Tafel.j 355 (October. 



this letter was simply ioserted into stems. This insertion of y after 

 the mutes we notice in the Icelandic and the Danish languages. The 

 first effect of this letter;/ upon the preceding h was to change it into 

 t. This effect of y is exercised in the Swedish and the Magyar lan- 

 guages ; it is also noticed in the Latin, where it gave rise to the 

 spelling juinci'us and nuntius, conri'o and contio. The nest step was 

 fory to be changed into the sibilants sh or s; hence the combina- 

 tions tsJi and fs. And the last step for the sibilants sh and s to cast 

 off the preceding t. In a similar way t was changed into fsh and As, 

 and finally into sh and s ; and g and d into dzh and dz ; and, finally, 

 into zh and z. The assibilation of c or k and g, at first, only assailed 

 these consonants, when i and e were followed by another vowel, but 

 in the course of time it extended to all cases where k or c and (j 

 were succeeded by a single / or e. 



With regard to the sibilation of y after the mutes, I would here 

 add, that this is effected by the aspirate which succeeds the hard 

 consonants in some languages (see above, chap. vii). For when y is 

 pronounced hurriedly after the dental and guttural hard consonants, 

 its vowel-element is extinguished by the aspirate (h) following them, 

 and nothing but its palatal breathing remains (see Dr. Brlicke, page 

 74). From this palatal breathing, which is produced by the pres- 

 sure of the middle of the tongue against the hard palate, where the 

 guttural station verges towards the dental, a very small depression of 

 the middle of the tongue is all thiit is required in order to produce 

 the sibilant sh, which is retained in some languages, and in others 

 was rapidly reduced into s. The fact that the sibilation of y was 

 caused by the aspirate of the preceding mutes, is proved by the his- 

 tory of language, which teaches that the process of assibilation first 

 commenced among the hard consonants, and after it had long been 

 established among them it finally extended to the soft. 



§ iil. In the English language, we notice the process of assibila- 

 tion in all its stages of development. Thus wo find t followed by y 

 in courteous, hestiaL We find y assibilated in nature, virtue, and 

 the preceding t cast out in notion, martial. In the other languages 

 it is different; thus, in the Italian, only the combinations ts and dz=z, 

 tsh=^ci, and (/27i=^<; exist, and in the French zh=j,ge, gi in jardin, 

 gorgr, gitr, and s=ti, ce, ci in nation, ceJle, dre. The reason why 

 in Etiglish we find these manifold forms of assibilation is this, be- 

 cause some Latin words were imported into England by the Normans 

 in the finished state of French assibilation ; hence, c before c and i 

 is pronounced like s as in French, while in other Latin words the as- 



