Part 4 — CHAPTER IV.—VERSIFICATION.

FALSE PROSODY, OR ERRORS OF METRE, CORRECTED.

LESSON I.—RHYTHM RESTORED.

"Where thy true treasure? Gold says, 'Not in me.'" —Young.

"Canst thou grow sad, thou say'st, as earth grows bright." —Dana.

"It must be so;—Plato, thou reason'st well" —CATO: Enfield, p. 321.

"Slow rises worth by poverty depressed." —Wells's Gram., Late Ed., p. 211.

"Rapt into future times, the bard begun." —POPE.—Ib., p. 165.

"Is there not rain enough in the sweet heavens To wash it white as snow? Whereto serves mercy But to confront the visage of offence?" —Shak., Hamlet.

"Look! in this place ran Cassius' dagger through." —Id., J. Cæsar.

"And when they list, their lean and flashy songs Grate on their scrannel pipes of wretched straw." —Milton, Lycidas.

"Did not great Julius bleed for justice' sake?" —Dodd and Shak. cor.

"May I express thee' unblam'd? since God is light" —Milton, B. iii, l. 3.

"Or hear'st thou rather pure ethereal stream?" —Id., B. iii, l. 7.

"Republics, kingdoms, empires, may decay; Great princes, heroes, sages, sink to nought." —Peirce or La-Rue cor.

"Thou bringst, gay creature as thou art, A solemn image to my heart." —Hallock cor.

"Know then thyself, presume not God to scan; The proper study of mankind is Man." —Pope, on Man, Ep. ii, l. 1.

"Raised on pilasters high of burnished gold." —Dr. S. Butler cor.

"Love in Adalgise' breast has fixed his sting." —Id.

"Thirty days each have September, April, June, and old November; Each of the rest has thirty-one, Bating February alone, Which has twenty-eight in fine, Till leap-year gives it twenty-nine." —Dean Colet cor.

LESSON II.—RHYTHM RESTORED.

"'Twas not the fame of what he once had been, Or tales in records old and annals seen." —Rowe cor.

"And Asia now and Afric are explored For high-priced dainties and the citron board." —Rowe cor.

"Who knows not how the trembling judge beheld The peaceful court with arm~ed legions fill'd?" —Rowe cor.

"With thee the Scythian wilds we'll wander o'er, With thee the burning Libyan sands explore." —Rowe cor.

"Hasty and headlong, different paths they tread, As impulse blind and wild distraction lead." —Rowe cor.

"But Fate reserv'd him to perform its doom, And be the minister of wrath to Rome." —Rowe cor.

"Thus spoke the youth. When Cato thus express'd The sacred counsels of his inmost breast." —Rowe cor.

"These were the rigid manners of the man, This was the stubborn course in which they ran; The golden mean unchanging to pursue, Constant to keep the purpos'd end in view." —Rowe cor.

"What greater grief can on a Roman seize, Than to be forced to live on terms like these!" —Rowe cor.

"He views the naked town with joyful eyes, While from his rage an arm~ed people flies." —Rowe cor.

"For planks and beams, he ravages the wood, And the tough oak extends across the flood." —Rowe cor.

"A narrow pass the horn~ed mole divides. Narrow as that where strong Euripus' tides Beat on Euboean Chalcis' rocky sides." —Rowe cor.

"No force, no fears their hands unarm~ed bear,"—or, "No force, no fears their hands unarm'd now bear, But looks of peace and gentleness they wear." —Rowe cor.

"The ready warriors all aboard them ride, And wait return of the retiring tide." —Rowe cor.

"He saw those troops that long had faithful stood, Friends to his cause, and enemies to good, Grown weary of their chief, and satiate with blood." —Rowe cor.

END OF THE KEY.

APPENDIX I. TO PART FIRST, OR ORTHOGRAPHY. OF THE SOUNDS OF THE LETTERS.

In the first chapter of Part I, the powers of the letters, or the elementary sounds of the English language, were duly enumerated and explained; for these, as well as the letters themselves, are few, and may be fully stated in few words: but, since we often express the same sound in many different ways, and also, in some instances, give to the same letter several different sounds,—or, it may be, no sound at all,—any adequate account of the powers of the letters considered severally according to usage,—that is, of the sound or sounds of each letter, with its mute positions, as these occur in practice,—must, it was thought, descend to a minuteness of detail not desirable in the first chapter of Orthography. For this reason, the following particulars have been reserved to be given here as an Appendix, pertaining to the First Part of this English Grammar.

OBSERVATIONS.

OBS. 1.—A proper discrimination of the different vowel sounds by the epithets most commonly used for this purpose,—such as long and short, broad and slender, open and close, or open and shut,—is made difficult, if not impossible, by reason of the different, and sometimes directly contradictory senses in which certain orthoepists [sic—KTH] have employed such terms. Wells says, "Vowel sounds are called open or close, according to the relative size of the opening through which the voice passes in forming them. Thus, a in father, and o in nor, are called open sounds, because they are formed by a wide opening of the organs of speech; while e in me, and u in rule, are called close sounds, because the organs are nearly closed in uttering them."—School Grammar, 1850, p. 32. Good use should fix the import of words. How does the passage here cited comport with this hint of Pope?

"These equal syllables alone require, Though oft the ear the open vowels tire." —Essay on Criticism, l. 344.

OBS. 2.—Walker, too, in his Principles, 64 and 65, on page 19th of his Critical Pronouncing Dictionary, mentions a similar distinction of vowels, "which arises from the different apertures of the mouth in forming them;" and says, "We accordingly find vowels denominated by the French, ouvert and fermé; by the Italians, aperto and chiuso; and by the English [,] open and shut. But whatever propriety there may be in the use of these terms in other languages, it is certain they must be used with caution in English for fear of confounding them with long and short. Dr. Johnson and other grammarians call the a in father the open a: which may, indeed, distinguish it from the slender a in paper; but not from the broad a in water, which is still more open. Each of these letters [the seven vowels] has a short sound, which may be called a shut sound; but the long sounds cannot be so properly denominated open as more or less broad; that is, the a in paper, the slender sound; the a in father, the broadish or middle sound; and the a in water, the broad sound. The same may be observed of the o. This letter has three long sounds, heard in move, note, nor; which graduate from slender to broadish, and broad [,] like [those three sounds of] the a. The i also in mine may be called the broad i, and that in machine, the slender i; though each of them is equally long; and though these vowels that are long [,] may be said to be more or less open according to the different apertures of the mouth in forming them, yet the short vowels cannot be said to be more or less shut; for as short always implies shut (except in verse,) though long does not always imply open, we must be careful not to confound long and open, and close and shut, when we speak of the quantity and quality of the vowels. The truth of it is," continues he, "all vowels either terminate a syllable, or are united with a consonant. In the first case, if the accent be on the syllable, the vowel is long, though it may not be open: in the second case, where a syllable is terminated by a consonant, except that consonant be r, whether the accent be on the syllable or not, the vowel has its short sound, which, compared with its long one, may be called shut: but [,] as no vowel can be said to be shut that is not joined to a consonant, all vowels that end syllables may be said to be open, whether the accent be on them or not."—Crit. Pron. Dict., New York, 1827, p. 19.

