32 Colorado College Studies. 



as we see in Shakespeare's Henry YIIL, in the speech of Car- 

 dinal Woolsey to Cromwell: 



Keglect him not; make use now and provide 

 For thine own future safety. 



which according to Ellis, E. E. P., 3,991, is to be pronounced 



Neglekt Him not; maak yys nau and provaid 

 For dhain oouu fyytyyr saafti. 



The Anglo-Saxon form is macian where this vowel has the 

 short sound of a in father, that is. Sweet's mid-back-wide. In 

 Mid. Eng. the form is still maiden and retains this raid-back- 

 wide sound. But in 1766 Buchanan in his conjectured pronun- 

 ciation of Shakespeare has: " Meed tu Hiz m/strts aibrau, and 

 Keurick, 1773, giving the pronunciation of the same passage 

 has: "Meed too Hiz mistris aibrau." Both agree in the pro- 

 nunciation of (meed) for made, so that this mid-front-wide 

 sound of a in the verb maize must have obtained in England to 

 some extent in the 18th century. Benjamin Franklin, also, in 

 his remarks on pronunciation in 1768 indicates the pronuncia- 

 tion of makes as (meeks). I am also informed that in at least 

 two counties of England, Lancashire and Derby, the pronun- 

 ciation (meek) is still heard. 



The character e in the word well has a sound between Sweet's 

 mid-back- wide (father) and low-front- wide (man), but inclin- 

 ing to the latter (wwl), possibly Sweet's low-back-wide, Swed. 

 mat. The word ancient belongs also to this class as it is here 

 often pronounced (onshent) Sweet's mid-back- wide again. In 

 addition to the two pronunciations (agen, agenst) and (ogeen, 

 ageenst) we find the pronunciation {agin, rtgmst), though only 

 as vulgarisms. Foment (fornenst, pr. frnent) may have led to 

 the pronunciation of (bi-jent). 



Sweet's mid-back-narrow {hut) is very common to this 

 region. It is what Sweet and Ellis call the American sound of 

 the u in but, not the English. Here belong words like took, 

 look, cook, shook, book {?), put, and others, all of which have nearly 

 the sound of our u in but. A sound between Sweet's mid-mixed- 



