h, sign, foreign.

G before i is hard, as give, except in giant, gigantick, gibbet, gibe,
giblets, Giles, gill, gilliflower, gin, ginger, gingle, to which may be
added Egypt and gypsy.

Gh in the beginning of a word has the sound of the hard g, as ghostly; in
the middle, and sometimes at the end, it is quite silent, as though, right,
sought, spoken tho', rite, soute.

It has often at the end the sound of f, as laugh; whence laughter retains
the same sound in the middle; cough, trough, sough, tough, enough, slough.

It is not to be doubted, but that in the original pronunciation gh has
the force of a consonant deeply guttural, which is still continued
among the Scotch.

G is used before h, l, and r.

H.

H is a note of aspiration, and shows that the following vowel must be
pronounced with a strong emission of breath, as hat, horse.

It seldom begins any but the first syllable, in which it is always sounded
with a full breath, except in heir, herb, hostler, honour, humble, honest,
humour and their derivatives.

It sometimes begins middle or final syllables in words compounded, as
blockhead; or derived from the Latin, as comprehend.

J.

J consonant sounds uniformly like the soft g, and is therefore a letter
useless, except in etymology, as ejaculation, jester, jocund, juice.

K.

K has the sound of hard c, and is used before e and i, where, according to
English analogy, c would be soft, as kept, king, skirt, skeptick, for so it
should be written, not sceptick, because sc is sounded like s, as in scene.

It is used before n, as knell, knot, but totally loses its sound in
modern pronunciation.

K is never doubled; but c is used before it to shorten the vowel by a
double consonant, as cockle, pickle.

L.

L has in English the same liquid sound as in other languages.

The custom is to double the l at the end of monosyllables, as kill,
will, full. These words were originally written kille, wille, fulle;
and when the e first grew silent, and was afterward omitted, the ll was
retained, to give force, according to the analogy of our language, to
the foregoing vowel.

L, is sometimes mute, as in calf, half, halves, calves, could, would,
should, psalm, talk, salmon, falcon.

The Saxons, who delighted in guttural sounds, sometimes aspirated the l
at the beginning of words, as hlaf, a loaf, or bread; hlaford, a lord;
but this pronunciation is no