126 
On the Letter * r.' 
common with three or four other simple sounds, bears to indicate the 
facility with which it may be pronounced with other consonants. We 
have in English 21 such combinations of r with other simple conso- 
nants ; and certain others, though difficult to an English mouth, are 
yet not impossible. We cannot readily pronounce mr in one syllable, 
nor could the ancient Greeks pronounce these letters together even in 
two syllables, and so the Hebrew in a J (Nimrod) becomes Nf/3pw^ in 
the Septuagint, and kidd (Mamre) becomes Ma/i/3pf/ ; but in Sans- 
ki'it we meet with mri, to die, mrig, to seek, mn, to injure, &c. So 
we have nr in nrit, to dance ; jr, in jri, to grow old ; chr, in chrit, to 
hurt ; sr. in sri, to injure. 
Nor is the combination of r with the aspirate to be forgotten, though 
in modern English we entirely disregard the li in rheumatism, rhino- 
ceros, &c. The mere spelling of Latin words derived from the Greek 
is sufficient evidence that something like an aspirate followed the in- 
itial p in Greek ; and in Welsh this is the case with all radicals. But 
while in the Welsh schools great pains are taken in instructing children 
to insert this h, and to pronounce it in the proper place, viz., after 
the r and not before it ; our Anglo-Saxon forefathers always put the 
aspirate before the r. Whether in Greek words beginning with p the 
aspirate preceded or followed the r, will admit of doubt. If we may 
trust the Roman ear — which was accurate enough in the case of rheda 
from the W^elsh rhedeg — the aspirate followed ; but there is perhaps 
some force in the argument of Dr. De Lagarde : Lingua Graeca cum 
Armenica id habet commune, ut initio vocabulorum literam caninam 
non ferat. Ea igitur vocabula qu£e apud Indos literam r habent pri- 
mam, apud Graecos aut vocalem aliquam praemittunt (velut rudhira 
ipv^po^) aut r in I mutant (velut ric linquere Xltt, rue lucere \ev\6^). 
Ea autem quae apud lexicographos Graecos ante rr in unum agmen 
coacta habentur, non r habent primum, sed spiritum asperum, eumque 
aut pro w aut pro s positum." (Tit. Bost. contra Man., praef. pp. 6, 
In proceeding to consider the use of the letter r, we may notice 
first the tendency to insert it after the short a when another vowel 
follows, as in Rosar Evans. Now this paragogic r is found most fre- 
quently when the next word begins with a vowel, and this perhaps will 
help us to account for it. Displeasing as this r is to an educated ear, 
it is only so by virtue of its associations ; it is as true a euphonic in- 
sertion as any that exists. A person is intending to say One window 
of the house." He mispronounces window, as uneducated persons 
often do, as winda. Of follows, pronounced uv. Two precisely 
similar vowel sounds come together, and a pause or hiatus between 
them offends the ear : for it is offensive to the ear, though in what we 
call " correct " speaking such an hiatus is not merely tolerated but 
carefully observed. Our speaker however knows little of Nares, 
Sheridan, or Walker, and he lifts the tip of his tongue ever so little 
