170 _ Mr. Harvey's Obfervations 
abruptly; may be in contact as it were; or may 
fo coalefce together that each of thefe predicaments 
fhall poffefs-a fenfible difference. A red and a blue 
colour, for inftance, may-be placed fo near to each 
other as to appear in contact, without really being 
fo; two mufical notes may be played or fung in that 
diftin® manner, which the Italians term fpiccato or 
fpezzato; or two vowels may be pronounced with a 
comma between them, and each of thefe modifi- 
cations may be confidered as a hiatus. ‘T'wo colours, 
alfo, as well as two mufical notes, or two vowels, 
may fo clofely approach, as to leave no interval of 
fpace or time between each other, and yet may be 
perfectly defined; but fhould the union be fo 
intimate, that commixture fhould take place, a 
purple would be the refult of thofe two colours. 
And as in mufic, when that, which is called a note 
de Gotit, or grace, is foftened, as it were, without 
the fmalleft interval,. into the principal note (which 
it either precedes or follows) in fuch a manner, that 
the 
* ¢ Nonnulli efi€tum fuiffe volunt charafterem Y, 
® vero # ad bafin litera v vocalis adjefo.” 
Beza de Germ. Pron, Grec, Ling. 
But how then could it be efteemed as a fimple vowel, 
when compofed of two vowels? It is as reafonable to 
fuppofe that the modern found of the Englifh y was 
taken from the Greek diphthong Y which is exaétly of 
the fame found as the French affirmative out, and many 
other of their words, ending in. ui, whether a confonant 
‘follow or not, But according to the Englifh technical 
name, it is a triphthong, ouwai or uat, 
