The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1895-01-16
Greek as a Living Language.

I le fact that the entire demos OF
Athens not only followed with per-
feet ease the dramas and songs of
their poets and the harangues Of
their orators, but were quick to seize
every nicely and detect any flaws in
them-this undeniable fact is an iso-
lated instance of the existence Of an
intellectual aristocracy unrivaled In
ancient Greece itself and unmatched
in any other epoch or country.
On the contrary, we have every
evidence that in ancient Greece there
existed not only vernacular, va
riety of local idioms and provincial
isms, but also entire dialects, special
to certain parts of the Greek world,
which have not all been preserved
in classic literature. DR.. Coumanou-
DIES, the learned professor at the
Athens university, has collected
from inscriptions and other sources
and published in the form of a die
tionary 10, 600 Greek words not met
in any Greek text known to us and
not included in any Greek lexicon.
Words, again, and forms of speech
used in Homer and some of the ear
lier poets disappear in the classics,
but are in constant use in the mouths
of the people in Crete and other
parts of Greece at the present day.
The Greek language has never
ceased to live. Latin indeed, in spite
of its exclusive adoption for litur-
gical purposes by the Roman church
to this day and in spite of its special
use up to comparatively recent
time for certain courtly and legal
functions, has died out as spoken
and written language. Its different
dialects, having been debased, were
merged into local idioms and have
developed into the Romance Ian
guages of modern Europe, which
now deviate from the mother tongue
so materially as each to require q
different grammar, special diction-
airy and separate study for its ac-
QUESTION, and no one of these Off
shoots of Latin approaches the par
emit stock SO closely as the Greek of
today does that of Plato or Keno
phon. Latin, having thus died, has
undergone no change. Greek has
changed from age to age because it
has continued to live. But its
changes have been, so to say, eXte-
rior, not organic; superficial, not
fundamental.
After reaching the highest pitch
of excellence, a perfection so su-
preme and ideal as to remain forever
the one unrivaled model of human
speech, the Greek language declined,
decayed and became degraded al
most beyond recovery, but it has
again been resuscitated. 1t has been
regenerated and cleansed from the
effects of long barbarous oppres-
sion, and it now reverts more and
more every day to its original purity
and beauty, thus faithfully record
ing, in its own vicissitudes, the glo-
ries and the misfortunes of the
Greeks themselves.
AS it rose to its greatest perfection
and beauty with the victories Of
Marathon and Salamis and the
splendors of the Periclean age, so it
declined under the Romans. 1t de-
cayed with the Byzantine empire. 1t
was lowered almost beyond recogni-
ton under the tyranny of the Turks,
only to take again a new life to it.
self, and thus herald the regenera-
ton and signal the freedom of new
Greece, for it is remarkable fea-
ture in the survival of Greek Ian
guage and literature that It'll preceded
and prepared the political regenera-
ton of the people. 1t did not follow
as result but it was a cause. -