XIX.  OF THE LETTER S.

The consonant S has a sharp, hissing, or hard sound; as in sad, sister, thus:  and a flat, buzzing, or soft sound, like that of z; as in rose, dismal, bosom, husband.  S, at the beginning of words, or after any of the sharp consonants, is always sharp; as in see, steps, cliffs, sits, stocks, smiths. S, after any of the flat mutes, or at the end of words when not preceded by a sharp consonant, is generally flat; as in eyes, trees, beds, bags, calves.  But in the English termination ous, or in the Latin us, it is sharp; as joyous, vigorous, hiatus.

Ss is generally sharp; as in pass, kiss, harass, assuage, basset, cassock, remissness.  But the first two Esses in possess, or any of its regular derivatives, as well as the two in dissolve, or its proximate kin, sound like two Zees; and the soft or flat sound is commonly given to each s in hyssop, hussy, and hussar.  In scissel, scissible, and scissile, all the Esses hiss;—­in scissors, the last three of the four are flat, like z;—­but in the middle of scissure and scission we hear the sound of zh.

S, in the termination sion, takes the sound of sh, after a consonant; as in aspersion, session, passion, mission, compulsion:  and that of zh, after a vowel; as in evasion, elision, confusion.

In the verb assure, and each of its derivatives, also in the nouns pressure and fissure, with their derivatives, we hear, according to Walker, the sound of sh for each s, or twice in each word; but, according to the orthoepy of Worcester, that sound is heard only in the accented syllable of each word, and the vowel in each unaccented syllable is obscure.

S is silent or mute in the words, isle, island, aisle, demesne, corps, and viscount.

XX.  OF THE LETTER T.

The general sound of the consonant T, is heard in time, letter, set. T, immediately after the accent, takes the sound of tch, before u, and generally also before eou; as in nature, feature, virtue, righteous, courteous:  when s or x precedes, it takes this sound before ia or io; as in fustian, bastion, mixtion.  But the general or most usual sound of t after the accent, when followed by i and an other vowel, is that of sh; as in creation, patient, cautious.