Page:Critical Pronouncing Dictionary (Walker, 4th edition, London, 1806).pdf/27



. First Principles or Elements of Pronunciation are Letters:

. To these may be added certain combination of letters sometimes used in printing; as ct, ſt, fl, ſl, ſb, ſh, ſk, ſſ, ff, ſi, ſſi, fi, ffi, ffl, and et, or and per se and, or rather et per se and; ct, ſt, fl, fi, ſl, ſb, ſh, ſk, ff, ſſ, fſi [sic], ſſi, fi, ffi, et.

. Our letters, says Dr. Johnson, are commonly reckoned twenty-four, because anciently i and j, as well as u and v, were expressed by the same character; but as these letters, which had always different powers, have now different forms, our alphabet may be properly said to consist of twenty-six letters.

. In considering the sounds of these first principles of language, we find that some are so simple and unmixed, that there is nothing required but the opening of the mouth to make them understood, and to form different sounds. Whence they have the names of vowels, or voices, or vocal sounds. On the contrary, we find that there are others, whose pronunciation depends on the particular application and use of every part of the mouth, as the teeth, the lips, the tongue, the palate, etc. which yet cannot make any one perfect sound but by their union with those vocal sounds; and these are called consonants, or letters sounding with other letters.

. Vowels are generally reckoned to be five in number; namely, a, e, i, o, u; y and w are called vowels when they end a syllable or word, and consonants when they begin one.

. The definition of a vowel, as little liable to exception as any, seems to be the following: A vowel is a simple sound formed by a continued effusion of the breath, and a certain conformation of the mouth, without any alteration in the position, or any motion of the organs of speech, from the moment the vocal sound commences till it ends.

. A consonant may be defined to be, an interruption of the effusion of vocal sound, arising from the application of the organs of speech to each other.

. Agreeably to this definition, vowels may be divided into two kinds, the simple and compound. The simple a, e, o, are those which are formed by one conformation of the organs only; that is, the organs remain exactly in the same position at the end as at the beginning of the letter; whereas in the compound vowels i and u, the organs alter their position before the letter is completely sounded: nay, these letters, when commencing a syllable, do not only require a different position of the organs in order to form them perfectly, but demand such an application of the tongue to the roof of the mouth, as is inconsistent with the nature of a pure vowel; for the first of these letters, i, when sounded alone, or ending a syllable with the accent upon it, is a real diphthong, composed of the sounds of a in father, and of e in the, exactly correspondent to the