18 EEMAEKS ON THE USE OF NAMES. 



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

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

 modification of the sound. 



Let us add that orthoepists commonl}^ and with great propriet}- recognize wliat 

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

 of the vowels may express it indifferentl3\ Thus, if we pronounce the word martyr 

 as rapidly as possible, it makes scarcely an}' appreciable difference whether it be 

 written martar, inarter, tnartir, martor, martur, or martyr; as we say scarce!}' 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, a'er is a word of two syllables, and a'edon one of three ; the vowels in 

 these cases to be separately and distinctl}"^ uttered, as in English aerial. Proper 

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

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

 together without combining. 



^ 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 original]}' written ai, and 

 is b}' 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 nearl}' our English 

 eye or the pronoun /. 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 oio in how, now, owl. It is precisely the German au, as in (xni). 



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

 ends of words, but each is separately pronounced. E. g., ^ne-as Bore-as, Arde-a. 



EI 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 mfew, eu in feud, ou in you ; and especially when initial 

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

 seldom occurs, except in Greek words. 



lA, IE, II, 10, lU 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., 

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

 of vocal i with a following vowel, are I'eally of consonantal i, which is J, pronounced 

 y; SiS plebeius, = plebe-jus, \nonounced plebe-yus. 



