The other diphthongal vowel u is composed of the French i, pronounced as closely as possible to their diphthong ou, or the English èè and ô, perfectly equivalent to the sound the French would give to the letters you, and which is exactly the sound the English give to the plural of the second personal pronoun. The diphthong oi or oy is composed of the French â and i; thus toy and boy would be exactly expressed to a Frenchman by writing them tai, bâti. The diphthongs ou and ow, when sounded like ou, are composed of the French â and the diphthong ou; and the English sounds of thou and now may be expressed to a Frenchman by spelling them thâou and nâou. Wis no more than the French diphthong ou; thus West is equivalent to Ouest, and wall to ouâll. Y is perfectly equivalent to the French letter of that name, and may be supplied by i; thus yoke, you, &c. is expressed by ioke, iou, &c. J, or I consonant, must be pronounced by prefixing d to the French j: thus jay, joy, &c. sound to a Frenchman as if spelled dje, djai, &c. If any difficulty be found in forming this combination of sounds, it will be removed by pronouncing the d, ed, and spelling these words edjé, edjái, &c. Ch, in English words not derived from the Greek, Latin, or French, is pronounced as ift were prefixed; thus the sound of chair, cheese, chain, &c. would be understood by a Frenchman as if the words were written tchére, tchize, tchéne. Sh in English is expressed by ch in French; thus shame, share, &c. would be spelled by a Frenchman chéme, chére, &c. The ringing sound ng in long, song, &c. may be perfectly conceived by a pupil who can pronounce the French word Encore, as the first syllable of this word is exactly correspondent to the sound in those English words; and for the formation of it, see Principles, No. 57; also the word ENCORE. But the greatest difficulty every foreigner finds in pronouncing English, is the lisping consonant th. This, it may be observed, has, like the other consonants, a sharp and flat sound; sharp as in thin, bath; flat as in that, with. To acquire the true pronunciation of this difficult combination, it may be proper to begin with those words where it is initial and first, let the pupil protrude his tongue a little way beyond the teeth, and press it between them as if going to bite the tip of it; while this is doing, if he wishes to pronounce thin, let him hiss as if to sound the letters; and after the hiss, let him draw back his tongue within his teeth, and pronounce the preposition in, and thus will the word thin be perfectly pronounced. If he would pronounce that, let him place the tongue between the teeth as before; and while he is hissing as if to sound the letter z, let him withdraw his tongue into his mouth, and immediately pronounce the preposition at. To pronounce this combination when final in bath, let him pronounce ba, and protrude the tongue beyond the teeth, pressing the tongue with them, and hissing as if to sounds; if he would pronounce with, let him first form wi, put the tongue in the same position as before, and hiss as if to sound z. It will be proper to make the pupil dwell some time with the tongue beyond the teeth in order to form a habit, and to pronounce daily some words out of a Dictionary beginning and ending with these letters. These directions, it is presumed, if properly attended to, will be sufficient to give such foreigners as understand French, and have not access to a master, a competent knowledge of English pronunciation; but to render the sounds of the vowels marked by figures in this Dictionary still more easily to be comprehended, with those English words which exemplify the sounds of the vowels, I have associated such French words as have vowels exactly corresponding to them, and which immediately convey the true English pronunciation. These should be committed to memory, or written down and held in his hand while the pupil is inspecting the Dictionary. Perhaps the greatest advantage to foreigners and provincials will be derived from the classification of words of a similar sound, and drawing the line between the general rule and the exception. This has been an arduous task; but it is hoped the benefit arising from it will amply repay it. When the numerous varieties of sounds annexed to vowels, diphthongs, and consonants, lie scattered without bounds, a learner is bewildered and discouraged from attempting to distinguish them; but when they are all classed, arranged, and enumerated, the variety seems less, the number smaller, and the distinction easier. What an inextricable labyrinth do the diphthongs ea and ou form as they lie loose in the language! but classed and arranged as we find them, No. 226, &c. and 313, &c. the confusion vanishes, they become much less formidable, and a learner has it in his power, by repeating them daily, to become master of them all in a very little time. The English accent is often an insurmountable obstacle to foreigners, as the rules for it are so various, and the exceptions so numerous; but let the inspector consult the article Accent in the Principles, particularly No. 492, 505, 506, &c. and he will soon perceive how much of our language is regularly accented, and how much that which is irregular is facilitated by an enumeration of the greater number of exceptions. But scarcely any method will be so useful for gaining the English accent as the reading of verse. This will naturally lead the ear to the right accentuation; and though a different position of the accent is frequently to be met with in the beginning of a verse, there is a sufficient regularity to render the pronouncing of verse a powerful means of obtaining such a distinction of force and feebleness as is