It has been presumed that, in general, the student would pass from the smaller to the larger Grammar, before entering on the study of Ionic or poetic writers. As this, however, may not always be convenient, it has seemed best to add, in an Appendix, a synopsis of the most important forms of dialect, and a brief account of the principal kinds of verse.

INTRODUCTORY STATEMENT.

1. The Greek language, as it was spoken and written by the inhabitants of Attica, is called the ATTIC DIALECT. It is seen in the works of Thucydides, Xenophon, Plato, Isocrates, Aeschines, Demosthenes, and other Athenian writers. From about the time of Álexander the Great, it was used as a common literary language by all the Greeks. Hence it is found in the works of Polybius, Strabo, Plutarch, Arrian, Lucian, and many others, who were not of Attic birth. As used by such writers, with more or less variation from the pure Athenian idiom, it is called the Common Dialect. Of the prose literature of Greece, all but a small fraction belongs either to the Attic, strictly so called, or to the Common dialect. It must be the object, therefore, of an elementary Greek grammar to describe the ATTIC GREEK, especially in its genuine form, as seen in the prose-writers of Athens.

a. The works of the Athenian poets (the tragedies of Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, the comedies of Aristophanes) present many peculiarities of language. In their lyric parts, they show some Doric forms. The poets of all dialects make more or less use of Epic forms.

2. Among the other dialects the most important are -a. The Old Ionic or Epic, used by Homer, Hesiod, and the later epic writers. —b. The New Ionic, used by the bistorian Herodotus.-c. The Doric, used by lyric poets, as Pindar, and by bucolic (or pastoral) poets, as Theocritus.

Beside these, may be named-d. The Aeolic (of Lesbos), seen in the lyric fragments of Alcaeus and Sappho.. .—e. The Hellenistic, a form of the Common dialect, seen in the New Testament, and in the LXX. or Septuagint version of the Old Testament. -f. The Romaic, or Modern Greek, the popular idiom for the last thousand years, found in written works since about 1150 A. D.

SC.

NOTE TO THE LEARNER. In the following pages, Hm. stands for Homer, Hd. for Herodotus ; cf. is used for Latin confer (compare), for scilicet (to wit), -i. e. for id est (that is), - -e. g. for exempli gratia (for example), etc. for et cetera (and so forth). Other abbreviations will explain themselves. The alphabetical lists of verbs (in sections 300 and 740) contain some special abbreviations, which are described at the beginning of section 300.

The sign of equality (=) is sometimes placed between words, to show that they are substantially the same in form or meaning.

The stems of words (see 71 and 196) are given without accents; and so, generally, are words the existence of which is merely supposed, not proved by the use of Greek authors.