to leave but little expectation of future improvement;"-and likewise to Mr. Nares, "who, in his Elements of Orthoëpy, has shown a clearness of method and an extent of observation which deserve the highest encomiums. His Preface alone proves him an elegant writer, as well as a philosophical observer of language; and his Alphabetical Index, referring near five thousand words to the rules for pronouncing them, is a new and useful method of treating the subject." Mr. Walker remarks, "Thus I have ventured to give my opinion of my rivals and competitors. Perhaps it would have been policy in me to have been silent on this head, for fear of putting the Publick in mind that others have written on the subject as well as myself:, but this is a narrow policy, which, under the colour of tenderness to others, is calculated to raise ourselves at their expense. A writer, who is conscious he deserves the attention of the Publick, must not only wish to be compared with those who have gone before him, but will promote the comparison, by informing his readers what others have done, and on what he founds his pretensions to a preference; and if this be done with fairness and without acrimony, it can be no more inconsistent with modesty, than it is with honesty and plain dealing. "The work I have offered on the subject has, I hope, added something to the publick stock; as I have endeavoured to unite the science of Mr. Elphinston, the method of Mr. Nares, and the general utility of Mr. Sheridan," PRINCIPLES OF ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION. THE first Principles or Elements of Pronunciation are Letters. The Letters of the English Language are. To these may be added certain combinations of letters sometimes used in printing · as, fl, ff, fi, ffi, ffl, and &, or and per se and, or, rather, et per se and ; ! Our letters, says Dr. Johnson, are commonly reckoned twenty-four, because anciently i and j, as well as u and v, were expressed by the same character; but, as these letters, which had always different powers, have now different forms, our alphabet may be properly said to consist of twenty-six letters. In considering the sounds of these first principles of language, we find, that some are so simple and unmixed, that there is nothing required but the opening of the moutli to make them understood, and to form different sounds; whence they have the names of vowels, or voices, or vocal sounds. On the contrary, we find that there are others, whose pronunciation depends on the particular application and use of every part of the mouth, as the teeth, the lips, the tongue, the palate, &c., which yet cannot make any one perfect sound but by their union with those vocal sounds; and these are called consonants, or letters sounding with other letters. Definition of Vowels and Consonants. Vowels are generally reckoned to be five in number; namely, a, e, i, o, u ; y and w are called vowels when they end a syllable or word, and consonants when they begin one. The definition of a vowel, as little liable to exception as any, seems to be the following: A vowel is a simple sound formed by a continued effusion of the breath, and a certain conformation of the mouth, without any alteration in the position, or any motion of the organs of speech, from the moment the vocal sound commences till it ends. A consonant may be defined to be an interruption of the effusion of vocal sound, arising from the application of the organs of speech to each other. Agreeably to this definition, vowels may be divided into two kinds, the simple and compound. The simple, a, e, o, are those which are formed by one conformation of the organs only; that is, the organs remain exactly in the same position at the end as at the beginning of the letter; whereas, in the compound vowels i and u, the organs alter their position before the letter is completely sounded; nay, these letters, when commencing a syllable, do not only require a different position of the organs in order to form them perfectly, but demand such an application of the tongue to the roof of the mouth, as is inconsistent with the nature of a pure vowel; for the first of these letters, i, when sounded alone, or ending a syllable with the accent upon it, is a real diphthong, composed of the sounds of a in father, and of e in the, exactly correspondent to the sound of the noun eye; and, when this letter com mences a syllable, as in min-ion, pin-ion, &c., the sound of e, with which it terminates, is squeezed into a consonant sound, like the ee heard in queen, different from the simple sound of that letter in quean; and this squeezed sound in the commencing i makes it exactly similar to y in the same situation; which, by all grammarians, is acknowledged to be a consonant. The latter of these compound vowels, u, when initial, and not shortened by a consonant. commences with this squeezed sound of e, equivalent to the y, and ends with a sound given to oo in woo and coo, which makes its name in the alphabet exactly similar to the pronoun you. If, therefore, the common definition of a vowel be just, these two letters are so far from being simple vowels, that they may more properly be called semi-consonant diphthongs. That y and w are consonants when they begin a word, and vowels when they end one, is generally acknowledged by the best grammarians; and yet Dr. Lowth has told us, that w is equivalent to oo; but, if this were the case, it would always admit of the particle an before it: for, though we have no word in the language which commences with these letters, we plainly perceive, that, if we had such a word, it would readily admit of an before it, and, consequently, that these letters are not equivalent to w. Thus we find, that the common opinion, with respect to the double capacity of these letters, is perfectly just. Besides the vowels already mentioned, there is another simple vowel sound found under the oo in the words woo and coo; these letters have, in these two words, every property of a pure vowel; but when found in food, mood, &c., and in the word too, pronounced like the adjective two, here the oo has a squeezed sound, occasioned by contracting the mouth, so as to make the lips nearly touch each other; and this makes it, like the i and u, not so much a double vowel, as a sound between a vowel and a consonant. Classification of Vowels and Consonants. Vowels and consonants being thus defined, it will be necessary, in the next place, to arrange them into such classes as their similitudes and specifick differences seem to require. Letters, therefore, are naturally divisible into vowels and consonants The consonants are b, c, d, f, g, h, j, k, l, m, n, p, q, r, s, t, v, x, z, and y and w when beginning a syllable. . The vowels may be subdivided into such as are simple and pure, and into such as are compound and impure. The simple or pure vowels are such as require only one conformation of the organs to form them, and no motion in the organs while forming. The compound or impure vowels are such as require more than one con formation of the organs to form them, and a motion in the organs while form ing. These observations premised, we may call the following scheme Consonants enumerated and distinguished into Classes. The consonants are divisible into mutes, semi-vowels, and liquids. The mutes are such as emit no sound without a vowel, as, b, p, t, d, k, and and g hard. The semi-vowels are such as emit a sound without the concurrence of a vowel, as f, v, 8, z, x, g soft or j. The liquids are such as flow into, or unite easily with the mutes, as l, m, n, r. But, besides these, there is another classification of the consonants, of great importance to a just idea of the nature of the letters, and that is, into such as are sharp or flat, and simple or aspirated. The sharp consonants are p, f, t, s, k, c hard. The flat consonants are b, v, d, z, g hard. The simple consonants are those which have always the sound of one letter, unmixed with others, as, b, p. f, v, k, g hard, and g soft, or j. The mixed or aspirated consonants are those which have sometimes a hiss |