Ry. St. 10-14.40 41649 TABLE OF CONTENTS OF VOL, XII. ARTICLE. NO I. PAGE. I. SKETCHES OF A TRAVELLER FROM GREECE, Constan- TINOPLE, ASIA MINOR, SYRIA AND PALESTINE, IV. HISTORY OF THE MODERN GBEEK LANGUAGE AND POPULAR POETRY. By the Rev. J. H. A. Bomberger, D. D., Philadelphia, Pa. By Prof. William M. Nevin, Lancaster, Pa. By the Rev. Philip Schaff, D. D., Mercersburg, Pa. By Rev. N. S. Strassburger, A. M., Pottstown, Pa. By Prof. L. H. Steiner, A. M., M. D., Baltimore, Md. THE MERCERSBURG REVIEW. JANUARY, 1860. ART. I. SKETCHES OF A TRAVELLER FROM GREECE, CONSTANTINOPLE, ASIA MINOR, SYRIA AND PALESTINE. IX. HISTORY OF THE MODERN GREEK LANGUAGE AND POPULÁR POETRY. It seems to be a prevailing opinion in America that the Modern Greek as it is spoken and written at the present day by the three millions of Greeks in the Levant, is a totally distinct dialect from the classical language of the ancient Hellenes. Many of our literary men speak of it, as of a Lingua Franca, a medley of Turkish and Italian, a barbarous jargon, devoid of harmony and beauty and being, as they think, without a literature, is not worthy of the study or even the notice of the scholar. Yet this is an erroneous view which has its origin only in their not being sufficiently acquainted with the modern dialect. To this may be added some prejudices which we nourish against the Greek nation itself and a certain indifference on this otherwise interesting question or a shyness to go straightway into a thorough investigation of this subject by seriously and critically comparing the ancient and modern language with each other. Great has likewise been the outery against the modern Greek pronunciation, though we think that every one must admit that it is far more harmonious, softer and partakes more of the nature and spirit of a Southern nation, than that long since introduced into the English Universities, and followed pretty generally in America. Among our prominent philologians there are few who have made the modern Greek their study, and still fewer who have travelled in Greece and resided long enough at the University of Athens to adopt the pronuncia tion and spirit of the modern dialect and thus to be able to render an impartial judgment on this question. Several of the German professors who lived with me in .. Greece have introduced it into the Universities of Germany, to which they returned after the revolutionary catastrophe of September, 1843.* So did the late lamented Dr. Lewis Ross in Halle, and Ernst Curtius in Göttingen. The same has been done by President Woolsey at Yale College and Prof. Felton at Harvard University in Cambridge, nor need I add that years ago my highly esteemed friend and colleague, Prof. W. M. Nevin, at Franklin and Marshall College, has adopted the true Greek pronunciation, and continually demonstrates to the students the importance of the modern Romaïc for the thorough study of the ancient Hellenic. Should we now question the Greeks themselves, we would hear them denounce with one voice the presumption of the foreigners who, coming from a remote corner of the North, from regions unknown to their ancestors, pretend to teach the Greeks, the descendants of the Hellenes the proper pronounciation of their own mother tongue and they would add apparently with some justice: We can prove historically that our forefathers for a thousand and even twelve hundred years back have pronounced our language exactly as we do to this day. It belongs then to you, foreigners, likewise, to demonstrate on what grounds you suppose that your pronunciation of our language, which to our ears seems so barbarous, could have been of remoter antiquity than our own. During what period? by what revolutions has this * See Mercersburg Quarterly Review, Vol. VI, 1854, page 465, et seq. From the time when Constantine adopted Christianity as a state-religion and built the Cathedral of Sancta Sophia in Constantinople, (A. D. 325), the Greeks in a religious significance call themselves Romans, 'Papaio and their language, as the original tongue of the sacred Scriptures, 'Pwμaïkh yXãoca Hence the words 'Papatos and Xptoriavós are synonymous. The modern dialect is likewise called ἡ σημερινή, οι τωρινή (present) and ὡμιλουμένη oι καθομιλουμένη (spoken) διάλεκτος. The Greeks call it likewise ἡ κοινὴ γλῶσσα, and their pres ent purified written language åndo ¿λdivikń, or common Hellenic. |