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O is united to e in some words derived from Greek, as oeconomy; but as being not an English diphthong, they are better written as they are sounded, with only e, economy.

With i, as oil, soil, moil, noisome.

This coalition of letters seems to unite the sounds of the two letters, as far as two sounds can be united without being destroyed, and therefore approaches more nearly than any combination in our tongue to the notion of a diphthong.

With o, as boot, hoot, cooler; oo has the sound of the Italian u.

With u or w, as our, power, flower; but in some words has only the sound of o long, as in soul, bowl, sow, grow. These different sounds are used to distinguish different significations: as bow an instrument for shooting; bow, a depression of the head; sow, the she of a boar; sow, to scatter seed; bowl, an orbicular body; bowl, a wooden vessel.

Ou is sometimes pronounced like o soft, as court; sometimes like o short, as cough; sometimes like u close, as could; or u open, as rough, tough, which use only can teach.

Ou is frequently used in the last syllable of words which in Latin end in or and are made English, as honour, labour, favour, from honor, labor, favor.

Some late innovators have ejected the u, without considering that the last syllable gives the sound neither of or nor ur, but a sound between them, if not compounded of both; besides that they are probably derived to us from the French nouns in eur, as honeur, faveur.

U.

U is long in [=u]se, conf[=u]sion; or short, as [)u]s, conc[)u]ssion.

It coalesces with a, e, i, o; but has rather in these combinations the force of the w consonant, as quaff, quest, quit, quite, languish; sometimes in ui the i loses its sound, as in juice. It is sometimes mute before a, e, i, y, as guard, guest, guise, buy.

U is followed by e in virtue, but the e has no sound.

Ue is sometimes mute at the end of a word, in imitation of the French, as prorogue, synagogue, plague, vague, harangue.

Y.

Y is a vowel, which, as Quintilian observes of one of the Roman letters, we might want without inconvenience, but that we have it. It supplies the place of i at the end of words, as thy, before an i, as dying; and is commonly retained in derivative words where it was part of a diphthong, in the primitive; as, destroy, destroyer; betray, betrayed, betrayer; pray, prayer; say, sayer; day, days.

Y being the Saxon vowel y, which was commonly used where i is now put, occurs very frequently in all old books.

GENERAL RULES.

A vowel in the beginning or middle syllable, before two consonants, is commonly short, as [)o]pp[)o]rtunity.

In monosyllables a single vowel before a single consonant is short; as stag, frog.

Many is pronounced as if it were written manny.

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OF CONSONANTS.

B.

B has one unvaried sound, such as it obtains in other languages.

It is mute in debt, debtor, subtle, doubt, lamb, limb, dumb, thumb, climb, comb, womb.

It is used before l and r, as black, brown.

C.

C has before e and i the sound of s; as sincerely, centrick, century, circular, cistern, city, siccity: before a, o, and u, it sounds like k, as calm, concavity, copper, incorporate, curiosity, concupiscence.

C might be omitted in the language without loss, since one of its sounds might be supplied by, s, and the other by k, but that it preserves to the eye the etymology of words, as face from facies, captive from captivus.