and also to preserve to s its own sound, which would otherwise have that of z, as in dispense; and also to give to th a sonant sound instead of a surd, as in breathe. It is mute when l is coupled with a consonant at the end of words, as in fickle.

The use of the letter e with its long sound is peculiar to the English. In other languages it has the sound of a in fate, or that of è ferme.

Ea, an Improper Diphthong, is equivalent to long e, as in tea; to short e, as in head; to long a, as in break; to the Italian a, as in heart. Ee, an Improper Diphthong, is equivalent to long e, as in eel. Ei, an Improper Diphthong, is equivalent to long a, as in veil; to long e, as in deceit; to long i, as in height; and to short e, as in heifer. Eo, an Improper Diphthong, is equivalent to long e, as in people; to short e, as in leopard; to long o in yeoman; and to short o in George. Eu and ew have the diphthongal sound of u, as in feud, dew. In sew, shew, and strew, ew sounds like long o.

Ey is equivalent to long a, as in prey; to long e in key; and to long i in ley. Eye is equivalent to i.

Eau has the sound of long o, as in beau; in beauty, and its compounds, it has the sound of long u.

I.

§185. I represents normally two sounds. sometimes called the Long sound, as in fine.

1. The Diphthongal,

See § 118. 2. The

seventh elementary sound, called the Short sound, as in pit. The latter is strictly the short sound of long e.

Before r it is equivalent to short u, as in first. It sometimes is equivalent to long e, as in machine.

I, unaccented, readily blends with the succeeding vowel, as ia in physician; io in concession.

In other languages, long i is pronounced like ee.

Ie, an Improper Diphthong, is equivalent to long i, as in die; to long e, as in grief; and to short e, as in friend. In terminations, like twentieth, in fiery, in Orient, the vowels should be separated in pronunciation; also in variegate.

Ieu and iew, Triphthongs, have the sound of long u, as in lieu, review.

0.

186. O represents normally two elementary sounds, namely, the eighth and the ninth. 1. The Long, as in note. 2. The Short,

as in not.

It sometimes is equivalent to oo, as in prove; and to u short, as in

2

love; and to broad a, as in lord; and to short in women; and to the u in full, as in wolf.

Oa, an Improper Diphthong, is sometimes equivalent to long o, as in coal, or to broad a, as in broad.

Oe, an Improper Diphthong, is equivalent sometimes to long o, as in foe, or to oo, as in canoe, or to long e, as in fœtus.

O is a Proper Diphthong. See § 118.

Ou is a Proper Diphthong. short u, as in enough; to oo, as in soup; to long o, as in though; to short o, as in cough; to broad a, as in ought; to u in bull, as in could; to long u, as in through.

See § 118. It is also equivalent to

The sound given to ou is peculiar to the English. In other languages the sound is represented by au or aw.

Ow is sounded like ou, and oy like oi.

U.

187. U represents normally three sounds: 1. The Long or diphthongal, as in mule. 2. The tenth elementary sound, as in bull. 3. The twelfth elementary sound, as in but. This last sound of u is peculiar to the English.

It is also equivalent to short i in busy, and to short e in bury. Ua, an Improper Diphthong, is equivalent to the Italian a, as in guard; to short a, as in guarantee; to long a, or wa, in persuade.

Ue is equivalent to long u, as in blue; to short e, as in guest; is silent, as in league.

Ui, an Improper Diphthong, has the sound of long i, as in guide; of short i, as in conduit; of long u, as in juice.

Uy, an Improper Diphthong, is equivalent to long i, as in buy.

W.

188. W, from being partly a vowel and partly a consonant in its use, may be called a Semi-vowel. It has nearly the sound of oo, and represents the thirteenth elementary sound, as in wet. W before h is pronounced as if it were after the h; as, what, hwat. It takes its written form from the union of two v's, this being the form of the Roman capital letter which we call V. With o and e it forms diphthongs, as in now, new. It has often the same sound as u, as in drew. It is sometimes silent, as in write, whole. Wis often joined to o at the end of a syllable without affecting the sound, as in grow. In Welsh it is sometimes used in a syllable without another vowel, as ful fool. In some languages it has the sound of v.

Y.

§ 189. Y, from being partly a vowel and partly a consonant, may be called a Semi-vowel. It represents the fourteenth elementary sound, as in yet. It is equivalent to u, as in youth; to i, as in my and crystal; and to short u, as myrrh. It often has replaced the Anglo-Saxon g, as in year for gear. It originally grew out of the Greek v, a vowel.

190. B represents the twenty-second elementary sound, as in bag. The b in debtor, subtle, agrees with the b in lamb, dumb, thumb, in being mute. It differs, however, in another respect, that, while the words debtor, subtle, are of Classical, the words lamb, dumb, &c., are of Saxon origin. In debtor, &c., the b was undoubtedly at one time pronounced, debitor, subtilis, being the original forms. It is not probable that with the other words, lamb, &c., this was the case. The probability is, that b in speech never made a part of the word at all; that it belongs now, and that it always belonged, to the written language only; and that it was inserted in the spelling upon what may be called the Principle of Imitation, as in the case of l in could. See Could, § 360.

