It is

THE REPRESENTATION OF THE SHORT VOWEL U (FULL). This is the short vowel of the long oo in doom. written in two ways, by ü as in full, and by oo as in good. It is not a frequent sound in our language. Before 1 and sh the letter u is always used, as bull, full, pull, bush, push; but before an explosive consonant, oo is generally used, as :—

THE REPRESENTATION OF THE SHORT VOWEL U (BUT).

This is a very frequent sound in English, as heard in the words, but, cut, rub, lull, fun. It is the short power of the long vowel heard in urn, burn, earn, fern, earth, birth mirth. Some grammarians call it the natural vowel because of its frequency, and also because the tongue and all the other parts of the mouth being in a state of repose as when we sleep, a very slight opening of the lips is required to produce it.

The term natural, however, does not appear quite correct, for "though this short vowel is common in English and also in Dutch," says Mr. Alexander J. Ellis, "no other European language, we believe, possesses it; but it is common in Asia." We might say that it is a vowel sound natural to Englishmen.

When the syllable which contains this sound is accented, the letter u is almost always used, as in sup'per, Sun'day, nun'nery, destructive, resulť, but in unaccented syllables it is represented so many different ways that it is a very difficult sound to write, and the strengthening the memory through the eye by much reading is perhaps the best preventative against our making mistakes in spelling. Dictation lessons do not so much teach spelling, as form a valuable test of the pupils' progress in this important art. In representing this very difficult short vowel and its corresponding long one, a good deal of reading and copying from printed matter will be of more service than mere dictation.

This sound is heard in the unaccented syllables of the fol

lowing words, and is written a, e or o.

RULE XXXIV.

THE REPRESENTATION OF THE LONG VOWEL ē. (MEET).

This is the long sound, or nearly so, of the vowel i or y in pity, and is represented by ee and ea in nearly equal numbers, as meet, meat, peel, peal, and in a few instances by e-e, as glebe, mēte. Sometimes the sound is written ie, as grief, thief. The digraph ee always represents this long vowel without exception, but ea, though also a regular phonic form for it, has some exceptions, as dead, deaf, death, breath, health, earth, &c. No rule can be given when we shall use ee or ea; it must be a matter for memory.

This is the weakest of the vowel sounds; for the cavity of the mouth is smaller for this than for any of the others. The lips being nearly closed, and the tongue being raised so as nearly to touch the palate.

THE REPRESENTATION OF THE LONG VOWEL ā (māte).

This is the long sound of the vowel e in pet, and is the middle sound of the series ē, a, a, as heard in the words meat,. mate, märt. These vowel sounds are formed thus: in the

first, ē, the lips are about a quarter of an inch apart without protrusion, and the tongue is raised so as nearly to touch the palate; in the second, a, the lips are about half an inch apart, and the tongue descends a little; in the third, ä, the lips are about three quarters of an inch apart, and the tongue descends still more, having its position at the bottom of the mouth. Every sound, whether vowel or consonant, is due to a special formation or action of the vocal organs, and the pupil cannot be too deeply impressed with the truth that good pronounciation depends upon the correct action of the lips, tongue and cheeks in the production of speech sounds.

When final, this vowel a becomes involuntarily a diphthong, and ends with the short sound i or y in pity; the reason is, that the position for a is a constrained one, and the short ĭ is produced while the mouth is assuming a position of rest or greater ease; the word day, for instance, is pronounced du-y, but the a in dute is a pure vowel.

This sound is represented by ai in the beginning or middle of words, as ailment, prevailing; and by ay at the end of words, as dismay, portray; by a-e, as in plate, forsake; and in a few words by ei or its equivalent finishing form ey, as in eight, weight, freight, survey, prey, obey. No certain rules can be made as to which form ought to be adopted.

In many-syllable words, this sound is written with one a only, as relating, partaker, indication, tribulation, famously.

If the affix -ly is added to words finishing with the digraph ay, the ay, ceasing to be a finishing letter, is changed into i, as day, daily; but if an affix beginning with i, as -ish or -ing, be added, no changing of the y into i takes place, in order that the i be not doubled; we never write praiing, but praying. In the same manner when the affix y is added to digraphs ending in y we write ey instead of y, to avoid the doubling of this letter; we write clayey, not clayy.

THE REPRESENTATION OF THE LONG VOWEL ä (märt).

This is the long sound, or nearly so, of a in pat, Rule 29. Several of the English short vowels do not exactly pair with the corresponding long ones; thus, the vowels in sin and seen, in Sam and psalm, are not quite of the same quality. The short i and a in most of the continental languages are exact pairs to our ē and ä. It is in consequence of this fact that the Foreigner is recognised by his pronounciation of English words in which short i and a occur, and conversely, the Englishman becomes revealed by his pronunciation of the short i or a in Italian, French, or German words.

The long vowel ä (ah) is the loudest, brightest, and most beautiful of all the sounds in speech; it is like the tone of the trumpet or the brilliancy of scarlet, and it is the frequency of this lovely sound that imparts music to the Italian, and majesty to the Spanish language. The speech of Englishmen, who by opening well their mouths give to this and other vowel sounds the utmost power of which they are susceptible without exaggeration, possesses a charm which is always felt though not easily defined.

This sound has no other letter than a to represent it, but it is almost always combined with some accessory letter to denote it, as with h in Allah,-with 1, in calm, psalm, half, calf, but in the majority of cases (perhaps nine out of ten), with r, as in märk, färm, cärd. The consonant sound r in such words in some parts of England is not pronounced at all, and ar in these localities becomes a digraph to denote the long and so-called Italian power of a. See observations on the

consonant r under Rule 19.