Page:Comparative Grammar of the Sanskrit, Zend, Greek, Latin, Lithuanian, Gothic, German and Slavonic languages (Bopp 1885).pdf/90

68 CHARACTERS AND SOUNDS. kh, which is wanting in the Gothic. In this manner is aih related to aigum, " we have," as bauth to buddum, and gaf to gêbum. Probably the pronunciation of the Gothic h was not in all positions the same, but in terminations, and before t and s, if not generally before consonants, corresponded to our ch. The High German has ch as an aspirate of the k: for this tenuis, however, either k or c stands in the older dialects, the use of which, in Middle High German, is so dis- tinguished, that c stands as a terminating letter, and in the middle of words before t, and ch also stands for a double k. (Grimm, p. 422.) This distinction reminds us of the use of the Zend c in contrast to 5k, as also of the trast to t. (§§. 34. 38.)

The palatals and linguals are wanting in Gothic, as in Greek and Latin; the dentals are, in Gothic, t, th, d, together with their nasal n. For th the Gothic alphabet has a special character. In the High German 2 (=ts) fills the place of the aspiration of the t, so that the breathing is replaced by the sibilation. By the side of this in the Old High German, the old Gothic-th also maintains its existence. There are two species of z, which, in Middle High German, do not agree with each other. In the one, t has the preponderance, in the other, s; and this latter is written by Isidor zs, and its reduplication zss, while the reduplication of the former he writes tz. In the Modern High German the second species has only retained the sibilant, but in writing is distinguished, though not uni- versally, from & proper. Etymologically, both species of the Old and Middle High German z fall under the same head, and correspond to the Gothic t.

The labials are, in Gothic, p, f, b, with their nasal