"And yet the labyrinth is more admirable than the Pyramids."——Trans. of Herodotus, Euterpe.
[47] Except compounds, as earthquake, bookcase.
[48] The final e must be considered as the cause of this vulgar dialect. It is wished that some bold genius would dare to be right, and spell this class of words without e, motiv. By reason of an embarrassing orthography, one half the trouble of learning English, is bestowed in acquiring errors, and correcting them after they are formed into habits. To prevent the continuance of this erroneous practice, I have, in the first part of the Institute, distinguished the silent e, by an Italic character.
[49] To remedy the evil, in some degree, this letter is named er, in the Institute. In a few instances this pronunciation is become general among polite speakers, as clerks, sergeant, &c.
[50] Hence the surprising similarity between the idioms of the New England people and those of Chaucer, Shakespear, Congreve, &c. who wrote in the true English stile. It is remarked by a certain author, that the inhabitants of islands best preserve their native tongue. New England has been in the situation of an island; during 160 years, the people except in a few commercial towns, have not been exposed to any of the causes which effect great changes in language and manners.
[51] I have once met with the word in Chaucer's Plowman's Tale 2014.
"The other side ben pore and pale,
And peple yput out of prese,
And semin caitiffs sore a cale,
And er in one without encrease;
Iclepid Lollers and Londlese;
Who toteth on 'hem thei ben untall;
They ben arayid all for pece,
But falshed foule mote it befall."
[52] I am at a loss to determine, why this practice should prevail in Boston and not in Connecticut. The first and principal settlers in Hartford came from the vicinity of Boston. Vast numbers of people in Boston and the neighborhood use w for v; yet I never once heard this pronunciation in Connecticut.
[53] By standard writers, I mean, Kenrick, Sheridan, Burn, Perry and Scott.
[54] The distinction in the pronunciation of a in quality, when it signifies the property of some body, and when it is used for high rank, appears to me without foundation in rule or practice.