OBS. 3.—These suggestions of Walker's, though each in itself may seem clear and plausible, are undoubtedly, in several respects, confused and self-contradictory. Open and shut are here inconsistently referred first to one principle of distinction, and then to another;—first, (as are "open and close" by Wells,) to "the relative size of the opening," or to "the different apertures of the mouth;" and then, in the conclusion, to the relative position of the vowels with respect to other letters. These principles improperly give to each of the contrasted epithets two very different senses: as, with respect to aperture, wide and narrow; with respect to position, closed and unclosed. Now, that open may mean unclosed, or close be put for closed, is not to be questioned; but that open is a good word for wide, or that shut (not to say close) can well mean narrow, is an assumption hardly scholarlike. According to Walker, "we must be careful not to confound" open with long, or shut with short, or close with shut; and yet, if he himself does not, in the very paragraph above quoted, confound them all,—does not identify in sense, or fail to distinguish, the two words in each of these pairs,—I know not who can need his "caution." If there are vowel sounds which graduate through several degrees of openness or broadness, it would seem most natural to express these by regularly comparing the epithet preferred; as, open, opener, openest; or broad, broader, broadest. And again, if "all vowels that end syllables may be said to be open," then it is not true, that "the long sounds" of a in paper, father, water, cannot be so "denominated;" or that to "call the a in father the open a, may, indeed, distinguish it from the slender a in paper." Nor, on this principle, can it be said that "the broad a in water is still more open;" for this a no more "ends a syllable" than the others. If any vowel sound is to be called the open sound because the letter ends a syllable, or is not shut by a consonant, it is, undoubtedly, the primal and most usual sound, as found in the letter when accented, and not some other of rare occurrence.

OBS. 4.—Dr. Perley says, "It is greatly to be regretted that the different sounds of a vowel should be called by the names long, short, slender, and broad, which convey no idea of the nature of the sound, for mat and not are as long in poetry as mate and note. The first sound of a vowel[,] as [that of a in] fate[,] may be called open, because it is the sound which the vowel generally has when it ends a syllable; the second sound as [that of a in] fat, may be called close, because it is the sound which the vowel generally has when it is joined with a consonant following in the same syllable, as fat-ten; when there are more than two sounds of any vowel[,] they may be numbered onward; as 3 far, 4 fall."—Perley's Gram., p. 73.

OBS. 5.—Walker thought a long or short vowel sound essential to a long or short quantity in any syllable. By this, if he was wrong in it, (as, in the chapter on Versification, I have argued that he was,) he probably disturbed more the proper distinction of quantities, than that of vowel sounds. As regards long and short, therefore, Perley's regret seems to have cause; but, in making the same objection to "slender and broad," he reasons illogically. So far as his view is right, however, it coincides with the following earlier suggestion: "The terms long and short, which are often used to denote certain vowel sounds; being also used, with a different import, to distinguish the quantity of syllables, are frequently misunderstood; for which reason, we have substituted for them the terms open and close;—the former, to denote the sound usually given to a vowel when it forms or ends an accented syllable; as, ba, be, bi, bo, bu, by;—the latter, to denote the sound which the vowel commonly takes when closed by a consonant; as, ab, eb, ib, ob, ub"—Brown's Institutes, p. 285.

I. OF THE LETTER A.

The vowel A has four sounds properly its own; they are named by various epithets: as,

1. The English, open, full, long, or slender a; as in aid, fame, favour, efficacious.

2. The French, close, curt, short, or stopped a; as in bat, banner, balance, carrying.

3. The Italian, broadish, grave, or middle a; as in far, father, aha, comma, scoria, sofa.

4. The Dutch, German, Old-Saxon, or broad a; as in wall, haul, walk, warm, water.

OBSERVATIONS.

OBS. 1.—Concerning the number of sounds pertaining to the vowel a, or to certain other particular letters, and consequently in regard to the whole number of the sounds which constitute the oral elements of the English language, our educational literati,—the grammarians, orthoepists [sic—KTH], orthographers, elocutionists, phonographers, and lexicographers,—are found to have entertained and inculcated a great variety of opinions. In their different countings, the number of our phonical elements varies from twenty-six to more than forty. Wells says there are "about forty elementary sounds."—School Gram., §64. His first edition was more positive, and stated them at "forty-one." See the last and very erroneous passage which I have cited at the foot of page 162. In Worcester's Universal and Critical Dictionary, there appear to be noted several more than forty-one, but I know not whether this author, or Walker either, has anywhere told us how many of his marked sounds he considered to be severally different from all others. Sheridan and Jones admitted twenty-eight. Churchill acknowledges, as undisputed and indisputable, only twenty-six; though he enumerates, "Of simple vowel sounds, twelve, or perhaps thirteen" (New Grammar, p. 5,) and says, "The consonant sounds in the English language, are nineteen, or rather twenty."—P. 13.

OBS. 2.—Thus, while Pitman, Comstock, and others, are amusing themselves with the folly of inventing new "Phonetic Alphabets," or of overturning all orthography to furnish "a character for each of the 38 elementary sounds," more or fewer, one of the acutest observers among our grammarians can fix on no number more definite or more considerable than thirty-one, thirty-two, or thirty-three; and the finding of these he announces with a "perhaps," and the admission that other writers object to as many as five of the questionable number. Churchill's vowel sounds, he says, "may be found in the following words: 1. B_a_te, 2. B_a_t, 3. B_a_ll; 4. B_e_t, 5. B_e_; 6. B_i_t; 7. B_o_t, 8. B_o_ne, 9. B_oo_n; 10. B_u_t, 11. B_u_ll; 12. Lovel_y_; 13. _W_ool."—New Grammar, p. 5. To this he adds: "Many of the writers on orthoepy [sic—KTH], however, consider the first and fourth of the sounds above distinguished as actually the same, the former differing from the latter only by being lengthened in the pronunciation. They also reckon the seventh sound, to be the third shortened; the twelfth, the fifth shortened; and the eleventh, the ninth shortened. Some consider the fifth and sixth as differing only in length; and most esteem the eleventh and thirteenth as identical."—Ib.

