Some pronounce ‘haunt,’ ‘jaunt,’ ‘taunt,’ ‘jaundice,’ &c. with the diphthong broad, having the same sound as in ‘raw’ or ‘saw.’ But all these should rhyme with ‘aunt,’ which is never pronounced broad.
The ending ‘ile’ of certain adjectives sometimes offers a difficulty of pronunciation. Here, in the words ‘hostīle,’ ‘missīle,’ ‘servīle,’ ‘reptīle,’ ‘puerīle,’ and ‘volatīle’ the i has a long sound; but in ‘fertĭle,’ ‘fragĭle,’ ‘futĭle,’ and ‘imbecĭle’ the i must be short.
Some incorrectly give the long sound ‘īle’ to the broader diphthong ‘oil.’ They call ‘oil’ ‘īle,’ ‘boil’ and ‘broil’ ‘bīle’ and ‘brīle,’ &c. In the age of the poet Pope, these two sounds were probably closer to each other than they are now; for he makes ‘join’ rhyme with ‘line:‘—
While expletives their feeble aid do join,
And ten low words oft creep in one dull line.
A story is told of some one dining at a tavern who was asked by the waiter whether he wished to have his sole ‘brīled?’ To which he replied that he did not care whether it was ‘brīled’ or ‘bīled,’ as long as it was not ‘spīled!!’
The words ‘fast,’ ‘past,’ ‘mast,’ and other similar combinations are often pronounced either too broad or too close. In the provinces we often hear ‘mauster,’ ‘faust,’ ‘paust,’ and ‘caunt,’ whilst the affected Londoner says ‘mĕster,’ ‘fĕst,’ ‘pĕst,’ &c.
Neither of the two is right, but the proper pronunciation lies between them. Again, ‘pūt’ (which rhymes with ‘foot’) must not be called ‘pŭt’ (to rhyme with ‘bŭt’), nor must pūlpit be called pŭlpit. Some persist in pronouncing ‘covetous’ as if written ‘covetious,’ and ‘tremendous’ as ‘tremendious;’ and these are apparently equally attached to ‘pronounciation’ and ‘arethmetic.’ Lastly, the participle of the verb ‘to be’ must always sound exactly like the vegetable ‘bēan,’ and not as a wine-‘bin.’
The letter u, in many words, is really a diphthong, and has the double sound of e + oo. This is heard in such words as ‘tüne,’ ‘stüpid,’ ‘tübe,’ ‘prodüce,’ ‘solitüde,’ ‘pictüre,’ &c., which should be sounded as if written ‘te + une,’ ‘ste + upid,’ ‘te + ube,’ &c., the one part uttered rapidly after the other. But many pronounce such words, incorrectly, as if written ‘toone,’ ‘stoopid,’ ‘picter,’ &c. This is a vicious cockney pronunciation.
There is no termination we should be more careful to pronounce fairly out than ‘ow’ final, which, when unaccented, frequently degenerates into ‘er.’ The words are properly pronounced ‘widow,’ ‘window,’ and ‘fellow,’ &c., and not ‘widder,’ ‘winder,’ and ‘feller!!’