During the brilliant era of the Augustan B.C.31. age, and the centuries which succeeded pre- 330. introduced an indefinite article vas, unknown to the ancients; they prefix the respective pronouns to each person of their verbs, and in their conjugations have adopted the use of auxiliaries ex, éxw, &c. as well as elus for the formation of the passive voice; together with a number of minor discrepancies. But in the eyes of Europeans, the grand distinction consists in the peculiarities of its literal pronunciation. n, With the modern Greeks, the vowels 1, 1, and u, and the diphthongs ɛi, ol, and vi, have indiscriminately the same sound as that of the Italian i: and the diphthong a, are each identical with the Italian e; ou is sounded as u, and au and ev are resolved into af and ef before all the vowels, and any of the consonants, save ß, y, d, 3, λ, μ, v, p, where they assume the broader sound of av and ev. B has the sound of v, and the European b is always expressed in Greek by the combination of μ and ; y is reduced nearly to the guttural softness of y when a consonant; & is scarcely distinguishable from the English sound of th, or the of the ancients: and x, with the Athenians, is nearly similar to c before i of the Italians. Whether this mode of pronunciation be in all cases identical with that of the original Greeks, or in how far it may differ from it, is a question which has occupied the pens of some of our ablest Hellenists, but whose decision is still far from being satisfactory. With the modern Greeks themselves, the conviction is of course in their own favour; and Simon Portius, one of their earliest philologians, and a Cretan by birth, exclaims with virulent contempt against those who would prefer their own barbarous theories to the established customs of a nation, whose pronunciation had been handed A.D. B.C.31. vious to the transfer of the capital to Byzan330. tium; whilst the invigorating spirit of Greece A.D. down, uncorrupted, from generation to generation. When, after the fall of Constantinople, Greek learning was introduced by the fugitive Greeks into Italy, and thence diffused over Germany, France, and the West,t it was with all those. * "Mirari se (Portius) ait," says Ducange, "quosdam doctos et non vulgari præditos eruditionis varietate, eò temeritatis venisse ut germanam, integram et arроnаpádorov recentiorum Græcorum pronuntiationem, chimericis nescio quibus ducti conjecturis, totis viribus ausi fuerint, quam sanè temerario judicio, sic irrito conatu pervertere et deturpare. Profecto," he adds, "si Græcis maternæ linguæ flexiones et una cum lacte acceptos haustosque sonos et accentus puros et intactos audes denegare, cur barbaris eos concedas, cur extero cuique, qui aliarum nationum accentus suo nativoque accommodat, toto ut aiunt cœlo à recto earumdem nationum pronuntiatione aberrans atque deflectens." In this controversy, Ducange wisely abstains from pronouncing any opinion of his own.-See Rizo, Cours, &c. pp. 22, n. 3. 172. + The first Greek grammar known in the West was that of Constantine Lascaris, who taught the language at Milan and Messina, in the latter half of the fifteenth century. It was digested from the fragments of Herodian and Apollonius, and was published at Milan in 1476, being the first Greek book printed in Italy, though Greek quotations had been inserted in others. Urbano Valeriano Bolzanio, of Belluno, who was one of the earliest Greek tutors of Leo X., published in 1497 at Venice, the first exposition of the Greek grammar, which appeared in Latin. It was purchased with so great avidity, that in 1499 Erasmus found it impossible to procure a copy. The first Greek classic ever printed, was the Homer of Demetrius Chalcondylas, in two vols. folio, printed at Flo was transfusing itself into the veins of Roman B.C.31. literature, the Greeks themselves made no fresh 330. peculiarities of pronunciation that it was taught in the schools and universities of each. In England, down to the close of the fifteenth century, its cultivation had been extremely partial, and almost neglected; so much so, that in 1488, the celebrated William Grocyn, of Bristol, was forced to travel into Italy at the age of forty-six, in order to study Greek under Manuel Chrysoloras.