pronunciation. Hence not only the soft c and the s go into th, but even the t, before a diphthong, slides into the same letters when the stress is on the preceding syllable. Thus in society and satiety the c and t preserve their pure sound, because the syllables ci and ti have the accent on them; but in social and satiate these syllables come after the stress, and from the feebleness of their situation naturally fall into the shorter and easier sound, as if written soshial, and sashiate. See the word Satiety.
A.
72. A has three long sounds and two short ones.
73. The first sound of the first letter in our alphabet is that which among the English is its name. (See the letter A at the beginning of the Dictionary) This is what is called, by most grammarians, its slender sound (35) (65); we find it in the words lade, spade, trade, etc. In the diphthong ai we have exactly the same sound of this letter, as in pain, gain, stain, etc. and sometimes in the diphthong ea, as bear, swear, pear, etc. nay, twice we find it, contrary to every rule of pronunciation, in the words where and there, and once in the anomalous diphthong ao in gaol. It exactly corresponds to the sound of the French e in the beginning of the words être and tête.
74. The long slender a is generally produced by a silent e at the end of a syllable; which e not only keeps one single intervening consonant from shortening the preceding vowel, but sometimes two: thus we find the mute e makes of rag, rage, and very improperly keeps the a open even in range, change, etc. (See Change) hat, with the mute e, becomes hate, and the a continues open, and, perhaps, somewhat longer in haste, waste, paste, etc. though it must be confessed this seems the privilege only of a; for the other vowels contract before the consonants ng in revenge, cringe, plunge; and the ste in our language is preceded by no other vowel but this. Every consonant but n shortens every vowel but a, when soft g and e silent succeed; as, bilge, badge, hinge, spunge, etc.
75. Hence we may establish this general rule: A has the long, open, slender sound, when followed by a single consonant, and e mute, as lade, made, fade, etc. The only exceptions seem to be, have, are, gape, and bade, the past time of to bid.
76. A has the same sound, when ending an accented syllable, as pa-per, ta-per, spec-ta-tor. The only exceptions are, fa-ther, ma-ster, wa-ter.
77. As the short sound of the long slender a is not found under the same character, but in the short e (as may be perceived by comparing mate and met), (67) we proceed to delineate the second sound of this vowel, which is that heard in father, and is called by some the open sound; (34) but this can never distinguish it from the deeper sound of the a in all, tall, etc. which is still more open: by some it is styled the middle sound of a, as between the a in pale, and that in wall: it answers nearly to the Italian a in Toscano, Romana, etc. or to the final a in the naturalized Greek words, papa, and mamma; and in baa; the word adopted in almost all languages to express the cry of sheep. We seldom find the long sound of this letter in our language, except in monosyllables ending with r, as far, tar, mar, etc. and in the word father. There are certain words from the Latin, Italian, and Spanish languages, such as lumbago, bravado, tornado, camisado, farrago, etc. which are sometimes heard with this sound of a; but except in bravo, heard chiefly at the theatres, the English sound of a is preferable in all these words.
78. The long sound of the middle or Italian a is always found before r in monosyllables, as car, far, mar, etc. before the liquids lm; whether the latter only be pronounced, as in psalm, or both, as in psalmist: sometimes before lf, and lve, as calf, half, calve, halve, salve, etc. and, lastly, before the sharp aspirated dental th in bath, path, lath, etc. and in the word father: this sound of the a was formerly more than at present found before the nasal liquid n, especially when succeeded by c, t, or d, as dance, glance, lance, France, chance, prance, grant, plant, slant, slander, etc.
79. The hissing consonant s was likewise a sign of this sound of the a, whether doubled, as in glass, grass, lass, etc. or accompanied by t, as in last, fast, vast, etc. but this pronunciation of a seems to have been for some years advancing to the short sound of this later, as heard in hand, land, grand, etc. and pronouncing the a in after, answer, basket, plant, mast, etc. as long as in half, calf, etc. borders very closely on vulgarity: it must be observed, however, that the a before n in monosyllables, and at the end of words, was anciently written with u after it, and so probably pronounced as broad as the German a; for Dr. Johnson observes, "many words pronounced with a broad were anciently written with au, as fault, mault; and we still write fault, vault. This was probably the Saxon sound, for it is yet retained in the northern dialects, and in the rustic pronunciation, as maun for man, haund for hand." But since the u has vanished, the a has been gradually pronounced slenderer and shorter, till now almost every vestige of the ancient orthography seems lost; though the terminaton mand in command, demand, etc. formerly written commaund, demaund, still retains the long sound inviolably.[1]
- ↑ Since the first publication of this Dictionary the Publick have been favoured with some very elaborate and judicious observations on English pronunciation by Mr. Smith, in a Scheme of a French and English Dictionary. In this work he departs frequently from my judgement, and particularly in the pronunciation of the letter a, when succeeded by ss, st, or n, and another consonant, as past, last, chance, etc. to which he annexes the long sound of a in father. That this was the sound formerly, is highly probable from its being still the sound given it by the vulgar, who are
