Native purists condemn the use of c and q as alien letters. The former they maintain should be rejected before k as unnecessary, and should always be replaced by k, where, as is the case in genuine Northern words, c has the sound of that letter; while, where it has the sound of English, or French e before a soft vowel, they prefer to represent it by the letter s. Qu (or qv) is, on analogous grounds, to be rendered by kv, which supply the equivalent sound in genuine Northern letters.

In regard to pronunciation, great variations, as already observed, are growing up between Danes and Norwegians; and in the following remarks we will endeavour briefly to notice some of the most prominent national, and recently acquired, differences of sound given to the same letters by the two peoples.

By Danes and Norwegians the final d is not pronounced after 1, n, r, t, as Hånd (hawn), 'hand;' or before t and 8. Among Norwegians, however, d never takes the soft th sound common in Danish when it follows a vowel at the end of a word, as med (medth), 'with.' Norwegian final d has the sound of t in most nouns and adjectives, but in some pronouns, as hvad, 'what,' it is not heard.

In Danish, g loses its distinctive sound in monosyllables when following a vowel, as mig (mei), ' me.'

In Norwegian the g before the soft vowels ä, e, i, ö, y, acquires the sound of English y, as gærne, (yerne), 'willingly.'

In certain parts of Norway he has the sound of kv, as hvad (kva), 'what.' This peculiarity, which was till lately regarded as a mere provincialism, is now beginning to find

favour among the general body of cultivated Norsemen. This peculiar sound of the Northern hv brings more clearly into view the affinity between the Old Northern and Latin; the kvem (hvem, 'who,' 'whom') of the rising Norsk generation being identical with quem, while their kvad (hvad, 'what,' 'which') represents with nearly equal exactness the Latin neuters quid, quod.

Jis rejected after k and g before soft vowels in the new system of spelling, but its rejection has by no means met with unqualified approval, and hence one modern dictionary will give gjerne, kjöbe, etc., while another gives gærne, 'willingly,' köbe, 'to sell,' etc. One person will write kjær (or kjer), and another kär, ' dear;' or one book published at Copenhagen may bear on its title page the name Kjöbenhavn, while another gives the same word as Köbenhavn.

The combined letters sk, st, which have among Danes the same sounds as in English, are differently pronounced by Norwegians and Swedes. The sk among the latter has the sound of English sh, as Skyds, (shütz), 'relay of carriages.' The st when preceding j has a less well established sound among Norwegians, some of whom follow the Swedes in giving it the sound of sh, or sch, as Scherne for Stjærne,' star,' while others, like the Danes, keep to the sound of stierne.

In the older forms of spelling much confusion prevailed in the use of vowels, and in the present transition stage of Dano-Norwegian orthography this indefiniteness still exists, notwithstanding the strenuous efforts of the Stockholm Linguistic Congress to establish some fixed rules for vowelsounds, that might be accepted both in Dano-Norwegian,

and in Swedish. Among such rules we may instance the following, which were adopted by the Danish and Norwegian delegates to promote this end :—

1. To avoid the doubling of the vowel wherever it was not required on etymological grounds, and to indicate the necessary lengthening, or accentuation, by the substitution of some other vowel, or by an accent or mark, such as has been in use in Sweden for more than three centuries. Thus double aa was to be replaced by å, as Båd, for Baad,' boat.'

2. Double e and i were to be represented by the single unaccented vowel in such words as at se, 'to see,' (instead of at see); spiste, 'ate,' (instead of spiiste). E when it followed j was to be replaced by æ, as Hjælpe, 'help,' (instead of Hjelpe). A was also to replace e before g where the latter had the hard sound, as Æg, 'edge of knife,' (instead of Eg); but where the g has the sound before n, the e

should be retained, as Regn, 'rain.'

3. When the e is mute it is to be rejected, as in döe, 'to die,' boe, 'to dwell;' and here it may be observed that excepting in these, and a few analogous cases, final e is always pronounced, although with a grave accent only, as Rose (Rose), 'rose.'

4. It was recommended on the part of the Danish delegates at the Congress to retain the distinctive vowels ö and ø, the former being used for the opener sound of the letter. Their Norwegian colleagues preferred, however, like the Swedes, not to distinguish the letter by two marks; and it was agreed that if Danish writers would consent to

represent the letter by one character only, the ö, as used in Swedish, should be accepted.

From all that has been said of the transition state of Dano-Norwegian writing, the reader will understand that he must be prepared to meet with a perplexing variety of spelling among Danish and Norwegian writers. These orthographic variations extend even to the order in which certain letters are given in dictionaries. Thus the authorized Dansk-Retskrivnings-Ordbog (Danish Spelling-Manual) of Svend Gruntvig, 1870, gave å for aa after the letter y, followed by a, ö and ø. The Dansk Hand-Ordbog, which was issued by the same author in 1872, at the express orders of the Ministry for Education, which recommended its use to all colleges and schools in Denmark, differs however wholly from its predecessor, both as to the writing and place in the alphabet of this letter, for here aa is placed first among the letters, and is no longer represented by å. Another retrograde movement in this dictionary is that j is restored to its old place after g or k, when followed by a soft vowel, as Kjöbenhavn, Copenhagen.' In most other essential points, however, the two dictionaries are in har mony; and it was announced when the Hand-Ordbog appeared, that the object proposed by its publication was not to supersede the Retskrivnings-Ordbog of 1870, but to faciliate its acceptance by the general public. This aim has not as yet been fully attained, for although, as we have already stated, many of the best writers have accepted, in toto, the reformed system of spelling on which the dictionary of 1870 was based, a very large number of Danes

and Norwegians seem content with the intermediate stage of reform represented in the authorized Handbog of 1872, which leaves them the use of aa, and of various other supernumerary letters to which long usage seems to have given a fictitious importance. The one great obstacle to the acceptance by Danish and Norwegian writers of the entire system of reform, agreed upon at the Stockhohn Congress, is the adoption of the Swedish character å for aa. All other points will probably be in time conceded; but this innovation in modern Dano-Norwegian has of late been so persistently opposed, that it is difficult to say whether or not the character å will make good its claim to be accepted in the alphabet.

The following examples will sufficiently indicate the variations of spelling and writing which prevail at the present moment :

Et år har to Halvår,
Et Aar har to Halvaar,
Et Aar har to Halvaar,

A year has two half-years.

Hver Vismand har ikke Vismandsånden,
Hver Vismand har ikke Vismandsaanden,
Hver Viismand har ikke Viismandsaanden,

Every wise

acre has not the spirit of wisdom.

The cattle will have their evening meal immediately.