1. Always pronounce the final -es, -ed, -en, -er, or -e in any word, as a distinct and separate syllable at the end of a line and at the cæsural pause; so also elsewhere, with the exceptions noted here below, and a few others.
2. The final -e is almost invariably elided, and other light syllables (chiefly final -ed, -en, -er, -es, -y) are slurred over and nearly absorbed, whenever the word next following begins with a vowel or is one of certain words beginning with h, viz. (1) a
pronoun, as he, his, him, her, hem: (2) part of the verb have: (3) heer and how: (4) mute h in a French word, such as honour. Ex. ev'r, A 50[[59]]; rid'n, A 57; ov'ral, A 249; ov'rest, A 290; fith'l, 296; get'n, 291; som'r, 394; wat'r, 400; many, 406.
Note. The cæsural pause prevents elision.
3. The final -e is frequently, but not always, suppressed in a few common words (best learnt by observation), such as were, hadde, wolde, sholde, and some others. Thise, these, is invariably monosyllabic. So also, the medial -e is usually suppressed in such words as havenes (haavnez)[[60]], othere (oodhrə) owene (aou·nə), everich (aevrich), sovereyn (suvrein). Similarly, the second e is dropped in távernes (tav·ernz), when the accent is on the first syllable. If it be on the second, then the word is trisyllabic: (taver·nez). Accentuation plays an important part in determining the forms of words.
These three rules meet a large number of cases. Exceptions should be noticed as they arise; and it will usually be found that the exception can be justified.
[§ 68]. The Strong Declension of Substantives. The forms of substantives frequently present much difficulty in individual cases. The primary rules are these.
1. Substantives which end in a vowel in Anglo-Saxon, in the nominative case, take a final -e in Chaucer, in the nom. and dative. The accusative may be taken to be the same as the nominative in every instance.
The A.S. masculine and neuter nouns include jo-stems (Sievers, A.S. Gram. ed. Cook, sect. 246), as ende[[61]]; short i-stems (§ 262), as mete, A 127; short u-stems (§ 270), as wode, wood; as well as sbs. of the weak declension, as ape.
The A.S. wo-stems give M.E. final -we, reduced to (u) in pronunciation, as in sparwe (spar·u). The A.S. feminines in -u give M.E. final -e; as sake, dore. Feminine sbs. of the weak declension end in final -e, as tonge, tongue.