ENGLISH PHONOLOGY. 389 



from the customary English pronunciation. The open sound of a in 

 the word father is known as Italian a, and it was until the beginning 

 of the present century in almost universal use in England, in a certain 

 class of words in which Walker, and other lexicographers influenced 

 by him, substituted short a, as in hat. The short a never became 

 popular, and it was regarded by many as a species of learned affection, 

 and in these words at the present day the open Italian a is very gen- 

 erally used in England. In the United States, on the contrary, the 

 short a has come to be the sound employed by the vast majority of 

 both the learned and less-educated classes in these instances. This 

 sound of a occurs in a large class of words, such as last, past, after, 

 ask, etc., and unfortunately it is not the explosive short a in hat as 

 recommended by Walker, but a more prolonged and flattened sound, 

 as it is uttered by most Americans, and one not authorized by any 

 lexicographer. Fulton and Knight, and subsequently Webster, advised 

 in this class of words a shortened sound of Italian a. Their intention, 

 which was that this sound should differ in quantity only and not in 

 quality from the Italian a, seems to have been misapprehended by 

 certain cultivated speakers who, not satisfied with the flat a of com- 

 mon speech in this country, have adopted a sound intermediate in 

 quality between short and Italian a. No such intermediate sound is 

 ever uttered by native Englishmen. In the schools and universities, 

 at the bar, in the pulpit, and on the stage, among officers of the army 

 and navy, and among the learned and ignorant alike, the prevailing 

 sound heard in these words in England is the open Italian a. It is not 

 to be overlooked that a minority of New Englanders and a few South- 

 erners have preserved this native English sound in this class of words. 



But there is another series of words, like bath, aunt, half, path, 

 calm, palm, etc., in which Americans depart still further from English 

 usage by the employment of the flattened and prolonged a above 

 mentioned. Now, it is needless to say that not only all English pre- 

 cedents but all lexicogi-aphers, American as well as British, demand 

 the use of the full Italian a in these words ; for, though there may be 

 a choice of the short a of Walker, or of the open a in the first class 

 of terms, there is absolutely no option in this instance. Helmholtz 

 long ago proved that this Italian a has more harmonic overtones 

 than any other vowel, and it is unfortunate that this most sonorous 

 and musical sound should have so largely disappeared from English 

 as spoken in the United States. 



Another kind of a, known as long a, as in the word fate, is in 

 reality like most of the vowels, of a composite nature, consisting of 

 a fundamental and initial sound somewhat less open than Italian a, 

 and a vanish in e long. This initial element is more open, and the 

 diphthongal nature of a long more evident in the English than in the 

 American pronunciation. This difference of utterance may be de- 

 tected in a great many positions of long a, but especially in words 



