OBSERVATIONS.-In forming this sound, the oral channel is enlarged by the depression of the fore-part of the tongue, from its position at a(3), about as much as it was increased from ee to a. This formation is one of the cardinal points in the vowel scale, being about midway between the closest and most open formations ee and ah; the vowel is one of the commonest in all languages. It is the note uttered by the sheep in bleating.

A vowel intermediate to this and the preceding formation is heard in Scotland, as the vernacular sound of the English i, in ill, in, it, &c. This is one of the most common vowels in the Scottish dialect; it is heard instead of the English 4th in cherry, merry, &c.; instead of the 8th in her, sir, &c.; the 9th in does, &c.; the 13th in put, foot, &c: combined with ee, it makes the Scottish form of the English diphthong 7-1, as in ay, child, idle, mine, &c.; and it is heard, besides, in numerous unaccented syllables.

5

The organic change from the 4th vowel position to the succeeding formation is comparatively minute; and consequently the sounds 4 and 5 are liable to be confounded. The English long form of vowel 4 (heard only before R) often verges on 5; and in Scotland the short form is characteristically subject to the same change; perish being pronounced almost like the English parish, very like varry, heaven like hav'n, &c. In some districts, or in some words, the converse of this change takes place, and we hear kerrier for carrier, merry for marry, &c.

4

5

5

5

3

4

8

5

A peculiarity similar to the former occurs in the Irish dialect, in which such words as men, pen, bed, &c., are pronounced nearly like man, pan, bad, &c. The long form of this vowel-identical with the French ê in même, bête, &c. —is that sound which we have said is substituted for A before R in English. It is heard in no other position in our language. In Scotland it is common as the sound of the English diphthong 7-1, when final, as in eye, high, buy, my, try, &c.; and also in emphatic or strongly accented syllables it is heard instead of A (3), as in " I say," "away!" "admiration, tribulation," &c., pronounced "I SEH," 99 66 AWEH!" " admirEHtion," &c.

M

An ear unaccustomed to analyze vocal sounds, may possibly, at first, fail to recognise the same vowel formation in the words ell and ere = air = heir; arising from its combination in the latter words with the open R(8): but close observation and careful experiment will satisfy the demurring ear of the correctness of our classification. When we find all our orthoepists at fault with this sound,—and see even Mr Walker, in his laborious analysis of the principles of our language, omitting to notice this lengthened sound of eh; nay, asserting that ea in bear, e in there, &c. are the same in vowel quality as a in trade, ai in pain, &c., we cannot expect our new doctrine to be received without question. It is, however, most certain that all English speakers at the present day do make a difference in the sound of a as in care and in cane; and there can be no doubt that Mr Walker, fifty years ago, must have made a correspondent difference between them in his own practice, or else the very obvious difference now made must have grown with marvellous rapidity and obstinacy, at variance as it is with the theories of our orthoepists. To the qualified ear we appeal to corroborate our well tested conclusion, that the a and e in vary and very are identical in quality, and different only in quantity or fulness; just as the long sounds in yawn and pool are—confessedly by all orthoepists—the same in quality with the short ones in yon and pull.

The combination of this long vowel with R, it must be remembered, constitutes a diphthong, viz. 4-8.

4 8

Thus,

pa - ir,

Let the reader pronounce the words in the first of the two following columns, omitting the vowel-sound of the r, and joining its articulative effect to the first vowel as abruptly as possible, and his pronunciations should correspond to the words in the second column: or, conversely, let him pronounce the words in the second column with the interposition of the vowel-sound of R between its articulative effect and the preceding vowel, and his utterances should give the words in the first column.

But it is not every ear that will be at once competent for this experiment. We every day see how difficult it is for the unpractised organs to analyze even the simplest words into their elementary sounds; and how hard it sometimes is to get the judgment to assent to the correctness of what seems so strange and peculiar as the separate utterance of the elements of language. The ear requires peculiar training, as well as natural acuteness, to catch and distinguish the transient and shadowy tones of the speaking voice with accuracy. Even ex

cellence in utterance or in the practice of music, would appear to be no certain qualification for this peculiar province of the critical ear: thus Mr Rice, in his Art of Reading, wishing to prove the untenable assertion, that speaking sounds do not range between tones of various acuteness or gravity, but differ only in force or intensity, like the notes of a drum,-says, "That I might not be mistaken, however, myself, in this particular, I repeated at different times several passages from Milton and other poets, in the hearing of one of the greatest masters in that science, (Music) who, after paying the utmost attention to the several articulate sounds in each sentence, declared them to be all of the same tone!" No fact in the science of speech is better established than that all speaking sounds partake of an upward or downward movement-called an inflexion—of the voice; and that, consequently, there is not a sameness of tone throughout any correctly-delivered articulate sound; but here were a Professor of the Art of Speech, and "one of the greatest Masters in Music" deceived in that particular.

We cannot, therefore, wonder if critics, less apparently qualified than these professional Masters of Sound, should be unable or unwilling, against general theoretic authority-to corroborate by accurate experiment our Vowel-Theory and classification. Accustomed, as we are, to a false scheme of representative letters, it is not easy to examine sounds by the ear alone, irrespective of their signs; but this must be done by the philosophical student of speech.

Let the Northern reader now endeavour to lengthen the vowel in the word

8

ell,--and he will produce the sound which, followed by the peculiar formation er, is regularly heard in English instead of the 3d vowel before R in the same syllable.

EXERCISES.

4 (short) Unaccented.-Biped, learned, sacred, forest, hellenic, minstrel, majesty, Messiah, project, (s.) peremptory, quadruped, temptation.

