s _short_ always implies
_shut_ (except in verse,) though _long_ does not always imply _open_, we
must be careful not to confound _long_ and _open_, and _close_ and _shut_,
when we speak of the quantity and quality of the vowels. The truth of it
is," continues he, "all vowels either terminate a syllable, or are united
with a consonant. In the first case, if the accent be on the syllable, the
vowel is _long_, though it may not be _open_: in the second case, where a
syllable is terminated by a consonant, except that consonant be _r_,
whether the accent be on the syllable or not, the vowel has its _short_
sound, which, compared with its long one, may be called _shut_: but [,] as
no vowel can be said to be _shut_ that is not joined to a consonant, _all
vowels that end syllables_ may be said to be _open_, whether the accent be
on them or not."--_Crit. Pron. Dict._, New York, 1827, p. 19.

OBS. 3.--These suggestions of Walker's, though each in itself may seem
clear and plausible, are undoubtedly, in several respects, confused and
self-contradictory. _Open_ and _shut_ are here inconsistently referred
first to one principle of distinction, and then to another;--first, (as are
"_open_ and _close_" by Wells,) to "the _relative size_ of the opening," or
to "the _different apertures_ of the mouth;" and then, in the conclusion,
to the _relative position_ of the vowels with respect to other letters.
These principles improperly give to each of the contrasted epithets two
very different senses: as, with respect to aperture, _wide_ and _narrow_;
with respect to position, _closed_ and _unclosed_. Now, that _open_ may
mean _unclosed_, or _close_ be put _for closed_, is not to be questioned;
but that _open_ is a good word for _wide_, or that _shut_ (not to say
_close_) can well mean _narrow_, is an assumption hardly scholarlike.
According to Walker, "_we must be careful_ not to confound" _open_ with
_long_, or _shut_ with _short_, or _close_ with _shut_; and yet, if he
himself does not, in the very paragraph above quoted, confound them
all,--does not identify in sense, or fail to distinguish, the two words in
each of these pairs,--I know not who can need his "caution." If there are
vowel sounds which graduate through several degrees of openness or
broadness, it would seem most natural to express these by regularly
comparing the epithet preferred; as, _open, opener, openest_; or _broad,
broader, broadest_. And again, if "all vowels that end s