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time , their reception into general use is supposed to have been but very gradual . It is reasonably conjectured that they were employed not so much for the use of native Greeks , as of foreigners studying the language , in the same way as we may , at this day , see them resorted to in Italian or other
foreign elementary books . If the objection to these marks is simply that they are less ancient than some of the authors in which we find them , the very same may be urged against the use of the 3 mall Greek and Roman letters , as well as the marks of aspiration and punctuation , which are at
least equally modern : that is , under the notion of restoring the native simplicity of the language , we shall object to its mo $ t valuable improvements . In living tongues , it is true , the use of written accents is rarely carried beyond dictionaries and elementary books ; but in dead languages we stand in need of further assistance , and ought not to quarrel with the helps that ingenious men have invented to facilitate our progress . It is not easy to assign a reason why the accents in all languages should not as regularly be written as the letters :
they are certainly not less essential to speech , not less significant in their meaning , not less permanent and integral parts of every word . In some languages , as in the Latin , they are determined by rules so simple and
constant , that the use of written marks is less necessary . But what are we to do without them in Greek , in which their position is as irregular and various as in our own language ? If we reject the written accents , we are reduced to the inevitable alternative
of adopting the Latin system , which is to act in open defiance of the unequivocal testimony of antiquity . These remarks , which relate simply to the use of the written marks , and not to the tones themselves , 1 will close by transcribing an extract from a letter written to Foster by an eminent and learned friend : " I am a
great admirer , " he says , " of that contrivance of accentuation ; and look upon it as a remarkable invention , framed by the most ingenious people that ever appeared in the world , for adorning their language to the utmost degree of refinement ; and for settling , as far as human wit and wisdom can
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fix , a lasting standard of tone for pronouncing every word and almost every syllable of it . I am a friend to the cause , and think an advocate wanting ; since that which calls itself
the learned world is thoroughly inclined to blot out this ancient character from the book of learning , and had rather lose it entirely , than he at the pains of understanding it at all "
But , to return to my argument , I shall now produce some evidence from ancient authors to prove that our present Greek accents are genuine , that is , that they occupy the same
places which they did in ancient days . These quotations will first prove , in general , that the Greek accentuation was in many points different from the Latin , and secondly , that it corresponded in all the particulars which can be ascertained with that which
now appears in our printed copies . This being all the evidence the subject admits of , in all that can fairly be required , and indeed is sufficient , I think , to produce the most satisfactory conviction . The following passage from Quinctilian proves , in general , both that the Greek accentuation
differed from the Latin , and that it presented that variety which we still find in it . It also proves , in particular , that in Greek the acute and circumflex accents were often found on the last syllable , which also corresponds with our books . " Sed aecentus cum rigore quodam turn
similitudine ipsa minus suaves habemus , quia ultima syllaba nee acuta unquarn excitatur , nee inflexa circumducitur , sed in gravem , vel duas graves , cadit semper . Itaque tanto est sermo Graecus Latino jucundior , ut nostri poetae , quoties dulce esse carmen voluerunt , illorum id nominibus
exornent . " Lib . xii . cap . x . It is truly remarkable , that what our modern literati decry in the Greek as a barbarism , was by the ancient Roman critics and poets deemed a beautiful
peculiarity of which their own language was destitute . In another place , the 8 ame writer , having observed that many Roman grammarians required that all foreign words adopted into Latin should be made conformable to the usages of that tongue , gives the following instance : " Indfe Olympo et tyranno acutam mediam syllabam de-
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446 Argument in favour of the Greek Accents .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1823, page 446, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1787/page/14/
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