D The fourth letter in the English alphabet occupies the
same position in the Latin, Greek and Phoenician
alphabets, which represent the preceding stages in its
history. The Phoenician name Daleth is represented
by the Greek Delta. In form D has varied throughout its career
comparatively little. In the earliest Phoenician it is 
with
slight variations; in most Greek dialects 
which has been
adopted as the Greek literary form, but in others as e.g. the
earliest Attic 
or 
. The form with the rounded back, which
has passed from Latin into the languages of western Europe,
was borrowed from the Greeks of S.W. Italy, but is widely
spread also amongst the peoples of the Peloponnese and of
northern Greece. It arises from a form like 
when the sides
which meet to the right are written or engraved at one stroke.
From a very early period one side of the triangle was often
prolonged, thus producing a form 
which is characteristic of
Aramaic from 800 B.C. In Greek this was avoided because of
the likelihood of its confusion with 
, the oldest form of the
symbol for r, but in the alphabets of Italy—which were borrowed
from Etruscan—this confusion actually takes place. Etruscan
had no sound corresponding to the symbol D (in inscriptions
written from right to left, 
), and hence used it as a by-form
for , the symbol for r. The Oscans and Umbrians took it over
in this value, but having the sound d they used for it the symbol
for r ( in Umbrian, 
in Oscan).
The sound which D represents is the voiced dental corresponding to the unvoiced t. The English d, however, is not a true dental, but is really pronounced by placing the tongue against the sockets of the teeth, not the teeth themselves. It thus differs from the d of French and German, and in phonetic terminology is called an alveolar. In the languages of India where both true dentals and alveolars are found, the English d is represented by the alveolar symbol (transliterated ḍ). Etymologically in genuine English words d represents in most cases dh of the original Indo-European language, but in some cases an original t. In many languages d develops an aspirate after it, and this dh becomes then a voiced spirant (ð), the initial sound of there and that. This has occurred widely in Semitic, and is found also in languages like modern Greek, where δ, except after ν, is always spirant, δέν (= not) being pronounced like English then. As the mouth position for l differs from that for d only by the breath being allowed to escape past one or both sides of the tongue, confusion has arisen in many languages between d and l, the best-known being cases like the Latin lacrima as compared with the Greek δάκ–ρυ. The English tear and the forms of other languages show that d and not l is the more original sound. Between vowels in the ancient Umbrian d passed into a sound which was transliterated in the Latin alphabet by rs; this was probably a sibilant r, like the Bohemian ř. In many languages it is unvoiced at the end of words, thus becoming almost or altogether identical with t. As an abbreviation it is used in Latin for the praenomen Decimus, and under the empire for the title Divus of certain deceased emperors. As a Roman numeral (= 500) it is only the half of the old symbol ↀ (= 1000); this was itself the old form of the Greek φ, which was useless in Latin as that language had no sound identical with the Greek φ. (P. Gi.)
DACCA, a city of British India, giving its name to a district
and division of Eastern Bengal and Assam. It was made the
capital of that province on its creation in October 1905. The
city is 254 m. N.E. by E. of Calcutta, on an old channel of the
Ganges. Railway station, 10 m. from the terminus of the river
steamers at Narayanganj. The area is about 8 sq. m. The
population in 1901 was 90,542. The ruins of the English factory,
St Thomas’s church, and the houses of the European residents
lie along the river banks. Of the old fort erected by Islam
Khan, who in 1608 was appointed nawab of Bengal, and removed
his capital from Rajmahal to Dacca, no vestige remains; but
the jail is built on a portion of its site. The principal Mahommedan
public buildings, erected by subsequent governors and
now in ruins, are the Katra and the Lal-bagh palace—the
former built by Sultan Mahommed Shuja in 1645, in front of the
chauk or market place. Its extensive front faced the river,
and had a lofty central gateway, flanked by smaller entrances,
and by two octagonal towers rising to some height above the
body of the building. The Lal-bagh palace was commenced by
Azam Shah, the third son of the emperor Aurangzeb. It originally
stood close to the Buriganga river; but the channel has
shifted its course, and there is now an intervening space covered
with trees between it and the river. The walls on the western
side, and the terrace and battlement towards the river, are of a
considerable height, and present a commanding aspect from the
water. These outworks, with a few gateways, the audience hall
and the baths, were the only parts of the building that survived
in 1840. Since then their dilapidation has rapidly advanced;
but even in ruin they show the extensive and magnificent scale
on which this princely residence was originally designed. It
appears never to have been completed; and when Jean Baptiste
Tavernier visited Dacca (c. 1666), the nawab was residing in a
temporary wooden building in its court. The English factory
was built about that year. The central part of the old factory
continued to be used as a court-house till the 19th century, but
owing to its ruinous state it was pulled down in 1829 or 1830;
in 1840 the only portion that remained was the outward wall.
The French and Dutch factories were taken possession of by
the English in the years 1778 and 1781 respectively. In the
mutiny of 1857 two companies of the 73rd Native Infantry
which were stationed in the town joined in the revolt, but were
overpowered by a small European force and dispersed. The
city still shows some signs of its former magnificence. The
famous manufacture of fine muslins is almost extinct, but the
carving of shells, carried on from ancient times, is an important
industry in the city. There are a Government college, a collegiate
school and an unaided Hindu college. There is a large settlement
of mixed Portuguese descent, known as Feringhis. Many of the
public buildings, including the college, suffered severely from the
earthquake of the 12th of June 1897; and great damage was
done by tornadoes in April of 1888 and 1902.
The district of Dacca comprises an area of 2782 sq. m. In 1901 the population was 2,649,522, showing an increase of 11% in the decade. The district consists of a vast level plain, divided into two sections by the Dhaleswari river. The northern part, again intersected by the Lakshmia river, contains the city of Dacca, and as a rule lies well above flood-level.
Dacca is watered by a network of rivers and streams, ten of which are navigable throughout the year by native cargo boats of four tons burthen. Among them are the Meghna, the Ganges or Padma, the Lakshmia, a branch of the Brahmaputra, the Jamuna, or main stream of the Brahmaputra, the Mendi-Khali, a large branch of the Meghna, the Dhaleswari, an offshoot of the Jamuna, the Ghazi-khali and the Buriganga. The soil is composed of red ferruginous kankar, with a stratum of clay in the more elevated parts, covered by a thin layer of vegetable mould, or by recent alluvial deposits. The scenery along the Lakshmia is very beautiful, the banks being high and wooded. About 20 m. north of Dacca city, small ridges are met with in the Madhupur jungle, stretching into Mymensingh district. These hills, however, are mere mounds of from 20 to 40 ft. high, composed of red soil containing a considerable quantity of iron ore; and the whole tract is for the most part unproductive. Towards the city the red soil is intersected by creeks and morasses, whose margins yield crops of rice, mustard and til seed; while to the east of the town, a broad, alluvial, well-cultivated plain reaches as far as the junction of the Dhaleswari and Lakshmia rivers. The country lying to the south of the Dhaleswari is the most
