instead of the band. Whitehall, London, from a drawing measured and delineated, by Mr. William Barnes, architect. times, mouldings are employed. A cornice is also used occasionally BASIL, MONKS OF ST. When St. Basil, bishop of Cæsarea, retired into Pontus, about the year 358, for the convenience of himself and his followers, he founded a monastery, to which he gave a written rule for its regulation, the first of the kind that had appeared, and which was soon adopted in numerous other monasteries. This rule shortly spread itself over the East, and, according to the generality of writers, was not very long in passing to the West. Those who adopted it styled themselves of the order of St. Basil; and St. Basil's Rule was, in fact, the parent of that which was afterwards framed by St. Benedict. (See Schlosser's remarks on Basil, 'Universalhistorische Uebersicht,' &c., 3 th. 3 abth.) Dom Alphonso Clavel, the Spanish annalist of this order ('Antiguedad de la Relig. y Regl. de S. Basilio,' c. viii. § 2), says that Basil's Rule was approved and confirmed by Pope Liberius in the same year in which it was written and published, A.D. 363; afterwards by several other popes; and was, in a later age of the Church, revised by Pope Gregory XIII., who, about 1573, united the religious of this order in Italy, Spain, and Sicily into one congregation. The abridgment of this Rule made by Cardinal Bessarion, during the pontificate of Eugene IV., and approved by Gregory XIII., was also confirmed by Popes Clement VIII. Paul V. and Alexander VII. Moréri gives 1057 as the date when the order was introduced in the West. St. Saviour, at Messina, is now considered as its chief monastery in the West. The monks of St. Basil in Spain follow the Greek, those of Italy the Latin ritual. The Greek monks are chiefly of this order, which exists to a great extent in Russia; though in that country, if we may rely on Dr. King, the monks have deviated from their original Rule. He says, "Basil is generally looked upon as the founder of the order of monks which exists in Russia, though, in truth their Rules, at least those they observe at present, are taken from several different persons; as Ephraim of Edessa, Gregory, Chrysostom," &c. (See 'Hist. des Ordres Monastiques,' 4to, Par. 1714, tom. i. pp. 175-238, where engravings will be found of the dresses worn by both monks and nuns of this order in the respective countries; Moréri, 'Dictionnaire Historique,' fol. Par. 1759, tom. ii. p. 154; King, 'Rites and Ceremonies of the Greek Church in Russia,' 4to, Lond. 1772, p. 365; Rodolph, 'Hospiniani de Monach,' lib. iii.) The order of St. Basil was never, that we know of, introduced into England; though Sir Roger Twysden, in his Rise of the Monastic State,' p. 5 (as quoted by Tanner, Pref. to Notit. Monast.' p. li.), says, "The monks of Bangor were not unlike the order of Basil, if not of it." The genuine history of the monastery of Bangor, however, in its earliest period, cannot now be traced upon authority which can be relied on. BASILICA (βασιλικά, βασιλικός νόμος). This term denotes a col lection or digest of the Corpus Juris' of Justinian, translated from the original Latin into the Greek language. This work was commenced and brought to its present state during the latter part of the 9th and the beginning of the 10th centuries, under the superintendence of the Greek emperors of Constantinople. The design of reducing the laws of Justinian into one Greek book from the several Latin collections in which they were known in the Western Empire, is said to have been originally formed, and was certainly in part executed, by Basil I., called the Macedonian, whose reign commenced A.D. 867, and ended in 886, and from whom the book derives its name. Basil's death occurred before the completion of the work; and all that was effected in his time was a kind of Preface, or Introduction, which was called Пpóxεpov TV vouwv, and consisted of forty heads, or titles. Leo VI., surnamed the Philosopher, who succeeded his father Basil as emperor of Constantinople, brought the collection considerably nearer to its present form. Under his direction it was distributed into six general heads, each of which was subdivided into ten titles; from which circumstance it is entitled in some manuscripts 'EdßBAos (the Six-Book), and in others 'EnkovтάBIBλos (the Sixty-Book). The Basilica were however finally reduced into their present form by Constantine VII., commonly called Constantine Porphyrogeneta, the son of Leo the Philosopher, in the early part of the 10th century, and were published under the title Basilica repetita prælectionis.' From that time the book was commonly used as a code of jurisprudence in the Eastern Empire, whilst it still retains its value in our own day, as a treatise explanatory of Justinian's collection of law. The Basilica contains the code, digests, institutes, and novella of the Corpus Juris;' and in the latter divisions are inserted some of the later edicts of Justinian himself, of the subsequent emperors of Constantinople, and of Basil the Macedonian in