may be truly called an irregular verb, and dwelt the preterit and participle.
370. The same may be observed of deal, dream, mean, feel, weep, sleep, and creep. It is certain we can pronounce d after the four first of these words, as well as in sealed, screamed, cleaned, and reeled; but custom has not only annexed t to the preterit of these verbs, but has changed the long diphthongal sound into a short one; they are therefore doubly irregular. Weep, sleep, and creep, would not have required t to form their preterits, any more than peeped and steeped; but custom, which has shortened the diphthong in the former words, very naturally annexed t as the simplest method of conveying the sound.
371. The only two words which occasion some doubt about classing them are, to learn, and to spell. The vulgar (who are no contemptible guides on this occasion) pronounce them in the preterit learnt and spelt: but as n and l will readily admit of d after them, it seems more correct to favour a tendency to regularity, both in writing and speaking, which the literary world has given into, by spelling them learned and spelled, and pronouncing them learn'd and spell'd: thus earned, the preterit of to earn, has been recovered from the vulgar earnt, and made a perfect rhyme to discerned.
372. To these observations may be added, that, in such irregular verbs as have the present, the preterit and participle the same, as cast, cost, cut, etc. the second person singular of the preterit of these verbs takes ed before the est, as I cast, or did cast; Thou castedst, or didst cast, etc. for if this were not the case, the second person of the preterit might be mistaken for the second person of the present tense.
373. I have been led insensibly to these observations by their connexion with pronunciation; and if the reader should think them too remote from the subject, I must beg his pardon, and resume my remarks on the sound of the letter d.
374. The vulgar drop this letter in ordinary, and extraordinary, and make them or'nary and extr'or'nary; but this is a gross abbreviation; the best pronunciation is sufficiently short, which is ord'nary and extrord'nary; the first in three, and the last in four syllables: but solemn speaking preserves the i, and makes the latter word consist of five syllables, as if written extr'ordinary.
375. Our ancestors, feeling the necessity of showing the quantity of a vowel followed by ge, when it was to be short, inserted d, as wedge, ridge, badge, etc. The same reason induced them to write colledge and alledge, with the d; but modern reformers, to the great injury of the language, have expelled the d, and left the vowel to shift for itself; because there is no d in the Latin words from which these are derived.
376. D like t, to which it is so nearly related, when it comes after the accent, either primary or secondary, (522) and is followed by the diphthong ie, io, ia, or eou, slides into gzh, or the consonant j; thus soldier is universally and justly pronounced as if written sol-jer; grandeur, gran-jeur; and verdure, (where it must be remembered that u is a diphthong) ver-jure; and, for the same reason, education is elegantly pronounced ed-jucation. But duke and reduce, pronounced juke and rejuce, where the accent is after the d, cannot be too much reprobated.
F.
377. F has its pure sound in often, off, etc. but in the preposition of, slides into its near relation v, as if written ov. But when this preposition is in composition at the end of a word, the f becomes pure; thus, though we sound of, singly, ov, we pronounce it as if the f were double in whereof.
378. There is a strong tendency to change the f into v, in some words, which confounds the plural number and the genitive case: thus we often hear of a wive's jointure, a calve's head, and houze rent, for wife's jointure, a calf's head, and house rent.
G.
379. G, like C, has two sounds, a hard and a soft one: it is hard before a, o, u, l, and r, as game, gone, gull, glory, grandeur. Gaol is the only exception; now more commonly written jail. (212)
380. G, before e and i, is sometimes hard and sometimes soft: it is generally soft before words of Greek, Latin, or French original, and hard before words from the Saxon. These latter, forming by far the smaller number, may be considered as exceptions.
381. G is hard before e, in gear, geck, geese, geld, gelt, gelding, get, gewgaw, shagged, snagged, ragged, cragged, scragged, dogged, rugged, dagger, swagger, stagger, trigger, dogger, pettyfagger, tiger, auger, eager, meager, anger, finger, linger, conger, longer, stronger, younger, longest, strongest, youngest. The last six of these words are generally pronounced in Ireland, so as to let the g remain in its nasal sound, without articulating the succeeding vowel, thus longer, (more long) is so pronounced as to sound exactly like the noun a long-er; (one who longs or wishes for a thing) the same may be observed of the rest. That the pronunciation of Ireland is analogical, appears from the same pronunciation of g in string-y, spring-y, full of strings and springs; and wronger and wrongest, for more and most wrong. But though resting the g in the nasal sound, without articulating the succeeding vowel, is absolutely necessary in verbal nouns derived from verbs ending in ing, as singer, bringer, slinger, etc. pronounced sing-er, bring-er, sling-er, etc. and not sing-ger, bring-ger, sling-ger, etc. yet in longer, stronger, and younger; longest, strongest, and youngest, the g ought always to articulate the e: thus
