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196. Rules of Pronunciation.

i. C before a, o, and u, and in some other situations, is a close articulation, like k. Before e, i, and y, c is precisely equivalent to s in same, this; as in cedar, civil, cypress, capacity.

ii. E final indicates that the preceding vowel is long; as in hate, mete, sire, robe, lyre, abate, recede, invite, remote, intrude.

iii. E final indicates that c preceding has the sound of s; as in lace, lance; and that g preceding has the sound of j, as in charge, page, challenge.

iv. E final, in proper English words, never forms a syllable, and in the most-used forms, in the terminating unaccented syllable it is silent. This, motive, genuine, examine, granite, are pronounced motiv, genuin, examin, granit.

v. E final, in a few words of foreign origin, forms a syllable; as syncope, simile.

vi. E final is silent after l in the following terminations,--ble, cle, dle, fle, gle, kle, ple, tle, zle; as in able, manacle, cradle, ruffle, mangle, wrinkle, supple, rattle, puzzle, which are pronounced a'bl, mana'cl, cra'dl, ruf'fl, man'gl, wrin'kl, sup'pl, puz'zl.

vii. E is usually silent in the termination en, as in token, broken; pronounced tokn, brokn.

viii. OUS, in the termination of adjectives and their derivatives, is pronounced us; as in gracious, pious, pompously.

ix. CE, CI, TI, before a vowel, have the sound of sh; as in cetaceous, gracious, motion, partial, ingratiate; pronounced cetashus, grashus, moshun, parshal, ingrashiate.

x. SI, after an accented vowel, is pronounced like zh; as in Ephesian, confusion; pronounced Ephezhan, confuzhon.

xi. When CI or TI precede similar combinations, as in pronunciation, negotiation, they should be pronounced ce instead of she, to prevent a repetition of the latter syllable; as pronunceashon instead of pronunsheashon.

xii. GH, both in the middle and at the end of words is silent; as in caught, bought, fright, nigh, sigh; pronounced caut, baut, frite, ni, si. In the following exceptions, however, gh is pronounced as f:- cough, chough, clough, enough, laugh, rough, slough, tough, trough.

xiii. When WH begins a word, the aspirate h precedes w in pronuncation; as in what, whiff, whale; pronounced hwat, hwiff, hwale, w having precisely the sound of oo, French ou. In the following words w is silent:- who, whom, whose, whoop, whole.

xiv. H after r has no sound or use; as in rheum, rhyme; pronounced reum, ryme.

xv. H should be sounded in the middle of words; as in forehead, abhor, behold, exhaust, inhabit, unhorse.

xvi. H should always be sounded except in the following words:- heir, herb, honest, honour, hospital, hostler, hour, humour, and humble, and all their derivatives,--such as humorously, derived from humour.

xvii. K and G are silent before n; as know, gnaw; pronounced no, naw.

xviii. W before r is silent; as in wring, wreath; pronounced ring, reath.

xix. B after m is silent; as in dumb, numb; pronounced dum, num.

xx. L before k is silent; as in balk, walk, talk; pronounced bauk, wauk, tauk.

xxi. PH has the sound of f; as in philosophy; pronounced filosofy.

xxii. NG has two sounds, one as in singer, the other as in fin-ger.

xxiii. N after m, and closing a syllable, is silent; as in hymn, condemn.

xxiv. P before s and t is mute; as in psalm, pseudo, ptarmigan; pronounced sarm, sudo, tarmigan.

xxv. R has two sounds, one strong and vibrating, as at the beginning of words and syllables, such as robber, reckon, error; the other as at the terminations of words, or when succeeded by a consonant, as farmer, mourn.

xxvi. Before the letter R there is a slight sound of e between the vowel and the consonant. Thus, bare, parent, apparent, mere, mire, more, pure, pyre, are pronounced nearly baer, paerent, appaerent, me-er, mier, moer, puer, pyer. This pronunciation proceeds from the peculiar articulation of r, and it occasions a slight change of the sound of a, which can only be learned by the ear.

xxvii. There are other rules of pronunciation affecting the combinations of vowels, &c., but as they are more difficult to describe, and as they do not relate to errors which are commonly prevalent, we shall content ourselves with giving examples of them in the following list of words. When a syllable in any word in this list is printed in italics, the accent or stress of the voice should be laid on that syllable.

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