Page:Modern Greek folklore and ancient Greek religion - a study in survivals.djvu/230

 the third are the only constant and uniform elements common to all dialects.

These dialectic forms demand consideration for the reason that some of the derivations proposed take as their starting-point not the common form [Greek: kallikantzaros] but one of the rarer by-forms—a method which is evidently open to objection when it is seen, as the accompanying table of forms will show, that [Greek: kallikantzaros], besides being the common and normal form, is also the centre from which all the dialectic varieties radiate in different directions. In compiling my list of forms, however, I may abbreviate it by the omission of those which are a matter of calligraphic rather than of phonetic distinction. Thus the first two syllables of [Greek: kallikantzaros] are often written [Greek: kali-] or [Greek: kalê-], but since [Greek: i] and [Greek: ê] represent exactly the same sound and [Greek: ll] is very seldom distinguished from [Greek: l], I have uniformly written [Greek: kalli-] even where my authority for the particular form uses some other spelling. On the other hand, as regards the use of [Greek: tz] or [Greek: ts], between which there is a real if somewhat subtle difference in sound, I have retained the particular form which I have found recorded.

Starting then from the normal form [Greek: kal-li-kan-tza-ros], which I thus dismember for convenience of reference to its five syllables, I may classify the changes which the word undergoes in various dialects as follows:

(1) The insertion of [Greek: a] in the second syllable, giving [Greek: l[i(]a] in the place of [Greek: li].

(2) The prefixing of [Greek: s] to the first syllable, giving [Greek: skal] for [Greek: kal]. With this Bernhard Schmidt well compares the modern [Greek: skonê] for [Greek: konis], and [Greek: skyphtô] for [Greek: kyptô].

(3) The complete suppression of the second syllable, or the retention of the [Greek: i] only as a faintly pronounced y.

(4) Combined with, and consequent upon, the suppression of the second syllable, the change of [Greek: l] to [Greek: r] in the first syllable, or the interchange of the [Greek: l] in the first syllable with the [Greek: r] in the fifth.

(5) The loss of either [Greek: n] in the third syllable or [Greek: t] in the fourth.

(6) The change of the [Greek: a] in the first syllable to [Greek: o].

(7) The change of the [Greek: a] in the third syllable to [Greek: e, i, o], or