15

PRINCIPLES OF ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION.

1.

THE First Principles or Elements of Pro- tion and use of every part of the mouth, as the

T .

Tt

tee

U u

U u

u, or you

V v

V v

Ww

W w

X x X x

eks

Y y

Y y

wy

v consonant, or vee.
double u

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 sound ing with other letters.

Definition of Vowels and Consonants.

5. Vowels are generally reckened to be five in number: namely, a, e, i, o, u;—y and w are called vowels when they end a syllable or I word, and consonants when they begin one.

6. 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 of the position, or any motion of the organs of speech, from the moment the vocal sound commences till it ends.

7. 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.

8. 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 2. To these may be added certain combina-i and u, the organs alter their position before tions of letters sometimes used in printing; as ff, fi, fl, ffi, ffl, and &, or and per se and, or rather et per se and; ff, fi, f, ffi, fl, and &.

Z z Z z

zed, or izzard, 418.

the letter is completely sounded: nay, these letters, when commencing a syllable, do not only require a different position of the organs 3. Our letters, says Dr. Jobnson, are com- in order to form them perfectly, but demand monly reckoned twenty-four, because anciently such an application of the tongue to the roof i andj, as well as u and r, were expressed by of the mouth, as is inconsistent with the nature the same character; but as these letters, which of a pure vowel; for the first of these letters, had always different powers, have now differ-i, when sounded alone, or ending a syllable ent forms, our alphabet may be properly said to consist of twenty-six letters.

4. 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 mouth 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 applica

with the accent upon it, is a real diphthong, composed of the sounds of a in fu-ther, and of e in the, exactly correspondent to the sound of the noun eye; and when this letter commences 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 double e 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 pronouu you.+ If, therefore, the common definition of a vowel be just, these two letters are so far from being simple vowels, that they may be more properly called semi-consonant diphthongs.

9. 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.

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.

11. Vowels and consonants being thus defined, it will be necessary, in the next place, to arrange them into such classes as their similitudes and specific differences seem to require.

12. Letters, therefore, are naturally divisible into vowels and consonants.

13. The vowels are, a, e, i, o, u; and y and w when ending a syllable.

14. 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.

15. 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.

An Analogical Table of the Vowels.

16. The compound or impure vowels are such as require more than one conformation of the organs to form them, and a motion in 10. Besides the vowels already mentioned, the organs while forming. These observations there is another simple vowel sound found un-premised, we may call the following scheme der 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

How so accurate a grammarian as Dr. Lowth could pronounce so definitively on the nature of y, and insist on its being always a vowel, can only be accounted for by considering the small attention which is generally paid to this part of grammar. His words are these:

"The same sound which we express by the initial y, our Saxon ancestors in many instances expressed by the vowel e; as cower, your; and by the vowel i; as iw, yew; iong, young. In the word yew the initial y has precisely the same sound with i in the words view, lieu, adieu; the i is acknowledged to be a vowel in these latter; how then can the y, which has the very same sound. possibly be a consonant in the former? Its initial sound is generally like that of i in shire, or ee nearly; it is formed by the opening of the mouth without any motion or contract of the parts: in a word, it has every property of a vowel, and not one of a consonant." Introduction to English Grammar, page 3.

Thus far the learned bishop; who has too fixed a fame to suffer any diminution by a mistake in so trifling a part of literature as this: but it may be asked, if y has every property of a vowel, and not one of a consonant, why, when it begins a word, does it not admit the cuphonic artiele an before it?

a pa-per,
a fa-ther,
a wa-ter,
e me-tre,

no-ble,
.coo,

00..

i..ti-tle,
y cy-der,

simple
or pure
vowels.

compound or impure

u lu-cid,

vowels.

w pow-er,

buy, law, io passion, aye. (for ever,) say, oa.... coat, eau... beauty, clean, oe. oeconomy, eou. plenteous, reed, oi... . voice, ieu. . . . adieu, ei... ceiling, oo.... moon, iew. . . . view, people, ou... found, oeu manoeuvre. feud, ow.... now,

oe....

eo...
eu....

Consonants enumerated and distinguished into
Classes.

18. The consonants are divisible into mutes, semi-vowels, and liquids.

An ignorance of the real composition ofu, and a want of knowing that it partook of the nature of a consonant, has occasioned a great diversity and uncertainty in prefixing the indefinite article an before it. Our ancestors, judg ing of its nature from its name, never suspected that it was not a pure vowel, and constantly prefixed the article an before nouns beginning with this letter; as an union, an useful book. They were confirmed in this opinion by finding the an always adapted to the short u, as an umpire, an umbrella, without ever dreaming that the short u is a pure Vowel, and essentially different from the long one. the moderns, not resting in the name of a letter, and consulting their ears rather than their eyes, have frequently placed the a instead of an before the long u, and we have seen a union, a university, a useful bock, from some of the most respectable pens of the present age. Nor can we doubt a moment of the propriety of this orthography, when we reflect that these words actually begin to the earf,

But

with y, and might be spelled younion, youniversity, youseful, and can therefore no more admit of an before them than year and youth.-See Remarks on the word An in this Dictionary.

