of the Greeh Langua& 



281 



Conrector fidenti 



Nonnc aufcem h 



rum elementorum valtle adfinem sonuni apud vcteres argucrc li- 

 cct ?^''* Thus it appears, that the modern pronunciation of this 

 letter may be traced back, with great probability, to the commence- 

 meiit of the Christian era; a period, whjch may properly enough 

 be considered as classic. It should also be noticed, that in tlic 



present instance, the v is thus substituted for i in an accented syl- 

 lable ; which^ if the ancient Greeks regulated their pronuncia- 

 tion by the accents as their descendants do, adds greatly to the 

 force of the argument in this case ; for an acccnfeff syllable would 

 not be likely to be written with letters, whicii had not a very 

 close affinity to each other in sound ; whereas un-accented sylla- 

 bles, on the contrary, might be spelled with letters, which would 

 not, of necessity, very closely resemble each other. This civcum- 



by the way, will, as I am strongly 



uk, ex- 



plain many of 



the 



aphy 



ancient 



manuscripts. 



O. 



The letter (p, it is agreed, had anciently the same sound 

 which is given to it by the Modern Greeks ; that is, the sound of 



R 



But, from the 



made by Cicer 



Gi 



that 



/ 



could not pronounce Fundani 



but said Fkundan 



was 



doubtless uttered more forcibly, or with 

 the lips, than tlie Latin lettcr.f 



fp 



compression of 



* PhUodein. p. 56. 



t See Quinti!. lib. i. c. 



