be noted, the one an inheritance from the English of the colonists and
the other arising spontaneously within the country, and apparently
much colored by immigration. The first influence, it goes without
saying, is gradually dying out. Consider, for example, the
pronunciation of the diphthong /oi/. In Middle English it was as in
/boy/, but during the early Modern English period it was assimilated
with that of the /i/ in /wine/, and this usage prevailed at the time
of the settlement of America. The colonists thus brought it with them,
and at the same time it lodged in Ireland, where it still prevails.
But in England, during the pedantic eighteenth century, this /i/-sound
was displaced by the original /oi/-sound, not by historical research
but by mere deduction from the spelling, and the new pronunciation
soon extended to the polite speech of America. In the common speech,
however, the /i/-sound persisted, and down to the time of [Pg236] the
Civil War it was constantly heard in such words as /boil/, /hoist/,
/oil/, /join/, /poison/ and /roil/, which thus became /bile/, /hist/,
/ile/, /jine/, /pisen/ and /rile/. Since then the school-marm has
combatted it with such vigor that it has begun to disappear, and such
forms as /pisen/, /jine/, /bile/ and /ile/ are now very seldom heard,
save as dialectic variations. But in certain other words, perhaps
supported by Irish influence, the /i/-sound still persists. Chief
among them are /hoist/ and /roil/. An unlearned American, wishing to
say that he was enraged, never says that he was /roiled/, but always
that he was /riled/. Desiring to examine the hoof of his horse, he
never orders the animal to /hoist/ but always to /hist/. In the form
of /booze-hister/, the latter is almost in good usage. I have seen
/booze-hister/ thus spelled and obviously to be thus pronounced, in an
editorial article in the /American Issue/, organ of the Anti-Saloon
League of America.[81]
Various similar misplaced vowels were brought from England by the
colonists and have persisted in America, while dying out of good
England usage. There is, for example, short /i/ in place of long /e/,
as in /critter/ for /creature/. /Critter/ is common to almost all the
dialects of English, but American has embedded the vowel in a word
that is met with nowhere else and has thus become characteristic, to
wit, /crick/ for /creek/. Nor does any other dialect make such
extensive use of /slick/ for /sleek/. Again, there is the substitution
of the flat /a/ for the broad /a/ in /sauce/. England has gone back to
the broad /a/, but in America the flat /a/ persists, and many
Americans who use /sassy/ every day would scarcely recognize /saucy/
if they heard it. Yet again, there is /quoit/. Originally, the English
pronounced it /quate/, but now they pronounce the diphthong as in
/doily/. In the United States the /quate/ pronunciation remains.
Finally, there is /deaf/. Its proper pronunciation, in the England
that the colonists left, was /deef/, but it now rhymes with /Jeff/.
That new pronunciation has been adopted by polite American, despite
the protests of Noah Webster, but in the common speech the word is
still always /deef/.
However, a good many of the vowels of the early days have [Pg237]
succumbed to pedagogy. The American proletarian may still use /skeer/
for /scare/, but in most of the other words of that class he now uses
the vowel approved by correct English usage. Thus he seldom permits
himself such old forms as /dreen/ for /drain/, /keer/ for /care/,
/skeerce/ for /scarce/ or even /cheer/ for /chair/. The Irish
influence supported them for a while, but now they are fast going out.
So, too, are /kivver/ for /cover/, /crap/ for /crop/, and /chist/ for
/chest/. But /kittle/ for /kettle/ still shows a certain vitality,
/rench/ is still used in place of /rinse/, and /squinch/ in place of
/squint/, and a flat /a/ continues to displace various /e/-sounds in
such words as /rare/ for /rear/ (/e. g./, as a horse) and /wrassle/
for /wrestle/. Contrariwise, /e/ displaces /a/ in /catch/ and
/radish/, which are commonly pronounced /ketch/ and /reddish/. This
/e/-sound was once accepted in standard English; when it got into
spoken American it was perfectly sound; one still hears it from the
most pedantic lips in /any/.[82] There are also certain other ancients
that show equally unbroken vitality among us, for example, /stomp/ for
/stamp/,[83] /snoot/ for /snout/, /guardeen/ for /guardian/, and
/champeen/ for /champion/.
