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THE SOUNDS OF THE CONSONANTS

B makes no change in its sound, it is silent in some words, as in thumb, debtor, in others, it lengthens the syllable, as in climb, comb, tomb, it has the sound of t in subtle.

C has two sounds, one hard like 4, before a, o, u, r, l, t, and when it ends a syllable.

C hard, as in victim, it has the sound ofs before e, i, and y, as in centre, civil, cymbal, it has the sound of sh in ocean, social; C is mute in czar, czarina victuals, oh bas the sound of teh, as in church, chaff in words from the Greek like k as in chymist, scheme, chorus; in words from the French like sh,as machine, like k before a vowel as in archangel, it is silent in schedule, schism, and in yatch.

Dhas always the same sound in all parts of a word, as hid, did. Fhas an unvaried sound in the beginning, middle and end of words, except in of, in which it has the flat sound of v, but not in composition, as whereof.

G has two sounds, one hard as in gun, the other soft as in giant; it is hard at the end of a word, as in nag; it is hard before a, o, u, l, r; it is soft before e, i, and y; gh in the beginning of a word, has the sound of hard g, as ghastly, in the middle and at the end is silent, as high, mighty; it has the sound of fin cough; sometimes the g only is sounded, as burgh, burgher.

H in the beginning of words is sometimes silent, as in hour; it is silent before r, as in rhetoric, final h is silent when a vowel precedes, as in Hannah.

J has the soft sound of g.

K has the sound of hard e before e and i; it is not sound ed before n.

•L has a soft sound as in the word love.

M has but one sound.

N has two sounds, one simple as in men, a tinkling sound, as in loving; it is silent at the end of a word preceded by m, as in column

P has always the same sound; it has the sound of b in cupboard; is is mute sometimes, as psalm, ptolemy, and between in and t, as in tempt; ph is generally pronounced as f, as in Phillip.

Q is always attended with u, as in queen; qu has some. times the sound of & as in the word risque,

(

Rhas sometimes a harsh sound, as in rage, sometimes smooth, as in regard.

S has two sounds, the one soft like z, as in dismal, the other hard as in Cyprus; it has the sound of z, before ion if a vowel goes before, as in infusion, but a sharp sound if e consonant goes before, as in the word incursion; Sis silent in the words viscount demense, isle, island.

T has generally its own sound, as in time, title, ti has the sound of sh, before a vowel, excepts goes before, as ques, tion, also in derivatives ending in ty as in flity; th has two sounds, the one soft as thus, the other hard as think: th is pronounced like t only in the words Thomas, Thyme, Thames and asthma.

V has one uniform sound, as love, vain, dove.

W when a consonant has nearly the sound of oo, as in water, but sometimes quicker; it differs from the sound of oo, in not taking the article an before it, which oo will: it is not sounded in the words wholesome, sword or answer; it is mute before r, as wrinkle, wrist, when w is a vowel, it is sounded like u, as outlaw, vowel.

X has three sounds, viz: it is sounded like z, at the beginning of proper names of Greek original, as in Xanthus; it has a sharp sound like ks, ending a syllable with the accent upon it, as exit, or when the accent is on the next syllable; if it begins with a consonant, as excuse; it has generally a flat sound like gz when the accent is not on it, as eg zert, eg zample..

When Y is a consonant, it has nearly the sound of ee, but when a vowel, it has the sound of i, as parly, fancy. Z has the soft close sound ofs in zealous, zest.

Here it may be remembered, that the sound of the letters in general, very much depends upon their position and con nection with other letters.

CHAPT, 2.

OF SYLLABLES,

A syllable is a sound simple or compound, pronounced by an impulse of the human voice, for ming a word or part of a word, as man Spelling is the right division of words into syllabies, and the ex pressing of words by their proper letters

Of the division of words into syllables.

In this I shall follow the most approved authorities, without regarding either the modern and arbitrary rules of some, or the falacious music of others which equally lead the young learner into a wrong pronunciation.

So far for the sound of the letters, the study of which is worthy of his closest attention and application, who wishes to make a proficiency in English pronunciation, Having treated of the sounds of letters, as far as will answer all the ends and purposes of this work; I come now to speak of Orthography, or the forming and composing of words by their proper letters and syllables.

CHAFT. 3

Of Words in General, and the Rules for Spelling them

Words are articulate sounds, formed by the human voice, and made by common consent to communicate our ideas to each others this is the origin and source of all languages. A word of one syllable is called a monosyllable; a word of two syllables, a dissyllable; a word of three syllables a trissyllable, and a word of four or more syllables, a polysyllable. The Orthography of the English language is uncertain and perplexed, but a great part of this inconvenience may be removed by the knowledge of the received laws of formation.

