Saxon origin. In debtor, &c., the b was undoubtedly at one time pronounced; debitor, subtilis, being the original forms. It is not probable that with the other words, lamb, &c., this was the case. The probability is, that b in speech never made a part of the word at all; that it belongs now, and that it always belonged, to the written language only; and that it was inserted in the spelling upon what may be called the principle of imitation, as in the case of l in could.See Could, Section CCCLX.

SECTION CXCI.

C is equivalent, 1. To k when before a, o, u, l, r, t, as in can, come, cub, clap, crop, act, and where it ends a syllable, as public. 2. To s before c, i, and y, as centre, city, cymbal. Ce and ci, fol lowed by another vowel, often blend into the sound of sh, as in ocean, social. C is mute in Czar, victuals, indict. When c stands between s and e and i, its sound is not perceived, as in scene, scion; but it is necessary, in order to distinguish the words from seen, Sion. C, in some words, takes the sound of z, as in suffice. Cmight be omitted in the language without loss, since one of its sounds might be supplied by k, and the other by s; but that it preserves to the eye the etymology of such words as face from facies, captive from captivus. When c comes after the accent, and is followed by ea, ia, ie, io, or ious, it takes the sound of sh, as in ocean, &c.

Ch represents, 1. The compound sound of tsh, as in church. 2. The sound of k in chorus. 3. The sound of sh, as in machine. It is sometimes silent, as in drachm.

SECTION CXCII.

D represents the twenty-eighth elementary sound, as in did. When ed is preceded by a surd consonant and the e is mute, d represents the sound of t, as in cracked, stuffed, pronounced crackt, stufft. In words like badge, its office is to shorten the preceding

consonant.

SECTION CXCIII.

Frepresents the twenty-third elementary sound, as in fan. In of it has the sound of v.

SECTION CXCIV.

G represents the thirteenth elementary sound when before a, o, u, 7, and r, as in gap, gone, gun, glory, grace. Before e, i, and y, it represents the sound of j, as in genius. To this there are exceptions, as get, give, gewgaw, finger, and syllables added to words ending in g, as fog, foggy. At the end of a word it has its elementary sound, as in agog. It should be remembered, however, that ng is not n+I, but represents a single elementary sound, namely, the sixteenth.

In hedge and oblige, the e mute shows that g is to be pronounced as j. U, on the other hand, is inserted after g and before e in prorogue, in order to show that g has its elementary sound.

G is mute before m or n in the same syllable, as in phlegm, gnaw. Gh, at the beginning of a word, has the sound of g hard, as in ghost; in other situations it is generally mute, as in high. It sometimes is equivalent to f, as in laugh; and sometimes to k, as in hough; and sometimes to g hard, as in burgh. Ough is sometimes equivalent to ow, as in plough; and to oo, as in through. The original sound of gh was a hard guttural, as is at present the case in Scotland; and between g, h, f, v, and w there are frequent interchanges. This will explain the variety of sounds.

SECTION CXCV.

H represents the fifteenth elementary sound, as in hot. It is sometimes mute in the beginning of words, as in honest, and is always so when it follows r in the beginning of words, as in rhetoric. It is also mute when final, as in catarrh.

SECTION CXCVI.

J represents a compound sound, and is equivalent to dzh, as in jest. In hallelujah it has the sound of the German j; in French, the sound of zh; in German, the sound of y. The letter j was originally a modification of i. The Germans adhere more nearly to the original sound.

SECTION CXCVII.

