as they do the accents in their own language.-A reformation may be made of the English pronunciation of the Greek, without much difficulty.-The advantage of the Scotch pronunciation.-The corruption and debafement of the Greek language fhould be a warning to other nations to preferve their language, by the study of the grammatical art in the antient languages.

HE words of the modern Greek

TH

language are, for the greater part, the fame with thofe of the antient Greek; fo that the difference betwixt the two languages is chiefly in the pronunciation, and the analogy. A man, therefore, who understands the antient language, may in a very short time make himself mafter of the modern. This I know from my own experience; for, many years ago, I ftudied the modern Greek New Teftament, and, with the affiftance of the old Greek Teftament, in two or three days I made myself master of the little grammatical art that is now to be found in the

Univers

MICHIGA

Chap. XII. PROGRESS OF LANGUAGE. 99 language. But what I am now to say of it, is not what I then learned, which I have forgot long ago, but it is from the inforImation I have had from a friend of mine in London, Mr Paradife, whofe native language the modern Greek may be faid to be, as he was born in Theffalonica, now Salonica, being the son of a gentleman who was then our conful in that place. And I take this opportunity, of returning my thanks to him for the inftruction I have got from him in this and feveral other things concerning the modern Greeks.

To begin with the found of the language: They have loft even the found of two of their vowels, then and u, in place of which they have substituted the i. They have loft alfo the use of the two diphthongs & and or; and thefe they alfo found as i; which found, therefore, holds the place of five in the antient Greek language, viz. 1, n, v, ɛ, and ol. This makes a conftant iotacism run through their whole pronunciation. Now, the found of this letter is weak and flender, an exilis fonus, as the Latins call it;

and therefore it was never used by the antient Greeks in the termination of their nouns, excepting only in three, which Ariftotle has mentioned *.

2do, They have loft the found, not only of the two diphthongs above mentioned, ει and o, which they confound with Iota, but of all the diphthongs, proper and improper; fo that the found of their language is not fwelled or raised by any compounded found of vowels.

3tio, Neither have they any afpirated confonants: They do not, therefore, proprounce the letters q, q, or 0; nay, they do not afpirate even vowels.

4to, They have loft the melody of the antient language altogether; and do not appear to have any idea of it any more than the unlearned among us.

Poetic. Cap. 21. in fine.

But, 5to, What is ftill worse, they have no longer any rhythm in their language, which makes it more barbarous than many of those languages we call barbarous *. Their fyllables, therefore, are all of an equal length, and only diftinguished from one another by what we call accent. And this diftinction they take from the accentuation in the antient Greek books. Thus, for example, the word dropwos having an acute accent upon the first fyllable, they pronounce as we do many words in English, and make of it énthropos, neglecting entirely the quantity of the middle fyllable.

Thus it appears that they have loft all that variety of found in their language, which, as I have fhown, was the greatest beauty of the antient Greek pronunciation; and, having debased fo much the found of it, we cannot fuppofe that they have preferved its grammar, though they have retained more of that than could well have been expected, confidering how

See pag. 18. of this volume.

much they have loft of their language in other refpects; for they ftill form two cafes by flection, viz. the genitive and accufative; and they have genders and numbers both in their, fubftantives and adjectives. They form feveral of their tenfes alfo by flection, and likewise the perfons and numbers of their verbs. But my friend informs me, that, in their declenfions and conjugations, they hardly follow any rule: So that they cannot be faid to have a grammatical art, though they practice fomething belonging to the art of their antient language.

Before I leave this fubject of the modern Greek, I cannot help obferving that the English pronunciation of the antient Greek is much too like to that of the modern, particularly in the pronunciation of then and the & diphthong, both which they found like the antient lota, and also the ε, which they do not diftinguish from the

EL

by the found, but only by the quantity; and fometimes they alfo pronounce the Iota in the fame way; though more commonly they pronounce it as they do it in their