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.