On the Value of Modern Greek for the Study of Ancient Greek1

Albert Thumb

doi:10.1017/S0009838800008223

On the Value of Modern Greek for the Study of Ancient Greek1

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 February 2009

Albert Thumb

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Albert Thumb: Affiliation:
University of Strassburg.

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The study of Hellenistic Greek, or of the Κοινή, which has flourished increasingly since the beginning of the present century, has brought Modern Greek more and more within the view of classical philologists. As I have insisted on utilizing Modern Greek for Hellenistic philology for about twenty years, I may claim some credit if a knowledge of Modern Greek is now admitted to be indispensable to Hellenistic studies; but philologists only reluctantly acknowledge this new demand, and hesitate to acquire as full an acquaintance with Modern Greek as the study of the Κοιή demands.

Type: Research Article
Information: The Classical Quarterly , Volume 8 , Issue 3 , July 1914 , pp. 181 - 205

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0009838800008223 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © The Classical Association 1914

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^{page 181 note 2} Gercke und Norden, Einleitung in die klass.Altertumswissenschaft, I² (1912), p. 474.

^{page 181 note 3} On the Value of Byzantine and Modern Greek in Hellenic Study, Oxford, 1909.

^{page 181 note 4} Det Betehenis van het Niew Grieks voor de Gcschiedenis der Griehse Taal en der Griekse Letter-kunde, Leiden, 1907.

^{page 182 note 1} The Value, etc., p. 19.

^{page 182 note 2} A. Thumb, Handbook of the Modern Greek Vernacular (Edinburgh, 1911), § 17.

^{page 183 note 1} See Brugmann Thumb, Gr. Gramm., p. 273.

^{page 183 note 2} See Hatzidakis, “Aθηνâ, xxiv, 342.

^{page 183 note 3} Körting's book, Neugriechisch und Romanisch {Berlin, 1896), is unmethodical, and therefore a failure. K. Dieterich in KZ. xxxvii. 407 sqq.,xxxix. 87 sqq., Immisch in his Sprach- und Stilge schichtliche Parallelen zw. Griech. u. Lat., N. Jahr-bücher f. d. klass. Altertum. xxix. 27 sqq., and Pfister in Vulgärlatein und Vulgärgriechisch, Rhein.Mus. lxvii. 195 sqq., make some suggestive remarks.

^{page 184 note 1} ΠΕρί Τής ΈνόΤηΤος Τής ΈλληνςΚής γλώσσης ΈπΕΤηρίς Τού ΈθνςΚον 1909. 47 sqq.Professor Hatzidakis, relying on his list of words,says that half the words of the Homeric vocabu-lary survive in Attic, and a third of these in Modern Greek (6480 : 3485 : 1165); of the 4,900 words of the New Testament, 2,280 are still used Έν Τ Κοςν λαλς. These statistics are open to the objection of including words owing their vogue to literary influence, and before admitting their validity we should apply the same test to the relations of Latin and Italian.

^{page 185 note 1} See Thumb, Die neugriech. Sprache, Freiburg i. B., 1892.

^{page 186 note 1} , Athens, 1884 (2nd edition!).

^{page 186 note 2} See most recently Hatzidakis' Mεσαιωνικà καî ν⋯α ‘λληνκ⋯ Π. (1907) 3016 sqq.

^{page 186 note 3} See Σκιάς in the 1911, 217 sqq. (K. Dieterich, Zeitschr. xxi. 286, also expressed doubts.)

^{page 186 note 4} See Hatzidakis l.c.

^{page 186 note 5} See Thumb, Handbuch der griech. Dialekte (Heidelberg, 1909), 90 sqq.

^{page 186 note 6} Hellenismus, pp. 36 sq. ; most recently Indog, Forsch. xxxiii. 298.

^{page 186 note 7} Timotheos, Die Perser (Leipzig, 1903), 69 sq.

^{page 187 note 1} Kuhn's Zeitschrift, xxxiv. 81 sqq.

^{page 187 note 2} For a certain musical element in Modern Greek accent, see H. Pernot, Phonétique des parlers de Chio, 50 sqq.; also Brugmann-Thumb, Gr. Grantm., 176 sq.

