Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XIV.djvu/166

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158 EAAB tremulous motion, as in the word rhetoric. The tremulous sound is more distinct in the Spanish rr, which indeed is not readily learned by Englishmen or Americans. It is frequent- ly exaggerated by the Irish and softened down by the English, who are more easily distin- guished by their peculiar pronunciation of this letter than by that of any other. The Ro- mans often added an r to words which they borrowed from the Greek, as w6q, nurus ; yudaf , murex ; and on the other hand they often dropped it from the nominative case of nouns and retained it in the oblique cases, as ces, aria ; os, oris. It was interchanged sometimes with

  • , the words arena, laribus, pignora, Furii,

Valerii, and Papirii having been anciently written asena, lasibus, pignosa, Fusii, Valesii, and Papisii. The same change is observed in some modern languages, as Eng. hare, Ger. haase ; Eng. was, Ger. war. It is most fre- quently interchanged however with I. The Chinese, who cannot pronounce r, always use I in its place ; the Japanese do exactly the reverse. (See L.) As a Roman numeral R denotes 80, or with a dash over it (it) 80,000. The Greek P with a dash over it stands for 100, and with a dash under it for 100,000. As an abbreviation, R signifies Roma, Romanus ; R. P., res publica ; R. C., Roma condita. RAAB (Hung. Oyor). I. A W. county of Hungary, in the Trans-Danubian circle, bor- dering on Presburg, Coinorn, Veszprem, Oeden- burg, and Wieselburg; area, 1,590 sq. m. ; pop. in 1870, 103,637, chiefly Magyars. The surface is level, except in the south. The extensive marsh of Hansag is in the western portion. The chief rivers are the Danube and the Raab. The principal products are corn, wine, fruits, cattle, and sheep. II. A city (anc. Arrabona or Rabona), capital of the county, in an exten- sive plain at the junction of the Rabnitz and Raab, near the entrance of the latter (which rises in Styria) into an arm of the Danube, known as the Little Danube, 67 m. W. N. W. of Buda; pop. in 1870, 20,035, including about 5,000 Germans. The old cathedral has been restored and embellished, and the episcopal palace is a striking building. The academy of law was reopened in 1867, and the city has a theological faculty and a Catholic and a Protestant gymnasium. In the vicinity is the Benedictine abbey of Szent-Marton (Martins- berg), one of the oldest in Hungary. In the 10th century the town regained the importance which it once possessed as a Roman colony in Pannonia, and it was generally kept in a state of defence by the Hungarian kings, but suffered during their warfare with the em- perors of Germany. The Turks took it in 1595, and were expelled in 1598 with great loss, by Schwarzenberg and PiiLffy. The for- tress was finally razed in 1820. *The Hunga- rian army of " insurrection " (defensive rising en masse of the nobility) was defeated in the plain of Raab by Eugene Beauharnais, June 14, 1809. In 1848-'9 it was strongly fortified RABBIT by the Hungarians, who were here defeated by the Austrians under Haynan, June 28, 1849. RABANUS (or Hrabanns) MAURIS, a German theologian, born in Mentz about 776, died at Winkel in 856. He was educated in the Bene- dictine convent of Fulda, and continued his stu- dies in Tours under Alcuin, who gave him the surname of Maurus in honor of St. Maurus. He returned to Fulda in 804, founded there the first public convent school in Germany, and labored especially for the spread and im- provement of the German language. He wished to free the German church from the influence of Rome, and succeeded in intro- ducing the rule that the clergy should only preach in the native tongue. He has also the merit of having given a new impetus to Bibli- cal research by requiring the study of the ori- ginal tongue of the New Testament. These innovations drew upon him the displeasure and suspicion of the clerical party, and though finally elevated to the rank of an abbot, he laid down his office in 842 to live in the priory of St. Peter; but in 847 he resumed teach- ing, and was consecrated archbishop of Mentz. Among his works is Glossaria Latino-theo- dtica, which is now an important monument of the earliest phase of the German language. He wrote also De Universe, De Arte Gram- matica Prisciani, and several other theological treatises. His works (exclusive of the Glot- taria) were published by Calvonerius (6 vols. fol., Cologne, 1627). EABAT, a town of Morocco, in Fez, on a bay of the W. coast, at the mouth of the Bure- krag or Bu-Regreb, opposite the town of Sal6 ; pop. about 20,000, including many Jews. The custom house and the minaret of the principal mosque are remarkable specimens of Moorish architecture ; most of the other Moorish build- ings are in decay, and there are many houses built in European style. Rabat was founded in the 13th century, and together with Sale was long notorious as a haunt of pirates. The im- ports in 1874, chiefly cotton goods, amounted to $58,000, and the exports, chiefly of wool (exclusive of specie), to $27,000. RABBATH-AMMON. See PHILADELPHIA (Pal- estine). RABBI (Heb., my master, lord, or teacher), a title of honor bestowed on the doctors of the Jewish law since the 1st century B. 0. The Hebrew or Aramaic words rdb, rabba, rnbban (master), rabboni (my master), and rabbenu (our master), have also been employed in the same sense. The title rabbi or rabbin is fre- quently applied to the Talmudic writers, the Jewish theological writers of post-Talmudio times (see HEBREWS), whose dialect is there- fore called rabbinical, and the religious heads of Jewish congregations. The Jews of eastern Europe and others attach Rdl>, both in conver- sation and writing, to the name of every mar- ried Jew of good reputation. RABBIT, the common name of several species of the hare family, especially the lepus cuni-