younger ought always to rhyme with the termination monger, which has always the g hard, and articulating the vowel; and this pronunciation is approved by Mr. Nares. Forget, target, and together, fall into this class. See No. 409.
382. G is hard before i, in gibbe, gibcat, gibber, gibberish, gibbous, giddy, gift, gig, giggle, giglet, (properly gigglet) gild, gill, (of a fish) gimlet, gimp, gird, girdle, girl, girth, gizzard, begin, give, forgive, biggin, piggin, noggin: also derivatives from nouns or verbs ending in hard g, as druggist, waggish, riggish, hoggish, doggish, sluggish, rigging, digging, etc.
383. G before y is generally soft, as in elegy, apology, etc. and almost in all words from the learned languages; but hard in words from the Saxon, which are formed from nouns or verbs ending in g hard, as shaggy, jaggy, knaggy, snaggy, craggy, scraggy, quaggy, swaggy, dreggy, spriggy, twiggy, boggy, foggy, cloggy, buggy, muggy. Gyve, from its Celtic original, ought to have the g hard, but has decidedly adopted the soft g.
GN in the same Syllable at the beginning of a Word.
384. The g in this situation is always silent, as gnaw, gnash, gnat, gnarl, gnomon, gnomonics; pronounced naw, nash, nat, narl, nomon, nomonics.
GN in the same Syllable at the end of a Word.
385. No combination of letters has more puzzled the critics than this. Two actresses of distinguished merit, in Portia, in the Merchant of Venice, pronounced the word impugn differently, and each found her advocate in the newspapers. One critic affirmed, that Miss Young, by preserving the sound of g, pronounced the word properly; and the other contended, that Mrs. Yates was more judicious in leaving it out. The former was charged with harshness; the latter, with mutilating the word, and weakening its sound; but if analogy may decide, it is clearly in favour of the latter; for there is no axiom in our pronunciation more indisputable than that which makes g silent before n in the same syllable. This is constantly the case in sign, and all its compounds, as resign, design, consign, assign ; and in indign, condign, malign, benign; all pronounced as if written sine, rezine, etc. In which words we find the vowel i long and open, to compensate, as it were, for the suppression of g, as every other word ending in gn, when the accent is on the syllable, has a diphthong pronounced like a long open vowel, as arraign, campaign, feign, reign, deign; and consequently, unless the vowel u can produce some special privilege which the other vowels have not, we must, if we pronounce according to analogy, make the u in this situation long, and sound impugn as if written impune.
386. The same analogy will oblige us to pronounce impregn, oppugn, expugn, propugn, as if written imprene, oppune, expune, propune, not ouly when these verbs are in the infinitive mood, but in the preterits, participles, and verbal nouns formed from them, as impugned, impugning, and impugner, must be pronounced impuned, impuning, and impuner. The same may be observed of the rest. Perhaps it will gratify a curious observer of pronunciation to see the diversity and uncertainty of our orthöepists in their notation of the words before us:
| impūne. | Sheridan, Scott, Nares, Murray. Barclay says the g in this word and its derivatives is mute, but takes no notice of the quantity of the u. |
| impŭn. | Buchanan, Kenrick, Perry. |
| impŭng. | W. Johnston. |
| oppūne. | Sheridan, Scott, Nares, Murray. |
| oppŭn. | Kenrick, Perry, Barclay. |
| oppŭng. | W. Johnston. |
| propūne. | Sheridan, Scott, Perry, Nares. |
| propŭng. | Barclay. |
| imprēne. | Nares, Murray. |
| imprĕn. | Sheridan, Kenrick, Perry. Barclay says the g is mute, but says nothing of the quantity of the e. |
| expūne. | Sheridan, Scott, Nares. |
| expŭn. | Perry, Barclay. |
| impūner. | Sheridan. |
| impūned. | Murray. |
| impŭnner. | Perry, Barclay. |
| oppŭgner. | Sheridan. |
| propŭgner. | Sheridan. |
| propūner. | Scott. |
| propŭnner. | Perry. |
Nothing is clearer than that all these words ought to follow the same fortune, and should be pronounced alike. How then shall be reconciled Mr. Sheridan's pronouncing impugn, oppugn, expugn, and propugn, with the u long, and impregn with the e short? Kenrick, who has not the word propugn, is consistent in pronouncing the rest with the vowel short. The same may be observed of Scott, who adopts the long sound, but has not the word impregn. Mr. Perry gives the short sound to all but propugn, where he makes the u long, but absurdly makes the verbal noun propunner; and W. Johnston, who has only impugn and oppugn, pronounces the vowel short, and spells them impung and oppung. Barclay, under the word impung, says the g in this word and its derivatives is mute, without noticing the quantity of the vowels, but spells oppugn, oppun; and of impregn, only says the g is mute; but writes propugn, propung, in the manner that W. Johnston does impugn and oppugn: but Mr. Nares observes, that analogy seems to require a similar pronunciation in all these words, and that the vowel should be long. The same inconsistency is observable in Mr. Sheridan's pronunciation of the verbal nouns; for he expunges the g in impugner, and writes it impuner, but preserves it in oppugner and propugner. Mr.
