and wh is spoken like bw: bwat, bwich, bwen*. W is loft in fword, but not properly in fwoon, though fome pronounce it fo. In the rapid and colloquial pronunciation of towards, it seems to unite with the o, and to form with it a diphthong of the fame found as ow in crow, tow-ards; though, according to the etymology, it fhould be divided to-wards: we fhould therefore fay, rather, that the w is dropped, and to'ards spoken like boards (fee p. 70.). The w in two is filent; so also is that in anfwer and housewife, and the fecond w in awkward.

§ 18. X.

The found of x is compounded of k and s; thus, tax, box, extraordinary, &c. found as taks, boks, &c. It is not uncommon to give to x, when it ftands between two vowels, the duller found of g and thus example is spoken egzample ; exift, egzist; exert, egzert. It seems to be pronounced like kz in anxiety; thus, angk-ziety. Before i unaccented, and an

other vowel, it is pronounced like ksb; as anxious, noxious, fluxion, pronounced angk-fhious, nokfhious, flukshion: and also before u, as flexuous, fleksbuous; fixure, fikfbure.

X does not ftand as an initial letter in any English word; but it is in common ufe among us, in that situation, in many proper names which occur in ancient hiftory; and in these it is pronounced like z alone. Thus there is a manifest difference in the found of the first and fecond x in Xerxes, pronounced Zerxes; fo Xenophon, Xantippe, Xenocrates, are spoken Zenophon, &c. But if the letter be thrown by compofition into the middle of the word, the true found of x returns, as in Artaxerxes. Xis filent at the end of billetdoux, in the fingular; but in the plural, and in beaux, founds like final s, or z; but beaus is more frequently written.

Y, as a confonant, has no peculiarities, and has been fufficiently fpoken of in

page 42. Its invariable found is heard in young, &c.

It is obferved by Dr. Wallis, that the founds of w and y creep in upon us unawares after the guttural confonants: thus can, he fays, is pronounced cyan; get, gyet, begin, begyin; and even pot, pwot; boy, bwoy; boil, bwoile: Grammar, p. 40. This ftrange corruption is now, however, quite abolished, except in fome inftances already noticed, in pp. 29, 83, &c. *

Z.

This letter has a found resembling that of s, but duller, and in my apprehenfion fofter; though its name of izzard, or s hard, feems to denote that those who named it thought otherwife. But Wallis thought as I do, and called the "s mollet."

Z, re

* I find, indeed, in a very ingenious modern treatife on pronunciation, directions to say gyide and gyile, but I cannot approve them.-Sherid. Rh. Gr. p. 27.

+ The paffage is this: "Et, quod ferè folenne eft, ubi ex nomine per s durum in ultimâ fyllabâ pronun

Z, resembling s fo much, follows it alfo in fome of its anamolies; thus, before the termination -ure, it takes the found of the French foft g, or j: ex. azure, razure (fee p. 128.): alfo before the termination -ier, as in vizier, glazier, grazier.

Z is dropped in rendezvous; and is by many perfons pronounced, in mezzotinto, according to the Italian pronunciation; that is, as if the firft z were a t, thus, metzotinto.

tiato, fit verbum; hoc verbum per s molle (hoc eft, per z) pronunciatur, Sic a boufe, domus, &c. per s durum: at to houfe, in domum recipere, &c. per s molle proferuntur." Gram. p. 26.-See page 124. of this Treatife. If this be right, the name of zad, which is more elegant, is also more proper, than that of izzard.

PART

II.

OF ACCENT,

H

C. HA P. I.

ITHERTO our task has been chiefly that of arranging fuch matters as have been before obferved by others. The fubfequent parts of this Treatife will be found to contain much more of novelty; and therewith fome things repugnant to notions very generally received: yet we trust the very form of the work will prefent fufficient evidence of their truth. Fewer attempts have been made towards the regulation of accent and quantity in English, than towards directing us in the enunciation of the letters. It has even been fuppofed that these parts of our language are incapable of being rendered fully fubject to the dominion of any fyftem. It is to this hour disputed what

accent