r • - — a letter which performs the double office of a consonant and a vowel, the natural order of the vowels being i, e, a, o, u. The sounds then of i, that is ee, and u, that is co, are the most remote, and the attempt to pass with rapidity from either of these to the others, more particularly to the other extreme, gives an initial breathing which has the character of a consonant, namely, in the one case ee-oo, or yvu ; in the other oo-ee, or we. Hence it is that the letters y and w appear as the representatives, sometimes of a consonant, sometimes of a vowel. The English character w is formed by the repetition of a v, which itself is only a variety of the symbol u, and that again has in all probability grown out of the letter o. [ALPHABET.] The Anglo-Saxon alphabet employs the symbol J. In Latin the v or u consonans had probably the power of a w, a supposition which at once accounts for the use of a common character for the vowel and consonant. The Greek and Hebrew alphabets had also a single symbol for this con sonant, which occupied the sixth place, and is called digamma in the former, vau or wef in the latter. But in the Greek alphabet the letter went out of use, and is, therefore, commonly omitted in our gram mars of that language, although the gap at this point in the alpha betical designation of numbers still bears evidence to the original position of the letter. [Dioamme.] Most of the modern languages of Europe are deficient in a symbol for this letter. The French employ what is a sufficient though a clumsy equivalent, the diphthong ou prefixed to a vowel, as in the common particle oui; the Spaniards prefer feu, as in huevo, hueso. In this way the map of the New World often gives testimony as to the race of Europeans who originally settled in the country. Thus the Indian tribe which has furnished a name to the territory belonging to the United States now called Wisconsin, in the old maps is written Ouisconsin, that country having been first visited by the French. So again in Mexico, the town Chihuahua (pronounced Chiwttwa) tells us that its name was first written by Spaniards; and the same may be said in the map of Peru of the river Huallaga; and the numerous towns commencing with the same syllable, as Iluancavelica,Iluancayo,Huanuco, Huancabamba,
&c. At other times the Spaniards have employed the letters gu, as may be seen in the different rivers of Spain l'roper, which have pre fixed the Arabic word goad, denoting water ; and this mode too of representing a w is to be traced in Spanish America in Guamanga, Guanca, Guancarama, Guatemala, &o. The ancient Greeks again often prefixed a simple o to represent a w, as in otba, dm. [Dioemide.] We have hitherto spoken of the consonantal power of the letter ; its use as a vowel, so far as our own language is concerned, is confined to the end of syllables ; and there is always another vowel prefixed to it, as in new, law, show; but in the Welsh language it is employed by itself, and in the middle of syllables with the power of a vowel. The map of Wales will furnish abundant examples, as Pwlhell, Cwmtydr, Bettors, Llwchwr, often written Loughor, &c.
Many nations have a difficulty in pronouncing the consonantal w. This is more particularly the case in some parte of Germany, where the people are unable to appreciate the difference between a w and a r, almost always substituting the latter sound, or what nearly approaches to it. Hence it is important for the philologist to distrust the evidence and criticism of a German scholar when these sounds are in question ; and this caution may be more particularly given In reference to German writings upon the Sanskrit language. London too is remark able for the confusion of the sounds, though this confusion does not seem to arise from any inability to pronounce either a se or a r, each being substituted for the other with a most amusing perversity.
The other interchange* of this letter have been already given under the preceding letters. See C. § 4 and 7; 0, § 6; II, § 7; M, § 5; 0, § 11; 11, § 8 ; S, § 11 ; and DIOAMMA.