Krepresents the twenty-ninth elementary sound, as in kind. It never comes before a, o, or u. It is used before e, i, and y, when C, according to the English analogy, would be liable to be sounded as s, as in kept, king, skirt. These words, if written cept, cing, scirt, would run the risk of being sounded sept, sing, sirt. Broadly speaking, is never used except when c would be inconvenient. The reason of this lies in the fact of there being no such letter as in the Latin language. Hence arose, in the eyes of the etymologist, the propriety, in all words derived from the Latin, as crown, concave, &c., of using the letter c to the exclusion of k. Besides this, the Anglo-Saxon alphabet, being taken from the Roman, excluded k, so that c was written even before the small vowels a, e, i, y, as cyning or cining = a king. C, then, supplanted k upon etymological grounds only. K before n is mute, as in knife. This, however, was not the case in the allied languages. In German and Danish, in words like knecht, knife, the was sounded. This teaches that such was once the case in English. Hence we learn that in the words knife, knight, and also in gnaw, gnash, we have an antiquated, or obsolete, orthography.

SECTION CXCVIII.

I represents the nineteenth elementary sound. Le at the end of words is sounded like el, as in table. For the ejection of 7 in calf and salmon, see under A. L is mute between a and k in the same

syllable, as in balk. For the 7 in could, see that word. In the Anglo-Saxon, is sometimes preceded by h, and aspirated, as in hlaf, loaf. Ben Jonson says that "melteth in the sounding, and is therefore called a liquid."

SECTION CXCIX.

M represents the seventeenth elementary sound, as in man.

SECTION CC.

l,

N represents the eighteenth elementary sound, as in not. Nis mute when preceded by m or 1, as in hymn, kiln. In such words the n originally belonged to the succeeding syllable, as hymnus in the Latin, cylene in the Anglo-Saxon.

Ng represents the sixteenth elementary sound, as in king.

SECTION CCI.

P represents the twenty-first elementary sound, as in pate. It has the sound of b in cupboard. It is sometimes mute at the beginning of words before s and t, as in psalm, ptisan. It is mute in the middle of words between m and t, as in empty.

Ph usually has the sound of f, as in philosophy. In Stephen, nephew, and phial it has the sound of v. In apophthegm and phthisic, ph is silent.

SECTION CCII.

Q, accurately speaking, is neither a letter nor an abbreviation. It is always followed by u, as in queen, and the two letters qu must be looked upon as a single sign equivalent to, but scarcely an abbreviation of, kw. In some words of French origin, the u is mute, as coquet.

SECTION CCIII.

R represents the twentieth elementary sound, as in run. It has been called the canine letter, from the snarling of dogs. The vocal sound of this letter, uniting with a preceding vowel sound, modifies it, as in dare, her, bird, for, syrtis. The sound of r has a tendency to transposition, as in apron, iron, pronounced sometimes as if written apurn, iurn.

SECTION CCIV.

S represents the thirty-first elementary sound, as in sin. It often represents the sound of z, as in besom. It also represents the sound of sh, as in sure; and also zh, as in pleasure. It is sometimes silent, as in island.

SECTION CCV.

Trepresents the twenty-seventh elementary sound, as in take. Th represents the twenty-fifth elementary sound, as in thin; and the twenty-sixth, as in thine. In the substantives, breath, cloth, the

th is sharp or surd; that is, like th in thin.

In the verbs breathe,

clothe, the th is flat, or sonant; that is, like th in thine.

Th between two vowels, and between r and a vowel, is flat (sonant), as father, burthen.

Th, in certain words, like Thomas, is pronounced like t.

SECTION CCVI.

V represents the twenty-fourth elementary sound, as in van.

SECTION CCVII.

X represents, 1. The sound of ks, as in exercise. 2. The sound of gz, as in exert. 3. The sound of z, as in Xenophon.

SECTION CCVIII.

Z represents the thirty-second elementary sound, as in zeal; and the thirty-fourth elementary sound, as in azure. The name of this letter is zee, izzard, or zed, from the French.

SECTION CCIX.-EQUIVALENT LETTERS.

Instead of the letters which regularly (normally) represent some of the elementary sounds, as arranged in the table, Section CXVIII., other letters, in certain circumstances, are irregularly (abnormally) their equivalents, representing the same sounds.

