Tafel ] 35g [October. 



not customary in the Romance tongues. But, unless c before (i was 

 influenced by a succeeding f/, it could never have been weakened into 

 tsh ; for it is only by the dissolving influence of this vowel-consonant 

 that the guttural c is changed into the dental f. 



Prof Diez explains the assibilation of the French c before a in 

 the following manner: The Franks who conquered France, were un- 

 able to pronounce the hard guttural k, but instead, pronounced the 

 aspirate / (see Grimm, I, 179). No doubt they pronounced the 

 Romance c or k in the same manner, and their pronunciation seems 

 to have affected that of the conquered inhabitants of Gaul, who were 

 unable to pronounce the guttural aspirate of the Franks, and in its 

 stead sounded the rough sibilant sh. Even at the present day the 

 guttural aspirate of the Spaniards is pronounced sh by the French ; 

 thus, they say Don Quichottc instead of Don Quixote. That the 

 French sibilant ch=sh took its origin from the guttural aspirate, is also 

 proved by its spelling; for ch is the German spelling of the guttural 

 asp" rate. — The clearest evidence, however, that the assibilation of c 

 before a was efi'ected by a difi'erent process from that before i and e, 

 is proved by the fact that c before a, after it was assibilated, sounded 

 like sh, but before e and i like s. For, supposing even, that the 

 assibilation of c before i and e, extended to c before a, we would 

 naturally infer that they would have the same sound, viz., s. 



In support of the theory, that the sibilation of c in chrek, child, 

 cJiesf, &.G., took place on Anglo-Saxon ground, and was not caused by 

 the French invasion, I would adduce, that, with the exception of 

 these few words, mentioned above, in the beginning, and a few 

 more at the end of words, as catch, fetch, &e., c remained firm in all 

 other Saxon words, and in English, at the present day, is given by k. 



The assumption that e in ea and eo was hardened into y before the 

 Anglo-Saxon k, receives support by Prof. Rask's idea of the pronun- 

 ciation of these diphthongs; he says in his Anglo-Saxon grammar, 

 § 17 : " ^is used before a, o, to mark the sound of y consonant, as 

 in the most ancient Icelandic orthography, which was probably bor- 

 rowed from the Anglo-Saxon, e. <j., earl, an earl, Old Icel. carl, 

 modern jarl, &c. It is probable, however, that this sound of y has 

 been somewhat weaker than the strong j=y in Dani3h, as it occurs 

 so frequently, and is denoted by c rather than i. It has also been 

 laid aside in many instances ; but that it is not a peculiar diphthongal 

 sound that is expressed by this e before a vowel, may be inferred as 

 well from the above shown likeness to the Icelandic, as from being 

 often, even in the Anglo-Saxon, interchanged with /, c. y., sco or sio- 



