and, where this custom prevails, we hear the sound opened into a(3) in long syllables, as in do, pronounced da, (without the English diphthongal quality ;) thus practically illustrating and corroborating our remark at page 30 on the tendency of i(2) to be lengthened into a(3) rather than into e(1). We have besides numerous instances in English of a(3) being shortened into i(2), as in the final syllables of carriage, marriage, cabbage, orange, &c., pronounced idge, inge, &c.

In the Irish dialect we have i, opened into a, and sometimes into the proximate Scotch vowel noticed above. Thus ill is by Irish speakers pronounced nearly like ale in English, his like haze, forgive like forgave, &c.

In the unaccented terminations, il, in, ive, &c., we generally hear Element 9 in Ireland; as in peril, motive, genuine, &c., which are pronounced nearly as if spelled perul, motuv, genuun, &c. Another Irish peculiarity is to sound

Y final, unaccented, like e instead of i, as pretty, many, &c. for pretty, many, &c.

2

EXERCISES.

Unaccented.-Abdicate, abditive, accident, acrid, admonish, adventive, agile, agitate, agonism, algid, alkali, airy, ashy, ambit, amicable, amice, amortise, amplitude, anaglyph, analysis, anguish, animal, anise, antidote, architect, argentine, article, assassin, auspice, axis, baby, bony, booty, bushy, busy, beauties, bodies, critic, caitiff, cherubim, captain, curtain, certain, cockatrice, conduit, creditable, chary, cherry, dervis, dreamy, duty, daisy, edible, egotism, eighty, ægis, evitable, every, easy, fishes, flighty, fury, finny, fancies, finish, furtive, forfeit, fountain, gelid, greasy, gory, healthy, hurry, happy, honey, hostile, hospital, hereditary, holy, holly, icicle, icy, livid, lattice, latitude, ladies, loamy, leafy, laughing, lordship, mastiff, mimic, mountain, miraculous, merit, missive, many, money, marry, merry, mossy, mighty, naughty, knotty, navies, ninny, noddies, omnibus, orifice, orpiment, origin, oxygen, oily, pencil, prehensile, premise(s), precipice, premises, poppies, plaguy, pity, petty, putty, posy, pithy, retinue, reddish, roguish, roughly, racy. ruddy, sooty, sorry, slippery, sheriff, servile, subtile, seraphim, similitude, syringe, spicy, saucy, slily, sully, tumid, tariff, thummim, turnip, treatise, tarry,(adj.)

tarry, (v.) tiny, tetchy, vivid, vestige, virility, visit, vallies, very, wiry, witty; average, baggage, breakage, brokerage, cabbage, carriage, cribbage, courage, cottage, image, leakage, marriage, message, orange, passage.

Accented. II. Abyss, anticipate, amiss, distance, crystal, listen, missile, risk, piston, scissible, thistle, whisper, hyssop; slipper, antipathy, frippery, whip, pipkin, sippet, stipulate, strip, triple; lift, whiff, swiftly, gift; pith, frith, smith; bittern, citron, citizen, ditto, ditch, fit, kitten, litter, little, admittance, literal, literature, literally, literarily, admit, knit, pit, pitcher, capitulate, written, rich, wit; ambitious, fish, dish, agnition, vicious, bishop, antiscii, wish; wicked, auricular, quicksand, ticket, brick, pickle, sick, diction, stricture, affix, mix, admixture; imp, limp, simper, shrimp, tympanum; lymph, symphony, nymph; filth, plynth, Scynthian, grilse, since, wince, princely, minster, quince, evince; chintz, flint, printing, scintillate, stinted, inch, pinch, filter, milter, milch, hilt, guilty; milk, silken, ink, brink, drink, wrinkle, trinket, lynx. III. Nibble, cribbage, gibbous, exhibit; imitate, simmer, women, limit, timorous, intimidate; living, quiver, vivify, carnivorous, oblivion; wither, hither, thither; busy, busily, dizziness, visit, prism, drizzle, invisible, prison; fiddle, hideous, fastidious, idiom, avidity; administer, anguineal, dinner, liniment, minnow, guinea, miniature; utility, ambilogy, anguilliform, miller, milliner, billow, lily, gillyflower, pillage, village, chilly; lyric, mirror, miracle, spirit, myriad ; wriggle, rigorous, vigour, bigger; singer, wringing.

IV. Fib, nib, rib, squib, giblet, biblical; give, live, sieve, livelong; with; his, quiz, business, wisdom; did, bid, fiddler, kid, midshipman, midge, amidst, vigil, width; fin, grin, gives, hindrance, kindred, minion, spindle, sin, stingy, astringent, hinge, window, thin, chin, vineyard, rescind; drill, bill, gills, hill, killed, silver, children, film, fulfil, million, instil, illness, bilge, bewilder; big, figs, dig, wigged, higgler, jig, pigment, ignorant, cygnet, signal; ring, fling, wing, kingdom, jingle, finger, thing, tingle, eringa, shingle, ringlet.

rabbit

rabbet.

2

aspirate and asperate.

9

surplice surplus.

9

subtile subtle. (pr suttle.)

Words of the same pronunciation, but different orthography.