1. The letters equivalent to a in father are ea, au, ah, aa; as in heart, aunt, ah, baa.

2. The letters equivalent to a in fat are ua, ea, all, ai, i, ae, agh; as in guarantee, sergeant, shall, plaid, sirrah, Haerlem, Armagh.

3. The letters equivalent to a in fate are ai, ao, ay, e, ea, ei, ey, au; as in pain, gaol, day, there, great, reign, they, gauge.

4. The letters equivalent to a in fall are au, aw, awe, al, o, oa, ou; as in caul, awful, awe, walk, nor, broad, ought.

5. The letters equivalent to e in mete are æ, ea, ee, ei, eo, ey, ie, i, oe, oi, eg; as in Caesar, seat, deer, deceit, people, key, field, machine, antaci, turkois, impregn.

6. The letters equivalent to e in met are ai, ae, ea, ei, eg, ie, œ, a, u, eo; as in again, Dædalus, head, heifer, phlegm, friend, fœtid, any, bury, leopard.

7. The letters equivalent to i in fit are ai, e, ee, ei, ia, ie, oi, o, ui, u, cy; as in captain, yes, breeches, surfeit, carriage, sieve, tortoise, women, guilt, busy, cyst..

8. The letters equivalent to o in note are au, eau, eo, ew, oa, oe, oo, ou, ow, owe, ot; as in hautboy, beau, yeoman, sew, groan, foe, floor, mould, show, owe, depôt.

The letters equivalent to o in not are a, eo, ou; as in what, George, cough.

10. The letters equivalent to u in bull are 00, 0, ou, ue; as in wool, wolf, would, construe.

11. The letters equivalent to oo in fool are o, oe, ou, œu, wo; as in move, shoe, tour, manœuvre, two.

12. The letters equivalent to u in but are e, ea, i, o, oo, ou, oe; as in her, hearth, sir, won, flood, rough, does.

13. The letters equivalent to i in pine are ai, ei, eye, ie, oi, ui, wy, ye; as in aisle, height, eye, die, choir, guide, why, rye.

14. The letters equivalent to u in rude are eau, eu, ew, ewe, ieu, iew, ue, ou, ui; as in beauty, feud, new, ewe, adieu, view, true, you,

suit.

An equivalent of oi in voice is oy, as in boy. An equivalent of ou in house is ow, as in now.

Having in this chapter collated the phonetic elements with the literal elements which are employed to represent them, we are now prepared to estimate the defects of the English alphabet.

QUESTIONS UNDER CHAPTER II.

1. What elementary sounds does the letter a represent normally, and what sound abnormally?

2. What sound does a final represent ?

3. What elementary sounds does the letter e represent normally, and what sounds abnormally?

4. What sounds does the letter i represent normally, and what sounds abnormally? 5. What elementary sounds does the letter o represent normally, and what abnormally?

6. What sounds does the letter u represent normally, and what abnormally? 7. What is w called, and what elementary sound does it represent ?

8. How is it pronounced before h?

9. What is y called, and what elementary sounds does it represent normally, and what sounds abnormally?

10. What elementary sounds do b and c, and the other consonants in the alphabet, severally represent?

11. What do you understand by equivalent letters ?

12. What letters are equivalent to a in father?

13. What letters are equivalent to a in fat?

14. What letters are equivalent to a in hate?

CHAPTER III.

DEFECTS OF THE ENGLISH ALPHABET.

SECTION CCX.-IT IS DEFICIENT.

IF the letter a be considered as the appropriate sign of the sound of a in father, then neither the sound of a in fate, nor the sound of a in fat, nor the sound of a in all, has either of them a separate single sign. Thus, one sign is used for four different sounds. In like manner, one sign,-namely, the letter o, is used to represent the two vowel sounds in note and not. So the two sounds of th in thin and in thine have but one sign,— namely, th, and that sign is not simple. So the sound of sh in shine, of z in azure, and ng in song, have no corresponding simple signs. The English alphabet is thus deficient in respect to the first condition mentioned in Section CLXXIX.