1. Inventories of Short and Long Syllables. 2. Inventory of Optional Elisions. 3. Comparative Scansions.
SHORT SYLLABLES
1. Unstressed, open syllables with short nucleic vowels scanned short:
/ɪ/ or /ə/: dīlĭgēnt (see my discussion of the first syllable /dī/ below).
/ɛ/ or /ə/: děuōut, děuōutelĭe, děsēru’d, ūnděsēru’d, děsīre, děfīne, děnīe, děnīīng, děuīne, děuīnīng, prōdĭgall, redolent, prěsērue, rěmědĭe, rěuēnge, rěgārd, rědrēst, rěprēst, rětrīu’d, dēstěnĭe, mĭsěrĭe, mĭsěrīes, rěuěrēnd.
/æ/ or /ə/: ǎtēnd, ǎpēare, ǎdrēst, ǎny, ǎ, mǎnūre, nūměrous, tĭměrous, běněfit, gěněrall, pěnětrāte, sěpěrat.
/ɒ/ or /ə/: ŏpōse, ŏprēst, prŏphāne, prŏphānelĭe, dēsŏlāte, měmŏrĭe
/ə/: thě
Short /i/ or /ɪ/, word-final (Present English /iː/): bě , rěmědĭe, shādĭe, hě, trūlĭe, hŏlĭe, faīrlĭe, děmurelĭe, dēstěnĭe, glōrĭe, fūrĭe, měmŏrĭe, mĭsěrĭe, shě, bēawtĭe, pĭttĭe, thĭ, ēnuĭe, wě. According to Dobson, ‘y’ in ‘glory’, ‘copy’, ‘easy’, ‘dowry’, and other word-final syllables immediately following the main stress in a polysyllable was usually pronounced short during our period (1968: 845). So was the final syllable of words descended from old French '-é(e)' such as ‘destiny’, ‘dishonesty’, ‘majesty’, ‘university’, ‘pity’, ‘army’, ‘country’ (Dobson 1968: 842). There was free variation between long and short vowels in words descended from Old French '–ie' (1968: 842). The pronouns ‘he’, ‘me’, ‘she’, and ‘thee’ had both strong and weak forms: when the words did not bear phrasal strength, they could be pronounced with a short final vowel (1968: 454, 455, 456, 458). The word ‘be’, likewise, was consistently pronounced with a short vowel when phrasally nonstrong and a long vowel when phrasally strong (1968: 451).
Short /i/ or /ɪ/, word-internal (Present English /iː/): hĭděous, vărĭānt, vărĭous, glōrĭīng, ēnuĭīng, hŏlĭnes. Dobson reports a short ‘e’ in hideous (1968: 841). Glorying, envying, and holiness presumably derive their short ‘i’s from glory, envy, and holy, as above.
Short /i/ or /ɪ/ (Present English /aj/): dĭīng, flĭīng. According to Dobson, Bullokar (1580-5) gives short vowels in die, died, dry, fly, fy, lie, slyly (first syllable), spy, tie, trial, trier, try, why, wry (1968: 515).
Short /o/, /ɒ/, /ʌ/, or /ə/ (Present English /oː/ or /ow/): no, go, fōllŏw, hollow,
so ('these monasillables are alwayes short' [Campion, 1602:42]). ‘No’ and ‘so’ were consistently short (Dobson 1968: 454, 455, 456, 458). Dobson also reports that the final syllable of ‘follow’, ‘morrow’, ‘borrow’, ‘sorrow’, and ‘bestow’ was sometimes a diphthong with secondary stress and sometimes a short, unstressed vowel (1968: 849). Although the second syllable of ‘follow’ was often a diphthong bearing secondary stress, it was also often pronounced with unstressed final /ʌ/ as in 'up' or schwa /ə/; the same was true of ‘narrow, sparrow, borrow, morrow, yellow, &c.’ (Dobson, 1968: 866).
