VI. Flat a short. "The short sound of middle or Italian a, (i. e. flat a,) which is generally confounded with the short sound of slender a, (alphabetical a,) is the sound of this vowel in man, pan, tan, hat, &c.”—Walker.

A has this sound for the most part,

1. When followed by a single consonant, (except r and occasionally 7,) in the same accented syllable; as in ballad, capstan, massive.

EXCEPTIONS.-Alien, ancient, cambric, chamber, manger, angel.

2. When followed by more than one consonant, (except r and l, followed by another consonant,) in the same accented syllable; as in band, catch, cramp, act, apt.

VII. Broad a long. The regular place for this sound is before ll; as in all, ball, call, fall, hall, wall; though it occurs in some other positions; as in ward, bawd, chalk.

1. When final and preceded by another vowel in the same syllable; as in mute, rebuke, literature.

2. When preceding l and n, in final unaccented syllables in many instances; as in navel, drivel, swivel, weasel, open, often, heaven.

3. When it precedes d in the preterit of verbs, and is not preceded by d or t; as in lived, loved, revealed, justified.

E is often in position final, where in pronunciation it is not; as in theatre, centre, mas sacre: where final, it is often viciously treated, as if not; as in the derivatives knavery, brave-ry, image-ry, nice-ty, slave-ry, fine-ry, savage-ry, &c.; all of which words Walker pronounces in three or four syllables; while others, correctly enough, he pronounces in two; as in safety, ninety, surety. Webster adverts to this error of Walker, yet in several instances leaves it uncorrected.

I. Alphabetical e long. E has this sound when it ends a syllable, and when it is followed in the same syllable by a consonant and final e; as in meteor, secretion, severe, atmosphere, revere.

EXCEPTIONS. Where, there, were, ere.

This sound is often incorrectly superseded by alphabetical a short; as in establish, esteem, especial, espial, espy, espouse, esquire, egotist, &c.; in which words, long alphabetical e should be invariably heard. It is also often viciously suppressed in the prefix pre; as in precede, prevent, predict, &c.; which are pronounced as if written pr-cede, pr-vent, pr-dict.

II. Alphabetical e short. This sound, like that of alphabetical a short, is treated by orthoepists and grammarians as anomalous; when the ear alone, one should think, is sufficient to establish its character as the short sound of e in scheme. The report of the ear is confirmed by the analogy of the French and German languages; in which the long and short sound of e in scheme and pretty, are represented by the long and short sound of i. Short alphabetical e is heard in accented syllables in the words adduced in the table, and generally in the unaccented syllables es, en, et.

III. Alphabetical a short. For the propriety of so calling e in men, met, &c., see above. E has this sound when followed by a consonant (except r) in the same syllable. In many words, as in chapel, gospel, rebel, &c., (which are exceptions to e mute, No. 2 above,) this sound is dropped, when it should be distinctly heard.

IV. Middle a long. This sound is only heard in the words enumerated in the table. Where, there, and ere have this sound, I believe, in consequence of their derivation: they should have been written with a instead of e. (See Dictionaries of Webster and Richardson.) Ne'er, being a contraction of never, the vowels of which are alphabetical short a, and middle short a, is very properly pronounced as if written nare; for this is precisely the long sound into which the two short ones, being after contraction followed by r, should pass.

V. Middle a short. If e in met is the short sound of a in mate, there can be little doubt that e in merchant is the short sound of a in care. The same reason, in fact, which should induce us to treat a in care as a different sound from a in mate, should also induce us to treat e in merchant as a different sound from e in met. In both cases, the letter r produces the same modification of sound.

I. Alphabetical i. "This letter is a perfect diphthong, composed of the sounds of a in father, and e in he, pronounced as closely together as possible."--Walker. It has this sound,

1. When it ends an accented syllable; as in liar, reliance.

2. When followed by e mute in accented syllables; as in line, pine, wine, combine, canine.

EXCEPTIONS. 1. In words of French origin; as in machine, caprice, &c. 2. In the unaccented syllables of many words, though followed by e mute; as in engine, rapine.

