SS3 Mr. Pickering on the Pronunciation 



X. 



The learned all agree, that the letter y^ was pronounced by 



i 



the ancient Greeks with a strong aspiration ; like the ch in Ger- 

 man, or, much as the letters gli final are pronounced by the Irish 

 and Scotch. The Modern Greeks give it the same sound. 

 That it had some resemblance to the «., appears from its being 

 sometimes substituted for it in writing ,• as in the instance above 

 cited from the Herculanean Manuscripts, under the letter T, 

 where ccXoKua-tccv is written for aKo?,ot(riocv. 



m 



"¥. 



The pronunciation of the letter -<// is undisputed. It is admit- 

 ted by all, that it had the sound of ps; though occasionally mod- 

 ified by the other letters, so as to sound sometimes like bs. 



o; 



L 



The Modern Greeks pronounce the u just as they do the 

 and it seems to be undeniable, that anciently they differed only ir 

 quantltij but not in sound. Before the discovery of the Hercula 

 nean papiiri, it had been observed that they were frequently inter 

 changed by transcribers; and we now find the same thing in thosi 

 manuscripts. The editor of Philodemus has this remark upon it 

 col. xvii, V. 14; where he says we should read (to use his Ian- 

 guage) " pro ufA,sii>ov fortasse u^eiwv, v. 16, pro rm u.srpm refin- 





A few remarks upon the sounds of the diphtJiongs will conclude 

 what I have to offer at present upon this subject ; but before ex- 



* Fhilodem. ia not, p. 78. 