particular; and also a few extracts from the fathers, and decrees of early councils of the Church. The Greek translation of the Roman law was, in all probability, not made expressly for this work, as the four books containing the institutions of Justinian are known to have been in existence in the Greek language previous to the time of Basil the Macedonian. Hervetus first published, in Latin only, in 1557, four complete books of the Basilica (lib. 45-48), and two books (28, 29) incomplete. A splendid edition of the Basilica, accompanied by a Latin translation and several valuable scholia, and prepared from a collation of various manuscripts in the Vatican and the Bibliothèque du Roi, was published at Paris by Fabrot, in 1647, 7 vols. fol., to which is prefixed a Report to Pope Urban VIII. upon the history of the Basilica, by Joseph Maria Suarez; but this edition only contains thirty-three books complete, and ten others incomplete. Reitz, in 1752, added four books (49-52), following those of Hervetus; but both editions together only contain thirty-six books complete, and seven with considerable lacunæ in them. Cujacius undoubtedly possessed the Greek text of Book 53-59 inclusive; and the manuscript is possibly still extant, or it must have been lost a long time ago. [CUJACIUS, BIOG. DIV.] A new edition has been published since 1835, at Leipzig, by Professor Heimbach of Jena, in which are comprehended the various readings obtained by the collation of several manuscripts not examined by Fabrot. For a history of the Basilica, see Heimbach's treatise De Basilicorum origine fontibus, scholiis, atque nova editione adornanda;' see also 'Thémis ou Bibliothèque du Juris Consulte,' vols. viii., ix., and x., for some observations upon the use made by Cujacius of the Basilica. Those readers of the Post Justinianean Law who may be prosecuting inquiries into the history and text of the Basilica, will do well to refer to Haubold's 'Manuale Basilicorum,' which, in addition to an accurate enumeration of the books and titles, contains abundant references to parallel passages, as well as to the works of modern civilians. BASILICA, from the Greek Bariλh, literally signifies a royal residence: but we have no account of any royal residence being specially called by that name; nor have we any description of Greek edifices called Basilica, which may be supposed to have furnished the model of the Roman basilica. The name, indeed, is Greek, and it is highly probable that the building itself was framed on a Greek model, though the fact does not appear to be capable of direct proof. The building at Athens, called the Barixetos Eroà, or Royal Portico, seems to have been pretty much like a Roman Basilica, as to the purposes for which it was used. This edifice, which is mentioned by Demosthenes (Against Aristogeiton,' chap. 6), contained the court of the Archon Basileus [ARCHON]; and the Areopagus occasionally held their sittings there. (See also Pausanias, i. 3.) The Romans gave the name of Basilica to those public buildings with spacious halls, often surrounded with wide porticoes, many of which were built at different times in the various fora of Rome. They were usually called after the person who caused them to be built, as the Basilica Emiliana, Porcia, &c. (Livy, xxxix. 44.) At the time of the conflagration recorded in Livy (xxvi. 27), B.C. 210, there were no basilica then built. We read in the Bellum Alexandrinum' (cap. 52) that the basilica was used in the Spanish provinces at the date (B.C. 47) to which that work refers. of the columns. At the end of the central part of the interior a raised platform formed the tribunal for a magistrate. The term testudo, as its name implies, is strictly the roof of the central part; but the term is also extended to signify the whole of the central space, which corresponds to what we call the nave of a church; the porticoes correspond to the aisles. The basilica was not only used as a hall for the administration of justice, but afforded also convenient shelter to the merchants who transacted business there. Vitruvius, who constructed a basilica at the Julian colony at Fanum, informs us that it ought to be built "on the warnest side of the forum, that those whose affairs called them there might confer together without being incommoded by the weather." "The breadth," he says, "is not to be made less than the third, nor more than half, the length, unless the nature of the place opposes the proportion, and obliges the symmetry to be different; but if the basilica has too much length, chalcidica are made at the ends [CHALCIDICUM], as in the basilica of Julia Aquiliana." (Newton's Translation.') The size and proportions of these edifices varied according to circumstances. The following proportions are given by Vitruvius for the various parts of this structure. The columns of the basilica (by which Vitruvius means the columns engaged in the wall) are to be made as high as the porticus is broad; the porticus is to be as wide as the third part of the space in the middle. The columns of the upper gallery must be