Preface

This grammar has for its purpose to state the essential facts and principles of the Greek language in concise form, with only so much discussion as may reasonably be demanded for a clear understanding of the subject.

While in recent years the ability to read a language has rightly come to be regarded as the proper test of a real knowledge of it, this point of view, so far from belittling the study of formal grammar, more than ever insists that a thorough knowledge of the essentials of the grammar is the most important part of the equipment of him who would read a language with ease. By essentials is meant no antiquated lore about the vocative of θεός or of ἀδελφός, but the recurrent facts of inflection and syntax, nominative χώρα, genitive χώρᾱς, and so forth, with such side lights as can be brought to bear to make these facts easier of acquisition and comprehension. A considerable experience in elementary teaching has convinced me that explanations are extremely useful, even to very young pupils; and I am persuaded that an occasional appeal to the reason rather than to the sheer memory of the pupil will not always prove futile.

The work was begun in collaboration with the late Professor Frederick de Forest Allen, and, in justice to his memory, it is proper to state that pages 13–36 and 40–46 stand practically as they were composed by Professor Allen and myself working together. For the remainder I am solely responsible.

It was the intention at the beginning to prepare a grammar for use in the secondary schools. As the work progressed, however, I found that, with but a slight increase of bulk, it would be possible to include also as much grammatical information as is usually required by students in college. With these additions, this work meets the needs of secondary schools, and at the same time is sufficient for all ordinary demands of the college course.

The book incorporates the results of the more recent philological studies. The doctrine of the Ablaut is stated untechnically, and it is given proper prominence in inflection and word formation.

Due regard is paid to the fact that analogy plays an important part in language, and that the context is not to be neglected in determining the exact significance of mode and tense.

Ionic forms are given in footnotes instead of being combined with Attic forms, and this arrangement is followed also in the Syntax and the verb list ; the reason for so doing is apparent to anybody who has ever taught Greek prose composition.

Contract forms are given in the contracted form followed by the uncontracted form (which is often purely theoretical) in parentheses, and it is hoped that pupils will realize that the Attic Greeks said ποιῶ, and not ποιέω.

In the examples under Inflection and Word Formation the letter or syllable to which attention is directed is made prominent by full-faced type; in the Syntax the same result is accomplished by spacing the word. The paradigms have been written to conform to our present knowledge, although some matter has been retained solely because it has become so engrafted in current texts that it could not be omitted.

So, also, in the matter of Homeric forms, I have, I trust, given due consideration to the vulgate. A few things I have omitted entirely; others I have recorded for the reason given in the preceding paragraph. Yet I am convinced that if our schools should adopt a fairly conservative text of the Homeric poems like that of Cauer, from which assimilated verbs and forms like Αἰόλου, σπῆι, and the like, have been banished, it would lighten the task of instruction, and the time given to explaining unnecessary forms could be better devoted to other purposes.

In selecting examples to illustrate the chapter on Syntax, I have given preference to those from authors and works commonly read at the earlier stages of the pupil's progress. By printing the examples in the same type as the rest of the matter, the number of pages in the chapter on Syntax has been considerably increased, but the gain in clearness, and in the prominence of the examples, more than offsets the apparent increase in bulk.

In the treatment of Syntax I have been conservative, although I have allowed myself some license in changing the conventional arrangement of the material. In addition to the books mentioned on pages 6 and 7, I have found helpful also the two well-known grammars of this country, as well as those of Sonnenschein, Kaegi, Lattmann-Muller, and Hahnés Grieehische Syntax.

Space does not permit me to enumerate all the friends who by advice or suggestion have given me help, but I desire in particular to express my gratitude to Professor George Edwin Howes of the University of Vermont, who has read at least twice every portion of the proofs. To his scholarship and sound common sense I am indebted for many helpful suggestions and corrections. Likewise to Professor Clifford H. Moore and Mr. William Fenwick Harris of Harvard University, who have also read the proofs, I am indebted for numerous corrections and helpful suggestions. Others whom I should like to mention also by name I am obliged to include in a general acknowledgment.

I shall be grateful for corrections and suggestions from any source.

podpisFRANK COLE BABBITTpodpis

podpisHartford, Connecticut,

podpisMarch 1901.

* * *

No conscientious teacher will find answered in this book all of the many perplexing questions which will arise in his mind. The following list contains the titles of the most important modern works on Greek Grammar, in which such questions are fully discussed (and sometimes answered):

KUHNER, R. Ausfiihrliche Grammatik der griechischen Sprache. 3te Auflage in neuer Bearbeitung besorgt von Friedrich Blass. Hannover, 1890–1898. 8vo.

Teil I. 1, 2. Elementar- und Formenlehre. S. xxiii + 645, xi + 652. Teil II. 1. Satzlehre. In neuer Bearbeitung besorgt von Bernhard Gerth. S. ix + 666.

(The most comprehensive work on Greek grammar. A model of careful and accurate scholarship. Thoroughly conservative.)

MEYER, GUSTAV. Griechische Grammatik. 3te Auflage. S. xviii + 715. Leipzig, 1896. 8vo. (Bibliothek indogermanischer Grain- matiken. Bd. III.)

(Deals with the sounds and inflections only, from the point of view .of Comparative Grammar. Full, accurate, and moderately conservative.)

BRUGMANN, KARL. Griechische Grammatik. (Lautlehre, Stammbildungs- und Flexionslehre und Syntax.) 3te Auflage. S. xix + 632. Miinchen, 1900. 8vo. (In Miiller, I. von. Handbuch der Klassischen Altertums-Wissenschaft. Bd. II. Abt. 1.)

(Written from the point of view of Comparative Grammar. Briefer than Meyer, and more radical.)

MEISTERHANS, K. Grammatik der attischen Inschriften. 3te Auflage. S. XIV. + 288. Berlin, 1900. 8vo.

(Deals with inscriptions only. Most of the results are embodied in Kiihner-Blass.)

GILDERSLEEVE, B. L. Syntax of Classical Greek from Homer to Demosthenes. Pt. I. N. Y., 1900. 8vo.

(Clear and accurate in statement, and remarkable for the excellent collection and arrangement of examples.)

GOODWIN, WM. WATSON. Syntax of the Moods and Tenses of the Greek Verb. Rewritten and enlarged, pp. xxxii + 464 + 8. Boston, U.S.A., 1890. 8vo.

(Deals fully and thoroughly with the syntax of the verb.)

BLASS, FRIEDRICH. Pronunciation of Ancient Greek. Tr. from the 3d German ed. by W. J. Purton. Cambridge, Eng., 1890. 8vo.

(A careful collection and consideration of the evidence relating to the pronunciation of ancient Greek.)

SMYTH, HERBERT WEIR. The Sounds and Inflections of the Greek Dialects. Ionic, pp. xxviii + 668. Oxford, 1894. 8vo.

(Thoroughly accurate and reliable. Contains a full treatment of the dialect of Herodotus.)

VAN LEEUWEN, J. Enchiridium Dictionis Epicae. pp. Ixxii + 606. Lugd. Batavorum, 1892–1894. 8vo.

(Entirely radical, but invaluable for the very full collection of material which it contains.)

MONRO, D. B. A Grammar of the Homeric Dialect. 2d ed. pp. xxiv + 436. Oxford, 1891. 8vo.

(Deals more particularly with Homeric syntax. Accurate, reliable, but very conservative).