OBS. 3.—Now, it is plain, that these six identifications, or so many of them as are admitted, must diminish by six, or by the less number allowed, the thirteen vowel sounds enumerated by this author. By the best authorities, W initial, as in "_W_ool." is reckoned a consonant; and, of course, its sound is supposed to differ in some degree from that of oo in "B_oo_n," or that of u in "B_u_ll,"—the ninth sound or the eleventh in the foregoing series. By Walker, Murray, and other popular writers, the sound of y in "Lovel_y_" is accounted to be essentially the same as that of e in "B_e_." The twelfth and the thirteenth, then, of this list, being removed, and three others added,—namely, the a heard in far, the i in fine, and the u in fuse,—we shall have the fourteen vowel sounds which are enumerated by L. Murray and others, and adopted by the author of the present work.

OBS. 4.—Wells says, "A has six sounds:—1. Long; as in late. 2. Grave; as in father. 3. Broad; as in fall. 4. Short; as in man. 5. The sound heard in care, hare. 6. Intermediate between a in man and a in father; as in grass, pass, branch."—School Grammar, 1850, p. 33. Besides these six, Worcester recognizes a seventh sound,—the "A obscure; as in liar, rival"—Univ. and Crit. Dict., p. ix. Such a multiplication of the oral elements of our first vowel.—or, indeed, any extension of them beyond four,—appears to me to be unadvisable; because it not only makes our alphabet the more defective, but is unnecessary, and not sustained by our best and most popular orthoepical [sic—KTH] authorities. The sound of a in liar, (and in rival too, if made "obscure") is a borrowed one, pertaining more properly to the letter u. In grass, pass, and branch, properly uttered, the a is essentially the same as in man. In care and hare, we have the first sound of a, made as slender as the r will admit.

OBS. 5.—Concerning his fifth sound of a, Wells cites authorities thus: "Walker, Webster, Sheridan, Fulton and Knight, Kenrick, Jones, and Nares, give a in care the long sound of a, as in late. Page and Day give it the short sound of a, as in mat. See Page's Normal Chart, and Day's Art of Elocution. Worcester and Perry make the sound of a in care a separate element; and this distinction is also recognized by Russell, Mandeville, and Wright. See Russell's Lessons in Enunciation, Mandeville's Elements of Reading and Oratory, and Wright's Orthography."—Wells's School Grammar, p. 34. Now the opinion that a in care has its long, primal sound, and is not properly "a separate element," is maintained also by Murray, Hiley, Bullions, Scott, and Cobb; and is, undoubtedly, much more prevalent than any other. It accords, too, with the scheme of Johnson. To count this a by itself, seems too much like a distinction without a difference.

OBS. 6.—On his sixth sound of a, Wells remarks as follows: "Many persons pronounce this a incorrectly, giving it either the grave or the short sound. Perry, Jones, Nares, Webster, and Day, give to a in grass the grave sound, as in father; while Walker, Jamieson, and Russell, give it the short sound, as in man. But good speakers generally pronounce a in grass, plant, etc., as a distinct element, intermediate between the grave and the short sound."—School Gram., p. 34. He also cites Worcester and Smart to the same effect; and thinks, with the latter, "There can be no harm in avoiding the censure of both parties by shunning the extreme that offends the taste of each."—Ib., p. 35. But I say, that a needless multiplication of questionable vowel powers difficult to be discriminated, is "harm," or a fault in teaching; and, where intelligent orthoepists [sic—KTH] dispute whether words have "the grave or the short sound" of a, how can others, who condemn both parties, acceptably split the difference, and form "a distinct element" in the interval? Words are often mispronounced, and the French or close a may be mistaken for the Italian or broadish a, and vice versa; but, between the two, there does not appear to be room for an other distinguishable from both. Dr. Johnson says, (inaccurately indeed,) "A has three sounds, the slender, [the] open, and [the] broad. A slender is found in most words, as face, mane. A open is the a of the Italian, or nearly resembles it; as father, rather, congratulate, fancy, glass. A broad resembles the a of the German; as all, wall, call. [fist] The short a approaches to the a open, as grass."—Johnson's Grammar, in his Quarto Dictionary, p. 1. Thus the same word, grass, that serves Johnson for an example of "the short a" is used by Wells and Worcester to exemplify the "a intermediate;" while of the Doctor's five instances of what he calls the "a open," three, if not four, are evidently such as nearly all readers nowadays would call close or short!

OBS. 7.—There are several grammarians who agree in ascribing to our first vowel five sounds, but who nevertheless oppose one an other in making up the five. Thus, according to Hart, "A has five sounds of its own, as in fate, fare, far, fall, fat,"—Hart's E. Gram., p. 26. According to W. Allen, "A has five sounds;—the long or slender, as in cane; the short or open, as in can; the middle, as in arm; the broad, as in all; and the broad contracted, as in want."—Allen's E. Gram., p. 6. P. Davis has the same sounds in a different order, thus: "a [as in] mane, mar, fall, mat, what."—Davis's E. Gram., p. xvi. Mennye says, "A has five sounds; as, 1 fame, 2 fat, 3 false, 4 farm, 5 beggar."—Mennye's E. Gram., p. 55. Here the fifth sound is the seventh of Worcester,—the "A obscure."

DIPHTHONGS BEGINNING WITH A.

The only proper diphthong in which a is put first, is the word ay, meaning yes: in which a has its middle sound, as in ah, and y is like open e, or ee, uttered feebly—ah-ee. Aa, when pronounced as an improper diphthong, and not as pertaining to two syllables, usually takes the sound of close a; as in Balaam, Canaan, Isaac. In many words, as in Baäl, Gaäl, Gaäsh, the diæresis occurs. In baa, the cry of a sheep, we hear the Italian sound of a; and, since we hear it but once, one a or the other must be silent.

Æ, a Latin improper diphthong, common also in the Anglo-Saxon, generally has, according to modern orthoëpists, the sound of open e or ee; as in Cæsar, ænigma, pæan;—sometimes that of close or short e; as in aphæresis, diæresis, et cætera. Some authors, judging the a of this diphthong to be needless, reject it, and write Cesar, enigma, &c.

Ai, an improper diphthong, generally has the sound of open or long a; as in sail, avail, vainly. In a final unaccented syllable, it sometimes preserves the first sound of a; as in chilblain, mortmain: but oftener takes the sound of close or short i; as in certain, curtain, mountain, villain. In said, saith, again, and against, it takes the sound of close or short e; and in the name Britain, that of close or short u.