one-fourth less than the lower. The pluteum (continued pedestal) must be made one-fourth less in height than the upper columns, and be placed between the upper and lower columns, that those who walk above may not be seen by the merchants; from which circumstance it would appear that the upper gallery was intended for a purpose distinct from the uses of the lower gallery. It is probable that in the upper gallery some kinds of handicraft were carried on. The dimensions of the basilica built by Vitruvius at Fanum were as follow: the testudo 120 Roman feet long, and 60 broad; the porticus between the walls and columns of the testudo, 20 feet broad; the height of the columns of the testudo, including their capitals, 50 feet, and the diameter 5 feet. Behind these were parastaticæ, or small piers, 20 feet high, 24 feet broad, and 14 foot thick, to sustain the TESTUDO.) Copper Coin of Trajan, from the British Museum, representing on the reverse the façade of the Rasilica Ulpia. The principal feature of the Basilica was a large roofed building, supported on columns. The roof, which was called the testudo, rose high above the other part of the structure, which consisted of two galleries, called porticus, placed one above the other, and round the internal sides of the central building. The porticus was covered with a lean-to roof, the upper part of which commenced below the capitals of the columns which supported the testudo. The light was admitted between the spaces formed by the under line of the architrave of the testudo, the upper line of the lean-to roof, and the perpendicular lines C B TESTUDO. B, Lower portico; c, Upper ditto; A, A, Parastaticæ. beams intended to bear the floor of the gallery. Over these were other parastaticæ, 18 feet high, 2 feet broad, and 1 foot thick, which supported the lean-to roofs. The remaining space between the beams, which were laid over the upper parastaticæ, and the architrave of the columns of the testudo, was open to the light. In the basilica at Fanum, the testudo was supported by eighteen columns, four at each end, six on one side, and four on the other, the two centre columns being omitted on this side, that the view of the pronaos of a temple to Augustus might be seen. The tribunal in this building was in the form of a curved recess, 46 feet wide, and 15 feet deep. To this information Vitruvius adds the proportions of the timbers of the roof. It is probable that Rome possessed basilicæ in all the different fora of the city. Of these the Basilica of Trajan, which formed a part of the Forum Trajanum [FORUM], is the only one of which there are considerable remains left. Its width was about 180 feet, its length at least double the width. It is represented on the reverse of the medal which we have given above. Another basilica, of the Corinthian order, was discovered on the Palatine Hill. A large edifice in the Forum, called the Temple of Peace, has also been named the basilica of Constantine. The Emperors Gordian, in their magnificent country residences built on the Via Prænestina, had three basilica, 100 feet in length. Two famous basilica, Emilia and Fulvia, were built at Præneste respect, it may be compared to a very ancient Greek edifice at Pæstum, which has been generally considered a basilica. This building is an inclosure of columns, without any internal or external walls, and divided in the centre by an order of columns, with another above it. A basilica which was discovered some years since at Otricoli, had a curvilinear recess or hemicycle adorned with statues, which were removed to the museum of the Vatican. The most perfect basilica of antiquity, and which best corresponds with the building described by Vitruvius, exists in Pompeii, constructed on the south-west, and consequently the warm side of the Forum. This edifice is 220 feet by 80. The testudo rose to the height of about 60 feet, judging from the diameter of the portions of the columns still remaining. These columns are twenty-eight in number, four of which are placed at each end, and the rest on each side of the testudo; they are curiously constructed of brick, and covered with stucco. At the farthest end is the tribunal, raised on a platform, to which the ascent on each side is by a flight of stairs. Under the platform are rooms, conjectured to have been used as temporary prisons for criminals; and in the floor of this platform are circular holes, communicating with the rooms below. On each side of the tribunal are two small square rooms, which, as the Basilica is very long in its proportion, may be considered a part cut off to form Chalcidica. Small engaged columns are attached to the walls inclosing the porticus, on which one end of the beams of the floor were placed, the other being either inserted in the shafts of the brick-columns, or supported on wooden parastaticæ set against their backs, in the manner described by Vitruvius. In the angles the small columns are clustered thus after the manner of Gothic shafts. This arose probably from the circumstance of the beams of the floor of the upper porticus