The vines and the o siers: cut and go set, Tusser. February Husbandry. Himself goes patch'd like some | bare cottyer, He vaunts his voice upon a hired stage, Hall. Sat. 2. With high-set steps and princely carriage. Hall. Sat. 1. 3. When the words end in ence, ent, or an, the additional syllable now sounds very uncouthly. Whose words were short, and darksome was their sense. Hall. Sat. 3 book. Prol. Whose scepter guides]: the flowing ocean. B. Jon. Cynthia's Rev. 55. No airy fowl can take so high a flight- Should shield them from the gorge of greedy man. Hall, Sat. 3. 1. But by far the most common instance of this resolution of syllables occurs in our substantival ending ion. From the 14th to the 17th century this termination expanded into two syllables whenever the verse required it. Of those that claim their offices this day My muse would follow those that are foregone, H 8, 4. 1. Hall. Sat 3. Prol. This diphthong, though its place in our orthography, In our provinces, however, Before we close this section I would add a word or two respecting the diphthong ea. representative still keeps its has long since been obsolete. where it still lingers, we often hear it resolved into a dissyllable, e-at, gre-at, me-at, &c. I have watched with some care, to see if it ever held the place of a dissyllable in our poetry, as in such case our Anglo-Saxon and early English rhythms might be seriously affected. My search has not been successful, and the result has been a strong conviction, that the ea, which so freqently occurs in our Anglo-Saxon poems, was strictly diphthongal. I think, however, that in one or two instances this resolution of the diphthong has actually taken place, as in the following stave, Now shall the wanton devils dance in rings, In every mead and every heath bore, The elvish fairies and the gobelins, The hoofed satyrs silent heretofore. Hall. Elegy on Dr. Whitaker. This English diphthong will, of course, not be confounded with the ea that occurs in certain French words, and which was not unfrequently resolved into two syllables. That ther n' is erthe, water, fire, ne aire, Ne creature that of | hem malked is : That may me hele or don comfort in this. Chau. The Knightes Tale. NASALS AND LIQUIDS. The subjects of the present section are the nasals m, n, ng, and the liquids / and r. Of these letters two, namely, n and, occasionally form consonantal syllables; the remaining three cannot form a syllable without a vowel. The following are instances of the vowel having been dropt and the syllable lost. But always wept, and wailed night and day As blasted blosm | thro heat: doth lan guish and | decay]. Amongst them all grows not a fairer flower : Than is the bloosm of comelly courtesy, F. Q. 4. 8. 2. F. Q. 6. 4. The short vowel was sometimes elided before the m, even when the consonant was found in another syllable. Hewn out of adamant rock]: with engines keen. F. Q. 1. 7. 33. As if in adamant rock | it had been pight. F. Q. 1. 11. 25. Legitimate Edgar: I must have | your land]. L. 1. 2. Far be the thought of this from Henry's heart, : They were a feare un to the en myes* eye.] Churchyard. Siege of Leith. I profess Myself an enemy: to | all other joy|. Lear, 4. 4. * This author always makes enemy a dissyllable, and spells it as in the text. So spake the enemy of mankind, enclos'd] In serpent. And next to him malicious Envy rode Upon a rav'nous wolf, and still did chaw Between his cank red teeth a venomous toad] These things did sting His mind so venomously Detains him. P. L. 9. F. Q. 1. 4. 30. And what have kings that privates have not too, Henry 5, 4. 1. On the other hand we now always drop the penultimate e of French words in ment, which once formed an independent syllable. Thus by on assent We ben | accorded to | his jugement|. Chau. Prol. Chau. Prol. And who that wol: my jugement | withsay, Then many a Lollard would in forfeitment, F. Q. 1. 4. 34. Hall. Sat. Chau. The Knightes Tale. The wretched woman whom unhappy hour Hath now made thrall to your command ement. F. Q. 1. 2. 22. The word regiment is now also generally made a dissyllable, though we occasionally hear it pronounced with three syllables, as in the verses, The regiment was willing and advanc'd]. Fletcher.oadicea, 2. 4. lies half a mile | at least The regiment R 3, 5.3. M, we have said, cannot form a syllable without a vowel. This rule holds both as regards our spelling and our pronunciation; but one or two centuries ago the termination sm was often pronounced som, as it is among the vulgar to this day. Great Solomon sings in the English quire, Singing his love, the holy spouse of Christ, Like as she were some light-skirts of the East, In mightiest ink hornis ms: he | can thither wrest. All this by syllogism true Hall. Sat. 1. 8. Butler's Hudibras. Burns' Letter to John Goudie. These words should have been written as pronounced, inkhornisom, syllogisom, &c. N is one of the two letters, which form consonantal syllables. It is difficult to say when it first obtained this privilege, but it could hardly have been so early as the reign of Elizabeth. In that reign, Gabriel Harvey objected to Spenser's use of heaven, seven, &c. as dissyllables, the same not being "authorized by the ordinarie use and custom." He would have them written and spoken "as monosyllaba, thus, heavn, seavn, &c." I think therefore that heaven, seven, &c. were commonly pronounced then, as now, with only one vowel; and that when Spenser and his contemporaries made them dissyllables, they imitated an obsolete, or rather a provincial dialect, and pronounced them with two vowels. This latter mode of pronunciation has left traces behind it; even yet we may occasionally hear heav-en, sev-en, &c. among the vulgar. |