τὸ δὲ σ̄ τῆς μὲν γλώττης προσαγομένης ἄνω πρὸς τὸν οὐρανὸν
ὅλης, τοῦ δὲ πνεύματος διὰ μέσων αὐτῶν φερομένου καὶ περὶ
τοὺς ὀδόντας λεπτὸν καὶ στενὸν ἐξωθοῦντος τὸ σύριγμα. τρία
δὲ τὰ λοιπὰ ἡμίφωνα μικτὸν λαμβάνει τὸν ψόφον ἐξ ἑνὸς μὲν
τῶν ἡμιφώνων τοῦ σ̄, τριῶν δὲ ἀφώνων τοῦ τε δ̄ καὶ τοῦ κ̄ 5
καὶ τοῦ π̄.
οὗτοι σχηματισμοὶ γραμμάτων ἡμιφώνων. δύναται δ’
οὐχ ὁμοίως κινεῖν τὴν ἀκοὴν ἅπαντα· ἡδύνει μὲν γὰρ αὐτὴν
τὸ λ̄, καὶ ἔστι τὼν ἡμιφώνων γλυκύτατον· τραχύνει δὲ τὸ ρ̄
καὶ ἔστι τῶν ὁμογενῶν γενναιότατον· μέσως δέ πως διατίθησι 10
τὰ διὰ τῶν ῥωθώνων συνηχούμενα τό τε μ̄ καὶ τὸ ν̄
κερατοειδεῖς ἀποτελοῦντα τοὺς ἤχους. ἄχαρι δὲ καὶ ἀηδὲς
τὸ σ̄ καὶ πλεονάσαν σφόδρα λυπεῖ· θηριώδους γὰρ καὶ
ἀλόγου μᾶλλον ἢ λογικῆς ἐφάπτεσθαι δοκεῖ φωνῆς ὁ συριγμός·
τῶν γοῦν παλαιῶν τινες σπανίως ἐχρῶντο αὐτῷ καὶ 15
near the teeth; and σ by the entire tongue being carried up to the palate and by the breath passing between tongue and palate, and emitting, round about the teeth, a light, thin hissing. The sound of the three remaining semi-voiced letters is of a mixed character, being formed of one of the semi-voiced letters (σ) and three of the voiceless letters (δ, κ and π).
Such are the formations of the semi-vowels. They cannot all affect the sense of hearing in the same way. λ falls pleasurably on it, and is the sweetest of the semi-vowels; while ρ has a rough quality, and is the noblest of its class. The ear is affected in a sort of intermediate way by μ and ν, which are pronounced with nasal resonance, and produce sounds similar to those of a horn. σ is an unattractive, disagreeable letter, positively offensive when used to excess. A hiss seems a sound more suited to a brute beast than to a rational being. At all events, some of the ancients used it sparingly and guardedly.
1 προσαγομένης R: προαγομένης EF: προσἀναγομένης P, Vs: προανοιγομένης M 2 ὅλης REF: ὅλως δὲ M: om. PVs || μέσων αὐτῶν R: μέσον αὐτῶν F: μέσουν αὐτοῦ M: μέσου αὐτοῦ EPVs 5 δ̄ καὶ τοῦ κ̄ REF: κ̄ καὶ τοῦ δ̄ PMVs 13 καὶ πλεονάσαν REF: καὶ εἰ πλεονάσαι PM: καὶ εἰ πλεονάσειε Vs 14 ἀλόγου RPMVs: ἀλάλου EF
2. Perhaps the variations in the readings here (cp. also [148] 16) indicate that one or two of the words originally stood in the dual number.—διὰ μέσου αὐτοῦ (EPV) would mean ‘through the middle of the palate.’
9. As in Virgil (Aen. viii. 140: cp. v. 217), “at Maiam, auditis si quicquam credimus, Atlas, | idem Atlas generat caeli qui sidera tollit.”—The same view of l is expressed in Demetr. de Eloc. § 174 πρὸς δὲ τὴν ἀκοὴν (sc. ἡδέα ἐστι) “Καλλίστρατος, Ἀννοῶν.” ἥ τε γὰρ τῶν λάμβδα σύγκρουσις ἠχῶδές τι ἔχει, καὶ ἡ τῶν νῦ γραμμάτων (for the effect of the double l and n cp. such words as ‘bella’ and ‘donna’ in Italian).