being placed diagonally at the angles, in this manner— and it is most likely that the under side of the floor was left exposed, as is still the case in the dwellings of Italy, and not covered with lath and plaster, as is the custom in England. The columns being clustered in the angles gave an appearance of strength. The light, most probably, was admitted in the manner mentioned by Vitruvius; but, in addition, there were windows at the back of the tribunal, which perhaps were at one time glazed, as glass for windows was in common use at Pompeii. The stone door-jambs are remarkable for a large groove, in which we may conjecture that the wooden doorframes were fixed. The doors appear to have folded, as the marks left on the sill from the opening and shutting still remain. The order of the small engaged columns is Corinthian, and the style very similar to that of the Temple of Vesta at Tivoli, and, like that edifice, this Basilica was covered with a fine marble stucco. The most singular decoration is observed in the rusticated plastering of the interior, where the rustics are painted in every variety of colour. The order of the testudo is unknown, as there are no remains of the capitals. It is probable that the columns, from their height, were never covered with the ashes of Vesuvius, which circumstance enabled the inhabitants to remove them. The early Christian churches of Rome may be considered as the best resemblances of the Roman Basilica. In some of them are still found many of the characteristics of the ancient Basilica. We give the following list of existing Basilican churches, or parts of churches, at Rome, with their dates (some known, others conjectural), from Bunsen's work on the Basilica of Rome, referred to below ---S. Pietro, about 330; S. Paolo, 386; Sta. Sabina, 425; Sta. Maria Maggiore, 432; S. Pietro ad Vincula, 442; S. Lorenzo, 580; Sta. Balbina, 600; St. 'Agnese, 625; Quattro Coronati, 625; S. Giorgio in Velabro, 682; S. Chrisogogno, 730; S. Giovanni a Porta Latina, Sta. Maria in Cosmedin, S. Vicenzo alle Tre Fontane, S. Lorenzo (the nave), SS. Nereo ed Achille, all about the close of the 8th century; Sta. Prassede, and Sta. Maria in Dominica, in the first quarter of the 9th century; S. Martino ai Monti, 850; Sta. Clemente, 870; S. Nicolo in Carcere, and S. Bartolomeo in Isola, end of 9th century; S. Giovanni in Laterano, 910; Sta. Maria in Trastevere, 1135; Sta. Croce in Gerusalemme, 1144; Sta. Maria in Ara Coeli; Sta. Maria sopra Minerva (noteworthy as a Gothic basilica), 1370; S. Agostino, 1480. The Marquess Galiani remarks, that the first churches were looked upon as tribunals in which the bishops, &c., administered penance to the guilty and the Eucharist to the absolved. We may therefore observe, in accounting for the resemblance which the early Christian churches bear to the ancient Basilice, that nothing could appear at first sight more appropriate than the idea of imitating a tribunal of justice in the construction of the new churches, in which the bishops and priests were to administer a kind of spiritual justice. This remark is well supported by the fact of the bishop's throne being placed in the apsis, or arched recess corresponding to the curved recess or hemicycle, as it was called, of the ancient Basilica. [APSE.] It would seem, in fact, that the obvious convenience of the Basilica led the early Christians to convert the ancient Basilica into churches, and in their new churches to adopt the principles of that form of building, as these Interior View of the Basilica of t. 'Agnese at Rome, from a work on Roman Church Basilica by I. G. G., Roma, 1823 and 1824. afterwards partly restored upon the old plan. The section of this edifice, across the nave, shows the form of the testudo with the inclined roofs of the porticus; and in the spaces between the under side of the roof of the testudo and the upper line of the roof of the porticus, are formed the windows of the church. The other Basilica we have not space to notice; but the church of St. 'Agnese exemplifies the peculiar character of the ancient Basilica in so striking a manner, that we give a representation of it, which will illustrate the description of Vitruvius. In this view will be easily recognised the galleries (porticus) running round three sides of the building, and interrupted by the recess forming the tribunal. In the upper gallery is the pluteum, or continued pedestal, inclosing the same. The nave corresponds to the testudo; the apsis of the church to the hemicycle of the ancient buildings: the only difference is in the manner of piercing the walls for windows, and in the omission of the large columns of the testudo, the two orders of columns standing in the places of the ancient parastaticæ. It is probable that the construction of the roof of the ancient Basilica was exposed, as it is shown here, and as was the invariable practice in almost all the church Basilica of Rome. These Basilica are built from the old materials of other edifices, and the parts are put together without much regard to symmetry, so that there are