APPENDIX.

MODERN NAMES OF PLACES.

As most of the ancient Greek names passed into the English language through the Latin, they suffered alterations in their orthography, which they would not have suffered, had they been taken directly from the Greek. The terminations os and on are changed into us and um, because Latin grammar required it; and ou and ei have been changed into u, e, or i, because the Latin had no diphthongs of this kind. But for the English language, such changes are not necessary, since we have no cases, and ou and ei often have precisely the same sounds, in English, as in Greek. The Latin orthography of most ancient proper names, is probably too firmly fixed by usage to be altered: but shall we, therefore, for the sake of uniformity, go on to Latinize modern Greek names? The universal sentiment will doubtless be in the negative; for Greece has now become a nation, and is so situated, and possesses such a character, that we shall probably have occasion to transfer innumerably more of her names into English, than are in common use among those we have received through the Latin.-Shall we, then, conform their orthography entirely to the sounds of our own letters? To this there are objections. For example, to express 6 invariably by v would look barbarous.

In modern names, the Greek orthography has been followed in this volume, with only two or three slight variations. In ancient names, the orthography has generally been conformed to the Latin usage.

For the gratification of readers who are conversant with the Greek alphabet, a vocabulary of the more common Greek names will be given, in which the orthography and accentuation are adapted to the most common usage in the Greek govern. ment Gazette. And the reader, who is unacquainted with the Greek characters, will be able readily to perceive which syllable of the corresponding English word is to be accented, by observing which syllable in the Greek name has an accent over it.

In the modern Greek tongue, a is sounded like a in far and fat; like a in mate and e in met; like e in glebe and ¿ in glib; like i in marine and pin; . and like o in note and not; like e in glebe and y in syntax; ou like ou in you and could; as like ai in mail and said; u, u like n,, or that is, these vowels and diphthongs have precisely the same sound. So that in Greek, there are but five long, and five corresponding short vowel sounds. For in the remaining diphthongs, (so call

324

MODERN NAME'S OF PLACES.

ed) the u is a consonant, pronounced like v, except before the sharp consonants, where it is pronounced like f.

Of the consonants, only a few need any remarks for the common English reader:-6 is invariably sounded like v; y more like hard g, than any other English sound; ♪ like flat th in all cases;

like sharp th; x like the German ch, of which hard ch is the best English representation; like ps, both letters being always sounded. There is no difference between the rough and the smooth breathing; that is, neither is pronounced.

An intelligent and educated Greek has remarked in reference to the sounds of the vowels above given, that the Greek language hardly knows the distinction of long and short vowel sounds, and that in the examples above, the short sounds are the most correct. He says, also, that before the sound of and n1, in the beginning of a word, y would represent y better than the hard g.

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