IV. VOWEL SOUNDS IN UNACCENTED SYLLABLES. There are many delicate shades of sound in unaccented vowels which must be learned from the lips of the living teacher, or by noticing carefully the pronunciation of educated and critical people. I. Final unaccented ar, er, ir, or, yr. The vowels a, e, i, o, u, y, preceding in final unac cented syllables, have the sound of e as in her. III. Words having a or o unaccented. In words like the following, a or o in unaccented final syllables has a slightly obscured sound of short u. IV. Final unaccented a. Unaccented a, at the end of a word, has the sound of intermediate a, verging towards short u, as com'må or com'mů. V. Sound of a in unaccented final syllables. In words like the following, a has the sound of short VI. Unaccented a as an initial syllable. In the first syllable of words like the following, the vowel a, when unaccented, has nearly the sound of short a a little obscured, or of a as in ask, verging towards short u; as a bout', ǎ bove'; or å bout', å bove'. Avoid the common error of giving a the long sound; as a bove', mā chïne'; also that of short u, as u bout', u bove'. In the dictionary this sound is unmarked. VII. Silent e and o In the following words and some others, e and o are silent before n or l, thus-heaven hěvn, evil=ēvl. = X. Sound of short i and y in unaccented syllables. In words like the following, there is a tendency to give short e the sound of obscure e or a, and to prolong final -ty into -te. XI. Sound of u in unaccented final syllables. In the pronunciation of words of two syllables ending in -ture, -dure, or -sure, there is a slight difference in good usage. By some, the word creature, for example, is pronounced as if spelled thus-creat'yer, verging towards crea'cher; by others it is pronounced thuscreat yoor. XII. Sound of u in unaccented final syllables. In words of more than two syllables, the sound of -ure is made somewhat longer than in words of two syllables; as furniture is pronounced fûr'nit yōor. ǎp'er ture over ture lig'a ture sig'na ture lit'er a ture căr'i ea ture jū'di ca ture sig na ture cûr va ture 1. The article a is sounded in connection with the word that follows it; as, a book" is sounded as one word of two syllables, thus-a-book'. Here the article has the sound of long a, obscured and cut off suddenly. It is not good usage to give it the sound of short u, thus-u-book', or of ûr-book'. In 2. Before a word beginning with a consonant the article the, except when emphatic, is sounded as a syllable of the word which it precedes, as the-book', pronounced as a word of two syllables, accented on the last. such cases the obscured e sound in the is really represented by short i, rather than by short u; as, thi-book', thi-horse', thi-school'. It is sometimes indicated thusth'-book', th'-horse'. 3. Before words beginning with a vowel, as the-air', the-ice', e in the has the long sound, less obscured and shortened than when the precedes a word beginning with a consonant. The error in sounding the articles a and the frequently arises from attempts to give their phonic spelling independent of their connection with the words that follow them. In order to sound the articles correctly, notice how they are pronounced, by persons of good taste, in ordinary conversation. |