mixtion, &c. In like manner t has the sound || Reflexion. At the beginning of words it has of sh in all terminations in tial; as Martial, the sound of x. nuptial; except when preceded by s; as in Bestial, celestial. In pronouncing this letter the Irish and other provincials thicken the sound, as was before mentioned with regard to d; for Better, they say bet-her; for Utter, ut-her; and so on in all words of that structure. This faulty manner arises from the same cause that was mentioned as affecting the sound of d; and is curable only in the same way. V Ꮓ This letter is seen in very few English words, as its power has been for the most part usurped by s. It represents two sounds; one of its own, as in Razor; the other xh, or Frenchj, as in Azure, razure, glazier, grazier, &c. It is silent in Rendezvous. HAVING done with all the consonants that appear in our alphabet, we now proceed to examine such sounds as have no peculiar characters to mark them, and are therefore represent V has always one uniform sound, and is never silent, except in the colloquial pronuncia-ed by two letters. tion of the word Twelvemonth. X This character stands for three compound sounds; one which has the power of ks, another of g%, and a third of ksh. At the end of words it has always the sound of ks; as in Vex, tax. The initial syllable ex is always pronounced eks, except when followed by an accented syllable beginning with a vowel, and then it sounds eg; to assist the memory in which it is only necessary to have recourse to two words, such as Execute, exec'utor. There is but one case in which there are exceptions to this general rule, and that is where the sound of gx is preserved in some words contrary to the maxim above laid down; which is only in a few derivatives from primitives that have the sound of gx in them, according to the last rule. Thus the words Exemplary from Example, and Exaltation from Exalt, must be sounded Egzemplary and Egzaltation, though the accent be changed to the first syllable in the former, and to the third in the latter. And the same must be observed with regard to all words of this class. It sounds ksh before the termination ion; as in Th, th These are two different sounds marked by the same combination of th. They are formed by placing the tip of the tongue between the teeth, and in that position trying to pronounce ez and ess. The former is called the flat and the latter the sharp sound. In the beginning of words th has its sharp sound, except in these words, The, this, that, these, those, than, then, thence, there, thither, though, thus; and in the pronouns Thou, thee, thy, thine, they, them, their, theirs, and their compounds; in all which it has its flat sound. At the end of words th has its sharp sound, except in the following words, With, beneath, underneath, booth, smooth, to wreath, to seeth, to sooth, to sheath. It has always its flat sound when followed by a final mute e, in the same syllable; as in Bathe, breathe. When followed by a y in the last syllable, it has its sharp sound; as sympathy, healthy: except in the words Stithy, wreathy, and worthy. In all other situations of th, when in any middle syllables of words, the most general rule is, that it has the sharp sound before con- ||usion-as Occasion, cohesion, division, explōsion, sonants, and the flat before vowels, except in infusion. This sound is exactly the same as that derivative and compound words, which retain of the French j; and foreigners are to avoid prothe sound of their primitives; thus Loathsome nouncing words of this structure in the French retains the primitive sound of Loathe, though manner, as if they consisted of four syllables dipreceding a consonant; and Toothach the ori- vided thus, Oc-ca-si-on; but to make only three ginal sharp sound of Tooth, though preceding syllables of them, reducing the last two into one, and pronouncing the word as if it were spelt thus, Occajon, giving the sound of the French j to that consonant. a vowel. In a few instances th is sounded, as it always is in French, like t; viz. in Thames, Thomas, thyme, asthma, phthisic. Sh Ng The sound of these combined letters is alThis is the proper mark for the sound which ways uniform at the end of words, except in we have called esh, to be found in Shall, wish; the termination ing preceded by ing; as in Singand wherever it appears it has invariably the ing, pronounced Sing'in. But as there are difsame sound, and is never silent. But the power ferent sounds annexed to the same apparent of this combination is usurped in much the great-combination, it will be necessary to shew er number of words (containing the sound of wherein the difference consists. 