LATIN HISTORY. The conquests of Alexander the Great (n.c. 330) and the consequent spread of the Greek language over a- great part of Asia led to the gradual abandonment of the other dialects and the adoption of Attic as the language of the whole Greek world. Thus arose the 'common' dialect (Kotvii attiNexvos), a slightly modified Attic, tinged with the peculiarities of the peoples by whom it was spoken. This common dialect is sometimes called Hellenistic Greek, i.e. the Greek spoken by foreigners (`E)Anytaval), not by native Greek; ('EMoivss). The Greek of the Septuagint (q.v.) and of the New Testament furnishes a good ex ample of this Hellenistic Greek. It is the lan guage of Aristotle, Polybius, Pausanias, Plutarch, and Lucian. The pronunciation was changed even more than the form of the language. As early as the third century, B.C. ec came to be sounded like L; r was pronounced like Eng. z. In the early Christian centuries 7) also assumed the sound of L; at came to be pronounced like simple €. The diphthong ot was sounded like u and later both were sounded like L. The diphthongs ending in u modified or lost their second vowel. /3, 7, and were softened in sound. During all this time the literary language continued to follow Attic models, but by A.D. 800 the difference between the spoken and the written language had become so great that the literary language could no longer itself, and was gradually supplanted by the spoken language. With this date, there
fore, the period of modern Greek may be said to begin.
BIBLIOGRAPHY. The most complete Greek gramBibliography. The most complete Greek gram- mar is that of Kfihner, Ausfuhrliche Grammatik der griechischen Sprache, revised by Blass and Gerth (Hanover, 1890-98). Historical gram mars are those of Brugmann, in Miller, Hand, buck. der klassischen Altertumswissenschaft, vol. ii. (3d ed., Munich, 1900) ; Meyer (3d ed., Leip zig, 1896) ; Kretschmer, Einleitung in die Ge schichte der griech. Sprache (Leipzig, 1897) ; Hirt, Laut and Formenlehre der griechischen Sprache (Heidelberg, 1902). Good working gram mars in English are those of Goodwin (Boston, 1892), and Hadley, revised by Allen (New York, 1875). Useful for syntax are Madvig, Syntax der griechischen Sprache (Brunswick, 1884), and Goodwin, Greek Moods and Tenses (Boston, 1900). Special works on the dialects: Ahrens, De Grwccc Lingua; Dialectis (Gottingen, ; Meister, Die griechischen Dialekte (ib., ; Hoffman, Die griechischen Dialekte-in ihrem his torisehen Zusammenhange (ib., ; Smith, Sounds and Inflections of the Greek Dialects, vol. i. Ionia (Oxford, 1894). There is no general treatment of the 'common' dialect, but Thumb, Die griechische Sprache im Zeitalter des Hello u;snt (Strassburg, 1001), is useful as an intro duction to the subject. The best lexicon is that of Liddell and Scott (8th ed., Oxford, 1897).