But all these vowels, whether approved or disapproved, have been under
the pressure, for the past century, of a movement toward a general
vowel neutralization, and in the long run it promises to dispose of
many of them. The same movement also affects standard English, as
appears by Robert Bridges' "Tract on the Present State of English
Pronunciation," but I believe that it is stronger in America, and will
go farther, at least with the common speech, if only because of our
unparalleled immigration. Standard English has 19 separate vowel
sounds. No other living tongue of Europe, save Portuguese, has so
many; most of the others have a good many less; Modern Greek has but
five. The immigrant, facing all these vowels, finds some of them quite
impossible; the Russian Jew, as we have seen, cannot manage /ur/. As a
result, he tends to employ a neutralized [Pg238] vowel in all the
situations which present difficulties, and this neutralized vowel,
supported by the slip-shod speech-habits of the native proletariat,
makes steady progress. It appears in many of the forms that we have
been examining--in the final /a/ of /would'a/, vaguely before the /n/
in /this'n/ and /off'n/, in place of the original /d/ in /use' to/,
and in the common pronunciation of such words as /been/, /come/ and
/have/, particularly when they are sacrificed to sentence exigencies,
as in "I /b'n/ thinking," "/c'm 'ere/," and "he would /'ve/ saw you."
Here we are upon a wearing down process that shows many other
symptoms. One finds, not only vowels disorganized, but also
consonants. Some are displaced by other consonants, measurably more
facile; others are dropped altogether. /D/ becomes /t/, as in /holt/,
or is dropped, as in /tole/, /han'kerchief/, /bran-new/ and /fine/
(for /find/). In /ast/ (for /ask/) /t/ replaces /k/: when the same
word is used in place of /asked/, as often happens, /e. g./, in "I
/ast/ him his name," it shoulders out /ked/. It is itself lopped off
in /bankrup/, /quan'ity/, /crep/, /slep/, /wep/, /kep/, /gris'-mill/
and /les/ (=/let's/ = /let us/), and is replaced by /d/ in
/kindergarden/ and /pardner/. /L/ disappears, as in /a'ready/ and
/gent'man/. /S/ becomes /tsh/, as in /pincers/. The same /tsh/
replaces /c/, as in /pitcher/ for /picture/, and /t/, as in
/amachoor/. /G/ disappears from the ends of words, and sometimes, too,
in the middle, as in /stren'th/ and /reco'nize/. /R/, though it is
better preserved in American than in English, is also under pressure,
as appears by /bust/, /stuck on/ (for /struck on/), /cuss/ (for
/curse/), /yestiddy/, /sa's'parella/, /pa'tridge/, /ca'tridge/, /they
is/ (for /there is/) and /Sadd'y/ (for /Saturday/). An excrescent /t/
survives in a number of words, /e. g./, /onc't/, /twic't/, /clos't/,
/wisht/ (for /wish/) and /chanc't/; it is an heirloom from the English
of two centuries ago. So is the final /h/ in /heighth/. An excrescent
/b/, as in /chimbley/ and /fambly/, seems to be native. Whole
syllables are dropped out of words, paralleling the English butchery
of /extraordinary/; for example, in /bound'ry/, /hist'ry/, /lib'ry/
and /prob'ly/. /Ordinary/, like /extraordinary/, is commonly
enunciated clearly, but it has bred a degenerated form, /onry/ or
/onery/, differentiated in meaning. Consonants are misplaced by
metathesis, as in /prespiration/, /hunderd/, [Pg239] /brethern/,
/childern/, /interduce/, /apern/, /calvary/, /govrenment/, /modren/
and /wosterd/ (for /worsted/). /Ow/ is changed to /er/, as in
/feller/, /swaller/, /yeller/, /beller/, /umbreller/ and /holler/;
/ice/ is changed to /ers/ in /jaunders/. Words are given new
syllables, as in /ellum/, /mischievious/ and /municipial/.
In the complete sentence, assimilation makes this disorganization much
more obvious. Mearns, in a brief article[84] gives many examples of
the extent to which it is carried. He hears "wah zee say?" for "what
does he say?" "ware zee?" for "where is he?" "ast 'er in" for "ask her
in," "itt'm owd" for "hit them out," "sry" for "that is right," and
"c'meer" for "come here." He believes that /t/ is gradually succumbing
to /d/, and cites "ass bedder" (for "that's better"), "wen juh ged
din?" (for "when did you get in?"), and "siddup" (for "sit up"). One
hears countless other such decayed forms on the street every day.
