Sidl' Mr, Pickering on the Pronunciation 



r. 



The letter y, when single, lias two sounds in Modern Greek. 



Before a, «, w, ovt it has, what we call in English, the Jiard sound 

 of G, as in game, gone, &c. ; hut hefore g and / it has the sound 

 of the Italian Jj or our Y : Thus (to take an example from Ve- 

 lastus^ Treatise^ yi^ccg is pronounced ydras ; y/to^a/, yeenomay. 

 The former of these sounds is universally admitted by the 

 learned to be the ancient one ; but the latter has been much con- 

 tested j and among the reasons for controverting it, Meilcerke (copy- 

 ing from Bexa, as usual) assigns this very extraordinary one — that 

 we cannot give two different sounds to the same letter without ac- 

 knowledging a degree of poverty in the Greek language, which is 



w 



not credible ! To which Martin very justly replies, that this 



-a 



reasoning is ^^ plane ridiculum,^^ and only betrays MetkerJce^s 

 own ^'poverty of argument." Martin then proceeds to defend it 

 upon the ground of usage ; which, so far as my inq^uiries have 

 gone, is the only ground upon which it can rest ; and this, sure- 



ly, (if I may use a professional phrase,) is sufficient to throw the 

 burden of proof upon those who condemn the pronunciation as 

 spurious. It may, however, be further observed, tliat this soft 

 sound of the y might once have been similar to that, which is 



s 



G in English, in the words guide, d 



guise, &c. as if written g?jide, disgyise ; from which it may have 

 naturally changed to the simple sound of y, as we now find it. 

 Indeed, in some combinations, it does take a sound which cannot 



be distinguished from 



But the pronunciation, which was most controverted by some 

 of the Erasmians, is that, which is given to this letter, when it 



precedes another y, or x, I, or ;^ ; ia which cases the Modern 



L 



Greeks give it the sound of n, as we have always been accus- 



