The letter _o_ stood for the two long sounds heard in _odium_ and in
_corpus_, for the short sound in _scrofula_, and for the obscure in
_extempore_.
The two long sounds of _u_ are heard in _rumor_, if that spelling
may be allowed, and in the middle syllable of _laburnum_, the two
short sounds in the first _u_ of _incubus_ and in the first _u_ of
_lustrum_, the obscure sound in the final syllables of these two
words. Further the long sound was preceded except after _l_ and _r_ by
a parasitic _y_ as in _albumen_ and _incubus_. This parasitic _y_ is
perhaps not of very long standing. In some old families the tradition
still compels such pronunciations as _moosic_.
The diphthongs _[ae]_ and _[oe]_ were merely _e_, while _au_ and
_eu_ were sounded as in our _August_ and _Euxine_. The two latter
diphthongs stood alone in never being shortened even when they were
unstressed and followed by two consonants. Thus men said _[=Eu]stolia_
and _[=Au]gustus_, while they said _[)[AE]]schylus_ and _[)OE]dipus._
Dryden and many others usually wrote the _[AE]_ as _E_. Thus Garrick
in a letter commends an adaptation of 'Eschylus', and although Boswell
reports him as asking Harris 'Pray, Sir, have you read Potter's
_[AE]schylus_?' both the speaker and the reporter called the name
_Eschylus_.
The letter _y_ was treated as _i_.
The consonants were pronounced as in English words derived from
Latin.
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