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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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conveyed of the just pronunciation is , bv throwing the syllables into new combinat ions , as in the following example : Mw vwd eiZeSred TtiqXrfd d £ u < x % iXr } 0 <; .
If the line be read as if thus written the accents will be pretty well expressed , without injury to the quantity . It really appears to me , that from such examples as these , a very sufficient idea may be formed of the
true nature of ancient Greek pronunciation ; and may enable us , if so disposed , to restore to living utterance those long-neglected marks which at present seem but as melancholy monuments of the lost graces of Grecian diction . But whether or not we deem
it expedient actually to adopt them in practice , these examples may convince us that there is no manner of difficulty in supposing- that they once formed the rule of pronunciation , and might again , if it were thought desirable .
But suppose it admitted , that in pursuing the plan here recommended , our English students will , after all , be often found neglecting" the quantity in favour of the accent , is this so shocking ? Let me beg the reader to consider whether it can take place in any greater degree than it does on the received plan . In our books we see
the word affaire pots , but our schools teach us to read it ocfMporE ^ oiq . ] f the advocate for the accents is charged with lengthening the third syllable of this word , may he not with equal justice accuse his opponents of lengthening the second ? And when the
last syllable is long , as in ayacTcr } , how is its quantity better consulted by reading it dyocirf } ? As to the long penultima , if it were true that placing the accent upon it was of any advantage to its quantity , the Latin mode would so far be preferable ; but upon the same principle the Greek would
nave the advantage in numberless other instances , such as steel , ocyovrrav , which ^ e read iKei dyeno ^ v . So that , judging even by the standard of our own prejudices , the one system seems but little more favourable to quantity than tk ° L ? ' The fact i 8 > that through itie whole subject we are apt to fall " > to the error of thinking a syllable Jong when it is accented , audJ the con-* rary . But this notion is wholly unvin
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tenable , and dot less so in respect to the Latin than the Greek , as is too evident to need proof . The Greek practice of depressing " , in many cases ,
the long' penultima is common to tbe English and many other modern Ianguages , as in such words as ch&miztrg industry : but the Greeks were , at the same time , mindful of their quantity , which we neglect .
The advantages of retaining and observing the tones are many . To say nothing of that pleasing effect noticed by Dionysios , when he says of them , ** KXiitTaut Tyf tpqikiXioi to ) Kopoi , " and
which Qumctihan so well contrasts with the heavy monotony of the Latins ; to say nothing of this , their use is exceedingly great in determining the sense of words , between which there
is no other distinction . At the end of Scapula ' s Lexicon is given a list of above 800 words , differing from one another only in their signification and accent . But a still greater number of such words is derived from the
inflections of nouns and verbs , of which this list takes no notice , though they are , perhaps , less easy to distinguish than the others . It is useful to discriminate at a glance , 6 sd , a goddess , from Beat , a spectacle ; but we are more likely to be at a loss between cxryopd , a market , and aryopqi , to a market ,
a . yopoL $ , ofa market , and ocyopaq , markets : or again , between < xoiYj < roci , to do , TTowjir&t , he would do , and luolyia-oci , make for thyself . It may be said that the context will point out all these distinctions ; and no doubt it is true , that with sufficient pains , the sense of a passage may generally be thus determined . And if we went on to
strike out from Greek half the vowels , and reduce it to the condition of Hebrew without points , the sense might still in general be ascertained . Bat then the difficulty would be much greater ; and what ordinary scholar is
there to whom additional facility in understanding Greek would not be an acquisition ? But it is said that the accents have not the authority of the original author . This is true , but not more so than that the distinction
of t and rjt o and u , in Homey , is in the same predicament . But surely it is sufficient , in all ordinary cases , to be guided in our studies by directroMe , which having first been made white Greek was flourfaWtag in purity , have
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Argument in favour of the Greek Accents . 449
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v ^ n . x . 3 M
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1823, page 449, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1787/page/17/
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