is natural, therefore, that it should not appear as a complete and finished whole, but should betray in its single parts many deviations and irregularities. 4. If the basis of the epic is the old primitive language of the Greeks, and the primitive contains all the germs of the subsequent developement of a language, we may easily conceive how this dialect should evince divers traces of all the peculiarities which afterward were individually cultivated and retained in the single dialects. Thus, in epic occur Æolisms, Dorisms, Atticisms, and the like, as fudamental peculiarities of the Greek language. But it is erroneous to regard the epic language, on that account, as a mixture of all the dialects; as, on the other hand, it is wrong to confound it with the Ionic, from the circumstance of its having many fundamental peculiarities in common with that dialect. The same obtains of Æolisms, Dorisms, Ionisms, and Atticisms, in all cases where reference is made to them by grammarians and commentators. 5. The Hellenes, who migrated through Thrace into the country afterward called Hellas, were divided into several tribes; whereof two, the Dorians and Ionians, chiefly extended themselves. Each of these tribes cultivated an independent and peculiar character, in language, as well as in manners and mode of life; and after their names we denominate the two principal dialects the Doric and Ionic. 6. The Dorians, the most powerful of the Hellenic tribes, preserved their dialect; which was widely diffused, as the common language in Hellas Proper and the colonies, pure from foreign intermixture, but did little for the particular advancement of their language. Hence the Doric dialect exhibits the most harshness in its forms of words; and a flatness of tone, from the frequent use of the dull sound a, a peculiarity termed in Greek λarelaoμós. Besides this dialect, the Eolic also was formed according to the model of antiquity, and had many peculiarities in common with the Doric ; whence it was considered as a refined collateral form of the same, cultivated particularly for the use of the Poets. 7. The Doric and Æolic dialects became, and continued to be, the language of lyric and bucolic poetry. The character of the Doric is most purely expressed in the odes of Pindar; while those of Alcæus, Sappho, and Corinna, exhibit rather the Æolic mode. The Doric is purer in the Idyls of Theocritus. In the lyric parts of the Attic tragedies, also, an approach to the sound of the Doric dialect has been preserved. Fragments of the Pythagorean philosophy furnish the only specimens of Doric prose. 8. Besides these, several dialects sprung up in the mouth of the people as individual varieties of the generally-diffused Doric dialect. But their peculiar character is, for the most part, known only from insulated expressions and short sentences, which are adduced in histotorians and comic poets. The most celebrated and extensive of them are, the Laconian, Baotian, and Thessalian dialects; and, next to these, the Sicilian. 9. The Ionians, driven from their settlements by the Dorians, betook themselves principally to Attica, and, when that barren country was unable to support the multitude of inhabitants, to the opposite coast of Asia. Under the mild climate of Lesser Asia, the form of their language became mild and soft, and nearly allied to the epic. Thus was developed the Ionic dialect; the principal characteristic of which is a softness of expression, acquired from the frequency of vowels and the solution of harsh syllables by interposed sounds. Herodotus and Hippocrates wrote in this dialect. 10. The numerous peculiarities common to the Ionic with the epic dialect have occasioned the latter, also, to be denominated Ionic ; although with this distinction, that the appellation of Old Ionic is given to the epic, but to the Ionic that of New Ionic. 11. The language of the Ionians, who remained behind in Attica, proceeded differently in its formation; and hence arose a new dialect, the Attic, which observed an intermediate course between the Doric harshness and the Ionic softness, adopting a perfect rotundity in its forms of words, and the greatest pliancy in their construction. The political consequence and the high pitch of intellectual culture to which Athens arrived, gave a wide circulation to this dialect; and the considerable number of eminent writings which are composed in it, and have been preserved, determine it for the ground-work in the study of the Greek language. 12. The most celebrated works written in the flourishing period of the Attic language and culture are, the historical books of Thucydides, the historical and philosophical writings of Xenophon, the philosophical books of Plato, and the orations of Demosthenes, Æschines, Lysias, Isocrates, &c., besides the tragedies of Eschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, and the comedies of Aristophanes. 13. That peculiarity which the single Grecian states had preserved in language and manners disappeared with the general decline of their freedom. Athens, however, for a long time continued the chief seat of liberal information; and the Attic dialect, as the purest and most widely diffused, became the court language of the now ruling Macedonians, and, by degrees, the general language of writing and the people. Hence it necessarily followed, that much of the old peculiarity of this dialect was sacrificed, and many innovations were introduced in expression and inflexion. This language, formed on the basis of the Attic dialect, is comprehended under the name of the common dialect. The authors of this period, however, endeavoured to exhibit the Attic dialect pure and uncorrupted, according to the early models; although many peculiarities of more modern times are interspersed throughout their writings. Hence their style has received the appellation of the later Attic. 14. Writers of this class are, Aristotle, Theophrastus, Pausanias, Apollodorus, Polybius, Diodorus, Plutarch, Strabo, Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Lucian, Ælian, Arrian, &c. 15. In Macedonia, the Greek language was mingled with much foreign alloy; and, thus corrupted, it spread itself, with the extension of the Macedonian empire, over other barbaric nations. Hence arose what may be denominated the Macedonic dialect. 16. Alexandrea was a colony of liberal information under the Macedonian rulers. There, a circle of learned men assembled together, and made it their chief study to preserve the purity of the genuine Attic dialect, by rejecting all modern accessions; although their style also fell short of the ancient models. But the Greek language underwent a peculiar reformation by the translators of the Old and the authors of the New Testament, who designated by Greek expressions things of Oriental conception and application. As this style occurs only in the Scriptures and some Christian writers, it has been called the Ecclesiastical dialect, while others have preferred the epithet of Hellenistic1 17. By degrees, the old Greek language, under the influence of various causes, so far degenerated in the mouth of the people, and was deformed by so much heterogeneous admixture, that it gave rise to the new Greek, which has almost entirely exchanged the primitive character of the old for that of the more modern tongues, and still continues, in ancient Greece, as the language of the country. (1) From the Greek Ἑλληνίζειν ; whence comes Ἑλληνιστής, as referring to one who speaks after the Greek manner, and, in the present case, to an Oriental trying to speak Greek. THE END. |