Y.

189. Y, from being partly a vowel and partly a consonant, may be called a Semi-vowel. It represents the fourteenth elementary sound, as in yet. It is equivalent to u, as in youth; to i, as in my and crystal; and to short u, as myrrh. It often has replaced the Anglo-Saxon g, as in year for gear. It originally grew out of the Greek v, a vowel.

190. B represents the twenty-second elementary sound, as in bag. The b in debtor, subtle, agrees with the b in lamb, dumb, thumb, in being mute. It differs, however, in another respect, that, while the words debtor, subtle, are of Classical, the words lamb, dumb, &c., are of Saxon origin. In debtor, &c., the b was undoubtedly at one time pronounced, debitor, subtilis, being the original forms. It is not probable that with the other words, lamb, &c., this was the case. The probability is, that b in speech never made a part of the word at all; that it belongs now, and that it always belonged, to the written language only; and that it was inserted in the spelling upon what may be called the Principle of Imitation, as in the case of in could. See Could, § 360.

C.

с

191. C is equivalent, 1. To k when before a, o, u, l, r, t, as in can, come, cub, clap, crop, act, and where it ends a syllable, as public. 2. To s before c, i, and y, as centre, city, cymbal. Ce and ci, followed by another vowel, often blend into the sound of sh, as in ocean, social. C is mute in Czar, victuals, indict. When e stands between s and e and i, its sound is not perceived, as in scene, scion; but it is necessary, in order to distinguish the words from seen, Sion. C, in some words, takes the sound of z, as in suffice. C might be omitted in the language without loss, since one of its sounds might be supplied by k, and the other by s; but that it preserves to the eye the etymology of such words as face from facies, captive from captivus. When c comes after the accent, and is followed by ca, ia, ie, io, or ious, it takes the sound of sh, as in ocean, &c.

Ch represents, 1. The compound sound of tsh, as in church. 2. The sound of k in chorus. 3. The sound of sh, as in machine. It is sometimes silent, as in drachm.

D.

§192. D represents the twenty-eighth elementary sound, as in did. When -ed is preceded by a surd consonant and the e is mute, d represents the sound of t, as in cracked, stuffed, pronounced crackt, stufft. In words like badge, its office is to shorten the preceding

consonant.

F.

193. Frepresents the twenty-third elementary sound, as in fan. In of it has the sound of v.

G.

194. G represents the thirteenth elementary sound when before a, o, u, l, and r, as in gap, gone, gun, glory, grace. Before e, i,

and y, it represents the sound of j, as in genius. To this there are

exceptions, as get, give, gewgaw, finger, and syllables added to words ending in g, as fog, foggy. At the end of a word it has its elementary sound, as in agog. It should be remembered, however, that ng is not n+g, but represents a single elementary sound, namely, the sixteenth.

In hedge and oblige, the e mute shows that g as j. U, on the other hand, is inserted after

g

is to be pronounced and before e in pro

rogue, in order to show that g has its elementary sound.

G is mute before m or n in the same syllable, as in phlegm, gnaw. Gh, at the beginning of a word, has the sound of g hard, as in ghost; in other situations it is generally mute, as in high. It some times is equivalent to f, as in laugh; and sometimes to k, as in hough; and sometimes to g hard, as in burgh. Ough is sometimes equivalent to ow, as in plough; and to oo, as in through. The original sound of gh was a hard guttural, as is at present the case in Scotland, and between g, h, f, v, and w there are frequent interchanges. This will explain the variety of sounds.

H.

195. H represents the fifteenth elementary sound, as in hot. It is sometimes mute in the beginning of words, as in honest, and is always so when itfollows r in the beginning of words, as in rhetoric. It is also mute when final, as in catarrh.

J.

196. J represents a compound sound, and is equivalent to dzh, as in jest. In hallelujah it has the sound of the German j; in French,

Ο

the sound of zh; in German, the sound of y. The letter j was originally a modification of i. The Germans adhere more nearly to the original sound.

K.

§ 197. K represents the twenty-ninth elementary sound, as in kind. It never comes before a, o, or u. It is used before e, i, and y, when c, according to the English analogy, would be liable to be sounded as s, as in kept, king, skirt. These words, if written cept, cing, scirt, would run the risk of being sounded sept, sing, sirt. Broadly speaking, k is never used except when e would be incon. venient. The reason of this lies in the fact of there being no such letter as k in the Latin language. Hence arose, in the eyes of the etymologist, the propriety, in all words derived from the Latin, as crown, concave, &c., of using the letter c to the exclusion of k. Besides this, the Anglo-Saxon alphabet, being taken from the Roman, excluded k, so that c was written even before the small vowels a, e, i, y, as cyning or cining a king. C then supplanted k upon etymological grounds only. K before n is mute, as in knife. This, however, was not the case in the allied languages. In German and Danish, in words like knecht, knife, the k was sounded. This teaches that such was once the case in English. Hence we learn that in the words knife, knight, and also in gnaw, gnash, we have an antiquated or obsolete orthography.

