The Grammar of English Grammars, Goold Brown [ebook reader for manga txt] 📗

liquid, capable of an audible, humming sound through the nose, when the mouth is closed. It is heard in map, murmur, mammon. In the old words, compt, accompt, comptroller, (for count, account, controller,) the m is sounded as n. M before n, at the beginning of a word, is silent; as in Mnason, Mnemosyne, mnemonics. XIV. OF THE LETTER N.

The consonant N, which is also a semivowel and a liquid, has two sounds;—the first, the pure and natural sound of n; as in nun, banner, cannon;—the second, the ringing sound of ng, heard before certain gutturals; as in think, mangle, conquer, congress, singing, twinkling, Cen'chreä. The latter sound should be carefully preserved in all words ending in ing, and in such others as require it. The sounding of the syllable ing as if it were in, is a vulgarism in utterance; and the writing of it so, is, as it would seem by the usage of Burns, a Scotticism.

N final preceded by m, is silent; as in hymn, solemn, column, damn, condemn, autumn. But this n becomes audible in an additional syllable; as in autumnal, condemnable, damning.

XV. OF THE LETTER O.

The vowel O has three different sounds, which are properly its own:—

1. The open, full, primal, or long o; as in no, note, opiate, opacity, Roman.

2. The close, curt, short, or stopped o; as in not, nor, torrid, dollar, fondle.

3. The slender or narrow o, like oo; as in prove, move, who, to, do, tomb.

O, in many words, sounds like close or curt u; as in love, shove, son, come, nothing, dost, attorney, gallon, dragon, comfit, comfort, coloration. One is pronounced wun; and once, wunce. In the termination on immediately after the accent, o is often sunk into a sound scarcely perceptible, like that of obscure e; as in mason, person, lesson.

DIPHTHONGS BEGINNING WITH O.

Oa, an improper diphthong, has the sound of open or long o; as in boat, coal, roach, coast, coastwise: except in broad and groat, which have the sound of broad a.

Oe, an improper diphthong, when final, has the sound of open or long o: as in doe, foe, throe: except in canoe, shoe, pronounced canoo, shoo. OE, a Latin diphthong, generally sounds like open e; as in Antoeci, foetus: sometimes, like close or curt e; as in foetid, foeticide. But the English word f~etid is often, and perhaps generally, written without the o.

Oi is generally a proper diphthong, uniting the sound of close o or broad a, and that of open e; as in boil, coil, soil, rejoice. But the vowels, when they appear together, sometimes belong to separate syllables; as in Stoic, Stoicism. Oi unaccented, sometimes has the sound of close or curt i; as in avoirdupois, connoisseur, tortoise.

Oo, an improper diphthong, generally has the slender sound of o; as in coo, too, woo, fool, room. It has, in some words, a shorter or closer sound, (like that of u in bull,) as in foot, good, wood, stood, wool;—that of close u in blood and flood;—and that of open o in door and floor. Derivatives from any of these, sound as their primitives.

Ou is generally a proper diphthong, uniting the sound of close or curt o, and that of u as heard in bull,—or u sounded as oo; as in bound, found, sound, ounce, thou. Ou is also, in certain instances, an improper diphthong; and, as such, it has six different sounds:—(l.) That of close or curt u; as in rough, tough, young, flourish. (2.) That of broad a; as in ought, bought, thought. (3.) That of open or long o; as in court, dough, four, though. (4.) That of close or curt o; as in cough, trough, lough, shough: which are, I believe, the only examples. (5.) That of slender o, or oo; as in soup, you, through. (6.) That of u in bull, or of oo shortened; only in would, could, should.

Ow generally sounds like the proper diphthong ou,—or like a union of short o with oo; as in brown, dowry, now, shower: but it is often an improper diphthong, having only the sound of open or long o; as in know, show, stow.

Oy is a proper diphthong, equivalent in sound to oi; as in joy, toy, oyster.

TRIPHTHONGS BEGINNING WITH O.

OEu is a French triphthong, pronounced in English as oo, and occurring in the word manoeuvre, with its several derivatives. Owe is an improper triphthong, and an English word, in which the o only is heard, and heard always with its long or open sound.

XVI. OF THE LETTER P.

The consonant P, when not written before h, has commonly one peculiar sound; which is heard in pen, pine, sup, supper. The word cupboard is usually pronounced kubburd. P, written with an audible consonant, is sometimes itself silent; as in psalm, psalter, pseudography, psychology, ptarmigan, ptyalism, receipt, corps.

Ph generally sounds like f; as in philosophy. In Stephen and nephew, ph has the sound of v. The h after p, is silent in diphthong, triphthong, naphtha, ophthalmic; and both the p and the h are silent in apophthegm, phthisis, phthisical. From the last three words, ph is sometimes dropped.

XVII. OF THE LETTER Q.

The consonant Q, being never silent, never final, never doubled, and not having a sound peculiar to itself, is invariably heard, in English, with the power of k; and is always followed by the vowel u, which, in words purely English, is sounded like the narrow o, or oo,—or, perhaps, is squeezed into the consonantal sound of w;—as in queen, quaver, quiver, quarter, request. In some words of French origin, the u after q is silent; as in coquet, liquor, burlesque, etiquette.

XVIII. OF THE LETTER R.

The consonant R, called also a semivowel and a liquid, has usually, at the beginning of a word, or before a vowel, a rough or pretty strong sound; as in roll, rose, roam, proudly, prorogue. "In other positions," it is said by many to be "smooth" or "soft;" "as in hard, ford, word."—W. Allen.

OBSERVATIONS.

