[30]
Similarly the
letter Q, which is superfluous and useless save for
the purpose of attaching to itself the vowels by
which it is followed, results in the formation of
harsh syllables, as, for example, when we write equos
and aequum, more especially since these two vowels
together produce a sound for which Greek has no
equivalent and which cannot therefore be expressed
in Greek letters.1
1 The sound of Q in itself does not differ from C. It would therefore be useless, save as an indication that U and another vowel are to follow. The U in this combination following Q was, as Donatus later pointed out, “neither a vowel nor a consonant,” i.e. it was something between U and V.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.