FREE N, ǹ, nasal, like ng 8, §, soft, like z Unction. Muşe, Dismal. X, x, soft or flat, like gz Example, Exist. Tion} Sign like shun. Cious like shus Tious Ģeous} like jus Gious Capacious. Religious. (Nation, Notion. Qu (unmarked) like kw Queen, Quill. Pension, Mission. Ph (unmarked) like f Phantom, Seraph. PRINCIPLES OF PRONUNCIATION. REMARKS ON When the marks of pronunciation are affixed | to words in their proper orthography, in this Dictionary, without respelling them, the vowels which are not marked are silent; thus, a in beat, hear; e in able, give, härden; i in pain, heifer; and w in follow, are not sounded. THE KEY. Vowels marked with the dot underneath, thus, a, e, i, o, y, y, are found only in syllables which are not accented, and over which the organs of speech pass slightly and hastily in pronouncing the words in which they are found. It is to be observed that this mark is employed to indicate a slight stress of voice in uttering the appropriate sound of the vowel, rather than to note any par ticular quality of sound. A, unaccented, at the end of a word, ap The third sound of the letter a, marked thus, à, is its long sound qualified by being followed by the letter r; as in care, pare, fare. The diph. thong ai, followed by r, has precisely the same sound, as in fuir, pair; so, also, in some cases, has the diphthong ea, as in bear, pear. sound of the letter a is the same as that of the letter e in heir, there, where. This A great part of the words of the English language that have more than two syllables have more than one syllable in some degree accented, or pronounced more distinctly than the rest; yet this difference in distinctness is not made appar-proaches the Italian sound of a in father, as in ent by the usual modes of marking the words. the words algebra, comma, idea. In this notation, the vowels in the syllables which have either the primary or the secondary accent have a mark placed over them, denoting a distinct sound; while those which are more feebly uttered have a dot placed under them. The first, or long, sound of each of the vowels, marked thus, ā, ē, ī, ō, ū, is styled its alphabetic or name sound. The sound of the letter y, when used as a vowel, is the same as that of i; but as a vowel it begins no English word in common use. The long sound of the vowels is generally indicated, in monosyllables, by a silent e at the end of the word, preceded by a single consonant; as in fate, mete, pine, note, tube, type. The vowels have regularly the long sound if final in an accented syllable; as in ba'sis, legal, tri'al, sono'rous. The second, or short, sound of the vowels is generally indicated, in monosyllables, by the absence of mute e at the end of the word; as in fat, met, pin, not, tub, hyp. It is also the usual sound of a vowel in an accented syllable which ends with a consonant; as in aban'don, attentive, exhib'it, lacon'ic, reluctant, lyrical. The fourth sound of the vowels, a, e, i, o, and u, and the third sound of y (called, with respect to e, i, u, and y, short and obtuse), marked thus, ä, ë, I, ö, ü, ÿ, are the short sounds of these several vow els when followed by r in a monosyllable or in an accented syllable; as, far, hard; her, herd; fir, firkin; north, normal; fur, burden; myrrh, myrtle: but when the succeeding syllable begins with r, or the sound of r, as in pĕrry, pĕril, the vowel has the proper short sound. The difference between the sound of the vowels, when 'thus situated, and their proper short sound will be readily perceived by the following examples: măn, mărrow; mär, märket;—měn, měrry; hër, mërchant;-fin, mirror; fïr, circle;-not, borrow; nör, börder; The fifth sound of a, marked thus, &, is an intermediate sound of this letter between its short sound, as in fat, man, and its Italian sound, as in far, father; this sound being somewhat shorter than the Italian sound of a. With respect to the class of words which, in this Dictionary, have this mark, there is much diversity of treat ment among orthoepists. There is a considerable number of words in which a has the sound of short o, as in not. This sound occurs chiefly in words in which a is preceded by qu, w, or wh; as, quadrangle (quòd rangle), quality (quòlity), swallow (swŎllow). The letter e has, in several words, the same sound as a in fare; as in heir, there, where; but were is properly pronounced wër. In clerk and sergeant, it has, according to all the English orthoepists, the sound of a in dark and margin; yet in this country it is not uncommon to pronounce these words more in accordance with their or thography, as clerk and sergeant. The sound of the letter e is generally suppressed in the preterites of verbs, and in participles in ed, when the e is not preceded by d or t; as, feared, praised, admired, tossed, suppressed, pronounced