B, b, indecl. n., designates, in the Latin alphabet, the soft, labial sound as in English, unlike the Gr. beta (B, β), which approached the Engl.
v in sound; v. Corss. Ausspr. I. p. 124 sqq. At the beginning of words it represents an original dv or gv , and elsewhere an original gv , p , v , or bh ( v ); v. Corss. Ausspr. I. pp. 134, 161. It corresponds regularly with Gr. β, but freq. also with π, and, in the middle of words, with φ; cf. brevis, βραχύς; ab, ἀπό; carbasus, κάρπασος; ambo, ἀμφί, ἄμφω; nubes, νέφος, etc.; v. Roby, Gram. I. p. 26; Kühner, Gram. § 34, 6. In Latin, as in all kindred languages, it was used in forming words to express the cry of different animals, as balare, barrire, baubari, blacterare, boare, bombitare, bubere, bubulare; children beginning to talk called their drink bua; so, balbus denoted the stammering sound, bambalio the stuttering, blatire and blaterare the babbling, blaesus the lisping, blandus the caressing. At the beginning of words b is found with no consonants except l and r (for bdellium, instead of which Marc. Emp. also wrote bdella, is a foreign word); but in the middle of words it is connected with other liquid and feeble consonants. Before hard consonants b is found only in compounds with ob and sub , the only prepositions, besides ab , which end in a labial sound; and these freq. rejected the labial, even when they are separated by the insertion of s , as abspello and absporto pass into aspello and asporto; or the place of the labial is supplied by u , as in aufero and aufugio (cf. ab init. and au ); before f and p it is assimilated, as suffero, suppono; before m assimilated or not, as summergo or submergo; before c sometimes assimilated, as succedo, succingo, sometimes taking the form sus (as if from subs; cf. abs), as suscenseo; and sometimes su before s followed by a consonant, as suspicor. When b belonged to the root of a word it seems to have been retained, as plebs from plebis, urbs from urbis, etc.; so in Arabs, chalybs ( = Ἄραψ, χάλυψ), the Gr. ψ was represented by bs; as also in absis, absinthi-um, etc. But in scripsi from scribo, nupsi from nubo, etc., b was changed to p , though some grammarians still wrote bs in these words; cf. Prisc. pp. 556, 557 P.; Vel. Long. pp. 2224, 2261 ib. Of the liquids, l and r stand either before or after b , but m only before it, with the exception of abmatertera, parallel with the equally anomalous abpatruus (cf. ab init. and fin. ), and n only after it; hence con and in before b always become com and im; as inversely b before n is sometimes changed to m , as Samnium for Sabinium and scamnum for scabnum, whence the dim. scabellum. B is so readily joined with u that not only acubus, arcubus, etc., were written for acibus, arcibus, etc., but also contubernium was formed from taberna, and bubile was used for bovile, as also in dubius ( = δοιός, duo) a b was inserted. B could be doubled, as appears not only from the foreign words abbas and sabbatum, but also from obba and gibba, and the compounds with ob and sub. B is reduplicated in bibo (cf the Gr. πίω), as the shortness of the first syllable in the preterit bĭbi, compared with dēdi and stĕti or stiti, shows; although later bibo was treated as a primitive, and the supine bibitum formed from it. Sometimes before b an m was inserted, e. g. in cumbo for cubo κύπτω, lambo for λάπτω, nimbus for νέφος; inversely, also, it was rejected in sabucus for sambucus and labdacismus for lambdacismus. As in the middle, so at the beginning of words, b might take the place of another labial, e. g. buxis for pyxis, balaena for φάλαινα, carbatina for carpatina, publicus from poplicus, ambo for ἄμφω; as even Enn. wrote Burrus and Bruges for Pyrrhus and Phryges; Naev., Balantium for Palatium (v. the latter words, and cf.