Page:The Making of Latin.djvu/36

22 n occurs in the last syllable of words like London, open, and before a consonant in isn’t. Sonant m is heard in the second syllable of Chatham, anthem, bottom, and is spelt by m alone in some words recently taken from Greek (directly or through French) like chasm, rhythm.

§ . By an Aspirate we mean the combination of a Plosive with a slight emission of Breath before the next sound. This combination is conveniently represented by adding the symbol h to the symbols of the Plosives, gh, ǥh, k̑h, g̑h, th, dh, ph, bh. All these sounds (except the Velar qh and ǥh) exist in Sanskrit; and the Voiced Aspirates occurred in a great number of words in the parent Indo-European language.

None of these sounds occur in pure Latin words; but Breathed Aspirates existed in Greek at least down to the Christian era, and frequently appear in words borrowed from Greek into Latin, e.g. in names like Philippus, Phoebus, Charon. They must be carefully distinguished from the fricative sounds like Eng. th, Germ. ch (see §§ 38, 41).

§ . But the Aspirates, both in Greek words and in Latin words borrowed from Greek, passed into Fricatives some time in the course of the Roman Empire, so that the first syllable of Philippus came to be pronounced as it still is in English, and so ph came to be only another way of writing f. But in Greek, before the Christian era, the Breathed Aspirates φ, θ,