D. 



DACTYLOLOGY. 



D 



D which OMUIM* the fourth place in UM Hebrew alphabet and those 

 ) derived from it, is the medial letter of the order of dentals or 

 nalato-dcrnUU. It readily interchanges with UK>M of the same organ. 

 The German language and the English ofler an abundance of example*. 



1. l> in German corresponds to (A in English, u dei, thine ; dnk-n, 

 think; dn, thou; rfirf, thif; dwxur, thunder; Jan, thorn; d*rcA, 

 through; urf, death; orwfcr, brother ; mic, earth; infer, leather ; Ac. 

 And on the other hand, A in German, which however is not pro- 

 nounced a* among u, corresponds to (/ in English, an lAoii, dew ; Ikat, 

 dale; After, dollar ; *-, do; Outt, deed; (An/, dole and deal; rod, 

 red ; *otk, need ; wM, mood. 



8. T in German to d in Kngliah, aa lag, day ; tattb, deaf ; lathe, 

 dove: //, deep ; (row*, dream ; loet, death; irol, bread; 6mV, broad; 

 *or<, word ; hart, beard. 



3. in Latin to or at, or final in German, and I in Engliih, an 

 drrrm, Ae or wA, ten ; di'jilm, uke, to* ; duo. tvey, two ; dmgua, 

 (the aame aa lixytui), aaujt, tongue; dan (dent) tuim, tooth; cur 

 (cenl-u), ken, heart; due-en, atk-t, tug: donm-rt, toAm-nt, tame; 

 md-or, scAiract, sweat ; 7>a (ped-it), fuu, foot ; trf-crr, ew-en, eat; efarf- 

 er, fdUiet^en, shut ; urf-i<, AUM-TH, hate; flwod, , what; t'rf, a, it; 

 yrandit, gram, great 



4. D U interchangeable with /, and this moot freely. Compare the 

 Greek forma OoWirtvt, nAi^wo7i, JaifiATji, Saxpu-tt, S-, SoAix>, with 

 the Latin I'lijnt, Polltue, laptilit, laeritmti, liya-re, lonifiit. In the 

 Greek language itself compare Scifo with SeiAos, SoAot with Jos (8oJ-os) ; 

 and in the Latin, nUa, teala, mala, ralla, with the verbs tedc-o, ncand-o, 

 mand-a, rad-o. Vaidia and Diyrnlia, two small streams of ancient 

 Italy, an now called respectively Vertigtia and LicmM. So the Italians 

 nay either etUra or ciltni for ivy ; and the Latin catuia, a toil, is in 

 Italian coda, in Spanish co/a. lint one of the moat remarkable in- 

 stances of this change exists in the words elerm and tirrlre, in both of 

 which the / lias grown out of a d in dectm. In the same way, while 

 the Greek baa 8*a for ten, the Lithuanian prefers litu ; and of two 

 Sanscrit dialects, one bos data*, the other Inxan, for the name numeral. 

 The people of Madrid call themselves Madriteiiot. The language of 

 Mndagatcar is MalagaJt. 



5. D attaches itself to the letter n. Thus we find Gr. -rtir-tt, and 

 Lat tend-o, stretch; Lat. eauii, Eng. hound; Lat. tontu, Eng. sound ; 

 Ltt. and Ur. root iuv or men, Eng. mind ; Ger. abend, Eng. emt or 

 nva-Mi/v Ger. dmner, Eng. <Arfrr; Ger. nitmaitd, Lat. e-mon, Eii({. 

 no-man. And our English term husband, is a corruption of Aoic-man 

 (Lat. dominus). This </ is particularly apt to insert itself after an n 

 when an r follows. Thus from the Latin ciner-i*, getter, lexer, come 

 the French eendre, geadre, tmdre. And the latter language has the 

 futures ritmlrai, liendrai, where analogy would have led to roiir-ai, 

 (aur-at. 