19. The mutes are such as emit no sound without a vowel, as b, p, t, d, k, and c and g hard.

20. The semi-vowels are such as emit a Sound without the concurrence of a vowel, as, v, s, z, ¿', g soft or j.

21. The liquids are such as flow into, cr unite easily with the mutes, as, l, m, n, r.

22. But, besides these, there is another clas- which are formed by a greater or less expan sification of the consonants, of great import-sion of the internal parts of the mouth.

ance to a just idea of the nature of the letters, and that is, into such as are sharp or flat, and simple or aspirated.

33. The German a heard in ball, wall, &c. is formed by a strong and grave expression of the breath through the mouth, which is open

23. The sharp consonants are p, f, t, s, k, nearly in a circular form, while the tongue, c hard.

24. The flat consonants are, b, v, d, z, g hard. 25. 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.

contracting itself to the root, as if to make way for the sound, almost rests upon the under jaw.

34. The Italian a, heard in fa-ther, closes the mouth a little more than the German a; and by raising the lower jaw, widening the tongue, and advancing it a little nearer to the lips, renders its sound less hollow and deep.

35. The slender a, or that heard in lane, is formed in the mouth still higher than the last; and in pronouncing it, the lips, as if to give it a slender sound, dilate their aperture hori

26. The mixed or aspirated consonants are those which have sometimes a hiss or aspiration joined with them, which mingles with the letter, and alters its sound, as, t in motion, d in soldier, s in mission, and z in azure. 27. There is another distinction of conso-zontally; while the tongue, to assist this narnants arising either from the seat of their formation, or from those organs which are chiefly employed in forming them. The best distinction of this kind seems to be that which divides them into labials, dentals, gutturals, and nasals.

23. The labials are b, p, f, v. The dentals are t, d, s, z, and soft g or j. The gutturals are k, q, c hard, and g hard. The nasals are m, n, and ng.

row emission of breath, widens itself to the cheeks, raises itself nearer the palate, and by these means a less hollow sound than either of the former is produced.

36. The e in e-qual is formed by dilating the tongue a little more, and advancing it nearer to the palate and the lips, which produces the slenderest vowel in the language; for the tongue is, in the formation of this letter, as close to the palate as possible, without 29. These several properties of the conso-touching it; as the moment the tongue touches nants may be exhibited at one view in the fol- the palate, the squeezed sound of ee in thee lowing table, which may be called

An Analogical Table of the Consonants.

Mute labials {sharp p. pomp

Hissing labials {flate, of

bomb sharp f, if

labio-nasal liquid m.

setch,

dento-nasal

Mute dentals {sharp edge, or liquid.

flat a, dad

Hissing dentals sharps, says esh, passion dental
flat z, as Sezhe,vasion Šliquid 7.
Lisping dentals{flat the, syths.
sharp eth, death.

Gutturals at 9, (hard) gay
sharp k, kick }
Dento-guttural or nasal ny, hang.

liquid r.

and meet is formed, which, by its description, must partake of the sound of the consonant y.

37. The i in i-dol is formed by uniting the sound of the Italian a in fu-ther and the e in e-qual, and pronouncing them as closely together as possible. See Directions to Foreigners at the beginning of this book, page 12.

38. The o in o-pen is formed by nearly the same position of the organs as the a in wa-ter; but the tongue is advanced a little more into the middle of the mouth, the lips are protruded, and form a round aperture like the form of the letter, and the voice is not so deep in the mouth as when a is formed, but advances to

30. Vowels and consonants being thus defined and arranged, we are the better enabled to enter upon an inquiry into their different pow-the middle or hollow of the mouth. ers, as they are differently combined with each other. But previous to this, that nothing may be wanting to form a just idea of the first principles of pronunciation, it may not be improper to show the organic formation of each letter.

Organic Formation of the Letters.

31. Though I think every mechanical account of the organic formation of the letters rather curious than useful, yet, that nothing which can be presented to the eye may be wanting to inform the ear, I shall, in this, follow those who have been at the pains to trace every letter to its seat, and make us, as it were, to touch the sounds we articulate.

Organic Formation of the Vowels. 32 It will be necessary to observe, that there are three long sounds of the letter a,

39. The u in u-nit is formed by uniting the squeezed sound ee to a simple vowel sound, heard in woo and coo; the oo in these words is formed by protruding the lips a little more than in o, forming a smaller aperture with them, and, instead of swelling the voice in the middle of the mouth, bringing it as forward as possible to the lips.