Short /u/, word-final (Present English /uː/ or /juː/): do, to, vērtuě, rēscŭe. ‘Do’ and ‘to’ both had weak and strong forms (Dobson 1968: 452). Dobson notes that the second syllable of 'rescue' did not always bear secondary stress (1968: 833). The dipthong /iu/ developed to /juː/ over the course of the seventeenth century, but /juː/ was unlikely to have been standard until after the late-sixteenth or early-seventeenth century (Dobson 1968: 705).
2. Stressed, strong open syllables with short nucleic vowels scanned short:
/ɪ/ : hĭděous, mĭsěrĭe, prěty, tĭměrous.
/ɛ/: ǎny, běněfit, gěněrall, mǎny, měmŏrĭe, pěnětrāte, rěmědĭe, rěfěrēnce, rědŏlēnt, rěuěrēnd, sěpěrat.
/æ/: vărĭānt, vărĭous.
Short /o/ or /ɒ/ (Present English /oː/ or /ow/): hŏly, hŏlĭe, holiness, gŏīng. Dobson confirms the ‘o’ in holy was often short (1968: 484 and reports short ‘o’ in going (1968: 515); Campion inconsistently transcribes gō elsewhere (see strong, stressed, open syllables in Appendix 2).
LONG SYLLABLES
1. Strong, stressed, open syllables with long nucleic vowels scanned long:
/iː/: deceīuing, foresee (‘[Words] ending with a rising accent in … ee … long in their last sillables’ [Campion 1602: 41])
/eː/ shādĭe, plaīing, lāboŭr, delaie (‘The like rule [‘all monasillables that end in a graue accent are euer long’] is to be obserued in the last of dissillables, bearing a graue rising sound’ [Campion 1602: 42]. A ‘grave’ sound, for Campion, seems to have been a tense or diphthongal sound, ie. a long vowel sound.)
/uː/ or /juː/: bēawtĭe, fūrĭe, nūměrous, ensue (‘ending with a rising accent in … ue … long in their last sillables’ [Campion 1602: 41]), trūle, trūlĭe. The dipthong /iu/ developed to /juː/ over the course of the seventeenth century, according to Dobson, but /juː/ was unlikely to have been standard until after the late-sixteenth or early-seventeenth century (Dobson 1968: 705).
/aj/: mīsěr, děnīe, děnīīng, descrye (‘ending with a rising accent in y or ye … long in their last sillables’ [Campion 1602: 41]), ēspīe, (Campion apparently syllabifies 'es.pie'; see 'Re-syllabification of Coda Consonants'), ēspīīng, tīrĭng.
/aː/: hāuĭng. The words have, hast, and hath had strong forms with long a vowel (Dobson 1968: 453).
/oː/: glōrĭe, glōrĭīng, foregoe (‘[Words] ending with a rising accent in … oe … are long in their last sillables’ [Campion 1602: 41]). The ‘o’ in glory was sometimes short and sometimes long (Dobson 1968: 483-5). Campion is inconsistent in his scansion of the final syllable of 'foregoe'; see ‘going’ above under strong, stressed, open syllables with short vowels.
long /oː/ (Present English /ɒ/): prōdĭgall. hōnǒur Dobson also records long ‘o’ in prodigal (Dobson 1968: 496).
/ɔː/: hōllŏw, fōllŏw. Dobson reports that there is evidence from Scottish and Northern dialects for lengthening of ‘o’ before l, though he gives none from Standard English (Dobson 1968: 534, n. 2).
Diphthong /ʌu/ or long /uː/ (Present English /ʌ/ or /ə/): flōrĭsh, flōrĭshīng. Dobson reports that although the first vowels of ‘flourish’ and ‘courage’ were usually short, long pronunciations of these two words are also recorded, just as they are for ‘courteous’, ‘courtesy’, ‘couple’, and ‘double’ (1968: 492-3).
