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myopy, nias, orion, phial, pianet, piety, pious, pirate, pliant, prior, ptyalism, pyre, quiet, choir, riot, science, sciolist, scion, sire, society, spiral, squire, syenite, trial, triangle, trio, triumph, tyrant, viaduct, viand, violent, viol, virus, wire, zodiacal.

II. Ice, icicle, ichor, icon, isagon, item, bifid, bifold, bite, blight, brighten, cycle, cyprus, cycloid, dice, dike, fight, flighty, fright, gripe, knife, knighthood, lifeless, lightsome, likely, microcosm, mighty, mite, mitre, nice, nightly, nitre, nitrogen, pike, pipe, plight, rightful, righteousness, rice, sight, slighted, smite, snipe, spice, spite, sprightly, stifle, strife, strike, thyme, tight, titan, title, tricolour, trifle, tripe, tripod, trite, type, vice, viper, viscount, vital, whiteness, wipe, write.

III. Ibis, idem, idle, idol, idyl, iman, ising-glass, island, ivy, ivory, bible, bivalve, briny, bridle, climate, climax, cider, divers, eider, fibre, finery, finite, Friday, libel, lilac, limature, migratory, miner, miser, nidor, piebald, pilot, pineapple, primate, private, riding, rising, rival, sidle, silent, sliver, spider, spinal, swinish, tiger, trident, trinal, twilight, viminal, wily.

IV. I'd, ides, I'm, isle, I'll, bide, bile, bind, blind, blithe, bridewell, bribe, climb, crime, digraph, divine, drive, file, find, five, gibe, glide, grinder, grime, guide, guise, gyve, hind, hide, hithe, hive, kindliness, kibe, knives, library, ligure, live, lithesome, alive, livelihood, mild, mile, mind, pile, pine, pride, prize, quinine, Rhine, rhyme, scribe, shine, sign, size, scythe, smile, stride, style, thine, thrive, thyme, timely, tine, tithe, tribe, trigraph, twine, vibrate, vile whine, wide, wild, wile, wind, wiseling, withe, wrythe.

V. I, bye, die, fly, fy, high, lie, rely, my, nigh, pie, ply, rye, awry, shy sigh, sky, sly, sty, thigh, thy, tie, try, vie, why, wry.

DIPHTHONG 7-13.

OBSERVATIONS.-This diphthong, which is a blending of the extremes of the vowel scale, on the labial side, as the preceding diphthong was of its extremes on the lingual side, is a very common element of language. Its radical part is liable to fluctuations of the same nature as those to which that of the preceding

diphthong is subject. The most usual English deviations from 7-13 as the elements of the diphthong are, to 5-13 or 6-13, though we sometimes hear 8-13, and sometimes even 4-13. In Scotland, its general form is 9-13. In Ireland, it is 10-13.

This diphthong before R, gives the triphthong 7-13-8, the middle element of which in colloquial English is monosyllabically toned down into 11 or 10. The full utterance of such words as our, sour, &c. is however dissyllabic. They are perfect rhymes to power, bower, &c.

EXERCISES.

Unaccented.-Avowee, boustrophedon, brown-study, foundation, however, ourselves, outbalance, outbrave, outbid, outdone, outnumber, outrageous, outshine, shrew-mouse, town-crier, vouchor, vouchee, vouchsafe.

Accented.-I. Avower, avowal, bower, bowels, coward, cower, dowager, dowered, lowery, now-a-days, ploughing, power, rowel, scour, shower, sour, towel, tower, trowel, vowel, howitzer, our, dowry, avowry.

II. Avouch, bout, chouse, clout, couch, couchant, cowslip, crouch, doubt, doughty, drought, gout, grout, grouse, house, knout, lout, mouse, nous, ouch, oust, out, outermost, outcry, outhouse, outlaw, outline, outport, outrage, outset, pouch, pout, rout, scout, shout, slouch, snout, souse, south, spout, sprout, stout, tout, trout, vouch : bounce, bounty, bounteous, council, counsellor, count, countenance, counter, countess, county, fountain, frounce, mountain, mountebank, ounce, pounce, trounce.

