On the Orthography of Hebrew Words. 91* 



o, u, like g hard ; but before e, i, y, like zh. In Italian and English 

 it is sounded before a, o, u, like g hard ; but before e, i, like dzh, 

 (Eng. jj. In Spanish before a, o, u, like g hard ; but before e, i, with 

 a peculiar guttural sound. In German, Swedish, and Danish, usu- 

 ally like g hard, but sometimes nearly like y, and g final with a pecu- 

 liar guttural sound. In Dutch, usually with a guttural sound. The 

 soft sound of g has fluctuated, then, between dzh, zh, y, and a pecu- 

 liar guttural sound. 



Amid this variety in the sound of g, it is most probable that the 

 Gimel aspirated in Hebrew had a flat guttural sound, bearing the 

 same relation to g hard, that the sharp guttural sound kh does to k. 

 This sound the Irish are said to express by gh before a, o, u ; and 

 probably the Germans, Dutch, and Spanish, express nearly the same 

 by their guttural sound of g. 



We will represent ^ aspirated by gh, (1.) because this combination 

 of letters is so used by the Irish ; (2.) because this flat guttural sound 

 has the same relation to g hard, that the sharp guttural sound repre- 

 sented by kh has to k ; and (3.) because in this way we adopt an uni- 

 form mode of representation for all the aspirates. 



Daleth. 



* 



n had two sounds, according as it was written with or without a 

 Daghesh. 1 (without a Daghesh) was aspirated and sounded like 

 Eng. th in thine, ^ (with a Daghesh) was unaspirated and sounded 

 like d. The modern Greeks give to this letter invariably the form- 

 er sound, and the nations using the Roman character, invariably the 

 latter. 



We will represent T aspirated by dh, (1.) because the sound of th 

 in thine has the same relation to the sound of d that the sound of th 

 in thin has to t; and (2.) because in this way we adopt an uniform 

 mode of representation for all the aspirates. 



He. 



ft moveable is naturally represented by h. 



ft quiescent usually quiesces in a, but sometimes in other vowels. 

 It is treated like the other quiescents. 

 ft ptiant is entirely suppressed. 



Wa w. 



1 moveable had the sound of the French ou in oui 9 or of the Eng. 

 w in we, and is best represented by w. This is much nearer, than 

 the sound of the Eng. v, to the vowel power of 1. 



