$1. OF THE GREEK LANGUAGE AND ITS DIALECTS IN GENERAL. 1. THE Greek, like all other languages, had various dialects, which however may be all reduced to two fundamental dialects, the Ionic and Doric, belonging to the two great divisions of the Grecian race, which bore these names respectively. 2. The Dorian tribe was most extensive, but its diàlect was rough, and upon the whole less cultivated. A branch of this dialect was the Æolic, which early attained a considerable degree of improvement, particularly in the Eolian colonies of Asia Minor and in the neighbouring islands. 3. The Ionian tribe inhabited in earlier times for the most part what was afterwards called Attica; and sent out from this quarter its colonies to the coasts of Asia Minor. Inasmuch as these colonies attained a high degree of refinement, earlier than their mother country, or any other Grecian tribe, the appellations of Ionians and Ionic were appropriated to them and their dialect, while the original Ionians in Attica were called Attics and Athenians. The Ionic dialect, from the multiplication of vowels, is the softest. But the Attic soon surpassed the others in refinement, by. avoiding, in the ease peculiar to itself, the Doric harshness, and the Ionic softness. Although the Attic race, geographically speaking, was the original, the Ionic dialect of the colonies in Asia Minor is considered as the mother of the Attic dialect, because it attained a high degree of cultivation at a period, when it had least departed from the common source of both, the old tongue of the Ionian race. 4. As mother, however, of all the dialects, we must assume an original ancient Greek language. But of this it is only by means of philosophical deduction that we can ascertain or rather conjecture the forms. Every dialect naturally retained more or less from this ancient language, and of consequence each preserved in itself, from the same source, much that was gradually lost in kindred dialects. Hence may be explained the fact, that the grammarians speak of Doric, Æolic, and even Attic forms, in the old Ionian bard Homer. In general, it has been the practice to name that, which was customary or of frequent occurrence in a dialect, after that dialect, although it should likewise occasionally be found in some other. In this way we must explain the Doricisms, so called, in the Attic writers,* and the Atticisms traced in authors not in that dialect.t 5. To this same original language belong, for the most part, the poetical forms or poetical licenses, as they are called; for the oldest poets formed themselves a language, out of the manifold phraseology of their age. Many peculiarities of this phraseology became obsolete: but the later poets, having their predecessors for guides, were unwilling to lose this richness of language; and thus what was originally dialect, and ought to be classed as such, got to be, in the end, poetic peculiarity, or as it is commonly called, poetic license. 6. In every cultivated nation, some one of its prevailing dialects generally becomes the foundation of the common language of literature and of good society. This did not take place, at an early period, among the Greeks. Cultivation advanced far among them, while they were still divided into several states, separated from each other by position as well as political relations. The language of literature, therefore, as well poetry as prose, till near the time of Alexander, depended upon the dialect to which the writer had been educated, or which he preferred. Hence arose Ionic, Æolic, Doric, and Attic writers of poetry and prose; from each of which classes more or less is still extant. 7. Meantime Athens attained a political elevation so important, that it possessed for some time a sort of general government (nyeuovia) over Greece, and became, at the same period, the * The Doric future in σοῦμαι, ξοῦμαι. + Such as the Attic declension in ως ; ξύν for σύν &c centre of literary improvement. Greeks from all the tribes went to Athens for their education, and the Attic works became the models in every department of literature. The consequence was, that when Greece soon after, under the Macedonian monarchy, assumed a political unity, the Attic dialect, having taken rank of the others, became the language of the court and of literature, in which the prose writers, of all the tribes and of whatever region, henceforth almost exclusively wrote. The centre of this later Greek literature formed itself in Alexandria in Egypt under the Ptolemies. 8. With the universality of the Attic dialect, as was to be expected, began its degeneracy. Writers introduced peculiarities of their provincial dialects; or, in place of anomalies peculiar to the Athenians or of phrases that seemed artificial, made use of the more regular or natural forms; or instead of a simple phrase, which had become more or less obsolete, introduced a more popular derivative form.* Against this however the grammarians, often pedantically and unreasonably, struggled; and, in their treatises, placed by the side of these offensive or inelegant modernisms, the true forms from the old Attic writers. And hence it became usual to understand by Attic, only that which was found in the ancient classics, and was in the strictest sense peculiar to them; and to give to the common language of literature, formed in the manner indicated, the name of nown, the vulgar,' or élλyviań, 'the Greek, i. e. the vulgar Greek.' Hence also the subsequent writers were called οἱ κοινοί or οἱ "Ελληνες, in distinction from the genuine Attic writers. Their language, however, is not to be viewed as a separate dialect; for after all this xown dialextos remained essentially Attic, and of course every common Greek grammar assumes the Attic dialect as its basis. It follows from this, that not every thing which was called Attic is on that account peculiar to this dialect, even in the classic age. Moreover there were several Attic forms, which were not * For instance νήχεσθαι for νεῖν, to swim, and ἀροτριᾷν for ἀροῦν, to plough. exclusively used even in Athens, but which were interchanged with other universally adopted forms, as ghoin with geloĩ, and uv with ovv; as there were also several Ionic forms not wholly unknown to the Attics, as the not contracted forms in the place of contracted ones. 9. To the universality however of the Attic dialect an exception was made in poetry. In this department the Attics remained the models only in one branch, the dramatic. As dramatic poetry from its nature, even in tragedy, is necessarily the language of actual life, the Attic stage admitted nothing but the Attic dialect, which was retained in the sequel on all the other Grecian theatres. In addition to this, the dramatic poets, particularly in the dialogue, especially in that part written in trimeters, with the exception of a freer use of the apostrophe and contraction, indulged themselves in but few of the poetical licenses, as they are called, and substitutions of other forms. 10. For the other, sorts of poetry, particularly those which were composed in hexameters, viz. the epic, didactic, and elegiac, Homer, and the other elder Ionic bards, who continued to be read in the schools, remained the models. Among them the old Ionic and Homeric language was retained, with most of its peculiarities and ancient forms, and became, as had been the case with the Attic dialect in prose, the reigning dialect or universal language in this department of poetry in all ages. It is therefore best denominated the Epic language, as its origin was exclusively in the epic poetry. 11. The Doric dialect, however, even in later days, was not excluded from poetry. On the contrary it sustained itself in some of the subordinate branches of the art, particularly the pastoral and humorous. When, however, the language which prevails in the lyrical portions of the drama-that is, in the choruses and passionate speeches-is called Doric, it is to be remembered that the Doricism consists in little else than the predominance of the long a particularly in the place of 1, which was a feature of the ancient language in general, and for its dignity continued in use in sublime poetry, while in common life it remained a peculiarity of the Dorians. |