III. Browbeat, cloudiness, dowdy, dowlas, drowsy, frowsy, mouser, owlet, powder, roundelay, thousand.

IV. Bound, boundary, browse, cloud, clown, cowl, crowd, crown, down, downright, drown, foul, foully, found, foundling, fowl, frown, gownman, ground, growl, hound, house, (v.) howl, loud, lounge, mound, noun, owl, pound, proud, prowl, round, rouse, scoundrel, scowl, sound, spouse, stound, touse, town, wound, (v.) blouze.

V. Avow, bow, bough, brow, cow, endow, frow, how, now, plough, slough, sow, thou, vow, mow, (s.) prow.

EIGHTH VOWEL.

OBSERVATIONS.-This is characteristically an English Vowel. Its position in the General Scheme, (page 28) indicates its exact formation. It is intermediate to ah, and the French sound eu; seeming to the attentive ear to partake of the quality of both sounds, and to be thus analogous to the tint produced by the amalgamation of two shades of colour. As the colour varies with the varying proportions of its elements, so, this vowel, among different speakers, and in different dialects, partakes in a greater or less degree of the ah or the eu. In London it is often heard as open as ah, (but this is a vulgarity,) as in sarve for serve, sar for sir, &c.; and, in some of the English provinces, it is pronounced almost identically with the French sound,—as in sœur for sir, peur(fect) for per(fect), &c.

The formation of this vowel differs but slightly from that of vowel 9; and the difference between these sounds is therefore, though clearly appreciable, not very strongly marked. This leads to a confusion, on the part of ordinary speakers, of such words as fir and fur, earn and urn, &c.; but the audible distinction, though slight, should always be preserved.

"John's wife and John were tete-a-tete;

She witty was, industrious he;

Says John, I've earned the bread we've ate,'

'And I,' says she, 'have urned the tea."

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The changes which take place in the organic arrangement for vowels of this open class are not all within reach of observation. The vocal passage is modified by the root of the tongue, and the parts immediately above the larynx. The visible difference between the formations 8 and 9 is a slight depression of the posterior part of the tongue, which directs the breath against the palate somewhat farther back for the 9th than for the 8th vowel. With so little accuracy have sounds been observed, and their formations studied, that many of our orthoepists-Walker for instance-consider this vowel the same as our 4th, and mark the er in ermine, perfect, &c. to be sounded with the same vowel, as in ell. Other authors,— as, for instance, those of the “phonotypic ” scheme, consider this sound identical with our 9th, and write the same vowel mark in sir and surly, myrrh and murder, &c.

This vowel is inseparably connected with the letter R in English. That letter alone, after a long vowel, has invariably the sound of the 8th vowel; as

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moo - r - ish, &c.

in fai-r, fai-r-y, near, cheer-ing, poo - r,

4 8 11 8 13 8

The terminations re and er have the same sound; as in ca

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re, core, lu - re,

ac-re, luc-re, wonder, brother, &c. The R in these terminations has no articulative effect, but in such words as fairy, cheering, moorish, &c. where a vowel follows it, the R has both its vowel and articulative effect.

Welsh and Irish speakers use the 9th instead of the 8th vowel. In Scotland, though the 8th vowel is not heard, the 9th is not its substitute. The letters e and i before r, have the same sound as before other articulations,—fill and firm, still and stir, &c.; send and serve, pension and person, &c. having respectively the same vowel sounds. The reason of this is, that R has always an articulative effect; it is trilled in all situations; it has no vowel effect even when final. The terminations er and re have the peculiar Scotch vowelsound noticed at page 25.

The 8th vowel and its associated softening of the letter R, are so peculiarly English, that they constitute a shibboleth to Scotchmen over the Border. In practising the following lists of words to acquire this English sound, the Northern student may at first pronounce the syllables ir, er, re, &c., simply as ah,—and without any R. By a little practice he will thus check the tendency to raise the tongue to the palate, and be enabled to produce the true sound with precision. Frequently the mere effort to open the vowel to ah, and omit the R, falls short of that point, and produces at once the precise English element. The article the is often pronounced 8, when the next word does not begin with a vowel.

