A Grammar of the English Tongue | Page 3

sow, grow. These different sounds are used to distinguish different significations: as bow an instrument for shooting; bow, a depression of the head; sow, the she of a boar; sow, to scatter seed; bowl, an orbicular body; bowl, a wooden vessel.
Ou is sometimes pronounced like o soft, as court; sometimes like o short, as cough; sometimes like u close, as could; or u open, as rough, tough, which use only can teach.
Ou is frequently used in the last syllable of words which in Latin end in or and are made English, as honour, labour, favour, from honor, labor, favor.
Some late innovators have ejected the u, without considering that the last syllable gives the sound neither of or nor ur, but a sound between them, if not compounded of both; besides that they are probably derived to us from the French nouns in eur, as honeur, faveur.
U.
U is long in [=u]se, conf[=u]sion; or short, as [)u]s, conc[)u]ssion.
It coalesces with a, e, i, o; but has rather in these combinations the force of the w consonant, as quaff, quest, quit, quite, languish; sometimes in ui the i loses its sound, as in juice. It is sometimes mute before a, e, i, y, as guard, guest, guise, buy.
U is followed by e in virtue, but the e has no sound.
Ue is sometimes mute at the end of a word, in imitation of the French, as prorogue, synagogue, plague, vague, harangue.
Y.
Y is a vowel, which, as Quintilian observes of one of the Roman letters, we might want without inconvenience, but that we have it. It supplies the place of i at the end of words, as thy, before an i, as dying; and is commonly retained in derivative words where it was part of a diphthong, in the primitive; as, destroy, destroyer; betray, betrayed, betrayer; pray, prayer; say, sayer; day, days.
Y being the Saxon vowel y, which was commonly used where i is now put, occurs very frequently in all old books.
GENERAL RULES.
A vowel in the beginning or middle syllable, before two consonants, is commonly short, as [)o]pp[)o]rtunity.
In monosyllables a single vowel before a single consonant is short; as stag, frog.
Many is pronounced as if it were written manny.
* * * * *
OF CONSONANTS.
B.
B has one unvaried sound, such as it obtains in other languages.
It is mute in debt, debtor, subtle, doubt, lamb, limb, dumb, thumb, climb, comb, womb.
It is used before l and r, as black, brown.
C.
C has before e and i the sound of s; as sincerely, centrick, century, circular, cistern, city, siccity: before a, o, and u, it sounds like k, as calm, concavity, copper, incorporate, curiosity, concupiscence.
C might be omitted in the language without loss, since one of its sounds might be supplied by, s, and the other by k, but that it preserves to the eye the etymology of words, as face from facies, captive from captivus.
Ch has a sound which is analyzed into tsh, as church, chin, crutch. It is the same sound which the Italians give to the c simple before i and e, as citta, cerro.
Ch is sounded like k in words derived from the Greek, as chymist, scheme, choler. Arch is commonly sounded ark before a vowel, as archangel, and with the English sound of ch before a consonant, as archbishop.
Ch, in some French words not yet assimilated, sounds like sh, as machine, chaise.
C, according to English orthography, never ends a word; therefore we write stick, block, which were originally, sticke, blocke. In such words c is now mute.
It is used before l and r, as clock, cross.
D.
Is uniform in its sound, as death, diligent.
It is used before r, as draw, dross; and w as dwell.
F.
F, though having a name beginning with a vowel, is numbered by the grammarians among the semivowels, yet has this quality of a mute, that it is commodiously sounded before a liquid, as flask, fry, freckle. It has an unvariable sound, except that of is sometimes spoken nearly as ov.
G.
G has two sounds; one hard, as in gay, go, gun; the other soft, as in gem, giant.
At the end of a word it is always hard, as ring, snug, song, frog.
Before e and i the sound is uncertain.
G before e is soft, as gem, generation, except in gear, geld, geese, get, gewgaw, and derivatives from words ending in g, as singing, stronger, and generally before er at the ends of words, as finger.
G is mute before n, as gnash, sign, foreign.
G before i is hard, as give, except in giant, gigantick, gibbet, gibe, giblets, Giles, gill, gilliflower, gin, ginger, gingle, to which may be added Egypt and gypsy.
Gh in the beginning of a word has the sound of the hard g, as ghostly; in the middle, and sometimes at the end, it is quite silent, as though, right, sought, spoken