Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 24.djvu/328

304 Wis simply double v, so far as the form goes ; but its value, like its name, is double u, and it dates back to a time when u and v had not been fully differentiated, one into a vowel, the other into a consonant (see under U). The oldest form of the letter was mi, sometimes u only; e.g., uulfheard, uilfrith, in the Liber Vitse, 9th cen tury. Later, a peculiar symbol appears, y, called " wen"; this belonged to the runic alphabet, which the Latin super seded: it undoubtedly represented the it -sound. It died out about 1300, probably through the influence of French copyists. As early as the llth century we find vv, later w. The sound denoted by W is a voiced labial, formed by rounding the lips so much that the voice cannot escape without friction. In the nature of the case no hard and fast line can be drawn between it and the vowel u (any more than between i and y) : it is impossible to say exactly at what point the open position of the lips for u ceases and sufficient closure for a definite consonant begins. We may perhaps mark out three noticeable sounds : (1) the clear vowel u ; (2) a consonant u, equivalent to a "glide" in the diphthongs " eu," " ou," &c., i.e., a sound which is held not long enough to be a vowel as forming a syllable by itself, yet without sufficient friction to make a consonant ; (3) the consonant w. The difference between (2) and (3) may be illustrated by the initial sounds of French " oui " and English " we"; the ou in "oui" is a consonant u ; it does not make a syllable distinct from the following i, and so it is not a vowel ; yet it is quite distinguishable from the iv in " we." It is probable, from some slight indications, principally in Sanskrit, that both (2) and (3) were sounds of the Indo-European language. But it could hardly be supposed that they would be kept rigorously distinct in the derived languages ; they lie too near together. It has been already pointed out (see article U) that the representatives of the sound iv varied much in the different languages. In Greek we find / and sometimes v (as in ei aSe, &c.); in Latin there was no symbol to distinguish it from the vowel u. The English varieties are mentioned above. For the history of this sound in connexion with the velar k of the original speech see article Q. This sound died out in most of the derived languages, but left traces in Greek (1) in the symbol koppa, (2) in the phonetic change called " labialism," by which the slight labial of the original sound developed and eventually changed the guttural explosive into a labial, e.g., kou became TTOU. Similarly in Italy the Latin qu of "qui," " quantus," &c., preserved the original symbol and sound, whereas the Oscan and Umbrian agreed with the Greek in labializing. In English the to-sound has commonly held its own. It has survived in writing, even in the almost impossible com bination ivr, as in "wrath," "write," "wreck," "wretch," but the sound is lost. In several Old English words the combination cw was exchanged for qu, as was natural under French influence, e.g., quoth (O.E. cwseft), quell (O.E. cwellan), queen (O.E. cwen). The digraph luh denotes the voiceless sound correspond ing to the voiced w. In the great majority of cases where it occurs it represents original Ic", as in who, what (original base k"a) ; these were originally written hwa, hwset ; so also "while" was "hwil," "wheeze" was " hwaes " (Lat. ques-tus). In similar combinations with I and r the h has been lost, as in " loud," formerly " hliid " (KVTOS), raven (hrsefn), ring (hring) ; and in hw the h seems to have robbed the w of its voice (a result denoted by the writing wli), and then fallen off here also as an independent sound. "VVACE, whom most modern writers without any autho rity call ROBERT, but who simply calls himself " MAISTRE A T ACE," was a clerk ("clerc lisant ") and trouvere of the 12th century, who was born in Jersey, studied at Caen, and received from Henry II. a prebend at Bayeux with other gifts. Nothing is known certainly of the dates of his birth or death ; but the one is conjecturally put at about 1120 and the other at about 1180. He seems to have been much about the reigning house of Normandy and England : he boasts of the kindness of Henry to him (he knew, he says, three Henrys, the third being Prince Henry, the eldest son of Henry II.), and is said by Layamon to have dedicated his Brut to Eleanor of Aquitaine. This shadowy personality is partly compensated by a consider able literary work. Waee has left two long romances, the Roman de Brut and the Roman de Rou, both of which are interesting monuments of Norman French, while the latter is a document of some importance for English his tory, the writer informing us that he got some direct information from his father, who no doubt was not his only source. The Roman de Brut, the longer of the two, is in octosyllabic couplets of a facile and somewhat undis tinguished kind. It has generally been regarded as a mere versifying of Geoffrey of Monmouth, a point which turns to some extent of course on the vexed question of Geoffrey s own originals. The Roman de Rou, a chronicle of the Norman dukes, is much more interesting and much more vigorously written. The greater part of it is also in octosyllables, but there is a large insertion of assonanced alexandrines in something like the form of the chansons de geste. Wace is not in mere poetical value a very good example of the trouveres, but his subjects give him interest, especially for Englishmen. The first and hitherto the only edition of the Brut is that of Le Koux de Lincy (1838) ; the Rou, after being edited by Pluguet in 1827, has been recently(1877) re-edited by I)r Hugo Andresen. WACO, a city and the county seat of M Lennan county, Texas, U.S., is situated on the west bank of the Brazos river, at the mouth of the Bosque, in an agricultural and pastoral region. It contains Waco university (Baptist) and a female college. The population in 1880 was 7295, more than one-third being negroes. WADAI. See SOUDAN, vol. xxii. p. 279. WADDING, LUKE (1588-1657), ecclesiastical historian, born at Waterford in 1588, emigrated with his parents to Spain in early youth, and from Spain passed to Portugal, to study at the Irish College in Lisbon. While still a student, he entered the order of Cordeliers, or Friars Minim, in 1604, taking the name Michael Angelo of St Romulus, and his early reputation for learning soon ob tained for him a professorship of theology at Salamanca. Philip III. of Spain was anxious to procure the formal definition of the Immaculate Conception B. V. M., which had been left open by the council of Trent, and sent Diego de Torres, bishop of Cartagena, as ambassador to the pope for that purpose. Torres, being himself a Cordelier, made choice of Wadding to accompany him on his embassy, and the young divine created so favourable an impression at Rome that another chair of theology was bestowed upon him there, and he was made vice-commissary and procurator- general of his order. He made Rome his headquarters for the remainder of his life, dying there as principal of the Irish College of St Isidore in 1657. His earliest publication was an account of the embassy in which he had taken part, ITpecr/Seia, sive Legatio Philippi III. et IV., Hispaniarum llegutn, ad Summos Pontifices Paulum V. , Grcgorium

XV., ct Urbanum V III., pro definicnda Controversial Immaculatas