in grammar, the manner of articulating or sounding the words of a language.

Pronunciation makes the most difficult part of written grammar; in regard that a book expressing itself to the eyes, in a matter that wholly concerns the ears, seems next akin to that of teaching the blind to distinguish colours: hence it is that there is no part so defective in grammar as that of pronunciation, as the writer has frequently no term whereby to give the reader an idea of the sound he would express; for want of a proper term, therefore, he substitutes a vicious and precarious one. To give a just idea of the pronunciation of a language, it seems necessary to fix as nearly as possible all the several sounds employed in the pronunciation of that language. Cicero tells us, that the pronunciation underwent several changes among the Romans; and indeed it is more precarious in the living languages, being, as Du Bos tells us, subservient to fashion in these. The French language is clogged with a difficulty in pronunciation from which most others are free; and it consists in this, that most of their words have two different pronunciations, the one in common prose, the other in verse.

As to the pronunciation of the English language, the ingenious Mr Martin, in his Spelling-Book of Arts and Sciences, lays down the following rules: 1. The final (e) lengthens the sound of the foregoing vowel; as in can, cane; rob, robe; tan, tune, &c. 2. The final (e) in words ending in re, is sounded before the r like u; as massacre, massacre-cur; lucre, lu-cure, &c. 3. The Latin diphthongs ae, ei, are sounded like e; as Etina, Etina; economy, economy, &c.; but at the end of the words oe sounds like o; as in toe, foe, &c. 4. Also the English improper diphthongs, ea, eo, eu, ue, found only the e and u; as tea and te; seeffor or seffor; due or due; true or tru, &c. though sometimes eo and eu are pronounced like ee, as in people, fear, near, &c. 5. Sometimes the diphthong (ie) is pronounced like e in ceiling, like ee in field, and, at the end of words, always like i, as in lie, &c.; and ei is pronounced either like e or ai, as in deceit, reign, &c. 6. The triphthong eau is pronounced like o, in beau and jet d'eau; and ieu sounds like u in lieu, adieu, &c. 7. The sound of c before the vowels o, u, as in call, cold, cup, &c.; also sometimes before b, as in chart, cold, &c.; and before l and r, as in clear, creep, &c. It is otherwise generally soft, as in city, cell, cider, child, &c. 8. In French words ch, is sounded like sh, as in chagreen, machine; and sometimes like qu, as in choir. 9. The sound of g is hard before a, o, u, l, r, as in gall, go, gum, glean, grape; also before ui, as in guilty, guild, &c.; and before h, as in ghast; sometimes before i, as in gibbous, gibberish. It is also generally hard before e, as in get, gold, &c.; but soft in many words derived from the Greek and Latin, as in geometry, genealogy, genius, &c. Two gg are always hard, as in dagger, &c. The sound of g, when soft, is like that of j. 10. In any part of a word, ph sounds like f, as in philosophy, &c. 11. The sound of gu, at the end of French words, is like k, as in risque, &c. 12. The syllables ti and ci, if followed by a vowel, found like si or ssi; as in fiction, logician, &c. 13. When cc occurs before i, the first is hard and the latter is soft; as in flaccid, &c. 14. The letter p is not pronounced at the beginning of syllables, before f and t; as in phtha, pharmites, &c. As to other peculiarities, regarding the pronunciation of single letters, many of them have been taken notice of at the beginning of each, in the course of this work.

But it is not enough to know the just pronunciation of single letters, but also of words: in order to which, the accenting of words ought to be well understood; since nothing is more harsh and disagreeable to the ear, than to hear a person speak or read with wrong accents. And, indeed, in English, the same word is often both a noun and a verb, distinguished only by the accent, which is on the first syllable of the noun, and on the last of the verb; as ferment and ferment, record Pronunciation and record, &c. We are to observe also, that in order to a just expression of words, some require only a single accent on the syllable, as in ferment, &c.; but in others it should be marked double, as in animal, because it is pronounced as if the letter was wrote double, viz. animal. The best directory in this matter is the excellent Dictionary of Mr Sheridan, lately published.

Pronunciation is also used for the fifth and last part of rhetoric, which consists in varying and regulating the voice agreeably to the matter and words, so as most effectually to persuade and touch the hearers. See Oratory, Part II.