture of Epic words and forms. (2) The New Ionic, the language of Ionia about 425 B. c., found in the history of Herodotus and the medical writings of Hippocrates. 1 D. In Homer, Hellas is only a district in northern Greece, the Hellenes its inhabitants. For the Greeks at large, he uses the names 'Axaιoi, 'Apyeîol, Aavaoí, which, strictly taken, belong only to a part of the whole people. 2 D. The division into Aeolians, Dorians, Ionians, is unknown to Homer. 114 The following dialect, though in strictness the Ionic of Attica, and closely related to the two preceding, is always distinguished as d. The Attic, the language of Athens in her flourishing period (from 490 B. c.), found in many works of poetry and prose, especially the tragedies of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, the comedies of Aristophanes, the histories of Thucydides and Xenophon, the philosophical writings of Plato, and the orations of Lysias, Isocrates, Aeschines, and Demosthenes. The political importance of Athens and the superiority of her literature gave a great ascendancy to her dialect, which at length banished the others from literary use; though the Doric and the Old Ionic were still retained, the latter for epic, the former for lyric and bucolic poetry. The Attic thus became the common language of all cultivated Greeks; but at the same time began to lose its earlier purity. In this state, commencing about the time of Alexander (who died 323 B. C.), it is called e. The Common dialect (n κown diáλekros), in distinction from the purer Attic. On the border between the two, stands the great philosopher Aristotle, with his pupil Theophrastus. Among later authors, the most important are the historians Polybius (140 B. C.), Plutarch (100 A. D.), Arrian (150 A. D.), and Dio Cassius (200 A. D.), the geographer Strabo (1 A. D.), and the rhetoricians Dionysius of Halicarnassus (30 B. C.), and Lucian (170 a. D.). REMARK.-There is a noticeable difference between the earlier and later Attic. The first is seen in the tragic poets and Thucydides; the last, in most other Attic writers. The language of Plato has an intermediate character. The tragic language is marked by many peculiarities of its own. 4. For completeness, we may add f. The Hellenistic, a variety of the Common dialect, found in the New Testament, and in the Septuagint version of the Old Testament. The name comes from the term Hellenist (Ελληνιστής from ελληνίζω), applied to Hebrews, or others of foreign birth, who used the Greek language. g. The Modern Greek, or popular language for the last thousand years, found in written works since about 1150 A. D. It is also called Romaic from 'Poμaîoi (Romans), the name assumed in place of "EXλnves by the Greeks of the middle ages. NOTE.-Through the first two Parts of the Grammar, the forms of Attic Greek, especially the Attic prose, are described in the body of the text; while the peculiarities of other dialects (particularly those of Homer and Herodotus) are added in smaller type at the foot of each page. Hm. stands for Homer, and Hd. for Herodotus; cf. is used for Latin confer (compare); sc. for scilicet (to wit); ib. for ibidem (in the same place); i. e. for id est (that is); e. g. for exempli gratia (for example); Kтλ. for kal Tà λoiná (Lat. et cetera). Other abbreviations will explain themselves. |