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DIFFERENT SOUNDS OF TlIE LETTER /.

But it was so far from having generally obtained,that Lord Chesterfield strictly enjoins his son toavoid this pronunciation as affected. In a fewyears, however, it became so general, that nonebut the lowest vulgar ever pronounced it in theEnglish manner; but upon the publication of thisnobleman's letters, which was about twenty yearsafter he wrote them, his authority has had somuch influence with the polite world as to bidfair for restoring the », in this word, to its originalrights; and we not unfrequentlv hear it now pro-nounced with the broad English * in those circles■where, a few years ago, it would have been aninfallible mark of vulgarity. Mr. Sheridan, W.Johnston, and Mr. Barclay, give both sounds, butplace the sound of oblige first. Mr. Scott givesboth, but places obleege first. Dr. Kcnrick andBuchanan give only oblige ; and Mr. Elphinston,Mr. Perry, and Fennmg, give only obleege; butthough this sound has lost ground so much, yetMr. Nares, who wrote about eighteen yeais ago,gays, u oblige still, I think, retains the sound oflong*, notwithstanding the proscription of thatpronunciation by the late Lord Cheslc*rfield.”

112. The words that have preserved the foreign*ound of t, like ee, are the following: Ambergris,jerdegrls , antique, becafico, bomba sin, brasil, ca-pivi, capuchin, colbertine, chioppinc, or choyin,caprice, chagrin, chevaux-de-frise, critique (lorcriticism), feslucine, frize, gabardine, haberdine,sordine, rngine, trephine, quarantine, routine, fas-cine, fatigue, intrigue, glacis, invalid, machine,magazine, marine, palanquin, pique, police, pro-file,recitative, mandarine, tabourine, tambourine,tontine, transmarine, ultramarine. In all thesewords, if for the last * we substitute ee, we shallhave the true pronunciation. In signior the firsti is thus pronounced. Mr. Sheridan pronouncesvertigo and serpigo with the accent on the secondsyllable, and the i long, as in lie and pie. I)r.Kenrick gives these words the same accent, butsounds the i as e in tea and pea . The latter is, ininy opinion, the general pronunciation ; thoughMr. Sheridan’s is supported by a very generalrule, which is, that all words adopted whole fromthe Latin preserve the Latin accent, fifiS, 0. Butif the English ear were unbiassed by the long * inLatin , which fixes the accent on the second syl-lable, and could free itself from the slavish imi-tation of the French and Italians , there is littledoubt but these words would have the accent onthe first syllable, and that the i would be pro-pounced regularly like the short c, as in Indigoand Portico.— See Vertigo.

113. There is a remarkable alteration in the

sound of tiiis vowel, in certain situations, whereit changes to a sound equivalent to initial y. Thesituation that occasions this change is when thei precedes another vowel in an unaccented syllable, and is not preceded by any of the dentals:dius we hear iary in mil-iary, bil-iary, &c. pro-nounced as if written mil-yary, bil-yary, &c. Min-ion and pin-ion, as if written min-yon and pin-yon•In these words the* is so totally altered to y,that pronouncing the ia and to in separate sylla-bles would be at* errour the most palpable; butwhere the other liquids or mutes precede the t mthis situation, the coalition is not so necessary :f or though the two latter syllables of convivial,participial, &c. are extremely prone to unite intoone, they may, however, be separated, providedthe separation be not too distant. I he same ob-servations hold good of e, as malleable , pro-nounced mal-ya-ble. ,

111. But the sound of the i, the most difficult toreduce to rule, is when it ends a syllable imme-diately before the accent. When either the pri-mary or secondary accent is on this letter, it isinvariably pronounced either as the long * in title,the short t in tittle, or the French t in magazine;and when it entls a syllable after the accent, it isalways sounded like e, as sen-si-ble, ra-ti-fy, &c.But when it ends a syllable, immediately beforethe accent, it is sometimes pronounced long, as invi-ta-lUy, where the first syllable is exactly likedie first of vi-al; and sometimes short, as in di-gest, where the i is pronounced as if the wordVere written de-gest. The sound of the i, in thissituation, is so little reducible to rule, that noneour writers on the subject have attempted it;and the only method to give some idea of itggcnis to be the very laborious one of classing

such words together as have the l pronounced inthe same manner, and observing the differencombinations of other letters that may possiblybe the cause of the different sounds ol this.

