The change from _a_ to _o_ takes place most especially before the liquid _l_, _wall_, _call_, _fall_. When the liquid _l_ is followed by another consonant, it (_viz._ _l_) is generally sunk in pronunciation, _falcon_, _salmon_, &c., pronounced _faucon_, _sammon_, or _saumon_. The reason of this lies in the following fact, _viz._, _that syllables wherein there are, at the same time, two final consonants and a long vowel, have a tendency to become shortened by one of two processes, viz., either by ejecting one of the consonants, or by shortening the vowel_. That the _l_ in _falcon_ is affected not by the change of _a_ to _o_, but by the change of a short vowel to a long, or of a slender one to a broad one, is shown in the tendency which the common people have to say _hode_ for _hold_, as well as by the Scotch form _gowd_ for _gold_. This fact bears upon the difficult problem in the Greek (and in other languages), _viz._, whether the _lengthening_ of the vowel in words like _[Greek: odous]_ (compared with _[Greek: odontos]_), is the cause or the effect of the rejection of the consonant. "_E_ is long, as in _scene_; or short, as in _cellar_."'--_Johnson._ It has been stated before that the (so-called) long sound of _e_ is non-existent, and the _e_ in _scene_, is the (so-called) long sound of the _i_ in _pit_. {191} For the power of _e_ in _since_ and _once_, see the remarks on _s_. For the power of _e_ in _hedge_ and _oblige_, see the remarks on _g_. The power of _e_ mute in words like _cane_, _bane_, _tune_, _robe_, _pope_, _fire_, _cure_, _tube_, has already been noticed. It serves to denote the length of the preceding vowel. For this purpose it is retained; but it was not for this purpose that it was invented. Originally it expressed a sound, and it is only by a change of language that it has come, as it were by accident, to be an orthographical expedient.