184 S. Porter on the Vowel Elements in Speech. 
This element is, however, important as the initial of two 
diphthongs, viz., ow or ow (our, now), and long? (zce, kite), ac- 
cording to the best usage. The Scotch give the long 7 as d* +0"; 
some of the North of England dialects as d+7; we sometimes 
hear it as a?+7?, sometimes as +27, not to ‘speak of other 
variations. 
VI. Tse & Vowr.s.—The vowel-tube, reaching a ste 
further, fairly ns upon the hard palate above; and the borders 
of the tongue will there meet either the teeth or the gums or 
palate on each side. The tip of the nce will be naturally 
more advanced than for the —- group. 
egree 1.— Vowel i'. e longer German d, as Madchen, wire, 
&e. ‘The long and grave German e, as leben, geben, gelegen, is 
the same, unless somewhat less close." Also, the “open-gra 
é, So- called, in French, as apres, scéne, jamais, faire, pere, pe 
In other languages 0 turope, also, es someti mes takes a similar 
sound, improperly nev oto as s “open.” Thus in Spanish, as 
we are taught in Sales’ Gra , “before n, 7, s, z, in the same 
2a é 18 sopdotnted more ¥en; as in the English words 
are.” In Italian, e has such a so-called open sound in 
Soiceroun ords. 
In En stish: this vowel occurs only as followed by r. Herr. 
therr, fair, fairy, parent, pazr, bear, &., take properly Ther ae 
or else the middle degree (d?), usage ‘being diverse; an 
give improperly the ‘long a” sound (er). I incline to a dis- 
prayer, care, pear, and others. The influence of some professe 
orthoépists, whose obtuseness has led them to ignore the dis- 
tinction between this vowel and the “long a,” has tended to 
expel the sound from the language. Still, as respects the 
English “Jong a” itself, the usage is less settled and uniform 
than is generally supposed, In some quarters it even takes th 
vowel sound here in question, which once regularly belo nged to 
it,” and this cause may have helped to obscure the distinction 
" The distinction between the ¢ in leben, de, and ths Pore long e (see the ¢ 
Jac 
group), is gn by Jacob Grimm ssa —s but would s t to be univ eae 
observed at the present day. Heyse, in his Selnlgrammati, ‘deseribes this ¢ as 
similar t e d, aimee t would come nearer to + which is somewhat 
change that g white of pe paaeth time came ‘about. Two hun dred yea 
ago, Dr. Jo a Wallis and Bishop Wilkins knew no other English ee of a pe 
what they both describe expressly as the Italian sound, long and short. e ai, 
which now almost invariably ave the “long a” sound,—pa ail, main, not bged vs 
from pale, mane,—was then usually a proper diphthong, the same now used in 
oat ord aye, iia sometimes Sard yet in Isaiah, Sinai, aisle. 
