bully, bullet, bulwark, fuller, fullingmill, pulley, pullet, push, bush, bushel, pulpit, puss, butcher, cushion, cuckoo, pudding, sugar, huzzar, and put.

Put is only pronounced in this way when it is a verb. The game of put and the village of Putney have the u sounded as in but. So has putty.

Bullion is placed by Walker in the foregoing list. The present writer would sound the u as in but.

§ 82. In the word bury the u is sounded as the e in bed. In busy, as the i in pin.

83. Y. The sounds of y fall into two divisions-its power as a semivowel, and its power as a vowel.

As a semivowel it has one sound only-that of the y in yet.

As a vowel it has three-1, that of the ee in feet; 2, that of the i in pine; 3, that of the i in pin.

$84. When y precedes a single consonant followed by an e mute, it has the sound of the i in fine-as rhyme, thyme. However, in this position it occurs only in words of foreign (chiefly of Greek) origin.

§ 85. It is only, too, in words of foreign (chiefly Greek) origin that y occurs with the sound of the i in pin-as system, syntax, pronounced sistem, sintax.

§ 86. Of its two long sounds, y has the i in pine, when the syllable in which it occurs is accented; as cyder, tyrant, reply. It has that of the ee in feet when the syllable is un-accented; asliberty, fury, tenderly. The only exception is in the case of verbs ending in ƒy, from the Latin fi = to become, such as mólli-fy, fórti-fy, where the y although unaccented is sounded as the i in pine.

Besides these details, notice must be taken of the two departures from the strict orthography which are, perhaps, of more prominence in the English than in any other language.

I. The indefinite character of the vowel in unaccented syllables.— As long as the syllable is accented the power of the vowel is distinct, although, in many cases, it may be difficult to determine by rule the particular power which should be given. Unaccented vowels, however, are sometimes changed, sometimes slurred over altogether. When changed, the sound taken is either that of the u in but or of the i in pin.

a. Change to the sound of the u in but." If the accent be kept strongly on the first syllable of the word tolerable, as it always ought to be, we find scarcely any distinguishable difference to the ear if we substitute u or o instead of a in the penultimate syllable; thus-tolerable, tolorable, or toleruble, are exactly the same word to the ear, if pronounced without premeditation or transposing the accent. Thus, the word man, when not under the accent, might be written mun in nobleman, husbandman, woman, and tertian and quartan, as tertiun, quartun, &c. The same observation will hold good in almost every final syllable where a is not accented— -as medal, dial, giant, bias, &c., defiance, temperance, &c. But when the final syllable ends in age, ate, or ace, the a goes into a somewhat different sound."—WALKER, Pronouncing Dictionary.

b. Change to the sound of the i in pin.—In the a of numerous words like cabbage, adage, marriage, &c., this takes place—cabbige, adige, marrige, &c. In the plural termination spelt es, it has already been seen that the real sound is iz-prais-es, praiz-iz. With e before a final unaccented / or n, the vowel sound is often scarcely perceptible at all; words like weazel and harden being sounded weaz'l, hard'n.

When i is in an unaccented syllable followed by a consonant it is difficult to determine whether it has the sound of i in pine, or that of i in pin. Thus, a word like fidelity may be either fi-delity or fid-elity. In the following cases it is always diphthongal—

1. Compounds of bi, as bi-capsular, bi-corporal, bi-pennate, &c. 2. Compounds of tri, as tri-corporal, tri-gintesimal, &c. 3. Words beginning with pri, as primeval, primordial,-except primer and primitive.

In most-probably in all-other words either sound is allowable. When i is in an unaccented syllable followed by a vowel, it is doubtful whether it has the sound of i in pine, or of the ee in feet. The former sound, however, is preferable-di-urnal, di-ameter, &c., not de-urnal, de-amiter.

II. The effect of r upon a short e or i preceding.-Between the e in bed, the i in pin, and the u in but followed by r there is no difference of sound; all three being pronounced alike—i.e. as u. Thus-"fir, a tree, is perfectly similar to the first syllable of ferment. Sir and stir are exactly pronounced as if written sur and stur."-WALKER.

III. More important, however, are certain changes both undergone and effected by the sound of the letter i in words like million; which not only becomes altered itself but acts as a cause of alteration upon certain consonants preceding it.

When it follows a consonant and precedes a vowel it has a strong tendency to become a semivowel, and to take the sound of y, especially if the syllable preceding be accented-míllion, pínion, pronounced mill-yon, pin-yon.

This tendency is different with different consonants.

With the vowel undergoes no change at all. Words like vitreous are pronounced as trisyllables-vit-re-ous; since such a combination as vitryous would be unpronounceable.

With k it is seldom, perhaps, never, found.

With g sounded as in gun it is also rare, since its proper effect is to convert that sound into the sound of j, dzh.

