Note 76 — [pg 249]No. XXIII.

Let no one question the probability of such changes of consonants which are formed by the same organs; for to this day b and v are often used promiscuously. In the Spanish language, we are at liberty to pronounce, b az v, or v az b; and with us, marble is often pronounced marvle. It is also certain that the Roman vir is found in the word mentioned by Cesar. Com. 11. 19. Vergo bretus, an annual magistrate among the Ædui, a nation of Germany. This word is derived from vir, and guberno, altho Cesar and Tacitus never suspected it. The same word iz mentioned by Mc Pherson, az stil existing in the Erst language, Fergubreth; and its meaning iz the same az in Cesar's time: A decisiv argument that vir, fer, and bar, are radically the same; and that the ancient Celtic language had a common origin with the Latin. A similar change of consonants iz observable in the words volo and bull (the Pope's decree) which are radically the same; az also the German woll and the English will. So the ancient Pergamus iz called by the modern Turks, Bergamo. See Masheim's Eccle. Hist. Vol. I. and my Dissertations on the Eng. Language, Appendix.