The Art of Writing Speaking the English Language | Page 9

syllable, as in yet; at the end of a syllable y
becomes a vowel sound, as in they or only. In the syllable twelfths we
find seven consonant sounds; but if these same letters were arranged in
almost any other way they could not be pronounced as one syllable---as
for instance wtelthfs.
A word consists of one or more syllables to which some definite
meaning is attached.
The difficulties of spelling and pronunciation arise largely from the fact
that in English twenty-six letters must do duty for some forty-two
sounds, and even then several of the letters are unnecessary, as for
instance c, which has either the sound of s or of k; x, which has the
sound either of ks, gs, or z; q, which in the combination qu has the
sound of kw. All the vowels represent from two to seven sounds each,
and some of the consonants interchange with each other.
The Sounds of the Vowels.---(1) Each of the vowels has what is called
a long sound and a short sound. It is important that these two sets of
sounds be fixed clearly in the mind, as several necessary rules of
spelling depend upon them. In studying the following table, note that
the long sound is marked by a s t r a i g h t l i n e o v{colon : aft}er the
letter, and the short sound by a c u{g}r{a}ve {accent mark ` }.
Long Short a:te a`t ga:ve ma`n na:me ba`g

the:se pe`t m:e te`n (com)ple:te bre`d
ki:te si`t ri:ce mi`ll li:me ri`p
no:te no`t ro:de ro`d so:le To`m
cu:re bu`t cu:te ru`n (a)bu:se cru`st
scy:the (like)ly`
If we observe the foregoing list of words we shall see that each of the
words containing a long vowel followed by a single consonant sound
ends in silent e. After the short vowels there is no silent e. In each case
in which we have the silent e there is a single long vowel followed by a
single consonant, or two consonants combining to form a single sound,
as th in scythe. Such words as roll, toll, etc., ending in double l have no
silent e though the vowel is long; and such words as great, meet, pail,
etc., in which two vowels combine with the sound of one, take no silent
e at the end. We shall consider these exceptions more fully later; but a
single long vowel followed by a single consonant always takes silent e
at the end. As carefully stated in this way, the rule has no exceptions.
The reverse, however, is not always true, for a few words containing a
short vowel followed by a single consonant do take silent e; but there
are very few of them. The principal are have, give, {(I) }live, love,
shove, dove, above; also none, some, come, and some words in three or
more syllables, such as domicile.
2. Beside the long and short sounds of the vowels there are several
other vowel sounds.
A has two other distinct sounds:
ª broad, like aw, as in all, talk, etc.
ä Italian, like ah, as in far, father, etc.
Double o has two sounds different from long or short o alone:
long ºo: as in room, soon, mood, etc.

short ºo`, as in good, took, wood, etc.
Ow has a sound of its own, as in how, crowd, allow, etc.; and ou
sometimes has the same sound, as in loud, rout, bough, etc.
(Ow and ou are also sometimes sounded like long o, as in own, crow,
pour, etc., and sometimes have still other sounds, as ou in bought).
Oi and oy have a distinct sound of their own, as in oil, toil, oyster, void,
boy, employ, etc.
Ow and oi are called proper diphthongs, as the two vowels combine to
produce a sound different from either, while such combinations as ei,
ea, ai, etc., are called improper diphthongs (or digraphs), because they
have the sound of one or other of the simple vowels.
3. In the preceding paragraphs we have given all the distinct vowel
sounds of the language, though many of them are slightly modified in
certain combinations. But in many cases one vowel will be given the
sound of another vowel, and two or more vowels will combine with a
variety of sounds. These irregularities occur chiefly in a few hundred
common words, and cause the main difficulties of spelling the English
language. The following are the leading substitutes:
ew with the sound of u long, as in few, chew, etc. (perhaps this may be
considered a proper diphthong);
e (ê, é) with the sound of a long, as in fête, abbé, and all foreign words
written with an accent, especially French words;
i with the sound of e long, as in