GZOWSKI, gah8dski, SIR Casimir Stanis law', Canadian engineer: b. Saint Petersburg, Russia, 1813; d. Canada, 1898. He studied mik tary engineering at Kremnitz, and joined the army. However, his sympathies with the Polish patriots soon caused him to abandon this post, in order to enlist his services in their cause. For this, he was banished, and came to the United States in 1833. Here he taught various subjects, studied law at Pittsfield, Mass., and later practised in Pennsylvania. In 1841 he removed to Toronto, where he had secured a position in the department of public works, resuming his original profession. In the fol lowing year he was appointed superintending engineer of roads and harbors in western On tario. From 1850 to 1853 he was in charge of Montreal Harbor, and chief engineer of the Saint Lawrence and Atlantic Railway Com pany. After several years as partner in a rail way firm, he was entrusted with the construc tion of the International Bridge across the Niagara River (1871), and also presented plans for the enlargement of the Welland Canal and the Baie Verte Canal. In the military service Growski was elevated to the rank of colonel in .1879, and was president of the Rifle Asso ciation of the Dominion of Canada. He was also the first president of the Society of Cana dian Civil Engineers, and was created a knight in 1890.
eighth letter of the English and other alphabets derived from the alphabet of the Latins. It was bor rowed by the Latins from the alpha bet of the Greeks, and iii early Greek repre sented an aspirate consonant sound, but in the Greek of classical times it stands for the pro longed vowel sound of e, as omega ( s.)) stands for the prolonged sound of omicron (o). The H is evidently a character borrowed from the Phoenician alphabet, where its form was P and its sound guttural aspirate, like that of the cor responding Hebrew letter cheth or like ch in German and in Scotch. In after H was adopted as a vowel sign, the aspirate was re presented by ' or ( either prefixed to a letter ('o) or written above it (6): it was previous to this change that H was introduced into the Latin alphabet. It is probable that in early Latin this letter, occurring between two vowels, as in nshil, mihi, traho, veho, represented a guttural sound, as the h in nihil and mihi does still in the Italian pronounciation of Latin.
But evidence exists that in the classical usage of ancient Latin speech initial h was of little account and was as in modern Italian and French: this is certain as regards the pro nunciation of the vulgar; and that even the educated often kdropped the h's* we know from the fact that in ancient monuments we find Hannibal and Annibal, Hadria and Adria, herus and erns, haruspex and aruspex.
In Anglo-Saxon and earliest English speech h represents a guttural aspirate like German and Scotch ch in ach, loch; for example, in Mkt (night), thoht (thought) the h stood for the same sound as ch in the German words nacht, gedacht. In the earliest English speech h was prefixed to I, n, and r, to represent a guttural aspirate which is now entirely lost; examples, hlaf (loaf), hnecca (neck) hring (ring): the initial guttural in such words has been dropped. Thus in the names of the early Frankish kings Hlodowig became Ludovicus and Louis, and Hlothar became Lothair. The original guttural h in old High German pros is completely eliminated in the modern Ger man ross, but is represented by the aspirate h in Old English hors (horse). The h after w in many words as wharf, what, when, etc., represents an initial aspirate in Old English hwarf, hwaet, hwaenne, etc., and is still so pronounced.
H is added to various consonants to form digraphs for representation of various sounds, for example, ch as in chin, sh as in shy, gh as in gherkin, th as in thin, then; or even to represent sounds for which there is already a proper consonant in the alphabet, for example ph and gh for the sound of f (philter, rough), ch for the sound of k (chyle); in very many cases the digraph gh is employed simply as a memorial of an ancient etymology, as in plough, and not seldom for no discernible pur pose at all, as in ghost; the form rh usually occurs in words of Greek origin, and recalls the Greek etymology (rhapsody), but again it is employed to suggest false Greek etymology (rhyme).
H. H. See JACKSON, HELEN MARIA FISKE HUNT.