Page:Critical Pronouncing Dictionary (Walker, 4th edition, London, 1806).pdf/19



Mr. Sheridan was a native of Ireland, and had the best opportunities of understanding those peculiarities of pronunciation which obtain there, I shall extract his observations on that subject as the best general direction, and add a few of my own, by way of supplement, which I hope will render this article of instruction still more complete.

The reader will be pleased to take notice, that as I have made a different arrangement of the vowels, and I have adopted a notation different from Mr. Sheridan, I am obliged to make use of different figures to mark the vowels, but still such as perfectly correspond to his.

"The chief mistakes made by the Irish in pronouncing English, lie for the most part in the sounds of the two first vowels, a and e; the former being generally sounded by the Irish, as in the word br, in most words where it is pronounced, as in day, by the English. Thus the Irish say, ptron, mtron, the vowel  having the same sound as in the word fther; while the English pronounce them as if written paytron, maytron. The following rule, strictly attended to, will rectify this mistake through the whole language.

When the vowel a finishes a syllable, and has the accent on it, it is invariably pronounced [day] by the English. To this rule there are but three exceptions in the whole language to be found in the words fther, pap, mam. The Irish may think also the word rather an exception, as well father; and so it would appear to be in their manner of pronouncing it r-ther, laying the accent on the vowel a; but in the English pronunciation the consonant th is taken into the first syllable, rath′er, which makes the difference.

Whenever a consonant follows the vowel a in the same syllable, and the accent is on the consonant, the vowel a has always its fourth sound, as ht, mn; as also the same sound lengthened when it precedes the letter r, as fr, br, though the accent be on the vowel; as likewise when it precedes lm, blm, pslm. The Irish, ignorant of this latter exception, pronounce all words of that structure, as if they were written bawm, psawm, quawm, cawm, etc. In the third sound of a, marked by different combinations of vowels, or consonants, such as au, in Paul; aw, in law; all, in call; ald, in bald; alk, in talk, etc. the Irish make no mistake, except in that of lm, as before mentioned.

The second vowel, e, is for the most part sounded ee by the English, when the accent is upon it; whilst the Irish in most words give it the sound of slender, as in hate. This sound of [ee] is marked by different combinations of vowels, such as ea, ei, e final mute, ee, and ie. In the two last combinations of ee and ie, the Irish never mistake; such as in meet, seem, field, believe, etc. but in all the others, they almost universally change the sound of into. Thus in the combination ea, they pronounce the words tea, sea, please, as if they were spelt tay, say, plays; instead of tee, see, pleese. The English constantly give this sound to ea whenever the accent is on the vowel e, except in the following words, great, a pear, a bear, to bear, to forbear, to swear, to tear, to wear. In all which the e has the sound of in hte. For want of knowing these exceptions, the gentlemen of Ireland, after some time of residence in London, are apt to fall into the general rule, and pronounce these words as if spelt greet, beer, sweer, etc.

Ei is also sounded ee by the English, and as by the Irish; thus the words deceit, receive, are pronounced by them as if written desate, resave. Ei is always sounded ee, except when a g follows it, as in the words reign, feign, deign, etc. as also in the words rein, (of a bridle) rein-deer, vein, drein, veil, heir, which are pronounced like rain, vain, drain, vail, air.

The final mute e makes the preceding e in the same syllable, when accented, have the sound of ee, as in the words suprme, sincre, replte. This rule is almost universally broken through by the Irish, who pronounce all such words as if written suprme, sincre, replte, etc. There are but two exceptions to this rule in the English pronunciation, which are the words there, where.

In the way of marking this sounds, by a double e, as thus ee, as the Irish never make any mistakes, the best method for all who want to acquire the right pronunciation of these several combinations is, to suppose that ea, ei, and e, attended by a final mute e, are all spelt with a double e, or ee.

Ey is always sounded like by the English, when the accent is upon it; as in the words prey, convey, pronounced pray, convay. To this there are but two exceptions, in the words ky and ly, sounded kee, lee. The Irish in attempting to pronounce like the English, often give the same sound to ey, as usually belongs to ei; thus for prey, convey, they say, pree, convee.

A strict observation of these few rules, with a due attention to the very few exceptions enumerated above, will