_life, fine, final, time,
bind, child, sigh, pint, resign_. This is a diphthongal sound, equivalent
to the sounds of _middle a_ and _open e_ quickly united.

2. The close, curt, short, or stopped _i_; as in _ink, limit, disfigure,
mimicking_.

3. The feeble, faint, or slender _i_, accentless; as in _divest, doctrinal,
diversity_.

This third sound is equivalent to that of _open e_, or _ee_ uttered feebly.
_I_ generally has this sound when it occurs at the end of an unaccented
syllable: except at the end of Latin words, or of ancient names, where it
is _open_ or _long_; as in _literati, Nervii, Eli, Levi_.

In some words, (principally from other modern languages,) _i_ has the full
sound of _open e_, under the accent; as in _Porto Rico, machine, magazine,
antique, shire_.

Accented _i_ followed by a vowel, has its open or primal sound; and the
vowels belong to separate syllables; as in _pliant, diet, satiety, violet,
pious_. Unaccented _i_ followed by a vowel, has its feeble sound; as in
_expatiate, obedient, various, abstemious_.

DIPHTHONGS BEGINNING WITH I.

_I_, in the situation last described, readily coalesces with the vowel
which follows, and is often sunk into the same syllable, forming a proper
diphthong: as in _fustian, quotient, question_. The terminations _cion,
sion, and tion_, are generally pronounced _shun_; and _cious_ and _tious_
are pronounced _shus_.

_Ie_ is commonly an improper diphthong. _Ie_ in _die, hie, lie, pie, tie,
vie_, and their derivatives, has the sound of _open i. Ie_ in words from
the French, (as _cap-a-pie, ecurie, grenadier, siege, bier_,) has the sound
of _open e_. So, generally, in the middle of English roots; as in _chief,
grief, thief_; but, in _sieve_, it has the sound of _close_ or _short i_.
In _friend_, and its derivatives or compounds, it takes the sound of _close
e_.

TRIPHTHONGS BEGINNING WITH I.

The triphthongs ieu and iew both sound like open or long u; as in lieu,
adieu, view.

The three vowels iou, in the termination ious, often fall into one
syllable, and form a triphthong. There are two hundred and forty-five words
of this ending; and more than two hundred deriva- tives from them. Walker
has several puzzling inconsistencies in their pronunciation; such as
fas-tid-i-ous and per-fid-ious, con-ta-gi-ous and sac-ri-le-gious. After c,
g, t, or x, these vowels should coalesce: as in gra-cious, re-li-gious,
vex-a-tious, ob-nox-ious, and about two hundred oth