The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1905-12-31
Pride of the Greeks of
Today in Their Illus
triOus Ancestry.
. HE connection between the Greece

~ HE connection between the Greece
Of today and the Greece of
I Leonidas and Sophocles is
Thought (which has probably suggested
itself to great many Minneapolitans
as they have watched the representa-
tives of modern Greece engaged here in
their sometimes very humble tasks.
Professor Sven Oftedal, who has spent
considerable time in Greece studying
I the language and the people, discusses
| that question in the following interest
! ing paper written for T he Journal.
\ A prominent German scholar, Phi.
| Falmerayer, proved over fifty years
ago, satisfactorily to himself, and al
legedly by the most strictly scientific
methods that the modern Greeks are
no Greeks at all, but a mixture Of
Slavs, Albanians, Wallachians and
other half-savage races no more re-
lated to the Athenians and Spartans of
old than the Germans. This theory
of Falmerayer has, of course, been ex-
tploded long ago and mainly become an
object of ridicule and curiosity. But
it is still doing good service in strength
'ening the prejudices Of many scholars
against the Greeks. ..
y
inent professor at Munich, X. Krum-
rbacher, a profound student of Byzan-
tine and medieval Greek language and
Greek and tried. to prove scientific
ally that the so-called purified
Greek, In universal use all thru the
Greece proper, in church and state, in
ba fv in he
courts and in the press, in correspond
ence and commerce, is a purely arti-
fetal languages; that the Greeks them
selves acquire it only thru long and
arduous study, thereby neglecting al
most everything else in the schools; and
that the only salvation and future of
the people lies in the total abolition Of
this linguistic nondescrlpt, which only
fills the Greek brains with false and
enervating ideas Of their classical orr
gin, and in speedy return to their
true and genuine language, the one
spoken in the streets Of the cities and
in the peasant villages.
:. Greek Scholars Oppose.
George Hatsidal1is, professor at the
university of Athens and one Of the
4o1 ouip5G SAooSO1oSS VI I1uAop0, los
this year, in thoro and comprehensive
work administered to Mr.. Krumbacher
most singing and well-deserved re-
buke,. proving positively and conclu-
sively the fallacy Of his theory and the
nnfairness of his method. 1t is
questionable, however, if even this ex-
cellent book Of Hatsidakis will do much
+ good. Prejudiced scholars are no bet
ter than other prejudiced people who
object to everything, even facts, that
do not help their own case.
/. Many German scientists will proba-
bly, go on reviling the Greeks as here
tofore,' in no way needing the very alb
surdity Of their position. For either
is the present modern Greek so similar
to the ancient language because it is
the direct and natural evolution thereof,
or else have some men Of modern
Greece in less than a century been able
to make whole nation read, write,
think and feel in an artificial. language,
beloved and revered by them, tho for
eign to themselves and their origin-a
feat that would be nothing short Of a
miracle. Either horn of the dilemma
may prove embarrassing.
/ Owing to unfortunate economic
conditions in their own country quite a