But permit me to enquire, on what do the advocates of this practice ground their assertion, that u had in Saxon the sound of eu or yu? Are there any testimonies to support it, among old writers of authority? In the course of my reading I have discovered none, nor have I ever seen one produced or referred to.
Will it be said, that yu is the name of the letter? But where did this name originate? Certainly not in the old Saxon practice, for the Saxons expressed this sound by ew, or eo: And I do not recollect a single word of Saxon origin, in which the warmest sticklers for the practice, give u this sound, even in the present age. Kenrick, who has investigated the powers of the English letters with much more accuracy than even Sheridan himself, observes, that we might with equal propriety, name the other vowels in the same manner, and say, ya, ye, yi, yo, as well as yu.[69]
U in union, use, &c. has the sound of yu; but these are all of Latin origin, and can be no proof that u had, in Saxon, the sound of ew or yu.
The whole argument is founded on a mistake. U in pure English has not the sound of ew, but a sound that approaches it; which is defined with great accuracy by the learned Wallis, who was one of the first correct writers upon English Grammar, and whose treatise is the foundation of Lowth's Introduction and all the best subsequent compilations.[70]
This writer defines the English letter u in these words, "Hunc sonum Extranei sere assequenter, si dipthongum iu conentur pronunciare; nempe i exile literæ u, vel w preponentes; (ut in Hispanorum ciudad, civitas.) Non tamen idem est omnino sonus, quamvis, ad illum proxime, accedat; est enim iu sonus compositus, at Anglorum et Gallorum u sonus simplex."[71]—— Gram. Ling. Angl. Sect. 2.
This is precisely the idea I have ever had of the English u; except that I cannot allow the sound to be perfectly simple. If we attend to the manner in which we begin the sound of u in flute, abjure, truth, we shall observe that the tongue is not pressed to the mouth so closely as in pronouncing e; the aperture of the organs is not so small; and I presume that good speakers, and am confident that most people, do not pronounce these words fleute, abjeure, treuth. Neither do they pronounce them floote, abjoore, trooth; but with a sound formed by an easy natural aperture of the mouth, between iu and oo; which is the true English sound. This sound, however obscured by affectation in the metropolis of Great Britain and the capital towns in America, is still preserved by the body of the people in both countries. There are a million descendants of the Saxons in this country who retain the sound of u in all cases, precisely according to Wallis's definition. Ask any plain countryman, whose pronunciation has not been exposed to corruption by mingling with foreigners, how he pronounces the letters, t, r, u, th, and he will not sound u like eu, nor oo, but will express the real primitive English u. Nay, if people wish to make an accurate trial, let them direct any child of seven years old, who has had no previous instruction respecting the matter, to pronounce the words suit, tumult, due, &c. and they will thus ascertain the true sound of the letter. Children pronounce u in the most natural manner; whereas the sound of iu requires a considerable effort, and that of oo, a forced position of the lips. Illiterate persons therefore pronounce the genuin English u, much better than those who have attempted to shape their pronunciation according to the polite modern practice. As singular as this assertion may appear, it is literally true. This circumstance alone would be sufficient to prove that the Saxons never pronounced u like yu; for the body of a nation, removed from the reach of conquest and free from a mixture of foreigners, are the safest repositories of ancient customs and general practice in speaking.
But another strong argument against the modern practice is, that the pretended dipthong, iu or yu, is heard in scarcely a single word of Saxon origin. Almost all the words in which d, t and s are converted into other letters, as education, due, virtue, rapture, superior, supreme, &c. are derived from the Latin or French; so that the practice itself is a proof that the principles on which it is built, are false. It is pretended that the English or Saxon sound of u requires the pronunciation, edzhucation, natshure, and yet it is introduced almost solely into Latin and French words. Such an inconsistency refutes the reasoning and is a burlesque on its advocates.
This however is but a small part of the inconsistency. In two other particulars the absurdity is still more glaring.
1. The modern refiners of our language distinguish two sounds of u long; that of yu and oo; and use both without any regard to Latin or Saxon derivation. The distinction they make is founded on a certain principle; and yet I question whether one of a thousand of them ever attended to it. After most of the consonants, they give u the dipthongal sound of eu; as in blue, cube, due, mute; but after r they almost invariably pronounce it oo; as rule, truth, rue, rude, fruit. Why this distinction? If they contend for the Saxon sound of u, why do they not preserve that sound in true, rue, truth, which are of Saxon original; and uniformly give u its Roman sound, which is acknowleged on all hands to have been oo, in all words of Latin original, as rule, mute, cube? The fact is, they mistake the principle on which the distinction is made; and which is merely accidental, or arises from the ease of speaking.
In order to frame many of the consonants, the organs are placed in such a position, that in passing from it to the aperture necessary to articulate the following vowel or dipthong, we insensibly fall into the sound of ee. This in particular is the case with those consonants which are formed near the seat of e; viz. k and g. The closing of the organs forms these mutes; and a very small opening forms the vowel e. In passing from that close compression occasioned by k and g, to the aperture necessary to form any vowel, the organs are necessarily placed in a situation to pronounce ee. From this single circumstance, have originated the most barbarous dialects or singularities in speaking English, which offend the ear, either in Great Britain or America.