Page:Christian Greece and Living Greek.djvu/53

AN HISTORICAL SKETCH OF GREEK. 3 1 character was the xocvtj. New Greek could not be called ^olo-Doric on account of the few Doric elements it contained. The literary Greek of to-day consists of three elements: 1. Of Attic words, forms, and constructions which after the fall of Greece composed the simplified language, the xocvvj, and of elements which, in conformity with the rules and laws of the language, have developed during the follow- ing centuries. 2. Of some words, forms, and constructions which during the classical time developed in the old dialects, which, however, entered into the Attic or into the x(w^-^, and thus formed a part of the entire xoc^vj. 3. Of some elements of old dialects which have not come with the xoorj, nor through the xo(V7jj but, on the contrary, independent from it, have been taken into the new Greek literary lan- guage. How these elements were introduced into the xotvTj is a question which would lead too far into philological study to be ventilated here. To enumerate examples of words and forms of old dialects thus introduced, words which are fam- iliar to everybody, I will mention ddXaffaa in-