II. Alphabetical e. This, be it observed, is one of the vowels of which the preceding is composed.

III. Alphabetical e short. Dr. Johnson, (see introduction to his Dictionary,) not taking into consideration the compound character of alphabetical i, pronounced this short sound wholly unlike it; but Walker very justly observes that it "is the sound of e: the last letter of the diphthong that forms long i." Hence, I term it alphabetical e short. A similar derivation of a short sound from a part of a diphthongal sound, may be seen in the short sound of u in full, &c., below: called the short muffled sound of o.

I has this sound, generally, before a consonant, (except r,) or more than one consonant, in the same syllable; as in tin, tinder, wind, which, hitch.

A common error in the pronunciation of i, for which we are indebted to Mr. Walker and his admirers, consists in giving to it, without reference to the origin of the word in which it appears, the sound of alphabetical e long, when it forms a syllable or ends one unaccented; as in divide, indivisibility, ability; which he pronounces as if written devide, in-de-vis-e-bil-e-ty, abil-e-ty. In these words, however, and in others, forming a very numerous class, alphabetical e short should be slightly but distinctly heard. (See Webster's Dictionary, introduction.)

IV. Middle a short. As this sound of i occurs only before r, and is precisely like that of middle a short, and of middle a short e, I have given it the same name. The short u sound which many substitute for this, should be in all cases avoided as a vulgarity

I. Alphabetical o long. O has this sound,

1. When it ends an accented syllable; as in romance, explosion. EXCEPTIONS. Do, to, who, ado.

2. When followed by a single consonant and mute e; as in tone, devote. EXCEPTIONS. Prove, move, behoove, lose, love, dove, above, come, done, none, one, pomegranate, some.

II. Alphabetical o short. "The long sound which seems the nearest relation to it, is the first sound of o in note, tone, rove, &c."-Walker.

As this sound, that of broad a long, that of short broad a, and that of muffled short, occur nearly in the same positions, usage alone must determine which of them is employed in a given case.

III. The long sound of muffled o is a middle sound between u in tube and u in full. It is, in fact, precisely the oo sound (as heard in groove) of which u in tube in part consists; (see alphabetical u below;) and of this, u in full is a slight contraction. It occurs in a few words only: prove, move, behoove, (and their derivatives,) do, who, to, ado, tomb, womb.

IV. The remarks just made show the propriety of treating the o in woman and wolf, and also in wol, the beginning of many proper names, (being exactly the sound of u in full,) as the short sound of muffled o long. It occurs, I believe, only in the words adduced.

V. Broad a long. This sound of o is admitted by orthoepists with reluctance and hesitation; but it is as well established by usage, at least in this country, as any other elementary sound in the language: the speaker who should pronounce o in cost, lost, or, nor, &c., like o in not, would expose himself to merited ridicule. The positions in which this sound occurs can only be learned from usage.

VI. Broad a short. This sound " corresponds exactly to that of a in what, with which the words not, got, lot, &c., are perfect rhymes."-Walker.

Webster places both of the a sounds of o, very arbitrarily I think, under this head; but the editor of his octavo edition candidly admits, that in some cases, o approximates to the broad a long sound.

This letter is, in several instances, incorrectly pronounced. Home, stone, whole, which should invariably have the sound of alphabetical o long, are heard pronounced, not seldom, as if written hum, stun, hull: does and doth, the o in which is alphabetical short, as if written doos and dothe: in the unaccented syllable of such words as creator, governor, &c., the short broad a sound of o, is, with very bad taste, substituted for the alphabetical short; which sound, it should be observed, is the proper one in nearly all unaccented terminations: the prefix pro, like pre, noticed above, in the careless pro nunciation of some speakers, loses its vowel.

REMARKS.

