F has one sound, as in fat; except in of, when it has the sound of v. It is never silent.

G has two sounds; one hard, the other soft.

It is hard before a, o, u, l, and r, and at the end of a word; as in gate, go, gull, glad, grate, fag, bag.

It is soft before e, i, and y; as in gem, giant, gypsum, tragic, digit.

To this last rule there are many exceptions. In this book the soft sound of g is denoted by a particular mark.

r

G is silent before m and n; as in gnaw, phlegm.

H is merely a strong breathing; as in hate, held. After and g it is silent; as in rhetoric, ghost.

J has one sound; as in jump.

In hallelujah it sounds

It is silent before n;

I has one sound; as in lull, line. It is frequently silent.

M has one sound; as in me, men, murmur.

N has one sound; as in not, run. It is silent after l or m, in the same syllable; as in kiln, limn.

P has but one sound; as in pin, lip, shipping.

It is silent before n, s, and t, in the same syllable; as in psalm, pneumonics, prompt.

Q has but one sound, that of k; as in quill, quire.

R has two sounds; one rough, the other smooth.
It is rough before a vowel; as in roll, ring.
It is smooth after a vowel; as in arm, hard.

S has two principal sounds; one, as in sink, miss; the other, like z, as in rose, rise.

In a few instances, s has the sound of sh; as in sure, sugar; or of zh; as in brasier.

T has but one sound; as in tin, net, setting.

V has but one sound; as in vine, live, silver.

I has three sounds; one, at the beginning of a word, where it has the sound of z; as in Xerxes, pronounced Zerxes.

It has the sound of ks; as in wax, flax.
It has also the sound of gz; as in exalt.
Z has one principal sound; as in zest.
stances, it has the sound of zh; as in azure.

In a few in

OF DOUBLE LETTERS.

CH has three sounds; that of tsh, in church; that of sh, in machine; and that of k, in chorus.

In the latter case, the h may be considered as silent, and the c hard.

GH has three sounds; that of g hard, in ghost; that of f, in cough; and that of k, in hough (hok).

NG has two sounds; an open sound, as in sing, bring; and a close sound, as in finger, pronounced fing ger.

In words like range, the n and g have each their proper sound.

NK has a sound somewhat different from the letters of which the combination is formed; as in bank, thank. PH has the sound of f, as in phantom; except in Stephen, where it has the sound of v.

SH has but one sound; as in ship, shore.

TH has two sounds; one aspirated, as in thin, think; the other soft, as in this, thou.

TABLE OF SOUNDS.

1

The 1st, or long sound of a, is denoted by the figure 1, as fate.*

1st. That all the long sounds are indicated by 1; 2d. That all the short sounds are indicated by 2;

ઙ

3d. That the similar sounds, her, sir, fur, are marked

by the same figure, 3;

*See note, p. 3.

4th. That wolf and full have a similar sound, and the same figure;

5th. That the sounds of y are the same as those of i. Among the consonants, the sounds are denoted by marks, as follows:

The soft sound of c, by two dots as in cell.

The hard sound of ch is denoted by italicizing the h; as in chorus.

In this case the h is silent, and c has its hard sound.

OBSERVE,

1st. That the same mark, two dots, is used to indicate all the soft sounds of these letters;

2d. That silent letters are indicated by being printed in italics; as in knit, dumb, right;

3d. That when a vowel, at the close of a syllable, is marked as silent, the preceding vowel is short; as in native, service, pronounced nativ, servis.

The preceding table is placed in concise form, at the head

of each page in this book.

alphabet consist? How Which are they? Which What is said of the vowel What is a proper diph

Which of

QUESTIONS. Of what does the English are letters divided? What are vowels? are always vowels? What is said of w? sounds of w and Y? What is a diphthong? thong? Why is it so called? What is the improper diphthong also called? Which are the diphthongs in common use? these are proper diphthongs? What is a triphthong? How many and what are the sounds of A? Of E? Of 1? Of u? Of y? Of w? What of the sound of or and or? and ow? What irregular sound has A? What one has E? has I? What has U? What are the sounds marked by 1 called? Those by 2? What is said of the other sounds?

Of o?

Of ou

What

A SYLLABLE is a letter, or union of letters, which can be pronounced by a single impulse of the voice; as, a, bad, good.

WORDS are composed of letters, or of syllables; as, not, notion.

A word of one syllable is called a monosyllable; as, man. A word of two syllables is called a dissyllable; as, manly. A word of three syllables is called a trisyllable; as, manliness.

Words of more than three syllables are called polysyllables; as, luminary, incomprehensible.

ACCENT is a stress of voice placed upon some one syllable more than the others.