115. In the first place, where the i is the onlyletter in the first syllable, and the accent is onthe second, beginning with a consonant, the vowelhas its long diphthongal sound, as in idea, iden-tity, idolatry, idoneons, irascible, ironical, isos-celes, itinerant, itinerary. Imagine and its com-pounds seem the only exceptions. But, to givethe inspector some idea of general usuge, I havesubjoined examples of these words us they standin our different Pronouncing Dictionaries:

idea . Sheridan, Scott, Buchanan, W. John-

ston, .Kcnrick.idea. Perry.

identity. Sheridan, Scott, Buchanan, W. John-ston, Keurick.identity. Perry.

idolatry. Sheridan, Scott, Buchanan, W. John-ston, Kcnrick.idolatry. Perry.idoneous. Sheridan, Kcnrick.irascible. Sheridan, Scott, W. Joluiston, Ken-rick.

irascible. Perry.isosceles. Sheridan, Scott, Perry.itinerary . Sheridan, Scott, W. Johnston, Ken-rick.

itinerary. Perry.

itinerant. Sheridan, Scott, W. Johnston, Nares.itinerant. Buchanan, Perry.

Utf. When i ends the first syllable, and the ac-cent is on the second, commencing with a vowel,it generally preserves its long open diphthongalsound. Thus in di-ameter, di-urnal, &c. the firstsyllable is equivalent to the verb to die. A cor-rupt foreign manner of pronouncing these wordsmay sometimes mince the 1 into e, as if the wordswere written de-ametur, de-urnal, tec .; but this isdisgusting to every just English ear, and contraryto tlie whole current of analogy. Besides, thevowel that ends and the vowel that begins a syl-lable are, by pronouncing tlie i long, kept moredistinct, ami not suffered to coalesce, as they areapt to do if i has its slender sound. This prone-ness of the c, which is exactly the slender soundoff, to coalesce with the succeeding vowel, hasproduced such monsters in pronunciation as jog*graphy and jonnnetry for geography and geometry,and jorgics lor georgirs. The latter of these wordsis fixed in this absurd pronunciation without re-nedy ; but the two former seem recovering theirright to four syllables; though Mr. Sheridan hasendeavoured to deprive them of it, by spellingthem with three. Ileuce we may observe thatthose who wish to pronounce correetlv, and ac-cording to analogy, ought to pronounce the firstsyllable of hi-ography as the veib to buy, and notas if written be-ography.

117. When i ends an initial syllable withoutthe accent, and the succeeding syllable beginswith a consonant, the * is generally slender, asif written e. But the exceptions to this rule areso numerous, that nothing but a catalogue willgive a tolerable idea of the state of pronunciationin this point.

118. When the prepositive hi, derived from bis(twice), ends a syllable immediately before theaccent, the f is long and broad, in order to convey more precisely the specific moaning of tliesyllable. Thus bl-vapsular, bi-cipital, bi cipitous,bi-cornous, bi-cprporal, bi-dental, bi- fa? ions, bi-furcated, bi-linguous, bi-nocular, bi-pennated, bi-pet alous, bi-quadrate, have the i long. But thefirst syllable of the words Bitumen and lixtume -nous, having no such signification, ought to bepronounced with the i short. Tiiis is the soundBuchanan has given it; but Sheridan, Kenrick,and W. Johnston, make the i long, as in Bible .

110. The same may be observed of words be-ginning with tri, having tlie accent on the se-cond syllable. Thus tribunal, tri-corporal, tri-chotomy, tri-gintals, have the i ending the firstsyllable long, as in tri-ul. To this class might tobe added di-pctalous aiul di lemma, though the iin the first syllable of the last v ord is pronouncedlike e, and as if written dc.-lemma, by Mr. Scottand Mr. Perry, but long by Mr. Sheridan, Dr.Kcnrick, and Buchanan; and both ways by W.Johnston but placing the short first. And hence

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