altered according to our mode of spelling, though in the headings retained as in the original, as Padillia instead of Padilla. For the sake of preserving the sound free from constant explanation or confusion, the like course has been sometimes adopted with regard to other words, as, for instance, the name of the river Genii or Xenil, represented in English as Henil.
Two or more vowels coming together are enunciated so as to form one syllable generally in Spanish, and especially in poetry, yet nevertheless so as to allow of each vowel to be sounded distinctly, as each syllable is also.
With regard to accents, the general rule is, that it should be placed on the penultimate syllable. There are many exceptions, but in print these are always marked by the accent (') on the vowel indicated, except in words of two syllables, which, if ending in a consonant, have generally the accent on the last syllable, if ending in a vowel, on the first, without being notified.
From these notices it may be observed, that the Spanish language is remarkable for two sounds, the guttural and the predominating th, which distinguish it from the two sister dialects of Italy and Portugal, while it is deficient in the soft sound of g and j, found so frequently used in the latter. These two assimilate so much to each other that natives of either country understand those of the other readily, while they cannot those of Spain, showing that the influence of the Gothic and Moorish invaders was impressed there on the pronunciation of the common language, though it was not extended to altering materially the language itself.
Besides the soft sound of the g, there are two other sounds unknown in Spanish, though common in Portugal and France, left by their former Celtic inhabitants, those of the sh or French j, and the disagreeable nasal pronunciation of the letter n. The latter is very slightly given in Don, and a few other words, but the other is unknown. In Portuguese it is so prevalent that they even use it for Latin words which it would be difficult to recognize at first as the originals from which the others were derived; thus the words pluvia, plorare, transformed in Spanish into lluvia,