/Have to/ is almost invariably made /hafta/, with the neutral vowel
where I have put the second /a/. /Let's/, already noticed, is /le'
's/. The neutral vowel replaces the /oo/ of /good/ in /g'by/. "What
did you say" reduces itself to "wuz ay?" /Maybe/ is /mebby/, /perhaps/
is /p'raps/, /so long/ is /s'long/, /excuse me/ is /skus me/; the
common salutation, "How are you?" is so dismembered that it finally
emerges as a word almost indistinguishable from /high/. Here there is
room for inquiry, and that inquiry deserves the best effort of
American phonologists, for the language is undergoing rapid changes
under their very eyes, or, perhaps more accurately, under their very
ears, and a study of those changes should yield a great deal of
interesting matter. How did the word /stint/, on American lips, first
convert itself into /stent/ and then into /stunt/? By what process was
/baulk/ changed into /buck/? Both /stunt/ and /buck/ are among the
commonest words in the everyday American vocabulary, and yet no one,
so far, has investigated them scientifically.
A by-way that is yet to be so much as entered is that of naturalized
loan-words in the common speech. A very characteristic word of that
sort is /sashay/. Its relationship to the French /chassé/ seems to be
plain, and yet it has acquired meanings in [Pg240] American that
differ very widely from the meaning of /chassé/. How widely it is
dispersed may be seen by the fact that it is reported in popular use,
as a verb signifying to prance or to walk consciously, in Southeastern
Missouri, Nebraska, Northwestern Arkansas, Eastern Alabama and Western
Indiana, and, with slightly different meaning, on Cape Cod. The
travels of /café/ in America would repay investigation; particularly
its variations in pronunciation. I believe that it is fast becoming
/kaif/. /Plaza/, /boulevard/, /vaudeville/, /menu/ and /rathskeller/
have entered into the common speech of the land, and are pronounced as
American words. Such words, when they come in verbally, by actual
contact with immigrants, commonly retain some measure of their correct
native pronunciation. /Spiel/, /kosher/, /ganof/ and /matzoh/ are
examples; their vowels remain un-American. But words that come in
visually, say through street-signs and the newspapers, are immediately
overhauled and have thoroughly Americanized vowels and consonants
thereafter. School-teachers have been trying to establish various
pseudo-French pronunciations of /vase/ for fifty years past, but it
still rhymes with /face/ in the vulgate. /Vaudeville/ is /vawd-vill/;
/boulevard/ has a hard /d/ at the end; /plaza/ has two flat /a/'s; the
first syllable of /menu/ rhymes with /bee/; the first of /rathskeller/
with /cats/; /fiancée/ is /fy-ancé-y/; /née/ rhymes with /see/;
/décolleté/ is /de-coll-ty/; /hofbräu/ is /huffbrow/; the German /w/
has lost its /v/-sound and becomes an American /w/. I have, in my day,
heard /proteege/ for /protégé/, /habichoo/ for /habitué/, /connisoor/
for /connisseur/, /shirtso/ for /scherzo/, /premeer/ for /première/,
/eetood/ for /étude/ and /prelood/ for /prelude/. /Divorcée/ is
/divorcey/, and has all the rakishness of the adjectives in /-y/. The
first syllable of /mayonnaise/ rhymes with /hay/. /Crème de menthe/ is
/cream de mint/. /Schweizer/ is /swite-ser/. /Rochefort/ is
/roke-fort/. I have heard /début/ with the last syllable rhyming with
/nut/. I have heard /minoot/ for /minuet/. I have heard /tchef doover/
for /chef d'œuvre/. And who doesn't remember
As I walked along the /Boys Boo-long/
With an independent air
and [Pg241]
Say /aw re-vore/,
But not good-by!
Charles James Fox, it is said, called the red wine of France /Bordox/
to the end of his days. He had an American heart; his great speeches
for the revolting colonies were more than mere oratory.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Sweet, perhaps the abbot of the order, makes almost indecent haste
to sin. See the second paragraph on the very first page of vol. i of
his New English Grammar.
[2] /Yale Review/, April, 1918, p. 548.
[3] /Yale Review/, /op. cit./, p. 560.
[4] The Difficulties Created by Grammarians Are to be Ignored, by W.
H. Wilcox, /Atlantic Educational Journal/, Nov., 1912, p. 8. The title
of this article is quoted from ministerial instructions of 1909 to the
teachers of French /lyceés/.
