Particularly of the LEtTE R 'S.WM K. 129 



There are, however, feveral other grounds on which the 

 claim of this letter to the appellation oi folitary or independent, 

 may be fupported. 



I. SIFMA alone of all the confonants employs its power in 

 affifting the mutes to make up the double letters. Thus, any 

 one of the labial mutes t, or /S, or (p, affifted by o-, makes il/* 

 any one of the palatine mutes, n, or y, or y^, affifted in the 

 fame manner, makes |" and any one of the dental nvutes, r, or 

 5, or ^, with the fame help, makes 1^. In the cafe of %J/ and |, 

 this is evident from the mode of refolving thofe double letters 

 in the infledlions, efpecially in the oblique cafes of nouns of the 

 imparifyllabic declenfion. Thus, in the cafe of ■^j we perceive 

 that T^a.'t'ka.-^ , procella, is the fame with X«;'x«!rj, becaufe its ge- 

 nitive is Xa<XaTo?' that"Afa-vJ/, ^rfli^j-, is the fame with"A^«/3j, 

 becaufe its genitive is "A^k/Soj" that xxrTJKii^, Jcala, is the fame 

 with ««7-^/.«ps, becaufe its genitive is zct.r^Xi(po?' and in the cafe 

 of I, we perceive that «of «|, corvus, is the fame with M^axg, be- 

 caufe its genitive is KoguKog' that (pXof, fiamma, is the fame with 

 fXo'ys, becaufe its genitive is (phoyo?' that ocfl, ungula, is the fame 

 with ovv^^^ becaufe its genitive is 'ovv)(o(;. But the fame analogy 

 in the cafe of ^ is not fo eafily traced ; and indeed the critics 

 and grammarians, who have written in Greek, do not even af- 

 fert that ^ is equivalent to Jj, but to <rh *. Their reafon feems 

 to have been, that they never obferved ^ refolved into two Am- 

 ple confonants, except in the Doric manner, as fx.i'K'Kr^a, inftead 

 of (ji.t'ki^u, modular ; oa-hu, inftead of oZco, oleo. The learned 

 HuLEWicz even denies that ^ is a double letter ; " becaufe, 

 " (fays he) it never is equivalent to two confonants, like | and 

 " 4/* for if Z, were a double confonant, it would occur in the 

 " termination of Greek words, as well as | and -i^, which it 



Vol. II. R " never 



* Vide DioNTS. Hal. wsji ni%. htji,. i^. Dionts. Thracem apud Fabricium in Biblioth, 

 Gr. Vol. VII. p. 28. Theod. Gazak Grammar, fo/. 24. Thefe are followed by 

 Clenarous, iyc. 