feard, praisd, admird, tost, supprest. But adjectives ending in ed, unless they are participles as well as adjectives, commonly preserve the sound of e before d, as in naked, ragged, striped, wicked, wretched, &c. In the following SOUNDS OF THE DIPHTHONGS AND TRIPHTHONGS. the sound of e before d is suppressed when the words are used as verbs or participles, and it is Bounded when they are used as adjectives. The long sound of the letter i is heard not only in monosyllables ending with a mute e, as in file, time, &c., but also in pint, child, mild, wild; bind, blind, find, hind, kind, mind, rind, &c. There is a class of words, mostly derived from the French and Italian languages, in which i retains the sound of long e; as, antique, unique, bombazine, quarantine, ravine, routine, fascine, fatigue. In words which terminate in ile and ine, with the accent on the penultimate syllable, the i in the final syllable is generally short; as, fertile, hostile, adamantine, intestine, &c. The following are exceptions: edile, exile, gentile, pentile, feline, ferine, confine, and a few others. Also when the accent is on the antepenult, words ending in ile generally have the i short; as, juvenile, puerile, &c.; but it is long in camomile, reconcile, eolipile. With respect to words ending in ine, and having the accent on the antepenultimate, there is much uncertainty as to the quantity of the i; and in relation to a number of such words there Is much disagreement among orthoepists; yet the general rule inclines to the long sound of i in the termination of this class of words When i ends an initial syllable without the accent, and the succeeding syllable begins with a consonant, the i is generally short or indistinct, as if written e; as in civility, divine, finance: but the exceptions to this rule are numerous, among which are biquadrate, chirography, biography, divaricate, librarian, primeval, tribunal, vitality, and many others, in which the i is pronounced long. There is a class of monosyllables ending in f, ft, ss, st, and th, in which o is marked with the short sound in most pronouncing dictionaries, though some orthoepists give it the sound of broad a (as in fall) in the following words: off, often, offer, coffee, scoff, aloft, loft, soft, cross, loss, 9 toss, cost, frost, lost, tost, broth, cloth, froth, cough, and trough. To these some others might, with equal propriety, be added; as, offspring, dross, gloss, moss, moth, wroth. Before ss, st, and th, the letter o is frequently sounded âw as in moss, gloss, &c., lost, cost, &c., broth, cloth, &c. In such cases a medium between the extremes is the practice of the best speakers. The sound of o is somewhat prolonged also in gone and begone, and in some words ending in ug; as, long, along, prong, song, strong, thong, throng, wrong. There are some words in which o has the same sound as u in bull, or oo in good; namely, bosom, wolf, woman, Wolsey, Wolverhampton. It has the sound of short u in done, son, &c.; and the sound of u as in hurt in word, work, worth, &c. U, at the beginning of words, when long, has the sound yu, as in use. With respect to the manner of designating the sound of the vowel a when it comes immediately after the accent, as in the words educate, nature, natural, &c., there is much diversity among orthoepists. In this work the letter u, when it is not accented, and at the same time has the sound yu, or yu, is generally marked ȧ. It is obvious to any observer that there are many words of this class in which the u may have either the long sound (yu) or the obscure sound (yu). When u is preceded by r in the same syllable, it has the sound of oo in fool, and it is thus marked, as in rule, true.. This sound is given to u thus situated by all the principal orthoepists. Y, at the end of a word, preceded by a consonant, is commonly pronounced short and indistinct, like indistinct e; as, policy, palpably, lately, colony, &c. The exceptions are monosyllables; as, by, dry, cry, fly, &c., with their compounds, awry, hereby, whereby, &c.; also verbs ending in fy; as, fortify, magnify, testify, &c.; also ally, apply, comply, imply, supply, multiply, reply, occupy, and prophesy; in all which it has the long sound. SOUNDS OF THE DIPHTHONGS AND TRIPHTHONGS. A diphthong is the union of two vowels, pronounced by a single impulse of the voice; as, oi in voice, ou in sound. A triphthong is the union of three vowels, pronounced by a single impulse of the voice; as, ieu A proper diphthong is one in which both vow. els are sounded; as, oi in voice, ou 'n sound. The diphthongs which begin with e, i, or u, namely, ea, eu, ew, ia, ie, io, ua, ue, ui, and uo, differ from the rest; and they may be called semi 10 PRINCIPLES OF PRONUNCIATION. consonant were substituted in place of e or i; as, | ocean (ose'-yan), poniard (pon'yard); and as if w consonant were substituted in place of u; as, assuage (as-swage'), languid (lan'gwid), &c. An improper diphthong has only one of the Towels sounded; as, ea in heat, oa in coal. In the present work, when only one vowel in any diphthong receives a diacritical mark, that vowel is the one which is to be sounded, and the unmarked vowel is silent. E is a Latin diphthong, and is in this work pronounced like e in Latin. In English it is used almost exclusively in words of Latin or Greek origin; and it is commonly long, as in pæan, but sometimes is short, as in Dædalus. AI.