sound they had in the singular, without increasing the number of syllables: thus a fly makes flies, a lie makes lies, company makes companies, and dignity, dignities. The same may be observed of the third persons and past participles of verbs, as I fly, he flies, I deny, he denies, he denied, I sully, he sullied, etc. which may be pronounced as if written denize, denide, sullid, etc. (104)
283. When ie is in a termination without the accent, it is pronounced like e only, in the same situation: thus brasier, grasier, and glasier, have the last syllable sounded as if written brazhur, grazhur, and glazhur, or rather as brazeyur, graze-yur, etc. (98) (418)
IEU.
284. These vowels occur in adieu, lieu, purlieu, where they have the sound of long u, as if written adeu, leu, purleu.
285. In one word, lieutenant, these letters are pronounced like short e, as if written lev-tenant. See the word.
IEW.
286. These letters occur only in the word view, where they sound like ee, rhyming with few, new.
IO.
287. When the accent is upon the first of these vowels they form two distinct syllables, as violent, violet; the last of which is sometimes corruptly pronounced vi-let.
288. In marchioness, the i is entirely sunk, and the unaccented o pronounced, as it usually is in this situation, like short u, as if written marshuness. (352)
289. In cushion, the o is sunk, and the word pronounced cushin. See the word.
290. In the very numerous termination ion, these vowels are pronounced in one syllable like short u; but when they are preceded by a liquid, as in million, minion, clarion, etc. (113) the two vowels, though they make but one syllable, are heard distinctly: the same may be observed when they are preceded by any of the other consonants, except s and t, as champion, scorpion, etc. where the vowels are heard separately: but the terminations tion and sion are pronounced in one syllable, like the verb shun.
291. The only exception to this rule is, when the t is preceded by s: in this case the t goes into tch, and the i is in a small degree audible like short e. This may be heard in question, mixtion, digestion, combustion, and what is an instance of the same kind in Christian, as if written ques-tchun, mix-tchun, etc. or quest-yun, mixt-yun, etc. (461) (462)
IOU.
292. This triphthong, when preceded by a liquid, or any mute but a dental, is heard distinctly in two syllables, as in bilious, various, glorious, abstemious, ingenious, copious: but when preceded by the dentals t, soft c and s, these vowels coalesce into one syllable, pronounced like shus: thus precious, factious, noxious, anxious, are sounded as if written presh-us, fac-shus, nock-shus, ang-shus. (459)
293. The same tendency of these vowels to coalesce after a dental, and draw it to aspiration, makes us hear tedious, odious, and insidious, pronounced as if written te-je-ous, o-jee-ous, and in-sid-je-us; for as d is but flat t, it is no wonder it should be subject to the same aspiration, when the same vowels follow: nay, it may be affirmed, that so agreeable is this sound of the d to the analogy of English pronunciation, that, unless we are upon our guard, the organs naturally slide into it. It is not, however, pretended that this is the politest pronunciation; for the sake of analogy it were to be wished it were: but an ignorance of the real powers of the letters, joined with a laudable desire of keeping as near as possible to the orthography, is apt to prevent the d from going into j, and to make us hear o-de-us, te-de-ous, etc. On the other hand, the vulgar, who, in this case, are right by instinct, not only indulge the aspiration of the d, which the language is so prone to, but are apt to unite the succeeding syllables too closely, and to say o-jus and te-jus, instead of o-je-us and te-je-us, or rather ode-yus and tede-yus.
294. If the y be distinctly pronounced, it sufficiently expresses the aspiration of the d, and is, in my opinion, the preferable mode of delineating the sound, as it keeps the two last syllables from uniting too closely. Where analogy, therefore, is so clear, and custom so dubious, we ought not to hesitate a moment at pronouncing odious, tedious, perfidious, fastidious, insidious, invidious, compendious, melodious, commodious, preludious, and studious, as if written o-je-ous, te-je-ous, etc. or rather, ode-yus, tede-yus, etc. nor should we forget that Indian comes under the same analogy, and ought, though contrary to respectable usage, to be pronounced as if written Indyan, and nearly as In-je-an. (376)
OA.
295. This diphthong is regularly pronounced as the long open sound of o, as in boat, coat, oat, coal, loaf, etc. The only exceptions are, broad, abroad, groat, which sound as if written, brawd, abrawd, grawt. Oatmeal is sometimes pronounced ot-meal, but seems to be recovering the long sound of o, as in oat.
OE.
296. Whether it be proper to retain the o in this diphthong, or to banish it from our orthography, as Dr. Johnson advises, certain it is, that in words from the learned languages it is always pronounced like single e, and comes entirely under the same laws as that vowel: thus, when it ends a syllable, with the accent upon it, it is long, as in An-toe-ci, Peri-oe-ci: when under the secondary accent, in oec-umenical, oec-onomics, it is like e short: it is long e in
