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Liquid Sound of K, C, or G hard, before the
Vowels A and I.

THERE is a fluent liquid sound of these consonants before the two vowels a and i, which gives a smooth and elegant sound to the words in which they occur, and which distinguishes the polite pronunciation of London from that of every other part of the island. This pronunciation is nearly as if the a and i were preceded by e. Thus, kind is sounded as if written ke-ind; card, as ke-ard; and regard, as rege-ard. When these vowels are pronounced short, as in cabbage, gander, kindle, &c. the interposition of the sound of e is very perceptible, and indeed unavoidable; for though we can pronounce guard, cart, and kind, without interposing the e, we cannot pronounce carriage, garrison, and kindred, in the same manner. The words that require this liquid sound in the k, c, and g hard, are but few. Sky, kind, guide, gird, girt, girl, guise, guile, card, cart, carp, carpenter, carpet, carve, carbuncle, carnal, cartridge, guard, and regard;-these and their compounds are perhaps the only words where this sound occurs; but these words are so much in use as to be sufficient to mark a speaker as either coarse or elegant, as he adopts or neglects it.

This sound is taken notice of by Steele in his English Grammar, p. 49, so long ago as the reign of queen Anne; but he ascribes it to the consonant's being followed by a palative vowel,

as he calls the a in can, the e in get, and the i in begin, which he says "are sounded as if written cyan, gyet, begyin, &c. because the tongue can scarce pass from these guttural consonants to form the palative vowels, but "it must pronounce y; but it is not so before "the other vowels, as in call, gall, go, gun,

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. goose, come, &c." This observation of Steele's goes no farther than to such words as cannot possibly be pronounced without the intervention of the e or y sound; but to this it may be added, that though such words as have the long sound of the a in father, or the same long sound heard before r final, or followed by another consonant in the same syllable, as car, card, regard; or such words as have the long i, or the short i followed by r, as kirk, gird, girl; -I say, though these words may be pronounced without the intervention of e or y, yet with it they are not only more mellow and fluent, but infinitely more elegant and fashionable.

At first sight we are surprised that two such different letters as a and i should be affected in the same manner by the hard gutturals, g, c, and k; but when we reflect that i is really composed of a and e, our surprise ceases; and we are pleased to find the ear perfectly uniform in its procedure, and entirely unbiassed by the eye. From this view of the analogy, we may see how much mistaken is a very solid and ingenious writer on this subject, who says that "ky-ind for kind is a "monster of pronunciation, heard only on our stage," Nare's Orthoëpy, p. 28. See Critical Pronouncing Dictionary, under the word GUILT.

The liquid Sound of T, D, S, and soft C, after the Accent, and before the semi-consonant Diphthongs.

NOTHING can be better established in the genuine pronunciation of our language than the liquid sibilation of these consonants, when the accent comes after them, and the inverted diphthongs succeed. This is evident in the numerous terminations in tion, sion, cion; and if we had words ending in dion, it is not to be doubted but that they would flow into the same current of sound.

The general ear, true to analogy, melts these consonants into the soft hiss before the long u; for though apparently a single letter, it is composed of e oo, or rather y oo, and is therefore not only not a pure vowel, but a semi-consonant diphthong, exactly in sound like the pronoun you. Hence we hear polite speakers always pronounce educate, as if written edjucate; virtue as verchew; verdure as verjure: and if the general ear were not corrupted by being corrected, we should in the same analogy hear Indian pronounced Injian; odious, ojeous; and insidious, insidjeous. In this pronunciation of these words, the speaker has always the strongest analogy on his side; but he ought to avoid sinking the i, and reducing the Indian into two syllables, as if written In-jan; odious as o-jus; and insiduous as insid-jus. The i ought to be heard distinctly, like e in these words, as if written and divided into In-je-an, o-je-us, insid-je-ous, &c.

For want of attending to this evident analogy, there are few English words more frequently

mispronounced than the word pronunciation. À mere English scholar, who considers the word to pronounce as the root of it, cannot easily con ceive why the o is thrown out of the second syllable; and therefore, to correct the mistake, sounds the word as if written pronounciation. Those who are sufficiently learned to escape this error, by understanding that the word comes to us either from the Latin pronunciatio, or the French pronunciation, are very apt to fall into another, by sinking the first aspiration, and pronouncing the third syllable like the noun sea. But these speakers ought to take notice, that, throughout the whole language, c, s, and t, preceded by the accent, either primary or secondary, and followed by ea, ia, io, or any similar diphthong, always become aspirated, and are pronounced as if written she. Thus the very same reasons that oblige us to pronounce partiality, propitiation, especially, &c. as if written parsheality, propisheation, espesheally, &c. oblige us to pronounce pronunciation as if written pronunsheashun. See Principles, prefixed to the Critical Pronouncing Dictionary, Nos 357, 450, 461, and the word ECCLESIASTICK. We may conclude by observing that this liquid sound of these letters is no fanciful departure from true orthography, but is the genuine and spontaneous production of the national ear; and as it tends to give a mellow flow of sound to a considerable part of the language, it should cer tainly not be discouraged.

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In this word, and some of the other examples, it may be noted that the condary accent operates on these letters exactly in the samė manner as the primary: and that as the second

ary accent is before the cia, it makes it she-a, as much as the primary before tion makes it she-un.

Suppressing the Sound of the final Consonants.

ONE great cause of indistinctness in reading is sinking the sound of some of the final consonants, when they are followed by the words beginning with vowels, and of some when the next word begins with a consonant. Thus the word and is frequently pronounced like the article an, both before a vowel and a consonant, as, Both men and money are wanting to carry on the war; where we hear this sentence as if written, Both men an money are wanting to carry on the war. The suppression of d in this case is, however, much more tolerable than when it is followed by a vowel, and particularly the vowel a, followed by n; for in this position there is not only a disagreeable repetition of the same sound, but, in some measure, a confusion in the sense. Thus we often hear that A subject is carried on by question and answer, as if written, The subject is carried on by question an answer: and, He made his meal of an apple and an egg, as if written, he made his meal of an apple an an egg. So that it ought to be made a general rule always to pronounce the d in and, when a vowel begins the next word, and particularly when that word begins with an.

The sound off, when final, is liable to the same suppression when a consonant begins the succeeding word, and particularly the th. Nothing is more common than to hear The want of men is occasioned by the want of money, pro

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