GREEK LAN'GUAGE, the language ()I' the primitive inhabitants of Greece, the Pelasgi, was already extinct in the time of lierolotue, who asserts that it was dif ferent from the Ilellenie, and adds, that it is probable the Ilellenes have retained their original language. From the great number of Hellenic tribes of the same race, it was to be expected that there would be different dialects, the knowledge of which is the Inure necessary for becom ing acquainted with the Greek language, since the writers of this nation have trans mitted the peculiarities of the different dialects in the use of single letters, words, terminations, mad expressions, and that not merely to characterize inure particu larly an iialividnal represented as speak ing but even when they speak in their own person. It is customary to distin guish three leading dialects, according to the three leading branches of the Greeks, the Yolic, the horde, and the Ionic, to which was afterwards added the mixed Attic dialect. At what time this language first began to be expressed in writing, has lung been a subject of doubt. Accord ing to the general opinion, Cadmus, the Plitenician. introduced the alphabet into Greece. His alphabet consisted of but sixteen letters ; four are said to have been invented by Pabunedes in the Trojan war, MO four more by Simonides of Ceos. As the Ionians first wielded these letters, and the Atheuians received them from them, the alphabet with twenty-four let tern is called the Ionic. These who have most carefully studied the subject, be lieve that the use of the elphabet bcrtmc common in Greece about 550 years before Christ, and about as long after Humes In Homer's time, all knowledge, religion, and laws were preserved by memory alone, and fur that reason were put in verse, till prose was introduced with tho art of writing. The Greek langusge. as preserved in the writings of the celebrated outliers of antiquity, as Homer, Ilesio(l, Demosthenes, Aristotle, Plato, Xenophon, &c., has a great variety of terms and ex pressions, suitable to the genius and oc casions of a polite and learned people, who had a taste for arts and sciences. In
it, proper names are significative ; which is the reason that the modern languages borrow so many terms from it. When any new invention, instrument, machine, or t ho like, is discovered, recourse is generally had to the Greek for a name to it ; t he facil ity wherewith words are there compound ed, affording such as will be expressive of its use ; such are barometer. hygrometer, microscope, telescope, thermometer, &e. But of all sciences medicine most abounds with such terms; as, diaphoretic, diagno , sis, diarrhcea, hemorrhage, hydrophobia, phthisis, atrophy, Am.—Modern Greek, or Beau/ie. The Greek language seems to have preserved its purity longer titan any other known to us ; and even long after its purity Wes lost, the echo of this beau tiful tongue served to keep alive some thing of the spirit of ancient 11 recce. All I the supports of this majestic and refined dialect seemed to fail, when the Greeks' were enslaved by the fall of Constantino ple, (A.D. 1543.) All the cultivated class es who still retained the pure Greek, the language of the Byzantine princes, either perished in the conflict, or took to flight, or courted the favor of their rude con querors by adopting their dialect. In the lower classes only did the coin 111011 Greek survive the vulgar ilia of the pelished classes. But the Greek net yet ex tinguished by all the adversities the na tion had undergone, filially revived with increasing vigor, and even the love of song kept nitre seine sparks of patriotic sentiment. From the beginning of present century, external eirciunstances hare greatly favored the progress of edu cation in Greece ; scdmmols have been es tablished ; and the language itself, which in its degradntion was 111a destitntc of melody and flexibility, gained energy and vivacity from the efforts of several pa triotic individuals, who endeavored to bring it nearer the ancient classic dialect.