versa_; but, between the two, there does not
appear to be room for an other distinguishable from both. Dr. Johnson says,
(inaccurately indeed,) "_A_ has _three_ sounds, the slender, [the] open,
and [the] broad. _A_ slender is found in _most words_, as _face, mane_. _A_
open is the _a_ of the Italian, or nearly resembles it; as _father, rather,
congratulate, fancy, glass_. _A_ broad resembles the _a_ of the German; as
_all, wall, call_. [fist] The _short a_ approaches to the _a_ open, as
_grass_."--_Johnson's Grammar, in his Quarto Dictionary_, p. 1. Thus the
same word, _grass_, that serves Johnson for an example of "the _short a_"
is used by Wells and Worcester to exemplify the "_a intermediate_;" while
of the Doctor's five instances of what he calls the "_a open_," three, if
not four, are evidently such as nearly all readers nowadays would call
close or short!

OBS. 7.--There are several grammarians who agree in ascribing to our first
vowel _five_ sounds, but who nevertheless oppose one an other in making up
the five. Thus, according to Hart, "A has five sounds of its own, as in
fate, fare, far, fall, fat,"--_Hart's E. Gram._, p. 26. According to W.
Allen, "A has five sounds;--the long or slender, as in _cane_; the short or
open, as in _can_; the middle, as in _arm_; the broad, as in _all_; and the
_broad contracted_, as in _want_."--_Allen's E. Gram._, p. 6. P. Davis has
the same sounds in a different order, thus: "a [as in] mane, mar, fall,
mat, what."--_Davis's E. Gram._, p. xvi. Mennye says, "A has five sounds;
as, 1 fame, 2 fat, 3 false, 4 farm, 5 beggar."--_Mennye's E. Gram._, p. 55.
Here the fifth sound is the seventh of Worcester,--the "_A obscure_."

DIPHTHONGS BEGINNING WITH A.

The only proper diphthong in which _a_ is put first, is the word _ay_,
meaning _yes_: in which _a_ has its _middle_ sound, as in _ah_, and _y_ is
like _open e_, or _ee_, uttered feebly--_ah-ee_. _Aa_, when pronounced as
an improper diphthong, and not as pertaining to two syllables, usually
takes the sound of _close a_; as in _Balaam, Canaan, Isaac_. In many words,
as in _Baael, Gaael, Gaaesh_, the diaeresis occurs. In _baa_, the cry of a
sheep, we hear the Italian sound of _a_; and, since we hear it but once,
one _a_ or the other must be silent.

_AE_, a Latin improper diphthong, common also in the Anglo-Saxon, generally
has, according to modern orthoepists, the sound of _open e_ or _ee_; as in
_Caesar, aenigma, paean_;--someti