diphthong compofed of the vocal founds A and E (being the fecond and third vowels in the following arrangement) and pronounced very short. The feven natural vowel founds may be thus marked and explained to found, in the Englife as the words, all, fmall, or, for, knock, lock, occur. a=man, can, cat, rat. fool, two, rule, tool, do. { 1= J fuperfluous, tune, fu- very rare in preme, credulity. S English. in French as the words, en, grande. Paris, habit, pardon. fes, et. Paris, habit, ris, dit, il. foldat, côtes, offrir. ou, vous, jour, jaloux. du, plus, une. Diphthong founds in English. ai=1, fine, hire, life, ride, spy, fly, (a long found.) ae=met, let, get, men, (a fhort found.) iw=you, ufe, new, due, few, (a long found.) aw= { makes the English found of un or unkind, undone, begun, and is pronounced extremely ug, fhort. ugly, but, fhut, gut. o-ho, bough, fow, hour, gown, town (this diphthong is founded long, dwelling chiefly on the latter vowel.) The letters and founds, which in modern languages pass under the names of diphthongs, are of fuch different kinds, that they cannot properly be known by any definition I have feen: for, according to my fenfe, the greateft part of them are not diphthongs. Therefore, that I may not be mifunderstood, I will define a proper diphthong to be made in fpeech, by the blending of two vowel founds fo intimately into one, that the ear fhall hardly be able to diftinguifh more than one uniform found; though, if produced for a longer time than ufual, it will be found to continue in a found different from that on which it began, or from its diphthong found. "And therefore the vowels, which are joined to make dipthongs in English, are pronounced much shorter, when fo joined, than as fingle vowels; for if the vowel founds, of which they are compofed, efpecially the initials, are pronounced fo as to be eafily and diftinctly heard feparately, they ceafe to be diphthongs, and become diftinét fyllables. Though the grammarians have divided the vowels into three claffes; long, fhort, and doubtful; I am of opinion, that every one of the feven has both a longer and fhorter found: as, a is long in all, and fhort in lock and oc (lack and ac) A is long in arm, and short in cat. is long in may and make, and fhort in nation. I is long in be, and fhort in it. o is longer in hole than in open; long in corrode, fhort in cor rofive. wit long in fool, fhort (by comparifon) in foolish. u is u is long in tune and plus, and fhort in fuper and du. But the shortest founds of o, w, and u, are long in comparison with the fhort founds of the four first vowels. Thefe obfervations our author fays he has "thrown out as hints, from which it may be judged, what very great advantages might arife to the lingual and literary commerce of the world, by a fet of learned men fitting down, under fome refpectable authority, to reform the alphabet, fo as to make it contain diftinct elementary marks for expreffing all the lingual founds of the European languages at leaft; in doing which, the difficulty would be infinitely over-balanced by the great and general utility. "So much it was neceffary for me to fay on the incongruity between our present letters and our natural elementary founds; because having, for many years paft, confidered that and the melody and meafare of Speech together, as parts of the fame fubject, it is probable, I may have ufed, in the following fheets, expreflions with a latent reference to thefe elementary founds, which, without this flight explanation, might be unintelligible.' It should feem from hence that Mr. Steele imagines these hints respecting the articulation of vowel founds to be altogether new; but thofe founds have been before inveftigated. Dr. Wallis long fince pointed out feveral of them, and other writers have recently purfued the fubject much farther. It should feem, indeed, that Our colleague Dr. K. in particular, in the introduction to his rhetorical dictonary, makes the following fimilar obfervations on the subject. It is the common practice of linguifts to attempt to teach the pronunciation of languages by means of the written alphabet; but the written elements of language are fo inapplicable to the elements of speech, that the difficulty of making any prociency in a foreign tongue, by such means, is inconceivable by those who have not made the experiment. As there are but a certain number of notes in mufic, fo there are but a certain number of articulate founds in every language. In different languages their number differs, and there are but few founds in any two languages that are exactly the fame; although by the great intercourfe between the European nations, the founds of different languages daily affimilate. In English we have eleven diftinct species of articulate founds, which even by contraction, prolongation, and compofition, are increafed only to the number of fixteen, every fyllable, or articulate found, in our language, being one of this number. Thefe, therefore, I call the oral elements of the English language. The number of our literal vowels falling confiderably short of thefe founds, it would be impoffible to exprefs or denote them in writing, by those characters; even if fuch characters conftantly ferved to denote diftinct and different founds but this is fo far from being the cafe, that the fame found is frequently denoted by feveral different letters, and the fame letter ferves to exprefs very different founds. To give even the English reader a true notion of these elements, by means of the dead letter, we must therefore make ufe of fuch words or fyllables as would convey them distinctly when properly pronounced. Of thefe he gives the following table. English founds or vorvels, expreffed in different fyllables by various letters. 