*

DIFFERENT SOUNDS OF THE DIPHTHONGS EO, BOV, EC/, Etr, EWE, EY. 83

2«tS Ei has the 6ound of long Blender a in deign,+ein, rein, reign, feign, feint, veil, heinous, h- ir,hein-ss, inveigh, weigh, neigh, .skein, reins, their,theirs, eight, freight., weight, neighbour, and theircompounds. When gh conics alter this diphthong,though there is not the least remnant of theSaxon guttural sound, vet it has not exactly thesame simple vowel sound as when followed byother consonants ; ei, followed by gh, sounds bothvowels like u e ; or if we could interpose the yconsonant between the a and t in eight, weight,&c. it might, perhaps, convey the sound better.'1 he difference, however, is so delicate as to ren-der this distinction of no great importance. Thesame observations are 'applicable to the wordsstraight, straighten, &c.—See the word Eight.

250. Ei has the sound of long open e in here, inthe. following words and their compounds: To,

ceil, ceiling, conceit , deceit, receipt, conceive, per-ceive, deceive, receive, inveigle, seize , seisin, seign-ior, seigjiory, seine, plebeian. Obeisance ought tobe in the preceding class.—See the word.

251. fjcisnre is sometimes pronounced as rhym-

ing with pleasure ; but, in my opinion, very im-properly: for if it be allowed that custom isequally divided, we ought, in this case, to pro-bounce the diphthong long, as more expressiveof the idea annexed to it, 241 . .

252. Either and neither are so often pronounceaeye-ther and nigh-tin r, that it is hard to say towhich class they belong. Analogy, however,without hesitation, gives the diphthong the soundof long open e, rather than that of i, and rhymesthem with breather, one who breathes. This isthe pronunciation Mr. Garrick always gave tothese words ; but the true analogical sound of thediphthong in these words is that of the slender a,as if written ay-ther and v ay-ther. This pronun-ciation is adopted in Ireland , but is not favouredby one of our orthoepists ; lor Mr. Sheridan, Mr.Scott, Mr. Elphinston, Mr. Perry, Mr. Smith,Steele's Grammar, and Dr. Jones, all pronouncethese words with the diphthong like long e.W. Johnston alone adopts the sound of long i ex-clusively ; Dr- Kenrick gives both ether and ither,but prefers the first, but gives neither the soundof long e exclusively : Mr. Coote says these wordsare generally pronounced with the ei like the iin mine. Mr. Barclay gives no description of thesound of ei hi either, hut says neither is some-times pronounced nitlur, and by others nether;and Mr. Nares says, “ either and neither arespoken by some with the sound of long i; I haveheard even that of long a given to them; but asthe regular way is also in use, I think it is pre-ferable. These differences seem to have arisenfrom ignorance of the regular sound of ci.'* Ifby the regular way and the regular sound of thisdiphthong Mr. Nares means tlie long sound of e,^ need only inspect Nos. 249 and 250, to seethat the sound of a is the more general sound, andtherefore ought to be called the regular; butwhere there are so many instances of words wherethis diphthong has the long sound ote, and cus-tom is so uniform in these words, there can be nodoubt which is the true sound.

253. Ei has the sound of long open i, in height«tnd sleight, rhyming with while, and right. Height,is, indeed, often heard rhyming with eight andweight, and that among very respectable speakers ;but custom seems-to decide in favour of the otherP»'omncuiti<>n, that it may better tally with the

.!r CUv ^ °f which it is the abstract,v^l’ Ei' has the sound of short e in the two

ords heifer and nonpareil , pronounced keffer andnonpareil. d

0| ,?' w . ?bis diphthong, when unaccented, like ni,f . * ( the toriner vowel, and is pronouncedV ^foreign, foreigner, forfeit, forfeit-’ suieteign, sovereignty, surJHC, counterfeit.

EO.

