y e, economy.

With i, as oil, soil, moil, noisome.

This coalition of letters seems to unite the sounds of the two letters,
as far as two sounds can be united without being destroyed, and
therefore approaches more nearly than any combination in our tongue to
the notion of a diphthong.

With o, as boot, hoot, cooler; oo has the sound of the Italian u.

With u or w, as our, power, flower; but in some words has only the sound of
o long, as in soul, bowl, sow, grow. These different sounds are used to
distinguish different significations: as bow an instrument for shooting;
bow, a depression of the head; sow, the she of a boar; sow, to scatter
seed; bowl, an orbicular body; bowl, a wooden vessel.

Ou is sometimes pronounced like o soft, as court; sometimes like o short,
as cough; sometimes like u close, as could; or u open, as rough, tough,
which use only can teach.

Ou is frequently used in the last syllable of words which in Latin end
in or and are made English, as honour, labour, favour, from honor,
labor, favor.

Some late innovators have ejected the u, without considering that the
last syllable gives the sound neither of or nor ur, but a sound between
them, if not compounded of both; besides that they are probably derived
to us from the French nouns in eur, as honeur, faveur.

U.

U is long in [=u]se, conf[=u]sion; or short, as [)u]s, conc[)u]ssion.

It coalesces with a, e, i, o; but has rather in these combinations the
force of the w consonant, as quaff, quest, quit, quite, languish; sometimes
in ui the i loses its sound, as in juice. It is sometimes mute before a, e,
i, y, as guard, guest, guise, buy.

U is followed by e in virtue, but the e has no sound.

Ue is sometimes mute at the end of a word, in imitation of the French,
as prorogue, synagogue, plague, vague, harangue.

Y.

Y is a vowel, which, as Quintilian observes of one of the Roman letters, we
might want without inconvenience, but that we have it. It supplies the
place of i at the end of words, as thy, before an i, as dying; and is
commonly retained in derivative words where it was part of a diphthong, in
the primitive; as, destroy, destroyer; betray, betrayed, betrayer; pray,
prayer; say, sayer; day, days.

Y being the Saxon vowel y, which was commonly used where i is now put,
occurs very frequently in all old books.

GENERAL RULES.

A vowel in the beginning or middle sylla