tzopilotl (tsopilotl)

[Mex.] Same as zopilote. The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia: The Century dictionary IMG:content-1199.png:[ocr errors] 1. The twenty-first character and fifth vowel-sign in the English alphabet. The Phenic i an alphabet, from which ours comes ultimately (see under A), had no such sign, but ended with T. A sign for the u-sound (that is, for oo, or ö, as it is represented in the respellings of this dictionary) was added by the Greeks when they adapted the Phenic i an signs to their own use, and was written in differently or Y; but the latter finally established itself as the accepted form in Greek usage, while the former became customary in the derived Italian alphabets; so that, considerably later, the Romans were able to import Yas a separate and foreign character, to represent the foreign Greek sound ü (= French 4, German ü or into which the Greek ö had meanwhile become to a great extent altered in pronunciation. The was also commonly written with its angle rounded, as U; and V and U were for a long time merely different forms of the same sign (like I and J): it is only recently that they have come to be always distinctly held apart, and have different values given them. As W also is a doubled U or V, it appears that our four letters U, V, W, and Y all come from a single sign added by the Greeks at the end of the Phenic i an system. The sound originally and properly represented by the character, and still belonging to it in most languages outside of English, is the oo or o sound, as in mood, move, rule, and the like, the closest of the labial vowels, or rounded vowels, as they are often called (see under 0); but this value the letter has in English only in exceptional cases. What we call "long u," namely, is this same sound with the semivowel y prefixed, as yoo (yo); and what we call "short u " is the more open of the two shades of neutral vowel-sound. The digraphs ue, eu, and ew also have, as long, the yö -value in the same manner and degree. The y-element in the sound, namely, is not always alike full and undeniable, but varies somewhat, according to the difficulty of slipping it in after a preced ing consonant. After a guttural ( k, q ) or a labial ( p, b, m, f, v), as when initial, the utterance is completely yo; but after the tongue-tip letters (t, d, n, th, 8, z, l, r) the inser tion of y involves a more difficult combination of movements of the tongue, and the element is apt to be slighted, being reduced rather to a bit of t; and in the practice of many speakers, and in certain localities, it is even omitted altogether, so that the yo becomes simple ö, new being pronounced noo, lurid loorid, and so on. The difficulty in the way of inserting the y, however, is removed if the preceding syllable has the accent; and hence even those who pronounce penö'rio us say pen'ūry, and so in all other like cases. This omi ion of the y-element is not approved, but is stigmatized as provincial or vulgar, although practised by many educated and careful speakers, and probably becoming more prevalent. It is more generally condoned, and even accepted, after I than after t, d. n, etc., and some standard authorities in England itself now pronounce and teach to instead of lu; in this dic tionary the u is so marked if it occurs after i preceded by another consonant, as in fluid ( flö -id). After r, the difficulty of adding the y-sound before a vowel is greater than after any other tongue-tip consonant; hence in this situation the pronunciation of "long u " as ö is almost universally accepted and practised. Further, after t, d, s, z, "long u " becomes ö when the y-element is as it were absorbed into them, converting them (see the different letters) into ch, j, sh, and zh; nor is the y-element heard when u follows any of these sounds having an independent origin, as in jury, etc. The real short u -sound, or that corresponding to o as long, is in a limited number of words also represented by u, as in bull, put, etc.; also by double o, as in look, foot, etc. What we call "short u " is in the great majority of cases written with u, but also with o, as in son, with oo, as in blood, and with ou, as in young, and in the slighted pronunciation of unaccented syllables with almost any vowel. Cases like bury and busy and buy are anomalous and isolated. A u is always written after q, and this u (save in the exceptional cases in which it is silent) has a consonantal value, being pronounced as the semivowel w; and it is so treated sometimes also after other consonants, especially 8, as in suave, persuade, anguish. U is silent in many words after g, having only (as in French) the office of preserving the hard sound of theg; thus, guide, plague. Like i and y, u is never doubled. 2. As a symbol: (a) The chemical symbol of uranium. ( b ) In quaternions, an operational sign which, prefixed to the symbol of a quaternion, denotes the vers or of that quaternion. (c) In the theory of heat, a symbol used to denote the energy, or the sum of the increment of heat and the heat consumed. (d) [l. c.] In the calculus, the symbol of a function. (e) [1.c.] In hydrodynamics, used with v and w to denote the rectangular components of the velocity. uakari, n. Same as saki.