Institutio Oratoria

For the sixth letter in our alphabet is represented by a sound which can scarcely be

called human or even articulate, being produced by forcing the air through the interstices of the teeth. Such a sound, even when followed by a vowel, is harsh enough and, as often as it clashes ( frangit ) with a consonant, [*](cp. I. iv. 11. ) as it does in this very word frangit, becomes harsher still. Then there is the Aeolic digamma whose sound occurs in words such as our servus and cervus; for even though we have rejected the actual form of the letter, we cannot get rid of that which it represents. [*](A sound approximating to our W.)