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

Pronunciation forms the most difficult part of written grammar, in as much as a book expressing itself to the eyes, in a manner 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; for as the writer has frequently no term whereby to give the reader an idea of the sound he would express, so, for want of such a term, he often 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 amongst the Romans; and indeed it is more precarious in the living languages, being in these subservient to fashion and usage.

PRONUNCIATION is also used to indicate the fifth and last Pronunciation 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.