E_ is the only vowel that may be placed after the consonant and
still combine with the vowel before it {while being silent}; but nearly
all the other vowels may be placed beside the vowel that would otherwise
be short in order to make it long, and sometimes this added vowel is
placed before as well as after the vowel to be lengthened. Thus we have
_boat, bait, beat, field, chief,_ etc. There are a very, very few
irregular words in which the vowel sound has been kept short in spite
of the added vowel, as for instance, _head, sieve,_ etc. It appears
that with certain consonants the long sound is especially difficult,
and so in the case of very common words the wear of common speech has
shortened the vowels in spite of original efforts to strengthen them.
This is peculiarly true of the consonant _v,_ and the combination _th,_
and less so of _s_ and _z_. So in {(I)}_live, have, give, love, shove,
move,_ etc., the vowel sound is more or less obscured even in spite of
the silent _e,_ though in the less common words _alive, behave,_ etc.,
the long sound strengthened by accent has not been lost. So as a rule
two silent vowels are now used to make the vowel before the _v_ long,
as in _leave, believe, receive, beeves, weave,_ etc.
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