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Transcriber's Notes:

THE PRONUNCIATION OF GREEK;

ACCENT AND QUANTITY.

A PHILOLOGICAL INQUIRY.

BY JOHN STUART BLACKIE,

PROFESSOR OF GREEK IN THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH.

EDINBURGH: T. CONSTABLE, PRINTER TO HER MAJESTY.

THE PRONUNCIATION OF GREEK, &c.

See the opinions of SCALIGER, SALMASIUS, and some others, quoted by WETSTEN.

Havercamp, vol. ii. p 174.

Nevertheless, Erasmus, Wetsten distinctly asserts, did not himself adopt in his practice the perfect theory of Hellenic vocalization which he sketched out. So much the less cause is there for our having any hesitation in considering the whole question as now open, and treating it exactly as if Professor John Cheke, and Professor Thomas Smith of Cambridge University, and Adolphus Mekerchus, knight and perpetual senator of Bruges, and the other Havercampian hoplites had never existed. Let us inquire, therefore, in the first place, whether any certain data exist on which such a matter can be settled scientifically. We shall give only the grand outlines of the question, referring the special student to the English work of PENNINGTON already quoted, the German work of LISKOV, and the Latin of SEYFFARTH.

"If we find a word pronounced in a given manner in the time of Athenaeus, we are warranted, in the absence of proof, in supposing it to have been pronounced in the same way in the time of Homer; and what prevailed in Homer's time may be presumed to have continued till the age of Athenaeus."--PENNINGTON, p. 7. This is too strong. Considering the immense interval of time and progress of culture between HOMER and ATHENAEUS, and considering the tendency to change inherent in human nature, I can see no presumption that the pronunciation of the language should have remained through so many centuries unchanged.

Another and a most scientific way by which we may recover the traces of a lost orthoepy, is from the physiological description of the action of the organs of speech in producing the sounds belonging to certain letters, as preserved in the works of grammatical or rhetorical writers. This method of proof, taken by itself, may, no doubt, fail of giving complete satisfaction in delicate cases; for it is extremely difficult to give such an exact description of the action of the organs of speech as will enable a student of an unknown language to reproduce the sound, without the assistance of the living voice. But, taken along with other circumstances, the proof from this source may be so strong as absolutely to force conviction; or at all events imperatively to exclude certain suppositions, which, without the existence of such a description, would have been admissible. Now, it happens most fortunately for our present inquiry, that a very satisfactory scale of the Greek vowel-sounds is extant in the works of the well-known historian and critic Dionysius of Halicarnassus, who lived in the time of Augustus Caesar. This we shall quote at length immediately; and as the author was a professional rhetorician, no higher authority on such a point, for the epoch to which he belongs, can be wished for.

"I cannot help thinking that if this treatise of Dionysius had been in early times made a text-book in schools, no controversy would ever have arisen upon the pronunciation of the Greek letters," "or upon the nature of quantity."--PENNINGTON.

Such appear to me to be the methods of proof that lie open to an inquirer into the orthoepy of any language, living or dead, at any given period of its history. With these, of course, the student must combine such general rules on the philosophy of language, and on the habits of human speech, as a little experience of practical philology will readily supply. I now proceed to state the results to which I have arrived, by a thorough study of the existing evidences. After that we shall make our practical inference, and answer a few natural objections.

Pluto Cratylus, sec. 74, Bekker.

Aristophanes, Lysist. 86.

In the shape of results, therefore, all that my present purely practical purpose requires me to lay down, with regard to ancient Greek vocalization, may be combined in the following two propositions--

Both these propositions, so far as the vowels are concerned, are proved by a single glance at the passage of Dionysius already referred to, and which I shall now translate:--

"There are seven vowels; two long, ? and ?, and two short, ? and ?; three both long and short, ?, ?, ?. All these are pronounced by the wind-pipe acting on the breath, while the mouth remains in its simple natural state, and the tongue remaining at rest takes no part in the utterance. Now, the long vowels, and those which may be either long or short, when they are used as long, are pronounced with the stream of breath, extended and continuous; but the short vowels, and those used as short, are uttered by a stroke of the mouth cut off immediately on emission, the wind-pipe exerting its power only for the shortest time. Of all these, the most agreeable sounds are produced by the long vowels, and those which are used as long, because their sound continues for a considerable time, and they do not suddenly break off the energy of the breath. Of an inferior value are the short vowels, and those used as short, because the volume of sound in them is small and broken. Of the long again, the most sonorous is the ?, when it is used as long, for it is pronounced by opening the mouth to the fullest, while the breath strikes the palate. The next is ?, because in its formation, while the mouth is moderately open, the sound is driven out from below at the mouth of the tongue, and keeping in that quarter does not strike upwards. Next comes the ?, for in it the mouth is rounded, and contracts the lips, and the stroke of the mouth is sent against the extreme end of the mouth, Inferior to this is the ?, for in this vowel an observable contraction takes place in the extreme region of the lips, so that the sonorous breath comes out attenuated and compressed. Last of all comes ?, for here the stroke of the breath takes place about the teeth, while the opening of the mouth is small, and the lips contribute nothing towards giving the sound more dignity as it passes through. Of the short vowels, neither is sonorous; but o is the least agreeable, for it parts the mouth more than the other, and receives the stroke nearer the wind-pipe."