+ Its revival in the reign of Henry VII. was violently resisted by the clergy and others; and at Oxford its partisans and opponents formed themselves into two parties, under the title of Greeks and Trojans, whose contentions continued till the accession of Henry VIII. when his patronage of the new language, aided by that of Cardinal Wolsey, soon brought it into merited and universal repute. rence by Demetrius of Crete, in 1488.-Mill's Theod. Ducas, vol. ii. p. 42, 191, 194, 212. Gibbon, c. lxvi. The earliest specimens of Greek printing in England occur in Linacre's translation of Galen's treatise De Temperamentis, 4to. Cambridge, 1521, where a few words and quotations are introduced.-Horne's Introduction to the Study of Bibliography, vol. i. P. 1, sec. vii. p. 240. * Henry's History of Britain, vol. vi. b. iii. c. 4, sec. 1, p. 92, vol. viii. b. iv. c. 4, sec. 1, p. 174. See a sketch of the introduction and culture of Greek learning in England, Burtonus, Hist. Ling. Græc. p. 31, 50, et seq. and its preservation there, in Schoell, Hist. de la Lit. Gr. v. vii. c. xcix. + Wood's Athen. Oxon. Henry's Britain, vol. x. b. v. c. 4, sec. 1, p. 118. Wood, Hist. Univ. Oxon.-Hallam, Hist. Mid. Ages, vol. ii. c. ix. P. ii. p. 621. A.D. B.C.31. advances towards perfection. Contented to im330. part to others the treasures transmitted to them A.D. The savans of Europe were, however, by no means slow in impugning the errors which they conceived attached to its pronunciation, as transmitted to them by their Constantinopolitan masters, and their doubts were quickly promulgated amongst its cultivators. One of the first assailants of the system was Aldus Manutius, the renowned typographer of Venice; but its most successful antagonist was Gerard, or, as he called himself, in conformity to Hellenic pedantry, Erasmus, whose Dialogus de recta Latini, Græcique sermonis pronunciatione, was followed by a host of literary partisans, Metkerke,† Beza, Ceratinus, and others, who, after a protracted struggle, succeeded in establishing their new mode of reading. In England, the controversy was warmly espoused by Sir John Cheke, a learned professor of Cambridge, in the reign of Henry VIII. In conjunction with Sir Thomas Smith, he resolved on casting out the abomination; and having commenced their reform by the introduction of the purified pronunciation into schools and private seminaries, they at length ventured to broach their new doctrines in the Hall of * Wetstenius du Ling. Græc. pronunc. Oratio, i. p. 7. Αρχαιολογία Ελληνικ. κ. τ. λ. Γρηγ. Ιερομ. Παλιουρίτου, tom. ii. κεφ. ΛΖ. p. 313. + The essay of Metkerke, or, as he is usually called, Mekerchius, was replied to in an ingenious paper by Gregorius Martinus, entitled, Pro veteri et vera Græcarum Literarum Pronunciatione. 8vo. Oxon. Of the controversies of these philological disputants, a collection has been made in the Sylloge of Sigebert Havercamp. 2 vols. 8vo. Leyden, 1736. by their fathers, they evinced no anxiety to in- B.C.31. crease the learned stores they had inherited; 330. the University.* Stephen Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester, who was then Chancellor of Cambridge, set himself with unaccountable virulence against the attempted innovation, and issued an edict against the proceedings of Cheke, which, besides being remarkable for its petulance and bigotry, is curious as an illustration of the mode of pronouncing Greek at that time prevalent in England. "STEPHANUS VINTONIENSIS EPISCOPUS, ACADEMIE CANTABRIGIENSIS CANCELLARIUS; cum mea, tum Senatûs universi auctoritate legitima rogatione ad me delata, quid in literarum sonis ac linguæ tum Græcæ tum Latinæ pronunciatione spectandum, sequendum, tenendum sit, ita edico. Quisquis nostram potestatem agnoscis, sonos literis sive. Græcis sive Latinis ab usu publico præsentis seculi alienos, privato judicio affingere ne audeto. "Quod verò ea in re major auctoritas edixerit, jusserit, præceperit, id omnes amplectuntor, et observanto. "Diphthongos Græcas, nedum Latinas, nisi id diæresis. exigat, sonis ne deducito, neve divellito, quæsitam usu alteri vocalium prærogativam ne adimito, sed ut marem fœminæ dominari sinito, quæ verò earum in communionem soni usu convenerunt, iis tu negotium ne facessito. “Aι ab e, o et ε ab sono ne distinguito, tantum in orthographia discrimen servato;,, v uno eodemque sono exprimito cujusque tamen propriam in orthographia sedem diligenter notato. "In x et y quoties cum diphthongis aut vocalibus sonos aut referentibus consonantur, quoniam à doctis etiamnum See Strype's Life of Sir Thomas Smith, ch. ii. iii. Ibid. Life of Sir J. Cheke, ch. i. A.D. |