different sounds of the letter o.

<kc. The i In suliquc is short, as if written salllck,hut long in oblique, rhytping with pike , strike, etc.while antique has the i long and slender, audrhymes with speak. Dr. Kenrick, Mr. Elphmston,

Mr. Perry, Buchanan, and Barclay, have ooleekfor oblique ; Mr. Scott has it both ways, but givesthe slender sound first; and Mr. Sheridan, Mr.Nares, and \V. Johnston, oblike. The latter is, inmy opinion, more agreeable to polite usage, butthe former mure analogical ; lor as it comes fromthe French oblique, we cannot write it oblike, usMr. Nares wishes, any more than antique, antike,for fear of departing too far from the Latin an-tiquus and bbliquus. Qpa<l HC > Mr. Nares observes,has become opake ; but then it must be remem-bered that the Latin is opticus , and not opaquus.

159. All the terminations in ixe have the i long,except to endenize ; which, having the accent onthe second syllable, follows the general rule, andhas the i short, pronounced us in the verb is, 140.

To these observations we may add, that thoughevil and devil suppress the i, as if written ev’land dev'l, yet that cavil and pencil preserve, itssound distinctly ; and that Latin might never tohe pronounced as it is generally at schools, as ifWritten Latl'n. Cousin and cozen both drop thelast vowels, as if spelled cozn, and are only dis-tinguishable to the eve. , . . ..

Thus we see how li’ule regularity there is in theBound of this letter when it is not under the ac-cent, and, when custom will permit, how carefulwe ought to be to preserve the least trace of ana-logy, that “ confusion may not be worse con-founded.” The sketch that has been just givenmay, perhaps, afford something like a cine todirect us in this labyrinth, and it is hoped it willenable the judicious speaker to pronounce withmore certainty and decision.

160. It was remarked, under the vowel A, that^fhen a hard gore preceded that vowel, a soundlike e interposed, the better to unite the letters,soften the sound of the consonant. The samemay be observed of the letter I. When thisv owel is preceded by hard g or k, which is butAnother form for hard c, it is pronounced as if ane Were inserted between the consonant and theVowel : thus sky, kind, guide, guise, disguise, cate-chise, guile, beguile, mankind, are pronounced asif written ske-y, ke-ind, guc-ise, dis-gue-ise, cat-e-chise, gue-ile, begue-ite, manke-ind. At lirst sightWe are surprised that two such different lettersas a and * should be affected in the same mannerby the hard gutturals, g, c, and k ; but when wereflect that i is really composed of a and e, 37,our surprise ceases; and we are pleased to findthe ear perfectly uniform in its procedure, andentirely unbiassed by the eye. From this view ofthe analogy we may see how greatly mistaken isa '’ery solid and ingenious writer on this subject,'vho says, that “ ky-ind for kind is a monster ofpronunciation, heard only on our stage.”-—Nares*English Orthoepy, page 28.—See No. 92.

It may not, perhaps, seem unworthy of notice,mat when this letter is unaccented in the nume-rous terminations ity, ible, &c. it is frequentlypronounced like short it, as if the words sensible.msi&fe, &c. were written sensubble, visubble, &c.;charity, chastity, &c. like charutfy, chastutty,’ t . ma V be observed, that the pure sound* i like e in these words is as much the mark of*) elegant speaker as that of the u iu singular,educate, &c.-See No. 179-

a

lenLl* p'fmmarians have generally allowed thist |. B1 „ ; but three sounds. Mr. Sheridan instancesIV" 0 *? prove. For a fourth, I have

or J L V, ®. 1 !' l, \ V€ ' dove > &c - J for the fifth, that inIfio 7 ti»» u sixth, that in woman, wolf, &c.

let,,:; c ,1 , S i C anr * only peculiar sound of thisit J* * by tl whic, ‘ is named in the alpha-^Brei IT”?.® mouth 10 »>* formed, in some'l,U* e ll :* le J u ‘ ,r * order to pronounce itm pro»e \, be '; aU '-' l i U V open sound, as tile oThi, a >' be called us long slender sound, 65.as toiu , '*' e ''!' d m ' vords coding with silent e,with kJ“” ,e - aione > or when ending a syllable^kewiVe - >cc< ; nt "1 ,H " n > as mo-tbii, po-tent, &c. ;«ouud T. !■be monosyllables, go, so no. Thisother vl?"™ under several combinations oftls with this letter, as iu moan, grou* 9

27

bow (to shoot with), low (not high), and before stin the words host, ghost, post, most, and before ssin grass.