Ao, an improper diphthong, occurs in the word gaol, now frequently written as it is pronounced, jail; also in gaoler, which may be written jailer; and in the compounds of gaol: and, again, it is found in the adjective extraordinary, and its derivatives, in which, according to nearly all orthoëpists, the a is silent. The name Pharaoh, is pronounced F=a'r=o.

Au, an improper diphthong, is generally sounded like broad a; as in cause, caught, applause. Before n and an other consonant, it usually has the sound of grave or middle a; as in aunt, flaunt, gaunt, launch, laundry. So in laugh, laughter, and their derivatives. Gauge and gauger are pronounced gage and gager, and sometimes written so.

Aw, an improper diphthong, is always sounded like broad a; as in draw, drawn, drawl.

Ay, an improper diphthong, like ai, has usually the sound of open or long a; as in day, pay, delay: in sayst and says, it has the sound of close or short e.

TRIPHTHONGS BEGINNING WITH A.

Awe is sounded au, like broad a. Aye, an adverb signifying always, has the sound of open or long a only; being different, both in sound and in spelling, from the adverb ay, yes, with which it is often carelessly confounded. The distinction is maintained by Johnson, Walker, Todd, Chalmers, Jones, Cobb, Maunder, Bolles, and others; but Webster and Worcester give it up, and write "ay, or aye," each sounded ah-ee, for the affirmation, and "aye," sounded =a, for the adverb of time: Ainsworth on the contrary has ay only, for either sense, and does not note the pronunciation.

II. OF THE LETTER B.

The consonant B has but one sound; as in boy, robber, cub. B is silent before t or after m in the same syllable; as in debt, debtor, doubt, dumb, lamb, climb, tomb. It is heard in subtile, fine; but not in subtle, cunning.

III. OF THE LETTER C.

The consonant C has two sounds, neither of them peculiar to this letter; the one hard, like that of k, and the other soft, or rather hissing, like that of s. C before a, o, u, l, r, t, or when it ends a syllable, is generally hard, like k; as in can, come curb, clay, crab, act, action, accent, flaccid. C before e, i, or y, is always soft, like s; as in cent, civil, decency, acid.

In a few words, c takes the flat sound of s, like that of z; as in discern, suffice, sacrifice, sice. C before ea, ia, ie, io, or eou, when the accent precedes, sounds like sh; as in ocean, special, species, gracious, cetaceous. C is silent in czar, czarina, victuals, indict, muscle, corpuscle, and the second syllable of Connecticut.

Ch is generally sounded like tch, or tsh, which is the same to the ear; as in church, chance, child. But in words derived from the learned languages, it has the sound of k; as in character, scheme, catechise, chorus, choir, chyle, patriarch, drachma, magna charta: except in chart, charter, charity. Ch, in words derived from the French, takes the sound of sh; as in chaise, machine. In Hebrew words or names, in general, ch sounds like k; as in Chebar, Sirach, Enoch: but in Rachel, cherub, and cherubim, we have Anglicized the sound by uttering it as tch. Loch, a Scottish word, sometimes also a medical term, is heard as lok.

"Arch, before a vowel, is pronounced ark; as in archives, archangel, archipelago: except in arched, archer, archery, archenemy. Before a consonant it is pronounced artch; as in archbishop, archduke, archfiend."—See W. Allen's Gram., p. 10. Ch is silent in schism, yacht, and drachm. In schedule, some utter it as k; others, as sh; and many make it mute: I like the first practice.

IV. OF THE LETTER D.

The general sound of the consonant D, is that which is heard in dog, eddy, did. D, in the termination ed, preceded by a sharp consonant, takes the sound of t, when the e is suppressed or unheard: as in faced, stuffed, cracked, tripped, passed; pronounced faste, stuft, cract, tript, past. D before ia, ie, io, or eou, when the accent precedes, generally sounds like j; as in Indian, soldier, tedious, hideous. So in verdure, arduous, education.

V. OF THE LETTER E.

The vowel E has two sounds properly its own,—and I incline to think, three:—

1. The open, long, full, or primal e; as in me, mere, menial, melodious.

2. The close, curt, short, or stopped e; as in men, merry, ebony, strength.

3. The obscure or faint e; as in open, garden, shovel, able. This third sound is scarcely perceptible, and barely sufficient to articulate the consonant and form a syllable.

E final is mute and belongs to the syllable formed by the preceding vowel or diphthong; as in age, eve, ice, ore. Except—1. In the words, be, he, me, we, she, in which it has the open sound; and the article the, wherein it is open before a vowel, and obscure before a consonant. 2. In Greek and Latin words, in which it has its open sound, and forms a distinct syllable, or the basis of one; as in Penelope, Pasiphaë, Cyaneë, Gargaphië, Arsinoë, apostrophe, catastrophe, simile, extempore, epitome. 3. In the terminations ere, gre, tre, in which it has the sound of close or curt u, heard before the r; as in acre, meagre, centre.

Mute e, after a single consonant, or after st or th, generally preserves the open or long sound of the preceding vowel; as in cane, here, pine, cone, tune, thyme, baste, waste, lathe, clothe: except in syllables unaccented; as in the last of genuine;—and in a few monosyllables; as bade, are, were, gone, shone, one, done, give, live, shove, love.

DIPHTHONGS BEGINNING WITH E.

E before an other vowel, in general, either forms with it an improper diphthong, or else belongs to a separate syllable. We do not hear both vowels in one syllable, except perhaps in eu or ew.

Ea, an improper diphthong, mostly sounds like open or long e; as in ear, fear, tea; frequently like close or curt e; as in head, health, leather: sometimes, like open or long a; as in steak, bear, forswear: rarely, like middle a; as in heart, hearth, hearken. Ea in an unaccented syllable, sounds like close or curt u; as in vengeance, pageant.

Ee, an improper diphthong, mostly sounds like one open or long e; as in eel, sheep, tree, trustee, referee. The contractions e'er and ne'er, are pronounced air and nair, and not like ear and near. E'en, however, preserves the sound of open e. Been is most commonly heard with the curt sound of i, bin.

Ei, an improper diphthong, mostly sounds like the primal or long a; as in reign, veil: frequently, like open or long e; as in deceit, either, neither, seize: sometimes, like open or long i; as in height, sleight, heigh-ho: often, in unaccented syllables, like close or curt i; as in foreign, forfeit, surfeit, sovereign: rarely, like close e; as in heifer, nonpareil.

