‘Greek in our Schools’: Two Replies

Abstract

Mr. Francis Elliot's eloquent plea for substituting the ‘beautiful modern Greek pronunciation’ for the so-called ‘reformed’ pronunciation of the ancient language is at first sight very attractive, and there is no doubt that the reformed pronunciation is itself in need of some reforming. I would agree that the modern language in the mouths of most Greeks is more beautiful than the ancient language in the mouths of most Englishmen—this is partly due to the Englishman's inability or reluctance to fit his mouth to continental vowels and consonants—and that the modern Greek way of stressing the syllables bearing the acute or circumflex accent should be universally adopted in our schools instead of being the hobby of a few eccentric teachers. The ancient Greek accent was no doubt one of pitch, but there are traces of the transformation of this into a stress accent as early as the fourth century a.d.; in any event there is a tendency for a higher-pitched syllable to carry a stress with it, whereas there is no case at all for foisting the Latin trisyllabic rule of stress on to ancient Greek. Even to utter the stressed syllables at a higher pitch is no impossible feat.