commonly called the accent: for it may be observed, that a foreigner is no less distinguishable by placing an accent upon certain words to which the English give no stress, than by placing the stress upon a wrong syllable. Thus if a foreigner, when he calls for bread at table, by saying, give me some bread, lays an equal stress upon every word, though every word should be pronounced with its exact sound, we immediately perceive he is not a native. An Englishman would pronounce these four words like two, with the accent on the first syllable of the first, and on the last syllable of the last, as if written giveme somebréd; or rather, givme sumbréd; or more commonly, though vulgarly, gimme somebréd. Verse may sometimes induce a foreigner, as it does sometimes injudicious natives, to lay the accent on a syllable in long words which ought to have none, as in a couplet of Pope's Essay on Criticism : "False eloquence, like the prismatic glass, Here a foreigner would be apt to place an accent on the last syllable of eloquence as well as the first, which would be certainly wrong; but this fault is so trifling, when compared with that of laying the accent on the second syllable, that it almost vanishes from observation; and this misaccentuation, verse will generally guard him from. The reading of verse, therefore, will, if I am not mistaLen. be found a powerful regulator, both of accent and emphasis. Of the diphthongs called semi-consonants Of the diphthongs AE, AI, AO, and all the rest in their alphabetical order G always mute before N in the same syllable at the end of a word, exemplified in the words impuga, oppugn, propugn, expugn, impregn, &c. with the authorities of the most respectable W, when silent, and when sounded X, is exactly similar to ks, and liable to the same alterations of sound The shortening power of the secondary accent exemplified in the uncertainty and inconsis- tency of Mr. Sheridan and Dr. Kenrick in their division of words into syllables Syllabication different according to the different ends to be attained by it Syllabication exhibiting the sound of a word, depending, in some measure, on the nature of the The almost total independence of the English quantity on that of the Greek and Latin, exem- plified by an enumeration of most of the dissyllables in our language derived from the Latin The only possible case in which we can argue from the Latin quantity to the English Dissyllables from the Saxon and French languages enumerated - 512 Of the quantity of unaccented syllables ending with a vowel Uncertainty and inconsistency of Dr. Kenrick in his notation of the quantity of these vowels Uncertainty and inconsistency of Mr. Sheridan and Dr. Kenrick in marking the quantity Exception to the general rule of pronouncing these syllables when e is followed by r Uncertainty of our best orthöepists in their syllabication of such words, exemplified by a list Tendency of o before r to go into the same obscurity as e, exemplified in the diversity and inconsistency of our best orthõepists in marking these syllables Table of the simple and diphthongal vowels, referred to as a key to the figures over the let- 2. To these may be addea certain combinations of letters sometimes used in printing; as ct, st, fl, sb, sh, sk, fi, ss, si, ssi, fi, ffi, ffl, and &c. or and per se and, or rather et per se and; ct, st, fl, fi, sl, sb, sh, sk, ff, ss, si, ssi, fi, ffi, &. 3. Our letters, says Dr. Johnson, are commonly reckoned twenty-four, because anciently i and j. as well as u and t, were expressed by the same character; but as these letters, which had always -different powers, have now different forms, our alphabet may be properly said to consist of twentysix letters. 4. In considering the sounds of these first principles of language, we find that some are so simple and unmixed, that there is nothing required but the opening of the mouth to make them understood, and to form different sounds. Whence they have the names of vowels, or voices or vocal sounds. On the contrary, we find that there are others, whose pronunciation depends on the particular application and use of every part of the mouth, as the teeth, the lips, the tongue, the palate, &c. which yet cannot make any one perfect sound but by their union with those vocal sounds; and these are called consonants, or letters sounding with other letters. Definition of Vowels and Consonants. 5. Vowels are generally reckoned to be five in number; namely, a, e, i, o, u; y and w are called Towels when they end a syllable or word, and consonants when they begin one. 6. The definition of a vowel, as little liable to exception as any, seems to be the following: A vowel is a simple sound formed by a continued effusion of the breath, and a certain conformation of the mouth, without any alteration in the position, or any motion of the organs of speech, from the moment the vocal sound commences till it ends. 7. A consonant may be defined to be an interruption of the effusion of vocal sound, arising from the application of the organs of speech to each other. 8. Agreeably to this definition, vowels may be divided into two kinds, the simple and compound. The simple a, e, o, are those which are formed by one conformation of the organs only; that is, the organs remain exactly in the same position at the end as at the beginning of the letter; whereas in the compound vowels i and u, the organs alter their position before the letter is completely sounded; nay, these letters, when commencing a syllable, do not only require a different position of the organs in order to form them perfectly, but demand such an application of the tongue to the roof of the mouth, as is inconsistent with the nature of a pure vowel; for the first of these letters, i, when sounded alone, or ending a syllable with the accent upon it, is a real diphthong, composed of the sounds of a in father, and of e in the, exactly correspondent to the sound of the noun; and when this letter commences a syllable, as in min-ion, pin-ion, &c. the sound of e with which it terminates is squeezed into a consonant sound, like the double e heard in queen, different from the simple sound of that letter in queen, and this squeezed sound in the commencing i makes it exactly similar to y in the same situation; which, by all grammarians, is acknowledged to be a consonant.