his car he said 'Come now and they'll get you a nice refreshing cup of tay.' 'Yes,' says the dandy, 'I shall be very glad to get a cup of tee'—laying a particular stress on tee. I confess I felt a shrinking of shame for our humanity. Now which of these two was the vulgarian?
The old sound of ea is still retained—even in England—in the word great; but there was a long contest in the English Parliament over this word. Lord Chesterfield adopted the affected pronunciation (greet), saying that only an Irishman would call it grate. 'Single-speech Hamilton'—a Dublin man—who was considered, in the English House of Commons, a high authority on such matters, stoutly supported grate, and the influence of the Irish orators finally turned the scale. (Woollett.)
A similar statement may be made regarding the diphthong ei and long e, that is to say, they were both formerly sounded like long a in fate.
- 'Boast the pure blood of an illustrious race,
- In quiet flow from Lucrece to Lucrece.'
- (Pope: 'Essay on Man.')
In the same essay Pope rhymes sphere with fair, showing that he pronounced it sphaire. Our hedge schoolmaster did the same thing in his song:—
- Of all the maids on this terrestrial sphaire
- Young Molly is the fairest of the fair.
- 'The plots are fruitless which my foe
- Unjustly did conceive;
- The pit he digg'd for me has proved
- His own untimely grave.'
- (Tate and Brady.)
