USE.-Cube, tune, duke, feud, feod, new, suit, tutor, tuesday, impugn, reduce, lute,† lewd,† lucid, luminous.†

PULL.-Full, put, push, ruth, would, could, should, wolf, foot, soot, look, pulpit, butcher, cushion, sugar, cuckoo, woman, fuller, ruthless.

UP.-Cub, dove, does, doth, front, blood, rough, chough, fulsome, punish, combat, wonted, pommel, onion, housewife, allonge, among, colander, so

HOUSE.-Loud, bound, plough, brow, fountain, thousand, vowel, dowry, astound, propound, arouse, endow, renown.

NEW. This diphthong has the same sound as u in use.

OIL.-Broil, choice, voice, toy, boy, joy, buoy, employ, embroil, appoint, aroynt, avoid, alloy.

The foregoing exercises were upon vowels under

† Instead of lyoot say l'oot, and so of the other words thus † marked.

The sound of i, generally considered diphthongal, being expressed by a single letter, is not mentioned among the diphthongs, and it has been already noticed among the compound vowel sounds.

the accent. The following are upon the vowels in unaccented syllables.

("Nothing," says Mr. Smart, more distinguishes a person of a good, from one of a mean education, than the pronunciation of the unaccented vowels. Sometimes the vowel so circumstanced is indefinite and obscure, and the effort to make it distinct would be vulgar pedantry; in other cases, the vowel so circumstanced is pronounced neatly and distinctly by the polite, although, in some instances, with decided irregularity of sound, as, for instance, the i in docile, which is sounded as if the word were written without the final e mute.")

A (4th sound) obscure.-Husband, verbal, combat, admit, instantly, penalty, countenance, nobleman.

E (2nd sound) distinct.-Eject, sunday, journey, appetite, parliament, miniature, prophecy, civility. E (3rd sound) distinct.-Goodness, silent, counsel, dividend, engraver, enlighten.

I (1st sound) distinct.-Idea, hiatus, diurnal, primeval, qualify, irascible, itinerant, biography, piratical, diameter, rivality.

I (2nd sound) distinct.- Bevil, pencil, pupil, latin, marriage, village, furnace, biscuit, conduit, lettuce, servile, docile, captain, cowardice, wassail, mountain.

O (1st sound) distinct.-Motto, hero, furlough, sorrow, barrow, fellow, window, profane, obey, opposite, coherent, opinion, tobacco, philosophy.

O (2nd sound) obscure.-Command, conduce, complete, combustion, conjecture.

U (1st sound) distinct.-Bureau, usurp, humane, ague, augury, emulate, monument, genuine, obdurate.

U (3rd sound) obscure. Hubbub, surplus, parrot, blossom, felon, demon, mucous, unison, myrmidon, covetous, decorum, herbaceous, horison. Ur obscure.-Grammar, robber, nadir, martyr, author, sulphur, acre, lustre.

CONSONANT SOUNDS.

The Consonant Sounds of the English language are twenty-nine in number. Their variety, formation, and strangely harsh combinations, both in single words and in synepy,* occasion the chief difficulty in the articulation not only of English but of all the northern languages-a difficulty particularly felt by those who dwell in warmer climes. For it is true that the languages of the north abound in consonant sounds and combinations, whilst those of the south are principally composed of vowel

* Synepy means the interjunction of words in uttering the clauses of sentences.

sounds.

The German language, for instance, has sometimes six or seven consonants coming together. "A consonant is a letter representing a sound that modifies a vowel sound."

Consonants may be divided into breath conso nants and voice consonants. The breath consonants

are so named, from the explosive effect produced in their enunciation. No such effect takes place in the latter, or voice consonants.

The breath consonants or pure mutes are f, h. k, p, s, and t, as in foe, hay, key, pay, say, and tie. The voice consonants or impure mutes are b, d, g, l, m, n, r, v, w, y, and z-as in boy, day, gay, low, my, no, ray, vie, woe, ye, and zeal.

The following is a scheme of the CONSONANT SOUNDS OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE:

Some of these consonants are termed mutes, on account of the momentary cessation of all sound. "As however," says Mr. Smart, "these mutes require an expulsion of the breath, and are not a mere contact of the organs, as the name might lead us to suppose, it is judged proper to call them breath consonants." These breath consonants are named by some pure mutes, whilst the voice consonants are termed impure or flat mutes. But why call them mutes, if, in forming them, the voice can be heard?

All consonants may be prolonged with the exception of the three breath consonants, k, p, and t. Prolongation is mostly required at the end of a word, as in all, arm, song, save, amaze. The letters z, l, s, t, require great clearness. The sound of the consonants is modified by the position of the tongue, palate, lips, and teeth, and also by the degree in which the air is permitted to pass through the nose. Hence the terms of labials, palatals, dentals, and sibilants.

The letters b, f, p, m, and e, represent the articulation* of the lips, and are termed labials or lipletters.

The consonants d, t, l, n, th, represent the arti

* An articulate sound, in its literal meaning, is a sound proceeding from the articulation or jointing of the organs; articulation being the art of closing or joining the organs.