1. Cur, fir, her, fon, blood, earth, &c. 2. Town, noun, how, bough. 3. Bull, wool, wolf, push. 4. Pool, groupe, troop. 9. Boy, joy, toil. 10. Hard, part, carve, laugh, heart, 12. Bay, they, weigh, fail, tale. 5. Call, hawl, caul foft, oft George, cloth. 13. Met fweat, head, bread. e. New, cube, duty, beauty. 7. Not, what, gone, fwan, war, was. 8, No, beau, foc, mean, blown, roan. D 3 14. Meet, meat, deceit. 15. Fit, yes, bufy, women, English,guilt, 16. Why, nigh, I, buy, join, lyre, hire, &c Under our author has made it, as heretofore obferved, but a flight object of his attention, or that, from a provinciality or other peculiarity of dialect, his ear is not well qualified to judge of articu lation. He would elfe never have told us that I or Y, as I in the first person and in the words my, by, idle, fine, &c. is a diphthong compofed of the English founds of au and ee. The Scotch, indeed, tell us this, but no English ear perceives the founds, nor can an English understanding admit the propriety of the obfervation. Again, Mr. Steele fays, the English found of E in met, let, men, get, is a diphthong compofed of the vowel founds of A and E, but the duplicity of this found is never perceived unless when prolonged and ending with y, as in bey, grey, or with a liquid confonant, which makes it in fact two fyllables, as in there, where, &c.-As he apologizes for quoting the French, we shall only obferve that he is miftaken in feveral, as may be seen by comparing his table with that of the Chevalier de Saufeuil, inferted in his curious analyfis of the French tongue; although it must be obferved that the Chevalier, for want of fufficient attention to the English founds, is alfo frequently mistaken,-Again. Mr. Steele fays, that E is long in may and make and short in nation. For goodness' sake, how doth he pronounce nation to make the first vowel in it shorter than that in may and make? Does he take into the former the found of the y and of the e? A little attention will ferve to fhew that these fyllables are diphthongs, if not, ftrictly speaking, words of two fyllables, and pronounced as if divided into ma-y and ma-ek; for whether the foft e goes before or after the confonant in writing, it makes no difference in the found. Of the fame nature is his mifconception, when he fays, is longer in hole than in open; long in corrode and short in corrofive. His miftake is ftill more palpable in saying oo is long in fool and fhort in foclifh. The fame found, indeed, is fhort in Under one or other of the numbers compofing the above tale, fays he, are comprehended all the fpecies of distinct articulate founds contained in the English lan guage. Not that they differ altogether equally in quality; feveral differing only in time. There are no more than eleven diftinét founds of different qualities in English ten of the numbers fpecified in the table being expreffed by the long and short modes of uttering only five. A Hat, mann'd barr'd,' Hard, command, bard, Mane, mate, laid, Men, met, led, As I fhort Fit, kifs, win, long in Feet, geefe, ween, Ó or Au Not, what, pond, Nought, wall, pawn'd, "The other fix founds are either always fhort as u in car, or always long as in rote or diphthongal or double as i ory in bire, lyre; u in lure; cw in town and of in joy most of which long founds feem to partake of two qualities, not fo equally blended in them all, as to pafs without our perceiving the ingredients of the c mpound. Thus I or Yappear to be a commixture of the long e and fhort i ; U of the 1 ng e, and short w or oo; OW of the short and leng u or co; and O1 moft palpably of the short o or au and i.". -Perhaps on further investigation, it may appear that the primary founds are, as Mr. Steele afferts, no more than feven. We would wish to refer this fpeculation to our colleague, Dr. K. when his leifure will permit. 6 full, full, pull, bull. &c. But we must here close the prefent article ; as it is very poflible our readers may not form the fame idea of the importance or utility of these disquisitions, as hath the author of this ingenious Effay. ART. VII. An Account of the Weather and Difeafes of South-Ca rolina. By Lionel Chalmers, M. D. of Charles Town. 2 vols, 6s.* Dilly. 