The sound of the various e's is evident from the remark that e is pronounced more openly than e, and more like a. The higher sound was given to the i as mér, German mir. The other e was an a, venia, old German wanian. In ol, the anglosaxon ealu explains the vowel mutation. In von the o is a mutate of a, produced by the preceding v, and the pronunciation has been preserved unchanged. The ey is a mutate of au, heyra=Gothic hausjan, thus (au.. i=EI) the (i) soon drawing up the (E) to (e).

Modern Changes.-The change of (EE) to (ai) is merely the converse of the Latin e to é.1

The á (aa) was first rounded (ɔɔ) and then broken up into (aau), as is shewn by the occasional MS. spelling o for á.

The change from back (o) to front (c) is paralleled by the English and most modern Danish pronunciation of (a) for (a).

The au changes are very complicated. First, the a was rounded by the u into (0), as appears by the MSS. shewing qu, aou, ou for au. Next the resulting first element, being now identical with (o) was, with it, changed from back to front, into ö (ce). Lastly the second element u (u) was changed by the action of the new front element (o) into some front element as (1) which finally became (i). Thus we have the stages (au.. ou..œu..œur..œi), where (cu, œu), represents Rask's conjectural forms.

Þóroddr counts ll, nn, among the doubled consonants. He allows a double final consonant, which of course must have been a lengthened or held' consonant (suprà p. 52), as in hann=(Hann), not (Han). He writes p everywhere, to the exclusion of, but whether this establishes a uniformity of pronunciation is very questionable.

The following few lines will give a notion of this conjectured ancient pronunciation, which is placed under the present orthography, a verbatim translation being also interlined.

Haustlöng. (Haustlo,qg.) Autumn-long (night).
Er of-sér, er iötna ótti
(Edh'r ov-seer, er iot na oot te
Again thou-seest how of-the-giants

lét ofsóttan
leet ov soot ta,n)
the-terror let-sought

Grjótúna bauge;

Hellisbrör á hyrjar haug
(Hel·lesbror aa, Hуriar Haug Grioo tuu,na bau ge;)
Of-the-cave-the-dweller in of-fire the-hill of-Griótún with-ring

'Ok at isarnleiki Jarðar sunr, en dundi
(Ook at ii sarnleike Iardh ar sunr en dun'de)
Drove to the-iron-play Earth's sun, and resounded

Móðr svall Meila bróður mánavegr und hanum.
(Moo'dhr swall Meil·la, broodhur maa,n'a,wegr und нa,num.)
Rage swelled Meili's of-the-brother moon-way under him.

1 This converse action is rare, but

we have a living English example,

suprà p. 294, bottom, and note 2, and p. 454, note 1.

Knáttu öll en Ullar endilág fyrir mági
(Knaat tu, oll en ul·lar en delaag fyrer maa ge)
Could all and Ullr's under-lying before the-kinsman

Grund vas grapi hrundin ginnúngavé brinna;
(Grund was grape rhunden gin'nuuqga-wee bri ̧n'na,;)
The-ground was with-storm shaken the-wide-dwellings burn;

pá-es hofreginn hafrir hógreiðar fram drógu
(Dhaa-es Hov rege ̧nn Havrer Hoog reidhar fra,m droogu,)
When the-temple-god the-goats of-the-elegant-chariot forwards drew

Ser gékk Svölnis ekkja sundr at Hrúngnis fundi.
(Sedh'r geekk Swol nes ekkia su,ndr at Rhuu,qgʻnes fun'de.)
Nearly went Svölnir's wife asunder to Hrúngnir's meeting (find).1

3. GOTHIC.

In order properly to crown the edifice of the low German and Scandinavian dialects, it is necessary to consider the pronunciation of Ulfilas as collected from his Gothic translation of the Testament, etc. Grimm, Rapp, Gabelentz and Loebe, and Weingaertner,2 are the principal authorities. From a study of these works and the grounds on which they rely, I have arrived at certain conclusions of my own, which must be understood as referring to the pronunciation of Gothic at the time of Ulfilas, considered as a comparatively modern stage of the language. There are good etymological grounds for believing that many Gothic words containing ai, au, iu had at some previous time, a different sound from that which I have assigned, as for instance (ái, áu, íu), suprà, p. 236, note 1. But details are here purposely omitted. The following table contains the opinions of the writers cited, as nearly as I could appre

1 The title means Autumn-long, löng being the fem. of the adj. lóngr; nótt night, seems to be understood; compare the similar old German phrase "den sumerlangen tac," the summerlong day. None of the editors translate the word, and they seem not to understand it. The subject of the poem is a fight between the god pórr and the giant Hrúngir. The poet describes the fight as depicted on a shield. The meaning of the passage, which is very obscure in the above verbatim translation following the inverted order of the poet, seems to be as follows: Again thou seest [on the shield] how the terror of the giants [meaning pórr], let sought [let periphrastic visited] the cave-dweller in the Griótún-hill with a ring of fire, [pórr's chariot was accompanied with thunder and lightning]; Earth's sun

[that is, pórr] drove to the iron-play [fight], anger inspired Meili's brother [another name for pórr], and the moonway [earth] resounded under him. All the wide dwellings [= the air] could burn [burned], and the ground lying beneath was shaken with the storm before the kinsman of Ullr [pórr again]: Svölnis wife [ekkja literally widow: earth] nearly went to pieces, when the goats drew forward the temple-god of the elegant chariot to meet Hrúngnir.

=

2 J. Grimm, Deutsche Grammatik, 12, 33-74; 13, 39-71; M. Rapp, Phys. d. Spr., i 371-401; Dr. H. C. von Gabelentz und Dr. J. Loebe, Grammatik der Gothischen Sprache, 1846, pp-22-52. Wilhelm Weingaertner, Die Aussprache des Gothischen zur Zeit Ulfilas, Leipzig, 1858, pp. 68. This last work contains complete references to all the former essays and books on this subject.

ciate their meaning, a (?) indicate the chief points of doubt. The transcription used is that employed in Gabelentz and Loebe's wellknown edition but the letters are arranged in the order of the Roman Alphabet, reckoning þ as th. Leo Meyer's work (Die Gothische Sprache, ihre Lautgestaltung u.s.w.) came to hand too late to be consulted in the construction of this table.

THE GOTHIC ALPHABET OF ULFILAS.

Abbreviations.-G Grimm, G L Von Gabelentz and Loebe, E Ellis, L letters, R Rapp, W Weingaertner.

In order to compare this dialect with the related Anglosaxon and Icelandic, I annex the conjectured pronunciation of the same parable that was selected for examples in those languages. This is also the same example or Gothic as Dr. Rapp has given. The verbatim translation is, as before, intended merely to shew the grammatical signification of each word.

Verbatim Translation.