Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume III.djvu/526

 520 BZOVIUS CABAL Thus Byzantium was merged in Constantino- ple, A. D. 330. Dionysius and others give the old city a circumference of 40 stadia. (See CONSTANTINOPLE.) BZOVItS, Abraham (Pol. Bzowski), a Polish scholar, born at Proszowice in 1567, died in Rome, Jan. 31, 1637. He was a Dominican, one of the most voluminous writers of Ms age, gained for himself a high reputation as pro- fessor of philosophy and theology at Milan and Bologna, and continued the ecclesiastical an- nals of Baronius, who had left them ott' at the year 1198, having completed only 12 volumes. Bzovius carried them to the year 1532, in volumes, from the 13th to the 21st, published first in Cologne and afterward in Rome. c CTHE third letter in the English alphabet, as it is in the Latin and in those of all the modern European languages. Its form is derived by Scaliger from the Greek kappa, (K), by dropping the upright stem, and round- ing the < into C. Suidas calls it the Roman kappa, and Montfaucon, in his Palceographia, gives several forms of the K which approach nearly to C. Others derive it from the Hebrew caph (3), which has nearly the same form, but is inverted, since the Hebrews and Latins read in opposite directions. Others, from its posi- tion in the alphabet, derive it from the Hebrew gimel (a), and make its affinities with the Cop- tic gamma, the Ethiopia gemel, and the Rus- sian glagol. In the early Latin language C held the place which is now occupied by G, as appears from the inscriptions oti the Duilian column raised in the Roman forum about 200 B. C., in which we find macistratus for magis- tratus, leciones for ley tones, pucnando for pug- nando, and exfociont for effugiunt. Thus Au- sonius says, Gamma viceftmctaprius C. The C also sometimes represented the Greek kappa, since in the same inscriptions Cartaciniensis occurs for Ifarthaginiensis ; but this function was more frequently fulfilled by the letters qu ; thus the Greek xal, Kapnaipa, ntpKwpOf be- came the Roman que, yuerquerus, and querque- dula. The tendency of the western languages has been to soften the oriental articulation, and the gamma or C, after being softened by being brought forward in the mouth to the front palate, and becoming K phonetically, superseded the qu which had been common in old Latin words. The Latins made no further phonetic change of C, always during the most flourishing period of their literature pronoun- cing it like kappa. If they had given the sibi- lant sound of C in the enunciation of the word Cicero, the Greeks in adopting the word would have written it with a sigma. Modern lan- guages, however, have carried the process on further. The English has softened the aspi- rated (ch) in church, chime, chivalry, and the French still more in chevalerie, chemin ; while the unaspirated C has become a pure sibilant, as in circle, cent, cycle. Thus the English teach comes from the Latin doceo, and the English please and the French plaisir from the Latin placeo. Some words, how- ever, have not followed this phonetic change from the original pronunciation. Thus the modern Scottish kirk still embalms the sound of the old English church. Kindle and can- dle show that the pronunciation of cinder is perverted ; and the patois of northwestern France still preserves the hard sound of C in chemin, and so links it to the English come. But though the Latins did not soften the C to a sibilant, they did worse. Having aspirated it into K, they next dropped it, pre- serving only the aspirate to mark the hiatus, as, tracto, traho ; kerdona, herdona. This same process is noticeable in the cognate lan- guages; thus: collum (Lat.), Hals (Ger.), hal- ter (Eng.). In French the phonetic softening of the C is traceable in the word Karolus till the 9th century, then Carolus, and afterward Charles; and the comparatively modern use of the cedilla records the further progress of the change. is also interchanged with some other letters besides the Q and K with which it is cognate ; as with P in pepo, coguo, cook ; co- lumla, palumba ; while prox(cs)imus has sup- planted propsimvt, but notprope and prop ins. The phenomenon of the disappearance of C occurs in sacramentum (Lat.), ferment (Fr.) ; lacrima (Lat.), larme (Fr.) ; and in many oth- er cases for purposes of euphony. As a nu- meral, C signifies 100, CO 200, and so on to 400. Among the Latins it stood for Csar, Cains, Cassius, centum, and condemno ; and on account of the last use it is called litera tristis by Cicero. CO stood for calumnies causa or concilium cepit ; cots, for consules ; 01. for Claudius; C. V. for Centum Viri; and C. K. for Civis Romanus. In Italian C stands for canto. In French, a single stamped on money marks it as the issue of the mint of Oaen, and CO as the issue of the mint of Be- sangon. In music, C is the name of one of the notes of the scale. It is the tone with which the so-called natural scale begins, and was designated by Guido itt, a name subsequently changed to do by the Italians. C is considered the key note, and its pitch is regulated by tuning forks. It is also a character used for the signification of time. CAABA, or Kaaba. See MECCA. CABAL, a small body of men united for some party or sinister purpose. It doubtless came from the French cal>nle, which has the same meaning as the English word. Some authors