DIFFERENT SOUNDS OF THE DIPHTHONGS AO, AU, A7V, AY, AYE, EA t 31

21 '. Plaistcr belongs no longer to this class ofwords, being now more properly written plaster,rhyming with caster.

AO.

212 . This combination of vowels in a diphthongis only to be met witii in the word gaol, now moreproperly written, as it is pronounced, Jail.

AU.

213. The general sound of this diphthong is thatof the noun awe , as taught, caught, tec. or of thea in hall, ball, &e.

214. Whew these letters are followed by n and

another consonant, they change to the secondsound of a, heard in far, farther, Sec. : thus aunt,haunt, daunt, askaunce, askaunt, Jiaunt, haunt,gauntlet, jaunt , haunch, launch, craunch,jaundice,laundry, have the Italian sound of the a in thelast syllable of papa and mamma. To these Ithink ought to be added daunt, paunch, gaunt,and saunter, as 'J)r. Kenrick has marked themwith the Italian a , and not as if written daunt,pawned, &c. as Mr. Sheridan sounds them. Ataund,a basket, is always pronounced with the Italian a, andnearly as'if written marnd : for which rea-son Maundy ‘Thursday, which is derived from it,ought, with Mr. Naves, to be pronounced m thesame manner, though generally heard with thesound of aw. To maunder, to grumble, thoughgener ally heard as if written mawnder, ought cer-tainly to be pronounced, as Mr. Ncires has classedit, with the Italian a. The same maybe observedof taunt, which ought to rhyme with aunt, thoughsounded tenant by Mr. Sheridan ; and, being leftout ot the above list, supposed to be so pronouncedby Mr. Naves. Hut Mr. Elphinston has placedthe analogy of these words in so strong and cu.nous a light that I cannot help presenting themto tire reader in his own \vovd% though a dif-ferent orthography : “ U meritoriously distin-guishes avnt, the parent’s sister, from ant theemmet, and gives a slender shut, the servile of abroad open, yet without pretence of so dangerousor any coincidence ; in dedance of both sisters,his aunt had power to retain the company ofjaunt, haunt, vaunt, taunt, daunt, gaunt, gauntlet ;in all of which the n does precisely u>e sameduty it formerly did in chavnt, grannt, maund,and commannd ; in saunter and sounder ; as wellas in braunch, haunch, paunch , launch , staunch ;all now, justly as genealogically, chant, gYant ,mand (the old basket), command, santcr, sunder ;branch, hunch, punch, lunch, stanch. Jaundicealone pleaded u radical ; and yet was found merejandice. So, with aunt, must return to truth andetymology (who do not always join issue) jant,hunt, vant, tant, dant, pant, gantlet ; and eventhe venerable Ahnidy Thursday, with her mandor basket in her haucl. She had, indeed, almostleft the language, though Astrea had not left theland, when analogy (or harmony) enacted : abroad (an) shall not in English precede n, follow,ed either by a dry dental, or by a sibilation ; thatis, mi shall not be followed by nt, nd, nee, nch.or ngc. No such sounds being sufferable in theEnglish system as avnt, mind, mvnch, aunce, oiminge, there shall Le no such semblances. Aliktare therefore indispensable chant and jant, huntand mand, chance and lance, branch and lunchbanter and santcr ; Sande and his full self Alexfender. In all such, a, far from broad or open, i:slender and shut; yet hardiy shorter than if tinsilent aspiration interposed in uhnt, sahntcrluhnce , lahnch, and the jest. Before ngc, indeed« ls ,t 1SO s ! ent,er » hut open ; not ah, but a ; guardin er ® f «re by its own (i) \servile (as we savFaint a 8 ai nst every danger of change

*• ,, ‘ ^ 1 Jauu remain doubtless in fauns am«m-fV,Y la U e, ‘ ed hy the adscititious denressivivoi. Ascertained in her Picture

j}, S - and draught, Wliich are very ]>rc

Wh rh 'll 5 ’, Ir ' , >i, "' es “’"ns these worded e ,ms Ui \ Ua " n in are mart

hat L} U ',\ b ' ,e ‘' lrtan "; ul1 l»s first sound of a i:PUiioi E H’ ei,ed 1,UO thl! s<H,n<l of « in father, 1>yrithom ,Y' e r c T, ™ ' l - ?*““««* spellei

y classe M y m xf ' 1 ’ and therefore impw* classed by Mr. Naves m the above list.