[5] /Op cit./ p. 7. Mr. Wilcox is an instructor in the Maryland State
Normal School.
[6] See especially chapters ix and x of Words and Their Uses and
chapters xvii, xviii and xix of Every-Day English; also the preface to
the latter, p. xi /et seq./ The study of other languages has been made
difficult by the same attempt to force the characters of Greek and
Latin grammar upon them. One finds a protest against the process, for
example, in E. H. Palmer's Grammar of Hindustani, Persian and Arabic;
London, 1906. In all ages, indeed, grammarians appear to have been
fatuous. The learned will remember Aristophanes' ridicule of them in
The Clouds, 660-690.
[7] The case is well summarized in Simpler English Grammar, by
Patterson Wardlaw, /Bull. of the University of S. Carolina/, No. 38,
pt. iii, July, 1914.
[8] Cincinnati, 1868; rev. ed., 1878.
[9] New York, 1903; rev. ed., 1915.
[10] Even Sweet, though he bases his New English Grammar upon the
spoken language and thus sets the purists at defiance, quickly
succumbs to the labelling mania. Thus his classification of tenses
includes such fabulous monsters as these: continuous, recurrent,
neutral, definite, indefinite, secondary, incomplete, inchoate, short
and long.
[11] By W. F. Webster and Alice Woodworth Cooley; Boston, 1903; rev.
eds., 1905 and 1909. The authors are Minneapolis teachers.
[12] /Op. cit./ p. 8.
[13] Bulletin No. 2; Washington, 1917.
[14] The Middle American, /American Magazine/, March, 1907.
[15] /Cf./ White: Every-Day English, p. 367 /et seq./
[16] /Cf./ Sweet: New English Grammar, vol. i, p. 5.
[17] Dr. Charters' report appears as Vol. XVI, No. 2, /University of
Missouri Bulletin/, Education Series No. 9, Jan., 1915. He was aided
in his inquiry by Edith Miller, teacher of English in one of the St.
Louis high-schools.
[18] You Know Me Al: New York, 1916.
[19] /Saturday Evening Post/, July 11, 1914.
[20] /Bin/ is the correct American pronunciation. /Bean/, as we have
seen, is the English. But I have often found /ben/, rhyming with
/pen/, in such phrases as "I /ben/ there."
[21] See p. 209.
[22] Seldom used. /Get/ is used in the place of it, as in "I am
/getting/ old" and "he /got/ sick."
[23] /Burned/, with a distinct /d/-sound, is almost unknown in
American. See p. 201.
[24] Not used.
[25] /Cotched/ is heard only in the South, and mainly among the
negroes. /Catch/, of course, is always pronounced /ketch/.
[26] But "I /drew/ three jacks," in poker.
[27] /Fotch/ is also heard, but it is not general.
[28] /Fit/ and /fitten/, unless my observation errs, are heard only in
dialect. /Fit/ is archaic English. /Cf./ Thornton, vol. i, p. 322.
[29] /Glode/ once enjoyed a certain respectability in America. It
occurs in the /Knickerbocker Magazine/ for April, 1856.
[30] /Hanged/ is never heard.
[31] /Het/ is incomplete without the addition of /up/. "He was /het
up/" is always heard, not "he was /het/."
[32] Always so pronounced. See p. 236.
[33] See pp. 57 and 202.
[34] Always used in place of /rinse/.
[35] Always used in place of /roil/.
[36] /Sot/ is heard as a localism only.
[37] See /set/, which is used almost invariably in place of /sit/.
[38] /Thunk/ is never used seriously; it always shows humorous intent.
[39] See pp. 201 and 211.
[40] /Cf./ Lounsbury: History of the English Language, pp. 309-10.
[41] English As We Speak It In Ireland, p. 77.
[42] The Science of Language, vol. i, p. 166.
[43] The last stand of the distinct /-ed/ was made in Addison's day.
He was in favor of retaining it, and in the /Spectator/ for Aug. 4,
1711, he protested against obliterating the syllable in the
termination "of our praeter perfect tense, as in these words,
/drown'd/, /walk'd/, /arriv'd/, for /drowned/, /walked/, /arrived/,
which has very much disfigured the tongue, and turned a tenth part of
our smoothest words into so many clusters of consonants."
[44] A New English Grammar, pt. i, p. 380.