Eo, an improper diphthong, in people, sounds like open or long e; in leopard and jeopard, like close or curt e; in yeoman, according to the best usage, like open or long o; in George, Georgia, georgic, like close o; in dungeon, puncheon, sturgeon, &c., like close u. In feoff, and its derivatives, the close or short sound of e is most fashionable; but some prefer the long sound of e; and some write the word "fief." Feod, feodal, feodary, feodatory, are now commonly written as they are pronounced, feud, feudal, feudary, feudatory.

Eu and ew are sounded alike, and almost always with the diphthongal sound of open or long u; as in feud, deuce, jewel, dew, few, new. These diphthongs, when initial, sound like yu. Nouns beginning with this sound, require the article a, and not an, before them; as, A European, a ewer. After r or rh, eu and ew are commonly sounded like oo; as in drew, grew, screw, rheumatism. In sew and Shrewsbury, ew sounds like open o: Worcester, however, prefers the sound of oo in the latter word. Shew and strew, having the same meaning as show and strow, are sometimes, by sameness of pronunciation, made to be the same words; and sometimes distinguished as different words, by taking the sounds shu and stroo.

Ey, accented, has the sound of open or long a; as in bey, prey, survey: unaccented, it has the sound of open e; as in alley, valley, money. Key and ley are pronounced kee, lee.

TRIPHTHONGS BEGINNING WITH E.

Eau, a French triphthong, sounds like open o; as in beau, flambeau, portmanteau, bureau: except in beauty, and its compounds, in which it is pronounced like open u, as if the word were written buty.

Eou is a combination of vowels sometimes heard in one syllable, especially after c or g; as in crus-ta-ceous, gor-geous. Walker, in his Rhyming Dictionary, gives one hundred and twenty words ending in eous, in all of which he separates these vowels; as in ex-tra-ne-ous. And why, in his Pronouncing Dictionary, he gave us several such anomalies as fa-ba-ce-ous in four syllables and her-ba-ceous in three, it is not easy to tell. The best rule is this: after c or g, unite these vowels; after the other consonants, separate them.

Ewe is a triphthong having the sound of yu, and forming a word. The vulgar pronunciation yoe should be carefully avoided.

Eye is an improper triphthong which also forms a word, and is pronounced like open i, or the pronoun I.

VI. OF THE LETTER F.

The consonant F has one unvaried sound, which is heard in fan, effort, staff: except of, which, when simple, is pronounced ov.

VII. OF THE LETTER G.

The consonant G has two sounds;—the one hard, guttural, and peculiar to this letter; the other soft, like that of j. G before a, o, u, l, r, or at the end of a word, is hard; as in game, gone, gull, glory, grace, log, bog; except in gaol. G before e, i, or y, is soft; as in gem, ginger, elegy. Except—1. In get, give, gewgaw, finger, and a few other words. 2. When a syllable is added to a word ending in g: as, long, longer; fog, foggy.

G is silent before m or n in the same syllable; as in phlegm, apothegm, gnaw, design. G, when silent, usually lengthens the preceding vowel; as in resign, impregn, impugn.

Gh at the beginning of a word has the sound of g hard; as in ghastly, gherkin, Ghibelline, ghost, ghoul, ghyll: in other situations, it is generally silent; as in high, mighty, plough, bough, though, through, fight, night, bought. Gh final sometimes sounds like f; as in laugh, rough, tough; and sometimes, like g hard; as in burgh. In hough, lough, shough, it sounds like k, or ck; thus, hock, lock, shock.

VIII. OF THE LETTER H.

The sound of the consonant H, (though articulate and audible when properly uttered,) is little more than an aspirate breathing. It is heard in hat, hit, hot, hut, adhere.

H at the beginning of a word, is always sounded; except in heir, herb, honest, honour, hospital, hostler, hour, humble, humour, with their compounds and derivatives. H after r, is always silent; as in rhapsody, rhetoric, rheum, rhubarb. H final, immediately following a vowel, is always silent; as in ah, Sarah, Nineveh, Shiloh.

IX. OF THE LETTER I.

The vowel I has three sounds, each very common to it, and perhaps properly its own:—

1. The open, long, full, or primal i; as in life, fine, final, time, bind, child, sigh, pint, resign. This is a diphthongal sound, equivalent to the sounds of middle a and open e quickly united.

2. The close, curt, short, or stopped i; as in ink, limit, disfigure, mimicking.

3. The feeble, faint, or slender i, accentless; as in divest, doctrinal, diversity.

This third sound is equivalent to that of open e, or ee uttered feebly. I generally has this sound when it occurs at the end of an unaccented syllable: except at the end of Latin words, or of ancient names, where it is open or long; as in literati, Nervii, Eli, Levi.

In some words, (principally from other modern languages,) i has the full sound of open e, under the accent; as in Porto Rico, machine, magazine, antique, shire.

Accented i followed by a vowel, has its open or primal sound; and the vowels belong to separate syllables; as in pliant, diet, satiety, violet, pious. Unaccented i followed by a vowel, has its feeble sound; as in expatiate, obedient, various, abstemious.

DIPHTHONGS BEGINNING WITH I.

I, in the situation last described, readily coalesces with the vowel which follows, and is often sunk into the same syllable, forming a proper diphthong: as in fustian, quotient, question. The terminations cion, sion, and tion, are generally pronounced shun; and cious and tious are pronounced shus.

Ie is commonly an improper diphthong. Ie in die, hie, lie, pie, tie, vie, and their derivatives, has the sound of open i. Ie in words from the French, (as cap-a-pie, ecurie, grenadier, siege, bier,) has the sound of open e. So, generally, in the middle of English roots; as in chief, grief, thief; but, in sieve, it has the sound of close or short i. In friend, and its derivatives or compounds, it takes the sound of close e.

TRIPHTHONGS BEGINNING WITH I.

The triphthongs ieu and iew both sound like open or long u; as in lieu, adieu, view.

The three vowels iou, in the termination ious, often fall into one syllable, and form a triphthong. There are two hundred and forty-five words of this ending; and more than two hundred deriva- tives from them. Walker has several puzzling inconsistencies in their pronunciation; such as fas-tid-i-ous and per-fid-ious, con-ta-gi-ous and sac-ri-le-gious. After c, g, t, or x, these vowels should coalesce: as in gra-cious, re-li-gious, vex-a-tious, ob-nox-ious, and about two hundred other words. After the other consonants, let them form two syllables; (except when there is a syn- seresis in poetry;) as in dw-bi-ou-s, o-di-ous, va-ri-ous, en-vi-ous.

