When a man of little education hears a respectable gentleman change _t_ into _tsh_ in nature, he will naturally be led to change the same letter, not only in that word, but wherever it occurs. This is already done in a multitude of instances, and the practice if continued and extended, might eventually change _t_, in all cases, into _tsh_.
I am sensible that some writers of novels and plays have ridiculed the common pronunciation of _creatur_ and _nutur_, by introducing these and similar words into low characters, spelling them _creater_, _nater_: And the supporters of the court pronunciation allege, that in the vulgar practice of speaking, the letter _e_ is sounded and not _u_: So extremely ignorant are they of the nature of sounds and the true powers of the English letters. The fact is, we are so far from pronouncing e in the common pronunciation of _natur_, _creatur_, &c. that _e_ is always sounded like short _u_, in the unaccented syllables of _over_, _sober_, _banter_, and other similar words. Nay, most of the vowels, in such syllables, sound like _i_ or _u_ short.[74] Liar, elder, factor, are pronounced _liur_, _eldur_, _factur_, and this is the true sound of _u_ in _creatur_, _nature_, _rapture_, _legislature_, &c.
I would just observe further, that this pretended dipthong _iu_ was formerly expressed by _ew_ and _eu_, or perhaps by _eo_, and was considered as different from the sound of _u_. In modern times, we have, in many words, blended the sound of _u_ with that of _ew_, or rather use them promiscuously. It is indifferent, as to the pronunciation, whether we write _fuel_ or _fewel_. And yet in this word, as also in _new_, _brew_, &c. we do not hear the sound of _e_, except among the Virginians, who affect to pronounce it distinctly, _ne-ew_, _ne-oo_, _fe-oo_. This affectation is not of modern date, for Wallis mentions it in his time and reprobates it. "Eu, ew, eau, sonanter per _e_ clarum et _w_; ut in _neuter_, _few_, _beauty_. Quidem tamen accutius efferunt, acsi scriberentur _niew ter_, _fiew_, _bieuty_. At prior pronunciatio rectior est."----Gram. Ling. Ang.
Here this author allows these combinations to have the sound of _yu_ or _iu_; but disapproves of that refinement which some affect, in giving the _e_ or _i_ short its distinct sound.