30

DIFFERENT SOUNDS OF THE DIPHTHONGS 0M\ Or, LA, VE.

318. The fourth sound of this diphthong is thatof long open o, anti is heard in the followingwords: though, at'hough, coulter, court, ucconrt,gourd , courtier, course, discourse, source, rt course,resource, bourn, dough, doughy, Jour, mould,mouldy, moult, mourn, shoutdej, smoulder, soul,poultice, poult, poulterer, poultry, trout (to rollsmoothly, marked by Mr. Sheridan as rhymingwitli doll, but more pm|>erly by Dr. Kenrick withrol-l), and borough, thorough, furlough, fourteen,concourse, and intercourse, preserve the diph-thong in the sound of long o, though not under

the accent.

3l!>. The fifth sound of on is like tiie noun dice,and is heard only in ought, bought, brought,sought, besought, fought, nought, thought, me-ihought, wrought,

32 U. The sixth sound is that of short oo, or the nin bull, and is heard only in the auxiliary verbswould, could, should, rliyming with good, hood,stood, &c.

321 . The seventh sound is that of short o, andheard only in cough and trough, rhyming with ofand scoff; and in lough, and though, pronouncedlock and shock .

O W.

322. The elementary sound of this diphthong isthe same as f*'.e first sound of on, ami is heard inhow, now, &c. hut the sound of long o obtains inso many instances, that it will be necessary togive a catalogue of both.

323. The general sound, as the elementary soundmay be called, is heard in now, how, boic (a markof respect), mow (a heap of barley, &c.), cow,brow, brown, browse, plow, sow, row, avow, allow,disallow, endow, down, clown, frown, town, crown,drown, gown, renown, dowager, dowdy, dower,doivre, dowry, dowery, dowlas, drowse, dr< ivsy,flower, bower, lower (to look gloomy), power,'powder, prowess, prow, prowl, vowel, towel, bower,rowel, cowl, scowl, crowd, shower, tower, sow (aswine), sowins, soul, thowl, low (to bellow as acow). This word is generally pronounced ns low,not high ; hut if custom, in this ease, has not ab-solutely decided, it ought, in my opinion, to havethe first sound of this diphthong, rhyming withhow, as much more expressive of the noise it sig-nifies ; which, where sounds are the ideas to beexpressed, ought to have great weight in proiiun-ciation. 241, 251.—See llie word.

32 I. The second sound of this diphthong is heardin blow, slow, crow, grow, flow, glow, bow (to shootwith), know, low (not high), mow (to cut grass),row, show, sow (to scatter grain), straw, slow,snow, trow, below, slow, bestow, owe, own, owner,flown, grown, growth, know, known, sown, lower(to bring low), throw, thrown; in all these wordsthe ow sounds like long o in go, no, so, &c.

325. The noun prow, signifying the forepart ofa ship, rhymes with go in Mr. Sheridan, and withnow in Dr. Kenrick. The latter is, in my opinion,the preferable sound ; while the verb to prowl (toseek for prey) rlivmes with Old according to Mi.Sheridan, and with soul according to Dr. Ken-rick : the latter has the old spelling prole toplead, but the former has, in my opmmn, bothanalogy and the best usage on its side, boththese writers unite in giving the first sound of thisdiphthong to prowess; which is unquestionablythe true pronunciation.—See To Prowl,

320. The proper names How, Flowel, Howard,and Powcl, trcm-rallv are heard witli the firstsound of this diphthong, as in how, now, See. butJlowts and Slow (the historian) commonly ihymewith knows and know. Howard, among peopleof rank, is generally pronounced with the secondsound, rhyming with frowurd; and Grosvvvor asif written Grovenor. Snowdon is frequently pro-nounced with the first sound of ow ; but the se-cond sound seems preferable ; as it is not impro-bable that these mountains had their name, likethe Alps, from the snow on their tops.

327. When this diphthong is in a final unac-cented syllable, it has always the second sound,like long o, in borrow, sorrow, fellow, willow, &c.The vulgar shorten this sound, ami pronounce theo obscurely, and «omcliines as if followed by >*,as winder and feller, for window and fellow ; butthf» is almost too despicable for notice. Goodspeakers preserve the diphthong in this situation,

and give it the full sound of open o, rhyming withno, so, &c.

328. This diphthong, in the word knowledge, hasof late years undergone a considerable revolu-tion. Some speakers, who had the regularity oftheir language at heart, were giieved to see thecompound depart so tar from the sound of thesimple, and with heroick fortitude have opposedthe multitude bv pronouncing the first syllable otthis word as it is heard in the verb to know. T hepulpit and the bar have for some years given asanction to this pi onuneiation; but the senate andthe stage hold out inflexibly against ; and thenation at large seem insensible of the improve-ment. They still continue to pronounce, as in theold ludicrous rhymes—*-~

“ Among the mighty men of knowledge,

“ That are professors at Gresham College. *

But if ever this word should have'the good for-tune to be restored to its rights, it would be butcharity to endeavour the restoration of a greatnumber of words in a similar situation, such asbreakfast, vineyard, bewilder, meadow, hearken ,pleasure, whitster, shepherd, windward, mul a longcatalogue of fellow-Millerers, 515. hut, beforewe endeavour this restoration, we should con-sider that contracting the sound of the simple,when it acquires an additional syllable, is anidiom of pronunciation to which our language isextremely prone ; nor is it certain that crossingthis tendency would produce any real advantage ;at least, not sufficient to counterbalance the diver-sity of pronunciation which must for a long timeprevail, and which must necessarily call off ourattention from things to words.—See EncliticalTermination, No. 514.

or.

32D. This diphthong is but another form for oi,and is pronounced exactly like it. When alloyis written witli this diphthong, it ought never tobe pronounced allay. Custom seems to have ap-propriated the former word totiie noun, and thelatter to the verb ; for the sake of consistency, itwere to be wished it were always written at lay ;but it is not to be expected that poets will give upso good a rhyme to joy.clo'i, and destroy.

330. The only word in which this diphthong isnot under the accent is the pioper name Savoy;for savoy, a plant, has the accent on the secondsyllable ; but the diphthong in both is pronouncedin the same manner.

331. When the ffin thisdiphtbnng is pronouncedthe u has the power of which unites both intoone syllable: thus autiqnate, antiquary assuagepersuade, equal, language, &c. are pronouncedantikwate, untikwary, a salvage, Sic.

.H 2 . 1 lie a in tins diphthong is silent in guard,guardian, guarantee, and piquant; pronouncedgard, gardian, garantee, am! pickant'wi.

333. in Mantua , ihe town of Italy , both vowelsaie heaid distinctly. The same may be observedof the habit so called ; hut in mantuanmker vulganty has sunk the a, jind made it mantumaker.

1 lie same vulgarity at first, but now sanctionedby universal custom, has sunk both letters invictuals, and its compounds victualling and v/otmiller , pronounced i itllcs, vittling, and vitUcr.- -See Mantua .

UE.

3.34. This diphthong, like tea, when it formsonly one syllable, and both letters are pro-nounced, has the u sounded like;/’; osconsuefttde,desuetude, ami mansuetude, which are pronouncedconswetude, desuetude, and manswetude. Thusconquest is pronounced according to the generalrule, as if written conkwest; but the verb toconquer has unaccountably deviated into conker ,particularly upon the stage. This erronr, how.ever, seems not to be so rooted in the genera) earas to be above correction ; and analogy undoubt-edly demands conktrer.

335. This diphthong, when in a final syllable,sinks thee,a»W«p, cue, due,blue, glue, hue,flue, rut-