Page:The Fall of Constantinople.djvu/415

 ATTITUDE OF INNOCENT. 397 lowed the capture of the city in rapid succession proved that the Crusaders had undertaken a task far beyond 11688 of their powers, even if they had been united. But RovernRo- dissatisfactiou at once began to show itself, and the struggles among the captors themselves greatly weakened their power. Boniface and his friends seem to have believed themselves outwitted by Dandolo and the partisans of Baldwin. Within a few days of the coronation of the new emperor a tumult was raised between the rival factions.' i " Cliron. of Romania," edition Buchon, p. 73. The Greek in which tliis is written is one of the most curious specimens existing of the medi- aeval form of that language. The Marquis of Montferrat becomes 6 fiapKs- Krjg Tov 'Movcpkpa : he becomes king or 'Pt'jyag rijc ^aXoviKrjg ttuXtjc. The French are ^pavTZ3Xoi. Baldwin is MTraXSovj3ipog, just as in modern Greek the sound of h is always represented by Mtt. The language of Nicctas contains many words of Western origin. I had prepared a long note on the subject of the Greek language of the twelfth century; but Professor Freeman's paper on " Some Points in the Later History of the Greek Language " in the Journal of Hellenic Studies of Oct., 1882, says all, and more, than I could say on the subject, and says it much better. I am inclined, however, to doubt whether his assertion (p. 390) that Anna and Nicetas " are always using w^ords which could never have been the first words that came into their heads" is true. To this day islanders in the Archipelago, Greeks around Trebizond and other places in Asia Mi- nor, have preserved in their dialects great numbers of words Avhicli even those well acquainted with modern Greek do not recognize, althougli they are words which will be found in Liddell and Scott. Many, also, of the words used in modern Greek, though not usually found in a clas- sical dictionary, are old, and had already come into general use in the time of Nicetas. Thus, he writes Kpaaiov for wine, (peyyapiov for moon, vspov for water. The pages of Nicetas show that the Latin court of the early emperors had left a great number of words in the language, and that Nicetas and his readers were quite familiar with the sight of Romance words in a Greek form. Some of these are very curious. Thus, (pptpiog for brother, frere, used of the brethren or friars of Jerusalem ; ra/3Xiov for table, ku- (3aXdpiog for cavalier, ^ov^ and covKag for duke, ^apKkatog for marquis, aKovTupiov, (TKciXa, aaKp^Tov^ (TuyiTra^ pi)t. for rcx (the king in a pack of cards is still, in modern Greek, called pijyag), iropra^ Kovarujcia^ ko^tiq, ivciKnuji', dofiscTTiKog, (3ova for lulla, (3iya for vigilia (which shows that in the twelfth century at least /3 was sounded as it is now, v).