OBS. 1.—The letter R turns the tip of the tongue up against or towards the roof of the mouth, where the sound may be lengthened, roughened, trilled, or quavered. Consequently, this element may, at the will of the speaker, have more or less—little or nothing, or even very much—of that peculiar roughness, jar, or whur, which is commonly said to constitute the sound. The extremes should here be avoided. Some readers very improperly omit the sound of r from many words to which it pertains; pronouncing or as awe, nor as knaw, for as faugh, and war as the first syllable of water. On the other hand, "The excessive trilling of the r, as practised by some speakers, is a great fault."—D. P. Page.

OBS. 2.—Dr. Johnson, in his "Grammar of the English Tongue," says, "R has the same rough snarling sound as in other tongues."—P. 3. Again, in his Quarto Dictionary, under this letter, he says, "R is called the canine letter, because it is uttered with some resemblance to the growl or snarl of a cur: it has one constant sound in English, such as it has in other languages; as, red, rose, more, muriatick." Walker, however, who has a greater reputation as an orthoepist [sic—KTH], teaches that, "There is a distinction in the sound of this letter, which is," says he, "in my opinion, of no small importance; and that is, the [distinction of] the rough and [the] smooth r. Ben Jonson," continues he, "in his Grammar, says, 'It is sounded firm in the beginning of words, and more liquid in the middle and ends, as in rarer, riper; and so in the Latin.' The rough r is formed by jarring the tip of the tongue against the roof of the mouth near the fore teeth: the smooth r is a vibration of the lower part of the tongue, near the root, against the inward region of the palate, near the entrance of the throat."—Walker's Principles, No. 419; Octavo Dict., p. 48.

OBS. 3.—Wells, with his characteristic indecision, forbears all recognition of this difference, and all intimation of the quality of the sound, whether smooth or rough; saying, in his own text, only this: "R has the sound heard in rare."—School Grammar, p. 40. Then, referring the student to sundry authorities, he adds in a footnote certain "quotations," that are said to "present a general view of the different opinions which exist among orthoepists respecting this letter." And so admirably are these authorities or opinions balanced and offset, one class against an other, that it is hard to tell which has the odds. First, though it is not at all probable that Wells's utterance of "rare" exhibits twice over the rough snarl of Johnson's r, the "general view" seems intended to confirm the indefinite teaching above, thus: "'R has one constant sound in English.'—Johnson. The same view is adopted by Webster, Perry, Kendrick, Sheridan, Jones, Jameson, Knowles, and others."—School Grammar, p. 40. In counterpoise of these, Wells next cites about as many more—namely, Frazee, Page, Russell, Walker, Rush, Barber, Comstock, and Smart,—as maintaining or admitting that r has sometimes a rough sound, and sometimes a smoother one.

XIX. OF THE LETTER S.

The consonant S has a sharp, hissing, or hard sound; as in sad, sister, thus: and a flat, buzzing, or soft sound, like that of z; as in rose, dismal, bosom, husband. S, at the beginning of words, or after any of the sharp consonants, is always sharp; as in see, steps, cliffs, sits, stocks, smiths. S, after any of the flat mutes, or at the end of words when not preceded by a sharp consonant, is generally flat; as in eyes, trees, beds, bags, calves. But in the English termination ous, or in the Latin us, it is sharp; as joyous, vigorous, hiatus.

Ss is generally sharp; as in pass, kiss, harass, assuage, basset, cassock, remissness. But the first two Esses in possess, or any of its regular derivatives, as well as the two in dissolve, or its proximate kin, sound like two Zees; and the soft or flat sound is commonly given to each s in hyssop, hussy, and hussar. In scissel, scissible, and scissile, all the Esses hiss;—in scissors, the last three of the four are flat, like z;—but in the middle of scissure and scission we hear the sound of zh.

S, in the termination sion, takes the sound of sh, after a consonant; as in aspersion, session, passion, mission, compulsion: and that of zh, after a vowel; as in evasion, elision, confusion.

In the verb assure, and each of its derivatives, also in the nouns pressure and fissure, with their derivatives, we hear, according to Walker, the sound of sh for each s, or twice in each word; but, according to the orthoëpy of Worcester, that sound is heard only in the accented syllable of each word, and the vowel in each unaccented syllable is obscure.

S is silent or mute in the words, isle, island, aisle, demesne, corps, and viscount.

XX. OF THE LETTER T.

The general sound of the consonant T, is heard in time, letter, set. T, immediately after the accent, takes the sound of tch, before u, and generally also before eou; as in nature, feature, virtue, righteous, courteous: when s or x precedes, it takes this sound before ia or io; as in fustian, bastion, mixtion. But the general or most usual sound of t after the accent, when followed by i and an other vowel, is that of sh; as in creation, patient, cautious.

In English, t is seldom, if ever, silent or powerless. In depot, however, a word borrowed from the French, we do not sound it; and in chestnut, which is a compound of our own, it is much oftener written than heard. In often and soften, some think it silent; but it seems rather to take here the sound of f. In chasten, hasten, fasten, castle, nestle, whistle, apostle, epistle, bustle, and similar words, with their sundry derivatives, the t is said by some to be mute; but here it seems to take the sound of s; for, according to the best authorities, this sound is beard twice in such words. Th, written in Greek by the character called Theta, ([Greek: th] or O capital, [Greek: th] or [Greek: th] small,) represents an elementary sound; or, rather, two distinct elementary sounds, for which the Anglo-Saxons had different characters, supposed by Dr. Bosworth to have been applied with accurate discrimination of "the hard or sharp sound of th," from "the soft or flat sound."—(See Bosworth's Compendious Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, p. 268.) The English th is either sharp,