A GRAMMAR OF THE
the force of the w consonant, as quoff, quest, quit, quite, languish; sometimes in ui the i loses its sound, as in juice. It is sometimes mute before a, e, i, y, as guard, guest, guise, buy.
U is followed by e in virtue, but the e has no sound.
Ue is sometimes mute at the end of a word, in imitation of the French, as prorogue, synagogue, plague, vague, harangue.
Y.
Y is a vowel, which, as Quintilian observes of one of the Roman letters, we might want without inconvenience, but that we have it. It supplies the place of i at the end of words, as thy; before an i, as dying; and is commonly retained in derivative words where it was part of a diphthong in the primitive; as destroy. destroyer; betray, betrayed, betrayer; pray, prayer; say, sayer; day, days
Y being the Saxon vowel ẏ, which was commonly used where i is now put, occurs very frequently in all old books.
General Rules.
A vowel in the beginning or middle syllable, before two consonants, is commonly short, as oppǒrtunity.
Jn monosyllables a single vowel before a single consonant is short, as flag, frog.
Of Consonants.
B.
B has one unvaried sound, such as it obtains in other languages.
It is mute in debt, debtor, subtle, doubt, lamb, limb, dumb, thumb, climb, comb, womb.
It is used before i and r, as black, brown.
C.
C has before e and i the sound of s; as sincerely, centrick, century, circular, cistern, city, siccity: before a, o and u, it founds like k, as calm, concavity, copper, incorporate, curiosity, concupiscence.
C might be omitted in the language without loss, since one of its founds might be supplied by s, and the other by k, but that it preserves to the eye the etymology of words, as face from facies, captive from captivus .
Ch has a found which is analysed into tsh, as church, chin, crutch. It is the same sound which the Italians give to the c simple before i and e, as citta, cerro.
Ch is founded like k in words derived from the Greek, as chymist, scheme, choler. Arch is commonly sounded ark before a vowel, as archangel; and with the English sound of ch before a consonant, as archbishop.
Ch, in some French words not yet assimilated, founds like sh, as machine, chaise.
C, according to English orthography, never ends a word; therefore we write stick, block, which were originally sticke, blocke, in such words. C is now mute.
It is used before i and r, as clock, crass.
D
Is uniform in its sound, as death, diligent.
It is used before r, as draw, dross, and w, as dwell.
F.
F, though having a name beginning with a vowel, it is numbered by the grammarians among the semivowels, yet has this quality of a mute, that it is commodiously sounded before a liquid, flask, fly, freckle. It has an unvariable sound, except that of is sometimes spoken nearly as ov.
G.
G has two sounds, one hard, as in gay, go, gun; the other soft, as in gem, giant.
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