[45] History of the English Language, p. 398.
[46] And still more often as an adjective, as in "it was a /boughten/
dress."
[47] You Know Me Al, p. 180; see also p. 122.
[48] /Cf./ Lounsbury: History of the English Language, pp. 393 /et
seq./
[49] Remark of a policeman talking to another. What he actually said
was "before the Elks was /c'm 'ere/." /Come/ and /here/ were one word,
approximately /cmear/. The context showed that he meant to use the
past perfect tense.
[50] These examples are from Lardner's story, A New Busher Breaks In,
in You Know Me Al, pp. 122 /et seq./
[51] You Know Me Al, /op. cit./, p. 124.
[52] The Making of English, p. 53.
[53] /Cf./ /Dialect Notes/, vol. iii, pt. i, p. 59; /ibid./, vol. III,
pt. iv, p. 283.
[54] Henry Bradley, in The Making of English, pp. 54-5: "In the parts
of England which were largely inhabited by Danes the native pronouns
(/i. e./, /heo/, /his/, /heom/ and /heora/) were supplanted by the
Scandinavian pronouns which are represented by the modern /she/,
/they/, /them/ and /their/." This substitution, at first dialectical,
gradually spread to the whole language.
[55] /Cf./ Sweet: A New English Grammar, pt. i, p. 344, par. 1096.
[56] Before a noun beginning with a vowel /thine/ and /mine/ are
commonly substituted for /thy/ and /my/, as in "/thine/ eyes" and
"/mine/ infirmity." But this is solely for the sake of euphony. There
is no compensatory use of /my/ and /thy/ in the absolute.
[57] The Making of English, p. 58.
[58] /Cf./ The Dialect of Southeastern Missouri, by D. S. Crumb,
/Dialect Notes/, vol. ii, pt. iv, 1903, p. 337.
[59] It occurs, too, of course, in other dialects of English, though
by no means in all. The Irish influence probably had something to do
with its prosperity in vulgar American. At all events, the Irish use
it in the American manner. Joyce, in English As We Speak It in
Ireland, pp. 34-5, argues that this usage was suggested by Gaelic. In
Gaelic the accusative pronouns, /e/, /i/ and /iad/ (=/him/, /her/ and
/them/) are often used in place of the nominatives, /sé/, /si/ and
/siad/ (=/he/, /she/ and /they/), as in "is /iad/ sin na
buachaillidhe" (=/them/ are the boys). This is "good grammar" in
Gaelic, and the Irish, when they began to learn English, translated
the locution literally. The familiar Irish "John is dead and /him/
always so hearty" shows the same influence.
[60] Pp. 144-50.
[61] Modern English, p. 300.
[62] A New English Grammar, pt. i, p. 339.
[63] History of the English Language, pp. 274-5.
[64] Modern English, p. 288-9.
[65] /Cf./ p. 145n.
[66] A New English Grammar, pt. i, p. 341.
[67] It may be worth noting here that the misuse of /me/ for /my/, as
in "I lit /me/ pipe" is quite unknown in American, either standard or
vulgar. Even "/me/ own" is seldom heard. This boggling of the cases is
very common in spoken English.
[68] A New English Grammar, pt. i, p. 341.
[69] The King's English, p. 63.
[70] "Hon." Edward E. Browne, of Wisconsin, in the House of
Representatives, July 18, 1918, p. 9965.
[71] /Cf./ Vogue Affixes in Present-Day Word-Coinage, by Louise Pound,
/Dialect Notes/, vol. v, pt. i, 1918.
[72] The Speech of a Child Two Years of Age, /Dialect Notes/, vol. iv,
pt. ii, 1914.
[73] A New English Grammar, pt. i, pp. 437-8.
[74] The King's English, p. 322. See especially the quotation from
Frederick Greenwood, the distinguished English journalist.
[75] Report of Edward J. Brundage, attorney-general of Illinois, on
the East St. Louis massacre, /Congressional Record/, Jan. 7, 1918, p.
661.
[76] The King's English, /op. cit./
[77] Oct. 1, 1864.
[78] /At all/, by the way, is often displaced by /any/ or /none/, as
in "he don't lover her /any/" and "it didn't hurt me /none/."
[79] See the bibliography for the publication of Drs. Read and Pound.
