Enquire within upon everything by Robert Kemp Philp

i. C before _a, o_, and _u_, and in some other situations, is a close articulation, like _k_. Before _e, i_, and _y, c_ is precisely equivalent to _s_ in _same, this_; as in _cedar, civil, cypress, capacity_. ii. E final indicates that the preceding vowel is long; as in hate, mete, sire, robe, lyre, abate, recede, invite, remote, intrude. iii. E final indicates that _c_ preceding has the sound of _s_; as in _lace, lance;_ and that _g_ preceding has the sound of _j_, as in _charge, page, challenge_. iv. E final, in proper English words, never forms a syllable, and in the most-used words, in the terminating unaccented syllable it is silent. Thus, _motive, genuine, examine, granite_, are pronounced _motiv, genuin, examin, granit_. v. E final, in a few words of foreign origin, forms a syllable; as _syncope, simile_. vi. E final is silent after _l_ in the following terminations,--_ble, cle, dle, fle, gle, kle, ple, tle, zle;_ as in _able, manacle, cradle, ruffle, mangle, wrinkle, supple, rattle, puzzle_, which are pronounced _a'bl, mana'cl, cra'dl, ruf'fl man'gl, wrin'kl, sup'pl, puz'zl_. vii. E is usually silent in the termination _en_; as in _token, broken;_ pronounced _tokn, brokn_. viii. OUS, in the termination of adjectives and their derivatives, is pronounced _us;_ as in _gracious, pious, pompously_. ix. CE, CI, TI before a vowel, have the sound of _sh;_ as in _cetaceous, gracious, motion, partial, ingratiate;_ pronounced _cetashus, grashus, moshun, parshal, ingrashiate._ x. SI, after an accented vowel, is pronounced like _zh;_ as in _Ephesian, confusion;_ pronounced _Ephezhan, confuzhon_ xi. When CI or TI precede similar combinations, as in pron_u_n_ci_a_ti_on, nego_ti_a_ti_on, they should be pronounced _ze_ instead of _she_, to prevent a repetition of the latter syllable; as _pronunceashon_ instead of _pronunsheashon._ xii. GH, both in the middle and at the end of words ia silent; as in _caught, bought, fright, nigh, sigh;_ pronounced _caut, baut, frite, ni, si._ In the following exceptions, however, _gh_ are pronounced as _f:--cough, chough, clough, enough, laugh, rough, slough, tough, trough._ xiii. When WH begins a word, the aspirate _h_ precedes _w_ in pronunciation; as in _what, whiff, whale;_ pronounced _hwat, hwiff, hwale, w_ having precisely the sound of _oo_, French _ou_. In the following words _w_ is silent:--_who, whom, whose, whoop, whole._ xiv. H after _r_ has no sound or use; as in _rheum, rhyme_; pronounced _reum, ryme_. xv. H should be sounded in the middle of words; as in fore_h_ead, ab_h_or, be_h_old, ex_h_aust, in_h_abit, un_h_orse. xvi. H should always be sounded except in the following words:--heir, herb, honest, honour, hospital, hostler, hour, humour, and humble, and all their derivatives,--such as humorously, derived from humour. xvii. K and G are silent before _n_; as _know, gnaw;_ pronounced _no, naw._ xviii. W before _r_ is silent; as in _wring, wreath;_ pronounced _ring, reath._ xix. B after _m_ is silent; as in _dumb, numb;_ pronounced _dum, num._ xx. L before _k_ is silent; as in _balk, walk, talk;_ pronounced _bauk, wauk, tauk._ xxi. PH has the sound of _f;_ as in _philosophy;_ pronounced _filosofy._ xxii. NG has two sounds, one as in _anger_, the other as in _fin-ger._ ** xxiii. N after _m_, and closing a syllable, is silent; as in _hymn, condemn._ xxiv. P before _s_ and _t_ is mute; as in _psalm, pseudo, ptarmigan;_ pronounced _sarm, sudo, tarmigan._ xxv. R, has two sounds, one strong and vibrating, as at the beginning of words and syllables, such as _robber, reckon, error;_ the other as at the terminations of words, or when succeeded by a consonant, as _farmer, morn._ xxvi. Before the letter R, there is a slight sound of _e_ between the vowel and the consonant. Thus, _bare, parent, apparent, mere, mire, more, pure, pyre,_ are pronounced nearly _baer, paerent, appaerent, me-er,mier, moer,puer, pyer._ This pronunciation proceeds from the peculiar articulation of _r_, and it occasions a slight change of the sound of _a_, which can only be learned by the ear. xxvii. There are other rules of pronunciation affecting the combinations of vowels, &c.; but as they are more difficult to describe, and as they do not relate to errors which are commonly prevalent, we shall content ourselves with giving examples of them in the following list of words. When, a syllable in any word in this list is printed in italics [_like this_], the accent or stress of voice should be laid on that syllable. [AUCTIONS COMMENCED IN BRITAIN IN A.D. 1779.]