L.

§ 198. L represents the nineteenth elementary sound. Le at the end of words is sounded like el, as in table. For the ejection of 7 in calf and salmon, see under A L is mute between a and k in the same syllable, as in balk. For the l in could, see that word. In the Anglo-Saxon, is sometimes preceded by h, and aspirated, as in hlaf, loaf. Ben Jonson says that I melteth in the sounding, and is therefore called a liquid."

M.

199. M represents the seventeenth elementary sound, as in

man.

N.

200. N represents the eighteenth elementary sound, as in not. N is mute when preceded by m or l, as in hymn, kiln. In such words the n originally belonged to the succeeding syllable, as hymnus in the Latin, cylene, in the Anglo-Saxon.

Ng represents the sixteenth elementary sound, as in king.

P.

201. P represents the twenty-first elementary sound, as in pate. It has the sound of b in cupboard. It is sometimes mute at the be ginning of words before s and t, as in psalm, ptisan. It is mute in the middle of words between m and t, as in empty.

Ph usually has the sound of f, as in philosophy. In Stephen, nephew, and phial it has the sound of v. In apophthegm and phthisic, ph is silent.

Q.

§ 202. Q, accurately speaking, is neither a letter nor an abbrev!ation. It is always followed by u, as in queen, and the two letters qu must be looked upon as a single sign equivalent to, but scarcely an abbreviation of, kw. In some words of French origin, the u is mute, as coquet.

R.

§ 203. R represents the twentieth elementary sound, as in run. It has been called the canine letter, from the snarling of dogs. The vocal sound of this letter, uniting with a preceding vowel sound, modifies it, as in dare, her, bird, for, syrtis. The sound of r has a tendency to transposition, as in apron, iron, pronounced sometimes as if written apurn, iurn.

S.

§ 204. S represents the thirty-first elementary sound, as in sin. It often represents the sound of z, as in besom. It also represents the sound of sh, as in sure; and also zh, as in pleasure. It is sometimes silent, as in island.

T.

§ 205. T represents the twenty-seventh elementary sound, as in

take.

Th represents the twenty-fifth elementary sound, as in thin; and the twenty-sixth, as in thine. In the substantives, breath, cloth, the th is sharp or surd; that is, like th in thin. In the verbs breathe, clothe, the th is flat, or sonant; that is, like th in thine.

Th between two vowels, and between r and a vowel, is flat (sonant), as father, burthen.

Th, in certain words, like Thomas, is pronounced like t.

V.

§ 206. V represents the twenty-fourth elementary sound, as in van

X.

§ 207. X represents, 1. The sound of ks, as in exercise. 2. The sound of gz, as in exert. 3. The sound of z, as in Xenophon.

Z.

The

§ 208. Z represents the thirty-second elementary sound, as in zeal; and the thirty-fourth elementary sound, as in azure. name of this letter is zee, izzard, or zed, from the French.

EQUIVALENT LETTERS.

§ 209. Instead of the letters which regularly (normally) represent some of the elementary sounds, as arranged in the table, § 118, other letters, in certain circumstances, are irregularly (abnormally) their equivalents, representing the same sounds.

1. The letters equivalent to a in father are ea, au, ah, aaŝ as in heart, aunt, ah, baa.

2. The letters equivalent to a in fat are ua, ea, all, ai, i, ae, agh; as in guarantee, sergeant, shall, plaid, sirrah, Haerlem, Armagh.

3. The letters equivalent to a in fate are ai, ao, ay, e, ea, ei, ey, au; as in pain, gaol, day, there, great, reign, they, gauge.

4. The letters equivalent to a in fall are au, aw, awe, al, o, oa, ou; as in caul, awful, awe, walk, nor, broad, ought.

5. The letters equivalent to e in mete are æ, ea, ee, ei, eo, ey, ie, i, oe, oi, eg; as in Cæsar, seat, deer, deceit, people, key, field, machine, antæci, turkois, impregn.

6. The letters equivalent to e in met are ai, ae, eà, ei, eg, ie, œ, a, u, eo; as in again, Dadalus, head, heifer, phlegm; friend, fætid, any, bury, leopard.

7. The letters equivalent to i in fit are ai, e, ee, ei, ia, ie, oi, o, ui, u, cy; as in captain, yes, breeches, surfeit, carriage, sieve, tortoise, women, guilt, busy, cyst.

8. The letters equivalent to o in note are au, eau, eo, e1r, oa, oe, oo, ou, ow, owe, of: as i bauthoy, beau, yeoman, sew, groan, foe, floor, mould, show we, depôt.