Dripread - Book

broken;
pronounced takn, brokn. OUS, in the termination of adjectives and their
derivatives, is pronounced us; as is gracious, pious, pompously.

CE, CI, TI, before a vowel, have the sound of sh; as in cetaceous,
gracious, motion, partial, ingratiate;� pronounced cetashus, grashus,
moshun, parshal, ingrashiate.

SI, after an accented vowel, is pronounced like zh; as in Ephesian,
coufusion; pronounced Ephezhan, confushon.

GH, both in the middle and at the end of words is silent; as in caught,
bought, fright, nigh, sigh; pronounced caut, baut, frite, ni, si. In the
following exceptions, however, gh is pronounced as f: cough, chough,
clough, enough, laugh, rough, slough, tough, trough.

When WH begins a word, the aspirate h precedes w in pronunciation: as in
what, whiff, whale; pronounced hwat, hwiff, hwale, w having precisely
the sound of oo, French ou. In the following words w is silent:---who,
whom, whose, whoop, whole.

H after r has no sound or use; as in rheum, rhyme; pronounced reum,
ryme.

H should be sounded in the middle of words; as in forehead, abhor,
behold, exhaust, inhabit, unhorse.

H should always be sounded except in the following words:--heir, herb,
honest, honor, hour, humor, and humble, and all their derivatives,--such
as humorously, derived from humor.

K and G are silent before n; as know, gnaw; pronounced no, naw.

W before r is silent; as in wring, wreath; pronounced ring, reath.

B after m is silent; as in dumb, numb; pronounced dum, num.

L before k is silent; as in balk, walk, talk; pronounced bauk, wauk,
tauk.

PH has the sound of f; as in philosophy; pronounced� filosofy.

NG has two sounds, one as in singer, the other as in fin-ger.

N after m, and closing a syllable, is silent; as in hymn, condemn.

P before s and t is mute; as in psalm, pseudo, ptarmigan; pronounced
salm, sudo, tarmigan.

R has two sounds, one strong and vibrating, as at the beginning of words
and syllables, such as robber, reckon, error; the other is at the
termination of the words, or when succeeded by a consonant, as farmer,
morn.

Common Errors in Pronunciation.

--ace, is not iss, as furnace, not furniss.

--age, not idge, as cabbage, courage, postage, village.

--ain, ane, not in, as certain, certane, not certin.

--ate, not it, as moderate, not moderit.

--ect, not ec, as aspect, not aspec; subject, not subjec.

--ed, not id, or ud, as wicked, not wickid or wickud.

--el, not l, model, not modl; novel, not novl.

--en, not n, as sudden, not suddn.--Burden, burthen, garden, lengthen,
seven, strengthen, often, and a few others, have the e silent.

--ence, not unce, as influence, not influ-unce.

--es, not is, as pleases, not pleasis.

--ile should be pronounced il, as fertil, not fertile, in all words
except chamomile (cam), exile, gentile, infantile, reconcile, and
senile, which should be pronounced ile.

--in, not n, as Latin, not Latn.

--nd, not n, as husband, not husban; thousand, not thousan.

--ness, not niss, as carefulness, not carefulniss.

--ng, not n, as singing, not singin; speaking, not speakin.

--ngth, not nth, as strength, not strenth.

--son, the o should be silent; as in treason, tre-zn, not tre-son.

--tal, not tle, as capital, not capitle; metal, not mettle; mortal, not
mortle; periodical, not periodicle.

--xt, not x, as next, not nex.

SHORT RULES FOR SPELLING.

Words ending in e drop that letter on taking a suffix beginning with a
vowel. Exceptions--words ending in ge, ce, or oe.

Final e of a primitive word is retained on taking a suffix beginning
with a consonant. Exceptions--words ending in dge, and truly, duly, etc.

Final y of a primitive word, when preceded by a consonant, is generally
changed into i on the addition of a suffix. Exceptions--retained before
ing and ish, as pitying. Words ending in ie and dropping the e by Rule
1, change the i to y, as lying. Final y is sometimes changed to e, as
duteous.

Nouns ending in y, preceded by a vowel, form their plural by adding s; o
as money, moneys. Y preceded by a consonant is changed to ies in the
plural; as bounty, bounties.

Final y of a primitive vowel, preceded by a vowel, should not be changed
into i before a suffix; as, joyless.

In words containing ei or ie, ei is used after the sound s, as ceiling,
seize, except in siege and in a few words ending in cier. Inveigle,
neither, leisure and

The Handy Cyclopedia of Things Worth Knowing / A Manual of Ready Reference