One or more of these vowels must be employed in the construction of every syllable The remaining letters of the Alphabet are called consonants. The vowels are simple sounds, and can be made by the tongue alone. The consonants, as the name implies, are complex sounds, and in their utterance, the lips, the teeth, the throat, and the palate are required to assist the tongue; hence they are called, as they derive aid from these organs, labials, dentals, gutturals, and palatals. A few sounds derive assistance from the nose, and are hence termed nasals. The letter h when sounded, is only a breathing, as in heart, house, whet, rhetoric, &c. It is then called h aspirate. This letter is frequently silent, not breathed, as in hour, heir, herb, honest, &c. It is then termed h mute. C and g have two sounds; the one hard, as in cat, get; the other soft, as in city, gender. Letters are sounded together in syllables; a word derived from the Greek, and signifies taking together. Words of one syllable are monosyllables: Words of two syllables are dissyllables; Words of three syllables are trisyllables; Words of many syllables are polysyllables. A good general rule for separating the syllables of a word, is to stop at the vowel, if only one consonant follows; as, fe-li-ci-ty; and to stop at the former consonant, when two consonants come together; as, am-bas-sa-dor. When an additional syllable is appended to a complete word, the best method is to terminate a syllable by the word; as, con-tempt, con tempt-ible; inform, inform-a-tion; except when gn are the final letters; as, benign, be-nig-ni-ty. A diphthong is the union of two vowels in one syllable, when one only is sounded, as ea in eagle; ei in either; ie in believe; or it is the combination of two vowels into one sound, as oi in oil; ou in pound; ai in fair. A triphthong is the concurrence of three vowels in the same syllable, all pronounced as one, as eau in beau, beauty; ieu in lieu. When two vowels in the same syllable take the sound of one only, it is called a synæresis, as œ in œsophagus; ai in aisle; æ in Cæsar; eo in people. When two vowels in the same syllable are separately enunciated it is called a Diæresis, as aerial, orthorpy. This mark (") diæresis is frequently placed over one of the vowels to designate such pronunciation. There are other marks used in composition; of which the principal are here subjoined: HYPHEN (-); a mark used between compound words, as luke-warm; also at the end of a line, when only part of a word can be admitted, implying that the remaining part is in the next line. COMMA (,); the shortest stop in reading; a dash (—) is frequently substituted for a comma in epistolary compositions. SEMICOLON (;); a stop somewhat longer than a comma, but not so long as a COLON (:), which requires a more decided pause; and a PERIOD, or FULL STOP (.) demands a complete suspension of the voice. INTERROGATION (?) shews that a question is asked. ADMIRATION, or EXCLAMATION (!) indicates some surprise or emotion of mind. QUOTATION ("")-This is used to shew that the words contained between the inverted and direct commas have been extracted from some author; as, Solomon says, "A wise son heareth his father's instruction." It is not possible to reduce the Orthography of the English language to any fixed rules; a few general laws may, however, be advantageously introduced. 1. Monosyllables ending with f, l, or s, preceded by a single vowel, double those letters, as stuff, call, kiss. The exceptions to this rule are-as, has, is, his, if, of, this, thus, was, us, yes. 2. Monosyllables terminating in any consonant but f, l, or s, immediately after a single vowel, do not double the final letter, except- add, butt, buzz, ebb, egg, err, inn, odd, purr. 3. Words ending in y preceded by a consonant, change the y into i, on the addition of another syllable, except when ing or ish is added,* as bounty, bountiful. But when the final y is preceded by a vowel, it remains unchanged, as employ, employs, employment, except daily, gaily, laid, paid, said. 4. Monosyllables, ending with a single consonant, preceded by a single vowel, double that consonant on the addition of another syllable, as flit, flitting; thin, thinner, thinnest. Also, words of two syllables, having the accent on the last syllable, and terminated by a single consonant, preceded by a single vowel, require a duplication of the final consonant when another syllable, beginning with a vowel, is added, as remit, remitting, &c. But if the accent be on the first syllable, or be removed from the last to the first on the addition of another syllable, or if a diphthong precede the final consonant, no duplication takes place, as audit, auditor; refer, reference; careen, careening. * Vide p. 10. 5. Words ending with any double letter except 7 taking ness and ful after them, preserve the double consonant, as careless, carelessness. 6. Ness, less, ly, ful, and ment, added to words ending in silent e, seldom require the e to be elided, as cease, ceaseless; advertise, advertisement. There are a few exceptions to this rule; as duly, truly, awful, judgment, abridgment, acknowledgment. 7. Ing and ish, able and ible require the elision of the primitive's final e, as lodge, lodging; prude, prudish; cure, curable; sense, sensible; except move, moveable. But if c or g precede the e, it is not elided on the addition of able, as peace, peaceable; change, changeable. The e is here retained to preserve the soft sound of c and g. EXERCISES Containing instances of improper spelling, to be corrected in writing by the pupil. A careles ladd. Mufs are made of fur. One, three five, &c. are od numbers. The brewer hass taken a but of beer to the road-side in. A canall is an artificial river. Unroll the mapp. Druggs are used in medicines. The sea ebs. Pus purs. To er is human. Bread is the staf of life. Youth should not be too fancyfull. Matts are made of rushes, of hemp, and of wooll. The sallys of witt often give offence. The lowly vallies produce fragrant lilys. He prefered my cousin's referrence to that of my uncle. Christianity sets before us the most blisfull prospects. "The e is sometimes preserved," says Mr. Grant, "for the sake of distinction," on adding ing, and adduces singe as an example, whose active participle he writes singeing, to distinguish it from singing, the active participle of sing. There does not, however, appear the slightest necessity for departing from the general rule, as the sense will readily direct the pronunciation. The committee were begining to have the accounts auditted when the meetting broke up. Laws, both human and divine, are servicable; but the divine laws are not reverseible by the enactments of men. Let the pupil affix the augments ing and ed to the following words:— Satisfy, amuse, annul, annoy, rely, deface, change, rejoice, delay, amaze. Let him affix able, ible, ish, ful, ment, ly, and ness . to the subjoined, as the sense requires Able, acknowledge, allege, allow, ample, appellative, beauty, body, full, (with ly and ness,) commence, cure, deduce, duty, drone, elope, judge, force, godly, grace, knave, joy, pity, white, awe, woe. The following sentences contain errors of frequent Occurrence: He will seperate the sheep from the goats. A dilligent observance of men and things will greatly augment our inteligence. The study of grammer is indispensible to a youth of education. Though the business alotted to us may be disagreable, we must not shrink from it. A gaol is the terminus of a race-course; a goal is for the punishment of criminals. To practice virtue we must exercise self-denial. Many things are plausable in theory, which fail in practise. I know a bank were the wild time grows. Many persons are affraid were their is nothing to afright them. Camomile is an odoriferous plant. The pearling brook and the chrystal stream. The fruit, &c. after dinner are called the desert. |