X. OF THE LETTER J.

The consonant J, the tenth letter of the English alphabet, has invariably the sound of soft g, like the g in giant, which some say is equivalent to the complex sound dzh; as, jade, jet, jilt, joy, justice, jewel, prejudice.

XI. OF THE LETTER K.

The consonant K, not silent, has uniformly the sound of c hard; and occurs where c would have its soft sound: as in keep, looking, kind, smoky.

K before n is silent; as in knave, know, knuckle. In stead of doubling c final, we write ck; as in lack, lock, luck, attack. In English words, k is never doubled, though two Kays may come together in certain compounds; as in brickkiln, jackknife. Two Kays, belonging to different syllables, also stand together in a few Scripture names; as in Akkub, Bakbakkar, Bukki, Bukkiah, Habakkuk. Hakkoz, Ikkesh, Sukkiims. C before k, though it does not always double the sound which c or k in such a situation must represent, always shuts or shortens the preceding vowel; as in rack, speck, freckle, cockle, wicked.

XII. OF THE LETTER L.

The consonant L, the plainest of the semivowels, has a soft, liquid sound; as in line, lily, roll, follow. L is sometimes silent; as in Holmes, alms, almond, calm, chalk, walk, calf, half, could, would, should. L, too, is frequently doubled where it is heard but once; as in hill, full, travelled. So any letter that is written twice, and not twice sounded, must there be once mute; as the last in baa, ebb, add, see, staff, egg, all, inn, coo, err, less, buzz.

XIII. OF THE LETTER M.

The consonant M is a semivowel and a liquid, capable of an audible, humming sound through the nose, when the mouth is closed. It is heard in map, murmur, mammon. In the old words, compt, accompt, comptroller, (for count, account, controller,) the m is sounded as n. M before n, at the beginning of a word, is silent; as in Mnason, Mnemosyne, mnemonics.

XIV. OF THE LETTER N.

The consonant N, which is also a semivowel and a liquid, has two sounds;—the first, the pure and natural sound of n; as in nun, banner, cannon;—the second, the ringing sound of ng, heard before certain gutturals; as in think, mangle, conquer, congress, singing, twinkling, Cen'chreä. The latter sound should be carefully preserved in all words ending in ing, and in such others as require it. The sounding of the syllable ing as if it were in, is a vulgarism in utterance; and the writing of it so, is, as it would seem by the usage of Burns, a Scotticism.

N final preceded by m, is silent; as in hymn, solemn, column, damn, condemn, autumn. But this n becomes audible in an additional syllable; as in autumnal, condemnable, damning.

XV. OF THE LETTER O.

The vowel O has three different sounds, which are properly its own:—

1. The open, full, primal, or long o; as in no, note, opiate, opacity, Roman.

2. The close, curt, short, or stopped o; as in not, nor, torrid, dollar, fondle.

3. The slender or narrow o, like oo; as in prove, move, who, to, do, tomb.

O, in many words, sounds like close or curt u; as in love, shove, son, come, nothing, dost, attorney, gallon, dragon, comfit, comfort, coloration. One is pronounced wun; and once, wunce. In the termination on immediately after the accent, o is often sunk into a sound scarcely perceptible, like that of obscure e; as in mason, person, lesson.

DIPHTHONGS BEGINNING WITH O.

Oa, an improper diphthong, has the sound of open or long o; as in boat, coal, roach, coast, coastwise: except in broad and groat, which have the sound of broad a.

Oe, an improper diphthong, when final, has the sound of open or long o: as in doe, foe, throe: except in canoe, shoe, pronounced canoo, shoo. OE, a Latin diphthong, generally sounds like open e; as in Antoeci, foetus: sometimes, like close or curt e; as in foetid, foeticide. But the English word f~etid is often, and perhaps generally, written without the o.

Oi is generally a proper diphthong, uniting the sound of close o or broad a, and that of open e; as in boil, coil, soil, rejoice. But the vowels, when they appear together, sometimes belong to separate syllables; as in Stoic, Stoicism. Oi unaccented, sometimes has the sound of close or curt i; as in avoirdupois, connoisseur, tortoise.

Oo, an improper diphthong, generally has the slender sound of o; as in coo, too, woo, fool, room. It has, in some words, a shorter or closer sound, (like that of u in bull,) as in foot, good, wood, stood, wool;—that of close u in blood and flood;—and that of open o in door and floor. Derivatives from any of these, sound as their primitives.

Ou is generally a proper diphthong, uniting the sound of close or curt o, and that of u as heard in bull,—or u sounded as oo; as in bound, found, sound, ounce, thou. Ou is also, in certain instances, an improper diphthong; and, as such, it has six different sounds:—(l.) That of close or curt u; as in rough, tough, young, flourish. (2.) That of broad a; as in ought, bought, thought. (3.) That of open or long o; as in court, dough, four, though. (4.) That of close or curt o; as in cough, trough, lough, shough: which are, I believe, the only examples. (5.) That of slender o, or oo; as in soup, you, through. (6.) That of u in bull, or of oo shortened; only in would, could, should.

Ow generally sounds like the proper diphthong ou,—or like a union of short o with oo; as in brown, dowry, now, shower: but it is often an improper diphthong, having only the sound of open or long o; as in know, show, stow.

Oy is a proper diphthong, equivalent in sound to oi; as in joy, toy, oyster.

TRIPHTHONGS BEGINNING WITH O.

OEu is a French triphthong, pronounced in English as oo, and occurring in the word manoeuvre, with its several derivatives. Owe is an improper triphthong, and an English word, in which the o only is heard, and heard always with its long or open sound.

XVI. OF THE LETTER P.

The consonant P, when not written before h, has commonly one peculiar sound; which is heard in pen, pine, sup, supper. The word cupboard is usually pronounced kubburd. P, written with an audible consonant, is sometimes itself silent; as in psalm, psalter, pseudography, psychology, ptarmigan, ptyalism, receipt, corps.

Ph generally sounds like f; as in philosophy. In Stephen and nephew, ph has the sound of v. The h after p, is silent in diphthong, triphthong, naphtha, ophthalmic; and both the p and the h are silent in apophthegm, phthisis, phthisical. From the last three words, ph is sometimes dropped.

XVII. OF THE LETTER Q.

The consonant Q, being never silent, never final, never doubled, and not having a sound peculiar to itself, is invariably heard, in English, with the power of k; and is always followed by the vowel u, which, in words purely English, is sounded like the narrow o, or oo,—or, perhaps, is squeezed into the consonantal sound of w;—as in queen, quaver, quiver, quarter, request. In some words of French origin, the u after q is silent; as in coquet, liquor, burlesque, etiquette.

