MODERN FORMS OF ANCIENT PROPER NAMES. 337 
The present German mode of pronouncing et does not appear to 
secure for us precisely the sound of ancient proper names. Cesar 
and Tacitus expressed Rhein by Rhen-us, conveying to us a sound 
something like that which is to be heard in Marseilles. Lingua Latina 
in German, would be Lateinische Sprache: ifi was pronounced ee, 
this ez of Lateinische doubtless once had more of this sound. 
The rest of the vowels need not detain us long; as in regard to 
them the usage in ancient and modern times is nearly the same, and 
English custom is not much out of harmony with the continental. 
4. O and u, we know, were not uncommonly interchanged in 
many words. In Greek we have dvoya Attic, and dvyua Molic, 
whence our second y in synonymous: in Latin quojus, ewjus, &e. 
Hence in modern proper names we find the o often naturally repre- 
senting one of the w sounds. 
Fesole = Fesule, 
Genoa = Genua, 
Modena = Mautina, &c., 
so popolo = populus, &c.; 
and conversely, currant = Corinth. 
And so do-ge,' the title of the chief magistrate of Genoa and 
Venice, from duc, and dogale, ducal. We may compare with this, the 
short « sound which we in many English words give to 0: eg. 
London, Monmouth, Honiton, money. So “common” from 
*commun.”’—But in Lucca, pronounced Lwu-ca, notwithstanding 
the two c’s, we have the long sound of «—the sound which is gener- 
ally to be given to it in continental proper names. Zwucca retains 
its ancient name in sound, as well as in form, with the exception of 
the double c. 
5. Uin modern proper names derived from the Latin and Greek, 
often represents, and no doubt retains the proper sound of ow. As 
in Szracusa, the ancient Syracuse of the Romans, and the Svpaxoveat 
of the Greeks.* Compare the imaginary proper name Utopia, 
Ovrozia, rightly and in every respect denoting ‘“ Nowhere.” 
popularized Alexandria, Samaria, Attalia, &c.,—yet in grave historical works, it is not 
amiss to give intimation of the ei diphthong which has been displaced by the penultimate 
vowelin them. 
* It is a fixed rule that we are never to give to # in Italian words our favourite but anoma- 
lous English ew sound. The Duke of Newcastle, saluted ‘“‘Dook” so often by our neigh- 
bounrs, in 1861, thus received in part what by his bearing and wisdom he merited in full, the 
title of the late rulers of Tuseany—i} granduca (pron, dooka). 
* 
