after the Logudorese fashion, a very faint subsequent repetition of the preceding i; as it were eddisi. This word eddis, and lis, in the sense of a eddis, are, I believe, the only ones in Sassarese that end in s.

27. sc. These two letters do not, either more or less than in Italian, form a digram, or, in other words, represent a simple sound, unless followed by e or i. Before the remaining vowels they are expressed separately; the s, that is, is converted into x (voiceless guttural), and the c assumes that sound likewise. Thus "cunniscì" conoscere, "molca" mosca,

pronounced moxxa.

с

28. sci. This is a trigram; since the i is not pronounced as such (7), but only co-operates with the s and c in the formation of the conventional character by which in Italian and Sassarese orthography it has been chosen to represent the "s" sound of the linguists before the vowels a, o, u, as in "asciuttu" asciutto.

29. sg. The sound of the French j, known by the linguists under the form "z", is in Sassarese expressed by this digram before e and i. The Cagliaritans make use of x or else of c, as in su celu, which they pronounce su xelu, the x having the force of the Sassarese sg: "basgi" baci. Before the other vowels the s is changed, as was seen under letter 7, into γ (voiced guttural), and the g takes that sound as well. This occurs in "ilgabbaddu" sgarbato, which will be pronounced iyyabbaddu.

30. sgi.-Represents the preceding sound, the i having no proper force, when the vowels a, o, u follow: "basgia" bacia, 'basgiu" bacio.

31. t. Sounds as in Italian when the strong form is demanded, but when the pronunciation has to be weak it is converted into d. Thus terra is given with t Italian, and so are a terra, e terra, cun terra, while la terra, la noltra terra, are heard as la derra, la noltra derra. The same thing occurs

in the Celtic tongues, except in the Scottish Gaelic, which never admits the initial mutation of a voiceless into a voiced consonant. Thus in Irish, "tír" country, gives "ár dír” our country; though it is written ár d-tír, by force of the rule called eclipsis, which requires, in Irish orthography, the consonant sounded to be succeeded by the one which is no longer heard in the pronunciation, but retained for etymological

reasons.

So also the Welsh, which, preferring phonetic to etymological orthography, of "tad" father, makes "dy dad" thy father, and writes it with t or with d, according to the pro

nunciation.

The Sassarese t is susceptible of a third sound yet, viz., of becoming a voiceless dental in pronunciation, when it is preceded by "i" a sound of like character. (See under letter l.)

This letter, finally, may be converted into a non-palatal dd, as has been said already in the section relating to dd.

32. u.—Italian pronunciation.

33. v. Is pronounced as in Italian when of strong sound; but when corresponding to the weak pronunciation of other consonants, is converted into a soft b of Spanish character. (See under letter b.) Thus in vinu, avvizina, lu vinu; the two first have the Italian v, as in vino, avvicina, but the third is pronounced lu binu, with, however, a Spanish b, less labial than the Italian.

In the Celtic tongues, v does not undergo initial change; but even here, the Tempiese dialect, which knows nothing of the other mutations which occur in Sassarese, Cagliaritan, Logudorese, and the Celtic languages-the Tempiese dialect, I repeat, offers the linguist a point of encounter with the last named, in the elimination to which the letter in question is there subject. This suppression takes place in every case in which Sassarese transforms it into b, and Logudorese into h aspirate; as in su vinu, pro vendere, which, in the latter

dialect, as Spano shows us (Grammar, vol. i, p. 12), are pronounced, though never written, “su hinu" il vino, “pro hendere" per vendere. Though v, in the Celtic tongues, is never subject to such elimination, it is no less true that this process is observed in the case of the Welsh and Armorican hard g; "gwr" man, and "gwerzid" spindle, being reduced to wr (8), and werzid, by the force of the preceding word (9); precisely as occurs in Tempiese in the word vinu, which, isolated, or in a vinu, e vinu, etc., is spoken with a v; while lu vinu, chistu vinu, on the other hand, are heard, though not written, as lu inu, chistu inu.