^{page 187 note 3} See Hellenismus, p. 165, Prinzipienfragen, der Kοινή-Forschung, Neue Jahrbücher f. d. kl. Alt., 1906, pp. 258 sq. Kretschmer, however (Der heutig lesbische Dialekt, pp. 5 sq.), is not certain as the antiquity of the Northern Greek phenomena.

^{page 188 note 1} This statement is made on the assumption that the modern κ aorist continues the old perfect.

^{page 189 note 1} Indog. Forsch., ii. 85.

^{page 189 note 2} Hatzidakis, Glotta, iii. 70 sqq.; Brugmann-Thumb, Gr. Gramm., pp. 156, 160.

^{page 189 note 3} Brugmann-Thumb, l.c., p. 80.

^{page 190 note 1} Nachmanson, Beiträge zur Kenntnis der altgriech. Volkssprache(Uppsa.la.,igio), has not paid sufficient attention to this point of view.

^{page 190 note 2} See Principienfragen, p. 249, where further examples of the same kind are given. p. 82.

^{page 190 note 3} Papyri Iandanae (Leipzig,. 1912), No. 22– between A.D. 619 and 629.

^{page 190 note 4} Journal of Hell. Studies, xxii. 358, No. 119.

^{page 190 note 5} Neutestamentliche Grammatik (Tübingen, 1911), p.82.

^{page 191 note 1} In Class. Rev., xix. (1905), 36; Rouse (ibid.) gives another instanceof Modern Greek as a help for Ancient Greek.

^{page 191 note 2} Pallis, A Few Notes on the Gospels (Liverpool, 1913), p.14.

^{page 191 note 3} L.c., p. 11.

^{page 191 note 4} Novi Testamenti Lexicon Graecum, Paris, 1911.

^{page 191 note 5} Hermes, XLI., 478 sqq.

^{page 192 note 1} See K. Dieterich, Rhein. Mus., LIX., 234 sq.

^{page 192 note 2} See Krumbacher, Byz. Zschr., xi. 523.

^{page 192 note 3} Miscellanea linguistica in onore di G. Ascoli (Torino, 1901).

^{page 192 note 4} Cf. Heldreich, T⋯ δημώδη ⋯ν⋯ματα ⋯κδιδ. ⋯π⋯ Σπ. Mηλιαρ⋯κη Athens, 1910. A list of plant-names is also given by Wilski in Hiller v. Gärtringen, Thera, iv., pp. 119–130. Lundström, Botaniska Lexika fran meddeltiden, Minneskrift Göteborg, 1910, pp. 42 sqq. Krumbacher, Das neugriech. Fischbuch, Sitz.-Ber. d. Bayer. Akad., 1903. pp. 345 sqq. (Compare also G. Schmidt, Vremennik, x. 603 sqq.)

^{page 192 note 5} I give the Modern Greek names and their botanical denotation from Heldreich, op. cit.

^{page 193 note 1} A few interesting equivalences are pointed out by Kalitsunakis, Mitteil d. Seminars für orient.spr. XIII. (1910), 96 sqq.

^{page 193 note 2} Die antike Tierwelt, Leipzig, 1909, 1913. The same holds good of Robert, Les noms des oiseax, Neuchatel, 1911.

^{page 193 note 3} Op. cit., p. 368.

^{page 193 note 4} See, besides the literature quoted above, p. 192, note 4, Krumbracher's edition of the Book of Fishes. Add Stefani, Forsyth (Major), W. Barbey, Karpathos, Étude géologique, Lausanne, 1895.

^{page 194 note 1} Athens, 1912. Compare, too, the lecture of Hatzidakis given before the Congress of Orientalists (Athens, 1912), ‘Aθηνά xxiv. 373 sqq., and the short but instructive article , xxiv. 459 sqq.; where the ancient άρμενον and άρμενιξω are elucidated by Modern Greek.

^{page 194 note 2} See the bibliography, Thumb, Aκch. f. Papyrusforsch., ii. 406 sqq.

^{page 194 note 3} Indog. Forsch., xiv. 349 sqq.

^{page 194 note 4} The derivation from which is tentatively suggested by K. Dieterich, Byz. Zschr., x. 595, and resolutely accepted by M. Vasmer, ib. xvi. 552 sq., seems to me hardly substantiated.

