PROPER PRONUNCIATION OF GREEK. 55 say that the Erasmian pronunciation is an arbi- trary one, by no means agreeing with the one which had existed during the classical period of Hellas. They further say that the literary lan- guage of the Greeks of to-day is almost equal to the old Greek. Every German student who has passed through the gymnasium is able, without further preparation, to understand mod- ern Greek works, yet he cannot pronounce cor- rectly the living Greek. For members of the German archaeological institution, for instance, it is very painful to have to learn over again, on coming to Athens, the Greek language, the lan- guage to the study of which they had devoted many years of assiduous labor, for the reason that they had been taught at school the Eras- mian pronunciation which deviates entirely from the pronunciation of the living Greek. The document then enters on the pronunciation of the different written soimds. Finally, it is pointed out that the Erasmian pronunciation has been already abandoned in the colleges of Italy, Belgium, Holland, England (they might have added, last but not least, America), and that it is high time that Germany should have done with the Erasmian tradition. The Emperor of Germany has lost this oppor-
