CHAPTER II. ' THE PROPER PRONUNCIATION OF GREEK.* One of the principal points in the study of a language is the knowledge and the application of its correct pronunciation. In order to learn the true pronunciation, one is obliged to go to the only rational and pure source, that is, to the people who speak the language; in the case of Greek, to the Greeks. In the middle of the fifteenth century, after the fall of Constantinople, Greek fugitives came to all parts of Europe. The desire to do charity to these refugees without humiliating them too much on the one hand, and to take advantage of the opportunity offered to learn their language on the other, induced many persons to take Greek lessons from these Greeks. It became fashionable for every prince and every noble- man to have a Greek preceptor in his family. In every university a chair for Greek was estab- lished. This movement was similar to those taking place later on with reference to the ♦Lecture delivered in Hossack Hall, Academy of Medicine, New York, June, 1896.
