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 other words.  After the other consonants, let them form two syllables; (except when there is a syn-seresis in poetry;) as in dw-bi-ou-s, o-di-ous, va-ri-ous, en-vi-ous.

X. OF THE LETTER J.

The consonant J, the tenth letter of the English alphabet, has invariably the sound of soft g, like the g in giant, which some say is equivalent to the complex sound dzh; as, jade, jet, jilt, joy, justice, jewel, prejudice.

XI.  OF THE LETTER K.

The consonant K, not silent, has uniformly the sound of c hard; and occurs where c would have its soft sound:  as in keep, looking, kind, smoky.