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 16

Dejeêi’r in: Alphabets.

. Book l.'

brought. Thefe are all various waies of writing the fame long Vowel; belides which there are other difiìnét waies of cxprefiing the Наше Vowel when it is Мёд fhort, asin the wordsof, for, Sie. And for the Power of the Vowel (t) that is likewife written five fe veral waies. o. To, who, ruo‘ue. oe. Doe. oo. ' Shoo, rnoon, noon. ou. Could, would. no. Two.

And as for the Poner of the Vowel ( ч) this alíb is written tive feve ral waies 5 namely, by the Letters i. 817,11)", firmament, SKC.

o. Hon), mon), “мед/бис, love, Btc. v oo. Blood, ßood. u. Turn, burn, ßurtben.

ou. Country, couple. a. As to the Confonant:, thefe likewife are of very uncertain Power: :

witnefs the different pronunciation of the letter (С) in the word Circo, and ( G) in the word Negligence. lknow ’tis Ы‘! that the letter ( C ) before the Vowels a, o, u, muß be pronounced like (К,) as in the words „ее, coran, @udo 5 and before the Vowels e, i, as S, as in the words cedo,

eiliuru. But there is no reafon why it íhould be Го. Upon which account 2: our learned Country than,­ Sir Tbo.. Smit/r, doth juftly ­cenfure it as inon prognuncîati, ßrurn litem, non [item5 ignorantw Летит, non шт; mdaßrpm, one. той?) eornix. » «мат, The letters C,S,'1‘, are often ufed alike, to denote the farne Power, Gmi" and that both in Ещё/7) and Frencb 5 and the letter (S) is той frequent~

ly ufed for ( Z) which muß needs be veriy improper. And, which is yet more irrational, ibme Letters of the ame name and (ha pe are ufed fometimes for Vowelrß'nd fometimes for Сет/Этим; as шт“.

V, W, T5 which

yet differ from one anotherДел‘ corpur ¿5 anima, and ought by no means

to be confounded.

To which may be added, that from this equivocal power of Letters, it fo falls out, that I. Some words are di/iingui/bed in writing, and not in pronunciation : as S

zo, сфо; Sera, Cera-3 Serf/ur, Cer‘vur5 Syrur, C}ru.r5 Boar, Bore;

Corne, Lat. Curng Done, Вт’; Dear, Deer, Hear, Here; Heart, Hart;

Meat, Mete5 Son, Sun i Sonie, Lat. Suini, Toer, To# 5 Toc, Тап’ед To, Too, Tivo. ‘

a. Some Words are dzyiiugui//Jed in pronunciation, but not in writing; as the Words Give, i. Dare, Give, i. I/ineulufnr, Get. i. Acquirere, Get, i. 64 gate: 5 io and bis' in EngIi/ÍJ, ­and i: and hit in Latin. So the Latin word Malè,l i. evil/y, is a dilïyllable5 whereas the Engli/h word Mole, which Hgnifies the mafculine Sex, is but a monofyllable. All which are very zgreat incongruities, and' fuch as ought to be avoided in any regular elta blifhment of Letters. è. IV.

4. Their Nome: in molt Alphabets, are very improperly exprqße'd by words of {Эх/ага! fyllables5 as Aleph, Bet/s, Girnel, Sie. Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Sec. And thus it is in t5 feveral Alphabets mentioned by Her ÍÍÍdÍÍÍÍÍ/f