Page:Critical Pronouncing Dictionary (Walker, 4th edition, London, 1806).pdf/45

Rh sound of o like u, as if written unisun, diapazun, etc. The same letter is suppressed in a final unaccented syllable beginning with t, as Seton, cotton, button, mutton, glutton, pronounced as if written Set'n, cott'n, etc. When x precedes the t, the o is pronounced distinctly, as in Sexton. When l is the preceding letter, the o is generally suppressed as in the proper names Stilton cheese, Wilton carpets, and Melton, Mowbray, etc. Accurate speakers sometimes struggle to preserve it in the name of our great epic poet Milton; but the former examples sufficiently shew the tendency of the language; and this tendency cannot be easily counteracted. This letter is likewise suppressed in the last syllable of blazon, pronounced blaz'n; but is always to be preserved in the same syllable of horizon. This suppression of the o must not be ranked among those careless abbreviations found only among the vulgar, but must be considered as one of those devious tendencies to brevity, which has worn itself a currency in the language, and has at last become a part of it. To pronounce the o in those cases where it is suppressed, would give a singularity to the speaker bordering nearly on the pedandic; and the attention given to this singularity by the hearer would necessarily diminish his attention to the subject, and consequently deprive the speaker of something much more desirable.

. The first sound of u, heard in tube, or ending an accented syllable, as in cu-bic, is a diphthongal sound, as if e were prefixed, and these words were spelt tewvbe and kewbic. The letter u is exactly the pronoun you.

. The second sound of u is the short sound, which tallies exactly with the o in done, son, etc. which every ear perceives might, as well, for the sound's sake, be spelt dun, sun, etc. See all the words where the o has this sound, No. 165.

. The third sound of this letter, and that in which the English more particularly depart from analogy, is the u in bull, full, pull, etc. The first or diphthongal u in tube, seems almost as peculiar to the English as the long sound of the i in thine, mine, etc. but here, as if they chose to imitate the Latin, Italian, and French u, they leave out the e before the u, which is heard in tube, mule, etc. and do not pronounce the latter part of u quite so long as the oo in pool, nor so short as the u in dull, but with a middle sound between both, which is the true short sound of the oo in coo and woo, as may be heard by comparing woo and wool; the latter of which is a perfect rhyme to bull.

. This middle sound of u, so unlike the general sound of that letter, exists only in the following words: bull, full, pull; words compounded of full, as wonderful, dreadful, etc. bullock, bully, bullet, bulwark, fuller, fulling-mill, pulley, pullet, push, bush, bushel, pulpit, puss, bullion, butcher, cushion, cookoo, pudding, sugar, hussar, huzza, and put wheuwhen [sic] a verb: but few as they are, except full, which is a very copious termination, they are sufficient to puzzle Englishmen who reside at any distance from the capital, and to make the inhabitants of Scotland and Ireland, (who, it is highly probable, received a much more regular pronunciation from our ancestors) not unfrequently the jest of fools.

. But vague and desultory as this sound of the u may at first seem, on a closer view we find it chiefly confined to words which begin with the mute labials, b, p, f, and end with the liquid labial l, or the dentals s, t, and d, as in bull, full, pull, bush, push, pudding, puss, put, etc. Whatever, therefore, was the cause of this whimsical deviation, we see its primitives are confined to a very narrow compass: put has this sound only when it is a verb; for putty, a paste for glass, has the common sound of u, and rhymes exactly with nutty, (having the qualities of a nut) so put, the game at cards, and the vulgar appellation of country put, follow the same analogy. All Bull's compounds regularly follow their primitive. But though fuller, a whitener of cloth, and Fulham, a proper name, are not compounded of full, they are sounded as if they were; while Putney follows the general rule, and has its first syllable pronounced like the noun put. Pulpit and pullet comply with the peculiarity, on account of their resemblance to pull, though nothing related to it; and butcher and puss adopt this sound of u for no other reason but the nearness of their form to the other words; and when to these we have added cushion, sugar, cuckoo, hussar, and the interjection huzza, we have every word in the whole language where the u is thus pronounced.

. Some speakers, indeed, have attempted to give bulk and punish, this obtuse sound of u, but luckily have not been followed. The words which have already adopted it are sufficiently numerous; and we cannot be too careful to check the growth of so unmeaning an irregularity. When this vowel is preceded by r in the same syllable, it has a sound somewhat longer than this middle sound, and exactly as if written oo: thus rue, true, etc. are pronounced nearly as if written roo, troo, etc. (339)

. It must be remarked, that this sound of u, except in the word fuller, never extends to words from the learned languages; for fulminant, fulmination, ebullition, repulsion, sepulchre, etc. sound the u, as in dull, gull, etc. and the u in pus and pustule is exactly like the same letter in thus. So the pure English words, fulsome, buss, bulge, bustle, bustard, buzzard, preserve the u in its second sound, as us, hull, and custard. It may likewise not be unworthy of remark, that the letter u is never subject to the shortening power of either the primary or secondary accent; but when accented, is always long, unless shortened by a double consonant. See the words and, and No. 503, 534.

. But the strangest deviation of this letter from its