EXERCISES.

Unaccented.-Certificate, circumference, circuitous, ferment, (v) herculean, hermitic, hirsute, mercurial, perhaps, perceive, perception, percussion, perdition, perfection, perfidious, perforce, perform, perfume, (v.) perfuse, ascertain, permit, permission, permute, pernicious, perpend, perpetual, perplex, persist, perspective, perspicuous, perspire, persuade, persuasion, pertain, perturb, pervade, servility, sternutatory, tergeminous, thermometer, verbose, vermilion, vernacular, verticity, vertigo, verbatim.

In r and re final after long vowels,—(the following words are monosyllables,)-bier, peer, mere, fear, veer, sear, sheer, tier, dear, near, leer, rear, gear, clear, here; air, heir, hare, pear, bear, mare, fair, where, wear, there, stair, share, tare, dare, neʼer, lair, rare, yare, care, glare; *par, bar, mar, far, star, tar, car; *purr, fur, cur; war; hoar, ore, o'er, oar, pour, boar, more, four, floor, wore, sore, shore, tore, door, lore, roar, yore, core, gore; poor, boor, moor, sure, tour, dure, lure, your, cure.

* In these words-the vowels 7 and 9 being so little different in formation from r (8),-the separate vowel quality of R is not so perceptible as in the other instances, in which a closer vowel precedes the r; but sufficiently nice observation will detect the same final element in all these words.

In the terminational SYLLABLES, er, ir, yr, re, &c. payer, weigher, obeyer, assayer, layer, gayer; ire, higher, fire, pyre, mire, wire, sigher, tire, dire, nigher, lyre; our, power, plougher, bower, flower, sour, shower, tower, dower, lower, (v.) cower; employer, alloyer, coyer; mower, sower, shewer, tower, (v.) lower, goer, grower; sabre, fibre, briber, acre, massacre, meeker, striker, ochre, lucre, nadir, pleader, cider, fifer, chafer, ephir, proffer, differ, loafer, eager, tiger, ogre, wager, niger, railer, feeler, beguiler, ruler, aimer, dreamer, emir, rhymer, roamer, plainer, meaner, dinner, diner, owner, paper, sleeper, piper, hoper, hopper, cooper, airer, wearer, nearer, admirer, adorer, curer, lacer, fleecer, nicer, grosser, grocer, looser, hater, lustre, hatter, knitter, theatre, nitre, otter, voter, neuter, shutter, graver, ever, beaver, quiver, diver, hover, lover, over, mover, raiser, teazer, wiser, quizzer, poser, user, buzzer, washer, fisher, usher, rather, either, wither, bother, clothier, soother, other, watcher, pitcher, hatcher, botcher, butcher, impeacher, poacher, hanger, singer, finger, monger, maugre, zephyr, martyr, satire, sapphire, samphire.

Accented. II. Chirp, perpetrate, herpes, serpent; perfect, perfidy, perforate, serf; birth, dearth, earth, earthquake, girth, mirth; Chersonese, erst, hearse, first, mercy, mercenary, immerse, persecute, person, personate, thirst, terse, verse, versatile, versify; tertian, version; birch, certain, certify, dirt, fertile, flirt, kirtle, pert, pertinent, shirt, skirt, merchant, smirch, spirt, squirt, thirty, vertex, vertical, virtue, revert, myrtle; circle, circular, circuit, circumflex, dirk, firkin, gherkin, irk, irksome, jerk, kerchief, mercury, percolate, perk, perquisite, quirk, smirk, zircon, circumflex.

III. Stirrer, whirring, myrrhine, (sirrah, stirrup, squirrel, sirup.*)

*These words are sometimes heard with the 2d vowel; the others are almost uniformly pronounced with the 8th, to show their derivation from stir, sir, whir, &c. There is a tendency also to prefer the radical vowel-sound of err, prefer, infer, &c. in the derivatives erring, preferring, inferring, &c. ; but e and i before R followed by a vowel, have otherwise the same sounds as before other articulations in the same predicament.

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