PRINCIPLES

OF THE

ETYMOLOGY AND SYNTAX

OF THE

GREEK LANGUAGE.

GREEK ALPHABET.

THE GREEK ALPHABET consists of twenty-four letters, viz

o long.

NOTE.-There are many other abbreviations, but these are in mcst

basileu Agrippa, egemai

βασιλεῦ ̓Αγρίππα, %

O, king . Ágrippa,

by

(the) Jews,

emauton

• Pronounced teen, ẽ long.

ημαι I think

† Pantone, & long.

is tha i, &c.

NOTE.-I, before y, x, x, or , is sounded like ng in ring, as ayyeλos, (angelos,) ayxov, (angkon,) &c. Sigma, at the end of a word, is written s, otherwise σ.

() is called the rough breathing or spiritus asper; it is the same as h in English, as i (ho).

() is called the circumflex accent.

( ́) the acute accent, and (`) is the grave. (') is the soft breathing, or spiritus lenis.*

(1) This character written under a vowel is called the subscript iota, (i written under,) as r, apxñ, &c.

In Greek, the vowels & and o are short; and w are long, and a, i, v, are doubtful; called so because they are sometimes short and sometimes long; as a in warp is always long, in aos is always short, while in "Apns, it may be either short or long.

(') The apostrophe is written over the place of a short vowel, that has been cut off from the end of a word; as, αλλ' for αλλα, κατ' or καθ' for κατα. This is done when the next word commences with a vowel, and in compounds, when the first part ends and the last part begins with a vowel. Sometimes the diphthongs are elided by the poets, as βούλομ ̓ ἐγὼ for βούλομαι ἐγὼ ; and sometimes after a long syllable, the initial vowel is cut off from the following word: as, 'yats for 'ayaté. Instead of the apostrophe ὦ 'γαθε ὦ αγαθέ. or cutting off the final vowel, the concurring vowels are often contracted: as, κακ for καὶ εκ, κἀγὼ for καὶ ἐγώ, &c.

The spiritus lenis indicates that the spiritus asper is not used Every word commencing with a vowel or diphthong has a spiritus OF breathing on that vowel, while the diphthong has it on the 2d letter.