, 1879-01-25

NICs8Ea tlhEGCE utoS. Set1tl ut D0l1nu Volumes
Of their 4ldgazi,e, Nttk!v. and Rasar for 1873.
TlIcso aro always welcome. The interest Of
much In the ld,7xr periodicals rests upon solid
aud enduring merit, and 50 outlasts tho tcn-
porary value OF tho separate publications Tic
Weekly, 10 this form, IL almost ptclurc-raitery
In Itself. Certainly 4 collection Of Nast's chr
toons, Of euual number with those rot,talnrd
in this volume. would be worth d considerable
sun tn afonc, and thls ia making notng Of The
many other illustrations by Euud artists. Thc
Daxar's fash,on-platcs lose value III enc way
with tttne, but gain IN another. They have, 0r
will have searB hence, an htstorfcal value not
now easily. seckonca, und tho rgatling- g-Mattcr In
ccl,cnt woman and editor, siary l.. booth, Is Of
a very superior quality. The magazine has q
reputation that speaks for Itself. It has si1c.
cectlcd In striking well tho average Of popular
simply unrivalcd In periodical literature, ind
tlcy convey large amount Of useful informa-
tlon tn m entertaining way. III the hound vol-
umcs Of the u,agazIno thu worth Of the historical
and acicatinc summaries printed each mouth is
fur tho first limo fully seen nili spprerlA,ed.
They make 4 contfnuous record OF human lrog-
rcss, which Increases Ia value With the aEc Ut
tAe magazine.
THE PROEUNC1AT1ON OF LATIN.
10 ths Editor a} The Tribune,
CASEnALIA, H., Jnn. 90.-Wc do not know
how the Latin lauguuge was pronounced by the
ancient Romans, but WI do know that ut the
present time its pronunciation var,cs with tic
different natlonaltics. Talr a. nu INSTANCE the
G before the yOwcls a and J., rs In the word
Cicero. Tic common English pronunciation Is
6lsscro, because the before those vowc1s has
the sounu Of sllarp or double Ia English !;
the Germans for similar reason pronounce 1t
"TsItsero," giving the the so,,s,tl OF the Ger
man rs in XcItung, Zuhl,, etc.; the ltniias,s
pronounce "Tshitsheso," giving The sound OF
ci, In church: the Spantar.ls pronounce "Thl.
.nsron gSrg 5sguat "tn IT, teun , a. n
1so,nans gnve c ltH harA sound before oil vowcls,
hence pronounced " "Kikoru,h 6ccauso the Greeks
In nil Latin derivatives rendered by their
"kappa." But 1t seems hardly probabfe
10 mo That the homans gays to 6 Tho
9, u. We And It nut to be the case in ltaIiau,
Spanish, Frcnch, Or my ot the 1nnguagea lie
rived from the Latin, ui,tl It IL therefore rcasnl-
abic to suppusa tl.at u,e olt ltumnns natlc a
similar dtstinctton; aiMi II Mr.. story's statement
pl,nbet for the soft sound OF be true, ns, their
substitution OF "kappa" WIS merely arbitrary,
1t renders tho theory to which l sdhuru still
mere pIausiblc.
applicable 10 Z, uDA 1t is 10 reference to this
letter where t1iG German method IL particularly
at fault. According 70 ticrman rules Ut Latn
pronunciation, tie always receives tile hard
sound {as In "girl'l. II clto an example, they
make no difference In the pronunciation of
"9euusa aud "ga,dco." know this 10 bc q
fact, for ! have heard It 30 pronounced by nil
Gprinum Professors tllat hava met with. ! DO
nut concur, however, In Mr. Bt0ry's opinion
tlnt the Italian sound of md 4 before n1H!
comes nearest to the Old RDtuan pronunciation; !;
It may be 4nd It may not be.
euu elalul tint Spnnlsl. Is ~ mitch related to
Latin a Italian, and vet tllcru IL Ynst differ
eace in tic pronunciation of tbs soft ItastAAg a,Iu
9 and the same letters In tug Spanish anguage,
the SOUND OF e lnapanish beiug like aGert,an
"ch " (ss in Raeal tos which WI hare no cguly-
Hlent in English; ind In italian exactly ~ the
sound OF III thu word "gcnclal II; wllilu
tlr sound OF tho ltal!an Ia like I'll III "thllrvh,r
aud the Spaulbh lure English ''th,h ~ III
'thtnk.h In regard to the LITTER ], VIZ nEc In
utter darkness Us to lts pronunulat,Dn. untI We
do not uycn knuw whether It w,Ls originally
vowel or coilsunaut sOtsnsl. We asu II, The Rinin
mud right hers ! wuuld retpnrl; that We meet
with the eau,e dlihcuticsin pfOtiounciug Hebrew
" In LashI. T',crc arc two srlsoOls, tic Iutsl,
uil tic Portuguese aIlrri'lE materially III llllr
manner u Hebrew pronunciation, l.tii vet
llGbrrw has always boeu the religious lanx1uHc
al the Jews, uthl II not h4s mIlrI auea1 1ungt
u Latin. Tie difficulty with botA lungiaycs Is
that tllerc arc no living witnessed IN testify to
the original and cnrtect pronunciation uf either.
German pronunciation Of Lnt1n, which tsncItllcr
1ess Objectionable tll-t Ior preferable IL any
otilcr, unl instead ol wranElIpg alsa displlsin2,
01r must enincnt Latin scholars aud tfolcss.,Ea
would meet In sofnu European city, uni .llci,
antl there adopt lxcsi ska,ldunl for pronounce
lug Latin, This ID 4 contamination lcyoutiy to
be wished for. REASAAD 5ApLEA.