In the initial syllables, ef, em, en, ex, &c.; as in efface, effect, efficient, effeminate, effete, effulgent, effuse; ellipse, elliptic; embalm, embellish, embezzle, embody, emphatic, empiricism, employ; enable, enamel, encamp, enchant, enclitic, endear, endeavour, endow, enfeeble, engage, engorge, engrave, enhance, enjoy, enkindle, enlarge, enlighten, ennoble, enrich, enslave, entire, environ; erratic, erroneous; eschew, essay, (v.) eccentric, eclectic, ecstatic, exact, example, exceed, except, exchange, exculpate, executor, exempt, exergue, exhale, exhilarate, explain, explicit, expression, exsiccate, extend, exterior, extol, extract, extreme, exude, exult, &c.

In the terminations, ed, edst, ence, ent, est, eth, less, ment, ness, &c.; as in blighted, dreaded, weeded, elated, noted; blottedst, mouldedst, yelledst; evidence, penitence, essence, conscience; provident, different, eminent, serpent, comment, (s.) washest, bathest, veilest; breaketh, laugheth, aideth, shibboleth; headless, heedless, edgeless, soulless, aimless, useless; government, refinement, figment, segment, indictment, ointment, ailment; wickedness, happiness, madness, likeness, illness, lameness, wanness, witness, freshness, blitheness, emptiness, harness.

4 (short) Accented.-II. Depth, depurate, heptarchy, jeopardy, kept, wept, leopard, pepper, reprobate, reptile, sceptic, separate, tepid, shepherd, epitaph; effluent, deaf, feoff, cephalalgy, feoffer, heifer, zephyr, bereft, theft; death, saith, ethics, lethargy, method, breath, bethel; bless, best, breast, essence, arrest, fester, guess, jessamine, lesson, message, pestle, pessimist, pressed, sessile, testament, invest, zest, vesicate; debt, better, detriment, etiquette, etch, fret, etymon, heterodox, heterogene, jet, kettle, metaphor, metal, metrical, petty, petulant, retinue, reticle, wretch, veteran, wet, yet, treachery, thetical; fresh, profession, especial, threshhold, mesh, session, procession; deck, beckon, elect, mechanism, neck, nectarine, peck, wreck, rector, protect, technical, check, equerry, equitable, equinox, freckle, peculate—Help, helper, helpmate, yelp, whelp; delf, Delphian, belfrey, Guelf, pelf, selfish, shelf, elfin; health, stealth, wealth; else, elsewhere, keelson; Celts, dealt, felt, helter-skelter, knelt, melting, shelter, welts, belch; Welsh, Welshman; elk, welkin; emphasis, Memphian; empire, emperor, empress, hemp, temper, sempervive, temple, temporal, temperate, temse, sempster, sempstress; dreamt, empty, attempt; emption, pre-emption, redemption; tenth; pence, density, prehensile, commence, pensive, sensitive, spencer, tense, whence, wainscot; bent, indent, dental, entity, nonentity, meant, mental, pentagon, scent, assent, tentative, content, event, ventricle, went, twenty, blench, drench, henchman, wrench, retrench; gentian, pension, providential; lengthen, lengthwise.

III.-Ebbing, pebble; headed, wedding, meadow, ready, dedicate, medical, predicate, redolent, sediment, zedoary, treadle, steady; beverage, crevice, ever, evidence, heaven, levy, level, revel, lenigate, prevalent, reverie, seven, endeavour; blemish, emanate, emigrant, feminine, general, hemisphere, hemorrhage, lemma, memory, supremacy, seminary, cemetery, semibreve; feather, together, heather, nether, weather, wether, whether, tether; hesitate, peasant, presence, resident, resin, resolute, resonant, mesentery; berry, burial, beryl, ceremony, derogate, eremite, errand, error, ferret, ferreous, herald, heritage, heroine, peregrinate, peremptory, peril, perishable, seraph, terebrate, very, veracund, verify, wherry; bellow, cellar, delicate, element, eloquence, felon, gelid, gelatin, hellebore, helical, jelly, melancholy, melody, pellet, pellicle, prelate, relevant, relegate, relic, stellar, spelling, telegraph, teller, vellum, vermicelli, zealous, zealot; benefit, denizen, denigrate, enemy, energy, fennel, kennel, menace, pennate, penance, penetrate, penny, renegade, rennet, senate, seneschal, splenetic, tenable, tenement, tennis, venerate, venom, zenith; measurable, pleasure, treasury; beggar, dreggy, legate, legacy, megacosm, negatives.

IV.-Ebb, web, February, pebbly, hebdomad, nebula; bed-rid, educate, headlong, medley, pedlar, hedger, edge, allege, sledge, bed, bread, dead, fled, head, said, instead, sped, tread, wed, hegira, legend, schedule, regimen, vegetate; tremble, tremulous, semblance, remnant, remember, membrane, hemlock, emulate, embrocate, ember, emblem, condemn, phlegm, gem, them, stem; brethren; says, presbyter; bell, dell, ell, fell, knell, quell, sell, swell, tell, rebel, (v.) compel, well, yell, shell, beldam, belluine, deluge, delve, elbow, elder, elves, elm, helmet, helve, prelude, (s.) realm, seldom, sheldrake, velvet; den, fen, again, ben, ken, men, ten, wen, then, when, dendroid, endless, engine, envoy, envy, fend, friend, gender, genuine, lend, mend, mendicant, penman, pendent, pendulum, penguin, phengite, render, slender, splendid, strenuous, tenure, tender, tendril, vengeance, venison, Wednesday, wend;