40. Y final, in try, is formed like i: and w final, in now, like the oo, which has just been

described.

vowels we find that a, e, and o, are the only In this view of the organic formation of the simple or pure vowels: that i is a diphthong, and that u is a semi-consonant. If we were inclined to contrive a scale for measuring the breadth or narrowness, or, as others term it, the openness or closeness of the vowel, we

might begin with e open, as Mr. Elphinston calls it, and which he announces to be the closest of all the vocal powers. In the pronunciation of this letter we find the aperture of the mouth extended on each side; the lips almost closed, and the sound issuing horizontally The slender a in waste opens the mouth a little wider. The a in fa-ther opens the mouth still more, without contracting the corners. The German a, heard in wall, not only opens the mouth wider than the former a, but contracts the corners of the mouth so as to make the aperture approach nearer to a circle; while the o opens the mouth still more, and contracts the corners so as to make it the os rotundum, a picture of the letter it sounds. If therefore the other vowels were, like o, to take their forms from the aperture of the mouth in pronouncing them, the German a ought necessarily to have a figure as nearly approaching the o in form as it does in sound; that is, it ought to have that elliptical form which approaches nearest to the circle; as the a of the Italians, and that of the English in fa-ther, ought to form ovals, in exact proportion to the breadth of their sounds; the English a in waste ought to bave a narrower oval, the e in the ought to have the curve of a parabola, and the squeezed sound of ee in seen, a right line: or, to reduce the lines to solids, the o would be a perfect globe, the German a an oblate spheroid, like the figure of the earth, the Italian a like an egg, the English slender a a Dutch skittle, the e a rolling pin, and the double e a cylinder.

sound at all will be heard; but in striving to pronounce the b we shall find a murmuring sound from the throat, which seems the commencement of the letter; and it we do but stop the breath by the appulse of the organs, in order to pronounce with greater force, the same may be observed of the rest of the letters.

43. This difference in the formation of these consonants may be more distinctly perceived in the s and z than in any other of the letters; the former is sounded by the simple issue of the breath between the teeth, without any vibration of it in the throat, and may be called a hissing sound; while the latter cannot be formed without generating a sound in the throat, which may be called a vocal sound. The upper rank of letters, therefore, may be called breathing consonants; and the lower, vocal ones.

44. These observations premised, we may proceed to describe the organic formation of each letter.

45. P and B are formed by closing the lips till the breath is collected, and then letting it issue by forming the vowel e.

46. F and V are formed by pressing the upper teeth upon the under lip, and sounding the vowel e before the former and after the latter of these letters.

47. T and D are formed by pressing the tip of the tongue to the gums of the upper teeth, and then separating them, by pronouncing the vowel e.

48. S and Z are formed by placing the tongue in the same position as in T and D, but not so close to the gums as to stop the breath: a space is left between the tongue and the palate for the breath to issue, which forms the hissing and buzzing sound of these letters.

Organic Formation of the Consonants. 41. The best method of showing the organic formation of the consonants will be to class them into such pairs as they naturally fall into, 49. SH heard in mission, and zh in evasion, and then, by describing one, we shall nearly are formed in the same seat of sound as s and describe its fellow; by which means the la-z; but in the former, the tongue is drawn a bour will be lessened, and the nature of the consonants better perceived. The consonants that fall into pairs are the following:

little inwards, and at a somewhat greater distance from the palate, which occasions a fuiler effusion of breath from the hollow of the mouth, than in the latter, which are formed nearer to the teeth.

pft 8 sh th k ch-chair. b v d z zh dh gj-jail. 42. Holder, who wrote the most elaborately 50. TH in think, and the same letters in and philosophically upon this subject, tells us, that, are formed by protruding the tongue bein his Elements of Speech, that when we only tween the fore teeth, pressing it against the whisper we cannot distinguish the first rank upper teeth, and at the same time endeavourof these letters from the second. It is certaining to sound the s or z; the former letter to the difference between them is very nice; the sound th in think, and the latter to sound th upper letters seeming to have only a smarter, in that. brisker appulse of the organs than the lower; which may not improperly be distinguished by sharp and flat. The most marking distinction between them will be found to be a sort of guttural murmur, which precedes the latter letters when we wish to pronounce them forcibly, but not the former. Thus, if we close the lips, and put the finger on them to keep 53. M is formed by closing the lips, as in P them shut, and strive to pronounce the p, nol and B, and letting the voice issue by the nose.

51. K and G hard are formed by pressing the middle of the tongue to the roof of the mouth, near the throat, and separating them a little smartly to form the first, and more gently to form the last of these letters.

52. CH in chair, and J in jail, are formed by pressing t to sh, and d to zh.