In distinguishing "good" words from "bad", Moeris and other grammarians frequently employ the terms Ἀττικῶς, Ἑλληνικῶς and κοινῶς. The exact distinction between the last two terms, which was for a long time unsettled, has been recently decided by A. Maidhof, who shows[1] that Ἑλληνικῶς refers to the Hellenistic literary language, while κοινῶς means the speech of everyday life, especially of the lower classes. Since either word brands an expression as un-Attic, it is unnecessary for the purposes of this dissertation to regard the distinction.
Naturally the spoken language contained many words unsuited to a good style. It is so in every age, and in every nation. Before a word is considered "good", we commonly search "good" writers for it. When we find it used by an approved author, we regard it as a "good" word. This was the process also of the Atticists. The great difference lies in the fact that their limits were far too narrow, and, set far back in the past, prevented the language from growing. Many words of Menander they failed to find among the representative authors who formed their canon, and hence they were especially severe in their criticism of him. Their harshness may have been due also in part to the great vogue of Menander, which made his faults, as they deemed them, all the more prominent, and might induce others to copy him, whether consciously or not. One quotation from Phrynichus will suffice to prove that this great comic poet was, in his opinion, quite outside the pale of good authors. Phryn. p. 442 L., 500 R. αἰχμαλωτισθῆναι· τοῦθ᾽ οὕτως ἀδόκιμον, ὡς μηδὲ Μένανδρον αὐτῷ χρήσασθαι. διαλύων οὖν λέγε αἰχμάλωτον γενέσθαι.
Even the source of Pollux, more liberal than Phrynichus, was not satisfied with Menander's diction. He says (3.29) Μένανδρος, ᾧ ἀεὶ μὲν οὐ χρηστέον ὡς οὐκ ἀκριβῶς Ἑλληνικῷ,[2] ἐπὶ δὲ τῶν ἀκατονομάστων πιστευτέον· ὧν γὰρ γενῶν ἢ πραγμάτων ἢ κτημάτων ὀνόματα παρ᾽ ἄλλοις οὐκ ἔστι, ταῦτα ἀγαπητὸν ἂν εἴη κἂν παρὰ τούτου λαβεῖν.
The words found in Menander which are definitely attacked
- ↑ Zur Begriffsbestimmung der Koine besonders auf Grund des Attizisten Moiris, diss. Würzburg 1912 = Heft 20 of Schanz's Beiträge zur historischen Syntax der griechischen Sprache. See esp. pp. 54, 61.
- ↑ Note that Pollux's standard of good usage seems to be τὸ ἀκριβῶς Ἑλληνικόν, as distinguished from that of Phrynichus, who demands τὸ ἀκριβῶς Ἀττικόν.
