The
_N.E.D._ gives 'pl[=e]nary', but our grandfathers said 'pl[)e]nary'.
Of course 'diary' gives a long quality to the _i_.
STEMS IN -[)I]LI. These seem originally to have retained the short
_i_. Thus Milton's spelling is 'facil' and 'fertil' while other
seventeenth-century writers give 'steril'. This pronunciation still
obtains in America, but in England the words seem to have been usually
assimilated to 'fragile', as Milton spells it, which perhaps always
lengthened the vowel. The penultimate vowel is short.
STEMS IN -[=I]LI. Here the long _i_ is retained, and in disyllables
the penultima is lengthened, as in 'anile', 'senile', 'virile'.
There is no excuse for following the classical quantity in the former
syllables of any of these words. As an English word 'sedilia' shortens
the antepenultimate, like 'tibia' and the rest, the 'alias' rule not
applying when the vowel is _i_.
STEMS IN -B[)I]LI. These mostly come through French and change the
suffix into _-ble_. Disyllables lengthen the penultima, as 'able',
'stable', 'noble', while 'mobile', as in French, lengthens its
latter vowel. Trisyllables shorten and stress the antepenultima,
as 'placable', 'equable', but of course _u_ remains long, as in
'mutable'. Longer words throw the stress further back, except mere
negatives, like 'impl['a]cable', and words with heavy consonants such
as 'delectable'. Examples are 'miserable', 'admirable', 'intolerable',
'despicable'.
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