In the three Gaelic dialects, too, the letter f, which bears so close a relation to v, is similarly affected. "Fuill" blood, is converted into will in "dty uill" thy blood, in the Manx dialect; and though the word in Irish and Scottish Gaelic is written fuil when the ƒ is to be sounded; and fhuil when it is to be suppressed, its pronunciation is always the same as in Manx.

In Bitti, further (see Spano's Grammar, vol. i, p. 12), the ƒ in the word fizu presents an absolute conformity with the three Gaelic dialects; for, while pronounced sos fizos in the plural, in the singular it is heard as su izu, and not as su vizu, as in Logudorese in general. In Manx, finally, initial suppression of b, d, and m, may take place in words where these consonants are followed by w, as in "mwyllar" miller, "bwinnican" yolk, "dwoaie" hatred, which are pronounced and written accordingly, "yn wyllar" the miller, "yn winnican" the yolk, "e woaie" his hatred. Precisely similar is the Logudorese practice (see under b and d) with regard to the d of dinari, and the b of boe, which are transformed in pronunciation, though not in writing, into su inari, su oe.

Nor should the similarity be overlooked between the changes that affect the letters s and t in the three Gaelic dialects and ƒ in Cornish alone of the Cambrian group; and the

initial mutation into h aspirate to which the Logudorese v is subject; for, just as in Logudorese, vendere and vinu are converted into hendere and hinu; "sál" heel, in Irish, and "flôh" boy, in Cornish give place to "a shál" (pron. a hál) his heel, and "gen hlô" with a boy. So also, to give an example of the change of t into h aspirate, I will take the Manx dialect, in which "towse" measure, becomes "e howse" his measure.

x. The letter x is not used either in Sassarese or in Tempiese. In Cagliaritan it is pronounced as the French j, i.e., as the Sassarese, Logudorese, and Tempiese digram sg. In Logudorese it is used, for etymological reasons, with the force of cs.

y.—The same may be said of y, which is used in Logudorese alone, with the force of i, for the sake of etymology.

2. According to the use that has been made of it in the Sassarese version of St. Matthew, a single z, as an initial, will have, as in Italian, sometimes a voiceless and sometimes a voiced sound. When of strong voiceless sound, it will become weak voiced in all cases in which the initial changes of voiceless. sound into voiced take place. Thus in" zelu" cielo, it will be voiceless, and in "lu zelu" il cielo, voiced. In the middle of words it will always be voiced between two vowels, as in "giultizia" giustizia. After another consonant it will be, as in Italian, sometimes voiced and sometimes voiceless; but I believe that of all the words that occur in the version of St. Matthew the only ones which have a voiced z after a consonant are "franza" frangia, where the z corresponds to the Italian sibilant g; and "pazienzia", with both the z's voiced.

In "Franza" Francia, z is voiceless, as it corresponds to the Italian sibilant c; in" monza" monaca, it is voiced; but, speaking generally, it will be almost always voiceless after a consonant, as in "malzu" marzo, "folza" forza, "piniddenzia" penitenza, etc.

35. zz.―This digram, according to the orthography adopted in the Version of St. Matthew, will have a constantly voiceless sound. Thus, "rizzibì" ricevere, "ozziu" ozio, "nigozziu” negozio; while words such as rozu, muzu, profetizà, etc., having, unlike their Italian correlatives, only a single z between two vowels, will be pronounced with that letter of voiced sound. And be it here noted, that the sound of zz does not differ from that of single z of voiced pronunciation, merely as any strong letter may differ from its weak counterpart; that is to say, as Italian t from tt, etc. The sounds of zz, and of “dd” (dd palatal), are totally distinct from those of the voiced z, and of the non-palatal dd; as distinct as p and b, t and d, ƒ and v, voiceless s and voiced s, are from each other; and as to the Italian dd, it stands to the Sassarese "dd", as the Italian 7 to the Polish palatal 7, or almost as the natural n of vano stands to the guttural n of vango, in sounding which the point of the tongue does not meet the upper teeth, as it does in pronouncing the former.