RULE 1.

Monosyllables ending with f, 1, or s, preceded by a single vowel, double the f, 1 and s, as stuff, fill, kiss. Exceptions to this rule, are of, if, as, is, has, was, yes, this, and thus.

2. Monosyllables ending with any consonant but these before mentioned, and preceded by a single vowel, double not the fina Consonant, except ebb, egg, odd, inn, bunn, purr, butt, buzza

RULE 2,

Words ending with y preceded by a consonant, form the plurals, of nouns, the persons of verbs and adjectives by changing y into i as cry cries; but if y is preceded by a vowel, the y is not changed as boy, boys..

RULE 3.

Words ending with y and taking an additional syllable, which be gins with a consonant, generally change y into i, but if it is preceded by a vowel the y is not changed, as joy, joyless..

RULE 4.

Words accented upon the last syllable and monosyllables, en ding with a single consonant, preceded by a single vowel, double that con sonant, when they take another syllable beginning with a vowel, as begin, beginning; but if a diphthong go before, or the accent on the preceding syllable, the consonant is not doubled, as tail, tailing, differ differing.

RULE 5.

up

Compound words are commonly spelled, as the simple words from which they are derived, as, dwelling-house, ball-room, hereby, therefore.

i

!

RULE 6.

When the termination ish or ing, is added to words ending in silent e, the e is generally omitted, as face, facing, trace, tracing, ape, apish.

RULE 7.

The terminations able and ible, when added to words ending with a silent e, generally leave out e, as cure, curable, fence, fencible.

If cor g soft, come before e in the primitive word, the e in that case is retained, in words compounded with able, as change, change,

able.

RULE 8.

If words erding in silent e, should take after them in composition these terminations ful, ly, less, ness, they'retain the e, as rue, rueful, sense, senseless, tame, tamely.

RULE 9

Words which end with any double letter except I, and take ful, ly Tess, or ness, after them, retain the double letter, as success, success ful, stiff, stifily, careless, carelessness.

We have the authority of some of the best writers, to spell several words differently, such as these words following: control, controul, inquire, enquire, allege and alledge, negociate and negotiate, surprise and surprize, complete and compleat, expence and expense, horor and honour, and some others. The few rules I have here laid down, and the few remarks I have made upon Orthography, 0

the art of spelling and forming compound from simple, and derivative from primitive words, will I expect be sufficient for my present purpose.

CHAP. IV.

Of Accent.

SECT. 1. I now come to speak of the nature and importance of accent. The nature of accent consists in laying a more forcible stress of voice upon one letter ors, Itable in a word, than upon the other letters or syllables which compose the same word, in order to distinguish it from them in pronunciation. Every word of more than one syllable in the English language, has one or more of them accented. Accent may be called principal or secondary accent. The principal accent is that force of voice, by which we distinguish one letter or syllable in a word from the rest. The secondary accent is that stress of voice we may place upon some other letter or syllable in the word, besides that which has the principal accent; this sometimes happens, in order to pronounce every part of the word, more forcibly and distinctly. Thus the word com-mu-ni-cate has the principal accent on the second syllable, and the secondary upon the fourth; the same may be observed of many other words. Indeed accent seems to be regulated in a great measure by the derivation of the words. Every word of two syllables, has one, and only one of them accented. Sometimes for the sake of emphasis; words of two syllables have an equal stress of voice laid upon each of them.

Words of two syllables compounded, which syllables taken seperately will have a meaning of their own, but when compounded, are considered as one word; and the part of that compounded word, which qualifies the other, will have the accent, as coachman, fire place, horse-mill, &c. have the accent on the former, because it qualifies the later; while the words foresee, foreknow, have the accent on the latter syllable, though it is the less distinguishing part of the compounded word...

What I have here said concerning the principles of pronunciation, with the several sounds of the letters, both vowels and consonants, diphthongs and triphthongs; upon orthography, or the forming words by their proper letters and syllabics; upon the laws ample and compound, primitive and derivative words; upon the rules for retaining the final e in compound words, or of cutting it off; upen the cerramation able and tole, added to words ending with e finai, shewing when the final e is to be retained or retrenched, with the principal exceptions to these general rules; upon the nature and importance of accent, in as much as is ne cessary for the scope and parpose of this concise work; ap I

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