-The usual sound of this diphthong is the same as long a; as in pail, pain, pronounced like pale, pane. It has the sound of short e in said and saith, and in again and against; that of short a in plaid and raillery; that of long i in aisle; and in a final unaccented syllable it has the obscure sound of the indistinct short i, as in fountain, mountain, curtain, &c. AU.-The common sound of this diphthong is the same as that of broad a, or aw,-caul and haul being pronounced exactly like call and hall. But when these letters are followed by n and another consonant, the sound is changed, in a number of words, to that of the Italian a in far and farther; as, by most of the orthoepists, in the following words: aunt, daunt, flaunt, gaunt, gauntlet, haunch, haunt, laugh, launch, laundress, paunch, saunter, staunch. Some orthoepists pronounce a part of these words with the sound of broad a, as most of them do the word vaunt, and many of them the word taunt. In the word draught, this diphthong has according to some orthoepists the sound of a in far, and according to others the short sound of a in fat; in gauge, the sound of long a (as in page); in hautboy, the sound of long o; and in cauliflower, laudanum, and laurel it is by some orthoepists pronounced with the sound of short o, and by others with the sound of broad a. as in AW.-This diphthong has the sound of broad a, bawl and ball being pronounced exactly alike. AY.-This diphthong has the sound of long a, pay, hay, &c.; except in quay, which is pronounced kē. It has the sound of short e in says; and in Sunday, Monday, &c., the last syllable is pronounced as if written Sundy, &c. EA.-The regular sound of this diphthong is beet, here; but there are many words in which it has the sound of short e; as, head, dead, ready, &c. In some words it has the sound of short and obtuse e, as in earn, heard, pearl, &c. In a few words it has the sound of long a; as in break, steak, great. In some words it has the sound of a in far; as in heart, hearten, hearty, hearth, hearken; and when unaccented it has only an obscure sound, as in vengeance, sergeant. Some words, like bear, pear, and swear, are variously marked by orthoepists. Most writers give them the sound of ai in pair (å); but others give them the sound of a long, as heard in fate, late. EAU. This triphthong is used only in words derived from the French. In beauty it has the sound of long u; but its regular sound is that of long o, as in beau, bureau, flambeau, &c. EE.-This diphthong is pronounced like long e; the principal exceptions are been and breeches, pronounced bin and brĭtches. The contractions e'er and ne'er, for ever and never, are pronounced as if written air and nair; but by some orthoepists the sound of long a is assigned to them. EI. This diphthong has most commonly the sound either of long a or of long e. It has the sound of long a, in deign, eight, feign, feint, freight, skein, veil, vein, weigh, weight, &c., and the sound of à in heir, their. It has the sound of long e in ceil, ceiling, conceit, conceive, deceit, deceive, inveigle, perceive, receive, receipt; commonly also in either, neither, and leisure. It has the sound of long i in height, heighten, and sleight; of short e in heifer and nonpareil; and in an unaccented syllable it has an indistinct sound of i, as in foreign, forfeit, sovereign, surfeit. EO. This diphthong is pronounced like long o in yeoman and yeomanry, and like long e in people; like short e in jeopard, leopard, feoffer; like broad o (as in nor) in georgic; and when unaccented it has the indistinct sound of u or o, as in bludgeon, sturgeon, scutcheon, and the indistinct sound of i or o, as in pigeon, widgeon. EU.-This diphthong is almost always sounded like long u, as in feud, deuce. EW. This diphthong is almost always sounded like long u, or eu, as in few, hew, new; but if r precedes it, it takes the sound of oo, or of u in rule, as in brew, crew, drew. In the words shew and strew (written also show and strow) this diph. thong has usually the sound of long o, as it also has in a few other words. EY.-This diphthong has commonly the sound |