8vo, "To publish a general sketch of the weather in South Carolina, and from thence endeavour to account, for the various difeafes to which the inhabitants of that country are liable, in confequence of the changes which their conftitutions undergo in the several seasons of the year, may be deemed a useless undertaking, to people who live in a different climate: But those who think fo may be told, that in a medical fenfe, the people of different countries, are no otherwise to be diftinguished from each other, than fo far as they may be of more firm or feeble habits, according to their various climates.. Hence it is, that the like caufes, muft produce relatively fimilar effects every where; differing only as to the degree of that impreffion, which fuch fucceffive and variously combined changes in the qualities of air can make on the human body, according to its ftate when these changes happened." Such is the first paragraph of an advertisement prefixed to the work; whofe publication is chiefly interefting, as the author obferves, to phyficians and other profeffors of the faculty. To thefe, therefore, we recommend the perufal of the book itself; in which they will find the principal diseases, to which the human body is liable, treated of in a practical and judicious manner. Indeed the medical reputation of the author fuperfedes the neceffity of our recommendation. An extract or two, refpecting the nature of the foil, climate, and manner of living of the inhabitants, will fhew the author's ftile of writing, and be proba. bly acceptable to our readers. "The foil of this country is very various; for within twenty miles of the fea, it is generally light and fandy: but far from being infertile. This, however, is to be understood of the uplands only; for in many other places, the mould is as rich and deep as can be found anywhere. But, even in the most barren lands, vegetation is fo luxuriant when the weather is fhowery, that a plentiful increase is reaped from them. On the other hand, fuch moift weather is productive of innumerable multitudes of thofe reptiles and infects, that require ftanding water for their ova to hatch in; fome of which are very troublesome to the inhabitants; more efpecially at night, unlefs they be fecured from their ftings, by furrounding the beds with gauze pavilions. But, the heat of the fun is fo great when the feafon is dry, and the earth becomes fo parched, that no feed which is fown will grow; and those Both volumes, bound, in one, making but a tolerable-fized Syo. volume. things that were thriving and promifed well before, may at fuch times be destroyed or yield but little. In this refpect, however, rice feems the most hardy of all plants; for it will recover when the rains fet in, even after it had been burnt down to. the ground. "Further back in the country, the uplands very generally have a good foil; and the fertility of these that are low, is thought to be inexhauftible. Even the very mountains are covered with a fine verdure of lofty trees, except in fome few places, where the fummits confift of naked rocks; amongst which is lime-ftone or marble of different colours. But, except in one river, a ftone larger than a peeble is not to be found anywhere within twenty miles of the fea, fetting afide thofe that have been brought hither as ballaft for fhips. "I doubt not, but South Carolina produces all forts of metals.Gold, filver, copper, iron and lead have already been discovered. We alfo have antimony, alum, talk, blacklead, marle, and very fine white clay, which is fit for making porcelain. I likewife have feen emeralds, that were brought from the country of the Cherokee Indians, which when cut and polished, fell nothing short of thofe which are imported from India in luftre; and rock chryftal abounds in feveral places. "When the English first took poffeffion of this country, excepting Savannahs (which are plains naturally without trees) and some small openings, that were here and there made by the Indians, the whole was one continued foreft; and perhaps, one twentieth part of it is not yet cleared and cultivated. "From the furfaces, therefore, of fo many large rivers, and numerous collections of flanding waters; fuch quantities of funk, fenny and marthy lands, and the vaft Atlantic ocean that borders on our coaft, it may readily be inferred, that exceffive exhalations must be made in this fultry climate: to which fhould we add the exuberant tranfpiration from the foil, and the abundant perfpiration from vegetables of all forts, which everywhere cover the ground, the reason will plainly appear, why our climate fhould be very moist. And that it is fo, will be clearly feen from the rain that fulls at Charlestown, which at a medium for ten years, was 42 inches annually, without regarding the moisture that defcended in fogs and dews. During the above period, the greatest depth of rain in one year was 5,443. and the leaft is 3,195 inches; the most of twelve hours being 9.26 inches; and on the 28th day of June 1750, the rain of two hours was 5.30 inches. However, 65,96 inches of rain have been known to fall in one year, before I kept a journal of the weather, I will just obferve of dews, that where they are heavy as with us, they show an atmosphere replete with moisture. And, indeed, fo great are they in common feasons, that those who are abroad at night, are prefently fo damped and chilled by them, that a general and irkfome laffitude is quickly perceived; and it is well if nothing worse happens. For fo penetrating are thofe dews, that they quickly pass to the skin (no apparel being proof against them) and thus convey the cool damp air to the furface of the body; befide the ill confequences that may thence enfue to the lungs and paffages leading to thefe organs. fame may nearly be faid of fogs, which, fometimes in the winter, ob fcure |