^{page 194 note 5} See Aθηνά, xiv. 523.

^{page 194 note 6} See M⋯γα Λεξικ⋯ν(Athen 1901–1906) s.v., and Lambertz, Glotta, v. 136.

^{page 195 note 1} cf. particularly G. Meyer, Neugriech. Studien, iii. (Wien, 1896).

^{page 195 note 2} Cf. from the most recent literature, especially Hahn, Rom und Romanismus im griech.-rōmischen Osten, Leipzig, 1906 ; (thereon see Thumb, Indog. Forsch. Anz., xxii. 39 sqq.) ; Der Sprachenkampf im röm. Reich, Philologus, Suppl. x. (1907) ; Wessely, Die latein. Elemente in der Gräzität der ägypt. Papyrusurkunden, Wiener Studien, xxiv. (1902) 99 sqq., xxv. 40 sqq.

^{page 196 note 1} Cf. Hellenismus, pp. 12, 186 sq.

^{page 196 note 2} Cf., for instance, Wahrmann, Prolegomena zu einer Geschichte der griech. Dialekte im Zeitalter des Hellenismus. Wien, 1907.

^{page 196 note 3} Cf. Hellenismus, pp. 28 sqq.

^{page 198 note 1} See Hellenismus, pp. 53 sqq.

^{page 198 note 2} K. Dieterich treated it with some minuteness in Kuhn's Zeitschrift, xxxix. 81 sqq. He gives some useful hints, but his methods are toc constructive, and his results often leave us sceptical.

^{page 199 note 1} See Principienfragen, p. 258.Google Scholar

^{page 199 note 2} Ibid., p. 257.

^{page 200 note 1} The archaic character of these dialects of Asia Minor has been emphasized by K. Dieterich, see Kuhn's Zeitschrift, xxxix., pp. 86 sqq.

^{page 200 note 2} Cf. also K. Dieterich, l.c., p. 87.

^{page 200 note 3} Modern Greek in Asia Minor, in Journal of Hellenic Studies, xxx. (1910), pp. 109–132, 267–291.

^{page 200 note 4} Except the cases I have dealt with in Hellenismus, pp. 194 sq. (ν to τι).

^{page 200 note 5} See Hellenismus, pp. 143 sq.

^{page 200 note 6} Not even by Buturas (Glotta, v. 170 sqq.), who treats it rather unmethodically.

^{page 201 note 1} I have disregarded Tsaconian. Nasalization is more frequent in Epirus than elsewhere in the west.

^{page 201 note 2} As I observed years ago in Hellenismus, pp. 133 sqq.

^{page 201 note 3} See Hellenismus, pp. 87 sq.

^{page 201 note 4} Cf. Principienfragen, p. 259 (with bibliography), and Moulton, Prolegomena, pp. 40 sq.

^{page 201 note 5} See Brugmann-Thumb, Griech. Gramm, § 580 (pp. 593 sq.).

^{page 202 note 1} We must take into account in this connexion the fact that in Asia Minor and Egypt there is a relatively greater number of vulgar texts ; and of course these inscriptions must only be compared with similar texts from European Greece.

^{page 202 note 2} Blass, Grammar of N. T. Greek (E. T.), p. 286.

^{page 202 note 3} K. Wolf. Studien zur Sprache des Malalas, 2 (1912), p. 73.

^{page 202 note 4} See Dawkins, Journal of Hellenic Studies, xxx. 128.

^{page 202 note 5} Byzant, Zeitschrift, xxii., pp. 484 sqq.

^{page 202 note 6} See Hellenismus, p. 150, and Meyer-Lübke, Einführung in das Studien der roman. Sprachwiss.² (1909), 209 sqq.

^{page 203 note 1} Indog. Forsch., Anzeiger, xviii. 43.

^{page 203 note 2} Cf., besides Hellenismus, especially Psichari, Essai sur le grec de la Septante, Rev. des Et. juives, 1908, pp. 161 sqq.

^{page 203 note 3} Psichari. l.c., p. 183.

^{page 203 note 4} For examples see Π. ∧ωρεντξάτος, Aθηνά, xvi., pp. 212 sqq.

^{page 204 note 1} Grec de la Septante, p. 192.

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