163. The second sound of this letter is called itsshort sound, and is found in not, got., lot, &e.;though this, as in the other short vowels, is by nomeans the short sound of the former long one, butcorresponds exactly to that of a in what, withwhich the words not, got, lot, are perfect rhymes.The long sound, to which the o in not and sot areshort ones, is found under the diphthong an innaught, and the on in sought; correspondingexactly to the a in hall, bull, &c. The shortsound of this letter, like the short sound of a infather, 78, 7Q, is frequently, by inaccurate speak*ers, and chiefly those among the vulgar, length-ened to a middle sound approaching to its longsound, the o in or. This sound is generally heard,as in the case of a, when it is succeeded by twoconsonants: thus Mr. Smith pronounces broth,froth , and moth, as if written brawth,frauth, amimawth. Of the propriety or impropriety of thisn well-educated ear is the best judge ; but, as wasobserved under the article A, 79, if this be notthe sound beard among the best speakers, liemiddle sound ought to be admitted, as good ora-tors will ever incline to definite and absolutesounds, rather than such as may be called non-descripts in language.

164. The third sound of tips letter, as was markedin the lirst observation, may be called its longslender sound, corresponding to the double o.The words where this sound of o occurs are sofew, that it will be easy to give a catalogue ofthem: Prove, move, behove, and their compounds,2o,ve, do, ado, Home, poltron, ponton, sponton, who,whom, womb , tomb. Sponton is not in Johnson ;and this and the two preceding words ought ra-ther to be written with oo in the last syllabic.Gold is pronounced like goold in familiar conver-sation; but in verse and solemn language, espe-cially that of the Scripture, ought always to rhymewith old, fold, &c.—See Encore, Gold, and Wind.

1G5. Tiie fourth sound of this vowel is that whichis found in love, dove, &. c.; and the long sound,which seems the nearest relation to it, is the lirstsound of o in note, tone, rove, &c. This sound ofo is generally heard when it is shortened by thesucceeding liquids n, m, r, and the semi-vowelsv, z, th: and, as Mr. Nares has given a catalogueof those words, I shall avail myself of his labour.Above, ajjront, allonge, among, amongst, attorney,bomb, bombard, borage, borough, brother, cochi-neal, colour, come, comely, comfit, comfort, com-pany, compass, comrade, combat, conduit , corny,conjure, constable, covenant, cover, covert, covet,covey, cozen, discomfit, done, doth, Most, dove, do-zen, dromedary, front, glove, govern, honey , hover ,love, Monday, money, mongrel, monk, monkey,month , mother, none, nothing,' one, onion, other,oven, plover, pomegranate, pommel, pother, coinage,shove, shovel, sloven, smother, some, Somerset, son,sovereign, sponge , stomach, thorough, ton, tongue,word, work, wonder, world, worry, worse, worship,wort, worth: to which we may add, rhomb, oncecom trey , and colander .

lo6. lit ’these words the accent is on the o jnevery word, except pomegranate: but, with veryfew exceptions, this letter has the same sound inthe unaccented terminations, oc , ock, od, ol, om,on, op, or, ot, and some, as mammock, cassock, me-thod, carol, kingdom, union, amazon, gallop, tutor ,turbot, troublesome, &c.; all which are pronounced-- . ruxsitck. ifiethud, &c. The

o in the adjunct monger , as cheesemonger, See. hasalways this sound. The exceptions to this ruleare technical terms from the Greek or Latin , asAchor, a species of the herpes; and proper names,as Color , a river in Italy .

if>7. The fifth sound of o is the long sound pro.duced by r final, or followed by another cousa-.mint, as for, former . This sound is perfectlyequivalent to the diphthong «« ; and for andformer might, on account of sound only, be writ-ten faur and faurmer. There are many excep-tions to tliis rule, as borne, corps, corse, force,forge, form (a scat), fort, horde, porch, port, sport,&c. which have the first sound of tliis letter.

168. O, like ^4, is lengthened before r, whenterminating a monosyllable, or followed by an-other consonant; and, like a too, is shortened bya duplication of the liquid, as wo may hear by