782 



QUOTIENT RAAB . 



among several persons invested with power, with- 

 out whom the others could not proceed in the busi- 

 ness. Thus, among the justices of the peace, it 

 was customary to name some eminent for knowledge 

 and prudence, to be of the quorum ; but all justices 

 are now generally of the quorum. In legislative 

 and similar assemblies, a quorum is such a num- 



ber of members as is competent to transact busi- 

 ness. 



QUOTIENT ; the quantity obtained by the pro- 

 cess of division, or, in other words, the quantity 

 which indicates how often the divisor is contained 

 in the dividend ; thus 3 is the quotient of 15 divided 

 by 6. 



R 





R ; the eighteenth letter of the English alphabet, 

 is lingual and a liquid or semi-vowel, as it can be 

 pronounced before and after most consonants. This 

 letter is pronounced in various languages, and in 

 several instances even in the same language, in dif- 

 ferent ways. The most natural mode, at least that 

 which is most agreeable to the ear, and most com- 

 mon in the various languages, is by an expiration, 

 whilst the tongue touches the roof of the mouth 

 with a tremulous motion, the pronunciation of the 

 English r at the beginning of a syllable, as rhetoric. 

 This sound is still more distinct in the Spanish lan- 

 guage, when one r ends a syllable, and another 

 begins the next, as zurra. This tremulous motion 

 of the tongue makes the pronunciation of r more 

 difficult than that of any other letter in the alpha- 

 bet, so that it is the last which children learn ; and 

 if the tongue is too thick, or is too closely joined to 

 the lower part of the mouth, they do not learn it at 

 all. Indeed, the sound of r is entirely wanting in 

 some languages, as in that of the Delaware Indians 

 and ancient Massachusetts stock. Among the 

 Cherokees, those members of the tribe who live in 

 the mountains (called mountaineers) change r into 

 / ; the others (now civilized) have always / instead 

 ofr. (See//.) Another pronunciation of the letter 

 r is produced by curving the tongue towards the 

 roof of the mouth, and pressing the upper part 

 against the back part of the roof. This is the com- 

 mon pronunciation of the French r; and in this 

 way the letter may be pronounced so much from 

 the throat, as to partake considerably of the nature 

 of a guttural. If the tongue is not pressed quite so 

 much against the roof of the mouth, and the air is 

 expired with less strength, we produce the sound 

 which the English r has at the end of certain sylla- 

 bles, as in perceive. The English, and more parti- 

 cularly the Irish, are distinguished from the Ameri- 

 cans, by drawing the tongue far back, and thereby 

 preventing the air from escaping freely, which pro- 

 duces a peculiar rolling sound. You may distin- 

 guish an American and Englishman immediately, 

 if they only wish youa "good morning." * The r 

 loses its true pronunciation most, in the English 

 language, when it follows a, in which case the ar 

 is pronounced almost as the Italian a, only a little 

 less open, with a slight guttural contraction. R 

 after e and , it is known, changes the pronuncia- 

 tion of the latter, in the English language, as in 

 perquisite. (See article on the letter E.) The first 

 pronunciation of r cannot be produced but by an 

 expiration of considerable strength, which is the 

 reason why, in many cases, it is written with a fol- 



* The I,ondon cockney pronunciationapproaches tlieAraer- 

 irnn in tliU rpspert. as in th<> case of corn, which is pronoun- 

 ced, in the city, almost likecatrn. 



lowing h, or, in some languages which incline much 

 to aspirate sound, is preceded by A. Adelungsays 

 that r, on account of its tremulous motion, is natu- 

 rally used for expressing every tremulous motion, 

 and, figuratively, every violent and sudden emotion, 

 also quick repetition, intension, &c.; e. g. tremere, 

 ira, rash, irrer, and the German frequentative syl- 

 lable added to verbs (erri), which, in many cases, is 

 changed into eln. The tremulous motion of this 

 letter, moreover, produces, in speaking quickly, an 

 uncertainty as to its preceding or following the 

 vowel, so that r is transposed oftener than any 

 other letter : to burn, in English, is brennan in 

 German ; Brunn and Born both, in German, sig- 

 nify a well; so there are the Latin cerno and 

 crevi, germen and gramen,pro and por ; the Greek 

 n'ov and xagnw ; and innumerable other cases. 

 As the pronunciation of r differs from that of / 

 only by the tremulous motion of the tongue, it 

 is natural that either of them should often take 

 the place of the other. (For some remarks re- 

 specting both letters, see the letter L.) The 

 pronunciation of the letter s is also much allied to 

 that of r, as the tongue is in the same position, 

 only allowing the air to pass over the point, instead 

 of shaking it Hence, also, the frequent alterna- 

 tion of these two letters ; as, ees, ceris ; arena, 

 with the ancient Romans asena; hare, in German 

 Haas ; was, in German war; the German Rohr, in 

 Ulphilas Raas, and in French roseau, &c. The R 

 of the Romans was derived from the P (rho) of the 

 Greeks. It is the resh of the Phoenicians and 

 Samaritans, formed thus, <] and [>. The various 

 forms f the P of the Greeks and Etruscans may be 

 found in Mionnet's Descr. de Mfdailles, pi. xix. and 

 xxi. As a Roman numeral, it signified 80, accord- 

 ing to the verse, 



Oetoginta dabit tibi R, ti guit numerabit } 



with a dash over it, 80.000. With the Greeks, f 

 with the accent over it, signified 100; with the 

 same sign under it, it was 100,000. The Hebrew 

 resh (i) denoted 200, and (=,), 200,000. R, on 

 ancient medals, signifies Ravenna, redux, regia, res- 

 titutor, Roma, Romanus, &c.; P. R., populus Ro~ 

 manus; R. P., re* publica; R.C., Roma condita ; 

 R. M. S., Romanus; R.C.,rescriptum,&c. Among 

 the names, R signifies Roscius, Rubrius, Regulus, 

 Rufus, &c. R, in numismatic works, signifies 

 rare; and the different degrees of rarity are indi- 

 cated by one, two, three, &c. R stands, in modern 

 times, for rex, or regina. Rx. is rix dollar. 



RAAB ; a city of Hungary (anciently Jaurinum) 

 on a river of the same name, at its confluence with 

 the Danube; 16,118 inhabitants. June 14, 1809, 

 the archduke John and the palatine of Hungary 



