yearn. Beard, which in truth is regular, is falfely spoken burd on our stage. In pageant, pageantry, and ferjeant, the ea is obfcure; and alfo in vengeance, but feems to approach moft nearly to the fhort found of A. Thefe vowels often meet without forming a diphthong; but efpecially in compounded words, where the e and a belong to different parts; as in reäct, reädmit, reäfcend, and others compounded with re before a: fo alfo deälbate, deämbulate; also beätify, creäte (except creature), feälty, ideä, meänder, preämble, reäl, recreänt, Pygmeän, Europeän, Epicureän, empyreän, adamanteän, coloffeän. In fome words, where ea can hardly be faid to form one fyllable, they are fo rapidly pronounced as to ftand only for one in poetry, the e taking a found fimilar to that of Y before a vowel: thus, ocean, rofeate, found oce-yan, rofe-yate; and fo fome others terminated in -ean and -eal. § 9. EAU. ex. This triphthong is French properly, therefore it founds like o long, which is the found of it in that language: beau, bureau, flambeau. It is founded fhorter, and rather obfcurely, in portmanteau: and in beauty, and its deriva tives, has the found of our long u § 10. EE. The reduplication of a vowel is the moft natural reprefentative of its long found, in fituations where fome distinctive mark is neceffary. The Romans, we are told, anciently wrote eemi for emi, eedi for edi, &c. So with us EE is the reprefentative of e long, in places where the analogy of the language forbids us to give the long found to the fingle vowel: thus bleed, reed, feed, are diftinguished both in found and fenfe from bled, red, fed. Cheesecake, Cheesecake, breech, and breeches, are almoft the only inftances in which ee has an improper found; in these the rapidity of ordinary speech produces a found most nearly allied to that of i fhort. Leeward is, I believe, fpoken looward by failors *. What was faid above of EA, may be applied alfo to the double E: its vowels. remain feparate wherever they are only brought together by compofition, thus, preeminence, preëxistence, reëstablish, &c. ; or derivation, as freër. § II. EI. This diphthong is another fubftitute for the long E, whose found it regularly takes, as in ceiling, inveigle, perceive, &c. It varies occafionally from this found, by taking that *In Beelzebub the found of fhort E is usually given to it. When never is contracted by poetic licence into ne'er, and ever into e'er, the double ee is pronounced like long a. Of Of a long, in deign, eight, feign, feint, freight, heinous, heir, inveigh, neigh, neighbour, obeisance, reign, rein, feine (a net), fkein, their, veil, vein, weigh. E fhort, in foreign, heifer, leisure, nonpareil: fome give to ei in leifure the found of long a, fome of long e, but wrongly. I long, in height, heigh-ho, fleight. I short, in counterfeit, forfeit, furfeit. In fome words thefe vowels come together, yet do not unite into a diphthong, as in deify, deity, deïfm, deïft, spontaneïty (Dryd.); and in words compounded with re before i, &c. as reiterate, reinftate, preincline. Either and neither are spoken by fome with the found of long 1: I have heard even that of long a given to them; but as the regular way is alfo in ufe, I think it is preferable. These differences seem to have arisen from ignorance of the regular found of ei. 1 ral This diphthong is pronounced in feve ways; nor are there inftances enough of any fingle mode of pronunciation, to authorize us to call it more regular than the reft. We must therefore endeavour to collect all the words in which it is to be found; nor will thefe amount to any great number. It is pronounced Like & long, in enfeoff, people. u long, in feod, feodal, feodary. The vowels remain difunited in geögraphical, geometric, geometrician, and all words beginning with geo-, except the four in which they are pronounced like e fhort. Dryden has ufed even geometry as four fyllables: "Who counts geometry, and numbers, toys; |