_rival_ too, if made "_obscure_") is a
borrowed one, pertaining more properly to the letter _u_. In _grass, pass_,
and _branch_, properly uttered, the _a_ is essentially the same as in
_man_. In _care_ and _hare_, we have the first sound of _a_, made as
slender as the _r_ will admit.

OBS. 5.--Concerning his fifth sound of _a_, Wells cites authorities thus:
"Walker, Webster, Sheridan, Fulton and Knight, Kenrick, Jones, and Nares,
give _a_ in _care_ the _long_ sound of _a_, as in _late_. Page and Day give
it the _short_ sound of _a_, as in _mat_. See Page's Normal Chart, and
Day's Art of Elocution. Worcester and Perry make the sound of _a_ in _care_
a separate element; and this distinction is also recognized by Russell,
Mandeville, and Wright. See Russell's Lessons in Enunciation, Mandeville's
Elements of Reading and Oratory, and Wright's Orthography."--_Wells's
School Grammar_, p. 34. Now the opinion that _a_ in _care_ has its long,
primal sound, and is not properly "a separate element," is maintained also
by Murray, Hiley, Bullions, Scott, and Cobb; and is, undoubtedly, much more
prevalent than any other. It accords, too, with the scheme of Johnson. To
count this _a_ by itself, seems too much like a distinction without a
difference.

OBS. 6.--On his sixth sound of _a_, Wells remarks as follows: "Many persons
pronounce this _a_ incorrectly, giving it either the grave or the short
sound. Perry, Jones, Nares, Webster, and Day, give to _a_ in _grass_ the
grave sound, as in _father_; while Walker, Jamieson, and Russell, give it
the short sound, as in _man_. But good speakers generally pronounce _a_ in
_grass, plant_, etc., as a distinct element, intermediate between the grave
and the short sound."--_School Gram._, p. 34. He also cites Worcester and
Smart to the same effect; and thinks, with the latter, "_There can be no
harm_ in avoiding the censure of both parties by _shunning the extreme_
that offends the taste of each."--_Ib._, p. 35. But I say, that a needless
multiplication of questionable vowel powers difficult to be discriminated,
_is_ "harm," or a fault in teaching; and, where intelligent orthoepists
[sic--KTH] dispute whether words have "the _grave_ or the _short_ sound" of
_a_, how can others, who condemn both parties, acceptably split the
difference, and form "a distinct element" in the interval? Words are often
mispronounced, and the French or close _a_ may be mistaken for the Italian
or broadish _a_, and _vice