12. It is well known that the Comic Poets make fun of Euripides’ line ἔσωσά σ’, ὡς ἴσασιν Ἑλλήνων ὅσοι (Med. 476: with Porson’s note). Pericles is said to have led the way in substituting ττ for the less pleasing σσ (see Lucian’s Iudicium Vocalium for the substitution itself). On the other hand, it has been observed (with reference to de Corona § 208 ἀλλ’ οὐκ ἔστιν, οὐκ ἔστιν ὅπως ἡμάρτετε, ἄνδρες Ἀθηναῖοι, τὸν ὑπὲρ τῆς ἁπάντων ἐλευθερίας καὶ σωτηρίας κίνδυνον ἀράμενοι, μὰ τοὺς Μαραθῶνι προκινδυνεύσαντας τῶν προγόνων καὶ τοὺς ἐν Πλαταιαῖς παραταξαμένους καὶ τοὺς ἐν Σαλαμῖνι ναυμαχήσαντας καὶ τοὺς ἐπ’ Ἀρτεμισίῳ καὶ πολλοὺς ἑτέρους τοὺς ἐν τοῖς δημοσίοις μνήμασι κειμένους, ἀγαθοὺς ἄνδρας, οὓς ἅπαντας ὁμοίως ἡ πόλις τῆς αὐτῆς ἀξιώσασα τιμῆς ἔθαψεν, Αἰσχίνη, οὐχὶ τοὺς κατορθώσαντας αὐτῶν οὐδὲ τοὺς κρατήσαντας μόνους): “in defence of English we may note that this renowned passage, perhaps the most effective ever spoken by an orator, has no less than fifty sigmas in sixty-seven words” (Goodwin’s edition of Demosth. de Cor. p. 148). There is also an interesting article on “Sigmatism in Greek Dramatic Poetry” in the American Journal of Philology xxix. 1 (cp. xxxi. 1). Mr. J. A. Scott there proves by means of examples that Homer, Pindar, Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Aristophanes and the Comic Poets, do not avoid recurrent sigmas; and he adds that “the phrases ὁ φιλοσίγματος and ‘Euripidean sigmatism,’ which rest on the assumption that Euripides in a peculiar way marred his style by an excessive use of sigma, have no basis of truth to support them.” He further remarks, “It is Lasus of Hermione [Athen. 455 c], the so-called teacher of Pindar, who won a certain kind of fame by producing asigmatic verses; but it was evidently a species of poetic gymnastics such as was later achieved by the poets of the Ἰλιὰς λειπογράμματος and the Ὀδύσσεια λειπογράμματος, where the trick was to write the first book of each poem without α, the second without β, and so on.” In Sappho’s Hymn to Aphrodite (C. V. c. 23) there is no lack of sigmas. But we may be sure that neither Demosthenes, nor any good reader of Sappho, would be guilty of undue sibilation in the actual delivery of the speech or of the lines: it is the continual hissing that, as in English, has to be avoided. (For the pronunciation of σ, σβ, σγ, σμ, σσ see Report of Classical Association on Greek Pronunciation, p. [349] infra, and Giles’ Comparative Philology p. 115).—Instances of not unpleasant accumulations of the s sound in Latin are to be found in Virg. Aen. v. 46 “annuus exactis completur mensibus orbis”; Virg. Georg. i. 389 “et sola in sicca secum spatiatur harena”; Cic. Topic. i. 1 “maiores nos res scribere ingressos, C. Trebati, et iis libris, quos brevi tempore satis multos edidimus, digniores e cursu ipso revocavit voluntas tua.” Cp. Quintil. ix. 4. 37 “ceterum consonantes quoque, earumque praecipue quae sunt asperiores, in commissura verborum rixantur, ut si s ultima cum x proxima confligat; quarum tristior etiam, si binae collidantur, stridor est, ut ars studiorum. quae fuit causa et Servio, ut dixi, subtrahendae s litterae, quotiens ultima esset aliaque consonante susciperetur; quod reprehendit Luranius, Messala defendit.” An example of the recurrence of the s sound in English poetry is:—
O the golden sheaf, the nestling treasure-armful!
O the nutbrown tresses nodding interlaced!