[To the Editor of the Sercrv-ron.]
SIR,—The reformed pronunciation of Greek and Latin is to be preferred because it probably is nearer to that of the ancient Greeks and Romans than the older one. But as we do not know in detail how they spoke, it is not worth while to reform to the extent of using sounds that arc not English. Many arguments used against the older pronunciation arc of little or no value. Thus there is no such thing us a Continental pronunciation of Greek and Latin. To a Swede or Norwegian the Greek or Latin read by a Dane is mere unmeaning gibberish.
Anecdotes intended to ridicule the older pronunciation lose their point when looked at more closely. That Lord Oxford and Asquith was not understood by the Scots only shows that he was accustomed to another pronunciation than they, but it does not follow that Cicero would have been understood by them any better. Gladstone was not understood by the Greeks, but no more would Pericles have been understood by them, for Modern Greek is a very different thing from Old Greek. The Oxford examiner was quite right in calling the pronunciation of the boy barbarous if the boy pronounced as the Greeks do now, and Aristotle would no doubt have passed the same judgment
on such a pronunciation.—I am, Sir, &c., R. JORDE. - The Cathdral School, Bergen, Norway.
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