C.

191. C is equivalent, 1. To k when before a, o, u, l, r, t, as in can, come, cub, clap, crop, act, and where it ends a syllable, as public. 2. To s before c, i, and y, as centre, city, cymbal. Ce and ci, followed by another vowel, often blend into the sound of sh, as in ocean, social. C is mute in Czar, victuals, indict. When c stands between s and e and i, its sound is not perceived, as in scene, scion; but it is necessary, in order to distinguish the words from seen, Sion. C, in some words, takes the sound of z, as in suffice. C might be omitted in the language without loss, since one of its sounds might be supplied by k, and the other by s; but that it preserves to the eye the etymology of such words as face from facies, captive from captivus. When c comes after the accent, and is followed by ea, ia, ie, io, or ious, it takes the sound of sh, as in ocean, &c.

Ch represents, 1. The compound sound of tsh, as in church. 2. The sound of k in chorus. 3. The sound of sh, as in machine. It is sometimes silent, as in drachm.

D.

192. D represents the twenty-eighth elementary sound, as in did. When -ed is preceded by a surd consonant and the e is mute, d represents the sound of t, as in cracked, stuffed, pronounced crackt, stufft. In words like badge, its office is to shorten the preceding

consonant.

F.

§193. Frepresents the twenty-third elementary sound, as in fan. In of it has the sound of v.

G.

194. G represents the thirteenth elementary sound when before a, o, u, l, and r, as in gap, gone, gun, glory, grace. Before e, i, and y, it represents the sound of j, as in genius. To this there are exceptions, as get, give, gewgaw, finger, and syllables added to words ending in g, as fog, foggy. At the end of a word it has its elementary sound, as in agog. It should be remembered, however, that ng is not n+g, but represents a single elementary sound, namely, the sixteenth.

In hedge and oblige, the e mute shows that g is to be pronounced as j. U, on the other hand, is inserted after g and before e in prorogue, in order to show that g has its elementary sound.

G is mute before m or n in the same syllable, as in phlegm, gnaw. Gh, at the beginning of a word, has the sound of g hard, as in ghost; in other situations it is generally mute, as in high. It sometimes is equivalent to f, as in laugh; and sometimes to k, as in hough; and sometimes to g hard, as in burgh. Ough is sometimes equivalent to ow, as in plough; and to oo, as in through. The original sound of gh was a hard guttural, as is at present the case in Scotland, and between g, h, f, v, and w there are frequent interchanges. This will explain the variety of sounds.

H.

§ 195. H represents the fifteenth elementary sound, as in hot. It is sometimes mute in the beginning of words, as in honest, and is always so when itfollows r in the beginning of words, as in rhetoric. It is also mute when final, as in catarrh.

J.

196. J represents a compound sound, and is equivalent to dzh, as in jest. In hallelujah it has the sound of the German j; in French,

the sound of zh; in German, the sound of y. The letter j was originally a modification of i. The Germans adhere more nearly to the original sound.

K.

§ 197. K represents the twenty-ninth elementary sound, as in kind. It never comes before a, o, or u. It is used before e, i, and y, when c, according to the English analogy, would be liable to be sounded as s, as in kept, king, skirt. These words, if written cept, cing, scirt, would run the risk of being sounded sept, sing, sirt. Broadly speaking, k is never used except when c would be inconvenient. The reason of this lies in the fact of there being no such letter as k in the Latin language. Hence arose, in the eyes of the etymologist, the propriety, in all words derived from the Latin, as crown, concave, &c., of using the letter c to the exclusion of k. Besides this, the Anglo-Saxon alphabet, being taken from the Roman, excluded k, so that c was written even before the small vowels a, e, i, y, as cyning or cining a king. C then supplanted k upon etymological grounds only. K before n is mute, as in knife. This, however, was not the case in the allied languages. In German and Danish, in words like knecht, knife, the k was sounded. This teaches that such was once the case in English. Hence we learn that in the words knife, knight, and also in gnaw, gnash, we have an antiquated or obsolete orthography.

L.

198. L represents the nineteenth elementary sound. Le at the end of words is sounded like el, as in table. For the ejection of in calf and salmon, see under A. L is mute between a and k in the same syllable, as in balk. For the l in could, see that word. In the Anglo-Saxon, is sometimes preceded by h, and aspirated, as in hlaf, loaf. Ben Jonson says that "I melteth in the sounding, and is therefore called a liquid."

man.

M.

199. M represents the seventeenth elementary sound, as in

N.

200. N represents the eighteenth elementary sound, as in not. N is mute when preceded by m or 1, as in hymn, kiln. In such words the n originally belonged to the succeeding syllable, as hymnus, in the Latin, cylene, in the Anglo-Saxon.