ENGLISH TONGUE.
It does not always lengthen the foregoing vowel, as glove, live, give.
It has sometimes in the end of words a sound obscure, and scarcely perceptible, as open, shapen, shotten, thistle, participle, metre, lucre.
E forms a diphthong with a; as near; with i, as dein, receive; and with u or w, as new, flew.
Ea sounds like e long, as mean; or like ee, as dear, clear, near.
Ei is sounded like e long, as feize, perceiving.
Eu sounds as u long and soft.
E, a, u are combined in beauty and its derivatives, but have only the sound of u.
E may be said to form a diphthong by reduplication, as agree, sleeping.
Eo is found in yeomen, where it is sounded as e short; and in people, where it is pronounced like ee.
I.
I has a sound long, as fīne; and short, as fǐn.
That is eminently observable in I, which may be likewise remarked in other letters, that the short sound is not the long sound contracted, but a sound wholly different.
The long sound in monosyllables is always marked by the e final, as thǐn, thīne.
I is often sounded before r as a fhort u; as flirt, first, shirt.
It forms a diphthong only with e, as field, shield, which is sounded as the double ee; except friend, which is founded as frěnd.
I is joined with eu in lieu, and ew in view; which triphthongs are sounded as the open u.
O.
O is long, as bōne, ōbedient, corrōding or short, as blǒck, knǒck, ǒblique, lǒll.
Women is pronounced wimen.
The short o has sometimes the sound of a close u, as son, come.
O coalesces into a diphthong with a, as moan, groan, approach; oa has the found of o long.
O is united to e in some words derived from Greek, as œconomy; but oe being not an English diphthong, they are better written as they are sounded, with only e, economy.
With i, as oil, foil, moil, noisome.
This coalition of letters seems to unite the sounds of the two letters as far as two sounds can be united without being destroyed, and therefore approaches more nearly than any combination in our tongue to the notion of a diphthong.
With o; as boot, hoot, cooler; oo has the found of the Italian u.
With u or w, as our, power, flower; but in some words has only the sound of o long, as in foul, bowl, sow, grow. These different sounds are used to distinguish different significations; as bow, an instrument for shooting; bow, a depression of the head; sow, the she of a boar; sow, to scatter feed: bowl, an orbicular body; bowl, a wooden vessel.
Ou is sometimes pronounced like o soft, as court; sometimes like o short, as cough; sometimes like u close, as could; or u open, as rough, tough; which use only can teach.
Ou is frequently used in the last syllable of words which in Latin end in or, and are made English, as honour, labour, favour, from honor, labor, favor.
Some late innovators have ejected the u, without considering that the last syllable gives the sound neither of or nor ur, but a sound between them, if not compounded of both; besides that they are probably derived to us from the French nouns in eur, as honeur, faveur.
U.
U is long in ūse, confūsion; or short, as ŭs, concŭssion.
It coalesces with a, e, i, o; but has rather in these combinations
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