Note 171 — BOOK IV JUDEA, GREECE, AND INDIA
Reading edition
This is a little misleading. I may quote from C. D. Buch, Introduction to the Study of Greek Dialects (a) “The great majority of the dialects play no rôle whatever in literature” (p. 14); (b) “In the course of literary development the dialects” (in a mixed and artificial form, e.g. the “epic” dialect) “came to be characteristic of certain classes of literature; and their rôle once established, the choice usually depended upon this factor, rather than upon the native dialect of the author.” (p. 12.) Speaking generally, each class of literature preserved the dialect of the region where it was first cultivated.
The following work is a most illuminating one on this subject: A. Meillet, Aperçu d’une Histoire de la Langue Grecque (Paris, 1913).—H. L. J.