In the first place the

place; i.e. the vowel Hence a combination The change, however,

With S, its effects are remarkable. change in question almost always takes becomes a semivowel, or i becomes y. which was originally sia, becomes sya. does not stop here. The sound of the combination sy almost always alters to that of sh, so that sya becomes sha; syee, shee; syi, shy; syo, sho; and syu, shu.

With t, preceding, the change goes further still. The vowel becomes a semivowel, so that tia, tie, tio, tiu, &c., become tya, tye, tyo, tyu, &c. Then the sound of the combination ty, becomes that of tsh. Hence tya becomes tsha; tye, tshee; tya, tshi; tyo, tsho; tyu, tshu.

Thus the tendency of i to become y and of y to change the sound of certain consonants when they precede it is the key to a series of apparent anomalies in the English spelling; and we may now see the principle in the pronunciation of certain words ending in -ous.

In words like anxious, the change was, first, from an -si-ous, to ang-syous, and then from ang-syous to ang-shous.

In words like precious, the change was the same; since the c had the sound of s, and consequently, was similarly affected-presi-ous, pres-yous, preshous.

The words like station the same; since the sound of t was the sound of s, &c.—stas-i-on, sta-syon, sta-shon.

In words like righteous we find the same; the series of changes being right-e-ous, right-yous, righ-tshous.

This explains the principle of this very remarkable change; concerning which three remarks have yet to be made.

1. That it is only when

has the power of the ee in feet, that it thus changes itself, and effects changes in the sounds that precede. When sounded as the i in pine it always constitutes a separate syllable; di-a-mond, di-al, vi-al, &c. These never are likely to become dyamond, dyal, vyal, &c.

Hence the combination -eou is subject to the same rules with the combination -iou.

2. Where s becomes sh, z becomes as zh. This is why words like gla-zi-er, and gra-zi-er, are sounded gla-zher, and gra-zher, the process being gla-zi-er, gla-zyer, gla-zher, &c.

3. Where t becomes tsh, d becomes dzh. This is why words like hid-e-ous, are pronounced like hi-dzhous (hijjous)—hi-de-ous, hid-yous, hi-dzhous.

Hence there are three ways of pronouncing a word like tedious-1, ted-i-ous; 2, te-dyous; 3, te-dzhous, to which may be added, 4, tedzh-yous, and tedzh-i-ous.

In respect to propriety, all that can be said is that the first represents the word in the most theoretically correct form, the third shows the form to which the processes of change in language. are determining it.

Furthermore the sound of the ew in new, (or of the ue in sue) is connected with that of the unaccented i; since, by a series of changes, it often has the same effect upon a preceding consonant. It often becomes yoo; so that words like new and sue may be sounded as nyoo, and syoo. In this case the sound of y is developed, and this, when preceded by s, z, t, or d, has the same effects as a y produced by any other process; i.e. it changes them into sh, zh, tsh, and dzh. This explains why sugar is sounded shugar; nature, na-tsher; ver-dure, ver-dzhur, &c.; the u having changed in sound, from ew to yoo (na-tewr, na-tyoor, na-tshoor, na-tsher).

DOUBLE VOWELS.

§ 87. AA. Double a is found only in certain proper names, chiefly of Hebrew origin, as Aaron, Baal.

$88. EE. Double ee, without an apostrophe, has only one sound, that of the ee in feet. In e'er, and ne'er, contracted from ever and never, and with an apostrophe to indicate the loss of the it is pronounced as the a in fate.

v,

Exception. In one word ee has the sound of the i in pin, i.e. in breeches, and breech, pronounced britches, and britch. Chizcake for cheesecake exceptionable. Beelzebub, is more correctly sounded Beelzebub. Belzebub, Beelzebub' are sufficiently English.

89. 00. The usual sound of oo is that of the oo in cool; which is, really, no modification of o, but the long sound of the u in full.

Besides this it has the following three

1. Of the u in full; as wool, wood, good, foot, stood.

2. Of the u in but; as blood, flood, soot.

3. Of the o in prove; as door, floor.

Moor a black man, is sometimes sounded more, sometimes as it is spelt. Soot, also, is sometimes pronounced as it is spelt. $ 90. I, U, and Y, are never doubled.

mas.

COMBINATIONS OF TWO DIFFERENT VOWELS.

91. AE has the sound of the e in bed; as Michael, Michael

§ 92. AI has the sound of the a in fate; as hail, sail, tail, stain, &c.

Exception 1.-The words said, again, and against. Here the ai is pronounced as e.

Exception 2.-The word aisle. This is sounded ile.

Walker draws a distinction between said as a tense, and said as a participle; stating that in the first case it rhymes to bed, in the second to trade; as he said (sed), but the said (sade) man.

Plaid is pronounced two ways; either to rhyme with mad or with trade.

When Walker wrote, raillery was considered as a rhyme to salary. It is doubtful whether such is the case now; the general sound of the ai being more probably that of the a in fate. In which case it coincides with the spelling.

1 With the ee as in feet.