Qurân. See KORAN.

R

is the eighteenth letter in our alphabet. In ancient Egyptian there seems to have been no clear distinction between the sounds of r and l, both of which are liquid trills, the breath escaping over the vibrating edges of the tongue—in the one case over the tip, in the other over the sides (see L). Consequently the hieroglyphic picture of the ‘lioness,’ from which our letter l is derived, was used almost interchangeably with the picture of the mouth (see ALPHABET), which became the source of the letter r. But the Semites, who obtained their alphabet from the Egyptians, made a clear distinction between the two sounds, and hence the two Egyptian symbols were specialised, the tailed hieratic form of the Egyptian picture of the mouth being exclusively adopted as the Semitic sign for r. It was called resh, ‘the head,’ because in the hieratic form, 9, it resembled the oval of the head supported on the neck. In the lapidary writing of the Phoenicians the letter became angular instead of rounded, and the Semitic form, A, passed without alteration into the earliest Greek alphabet. When the direction of the Greek writing was reversed the form was somewhat rounded, giving for the sound of r the symbol P, which was called rhō. The Semitic name resh or rhos would become rhosa in Greek, but as in Greek an s normally disappears between two vowels, this would give rhos, and finally rhō, owing to the coalescence of the vowels. In the primitive Greek alphabet, as in the Phœnician, the forms of the signs for b, d, and r differed little, and confusions arose. Hence the signs were differentiated in various ways. In the early Greek alphabet which found its way into Italy the tail of P was curved round, giving the form B with a lower loop, to denote b, while for d the tail was shortened and finally disappeared, giving D. For r a short tail was added, giving the form R, which ultimately became R, while the form P was retained to represent r in the Eastern alphabet and in the Western to represent p. The tail of R began to make its appearance in the Greek alphabet before it was transmitted to Italy, but subsequently disappeared, other ways of avoiding the confusion between the forms having been invented. For the lapidary and capital forms the old R has been retained, but in minuscule writing we use r and z, the first of which is an uncial form derived from B; the second, called the r rotunda, coming from the old Roman cursive, in which the vertical stroke of R has nearly disappeared, being represented only by the small tag at the top of z.

The sound of r is a true consonant in the north of England, where it is exaggerated in the Northumberland burr. In Sanskrit it is vocalic; in the south of England it is often reduced to a semi-vowel or even to a vowel; while in the Midlands, in Scotland, and in France it preserves the proper sound of a trilled liquid which it had in Latin and Anglo-Saxon. After a guttural vowel it is hardly heard, farther being now almost indistinguishable from father. The Irish r is a survival of the old

English sound, the pronunciation harum for ‘harm,’ arum for ‘arm,’ and born for ‘born,’ reproducing, it is believed, the mediæval English sound, which is now less resonant than it formerly was. The sounds of r and l are often interchanged. In the Indian alphabet the Semitic symbol for r represents l, and the symbol for l represents r. The Japanese sign for r was obtained from a Chinese sign for l, and some Polynesian and South African peoples replace r by the easier sound of l, as is also done by English children, who, however, often prefer w, saying vevy for ‘very.’ The sound of r is usually the last which children learn to pronounce. In English l frequently replaces r and occasionally r replaces l, as in ‘turban’ from tolibant. Sometimes r disappears, as in ‘speak’ from O.E. spræcan, ‘pin’ from O.E. preon, ‘palsy’ from O. Fr. paralyse, and ‘cockade’ from O. Fr. cocart. It is intrusive in ‘shrill’ from O.E. schill, in ‘hoarse’ from O.E. hōs, in ‘partridge’ from Lat. perdix, in ‘cartridge’ from Fr. cartouche, in ‘corporal’ from Fr. caporal, and in ‘culprit’ from Lat. culpa. It is also intrusive in iron and bride-groom. There is a modern tendency to insert a final r, as in ‘taters’ for ‘potatoes’ and ‘Victoriar’ for ‘Victoria.’ In the words our, your, their, her, the r is a survival of an old genitive suffix. Sometimes r is transposed, as in ‘horse’ from hross. In Latin r supplants s between two vowels and sometimes at the end of words, as in ‘arena’ for asena, ‘dari’ for dasi, ‘plurima’ for plusima, ‘honor’ for honos, ‘arbor’ for arbos.