XVIII. OF THE LETTER R.

The consonant R, called also a semivowel and a liquid, has usually, at the beginning of a word, or before a vowel, a rough or pretty strong sound; as in roll, rose, roam, proudly, prorogue. "In other positions," it is said by many to be "smooth" or "soft;" "as in hard, ford, word."—W. Allen.

OBSERVATIONS.

OBS. 1.—The letter R turns the tip of the tongue up against or towards the roof of the mouth, where the sound may be lengthened, roughened, trilled, or quavered. Consequently, this element may, at the will of the speaker, have more or less—little or nothing, or even very much—of that peculiar roughness, jar, or whur, which is commonly said to constitute the sound. The extremes should here be avoided. Some readers very improperly omit the sound of r from many words to which it pertains; pronouncing or as awe, nor as knaw, for as faugh, and war as the first syllable of water. On the other hand, "The excessive trilling of the r, as practised by some speakers, is a great fault."—D. P. Page.

OBS. 2.—Dr. Johnson, in his "Grammar of the English Tongue," says, "R has the same rough snarling sound as in other tongues."—P. 3. Again, in his Quarto Dictionary, under this letter, he says, "R is called the canine letter, because it is uttered with some resemblance to the growl or snarl of a cur: it has one constant sound in English, such as it has in other languages; as, red, rose, more, muriatick." Walker, however, who has a greater reputation as an orthoepist [sic—KTH], teaches that, "There is a distinction in the sound of this letter, which is," says he, "in my opinion, of no small importance; and that is, the [distinction of] the rough and [the] smooth r. Ben Jonson," continues he, "in his Grammar, says, 'It is sounded firm in the beginning of words, and more liquid in the middle and ends, as in rarer, riper; and so in the Latin.' The rough r is formed by jarring the tip of the tongue against the roof of the mouth near the fore teeth: the smooth r is a vibration of the lower part of the tongue, near the root, against the inward region of the palate, near the entrance of the throat."—Walker's Principles, No. 419; Octavo Dict., p. 48.

OBS. 3.—Wells, with his characteristic indecision, forbears all recognition of this difference, and all intimation of the quality of the sound, whether smooth or rough; saying, in his own text, only this: "R has the sound heard in rare."—School Grammar, p. 40. Then, referring the student to sundry authorities, he adds in a footnote certain "quotations," that are said to "present a general view of the different opinions which exist among orthoepists respecting this letter." And so admirably are these authorities or opinions balanced and offset, one class against an other, that it is hard to tell which has the odds. First, though it is not at all probable that Wells's utterance of "rare" exhibits twice over the rough snarl of Johnson's r, the "general view" seems intended to confirm the indefinite teaching above, thus: "'R has one constant sound in English.'—Johnson. The same view is adopted by Webster, Perry, Kendrick, Sheridan, Jones, Jameson, Knowles, and others."—School Grammar, p. 40. In counterpoise of these, Wells next cites about as many more—namely, Frazee, Page, Russell, Walker, Rush, Barber, Comstock, and Smart,—as maintaining or admitting that r has sometimes a rough sound, and sometimes a smoother one.

XIX. OF THE LETTER S.

The consonant S has a sharp, hissing, or hard sound; as in sad, sister, thus: and a flat, buzzing, or soft sound, like that of z; as in rose, dismal, bosom, husband. S, at the beginning of words, or after any of the sharp consonants, is always sharp; as in see, steps, cliffs, sits, stocks, smiths. S, after any of the flat mutes, or at the end of words when not preceded by a sharp consonant, is generally flat; as in eyes, trees, beds, bags, calves. But in the English termination ous, or in the Latin us, it is sharp; as joyous, vigorous, hiatus.

Ss is generally sharp; as in pass, kiss, harass, assuage, basset, cassock, remissness. But the first two Esses in possess, or any of its regular derivatives, as well as the two in dissolve, or its proximate kin, sound like two Zees; and the soft or flat sound is commonly given to each s in hyssop, hussy, and hussar. In scissel, scissible, and scissile, all the Esses hiss;—in scissors, the last three of the four are flat, like z;—but in the middle of scissure and scission we hear the sound of zh.

S, in the termination sion, takes the sound of sh, after a consonant; as in aspersion, session, passion, mission, compulsion: and that of zh, after a vowel; as in evasion, elision, confusion.

In the verb assure, and each of its derivatives, also in the nouns pressure and fissure, with their derivatives, we hear, according to Walker, the sound of sh for each s, or twice in each word; but, according to the orthoëpy of Worcester, that sound is heard only in the accented syllable of each word, and the vowel in each unaccented syllable is obscure.

S is silent or mute in the words, isle, island, aisle, demesne, corps, and viscount.

XX. OF THE LETTER T.

The general sound of the consonant T, is heard in time, letter, set. T, immediately after the accent, takes the sound of tch, before u, and generally also before eou; as in nature, feature, virtue, righteous, courteous: when s or x precedes, it takes this sound before ia or io; as in fustian, bastion, mixtion. But the general or most usual sound of t after the accent, when followed by i and an other vowel, is that of sh; as in creation, patient, cautious.

In English, t is seldom, if ever, silent or powerless. In depot, however, a word borrowed from the French, we do not sound it; and in chestnut, which is a compound of our own, it is much oftener written than heard. In often and soften, some think it silent; but it seems rather to take here the sound of f. In chasten, hasten, fasten, castle, nestle, whistle, apostle, epistle, bustle, and similar words, with their sundry derivatives, the t is said by some to be mute; but here it seems to take the sound of s; for, according to the best authorities, this sound is beard twice in such words. Th, written in Greek by the character called Theta, ([Greek: th] or O capital, [Greek: th] or [Greek: th] small,) represents an elementary sound; or, rather, two distinct elementary sounds, for which the Anglo-Saxons had different characters, supposed by Dr. Bosworth to have been applied with accurate discrimination of "the hard or sharp sound of th," from "the soft or flat sound."—(See Bosworth's Compendious Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, p. 268.) The English th is either sharp, as in thing, ethical, thinketh; or flat, as in this, whither, thither.

"Th initial is sharp; as in thought: except in than, that, the, thee, their, them, then, thence, there, these, they, thine, this, thither, those, thou, thus, thy, and their compounds."—W. Allen's Grammar, p. 22.

Th final is also sharp; as in south: except in beneath, booth, with, and several verbs formerly with th last, but now frequently (and more properly) written with final e; as loathe, mouthe, seethe, soothe, smoothe, clothe, wreathe, bequeathe, unclothe.