often Ionic, Corinthian, and Composite capitals, placed on shafts of columns of various diameters, with portions of entablatures above them, which originally belonged to dissimilar edifices. Santa Maria in Trastevere is an example of these incongruities: here also the throne in the apsis has an antique form, very similar to the hemicycles of the Street of Tombs at Pompeii. The Roman church Basilica in their complete form consisted of an atrium, or entrance-court, in the centre of which was the baptismal basin or font; a colonnade, called the narthex, devoted to the use of penitents or catechumen; a nave (navis, or gremium), where the people assembled to worship; a choir, or chancel, appropriated to the singers and inferior clergy, and in which were the ambones or pulpits; and a sanctuary, or bema, in the centre of which was placed the high altar under a canopy, or baldachin [BALDACHIN], and at the back of which was the apsis [APSIS], in which was the throne of the bishop. The Roman church Basilicæ are remarkable for their mosaic decorations. [MOSAIC.] The pavements of many of them are enriched with the most elaborate patterns made of the hardest marbles. The arched head of the apsis is often decorated with the figures of saints or apostles upon a gold ground, the whole mosaic being formed of glass tesseræ; but the most sumptuous mosaics are those of St. Peter's, of modern execution, which represent so truly the great works of the best Italian painters, that none but a practised eye can detect the difference. with. In England the osier or willow is chiefly used for this purpose; and many of the specimens produced are exceedingly elegant. The willow twigs or other materials are prepared in various ways, according to the costliness of the basket to be made; and the manufacture consists in a kind of interlacing, very simple in its character, and requiring the aid of but few tools. Any of our excellent blind asylums, where industrial pursuits are carried on, will afford a pleasing exemplification of the ease with which basket-making can be carried on by blind persons. A very large per-centage of the baskets bought by the middle and working classes in London, are made by poor persons, whose wives and children hawk them about the streets for sale. It is precisely one of those trades likely to put on such a commercial aspect-easy to learn, and requiring little or no capital to carry it on. Foreign baskets are imported to the value of 30,000l. to 40,000Z. annually. Since the period of the Great Exhibition in 1851, Swiss baskets of very light construction, carved in white wood, have become well known in this country. BASQUE LANGUAGE. This language, Léngua Bascongada, called also by the Spaniards Bascuence and Vizcaino, and by the French Basque, is spoken by the people who inhabit the Basque provinces, and part of Spanish and French Navarre. The people call themselves Euscaldunac, their country Euscalerria, and their language Euscara, or Escuara. The latter word is derived, according to Larramendi, from escuco, free, and era, mode or manner. But this is perhaps hardly satisfactory. The elementary syllable in all these words is Eusc or Esc, which appears in the forms Vesc and Ose in such names of places as Vesci and Osca, &c.: the true meaning of this element seems doubtful. Balbi, in his 'Atlas Ethnographique,' places the Euscara in the first family of the European languages, and classes it with the Celtic; which opinion, however, few philologists have hitherto adopted. The Jesuit Beovide, quoted by Abate Hervas, says, that having examined the Celtic Dictionary of Leibnitz, he found only two words common to both languages. But upon this we may remark, that the Jesuit must have looked very carelessly not to have found a larger number: if he had carried his inquiries no farther than the numerals to 20 inclusive, he ought to have arrived at a different result. The Basque language is certainly generally supposed to be totally different from all the European languages; an assertion from which entire assent may be reasonably withheld for the present. It is also loosely said to bear some affinity, if not in its roots, at least in its construction, to some of the Asiatic tongues. We may consider the Celta and Iberi as two historically distinct nations, without at the same time assuming, what we can never prove, that they do not descend from one common stock. If we are to believe the Basque cathe-grammarians, their language existed before the building of the Tower of Babel, and was brought to Spain by Tubal. Setting aside such extravagances, it may be remarked that the testimonies adduced to prove that the Basque language was spoken by all, or nearly all, the primitive inhabitants of the peninsula, are so numerous and conclusive as to amount almost to a demonstration. The etymology of the words denoting the ancient names of mountains, rivers, and towns in almost every part of the peninsula, is one of the strongest proofs. The word España is purely Basque, according to Astarloa, and means lip or extremity: W. Humboldt, however, disputes