* The latter of these compound vowels, u, when initial, and not shortened by a consonant, commences with this squeezed sound of e equivalent to the y, and ends with a sound given to oo in woo and coo, which makes its name in the alphabet exactly similar to the pronoun you. If, therefore, the common definition of a vowel be just, these two letters are so far from being simple vowels, that they may more properly be called semi-consonant diphthongs. 9. That y and w are consonants when they begin a word, and vowels when they end one, is generally acknowledged by the best grammarians; and yet Dr. Lowth has told us, that w is equivalent to oo; but if this were the case, it would always admit of the particle an before it for though we have no word in the language which commences with these letters, we plainly perceive, that if we had such a word, it would readily admit of an before it, and consequently that these let ters are not equivalent to w. Thus we find, that the common opinion, with respect to the double capacity of these letters, is perfectly just. 10. Besides the vowels already mentioned, there is another simple vowel sound found under the oo in the words woo and coo; these letters have, in these two words, every property of a pure vowel, but when found in food, mood, &c. and in the word too, pronounced like the adjective two: here the oo has a squeezed sound, occasioned by contracting the mouth, so as to make the lips nearly touch each other; and this makes it, like the i and u, not so much a double vowel, as a sound between a Vowel and a consonant. Classification of Vowels and Consonants. 11. Vowels and consonants being thus defined, it will be necessary, in the next place, to arrange them into such classes as their similitudes and specific differences seem to require. 12. Letters, therefore, are naturally divisible into vowels and consonants. 13. The vowels are, a, e, i, o, u, andy and w when ending a syllable. 14. The consonants are, b, c, d, f, g, h, j, k, l, m, n, p, q, r, s, t, v, x, z, and y and w when beginning a syllable. 15. The vowels may be subdivided into such as are simple and pure, and into such as are compound and impure. The simple or pure vowels are such as require only one conformation of the organs to form them, and no motion in the organs while forming. 16. The compound or impure vowels are such as require more than one conformation of the organs to form them, and a motion in the organs while forming. These observations premised, we may call the following scheme 17. Two vowels forming but one syllable are generally called a diphthong, and three a triphthong these are the following *How so accurate a grammarian as Dr. Lowth could pronounce so definitely on the nature of y and insist on its being always a vowel, can only be accounted for by considering the small attention which is generally paid to this part of grammar. His words are these: The same sound which we express by the initial y, our Saxon ancestors in many instances expressed by the vowel e; as cower, your; and by the vowel i; as iw, yew; iong, young. In the word yew the initial y has precisely the same sound with i in the words view, lieu, adieu: the i is acknowledged to be a vowel in these latter; how then can the y, which has the very same sound, possibly be a consonant in the former? Its initial sound is generally like that of i in shire, or ee nearly; it is formed by the opening of the mouth without any motion or contact of the parts: in a word, it has every property of a vowel, and not one of a consonant." Introd. to Eng. Gram. page 3. Thus far the learned bishop; who has too fixed a fame to suffer any diminution by a mistake in so trifling a part of literature as this: but it may be asked, if y has every property of a vowel and not one of a consonant, why, when it begins a word, does it not admit of the euphonic article an before it? † An ignorance of the real composition of u, and a want of knowing that it partook of the nature of a consonant, has occasioned a great diversity and uncertainty in prefixing the indefinite article an before it. Our ancestors, judg ing of its nature from its name, never suspected that it was not a pure vowel, and constantly prefixed the article an before nouns beginning with this letter: as an union, an useful book. They were confirmed in this opinion by finding the an always adapted to the short u, as an umpire, an umbrella, without ever dreaming that the short u is a pure vowel, and essentially different from the long one. But the moderns, not resting in the name of a letter, and consulting their ears rather than their eyes, have frequently placed the a instead of an before the long u, and we have seen a union, a university, a useful book, from some of the most respectable pens of the present age. Nor can we doubt a moment of the propriety of this orthography, when we reflect that these words actually begin to the ear with y, and might be spelled younion, youniversity, youseful, and can therefore no more admit of a before them than youth. See Remarks on the word An in this Dictionary. year and |