Ebook: Romaic or Modern Greek Grammar

Boston: Hickling, Swan, and Brewer, 1857. - 236 p."Greek is read almost everywhere," says Cicero. And the Greek inscriptions of the Alexandrian and Roman periods, found in regions widely remote from each other, in Spain, in Mesopotamia, and from Aethiopia to Sarmatia, attest the correctness of this statement. When, in the course of time, its turn came to stand on the defensive, the language of Greece was enabled by its singular tenacity to resist all external attacks. The modern pronouns, personal endings, case-endings, and numerals, clearly show that the combined forces of barbarism could make no impression upon its centre. The Latin conquered the West ; but it retreated somewhat precipitately from Greek ground. The Bulgarians were compelled to adopt the language of their neighbors, the Slavi ; but the Slavic had to yield to the Greek wherever it came in immediate contact with it. As to the Turkish population of Greece, they are indebted to their creed rather than to their native pride for the preservation of their Tatar dialect.
The Romaic or Modern Greek, the language of the modern Greeks, and the leading language of the Levant, is the offspring of Mediaeval Greek. In its orthography and etymology it is essentially the same as Ancient Greek. But it diifers from the parent stock in many particulars.Contents
Introduction
The Alphabet
Pronunciation
Accents
Synizesis
Elision
Contraction
Commutation of Letters
Addition and Omission of Letters
Nouns
Adjectives
The Article
Pronouns
Numerals
Verbs
Syntax
Subject and Predicate
Adjectives
Apposition
The Article
Pronouns
Numerals
The Cases
Voices
Moods and Tenses
Dependent Sentences
Adverbs
Prepositions and Conjunctions
Versification