Th medial is sharp, too, when preceded or followed by a consonant; as in Arthur, ethnic, swarthy, athwart: except in brethren, burthen, farther, farthing, murther, northern, worthy. But "th between two vowels, is generally flat in words purely English; as in gather, neither, whither: and sharp in words from the learned languages; as in atheist, ether, method"—See W. Allen's Gram., p. 22.

"Th, in Thames, Thomas, thyme, asthma, phthisis, and their compounds, is pronounced like t."—Ib.

XXI. OF THE LETTER U.

The vowel U has three sounds which may be considered to be properly its own:—

1. The open, long, full, primal, or diphthongal u; as in tube, cubic, juvenile.

2. The close, curt, short, or stopped u; as in tub, butter, justice, unhung.

3. The middle u, resembling a short or quick oo; as in pull, pulpit, artful.

U forming a syllable by itself or U as naming itself is nearly equivalent in sound to you, and requires the article a, and not an, before it; as, a U, a union.

U sometimes borrows the sound of some other vowel; for bury is pronounced berry, and busy is pronounced bizzy. So in the derivatives, burial, buried, busied, busily, and the like.

The long or diphthongal u, commonly sounded as yu, or as ew in ewer,—or any equivalent diphthong or digraph, as ue, ui, eu, or ew.—when it follows r or rh, assumes the sound of slender o or oo; as in rude, rhubarb, rue, rueful, rheum, fruit, truth, brewer.

DIPHTHONGS BEGINNING WITH U.

U, in the proper diphthongs, ua, ue, ui, uo, uy, has the sound of w or of oo feeble; as in persuade, query, quell, quiet, languid, quote, obloquy.

Ua, an improper diphthong, has the sound—1. Of middle a; as in guard, guardian. 2. Of close a; as in guarantee, piquant. 3. Of obscure e; as in victuals and its compounds or kindred. 4. Of open u; as in mantuamaker.

Ue, an improper diphthong, has the sound—1. Of open u; as in blue, ensue, ague. 2. Of close e; as in guest, guesser. 3. Of close u; as in leaguer. Ue final is sometimes silent; as in league, antique. Ui, an improper diphthong, has the sound—1. Of open i; as in guide, guile. 2. Of close i; as in conduit, circuit. 3. Of open u; as in juice, sluice, suit.

Uo can scarcely be called an improper diphthong, except, perhaps, after q in liquor, liquorice, liquorish, where uor is heard as ur.

Uy, an improper diphthong, has the sound—1. Of open y; as in buy, buyer. 2. Of feeble y, or of ee feeble; as in plaguy, roguy.

TRIPHTHONGS BEGINNING WITH U.

Uai is pronounced nearly, if not exactly, like way; as in guai-a-cum, quail, quaint. Uaw is sounded like wa in water; as in squaw, a female Indian. Uay has the sound of way; as in Par-a-guay: except in quay, which nearly all our orthoepists pronounce kee. Uea and uee are each sounded wee; as in queasy, queer, squeal, squeeze. Uoi and woy are each sounded woi; as in quoit, buoy. Some say, that, as u, in these combinations, sounds like w, it is a consonant; others allege, that w itself has only the sound of oo, and is therefore in all cases a vowel. U has, certainly, in these connexions, as much of the sound of oo, as has w; and perhaps a little more.

XXII. OF THE LETTER V.

The consonant V always has a sound like that of f flattened; as in love, vulture, vivacious. In pure English, it is never silent, never final, never doubled: but it is often doubled in the dialect of Craven; and there, too, it is sometimes final.

XXIII. OF THE LETTER W.

W, when reckoned a consonant, (as it usually is when uttered with a vowel that follows it,) has the sound heard at the beginning of wine, win, woman, woody; being a sound less vocal than that of oo, and depending more upon the lips.

W before h, is usually pronounced as if it followed the h; as in what, when, where, while: but, in who, whose, whom, whole, whoop, and words formed from these, it is silent. Before r, in the same syllable, it is also silent; as in wrath, wrench, wrong. So in a few other cases; as in sword, answer, two.

W is never used alone as a vowel; except in some Welsh or foreign names, in which it is equivalent to oo; as in "Cwm Cothy," the name of a mountain in Wales; "Wkra" the name of a small river in Poland.—See Lockhart's Napoleon, Vol. ii, p. 15. In a diphthong, when heard, it has the power of u in bull, or nearly that of oo; as in new, now, brow, frown. Aw and ow are frequently improper diphthongs, the w being silent, the a broad, and the o long; as in law, flaw,—tow, snow. W, when sounded before vowels, being reckoned a consonant, we have no diphthongs or triphthongs beginning with this letter.

XXIV. OF THE LETTER X.

The consonant "X has a sharp sound, like ks; as in ox: and a flat one, like gz; as in example. X is sharp, when it ends an accented syllable; as in exercise, exit, excellence: or when it precedes an accented syllable beginning with a consonant; as in expand, extreme, expunge. X unaccented is generally flat, when the next syllable begins with a vowel; as in exist, exemption, exotic. X initial, in Greek proper names, has the sound of z; as in Xanthus, Xantippe, Xenophon, Xerxes"—See W. Allen's Gram., p. 25.

XXV. OF THE LETTER Y.

Y, as a consonant, has the sound heard at the beginning of yarn, young, youth; being rather less vocal than the feeble sound of i, or of the vowel y, and serving merely to modify that of a succeeding vowel, with which it is quickly united. Y, as a vowel, has the same sounds as i:—

1. The open, long, full, or primal y; as in cry, crying, thyme, cycle.

2. The close, curt, short, or stopped y; as in system, symptom, cynic.

3. The feeble or faint y, accentless; (like open e feeble;) as in cymar, cycloidal, mercy.

The vowels i and y have, in general, exactly the same sound under similar circumstances, and, in forming derivatives, we often change one for the other: as in city, cities; tie, tying; easy, easily.

Y, before a vowel heard in the same syllable, is reckoned a consonant; we have, therefore, no diphthongs or triphthongs commencing with this letter.

XXVI. OF THE LETTER Z.

The consonant Z, the last letter of our alphabet, has usually a soft or buzzing sound, the same as that of s flat; as in Zeno, zenith, breeze, dizzy. Before u primal or i feeble, z, as well as s flat, sometimes takes the sound of zh, which, in the enumeration of consonantal sounds, is reckoned a distinct element; as in azure, seizure, glazier; osier, measure, pleasure.

END OF THE FIRST APPENDIX.