words are rarely employed by him. It is hardly fair to regard this last group of words as of very great authority in determining Menander's relation to the Koine, if only for the reason that Aristophanes is even more liable to censure than Menander if they are barred out as bad Greek. They are therefore inserted in this list merely to complete the group of his words not found in the authors of our canon.
For convenience, the words discussed in this chapter are divided into several classes, according to the types which they represent. The classification is not exhaustive, but is believed to include all types which are significant. The groups considered are diminutives, variations from the Attic norm in accent and gender, words having the prefixes ἀ-privative and δυσ-, those with the suffixes -ώδης, -μα, -μός, -ικός (verbal adjectives in -τος), and -ίζω, and verbs (and occasionally other words) which have two or more prepositions prefixed.
Diminutives.
Like any other comic poet, Menander made frequent use of diminutives. In this he simply reflects the speech of everyday life, for the Greeks, like the other nations of southern Europe, were very partial to this form.[1] Menander has 21 diminutives which do not appear in the classical authors: namely ἁλύσιον = a piece of jewelry, ἑταιρίδιον, θεραπαινίδιον, ἱστάριον, κερμάτιον, κοιτίς, λεβήτιον, μαχαίριον, μειρακίσκος (Plato), νεόττιον = the yolk of an egg, ξενύδριον, παιδισκάριον, πλόκιον, ποτηρίδιον, ῥοίδιον, σακ(κ)ίον, ταμιειδιον, τριπόδιον, φάνιον, χιτωνάριον, χλαμύδιον. Among these words, the following appear before Menander: μαχαίριον, μειρακίσκος, τριπόδιον, χλαμύδιον. But ἁλύσιον in this sense is used by Philippides; also κερμάτιον; νεόττιον in this sense by Diphilus; and σακ(κ)ίον with a different meaning by Aristophanes and Xenophon. The rest seem to have been introduced into literature by Menander. Nearly all are uncommon in all periods.
Variations in accent and gender.
It is not strictly within the scope of our work to discuss dis-
- ↑ Cf. for Greek, Jannaris, Historical Greek Grammar p. 292, § 1038b; for Latin, Stolz, Histor. lat. Gram. I 1 p. 574 ff.; for the Romance languages, Meyer-Lübke, Grammaire des langues romanes (French transl). II p. 615 = II p. 566 of German ed.; for French, Nyrop, Grammaire historique de la langue française I2 p. 14 § 10.3.