6. Di before a vowel is changed into a g orj, as Diatxit or Janiu, 

 the god of light (dies) in Roman mythology; Diana or Juno, the 

 goddess of light. Bo Dietpiter and Jupiter are the same name. The 

 Latin kodie is in Italian ogye. Sometimes a 2 is preferred to a g, 

 especially in the Greek, Italian, and German languages. In the Greek, 

 for example, fa is used for Sia ; hence (aa, riro, and Stair a, are con- 

 nected, and the same town on the African coast is called indifferently 

 Hippo Zarytta or JET. Diurrhutot. 80 in England we write the name of 

 a certain town Odiham, and call it Ojam. 



7. Zfo before a vowel is changed into 6 or r. [See B.] With this 

 principle is connected the change of d into r, in the words ari>, 

 madeo and atvt, davit and daudo, and the river Kutrut or Oder. 



6. Instances occur where d is interchanged with both the other 

 medials ; with 6, as in Latin barba, rtrbum, English beard, won/ ; with 

 g, as in the Greek AIJ^T)TTI/< from fi MT"!?, l8', " ^o beech," as well 

 as fry*', *n<l in the two names of the African city, KopxiS'" and 

 C'ortAoyo. One may often hear in the mouths of children dood for 

 good, and do for go. 



9. D when flanked by vowels often disappears in the transition of 

 words from Latin into French. Compare tfeiodunum, Liidorievi, rattan, 

 radii, mediut, fide*, it oil HI, canda, attlden, viilcre, with Meln, Lonit, 

 ipU, rat, mi, foi, , queue, aaevtr, roir. 



For the forms of the letter D see ALPHABET. 



D as a Roman numeral signifies five hundred. It is more correctly 

 written ID- [NUMERALS.] 



DA CAl'O ("from the head," or "beginning"), an Italian musical 

 term, signifying that the first port, or strain, is to be repeated, and to 

 conclude at the sign of the pause (^), or at the word .rfiw. The 

 phrases in use are, Da Capo at fine, and Da Capo al tej/no ; that in, 

 " From the beginning (or over again) to the fine" or " to the sign." 

 This term is abbreviated by the letters D. C. 



DACTYL U the name of a metrical foot consisting of a long and two 

 short syllables, as the Latin word liuora; or of an accented syllable 

 followed by two unaccented, as galitry. 



DACTY'LICa To this term belong an those metres which consist 

 of a repetition of dactyl* or equivalent feet. The long syllable may be 

 the first in the line, as it is m the heroic verso of Homer; or it may be 

 preceded by one or two short syllables. Thus the modern anaprestio 

 verse is strictly a dactylic metre, as 



" If be ht'd my f.u'lu, he has Ic'fl n In don'bt." 



Of the dactylic metres the most common are the hexameter, 

 as its name implies, consists of six feet [HKXAMKTKR], and the penta- 

 meter, of five feet. 



The dactylic metre often alternates with trochaic measures, ^n. li 

 U the case in the sapphic and alcaic stanzas. 



DACTYLO'LOGY. The simple art of oommunioating ideas by 

 xjiflliiiK wonls with the fingers is called dactylology. The positionii 

 which the fingers are made to assume correspond to the alphabetic 

 characters of a language, and the aeries of alphabetic signs is perhaps 

 better known nnilrr MM name of the manual alphabet. The chief, and 

 the most useful ..: dactylology U in the instruction of the 



deaf and dumb. In the various iuKtitutiuns for thin class of jwreons, 

 dactylology is almost universally employed. The letters may In- 

 formed by the two hands, or with ouly one hand : a two handed alphabet 

 is used in the English institutions ; on the continent f Kur| 

 in America, the one-handed alphabet is employed. Kitlur ..i th. in 

 may be learned by an hour's practice ; they are often taught to the deaf 

 and dumb, in conjunction with the written alphabet, in a few days. 



iim ALPHABET OF TBK DKAP ASH Dive. 



W 



ylology must not be confounded with the natural language of 

 the deaf and dumb, which is purely a language of mimic signs \\v 

 mention this because some persons have misunderstood the office and 

 overrated the value of finger-talking; imagining that all do 

 dumb persons naturally understand language, and convert^ NMI 



