III.  The  dialects  of  Central  North  Greece  are  substantially
North  Doric  in  character  ;  the  Aeolisms  whch  they  contain  are  not
survivals  of  an  Aeolo-Doric  period,  but  aie  purely  adventitious,
and  their  appearance  is  traceable  up  to  certain  definite  limits.
IV.  Conformity  to  general  usage,  and  not  an  accurate  termino-
logy, dictates  my  expression  "  dialect  of  Epirus,"  etc.,  though  care
must  be  taken  to  assert  that,  in  the  five  cantons,  Epirus,  Acarnania,
Aetolia,  the  canton  of  the  Aenianes  and  Phthiotis,  there  obtained
at  the  period  subject  to  our  control  but  one  "  dialect,"  distinguished
here  and  there  by  minute  local  landmarks.  I  see  herein  a  proof
of  the  correctness  of  the  theory  of  Joh.  Schmidt  (or  of  Paul
Meyer,  if  he  has  the  prior  claim  of  being  its  originator),  in  so  far


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as  it  maintains  that  the  term  "dialect"  refuses  to  be  restricted  to
any  limited  centre  of  si)ccch.  In  any  theory  of  dialects  which
are  ever  subject  to  a  Heraclitean  flux,  especially  if  not  subjected
to  the  restraining  hand  of  a  written  literature,  chronological  con-
siderations are  of  an  importance  that  cannot  be  underestimated.
Therefore,  while  for  a  later  period  of  the  dialect-life  of  Hellas  the
expression  "dialect"  is  one  of  peculiar  rclativeness,  it  is  a  justifi-
able term  for  certain  aggregations  of  morphological  and  syntactical
phenomena  in  the  earlier  periods  of  language,  when  dialect-relations
were  more  sharply  dehned.  Schmidt's  theory  is  undoubtedly
popular,  though  it  has  suffered  trenchant  criticism,  notably  at  the
hands  of  Fick,  but  I  doubt  whether  it  can  ultimately  hold  ground.
