[26]
My own
teachers spelt seruus and ceruus with a uo, in order
that the repetition of the vowel might not lead to
the coalescence and confusion of the two sounds:
to-day however we write these words with a double
u on the principle which I have already stated:
neither spelling however exactly expresses the pronunciation. It was not without reason that Claudius
introduced the Aeolic digamma to represent this
sound.1 It is a distinct improvement that to-day we
spell cui as I have written it:
1 cp. I. iv. 8.
Quintilian. With an English Translation. Harold Edgeworth Butler. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1920.
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