210. Vaunt and avaunt seem to be the only realexceptions U) this sound of a in the whole list;and, as these words are chiefly confined to tragedy,they may be allowed to “ fret and strut theirhour upon the stage” in the old traditionarysound of awe.

217. This diphthong is pronounced like long oin hant-boy, as if w ritten ho-hoy ; and like o shortin caulf/iowcr, laurel, and laudanum . as jf W riuten cottjloicer, lorrel, and loddanum. In gaugeau has tlie sound ol slenuer a, and rhymes with

$>«ge.

218. There is a corrupt pronunciation ot thisdiphthong among the vulgar, which is,giving theau in daughter, sauce, saucer, and saucy, thesound of the Italian a, and nearly as if w rittendarter, sarce, sarcer, and surcy; but this pro-nunciation cannot be too carefully avoided. Anin sausage, also, is sounded by the vulgar withshort </, as if written sassage ; but in this, as inthe other words, au ought to sound uue .—See thewords in the Dictionary .

AW

219. Has the long broad sound of a in ball, withwhich ilie word bawl is perfectly identical. It 13always regular.

AY.

220. This diphthong, like its near relation ai,has the sound of slender a in pay, day, &c. and ispronounced like long e in the w'ord quay, whichis now sometimes seen written key ; for, if we can-not bring the pronunciation to the spelling, it islooked upon as some improvement to bring thespelling to the pronunciation : a most perniciouspractice in language.—See Him?.

221 . To flay, to strip olf the skin, also, is cor-ruptly pronounced Jlea; but the diphthong inthis word seems to be recovering its rights.

222 . There is a wanton departure from analogyin orthography by' changing the y in this diph-thong to i in the words paid, said, laid, for payed,sayed, and layed. Why these words should bewritten with i and thus contracted, and played,prayed, and delayed, remain at large, let our wisecorrectors of orthography determine. Stayed, also,a participial adjective, signifying steady ,'is almostalways written staid.

223. When ay comes immediately after the ac-cent in a linal syllable, like ai, it drops the formervowel, in the colloquial pronunciation of the daysof the week. Thus as we pronounce captain, cur-tain, &.c. as if written captin, curtin, tec. so wehear Sunday, Monday, tec. as if written Sandy,Mundy, tec. A more distinct pronunciation ofday, in these words, is a mark of the northerndialect, 208.

22 - 1 . The familiar assent ay for yes is a combi-nation of the long Italian a in the last syllable ofpapa , and the first sound of e. If we give the athe sound of that letter in ball, the word degencrates into a coarse rustick pronunciation. ThoughIn the House of Commons , where this word ismade a noun, we frequently, but not correctly,hear it so pronounced, in the phrase the Ayeshave it.

AYE .

225. This triphthong is a combination of theslender sound of a, heard in pu-per, and the e inme-tre. The word which it composes, signifying-ever, is almost obsolete.

EA.

226. The regular sound of this diphthong is thatof the first sound of e in here ; but its irregularsound of short c is so Irequent as to make a cata-logue of both necessary ; especially for those whoave nuht-Uled in the pronunciation of the capital,and wish to practise in order to form a habit.

227. The first sound of ea is like open f, and isheard in the following words: AJ'eard, of ear,anneal, appeal , appear, appease, aread, arrear,beacon, beadle, beadroll , heads, beadsman, beagle,beak, beaker, beam , bean, heard, bearded, beast,beat, beaten , beaver, beleaguer, beneath, bequeath ,bereave, besmear, bespeak, bleach, bleak, blear,bleat, bohea , breach, bream, to breathe, cease, cheap,