The Latin Language; An Historical Account of Latin Sounds, Stems and Flexions (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1894 Excerpt: ...properly belongs, e.g. whether the c of collum is a palatal or a true guttural. We are also confronted with an apparently I.-Eur. dialectal change of q-to p, perhaps made in order to avoid that similarity between two successive syllables which was so sought after in Latin ( 163). Thus the I.-Eur. word for 'five' may have been qenqHe in one dialect (O. Ind. pdnca, Gk. TTtvre, &c), q? nq, Je in another (Lat. quinque, O. Ir. coic); the root meaning 'to cook/ peqH-(O. Ind. pac-, Gk. 7reWco), q-eq'-'-(W. pobi, with p-from I.-Eur. qy, Lat. cSquus), and even q-'ep-(Lith. kepii. What of Gk. ipro-Ko-nos?). The same explanation has been suggested for the qH of Lat. quereus beside the p-of O. Engl, furh, Engl, fir, and for the p-of Goth, fidvdr, Engl, four, beside the q" of other languages, e.g. Lat. quattuor. A Latin Guttural, to whatever series it belongs, combines with a following # into x, e.g. vexi from veho (I.-Eur. gh), before I becomes the group cl, e.g. rectus, actus, which in late Latin 1 So w is dropped before the H-sound in Engl. ' two.' u a came to be pronounced ft (Ital. atto), before n, m becomes tbe group gn, gm, e. g. ilignus from Ilex, or the loanword cygnns from Kvkvos. Initial gn-became n-at tbe beginning of the second cent. B.C., e.g. ndfus. But I una does not stand for lucna, but for lncsna (Zend raoxsna-, 'shining, ' Pruss. lauxnos, 'stars'), as we see from the old form on a Praenestine mirror, Losna (C. I. L. i. 55), just as velum, a sail, stands for vex-lum (O. SI. veslo, 'a rudder'), as we see from the Diminutive form vexillum, so that Gk. has been declared to represent vksvos (M. S. L. vii. 91) Another instance of Greek yj appearing in Latin as n with long vowel is the (loanword?) ardnea (Gk. ap&xvri). Exdmen beside agm...