Page:Modern poets and poetry of Spain.djvu/40

this pronunciation is giving way to the French and English mode of sounding the letter. Thus the name of the great Roman orator is pronounced Thithero. ch has always the soft sound it usually has in English, as in chat, check, chin, choke, chum.

d, at the end of a word, is generally pronounced like th: thus Madrid is Madrith; ciudad, a city, is pronounced thiudath; otherwise, both d and t are spoken as in English, or slightly more dentally.

f has the same sound as in English.

g is an aspirate, like our h, more or less guttural, according to the word. The soft sound of this letter, as in gem, left by the Celts in Italy and Portugal, is unknown in Spain, as is also the soft sound of the letter,j.

h may be said to be invariably a silent letter, and seems only used to prevent two vowels running into each other, so as to form a diphthong.

j is a very harsh guttural, like the Hebrew Cheth. Thus Juan (John) is to be pronounced strongly, Hwan; Josè (Joseph) also strongly, Hosè.

The letters k, i, m, n, p, are the same as in English.

q or qu has the sound of our k: thus que (that) is the same as the Italian che.

r, s, t have the same sounds as in English, except that the first has one somewhat rougher, especially when two come together.

x is a strong guttural, for which j is now generally used, as Don Quijote.

z is pronounced as th: thus Cadiz is sounded Cadith.

The Spaniards consider their ll and ñ, or n with a circumflex, distinct letters, but they are in fact only the letters l or n with the sound of i after them, as in the English words million, minion, being the same sound that the French and Italians express by gn, or gl. Several names may be found in the body of this work