PHILOLOGICAL GENIUS OF THE MODERN GREEK LANGUAGE. 17 
in the same way after cutting of the terminal vo, becomes 7, as édevPepwn, 
for éevPepwOjva. This again forms a perfect analogy to the process by which 
the v, which originally. belonged to the full form of the infinitive, as gupevas, 
eupev, evar, and which appears in the German, loben, geben is dropt in 
English, so that only the monosyllables Jove and give remain. 
Proposition XIX.—A very peculiar and characteristic species of initial 
curtailment is that which takes place when a preposition precedes the definite 
article, and being absorbed by it, is pronounced as one word. Thus, eis ry 
mow, to the city, by curtailment of the initial diphthong and absorption of the 
remaining consonant by the following article, become oryv médw, or cravTddw, 
where the Dorism of a prevails, whence the vulgar Stambouw/ arising from a mis- 
understanding of the Franks. In the same way the ancient Cos was supposed 
to have been metamorphosed into Stanco (és tav Kw) ; and in Crete, according 
to SprATT,* they have actually Nyéa from es tav Ida. A similar error, arising 
from the ignorance of the Lowlanders, occurs in the Highlands, where Loch Nell, 
for instance, near Oban, receives its barbarous and unintelligible Saxon designa- 
tion from the absorption of the definite article na by the substantive eala, 
signifying a swan, as is the case also with Loch Ness, Moness, and other such 
names, occurring not unfrequently in the topography of the Highlands, where 
the Gaelic ais, signifying a waterfall, attaching to itself the m of the definite 
article, presents to the uninstructed the false appearance of an independent 
word ness. In the same way the substantive verb vanishes into the following 
noun: as smellum so = is maith leum so, this is good with me, I lke; and sptk 
orm, for is beag orm, this is little on me, I dislike. It is remarkable that in 
German it is not the preposition in such cases, but the article that is absorbed. 
Thus zu der becomes zur, zu dem, zum, in das, in’s, and so forth. In Italian 
sometimes both the article and the preposition are curtailed, as in pel for per lo, 
nel for in illo. 
Proposition XX.—Of syncope, or the dropping of consonants in the 
middle of a word, and of synizesis, or the slurring of two consecutive vowels into 
one syllable, there are not wanting examples in Romaic; but, as they are 
neither so frequent as the initial and final curtailment, nor occasion the same 
difficulty to the student, they may be slightly mentioned here. As in HomER 
we have xcéBBare for catédae, and such like, soin Romaic we have ovBalw for 
oupBiBalo, oridy for omwbyp, kdvw for képvo, vidn for vipdn, ddiro for dayero, 
Aawe for Aayénov, wevryvra for TevTjKovra, and with a large initial curtailment 
capavra for rexoapdxovra. Two of the most familiar examples of this medial 
curtailment are those which take place on the verbs \éyw and tréyo. When I 
* Travels in Crete, by Captain Sprarr. London 1865. 
VOL. XXVII. PART I. HE 
