DIFFERENT SOUNDS OF THE DIPHTHONGS OEI, OEU, Ox. GO, Olf . 15

pronounced like single e, and comes entirely un-der the same laws as that vowel : thus, when itends a syllable, with the accent upon it, it islong, as in An-toe-ci, Peri-oe-ci: when under thesecondary accent, in oec-iuncnical, occ-onomieks, itis like e short: it is long e i n foe-tvs, and short ein fort-id and assafoetdda : in doc, foe , toe,

throe, hoe (to dig), and bilboes , it is sounded ex-actly like long open o: in canoe and shoe, like oo,as it' written cauoo and shoo: and in the verbdoes like short it, as if written duz «

OBI.

308. It has the sound o( short « In the twowords blood and flood, rhyming with mud.

309. Soot is vulgarly pronounced 60 as to rhymewith but, tint, &c. but ought to have its long re-gular sound, rhyming with boot, as we alwayshear it in the compound sooty .—See the word.

310. Poor and Jloor are universally pronouncedby the English as if written dore and jiore ; butin Ireland they preserve the regular sound of oo.

311. Moor, a black man, is regular in polite pro-nunciation, and Jike more in vulgar. Moor, amarsh, is sometimes heard rhyming with store;but more correct speakers pronounce it regularly,rhyming with poor.

397. There is but one word where this triph-thong occurs, and that is in Shakesxjeare’s KingLear, in the word ociiiads (glances), and, in myopinion, it ought to be sounded as if writtene-il-yads.

n

OEU.

398. Tiiis diphthong is from the French , in thewot'd manoeuvre ; a word, within these few years,Of very general use in our language. It is not inJohnson, and the oeu is generally pronounced, bythose who can pronounce French , in the French manner ; but this is such a sound of the t* as doesnot exist in English , and therefore it cannot bedescribed. The nearest sound is oo ; with which,if this word is pronounced by an English speaker,as if written manoovre, it may, except with verynice French ears, escape criticism.

01 .

399. The general and almost universal soundof this diphthong, is that of a in water , and thefirst c in me-tre. This double sound is very dis-tinguishable in boil, toil, spoil, joint,point, anoint,&c. which sound ought to be carefully preserved,as there is a very prevalent practice among thevulgar of dropping the o, and pronouncing thesewords as if written bile, tile , spile, &c.

300. The only instance which admits of a doubtin the sound of this diphthong, when under theaccent, is in the word choir; but this word isnow so much more frequently written quire, thatuniformity strongly inclines us to pronounce theoi in choir like long i, and which, by the commonorthography, seems fixed beyond recovery. Putit may be observed that either the spelling orthe pronunciation of Chorister, commonly pro-nounced Quirister, ought to be altered.—See thewords.

301. When this diphthong is not under the accent, it is variously pronounced. Dr. Kenriclplaces the accent on the first syllable of turcoisand, for I know not what reason, pronounces ias if written turkiz; and turkois with the cbvoad, as in boy.t. Mr. Sheridan places the accent on the second syllable, and gives the diplthong the French sound, as if the word was written turkaxe. In my opinion the best orthographis turquoise , and the best pronunciation with thaccent on the last syllable, ami the oi soundolike long e, as if written turkees ; as wc pvonounctortoise with the accent on the first syllable, anthe oi like short i, as if written tortiz.

302. In avoirdupois the fust diphthong is pr<nonneed like short e, as if written averdupoi.se.

3Q3. Ln connomrwr the same sound of e is sulstituted, as if written connessevr.

304 In shameis, or chamois,a species of lea thethe oi is pronounced like long t', as if vvilUshammer.

Adroit and devoir, two scarcely naturalizeFrench words, have the oi regular, though tllatter word, iu polite pronunciation, retains iFrench sound, as if written devuor.

3W, The sound of xnis diphthong is regobexcept in a few words : it is pronounced longmoon, soon, fool, rood,food, mood, See. Tiiis isregular sound.

307. It has a shorter sound corresponding to tw in bull, in the words wool, wood, good, hotfoot, stood, understood, tritksfootl ; and these tthe only words where this diphthong ha* t*hidd!e sound.

OU.

312. This is the most irregular assemblage ofvowels in our language: its most common soundis that heard in bound, found, ground , Si c. andthis may be called ils proper sound ; but its de-viations are so many and so various, that thebest idea of it will be conveyed by giving thesimples of all its different sounds.

313 . The lirst or proper sound of this diphthongis composed of the a in ball, and the oo in woo,or rather the « in bull, and is equivalent to theotv in down, frown, Sic. This sound is heard inabound, about, account , aeon slicks, aground, aloud,amount, around, arouse, astound, avouch, bough,bounce , bound, bounty , bounteous, bout, carouse ,chouse, cloud, clough, clout, clouterly, compound,couch, couchant, crouch, grouse, dfjlonr, devour,devout , doubt, doubtful, drought, doughty, douse,encounter, espouse, expound, Jlout, foul. Jiounder,found, foundling, fountain, frousy, glont, gout(a disease), ground, grout, hound, hour, house, im-pound, loud, lounge, louse, lout, mound, mountain,mountebank, mouse, mouth, noun, ounce, our, oust,out, outer, outermost, paramount, plough, pouch,pounce, pound, pout, profound, pronoun, pro-nounce, propound, proud, rebound ,• recount, re-doubt, redoubted, redound, rencounter, round,roundelay, rouse, rout, scoundrel, scour, scout,shout , shroud, slouch, spouse, spout, sprout , stout ,surround, south , thou, thousand, tovse, trounce,trousers, trout, wound (did wind), sloug/t (a miryplace), vouch, vouchsaje, without., scaramouch.

314. The second sound is that of short u m but (and is heard in the following words and theijcompounds : Adjourn, journey, journal, bourgeoncountry, cousin , couple , decouple, double, troublecourteous, courtesy, courage, encourage, joustgournet, housewife, jiourish, mounch, nourish,enough, chough, rough, tough, slough (a cast skin),scourge, southerly . southern, southernwood , south,,ward, touch, touchy, young, younker, ami young,ster ; but southern, southerly', and southward, aresometimes pronounced regularly like south : thishowever, is far from the prevailing pronuncia-tion. This is the sound this diphthong always haswhen the accent is not on it, unless in very fewinstances, wheielhe compound retains the soundof the simple, as in pronoun; but in sojourn and.sojourner, with the accent on the first syllable,and in every unaccented termimnion in our andous , this diphthong has exactly the sound of shortu: thus favour, honour , odour, and famous, arepronounced as if written favuv, Aounr, ocfnr, and

famus- ,

315. The third sound given to these vowels isthat of oo in coo and troo, 39, and is touud in thefollowing words: Bongo, croup, group, aggroup ,amour, paramour, bouse, bousy, bouttjeit , cupouc/i,curtouch, fourbe, gout (taste), ami ragout (pro-nounced goo and rugoo), rendezvous, rouge, soup,sous (pronounced soo), surtout, through, throughly ,toupee or taupet, you, your, youth, tour, contour,tourney, tournay, tournamemt, pour, and route (aroad), accoutre, billet-doux, agouti, uncouth, wound(a hurt), and routine (a beaten road).—Sec Tour-ney .

316. The verb to pour is sometimes pronouncedta pore, and sometimes to poor; in each case itinterferes with a word of a different signification,ami the best pronunciation, which is that similarto power, is us little liable to that exception ateither of the others.—See the word.

S 17 . To is sometimes pronounced »o as to

rhyme with found; but this is directly contraryto the best usage; but route (a road, as, to take adifferent route ) is often pronounced so as VQrhyme with doubt, by respectable speaJcori