1st, Whenwhich it is the proper representative,) by the ever ng has a mute e after it, its sound is chanletters c, t, and s. By c and tin all words end-ged to a mixed one of n and j; as in the words ing in cial and tial, as Social, partial; in cion Range, strange. 2dly, When a syllable is added and tion, as Suspicion, nation; in cious and tious, to the primitives ending in ng, it generally reas Capricious, contentious; in ceous as Cetace-tains its own sound; as in hang, hanger; wrong, ous; and by s in sion whenever preceded by wronger; yet sometimes it lends the sound of anothers or any other consonant, as in Passion,g in its hard state to the next syllable; as in pension. It is also represented by ch in words taken from the French, as Chevalier, machine. In order to pronounce properly this combination of letters, which is nowhere to be found in the French, it will be only necessary to inform foreigners, that our sh has uniformly the same sound as the French ch in the words Charité, chere, &c. Zh This sound, called exh in the list of letters, is marked by zh, to make it correspond to its corelative sh. It is sometimes, though but seldom, represented by %, as in Azure; but its general mark is an s in the termination sion preceded by any of the vowels, asion, esion, ision, osion, Long, longer; strong, stronger; which should 3dly, All words ending in nge retain the primitive sound in the derivatives; as Range, ranger; strange, stranger; challenge, challenger, In all other words ending in ger, preceded by an n closing the former syllable, g has the sound of j; as Messenger, harbinger, &c. Ch This combination is composed of t and sh; as heard in the words Chin, chat, chance. OF ACCENT, QUANTITY, AND SYLLABI- WE have classed these together, because they are intimately connected, and serve to elucidate one another. In the final combinations Ich, nch, it sounds sh; as in Filch, inch, &c.: Also in words from the French; as Capuchin', chaise, chagrine'; chamade', champignon, chan'cre, chandelier', char- ACCENT-means a certain stress of the voice latan, chevalier', chicane', machine', machin'ist. upon a particular letter, which distinguishes In words from the learned languages, it is the syllable in which it is contained from any generally pronounced like k; as in Cach'exy, other syllable. Thus, in the following words, chalcog'raphy, chalyb'eate, chameleon, cham'- Pa'gan, pe'nal, pi'lot, a, e, i, are the accented omile, cha'os, char'acter, chasm, chart, chym'-letters, and pa, pe, pi, the accented syllables. ist, chime'ra, chirog'raphy, chir'omancy, chlo- In Ab'ject, ac'rid, ad'vent, b, c, d, are the acro'sis, chol'er, cho'rus, chord, chorog'raphy, cented letters, and ab, ac, ad, the accented sylchyle, an'chor, an'choret, cat'echism, cat'echise,lables. catechet'ical, catechu'men, drach'ma, ech'o, Secondary Accent, is that stress, which, in poechi'nus, ep'och, ep'ocha, i'chor, machina'tion, lysyllables, we place upon another syllable, bemach'inal, mechan'ic, mechan'ical, orches'tra, sides that which has the principal accent, in or'chestre, tech'nical, an'arch, an'archy, conch,order to pronounce every part of the word, more coch'leary, dis'tich, hemis'tich, monos'tich, eu'- distinctly, forcibly, and harmoniously; as on the nuch, mon'arch, monarch'ical, hi'erarch, here'- first syllable of Dem'onstra'tion, and on the siarch, pen'tateuch, stom'ach, stomach'ic,scheme, second of Pronun'cia'tion. school, schol'ar, mas'tich; and wherever it precedes r; as in Chrism, &c. QUANTITY-means a greater or less duraThe Greek prefix arch is pronounced ark be- tion of time taken up in pronouncing a vowel fore a vowel, but artsh before a consonant; as or syllable. When the vowel is long, we acin Archangel, archbishop. In words of our own count the syllable long; but when the vowel composition, it is sometimes pronounced