Page:Critical Pronouncing Dictionary (Walker, 4th edition, London, 1806).pdf/47

Rh letter short, as we find it in Perry's and Kenrick's Dictionaries; though in Sheridan's we find it long. Typography and typographer ought to have the first y long, as we find it in Sheridan, Scott, Buchanan, W. Johnston, Kenrick, and Perry, though frequently heard short; and though tyrannical has the y marked short by Mr. Perry, it ought rather to have the long sound, as we see it marked by Mr. Sheridan, Mr. Scott, Buchanan, W. Johnston, and Kenrick.

. From the view that has been taken of the sound of the i and y immediately before the accent, it may justly be called the most uncertain part of pronunciation. Scarcely any reason can be given why custom prefers one sound to the other in some words; and why, in others, we may use either one or the other indiscriminately. It is strongly to be presumed that the i and y, in this situation, particularly the last, was generally pronounced long by our ancestors, but that custom has gradually inclined to the shorter sound as more readily pronounced, and as more like the sound of these letters when they end a syllable after the accent; and, perhaps, we should contribute to the regularity of the language, if, when we are in doubt, we should rather incline to the short than the long sounds of these letters.

. That w final is a vowel, is not disputed; (9) when it is in this situation, it is equivalent to oo; as may be perceived in the sound of vow, tow-el, etc. where it forms a real diphthong, composed of the a in wa-ter, and the oo in woo and coo. It is often joined to o at the end of a syllable, without affecting the sound of that vowel; and in this situation it may be called servile, as in bow, to shoot with; crow, low, (not high) etc.

. A diphthong is a double vowel, or the union or mixture of two vowels pronounced together, so as only to make one syllable; as the Latin a e or ae, o e or oe, the Greek ει, the English ai, au, etc.

. This is the general definition of a diphthong; but if we examine it closely, we shall find in it a want of precision and accuracy. If a diphthong be two vowel sounds in succession, they must necessarily form two syllables, and therefore, by its very definition, cannot be a diphthong; if it be such a mixture of two vowels as to form but one simple sound, it is very improperly called a diphthong; nor can any such simple mixture exist.

. The only way to reconcile this seeming contradiction, is to suppose that two vocal sounds in succession were sometimes pronounced so closely together as to form only the time of one syllable in Greek and Latin verse. Some of these diphthongal syllables we have in our own language, which only pass for monosyllables in poetry; thus hire, (wages) is no more than one syllable in verse, though perfectly equivalent to higher, (more high) which generally passes for a dissyllable: the same may be observed of dire or dyer, hour and power, etc. This is not uniting two vocal sounds into one simple sound, which is impossible, but pronouncing two vocal sounds in succession so rapidly and so closely as to go for only one syllable in poetry.

. Thus the best definition I have found of a diphthong is that given us by Mr. Smith, in his Scheme for a French and English Dictionary. "A diphthong (says this gentleman) I would define to be two simple vocal sounds uttered by one and the same emission of breath, and joined in such a manner that each loses a portion of its natural length; but from the junction produceth a compound sound, equal in the time of pronouncing to either of them taken separately, and so making still but one syllable."

. "Now if we apply this definition (says Mr. Smith) to the several combinations that may have been laid down and denominated diphthongs by former orthöepists, I believe we shall find only a small number of them meriting this name." As a proof of the truth of this observation, we find, that most of those vocal assemblages that go under the name of diphthongs, emit but a simple sound, and that not compounded of the two vowels, but one of them only, sounded long: thus pain and pane, pail and pale, hear and here, are perfectly the same sounds.

. These observations naturally lead us to a distinction of diphthongs into proper and improper: the proper are such as have two distinct vocal sounds, and the improper such as have but one.

. The proper diphthongs are,

In this assemblage it is impossible not to see a manifest distinction between those which begin with e or i, and the rest. In those beginning with either of these vowels we find a squeezed sound like the commencing or consonant y interpose, as it were, to articulate the latter vowel, and that the words where these diphthongs are found, might, agreeably to the sound, be spelt oshe-yan, f-yude, j-yewel, pon-yard, span-yel, pash-yon, etc. and as these diphthongs (which, from their commencing with the sound of y consonant, may not improperly be called semi-consonant diphthongs) begin in that part of the mouth where s, c soft, and t, are formed, we find that coalescense ensue which forms the aspirated hiss in the numerous terminations sion, tion, tial, etc. and by direct consequence in those ending in ure, une, as future, fortune, etc, for