Now, while every point of this physiological description may not be curiously accurate, there is enough of obvious certainty in it to settle some of the most important points of Greek orthoepy, so far as the rhetorician of Halicarnassus is concerned; and his authority in this matter is that of a man of the highest skill, which, as the daily practice of our law courts shows, is worth that of a thousand persons taken at random. That the ITACISM of the modern Greeks did not exist, or was not allowed by good speakers in the time of this writer, so far as the single vowels are concerned, is abundantly manifest; for not only do ?, ?, ?, which the modern Greeks identify, mean different sounds, but the sound of the ? in particular is removed as far from the ? as it could well be in any scale of vocalization, which sets out with the supremacy of the broad A. And if these sounds were distinguished by polished ears in the days of Augustus Caesar, it is contrary to all analogy of language to suppose that in the days of Alexander the Great, Plato, or Pericles, they should have been confounded. Provincialisms, indeed, and certain itacizing peculiarities, such as that noticed by Plato, , there might have been; but that any language should confound its vowel-sounds in its best days, and distinguish them in its days of commencing feebleness, is contrary to all that succession of things which we daily witness. Different letters were originally invented to express different sounds, and did so naturally for a long time, till fashion and freak combined with habit, either overran the phonetic rule of speech by a rank growth of exceptive oddities, or fixed upon the organs of articulation some strong tendency towards the predominance of a particular sound, which in process of time became a marked idiosyncrasy, from which centuries of supervening usage could not shake the language free. This is what has taken place in Greece with regard to certain vowel-sounds. But before pursuing these observations further, let us see distinctly what the special points are, that this remarkable passage of the Halicarnassian distinctly brings out. The ascertained points are these,--

This limitation must be carefully borne in mind; for after Athens ceased to be a capital, being overwhelmed by Alexandria, it still remained a sort of literary metropolis, giving, or affecting to give, the law in matters of taste, long after its authority had ceased practically to bind large masses of those whose usage fashioned the existing language.

So far as we see, therefore, the English, Scotch, and modern Greek methods of pronouncing the five vowels all depart in some point from the highest authority that can be produced on the subject; in fact, the single vowel ? alone has preserved its full rounded purity uncorrupted by any party. But with regard to the other four vowels, there is a marked difference in the degree of deflection from the classical norm; for, while the Scotch err only in one point, ?, the modern Greeks err in two, ? and ?, and the English err in all the four points, ?, ?, ?, and ?, and that in the most paradoxical and abnormal fashion that could have been invented, had it been the direct purpose of our Oxonian and Etonian doctors to put all classical propriety at defiance. In such lawless anarchy has ended the restoration of the divine speech of Plato, so loftily promised by Sir John Cheke; and so true in this small matter also, is that wise parable of the New Testament, which advises reformers to beware of putting new patches on old vestments. Instead of the robe of genuine Melibean purple which Erasmus wished to throw round the shoulders of the old Greek gods, our English scholars, following in his track of conjectural innovation, have produced an English clown's motley jacket, which the Zeus of Olympus never saw, and even Momus would disdain. But let us proceed to the diphthongs.

Unhappily Dionysius, by a very unaccountable omission, has given us no information on this head; so we are left to pursue our inquiries over a wide field of stray inquiry, and conclude from a greater mass of materials with much less appearance of scientific certainty. The following results, however, to any man that will fairly weigh the cumulative power of the evidence brought together with such laborious conscientiousness by Liscov and Seyffarth, must appear unquestionable:--

Let us now collect the different points of this inquiry under a single glance. In the days of the first Emperors, and, in a majority of cases, as early as the first Ptolemies, the scale of Greek vocalization, according to the best evidence now obtainable, was as follows:--

So much for the vowel-sounds. I say nothing of the consonants, because they are of less consequence in the controversy. I have already spoken incidentally about ?, , and I have no wish to write a complete treatise. Detailed information on minute points of neo-Hellenic pronunciation may be found in Pennington's work already quoted, and in a recent work by Corpe. I now proceed to the matter of ACCENT, which we shall find to be no less important, but happily much more easily settled.