2. Strong, stressed, closed syllables with short vowels scanned long:
/ɛ/: ēnuĭe, ēnuĭīng, ǎtēnd, rěuēnge, dēstěnĭe, ǎdrēst, dīlĭgēnt, rēscuě.
/ə/: vērtuě, prěsērue, ūnděsēru’d.
/ɒ/: cōnstānt.
3. Strong, stressed, closed syllables with long nucleic vowels scanned long:
/iː/: ǎpēare
/eː/: prŏphāne, prŏphānelĭe.
/aː/: rěgārd.
/uː/: mǎnūre, refuse (‘the like rule [‘all monasillables that end in a graue accent are euer long’] is to be obserued in the last of dissillables, bearing a graue rising sound’ [Campion 1602: 42]). See my notes above on the signification of ‘grave’.
/ej/: faīrelĭe.
/aj/: děuīne, děuīnīng, tīre, děsīre, retire (‘The like rule [‘all monasillables that end in a graue accent are euer long’] is to be obserued in the last of dissillables, bearing a graue rising sound’ [Campion 1602: 42]. See my notes above on the signification of ‘grave’.)
/aʊ/: děuōut, děuōutelĭe
4. Nonstrong, stressed, open syllables with long nucleic vowels scanned long:
/ej/: dāy, plāy.
/oː/: flōw, grōw, shēw.
/uː/: thrōugh.
5. Nonstrong, stressed, closed syllables with short nucleic vowels scanned long:
/ɪ/: dĭīng, flĭīng, flōrĭshīng, gŏīng, děuīnīng, ēspīīng, děnīīng, glōrĭīng, ēnuĭīng.
/æ/: vărĭānt, cōnstānt, dēsŏlāte.
/ɛ/: ēspīe, ēspīīng, rědŏlēnt, rěfěrēnce, rěuěrēnd.
/ə/: fellowēs, fūrre, mūrre.
/ʌ/: ūnděsēru’d.
6. Nonstrong, stressed, closed syllables with long nucleic vowels scanned long:
/iː/: feāte, speēde, dutīes, miserīes, thēse.
/eː/: shāde, pěnětrāte.
/aː/: bārre, stārre, bārre, wrāth, hāth, hāue. Dobson reports variation between a short and a long vowel in wrath (1968: 466). The words ‘have’, ‘hast’, and ‘hath’ had strong forms with long vowels in Middle English. ‘In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries’, Dobson says, ‘the two forms are mostly used indiscriminately in either stressed or unstressed position’ (1968: 453).
/uː/: toōth, vertūes, soōth, fortune, pleasure (‘The like rule [‘all monasillables that end in a graue accent are euer long’] is to be obserued in the last of dissillables, bearing … a graue falling sound’: fortune, pleasure [Campion 1602: 42]. See my notes above on the signification of ‘grave’.)
/oː/: thōse.
/aj/: strīfe, rampire (‘The like rule [‘all monasillables that end in a graue accent are euer long’] is to be obserued in the last of dissillables, bearing … a graue falling sound’. See my notes above on the signification of ‘grave’.)
CLOSED SYLLABLES WITH SHORT VOWELS SCANNED LONG (ALSO LONG ‘BY POSITION’)
rěuēnge, dēstěnĭe, cōnstānt, ūnděsēru’d, ēnuĭe, ēnuĭīng, ǎtēnd, ǎdrēst, prěsērue, dīlĭgēnt (third syllable), vărĭānt, rědŏlēnt, rěfěrēnce, rěuěrēnd, ēspīe, ēspīīng, vērtuě; and all other words ending in ‘-ing’: dĭīng, flĭīng, flōrĭshīng, gŏīng, děuīnīng, ēspīīng, děnīīng, glōrĭīng, ēnuĭīng. There are only two possible exceptions to Campion’s rule of position: the first syllables of 'dīlĭgēnt' and 'dēsŏlāte'. As I have already noted above, however, these may have been pronounced with long vowels, making the rule of position irrelevant.