The Grammar of English Grammars by Goold Brown (read books for money TXT) 📖

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