CORPE's Neo-Hellenic Greek Grammar. London, 1851. See also a notice of this work in the ATHENAEUM for last year, where I am happy to observe that the opinions advocated in this paper are supported.

Of course I except Professor MASSON of Belfast, whose complete mastery of the living dialect of Greece is the object of admiration to all who know him.

Classical Museum, vol. i. p. 338.

QUINCTIL., lib. i. c. 5; DIOMED. de Oratione, ii.; PUTSCH. i. 426.

JELF, in the Preface to his Grammar, calls the doctrine of accent "a difficult branch of scholarship." The difficulty is altogether an artificial one, made by scholastic men who will insist on teaching by the eye only and the understanding, what has no meaning at all except when addressed to the ear. The doctrine of accentuation in English has no peculiar difficulty, plainly because men learn it in the natural way by hearing.

"Gentlemen, you are welcome; frolic and be merry: you shall be sure to have wine enough, whatsoever your fare be. I tell you, cavaliers, my brother hath in his house five tun of wine, and as long as that lasteth, I beshrew him that spares his liquor."

With that he burst open the buttery door, and with the help of Adam Spencer covered the tables, and set down whatsoever he could find in the house; but what they wanted in meat, Rosader supplied with drink, yet had they royal cheer, and withal such hearty welcome as would have made the coarsest meats seem delicates. After they had feasted and frolicked it twice or thrice with an upsee freeze, they all took their leaves of Rosader and departed. As soon as they were gone, Rosader growing impatient of the abuse, drew his sword, and swore to be revenged on the discourteous Saladyne; yet by the means of Adam Spencer, who sought to continue friendship and amity betwixt the brethren, and through the flattering submission of Saladyne, they were once again reconciled, and put up all forepassed injuries with a peaceable agreement, living together for a good space in such brotherly love, as did not only rejoice the servants, but made all the gentlemen and bordering neighbors glad of such friendly concord. Saladyne, hiding fire in the straw, and concealing a poisoned hate in a peaceable countenance, yet deferring the intent of his wrath till fitter opportunity, he showed himself a great favorer of his brother's virtuous endeavors: where leaving them in this happy league, let us return to Rosalynde.

Rosalynde returning home from the triumph, after she waxed solitary, love presented her with the idea of Rosader's perfection, and taking her at discovert struck her so deep, as she felt herself grow passing passionate. She began to call to mind the comeliness of his person, the honor of his parents, and the virtues that, excelling both, made him so gracious in the eyes of every one. Sucking in thus the honey of love by imprinting in her thoughts his rare qualities, she began to surfeit with the contemplation of his virtuous conditions; but when she called to remembrance her present estate, and the hardness of her fortunes, desire began to shrink, and fancy to vail bonnet, that between a Chaos of confused thoughts she began to debate with herself in this manner:

ROSALYNDE'S PASSION

Quaerenda pecunia primum, post nummos virtus.

Tush, Rosalynde, be not over rash: leap not before thou look: either love such a one as may with his lands purchase thy liberty, or else love not at all. Choose not a fair face with an empty purse, but say as most women use to say:

Si nihil attuleris, ibis Homere foras.

Why, Rosalynde! can such base thoughts harbor in such high beauties? can the degree of a princess, the daughter of Gerismond harbor such servile conceits, as to prize gold more than honor, or to measure a gentleman by his wealth, not by his virtues? No, Rosalynde, blush at thy base resolution, and say, if thou lovest, 'either Rosader or none!' And why? because Rosader is both beautiful and virtuous." Smiling to herself to think of her new-entertained passions, taking up her lute that lay by her, she warbled out this ditty:

Love in my bosom like a bee Doth suck his sweet: Now with his wings he plays with me, Now with his feet. Within mine eyes he makes his nest, His bed amidst my tender breast; My kisses are his daily feast, And yet he robs me of my rest. Ah, wanton, will ye?

And if I sleep, then percheth he With pretty flight, And makes his pillow of my knee The livelong night. Strike I my lute, he tunes the string, He music plays if so I sing; He lends me every lovely thing, Yet cruel he my heart doth sting. Whist, wanton, still ye!