[80] The only book that I can find definitely devoted to American
sounds is A Handbook of American Speech, by Calvin L. Lewis; Chicago,
1916. It has many demerits. For example, the author gives a /z/-sound
to the /s/ in /venison/ (p. 52). This is surely not American.
[81] Maryland edition, July 18, 1914, p. 1.
[82] /Cf./ Lounsbury: The Standard of Pronunciation in English, p. 172
/et seq./
[83] /Stomp/ is used only in the sense of to stamp with the foot. One
always /stamps/ a letter. An analogue of /stomp/, accepted in correct
English, is /strop/ (/e. g./, /razor-strop/), from /strap/.
[84] Our Own, Our Native Speech, /McClure's Magazine/, Oct., 1916.
[Pg242]
VII
Differences in Spelling
§ 1
/Typical Forms/--Some of the salient differences between American and
English spelling are shown in the following list of common words:
/American/ /English/
Anemia anaemia
aneurism aneurysm
annex (noun) annexe
arbor arbour
armor armour
asphalt asphalte
ataxia ataxy
ax axe
balk (verb) baulk
baritone barytone
bark (ship) barque
behavior behaviour
behoove behove
buncombe bunkum
burden (ship's) burthen
cachexia cachexy
caliber calibre
candor candour
center centre
check (bank) cheque
checkered chequered
cider cyder
clamor clamour
clangor clangour
cloture closure[1]
color colour
connection connexion
councilor councillor
counselor counsellor
cozy cosy
curb kerb
cyclopedia cyclopaedia
defense defence
demeanor demeanour
diarrhea diarrhoea
draft (ship's) draught
dreadnaught dreadnought
dryly drily
ecology oecology
ecumenical oecumenical
edema oedema
encyclopedia encyclopaedia
endeavor endeavour
eon aeon
epaulet epaulette
esophagus oesophagus
fagot faggot
favor favour
favorite favourite
fervor fervour
flavor flavour
font (printer's) fount
foregather forgather
forego forgo
form (printer's) forme
fuse fuze
gantlet (to run the--) gauntlet
glamor glamour
good-by good-bye
gram gramme
gray grey
harbor harbour
honor honour
hostler ostler
humor humour
inclose enclose
indorse endorse
inflection inflexion
inquiry enquiry
jail gaol
jewelry jewellery
jimmy (burglar's) jemmy
labor labour
laborer labourer
liter litre
maneuver manoeuvre
medieval mediaeval
meter metre
misdemeanor misdemeanour
mold mould
mollusk mollusc
molt moult
mustache moustache
neighbor neighbour
neighborhood neighbourhood
net (adj.) nett
odor odour
offense offence
pajamas pyjamas
parlor parlour
peas (plu. of pea) pease
picket (military) piquet
plow plough
pretense pretence
program programme
pudgy podgy
pygmy pigmy
rancor rancour
rigor rigour
rumor rumour
savory savoury
scimitar scimetar
septicemia septicaemia
show (verb) shew
siphon syphon
siren syren
skeptic sceptic
slug (verb) slog
slush slosh
splendor splendour
stanch staunch
story (of a house) storey
succor succour
taffy toffy
tire (noun) tyre
toilet toilette
traveler traveller
tumor tumour
valor valour
vapor vapour
veranda verandah
vial phial
vigor vigour
vise (a tool) vice
wagon waggon
woolen woollen
§ 2
/General Tendencies/--This list is by no means exhaustive. According
to a recent writer upon the subject, "there are 812 words in which the
prevailing American spelling differs from the English."[2] But enough
examples are given to reveal a number of definite tendencies.
American, in general, moves toward simplified forms of spelling more
rapidly than English, and has got much further along the road.
Redundant and unnecessary letters have been dropped from whole groups
of words--the /u/ from the group of nouns in /-our/, with the sole
exception of /Saviour/, and from such words as /mould/ and /baulk/;
the /e/ from /annexe/, /asphalte/, /axe/, /forme/, /pease/, /storey/,
etc.; the duplicate consonant from /waggon/, /nett/, /faggot/,
/woollen/, /jeweller/, /councillor/, etc., and the silent foreign
suffixes from /toilette/, /epaulette/, /programme/, /verandah/, etc.
In addition, simple vowels have been substituted for degenerated
diphthongs in such words as /anaemia/, [Pg246] /oesophagus/,
/diarrhoea/ and /mediaeval/, most of them from the Greek.