written as the first part of the words carry, very, terrible, spirit, mirror, sorrow, hurry-suggest entirely different sounds from those heard in these words. The letter r at the end of a syllable has invariably its glide sound; but in the above words the r has no trace of the soft gliding quality, but is pronounced with its full consonant power. Further, the vowels a, e, i, before final r, have sounds distinct from those heard in the above words. Therefore, in respelling to show pronunciation, such words, if divided at all, should be syllabled că-ry, vě-ry, spi-rit, să-row, hú-ry, etc. That such a division looks strange, is merely the result of habitual association of final vowels with "long" sounds.

In actual utterance, all the elements of a word are compacted together into an unbroken whole: a medial consonant is equally final to the preceding vowel, and initial to the succeeding one; so that unless the reader had the skill to separate a consonant into two parts-as p into a silent closure and an audible separation of the lips-he could not phoneticise the syllables, one by one, exactly as he pronounces them in a word. For this reason, words should not be divided when phonetically re-written. All the letters in the scheme of "English Phonetic Elements" have absolutely determinate sounds, and thei effect is, therefore, independent of position.

The nature of a syllable has already been defined. An additional characteristic may be specified: namely, that the syllabic sound may have either a closing action of the mouth, as in āy, í, oy, ōw, ow, or an opening action, as in år, êr, ôr, but that the progression cannot be reversed on a single syllabic impulse. On account of this principle, the ordinary alphabetic sounds of the letters a and o are not pronounced before the letter r, but the vowels are altered from the closing diphthongs āy, ow to the more open sound

our.

á ô, in order to blend syllabically with the r-glide. For the same reason, also, the closing elements of the diphthongs i, oy, ou, are very imperfectly pronounced before r in order to preserve a monosyllabic effect in such words as hire, coir, A full formation of the diphthongs renders these combinations dissyllabic; as in higher, coyer, plougher. The consonant / has the pure vocality of a vowel; and it is, therefore, capable of being syllabically pronounced alone. It is so used in all words ending in le. The nasal consonants n and m have, from the same cause, a similar capability of forming syllables without vowels; the syllables den, ten, ven, son, ton, being, in many instances, pronounced merely dn, vn, sn, tn. The letter m in rhythm, chasm, etc., is really syllabic, although, in the absence of a vowel letter, the effect is not generally acknowledged.

The syllabic effect of these consonants may be medial as well as final; as in meddler, which is sometimes pronounced med-l-er; and lightening which is sometimes pronounced light-n-ing, to distinguish the word from lightning. The organic difference is that, in meddler and lightning the consonants and n are only transitionally formed, while, in med-l-er, and light-n ing, the consonant positions are "held" for a separate impulse.

In common pronunciation a strong tendency is felt to omit the vowel in the terminations al, el, il, and pronounce fatal, level, cavil, like fatle, levle, cavle. This tendency is yielded to in the word devil (děvl)—presumably as a mark of disrespect;-and in the word victual (vitl), although certainly not for the same reason. The word evil is marked "ēvl" in pronouncing dictionaries, but with doubtful propriety. Wherever custom has not definitely sanctioned the elision, the vowels should be sounded in all such syllables.

Vowel letters are often elided to the eye, when they are

not, or should not be, omitted in pronunciation; as in: "By pray'r th' offended Deity t' appease.”

The reason for these elisions lies in their supposed necessity in the "scanning" of poetic lines; but the ear recognizes no necessity for such mutilations, and the rhythm is not violated by the full pronunciation of the vowels, as in: "By prayer the offended Deity to appease."

XII. ACCENT.

Every word of more than one syllable has one of its syllables accented, or pronounced heavily, the other syllables being relatively light. When the accent is on the third, or on any subsequent syllable, a secondary accent is usually placed on one of the other syllables, to render pronunciation easy, and free from undue rapidity; as in "entertain," "contradictory." For the same reason, when two or more syllables follow the accent, a tendency is felt to relieve a too flippant utterance, by putting a secondary accent on one of the enclitic syllables; as in "gratitude," "intensify." Care should, however, be taken to preserve the proper place of the primary. In American usage, this has been usurped by the secondary; as in such words as orʼatory, territory, where the prevailing pronunciation, is oratory, territory.

The following words exemplify the varieties of verbal accentuation:

Accent on the first syllable. Tender, cultivate, ordinary, peremptorily.

Accent on the second syllable. Defend, important, inveterate, involuntary, unnecessarily.

Accent on the third syllable. Comprehend, contemplation anatomical, inconsiderable, antinomianism.

Accent on the fourth syllable. Misun'derstand", or mis'understand", superintendent, superabundantly, inval'etu"dinary, or inʼvaletudinary.

Accent on the fifth syllable. Personification, anti-pestilential, impracticability, indestructibility.

Accent on the sixth syllable. Intercolumnication, incommunicability, incom'prehen'sibility or in'comprehen'sibility.

The same principles of accent are manifest in phraseological combinations of words; and even monosyllables are thus accentually tied together. For example:

Accent on the first word. Help him; go to him; look at

him there.

Accent on the second word.

it will not be so.

Accent on the third word.

That will do; that will not do;

that is just the thing; that is quite as it should be. Accent on the fourth word. You do not need; that is the

first point; that is the whole of it; this is the next thing to be done.

Accent on the fifth word. I hope we shall hear; I trust it may prove so.

Accent on the sixth word. Let us wait for the end; it is not' to be thought" of; or, it is not to be thought" of. Accent on the seventh word.

That is so far from being true.