artshis short, we account the syllable so too. before a vowel; as Arch-enemy. It is silent in the words Drachm, schedule, schism, and yacht. Thus All, ale, are accounted long syllables; and Act, strength, short ones. Though the ordinary situation of a long vowel is at the end of a syllable, it may be long at the beginning and We have retained this combination, in the middle of a syllable; as in ârm, mild; and the character j, in marking the compound but, in accented syllables, the vowel can only sounds etsh and edzh, to avoid the uncouth ap-be made short by laying a stress on the followpearance which Mr Sheridan has given to many ing consonant, and consequently uniting it to words by throwing these characters out of his the vowel in the same syllable; as in Ac'id, alphabet; as Cheer, charm, church; Sage, ep'ic, lim'it, hab'it, com'ic. judge, jejune-marked by him, Tshe'r, tsha'rm, tshurtsh; Sa'dzh, dzhudzh, dzhe-dzhoʻn. ** Some of our Grammarians seem to have rather vague notions with respect to Quantity. us, Fe-ver, nev-er; ō-ver, cov-er; ō-ral, mor-al; rō-sy, ros-in, should be differently divided, if the intention of the Syllabication be to assist pronunciation? And, how much a proper Syllabication only may assist pronunciation, Mr Walker has fully shown in THE RHYMING DICTIONARY. This rational mode, therefore, of dividing words, AS THEY ARE PRONOUNCED, is adopted by every Orthoepist of respectability. What may perhaps have contributed to this, to pronounce them Pā-rentage, nā-tural, hēis the impression early formed from most Spell-roine, pē-nalty? Does not the ear tell that ing books, That the NAME-SOUNDS of the Vowels are LONG SOUNDS; whereas they are more generally SHORT, being very seldom Long except in accented syllables: Thus, the vowels are Long in the first syllable of the words Besom, bias, būgle, but Short (although they retain the same quality of sound) in the first syllable of the words Behold, bisect, bureau. Nay, in monosyllables, the quantity sometimes varies in the same word, as in the following sentence; She loves me no more; no! mẽ she despises ; where Me and No are both Short and Long. THE laws of Pronunciation, like every other object of philosophical inquiry, are only to be traced by an attentive observation and enumeration of particulars. bard, bombard'. Cem'ent, cement'; colleague, colleague'; collect, collect'; com'pact, compact'; com'pound, compound'; com press, compress'; con'cert, concert'; con'crete, concrete'; con'duct, conduct'; con'fine, confine'; con'flict, conflict'; con'serve, conserve'; con'sort, consort'; con'test, contest'; con'tract, contract'; con'trast, contrast'; con'verse, converse'; con'vert, convert'; con'vict, convict'. Des'ert, de SYLLABICATION-means a dividing of words into portions, either to point out their etymolo- Thus, by attending to the accentuation of a gy or pronunciation; their etymology, by resolv- number of dissyllables, which are both nouns ing compounds into their simples, and marking (or adjectives) and verbs, we find that the actheir constituent parts; as Theo-logy, ortho- cent is on the initial syllable of the noun (or graphy, mono-tony, astro-nomy: their pronun- adjective), and on the final syllable of the verb; ciation, by dividing them into such partial vix. Ab'ject, abject'; ab'sent, absent'; ab'stract, sounds as when united will exactly form the abstract'; ac'cent, accent'; af'fix, affix'; aug'whole; as, The-ol'o-gy, or-thog'ra-phy, mo-not-ment, augment'; at'tribute, attribute. Bom'o-ny, as-tron'o-my. From this we may see the absurdity of dividing words in the following manner; Ha-bit, pe-ril, ve-ne-rate: for, if we unite these simple impulses of the voice as we do bars of music, we shall naturally be led to pronounce them, when united, as if written Ha'bit, pē'ril, vē'nė-rāte. A short vowel may terminate an unaccented syllable (as in the words A-mong, a-cute, a-void, la-ment, di-vert, di-vest, &c.); but it cannot terminate an ac-sert'; dis'count, discount'; des'cant, descant'; cented one, because in all accented syllables di'gest, digest'. Es'say, essay'; ex'port, export'; containing a short vowel, the accent does not ex'tract, extract'; ex'ile, exile'. Fer'ment, ferfall on the vowel, but on the consonant which