S76 Mr. Pickering on the Pronunciation 



■m 



This modification of v^ though so natural a consequence of the 

 combination of these letters, was utterly proscribed by the learn- 

 ed of Europe. JVfefcerci^its asserts — ^^ Now, that v ought always to 

 be pronounced like n^ and that before /3, ^, r, its sound should 



not be changed into m^ is sufficiently proved by this : that it has 

 neither the authority of the ancients^ nor euphony^ to recommend 

 it^ and that all the letters should sound as they are written; and 

 the learned pronunciation is elegant and not difficult/^ He then 

 adds; that he supposes ^^ certain sciolists^ who had more knowl* 

 edge of Latin than of Gveeh^ must have made this change^ in con- 



^ 



sequence of their observing that the Latin prepositions an^ in^ and 

 couy before b^ m^ p^ in compound words^ were changed into am^ im^ 

 and comj^* 



I, 



Henry Stephens also (following Jfefrerc/ius^ peremptorily de- 

 cides, that this modification of the » is the work of sciolists — " il- 

 lud decretum (says he) quorundam sciolorum." He then argues, 

 that this pronunciation occasions ambiguities and deformity in the 

 language; and that "these sounds are like great monsters, which 

 every man ought to attack ivith the club of Hercules -/' and there- 

 fore we ought to reject this pronunciation. But the only reason 

 he gives for his opinion is a remark of Q^nintilianf who says^ that 

 in Greek no word ends in m. The remark of ^uintilian, howev- 

 er, does by no means warrant the inference thus drawn from it. 

 Now, that the v anciently took the sound of ^, when it was fol- 

 lowed by auy one of the letters jB, ^, or y, it may be hazardous to 

 affirm ; but it is certainly a little remarkable, that, contrary to 

 the opinion of those learned men, we find, in the Herculanean 

 Manuscripts, evidence of its having that sound when it was fol- 



Mekerchi Comment p» 162. 



