The words shall, quality, quantity, qualify, quandary, quadrant, are differently pronounced by good speakers. Some give a a broad sound, as shol, quolity; and others, its second sound, as in hat. With respect to the four first, almost all the standard writers[53] agree to pronounce a short, as in hat: And this is the stage pronunciation. It is correct, for it is more agreeable to the analogy of the language; that being the proper sound of the English a which is heard in hat or bar. With respect to the two last, authors differ; some give the first, some the second, and others the fifth sound. They all pretend to give us the court pronunciation, and as they differ so widely, we must suppose that eminent speakers differ in practice. In such a case, we can hardly hesitate a moment to call in analogy to decide the question, and give a in all these words, as also in quash, its second sound.[54]
The words either, neither, deceit, conceit, receipt, are generally pronounced, by the eastern people, ither, nither, desate, consate, resate. These are errors; all the standard authors agree to give ei, in these words, the sound of ee. This is the practice in England, in the middle and southern states, and, what is higher authority, analogy warrants the practice. Indeed it is very absurd to pronounce the verb conceive, conceeve, and the noun conceit, consate. Such an inconsistency will hardly find advocates, except among the prejudiced and uninformed.
Importance is, by a few people, pronounced impo1rtance; with the first sound of o. The reason alleged is, that it is a derivative of import, and o should preserve the same sound it has in the original. It seems however to be affectation, for the standard writers and general practice are opposed to it. Indeed it may be considered as a mere imitation of the French pronunciation of the same word.
Decis-ive for deci-sive is mere affectation.
Reesin for raisin is very prevalent in two or three principal towns in America. One of the standard authors gives us this pronunciation; and another gives us both raisin and reesin. But all the others pronounce the word raisin, with a long; and derivation, analogy and general custom, all decide in favor of the practice.
Leisure is sometimes pronounced leesure, and sometimes lezhure: The latter is the most general pronunciation in America. It is almost singular in its spelling; seizure being the only word in analogy with it; and this is a derivative from seize. The true original orthography of leisure was leasure; this was in analogy with pleasure, measure, and its ancient pronunciation still remains.
Dictionary has been usually pronounced dicsonary; But its derivation from diction, the analogous pronunciation of tion in other cases, and all the standard writers require dicshunary, or dicshonary.
One author of eminence pronounces defile in three syllables, def-i-le. In this he is singular; neither general practice, nor rules warrant the pronunciation; and all the other authorities are against him.
With respect to oblige, authorities differ. The standard writers give us both oblige and obleege, and it is impossible to determine on which side the weight of authority lies. The direct derivation of the word from the French would incline us to prefer obleege, in the analogy of fatigue, machine, antique, pique, marine, oblique, which uniformly preserve the French i or English ee. Yet Chesterfield called this affectation, and it might be so in his age; for the opinions of men are capricious. The English analogy requires i long in oblige; and perhaps this should incline all parties to meet each other on that best principle.
Some people very erroneously pronounce chaise, sha in the singular, and shaze in the plural. The singular number is shaze, and the plural, shazes.