392 TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



"Walker favored this pronunciation all good usage at present is opposed 

 to it. 



The name of the letter u consists of a double sound of which the 

 first element is y or e, and the second is long oo. This compound 

 nature of the vowel u is more generally marked in English than in 

 American pronunciation. The most careful speakers are equally cor- 

 rect iu the orthoepy of this letter, but the majority of Americans sub- 

 stitute simply the long oo in words like tune, duty, Tuesday, nude, 

 suit, etc. Some Southerners, however, fall into the opposite error, 

 and give the initial element of this vowel undue distinctness. 



In the short it, as in tub, sun, fun, etc., there is also a very per- 

 ceptible difference between the pronunciation of the two peoples. The 

 American sound comes forth naturally without any active oral adjust- 

 ment — is similar to the u in furl, and is very much like that which is 

 known as the neutral vowel. The English sound is shorter, more 

 open, and is attended by a pharyngeal opening effort which is wanting 

 in the American utterance. Similar corresponding differences obtain 

 in a numerous class of words like hurry, flurry, etc., in which short u 

 precedes the letter r. 



The above are the chief phonological dissimilarities in the vowel 

 scale, and attention is now asked to a few diphthongs. In the words 

 boy, oil, join, etc., the diphthong oi is compounded of broad a, for the 

 initial and short i for the terminational element. In English speech 

 the broad a receives the full and decided stress of voice, and the final 

 element is very brief, and the transition from the former to the latter 

 is instantaneous. In American utterance the first element is dwelt 

 upon, and the passage to the final one is less direct. 



There is a want of agreement in the diphthong oic, in out, now, 

 house, etc., as pronounced by Americans and Englishmen. Some of 

 the former interpose between the vocal constituents of this diphthong a 

 species of neutral vowel, while others use a much less open sound than 

 Italian a, as the radical element. The latter fault is not confined to 

 this country, however, but is equally a cockney peculiarity. 



The chief points of phonetic variance in the consonants must now 

 receive some notice. 



Differences in the Consonants. — It is well known that English- 

 men " drop their h's," as they express it. To be sure this practice is 

 more common among the lower classes, but even among the highly 

 educated, either through inadvertence or the force of early habit, this 

 gross error occasionally occurs. The more ignorant, as if determined 

 to be at cross-purposes with this letter, not only omit it from syllables 

 in which it should be sounded, but they prefix it to words beginning 

 with a vowel. Natives of the United States are singularly free from 

 these erroneous practices. 



The letter r, which is of such phonological importance in modern 

 languages, has many divergent phases in British and American 



