The English Alphabet

Pronunciation
All the vowels, and some of the consonants, have several sounds in the English
language.
SHORT SOUNDS
a, as in bad, bag, bat.
e, as in bed, beg, bet.
i, as in bid, big, bit.
o, as in odd, bog, fog.
u, as in bud, bug, hut.
LONG SOUNDS
a, as in face, fate, fame.
e, as in me, we, see.
i, as in pine, mind, child.
o, as in no, go, note.
u, as in tune, mute, tube.
LONG ITALIAN
a, as in bar, far, car.
SHORT ITALIAN
a, as in ask, class, last.
a, as in her, err, earn.
Long oo, as in coo, too, moon.
Short oo, as in book, cook, rook.
DIPHTHONGS
oi, as in oil, toil.
oy, as in hoy, toy, boy.
ou, as in our, out.
ow, as in cow, how.
EQUIVALENTS, EACH TO EACH
a, as in liar, friar.

e, as in her.
i, as in fir, sir, bird.
o, as in word, work, worm.
u, as in urn, urge, burn.
y, as in myrtle.
EQUIVALENTS
a = o in odd, as in wad, was, wand
e = a in fade, as in they, eight
o = oo in coo, as in do, to, move
o = oo in book, as in wolf, woman
u = oo in coo, as in rule, rude, runic.
CORRELATIVES
a, in air, care, correlative of a in at.
a, long in all, ball, awl, correlative of o in odd.
VOWEL EQUIVALENTS
Long a, day, aid, they, veil, break, gauge.
Italian a, aunt, heart, guard, sergeant, bazaar.
a (in care), pair, pear, prayer, there, their, Aaron.
a (in all), awl, fraud, bought, broad, awe.
Long e, eat, beef, chief, deceive, marine, key, people.
Short e, bread, said, any, heifer, leopard, friend, guest/says.
Long i, by, die, guide, height, buy, aisle, my, eye, bayou.
Short i, lynx, duties, build, certain, busy, pretty, been, women, foreign,
carriage, tortoise.
Long o, boat, blow, four, foe, door, sew, beau, yeoman.
Short o, was, wadding, knowledge.
Long oo, do, shoe, group.
Long u, you, yew, ewe, beauty, view, lieu, neuter, juice, hue.
Short u, son, touch, blood, does, porpoise, cushion, dungeon, righteous,
gracious.
u (in rule), grew, true, fruit.

We also have a number of digraphs or combinations of vowels or consonants

which have but one sound:
ai in rain
eo as in people
ou as in soup
ou as in soul
ph as in phalanx
ch as in chorus or chair
c has two sounds, hard before a, o, and u, as in cat, cot, and cut, and soft
before e, i, and y, as in cell, city, and cycle.
g has two sounds, hard before a, o, and u, as in gate, gone, and gun, soft
before e, i, and y, as in gem, gin, and gyve, although it is sometimes hard
before i as in girl.
ch is sometimes soft as in chair and arch, and sometimes hard as in choir.
th has two sounds, soft, or surd, as in thin and death, and hard, or sonant, as
in then and smooth.
s has two sounds, soft, or surd, as in soft and this, and hard, or sonant, as
in has and wise.
We have, therefore, twenty-six letters to help us express fifty or more sounds,
not counting the digraphs and diphthongs.

The English Alphabet

What are Consonants?
Consonants are letters that we cannot
perfectly sound without the aid of a vowel. The
consonants in the English language are b, c, d,
f, g, h, j, k, l, m, n, p, q, r, s, t, v, x, z, and
sometimes e, i, u, w, and y. We can divide
consonants into two
classes, Mutesand Semivowels.

The Mutes are those consonants that emit no sound without the aid of a
vowel. They are b, d, k, p, q, t, and e and g hard.
NOTEThe u is canceled in this hook when qu is sounded like k.
The Semivowels are those consonants that can be sounded imperfectly by
themselves. They are f, h, j, l, m, n, r, s, v, x, z, and c and g soft.
Four of the semivowels are called Liquids; eg., l, m, n, and r. We refer to them
as "liquids" because they unite fluently with
other sounds, or flow into them.

The English Alphabet

Words and Syllables
A Syllable is a sound, or a combination of
sounds, uttered by a single impulse of the
voice: it may have one or more letters; as, a,
bad, bad-ness.
A Word is either a syllable or a combination of syllables; as, not, notion.
A word of one syllable is called a Monosyllable; as, man.
A word of two syllables is called a Dissyllable; as, manly.
A word of three syllables is called a Trisyllable; as, manliness. Words of
more than three syllables are called Polysyllables.
Accent is a stress of voice placed upon some one syllable more than the
others. Every word composed of two or more syllables has one of them
accented. This accent is denoted by a mark (') at the end of the accented
syllable; as,mid'night, aban'don.
A Primitive Word is one which is not derived from any other word; as, man,
great, full.

A Derivative Word is one which is formed from some other word by adding
something to it; as, manful, greatness, fully.
A Simple Word is one which is not composed of more than one word;
as, kind, man, stand, ink.
A Compound Word is one that is composed of two or more simple words;
as, inkstand, text-book
Spelling is naming or writing the letters of a
word.