order to preserve to the following s the strong hissing articulation which it has in the primitive word from which the compound is derived, as in dessus, ressort, ressembler, &c., which are derived from de-sus, re-sort, re-sembler. 2nd. R in the infinitive of verbs in er, when this consonant is not pronounced with the initial syllable of the following word; and in all nouns and adjectives having that ending, with the exception of those already mentioned, namely: all monosyllables and all proper names having that termination, all nouns and adjectives ending in fer, mer, ver, and the following nouns and other words of foreign origin: aster, auster, belvéder, calender, coroner, cuiller, cutter, éther, frater, gaster, magister, messer, partner, pater, porter (a kind of beer), spencer, stathouder, &c. 3rd. Z in the second person plural of verbs, and in assez, chez, Fez, Forez, nez, cache-nez, in which we have seen that the e preceding z has the sound é. 4th. M and n used to point out that the preceding vowel or diphthong has its nasal sound (see nasal syllables, page 45); and, 5th. D, f, l, t, in the words bled (now generally written ble), pied, clef, pluriel, et. é. The open sound of e is represented by é in all the words ending in ége, which most people write ège; ex., collége, piége, solfége, il allége, &c.; and also in the termination e of the first person singular of verbs, when these being followed by their subject je, this causes the preceding termination to be pronounced open, and to take the acute accent instead of the grave one, the latter being never used over e either beginning (except in ère) or ending a word; ex., aimé-je, puissé-je, dusséje, &c. è Is generally open-acute in the middle of words, as in père, mère, frère, &c. ; but it is always open-grave when it is the last sound of a polysyllabic word, as in succès, progrès, &c. ê Is always open-grave and moreover long; ex., téte, méme, &c. ё Is open, in the word noël, for example, because of its position, the diæresis having no other effect upon e besides that of causing the preceding vowel to be pronounced distinct from it, as we have seen in ciguë, contiguë, &c., which are pronounced as if they were written cigu, contigu. This is very likely the reason which makes most people write poème, poète, instead of poëme, poëte, as the Academy bids us do. ai (Vowel) In the middle of words, and at the end of all nouns (geai excepted) and adjectives, is always pronounced è ; ex., je chantais, il aimait, maître, connaître, balai, vrai, remblai, &c. This syllable has, as we have seen, the slender sound é in je sais, tu sais, il sait. Ai has the sound of e long-mute in faisant (present participle of the verb faire) and in all the words regularly derived from it; as nous faisons, ils refaisaient, malfaisant, beinfaisance, &c. aie Has been, and is still, I believe, a point of controversy among purists; some think that this vowel has the open sound; others, on the contrary, and at their head Levizac, maintain that it has the sound of e close or acute. Now the point at issue being so difficult to settle, and the contending parties being quite as obstinate in their respective opinion as we are told the Irish parties were in the question of St. Patrick's birthday, I shall do well to decide in the former case as was decided in the latter; namely, state the two opinions, and add them together. The sound open-acute is indeed recognized by most people moving in good society as being the real sound of aie; for it is not quite so slender as the sound of é in dé, nor quite so open as the sound of è in dès; and as it partakes of both the e open and the e acute or close, I shall therefore call open-acute the aforesaid sound of aie; ex., haie, claie, ivraie, &c. eai Is subject to the same rules as the vowel ai, seeing that e in that syllable is merely used to show that the preceding g has the same articulation as j. Geai, however, is pronounced jé, probably in order that that noun may not be confounded with jais (jet), which is pronounced jè. ei Is always open; ex., seigneur, veine, &c. oi. This vowel, which formerly was pronounced è, has been retained only in the word roide and its derivatives roideur, roidillon, roidir, which are also written raide, raideur, raidillon, raidir. We are told that those words are pronounced in oratory as if they were written roède, roèdeur, roèdillon, roèdir; but as I never heard such a pronunciation, I am inclined to think that those words, whether in conversation or in oratorial discourse, are always pronounced alike, namely, rède, rèdeur, rèdillon, rèdir. We may thus account for the growing obsoleteness of the spelling roide, roideur, &c. ay and aye Are, like ai and aie, either vowel-sounds or diphthongs; when vowel-sounds, they are always pronounced è; ex., rayer, pays, La Haye, &c. (See y, page 30.) THE SOUND I. This is the most slender and acute sound of the French language. It is the same, though not always in duration, as e in the English word me, and appears under the various following forms: i, ï, i, ie, and y. i Has the sound of which I have just spoken, whenever it is not combined in the same syllable with either a, e, o, m, or n, so as respectively to form with these letters the diphthong ai, the vowels ai, ei, oi, or the nasal syllables im, in. It is silent in the words encoignure, Montaigne, oignon, and its derivatives, and poireau (also written porreau by many, when the vegetable is meant). Many think it to be silent in poignant, poignard, poignarder, poignée, poigner, empoigner, and poignet. Now if I were asked why the French Academy recognizes the i to be silent only in encoignure and oignon, which it also writes encognure, ognon, I could only say that there are still a great many persons, members of the Academy itself, too, who pronounce the i in those words; and it may be well to let the reader know that it is only when the pronunciation of a word is well and generally established in France, that the French. Academy gives it its letters of naturalization, by admitting it in its dictionary. ï. The diæresis used over i does not alter the sound of this letter; it only indicates that this letter and the preceding or following one are to be pronounced distinct the one from the other thus, Cain, hair, iambe, contiguïte, &c., are pronounced as if they were written Ca-in, ha-ir, i-ambe, contigu-ité. Does not differ in sound from i, but the former is always long, |