250. This diphthong is pronounced like c♦u people, as if written peepfe ; and like e shoileopard and jeopardy, as if written leppardre i'Vin'dy ; and in the law terms feoffee, /»’«feoffment, as if written fejjee, fefier, and257.

257. \\ r e frequently hear these vowelstrue ted into short a in geography and gcametrif vriiien joggraphy and Jvmmelry; but this g

pronunciation seems daily wearing away, andgiving place to that which separa.tes-4.he vowel'sinto two didinct syllables, as it is always heardin geographical, gioineter, geometrical, and geome-trician. (jeorgick is alwa>s heard as if writtenjorgick, and must be given upas incorrigible, 11G.

£5tt. Eo is heard like long u \wfeod, feudal, fco-datory, which are sometimes written as they arepronounced, feud, feudal, feudatory .

£59. Eo, when unaccented, has the sound of ushort in surgeon, sturgeon, d-udgeon, gudgeon, blud-geon, curmudgeon, dungeon, luncheon, puncheon ,truncheon, burgeon, habergeon ; but in scutcheon,escutcheon , pigeon, and t< idgeon, the co soundslike short i.

2l>0, Eo sounds like long o in yeoman and yeo-manry ; the first syllable of which words rhymeswith go, no, so. —See the words.

261. Eo in galleon, a Spanish ship, sounds as ifwritten galloon, rhyming with moon .

EOV

262. This assemblage of vowels, for they cannothe properly called a triphthong, is often con-tracted into one syllable in prose, and poets nevermake it go lor two. In cut an tons and vitreoustwo syllables are palpable; but in gorgeous andoutrageous the soft g coalescing with c^seenis todrop a syllable, though polite pronunciation willalways preserve it.

£63. This assemblage is never found but in anunaccented -syllable, and generally a final one;and when it is immediately preceded by the den-tals d or t, it melts them into the sounds ot\; amitch : thus hideous and piteous are pronounced asif written hijeous and pitcheous. The same maybe observed of righteous, plenteous, bounteous,courteous, beauteous , and duteous, £93, 294.

EU.

£64. This diphthong is always sounded like longu or etc, and is scarcely ever irregular; thus/ewrf,deuce, &c. are pronounced as if written feted,deu.ee, &c.

*EW.

205. This diphthong is prononneed like longand is almost always regular. There is a corruptpronunciation of it like oo chiefly in London ,where we sometimes hear dew and new pro-nounced as if written doo and noo; hut when rprecedes tills diphthong, as in brew, crew, drew,ike. pronouncing it like oo is scarcely improper.— See 170, 339.

266. * Shew and strew have almost left this class,

and by Johnson’s recommendation are becomeshow and strow, as they are pronounced. Theproper name Shrewsbury, however, still retainsthe e, though always pronounced Shrewsbury.Sew, with a needle, always rhymes with no; andsewer, signifying a drain, is generally pronouncedshore: but sewer, au officer, rhymes with fewer,—See Sewer . , , ,

267. Ew is sometimes pronounced like aw in theverb*to chew; but this is gross and vulgar. Tochew ought always to rhyme with new, view, See,

EWE.

26S. This triphthong exists only in the wordewe, a female sheep ; which is pronounced exactlylike yen', a tree, or the plural personal pronounyou. There is a vulgar pronunciation of this wordns if written yoe, rhyming with doe, which mustbe carefully avoided.—See the word.

EY.

269. When the accent is on this diphthong, it isalways pronounced like ay, or like its kindreddiphthong ei, in vein, r ?ign, See. : thus bey, dey,grey, prey, they, trey, whey, obey, convey, pwf ■ cy,survey , key, eyre, ami eyrey, are always heard asif written bay , day, ik c. Key and Icy are the onlyexceptions, which always rhyme with sea, 220-

270. Ey,+ yhen unaccented,* is pronounced likece: thus galley, valley, alley, barley, &c. are pro-nounced as if wiitten gallee, tullee, &c. Thenoun survey therefore, if we place the accent onthe first syllable, is anomalous.—See the word*