Page:The grammar of English grammars.djvu/1058

 pure English, it is never silent, never final, never doubled: but it is often doubled in the dialect of Craven; and there, too, it is sometimes final.

XXIII. OF THE LETTER W.

W, when reckoned a consonant, (as it usually is when uttered with a vowel that follows it,) has the sound heard at the beginning of wine, win, woman, woody; being a sound less vocal than that of oo, and depending more upon the lips.

W before h, is usually pronounced as if it followed the h; as in what, when, where, while: but, in who, whose, whom, whole, whoop, and words formed from these, it is silent. Before r, in the same syllable, it is also silent; as in wrath, wrench, wrong. So in a few other cases; as in sword, answer, two.

W is never used alone as a vowel; except in some Welsh or foreign names, in which it is equivalent to oo; as in "Cwm Cothy," the name of a mountain in Wales; "Wkra" the name of a small river in Poland.--See Lockhart's Napoleon, Vol. ii, p. 15. In a diphthong, when heard, it has the power of u in bull, or nearly that of oo; as in new, now, brow, frown. Aw and ow are frequently improper diphthongs, the w being silent, the a broad, and the o long; as in law, flaw,--tow, snow. W, when sounded before vowels, being reckoned a consonant, we have no diphthongs or triphthongs beginning with this letter.

XXIV. OF THE LETTER X.

The consonant "X has a sharp sound, like ks; as in ox: and a flat one, like gz; as in example. X is sharp, when it ends an accented syllable; as in exercise, exit, excellence: or when it precedes an accented syllable beginning with a consonant; as in expand, extreme, expunge. X unaccented is generally flat, when the next syllable begins with a vowel; as in exist, exemption, exotic. X initial, in Greek proper names, has the sound of z; as in Xanthus, Xantippe, Xenophon, Xerxes"--See W. Allen's Gram., p. 25.

XXV. OF THE LETTER Y.

Y, as a consonant, has the sound heard at the beginning of yarn, young, youth; being rather less vocal than the feeble sound of i, or of the vowel y, and serving merely to modify that of a succeeding vowel, with which it is quickly united. Y, as a vowel, has the same sounds as i:--

1. The open, long, full, or primal y; as in cry, crying, thyme, cycle.

2. The close, curt, short, or stopped y; as in system, symptom, cynic.

3. The feeble or faint y, accentless; (like open e feeble;) as in cymar, cycloidal, mercy.

The vowels i and y have, in general, exactly the same sound under similar circumstances, and, in forming derivatives, we often change one for the other: as in city, cities; tie, tying; easy, easily.

Y, before a vowel heard in the same syllable, is reckoned a consonant; we have, therefore, no diphthongs or triphthongs commencing with this letter.

XXVI. OF THE LETTER Z.

The consonant Z, the last letter of our alphabet, has usually a soft or buzzing sound, the same as that of s flat; as in Zeno, zenith, breeze, dizzy. Before u primal or i feeble, z, as well as s flat, sometimes takes the sound of zh, which, in the enumeration of consonantal sounds, is reckoned a distinct element; as in azure, seizure, glazier; osier, measure, pleasure.

END OF THE FIRST APPENDIX.