Gold is differently pronounced by good speakers, and differently marked by the standard writers. Two of them give us goold, as the standard, and three, gold or goold. But we may find better principles than the opinions or practice of individuals, to direct our judgement in this particular. The word indeed has the pronunciation, goold, in some of the collateral branches of the Teutonic, as in the Danish, where it is spelt guld. But in the Saxon, it was written gold, and has been uniformly written so in English. Besides, we have good reason to believe that it was, in early times, pronounced gold, with the first sound of o, for the poets invariably make it rhime with old, behold, and other words of similar sound. Thus in Chaucer:
"With nayles yelwe, and bright as any gold,
He hadde a bere's skin, cole blake for old."
Knight's Tale, L. 2143.
In Pope:
"Now Europe's laurels on their brows behold,
But stain'd with blood, or ill exchang'd for gold."
Essay on Man, Book 4.
The rhime is here a presumptive proof that the poets pronounced this word with the first sound of o, and it is a substantial reason why that pronunciation should be preferred. But analogy is a still stronger reason; for bold, told, fold, and I presume every similar word in the language, has the first sound of o. These are good reasons why gold should have that sound; reasons which are permanent, and superior to any private opinions.
Similar reasons, and equally forceable, are opposed to the modern pronunciation of wound. I say modern; for in America woond is a recent innovation. It was perhaps an ancient dialect; for the old Saxon and modern Danish orthography warrant this conjecture.
But in English the spelling has uniformly corresponded with bound, sound, and if we may judge from the rhimes of our poets, the pronunciation has also been analogous. Thus in Skelton's Elegy on Henry, Earl of Northumberland, 1489, we have the following lines:
"Most noble erle! O foul mysurd[61] ground
Whereon he gat his finall deadly wounde."