196 PROCEEDINGS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. 



(ou) for the reason already given. Its place is often supplied or 

 usurped by the compound o (ow) as rout, rowt; gouge, gowge. In 



these instances our pronunciation is not stable, while fine distinctions 



are not easily drawn in the case of low vowels. When U, disinterred 



from the rubbish that for nearly three centuries has lain uyKyn it, 



shall have claimed and received fit recognition from our authorities^ 



the position of the intermediate will become more clearly defined and 



be confounded neither on the one side with U (oo) nor on the other 



with (ow). In regard to the compounds u, i, oi, o, I find no short 

 I tilt 



form of them and imagine that to be pronounced at all, which necessi- 

 tates the passing from one vowel position to another, they must be 

 sounded long. 



One will see in scanning tlie table that the main difficulty in English 



orthoepy arises from the long and not from the short forms of vowels. 



Pin, biu, tin represent I (ee) faithfully, but to produce the same 



vowel long, we change the character, peel, heat, feel, except, in foreign 



words. Again for E we have an accurate short sound in i)et, bet, 



fell, but for the long we write pay, bay, fey, or fay. The k (ah) is- 



the most pronounced intermediate in English both long and short and 



was a particular favourite with Sheridan. It makes distressful havoo 



of the continental A, though we manage to obscure by out-h eroding 



the outrage with our name- sound for the same character. The center 



of the vowel system A (aa) found its advocate in Walker. As early 



as the days of Chaucer it is represented by the letters au, but its 



native garb is by no means obliterated from our tongue. It appears 



in many words, in father, for instance. Its short sound constitutes 



the most unsatisfactory part of our orthography. Many dictionaries 



set it down as an obscure or obtuse form of the compound u (you). I 



t 



doubt whether any statement could be more obscure or more obtuse. 

 If you lengthen the vowel in pun, you get the vowel in palm ; shorten 

 the first vowel sound of father and you have that of fun. The inter- 

 mediate 6 (awe) is well developed in both powers, and presents a 

 striking contrast to O and U. Such has been the influence of our 



compound u, that the ancient English sound for the letter came to be 



t 

 written oo for the short as well as the long form, f6ot, pool. It is 

 nevertheless found in its proper dress on composition with p, b, f, 1,, 