Else I with roses every day Will whip you hence, And bind you, when you long to play, For your offence; I'll shut mine eyes to keep you in, I'll make you fast it for your sin, I'll count your power not worth a pin. Alas, what hereby shall I win, If he gainsay me?

What if I beat the wanton boy With many a rod? He will repay me with annoy, Because a God. Then sit thou safely on my knee, And let thy bower my bosom be; Lurk in mine eyes, I like of thee. O Cupid, so thou pity me, Spare not but play thee.

ALINDA'S ORATION TO HER FATHER IN DEFENCE OF FAIR ROSALYNDE

"If, mighty Torismond, I offend in pleading for my friend, let the law of amity crave pardon for my boldness; for where there is depth of affection, there friendship alloweth a privilege. Rosalynde and I have been fostered up from our infancies, and nursed under the harbor of our conversing together with such private familiarities, that custom had wrought a union of our nature, and the sympathy of our affections such a secret love, that we have two bodies and one soul. Then marvel not, great Torismond, if, seeing my friend distressed, I find myself perplexed with a thousand sorrows; for her virtuous and honorable thoughts, which are the glories that maketh women excellent, they be such as may challenge love, and rase out suspicion. Her obedience to your majesty I refer to the censure of your own eye, that since her father's exile hath smothered all griefs with patience, and in the absence of nature, hath honored you with all duty, as her own father by nouriture, not in word uttering any discontent, nor in thought, as far as conjecture may reach, hammering on revenge; only in all her actions seeking to please you, and to win my favor. Her wisdom, silence, chastity, and other such rich qualities, I need not decipher; only it rests for me to conclude in one word, that she is innocent. If then, fortune, who triumphs in a variety of miseries, hath presented some envious person to taint Rosalynde with any surmise of treason, let him be brought to her face, and confirm his accusation by witnesses; which proved, let her die, and Alinda will execute the massacre. If none can avouch any confirmed relation of her intent, use justice, my lord, it is the glory of a king, and let her live in your wonted favor; for if you banish her, myself, as copartner of her hard fortunes, will participate in exile some part of her extremities."

Torismond, at this speech of Alinda, covered his face with such a frown, as tyranny seemed to sit triumphant in his forehead, and checked her up with such taunts, as made the lords, that only were hearers, to tremble.

"Proud girl," quoth he, "hath my looks made thee so light of tongue, or my favors encouraged thee to be so forward, that thou darest presume to preach after thy father? Hath not my years more experience than thy youth, and the winter of mine age deeper insight into civil policy, than the prime of thy flourishing days? The old lion avoids the toils, where the young one leaps into the net: the care of age is provident and foresees much: suspicion is a virtue, where a man holds his enemy in his bosom. Thou, fond girl, measurest all by present affection, and as thy heart loves, thy thoughts censure; but if thou knowest that in liking Rosalynde thou hatchest up a bird to peck out thine own eyes, thou wouldst entreat as much for her absence as now thou delightest in her presence. But why do I allege policy to thee? Sit you down, housewife, and fall to your needle: if idleness make you so wanton, or liberty so malapert, I can quickly tie you to a sharper task. And you, maid, this night be packing, either into Arden to your father, or whither best it shall content your humor, but in the court you shall not abide."

This rigorous reply of Torismond nothing amazed Alinda, for still she prosecuted her plea in the defence of Rosalynde, wishing her father, if his censure might not be reversed, that he would appoint her partner of her exile; which if he refused to do, either she would by some secret means steal out and follow her, or else end her days with some desperate kind of death. When Torismond heard his daughter so resolute, his heart was so hardened against her, that he set down a definite and peremptory sentence, that they should both be banished, which presently was done, the tyrant rather choosing to hazard the loss of his only child than anyways to put in question the state of his kingdom; so suspicious and fearful is the conscience of an usurper. Well, although his lords persuaded him to retain his own daughter, yet his resolution might not be reversed, but both of them must away from the court without either more company or delay. In he went with great melancholy, and left these two ladies alone. Rosalynde waxed very sad, and sate down and wept. Alinda she smiled, and sitting by her friend began thus to comfort her:

ALINDA'S COMFORT TO PERPLEXED ROSALYNDE

"Why, how now, Rosalynde, dismayed with a frown of contrary fortune? Have I not oft heard thee say, that high minds were discovered in fortune's contempt, and heroical scene in the depth of extremities? Thou wert wont to tell others that complained of distress, that the sweetest salve for misery was patience, and the only medicine for want that precious implaister of content. Being such a good physician to others, wilt thou not minister receipts to thyself? But perchance thou wilt say:

Consulenti nunquam caput doluit.

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