18 EEMARKS ON THE USE OF NAMES. 



i 



&c. We suspect that some of the less evident powers ascribed b} r orthoepists to 

 various vowels, are not inherent in the vowels themselves, but due to consonantal 

 modification of the sound. 



Let us add that orthoepists commonly and with great propriet} r recognize what 

 they call the '"neutral" vowel-sound, a quality so slight and obscure, that any one 

 of the vowels may express it indifferently. Thus, if we pronounce the word martyr 

 as rapidly as possible, it makes scarcely any appreciable difference whether it be 

 written martar, marter, martir, martor, martur, or martyr; as we say scarcely any 

 thing more than martr, the six " neutral" vowels are phonetically interchangeable. 



DIPHTHONGS. 



In diphthongs, each vowel must be sounded, and the two sounds be smoothly 

 combined. Two vowels coming together do not necessarily form a diphthong. For 

 example, aer is a word of two syllables, and aedon one of three ; the vowels in 

 these cases to be separately and distinctby uttered, as in English aerial. Proper 

 diphthongs, i. e., two vowel-sounds combined to make a third different from either, 

 are comparative!}' rare ; and all the following components of diphthongs also come 

 together without combining. 



JE consists of ah-ay, which when rapidly spoken becomes so nearly like Latin 

 long e (see above) as to be practically the same. It was originally written ai, and 

 is by some directed to be so sounded. 



AI is a very composite sound, i itself is a compound, being ah-ee, the whole 

 being therefore ah-ah-ee, which when run together becomes very nearly our English 

 eye or the pronoun 7. It seems quite like the French naif, naive, or English knife. 



A and O do not combine, and seldom come together. 



AU is oftenest heard, but wrongly, as in cause, or as aiv in awl, law, awful. It 

 is like the ow in how, now, owl. It is precisely the German au, as in ail*. 



E and A do not combine ; they frequently come together, especially at the 

 ends of words, but each is separately pronounced. E. a., ^Ene-as Sore-as, Arde-a. 



El is frequent. The analysis is ay-ah-ee, contracted to a drawling sound little 

 different from long English a in mate ; more exactly, English ei in vein, eight. 



E and O do not combine. E-os, E-opsaltria, &c. 



EU is equal to ay-oo. Strongly and rapidly uttered, it becomes the long Eng- 

 lish u in tube, ue in due, ew in few, eu in feud, ou in you ; and especially when initial 

 represents the whole word you. For example Eugenes = Tougenes = Ayooaenes. It 

 seldom occurs, except in Greek words. 



IA, IE, II, IO, IU do not combine. The very frequent ia, especially ending a 

 word, and the ii, so frequent in the genitives of persons' names, are always two full 

 syllables. The common iu, in the ending of words makes two syllables: e.g., 

 spuri-us. So seri-es, rati-o have each three syllables. Some apparent diphthongs 

 of vocal i with a following vowel, are really of consonantal i, which isj, pronounced 

 y; as plebeius, =plebe-jus, pronounced plebe-yus. 



