Blair Collection > Celtic researches, on the origin, traditions & language, of the ancient Britons

395
By neglecting to form the orifice of the lips, v/ith due
rotundity, the power of Ο was reduced into an obscure sound,
like that of Ho, in honty, or of O, in come ; consequent-
ly, it was often confounded with U, both in dchvery,
and in orthography; as custom liad reduced that vowel also,
to the same obscure sound, by neglecting to put the lips
near enough together.
U was often reduced into a more slender sound, approach-
ing that of /, or ee ; but still retaining, in some degree, its
natural hollow tone.
This power, the Greeks represented by γ ; and the iVclsh,
in their populiir orthography, by the single U. The simi-
larity of this tone to that of /, has given the Wehh, and
the Greeks, frequerit occasion to confound it with i.
The Roman 'U, often corresponded with Y^ (Greek)
and the single U of the Welsh.
Their best authors, at an age, in which oral delinquency
would have been intolerable, \vTote Sulla, or St/lla, Lubet,
or Libet, Optumiis, or Optimus, and umus, or imus, in
the termination of all superlatives. /, was the general
centre of the vowels, to which they all tended, when they
left their proper sphere.
A negligent utterance, would, sometimes, reduce either
of the vowels into the obscure sound of O, in come..
Thus, in English, altar, alter, bird, come, sum ; and,
in Welsh, A, E, O, and U, are, in certain situations, mu-
table into Y, which represents this obscure sound.
Such innovations;, whether introduced by cither refine-