voured to render their language such by softening in it all those harsh articulations which disfigure the language of some of their neighbours and this could not be done better than by the introduction of the sounds of e mute, since, for a correct production of those sounds, the vocal organs resume their most natural position, and are thus enabled to pass from one articulation to another with all the rapidity required for a clear, distinct pronunciation of the words, or parts of words chiefly representing the ideas intended to be conveyed, without at the same time any unpleasantness or fatigue to the vocal organs that produce the sounds, or to the ears for which those words are pronounced.

I cannot leave this subject without making the following quotation, which is an extract from Professor De Morand's works: "If the energy of our thoughts increase with the brevity of our forms for expressing them, it may be fairly questioned whether any language can be compared with the French as a means of conveying them."

The learned Professor, most anxious, no doubt, to impress upon the minds of French scholars the importance of a thorough knowledge of the e mute in the written language, proceeds to say, that it is "a precious means of recalling to the eye, without being an obstacle to pronunciation, the derivation of numbers of words, an inappreciable advantage to those who can calculate the worth of precision in a language.”

In a word, Professor De Morand agrees with every one well acquainted with the French language, when he says that its incomparable beauty is owing to the mute e's that abound in it.

There are, as I have said, three sorts of e mute; 1st, the e mute or null, which is never pronounced at all; 2nd, the e short mute, which, for the sake of distinction, I have called the faint sound of e mute, and which has an obscure sound identically the same as that of e in the English word knife; and 3rd, the e mute, which is nearly pronounced like the e in the English word

But it is far from sufficient to know how to pronounce long and short mute e's; it is equally important to know when unaccented e and ë, the only ones that can be mute, are not to be pronounced at all, or are mute or have the faint sound of e mute.

E Null.

E is null, 1st, when, being preceded by other vowel-forms in the same syllable, it does not form with the preceding one or ones either a vowel sound or a diphthong; ex., année, je prie, tu~ pries, ils prient, ils priaient, suie, j'agréerai, il plierait, nous trouerons, vous emploieriez, vue, ciguë, contiguë; † paiement, &c.; the last word is also written paiment, this orthography evidently showing that unaccented e following in the same syllable a vowel sound or a diphthong is altogether of no value, at least as far as sound is concerned, though it has the effect of lengthening the syllable to which it belongs.

2nd. At the end of each word, immediately followed by another word with which it is intimately connected, and which begins either with a vowel form or h not aspirated,—ex., une histoire amusante, &c.,-when the consonant or consonants preceding the final unaccented e in the same syllable articulate the initial syllable of the following word, thus: u-nistoi-rintér

essante.

3rd. Before au, as in agneau, beau, nouveau, &c.

4th. In syllables where it is immediately preceded by g and followed either by a, o, or (in a few words) u; as, il jugea, vengeance, nous changeons, gageure, &c. (It has already been observed that e is here a mere euphonic letter, used to give the g the soft articulation j.)

5th. In a few words, in ean, ein, eun, &c.; as Jean, sein, à jeun, asseoir, &c.

* See page 83.

+ The effect of the diæresis (") is to cause the vowel that precedes or follows the one over which it is used to be pronounced distinct from the one that has the diæresis over it.

C

The Faint Sound of E Mute.

Unaccented e has the faint sound of e mute (the same as that of e in the English word knife) in polysyllabic words, when it is preceded by a consonant or consonants in the same syllable, and is either the final letter in the syllable (but, if final in the word, not followed by another word with which it is intimately connected, beginning with a vowel form or h not aspirated), or followed by (or nt in the third person plural of verbs); ex., monde, Charles, tu parles, il sera, ils parlent, &c.

Unaccented e is often pronounced in some words of foreign origin as it is in the language from which the words are taken; thus, mezzo-termine is pronounced as if it were written mezzoterminé, &c.

Observe, 1st, that when there are in the same word two feminine syllables immediately following one another, the penult generally becomes longer, i.e., mute; thus, in revenir, entretenir, &c., re, tre are the syllables which become longmute; however the nature of the masculine syllables preceding or following the feminine ones may cause the former to be short and the latter long-mute; as, for example, in il allaït revenir, which must be pronounced as if it were written i lalèrè venir.

2nd. That when there are three feminine syllables following one another in the same word, one of them is always shortmute, and sometimes two, according to the nature of the masculine syllables preceding or following the feminine ones.

3rd. That when the initial syllable of a word is a feminine one, it is often pronounced as if it were the last syllable of the preceding word; this happens when those words are intimately connected with each other, and euphony requires such a pronunciation; thus, vous reviendrez bientôt must be pronounced as

A feminine syllable is that which has one of the sounds of e mute; all other syllables are called masculine.

if it were written vousrě viendrez bientôt; a different pronunciation would hurt the ear of any person that speaks French well.

Now I think any one may readily perceive that in Pierre reviedra bientôt the proneness which the re of reviendrez has in the former example to slide into the preceding word does not exist in the latter, because of the nature of the syllable preceding it. Indeed, the re of reviendra in the latter example is rendered mute, though it has the faint sound in the former.

The Sound of E Mute.

This sound is, as already stated, very nearly the same as that of e in the English word over, and is found in monosyllables represented by final unaccented e; as je, me, te, se, &c., but not always so, for, besides the exceptions we have already seen, we find it also represented by ai in the present participle of the verb faire, and in all the forms regularly derived from it; ex., faisant, nous faisons, je défaisais, malfaisant, bienfaisance, &c.

It is perhaps to be regretted that the change of ai into e, which has prevailed in the future and conditional of that verb, and its derivatives, e.g., je, ferai, je referais, &c., has not also prevailed in the other forms where ai is pronounced like e longmute; and therefore I cannot blame those who, without any regard for the authorities of the present day, still write with Voltaire, J. J. Rousseau, and other eminent writers, fesant, je fesais, il défesait, malfesant, bienfesance, &c.

Now observe, that e mute may, as well as the faint sound of e mute, alter its nature according to its position, for it represents the faint sound of e mute in feminine monosyllables, which, either for the sake of euphony or emphasis, are pronounced with, and as if they were the last syllable of the preceding word; ex., j'ai le temps, tu le vois, &c., are pronounced as if they were written j'aile temps, tulě vois, &c.

The latter of two consecutive es long-mute or mate by aal vre, boemes generally, but not always, short mute, ie., has tee kant wind of e mute; and of several consecutive feminine momompilables, that is always short-mute that follows another on with the meaning requires that great stress should be laid in Pramonovation.

Izng and tedious would be the task of laying down rules by which the right pronunciation of all mute e's might be ascermed. For my own part, I doubt whether such a task be posmilk, and I shrink from it at the very thought of such an undertaxing, which, after all, would prove useless, since much more and better information may be had in a few conversations, and the reading of a few pages of French with an efficient teacher of that language, than can ever be found in the best and most complete treatise on that subject.

The Sound E Close.

It has often been said that the sound of e close of the French is pronounced identically like a in the English word fate. Indeed, no one is convinced more than myself that the slender sound of a in English is a very near approximation to the sound of e close; but I may be allowed to say that, notwithstanding the statement of the many learned men whose opinion I have just quoted, an educated Frenchman will at once perceive that it is necessary, in order to a correct pronunciation of this sound, to keep the mouth more closed, the aperture of the lips more horizontally dilated, and the tongue more widened to the cheeks and raised nearer the roof of the mouth, than is required for the pronunciation of the slender sound of a in English.

Foreigners learning the French language, and even also French people, would be spared much trouble were the sound of e close always represented by é; but it is very far from being so, for we find it under the several following forms, e, é, æ, ai, eai, ée, cy, and œ.