OBSERVATIONS.—The depression of the tongue to a position as much more open than that of i(2) as the latter is more open than that of e(1), produces the vowel which is the alphabetic sound of E in French. This sound is not heard singly in English, but is always diphthongally tapered into or towards the closest lingual vowel ee. The omission of this diphthongal termination to the third vowel is a marked provincialism, and is one of the leading features of the Scottish dialect, in which the monophthongal a=e French is a very common vowel. When the English a=a-e occurs before a voiceless articulation, the vanishing sound (e) is so abrupt, and so blended with the radical a as to be with difficulty distinguished by the unpractised ear: but the contrasted utterance of such words as mate, cape, lake, &c. by an Englishman and a Scotchman, will show that even in the shortest utterance of this vowel the two elements are really present in English pronunciation. When the vowel is final, or before voice articulations, its compound quality will be unmistakeably manifested.

The English custom of making this vowel a diphthong is very apt to throw the radical part of the sound too open, so that we often hear 4-1 instead of 3-1, from careless speakers.

The 3d vowel is not heard before R in the same syllable in England. R, which has the sound of the 8th vowel, could not follow the close finish of the English a without creating a new syllable; and therefore the 4th vowel-which readily blends with the 8th, is always substituted, as in air, care, &c., pronounced

4 8 4 8

ai-r, ca-re, &c.

The Scotch a, being a monophthong, unites with R in the same syllable, and, therefore, is retained in those words which in English have the more open sound (4); so that there is a very marked difference betwixt the English and the Scotch pronunciation of such words as air, pear, heir, &c.

In Scotland the 3d vowel is used in many words instead of the English 12th; as in stone, bone, alone, &c., pronounced stane, băne, alăne, &c. This

is another indication of the analogy between a and o, which we have noticed at page 25.

EXERCISES.

Unaccented.-Aerial, aorta, aonian, archaiology, archaism, vacate ;* adage, dotage, herbage, homage, mortgage, salvage, tillage, umbrage, vassalage, wharfage; preface, surface, menace, palace, terrace; paraphrase, ukase;† agate, allegate, advocate, antedate, cerate, confederate, deliberate, dedicate, dissipate, emigrate, extricate, electorate, habitate, initiate, inmate, legate, meditate, oblate, palatinate, pontificate, phosphate, sulphate, situate, portrait; acroamatical, ansated, astrolabe, counterpane, murrain, wassail, travail, headache, landgrave, margrave, survey(s), roundelay, essay(s).

Accented.-I. Aorist, chaos, crayon, obeyest, gayety, greyish, clayey, paying, saying, surveyor, weigher, archaic, alcaic, aerate.

II. Crape, draper, maple, papist, halfpenny, rapier, sapient, tape, staple, drapery, vapour, insapory; safe, waif, chafe, wafer, safety; faith, faithful, wraith, scaith; ace, base, face, phasis, graceful, hasty, mace, plaice, complacent, race-horse, erase, waste, obeisance; nation, approbation, gracious, education, equation, oration, spacious; eight, bait, great, fated, hatred, crater, lately, nature, enate, equator, straight, potato, waiter; ache, baker, naked, opaque, sacred, snake, vacant, breaker, wake; plaintive, complaint, mayn't, acquaintance, saint, restraint, quaintly.

III. Able, babyhood, daybook, labial, neighbour, nabob, sabre, tabor, stable; amiable, famous, claimant, paymaster, gaming; bravery, favour, engraving, quaver, slavery, saving, wavy; bathing; brazen, blazon, hazy, lazar, nazal, razor; azure, oc

* From the diphthongal nature of this vowel it is comparatively seldom heard in unaccented syllables: in the terminations age, ace, ain, al, &c., the Second vowel is generally substituted; but a few words are given above, as, in deliberate speaking, the Third vowel would not be pedantic, and is often heard, especially in such words as dotage, herbage, mortage, &c., where the preceding syllable is long.

2

4

The colloquial tendency is to open the termination ate into et; but the Third vowel is uniformly heard from good speakers.

casion, abrasion, evasion; faded, degrading, heyday, lady, decadence, cradle, maidenly, radient, trading; caning, cranium, waning, zany, drainer, gala, exhaling, jailer, paling, tailor, sailor; sago, plaguy, plaguing.

IV. Ably, stabler, scabrous, babe; aim, blameless, dame, James, exclaim, lamely, namesake, shame, tamed, came; bravely, graveness, behaviour, sacred, slaves, waveless, waive, they've, cave; bathe, lathe; baize, brazed, haze, crazed, maize, amazed, surveys, weighs, chaise, brazier, grazier; aid, braid, flayed, arcade, allayed, shadeless, obeyed, age, umbragious, engage, gauge, major, stage, wager, rage; brains, gains, remainder, domain, pain, reign, reindeer, stained, attainder, vainly, stainless, baneful; ale, dale, frailty, hailstone, nails, assailed, veiled, bewail; craig, vaguely, plague, vagrant, flagrant.

V. Bay, obey, fray, clay, neigh, prey, ray, dismay, tray, sleigh, weigh, survey, inveigh, yea, they, array, dray, jay, allay, grey, hay, gay.