in my opinion, very erroneously divided ratiocination into ra-sho-sy-na-shun; that is, into a syllable less than it ought to have, with the o long instead of short.
537. The accent on the Latin antepenultimate seemed to have something of a similar tendency: for though the great difference in the nature of the Latin and English accent will allow us to argue from one to the other, but in very few circumstances, (503) yet we may perceive in that accent, so different from ours in general, a great coincidence in this particular; namely, its tendency to shorten an antepenultimate syllable. Bishop Hare tells us, that "Quae acuunter in tertia ab extrema, interdum acuta corripiunt, si positione sola longa sunt, ut óptime, sérvitus, pérvelim, Pámphilus, et pauca alia, quo Cretici mutantur, in Anapestos. Idem factum est in néutiquam, licet incipiat diphthongo." De Metr. Comic, pag. 62. Those words which have the accute accent on the antepenultimate syllable, have sometimes that syllable shortened, if it was only long by position, as óptime, sérvitus, pérvelim, Pámphilus, and a few others, which by this means are changed from Cretic to Anapestic feet: nay, néutiquam undergoes the same fate, though it begins with a diphthong.
SYLLABICATION.
538. Dividing words into syllables is a very different operation, according to the different ends proposed by it. The object of syllabication may be, either to enable children to discover the sound of words they are unacquainted with, or to shew the etymology of a word, or to exhibit the exact pronunciation of it.
539. When a child has made certain advances in reading, but is ignorant of the sound of many of the longer words, it may not be improper to lay down the common general rule to him, that a consonant between two vowels must go to the latter: and that two consonants coming together must be divided. Farther than this, it would be absurd to go with a child; for telling him that compounds must be divided into their simples, and that such consonants as may begin a word may begin a syllable, requires a previous knowledge of words, which children cannot be supposed to have; and which, if they have, makes the division of words into syllables unnecessary. Children, therefore, may be very usefully taught the general rule above mentioned, as, in many cases, it will lead them to the exact sound of the word, as in pro-vi-ded: and in others, it will enable them to give a good guess at it, as in de-li-cate; and this is all that can be expected: for, when we are to form an unknown compound sound, out of several known simple sounds, (which is the case with children, when we wish them to find out the sound of a word by spelling it) this, I say, is the only method that can be taken.
540. But an etymological division of words is a different operation: it is the division of a person acquainted with the whole word, and who wishes to convey, by this division, a knowledge of its constituent parts, as ortho-graphy, theo-logy, etc.
541. In the same manner, a person, who is pre-acquainted with the whole compound sound of a word, and wants to convey the sound of each part to one unacquainted with it, must divide it into such partial sounds as, when put together again, will exactly form the whole, as or-thog-ra-phy, the-ol-o-gy, etc. This is the method adopted by those who would convey the whole sound, by giving distinctly every part; and, when this is the object of syllabication, Dr. Lowth's rule is certainly to be followed. "The best and easiest rule," says the learned bishop, "for dividing the syllables in spelling, is, to divide them as they are naturally divided in a right pronunciation, without regard to the derivation of words, or the possible combination of consonants, at the beginning of a syllable." Introduction to Eng. Gram, page 7.
542. In this view of syllabication we consider it only as the picture of actual pronunciation; but may we not consider it as directed likewise by some laws of its own? Laws which arise out of the very nature of enunciation, and the specific qualities of the letters? These laws certainly direct us to separate double consonants, and such as are uncombinable from the incoalescence of their sounds: and if such a separation will not paint the true sound of the word, we may be certain that such sound is unnatural, and has arisen from caprice: thus the words Chamber, Cambridge, and Cambrick, must be divided at the letter m, and as this letter, by terminating the syllable according to the settled rules of pronunciation, shortens the vowel—the general pronunciation given to these words must be absurd, and contrary to the first principles of the language. Angel,[1] ancient, danger, manger, and ranger, are under the same predicament; but the paucity of words of this kind, so far from weakening the general rule, strengthen it. See Change.
543. By an induction which demonstrates the shortening power of the antepenultimate accent, has been shown the propriety of uniting the consonant to the vowel in the first syllable of demonstration, lamentation, propagation, etc. we thus decide upon the quantity of these vowels, which are so uncertain in our best dictionaries; and may we not hope, by a similar induction, and with the first principles of language in view, to decide the true, genuine, and analogical sound of some words of another kind which waver between different pronunciations? The antepenultimate accent has unquestionably a shortening power; and I have
- ↑ It is highly probable that, in Ben Jonson's time, the a in this word was pronounced as in an, since he classes it to show the short sound of a with art, act, and apple. Grammar.