this explanation, and apparently with good reason. The river Ebro may be derived from ibai-ero, a foamy river, or from urbero, a warm river; Carpetania is derived from gara-be, with the Latin termination tania, and means the place at the foot of the hills. The examples of words in which the first element appears to be Basque are perhaps the most striking: such is acha, aitza, a rock, which in names of places assumes the form asta. Modern names which contain the element are, Asteguieta, Astobeza, Astorga, &c. In Spanish names mentioned by Roman writers the element asta also occurs, as in Asta, Astigi, Asta-pa (a dwelling at the foot of a rock), Astures, Asturica, and the river Ast-ura (rock-water). (See Humboldt's 'Inquiries respecting the first Inhabitants of Spain,' p. 23.) The word briga, which occurs at the termination of some ancient Spanish names of places, but which appears much more frequently in Gaul, is considered by Humboldt not to be a Basque word. The explanation of this word by Astarloa may serve to show how cautious we should be in following those who have written on this language. Bri, vri and uri, he says, mean a peopled place; the termination ga is negative, so that briga means a place without inhabitants, or a place without a town, or a wild population: hence the words bergante in Spanish, and brigand in French; but as briga is always the termination of the name of a town or inhabited place, we must suppose that the word briga, in course of time, got a meaning exactly contrary to its primary meaning. Such an hypothesis, as Humboldt remarks, scarcely needs confutation. The general form of the nave, aisles, and apsis of our ancient drals and churches, as well as in those of the Continent, is evidently borrowed from the Italian church Basilica. The nave corresponds to the testudo, and the side aisles to the porticus; the windows of the nave, which externally are seen above the lean-to roof of the aisles, correspond to the opening between the upper part of the columns of the testudo. Modern Basilica exist at the present day in Italy, applied, as the ancient were, to civil purposes. Palladio gives the name of Basilica to such public buildings, many of which are found in the Italian towns. Part of the Basilica of the present day serve as the palaces of the magistrates, and in them they administer justice, while the lower parts are occupied by merchants, &c. Speaking of these edifices, Palladio says, "Our modern basilicæ differ from the ancient in this, that while theirs were on the ground-floor, ours are elevated on arches, and the parts beneath the arches are used as shops, prisons, and for other public purposes. Another difference is, that the ancient had porticoes only in the interior; the moderns, on the contrary, either have none, or have them on the exterior." There is an example of such a Basilica at Padua, and another at Brescia; but the most celebrated is that at Vicenza, the exterior of which is after the design of Palladio. The body of the building is supposed by Vincenzio Scamozzi to have been erected during the reign and by the command of Theodoric the Goth. This Basilica is 162 feet long by 63 wide; the curved roof is of wood, covered with lead; the great hall is 25 feet 10 inches above the ground-floor, and is supported on piers. This edifice, which reflects great credit on the skill of Palladio, is called at Vicenza "Il Palazzo della Ragione." The architect himself, though a modest man, was so well satisfied with his own performance, that he expressed an opinion that this construction was equal to any Basilica of antiquity. In England the town-hall, and in France the Palais de Justice, correspond, in some respects, to the modern Italian Basilica. (Vitruvius; Nardini's Rome; Nolli's Plan of Rome, with the Fragments of the Ancient Plan; A Series of Geometrical Plans and Sections, and Perspective Views of the Roman Church Basilica, by I. G. G., Roma, 1823-24; Eustace's Class. Tour; Plan of Pompeii, by the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge; Marquess Galiani's Translation of Vitruvius; Life of Palladio, by M. Quatremère de Quincy; Notizie sulla Antichita e Belle Arti, Roma; Bunsen, Die Basiliken des Christlichen Roms (with the Illustrations of Gutensohn and Knapp); Mazois, Pompeii, vol. iii.; Ferguson, Handbook of Architecture.) BASKETS. Baskets have been made from the earliest ages, in most countries where pliant willows, reeds, or grasses are to be met All the radicals in the language are significative, even the names of the letters of the alphabet. The Basques write as they speak, and the sound of their letters, whether vowels or consonants, is fixed. It is said that aspirated and guttural sounds did not exist originally in the language. Even at the present day the Basque people give to the z a much softer sound than the rest of the Spaniards. According to d'Iharce Bidassouet, quoted by Balbi, the names of the alphabetical characters, nouns, pronouns, and adverbs, may be converted into verbs. The Basque language possesses a great variety of terminations. |