I. Alphabetical u. This vowel is compound. It is composed of alphabetical e and muffled o, or eoo; which, rapidly pronounced, will express it. U has this sound,

1. When it ends a syllable; as in duty, futurity, accumulate.

2. When followed by a single consonant and final e; as in acute, tube.

II. The muffled or oo portion of alphabetical u, is heard in prove, move, &c.; and of this, the u in full is the short sound; as may be observed by comparing the o in wolf. Hence I call the second sound of u, the muffled o short.

III. Alphabetical o short: so called because precisely the sound of alphabetical o short. (See above.) This u, as well as the preceding, is followed by one or more consonants in the same syllable: as they occur in the same position, practice alone can enable us to distinguish them.

IV. Alphabetical e and middle a short. Busy, bury, with their compounds, and minute, are, I think, the only words in which these sounds occur. The pronunciation of minute is clearly improper. The u, when shortened, should, at least, have passed into alphabetical o short, after the analogy of rapine, and have been pronounced as if written minut, not minit. But custom, usage has settled the matter apparently beyond change.

As to busy and bury, they seem to have preserved their original pronunciation, while they lost their original orthography.

Busy is derived from the Saxon bysgian, to occupy or employ; and it should therefore have been written with an i instead of a u: it was so written by Wicklif; as in the following passage:

"But I woll that ghe be without bisyness; for he that is without wif is bisi what things ben of the Lord, how he schal plese God; but he that is with a wif, is bisi what things ben of the world, how he schal plese the wif, and he is departed."

Bury is derived from the Saxon byrgan, to place in safety; and hence like the preceding word it should have been written with an i. Birie is the orthography of Wicklif: the following passages show this. "Another of hise disciples seide to him, Lord, suffre me to go first, and birie my fadir; but Jhesus seide to him, Sue thou me, and lete the dede men birie their dede men."

"The earth schook, and stoones weren cloven, and birials weren opened, and many bodies of sayntes that hadden slept rysen up." (See Richardson's Dictionary on the words.)

The alphabetical sound of this vowel, it must be confessed, is sadly abused in pronunciation, and sometimes quite suppressed: abused by being pronounced like muffled o or oo in a multitude of words; as in tube, literature, &c., and suppressed in such words as regular, popular, particular, &c.

6. Y, when a vowel, has four sounds.

my, tyrant, multiply, thyme.

as heard in fancy, philosophy, holy, envy. lyric, hypocrite, pyramid, system. myrtle, martyr.

REMARKS.

I. Alphabetical i. Y has this sound at the end of an accented syllable;

as in my, tyrant.

II. Alphabetical e. It has this sound generally when in unaccented syl

lables; as in baby, fancy, muddy, angry, balmy, many, philosophy, happy, phrensy, &c.

EXCEPTIONS. These are very numerous; as in all words ending in fy; as justify; and others; as multiply, occupy, butterfly, prophesy, gyration, &c. III. Alphabetical e short and middle a short. These sounds, as the examples in the table prove, occur in the same circumstances. Practice must enable us to distinguish them.

7. W, as a vowel, has no independent sound. It becomes vocal only in conjunction with another vowel with which it forms a diphthong; as in blow, cow, howl, scowl.

VII. A diphthong is the union of two vowels in one articulation; as ou in sour: a triphthong is the union of three vowels in one articulation; as eau in beau.

Diphthongs are divided into proper and improper, or digraphs. In the first, the vowels blend and form one sound; as au in caught in the second, one of the vowels only is vocal; as ea in beat, oa in coat, and eo in leopard. I proceed to enumerate and describe them.

2. Ae has one sound: viz., of alphabetical e; as heard in Eneas, Cæsar.

In Britain, certain, fountain, and other words of the same termination, ai is pronounced by Walker and others like i in tin; but for what reason is not obvious; and as for usage, the obscure sound of e, as in chicken and kitchen, is as often heard as any other, among polished speakers; as it is unquestionably the legitimate short sound of ai in ail, bail; which is nothing more than a representative of alphabetical a.

5. Aw has always one sound: viz., of broad a long; as in bawl, crawl, scrawl.

6. Ay has always the sound of alphabetical a long; as in bay, day, delay.