ment'; fre'quent, frequent'. Im'port, import'; follows it. The following words are properly in'cense, incense'; in'sult, insult'. Object, obdivided thus, Pa-rent, na-ture, he-ro, pē-nal; [ject'. Per'fume, perfume'; per'mit, permit'; but is it not obvious, that if their derivatives [pre'fix, prefix'; pres'age, presage'; present, Par-entage, nat-ural, her-oine, pen-alty, were present'; prod'uce, produce'; project, project'. divided in the same manner, we should be led ||Reb'el, rebel'; rec ́ord, record'; ref'use, refuse'. Sub'ject, subject'; survey, survey. Tor'ment, || Secondary Accent, though not so generally, torment'; traj'ect, traject'; transfer, transfer'; subjects the vowels to the same rule, but with transport, transport'. And this difference of the same exceptions; as in Dem'onstra'tion, accent produces, in a number of these words, a prod'igal'ity, retrospec'tive; lu'cubra'tion, u'nidifference in the syllabication, and in the sound vers'ity; me'teorology, de'via'tion, &c. or quantity of the vowels; as Cem'ent, cement'; des'ert, dé-sert'; des'cant, de-scant'; di'gest, di-gest'; ex'pòrt, ex-pōrt'; ex'ïle, exile', &c. The following words have a different accent as they are nouns or adjectives; viz. Au'gust, n. august', adj.; com'pact, compact'; con'text, context'; champaign', cham'paign; ex'ile, exile'; gallant', gallant; in'stinct, instinct'; invalid', invalid; Levant', lev'ant; min'ute, minute'; su'pine, supine'. THAT TERMINATION has a considerable influence on accent will appear from the following observations: 1st, Words having ea, eo, eou, or ia, ie, io, iou, in their termination, always have the accent on the preceding syllable; as, Lin'cal, pig'eon, hid'eous, fil'ial, a'lien, pin'ion, te'dious, &c. with the numerous terminations in ion, ial, ian, ious, &c.; as Invā'sion,cohē'sion, provis'ion,explo'sion, confu'sion; mutā'tion, comple'tion, ambition, devō'tion, oblū'tion; provin'Sometimes a difference of accent on the same cial, substan'tial; physic'ian; loqua'cious, propit'parts of speech, marks a difference of significa-ious. And when these terminations are precetion; as Des'ert (a wilderness), desert' (me-ded by a single consonant, every vowel in the rit), Conjure (to practise magic), conjure' (to accented syllable has its long name-sound, exsummon in a sacred name), Buffet (a blow), cept i, which always has its shut sound; as may buffet' (a cupboard), Sin'ister (insidious), sinis'- be observed in the foregoing words. The onter (the left). ly exceptions are Battalion, perpet'ual, impet'uous, espec'ial, discret'ion, rat'ional, natʼional, and their derivatives. 2d, Words terminating in ic or ical have the accent on the preceding syllable, a single consonant shutting every vowel except u; as in Fanat'ic, polem'ic, specif'ic, harmon'ic, cherû'bic; rad'ical, cler'ical, fin'ical, logʻical, mu'sical. The only exceptions are, Arithmetic, bish'opric, chol'eric, ephem'eric, tur'meric, em'piric, rhetoric, lu'natic, splen'etic, her'etic, schism'atic, pol'itic. 3d, Words ending in scence have the penultimate accent, with the preceding vowel shut; as Excres'cence, putres'cence, &c.; Concupiscence being the only exception. 4th, Words ending in ity have the antepenultimate accent, with the preceding vowel long, if no consonant intervene; but a single consonant shuts every preceding vowel, except u; as in De'ity, vacu'ity; seren'ity, divin'ity; impu'nity, &c.; Scarc'ity and rar′ity In a few words, the verb is distinguished from the noun by changing a sharp into a flat consonant; as Advice, advise; device, devise; excuse, &c. Prophecy and prophesy are distinguished by pronouncing the last syllable of the noun sé, and that of the verb sï. WITH regard to polysyllables, it very strikingly appears that the Antepenultimate Accent is the favourite accent of our language; and that every vowel under that accent, except u, is shut by a single consonant, unless that consonant be followed by two vowels; as exemplified in Cab'alist, ded'icate, ev'ident, mel'ody, mon'ument, pen'alty, ven'erate, man'uscript, rid'icule, depop'ulate, experiment, recapit'ulate, insignificant; du'plicate, ju'niper, pu'berty, u'nicorn, fu'neral, commu'nicate; pe'riod, corpo'real, poste'rior, immate'rial, presbyte'rian, &c. And it is worthy of remark, that the |