Universitätsbibliothek HeidelbergUniversitätsbibliothek Heidelberg
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Goodisson, William
A historical and topographical essay upon the islands of Corfu, Leucadia, Cephalonia, Ithaka and Zante: with remarks upon the character manners and customs of the Ionian Greeks : descriptions of the scenery and remains of antiquity discovered therein, and reflections upon the Cyclopian ruins, illustrated by maps and sketches — London: Thomas and George Underwood, 1822

DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.65890#0266
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he hears read to the people; but can readily com-
prehend them if he read them himself. The most
remarkable and important change in the language is
the disuse of inflections, and the adopting auxilia-
ries in the tenses of the verbs, as in other European
languages. In the use of auxiliaries may be noticed
a curious coincidence with the structure of the
English verb, in conjugating the future tense with
the word (thelo,) I will; the other auxiliaries
are the verbs tlpl and which are used as the
verbs, to be, to have, and correspondent others in the
other European languages. The most remarkable
variations from our mode of pronouncing Greek are,
in the letter /3, which is sounded like our letter V;
in the diphthong, ev, which is sounded, ep; in the
letter A, which is pronounced dtheelta ; and in the
letter Y, which is pronounced as the English vowel
E. An example of the first variation is in pro-
nouncing the word Vathi, spelt in Greek, /3a0i, a
town in Ithaca; (so called from (3a0oc, depth, on
account of the deepness of its port;) the etymology
of the word, as it is spoken, would altogether
escape the observation of an Englishman who was
unacquainted with its orthography. The modern
pronunciation of the word O8v<t<tevc, which is called
Odisseps, is an instance of the second variation.
A remarkable peculiarity in the Greek, as dis-
tinguished from the English mode of reading Romaic,
is, the frequent accentuation of the last syllable';
the quantity is twice sacrificed in their way of pro-
nouncing avOpwTroc, which they call, anthropos. The

spta ly
villagers art k
cfflsequence i
betta th,
mciation d ti
fa; ta |
In society a
, “ I
 
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