9. N with a. This change will not be readily 'admitted without consideration, as the sounds appear so different. The change however is very parallel to the admitted change of 1 and d ; and indeed as the two latter letters are formed at the same part of the mouth, so are n and a. The close connection of the two letters will be most forcibly demonstrated by examples of suffixes in which the change occurs.
Thus the English language has a double form of the plural suffix in en and es, as in oxen and asses. The Greek verb has the same variety ; first, in vinrroner and Tun-roues ; secondly, in votrreves, which must have been the older form of Tun-awe, and the so-called dual TU7r7ETOY. Again the Latin comparative has for its oldest suffix ins, as in ntdios, whence both melior and menus ; or a better example occurs in ple-iot and pleas, whence the latter forms pious and plus. On the other baud the Greek suffix is ion, as and irAeov, from the same root as the Latin plus, and with the same meaning. The old genitive plural suffix in Latin appears to have been sum, as servosum, whence servorum ; but the Sanskrit often exhibits plural genitives in mann. The suffix for a female in Greek is either na or sa, as AccotAtvva, AeXatva, Aectiva, or and in English we have ess, while the Germans have inr. Lastly, such verbs as a Ofv-vvitt have OBEY for the radical part, which often takes the form a fies, as a-atiea-vos ; and the same change appears in assippor, Norm aonppcov and aauppocrovri. As regards gm°, poaui, positum, the imperfect tenses are compressed from or p5s-in-o, so that this is no example of such interchange.
10. N before a silent, but lengthening the preceding vowel. ' This fact is well exemplified throughout the grammar of the Greek lan guage. The Latin hanhe same peculiarity. Hence consul was some times written cowl, and when abbreviated was always represented by the three first of the sounded letters, namely, cos. So censor, infant, rides, vicentumus, are often found in the form cesor, infas, vides, wicesimus. We see too why the Greeks wrote the Latin word Knvoup Kwvcrravnvoy, with a long vowel in the first syllable. Lastly, while the Germans write gams, wiinschen, the English have goose, wish.
11. N silent at times before t and th. The English word mutton is derived from the French mouton and the Italian montone ; and our word tooth in the older Gothic dialects was tenth, thus corresponding as nearly as it ought to do with the Greek °Sows-, and Latin dent.
12. N before v silent. Thus the Latin convention, assembly, became covention (as it occurs in one of the oldest inscriptions), before it was reduced to condom, the assembly of the people, a word which most modern editors, in spite of all the best MSS. and of etymology, persist in writing with a c for the fourth letter. Similarly from conventu came the French convent : and though the English generally say convent, yet the name Covent Garden is a proof that the is was not always pronounced even here.
An initial is is either prefixed to, or taken from, words by error. Thus madder, a snake, has now lost its n through a confusion of the phrase a madder with an adder. On the other hand, the phrase for then once, that is, for this once, in which the article has its old accusative form then, is now written for the nonce. It is in this way that we should account for the prefixed n in the diminutives Ned, Nol, Nan, Nel, for Edmund or Edward, Oliver, Anne, Ellen, as if the original phrases mine Ed, mine Anne, had been confounded with my Ned, my Nan I At any rate, mine, thine, an, were severally the original forms of my, thy, a, and used even before consonants ; nay, in Somersetshire they have changed aunt to mint, uncle to nuncle,_awl to navel. Very similar is the prevailing error of calling the Greek negative particle alpha privative instead of as privative ; the latter of which corres ponds so accurately with the Latin in and the English un, to say nothing of the Greek aye:, and the German ohne. In fact, n at the end of words is often pronounced very faintly.
The Somerset dialect has been referred' to because its peculiarities have been recorded with great care in Mr. Jennings's ' Observations.' NABOB, or NABAB, a corruption of the Hindustani Nuwwab, which was the title of the governor of a province under the Mogul empire, such as the Nuwwab of Arcot, of Oude, &c. (Gilchrist, Vocabulary.) Several of these gradually assumed an independent sovereignty during the decline of the empire, and became either allies or dependents of the Anglo-Indian government. The word Nabob is sometimes used in Europe to mean a wealthy man who has made his fortune in India. NABONASAR, IERA OF. [1'mm:ins OF REVOLUTION.]