His only an Afpiration, or Breathing: and fometimes at the beginning of a word is not founded at all; as, an hour, an bonest

man.

C is pronounced like k, before a, o, u; and foft, likes, before e, i, y: in like manper g is pronounced always hard before a, 9, ; fometimes hard and fometimes foft before i, and y; and for the most part soft before e.

The English Alphabet, like most others, is both deficient and redundant; in fome cafes, the fame letters expreffing different founds, and different letters expreffing the fame founds.

A

SYLLABLES.

Syllable is a found either fin fimple or compounded, pronounced by a fingle impulse of the voice, and conftituting a word, or part of a word.

Spelling is the art of reading by naming the letters fingly, and rightly dividing words

into their fyllables. Or, in writing, it is the expreffing of a word by its proper letters.

In Spelling, a fyllable in the beginning or middle of a word ends in a vowel, unlefs it be followed by x; or by two or more confonants: these are for the most part to be feparated, and at least one of them always belongs to the preceding fyllable, when the vowel of that fyllable is pronounced short. A mute generally unites with a liquid following; and a liquid, or a mute, generally feparates from a mute. following: le and re are never separated from a preceding mute. Examples: exe-cra-ble, ex-af-pe-rate, dif-tin-guish, dif-trefsful, cor-ref-pon-ding.

But the best and only fure rule for dividing the fyllables in fpelling, is to divide them as they are naturally divided in a right pronunciation; without regard to the derivation of words, or the poffible combination of confonants at the beginning of a fyllable.

WORD S.

ORDS are articulate founds, used by common confent as figns of ideas,

or notions.

There are in English nine Sorts of Words, or, as they are commonly called, Parts of Speech.

1. The ARTICLE, prefixed to fubftantives, when they are common names of things, to point them out, and to fhew how far their fignification extends... :

2. The SUBSTANTIVE, or NOUN, being the name of any thing conceived to subsist, or of which we have any notion.

3. The PRONOUN, ftanding inftead of the noun.

4. The ADJECTIVE, added to the noun to exprefs the quality of it.

5. The VERB, or Word by way of eminence, fignifying to be, to do, or to fuffer.

6. The ADVERB, added to verbs, and alfo to adjectives and other adverbs, to ex-. prefs fome circumftances belonging to them.

7. The PREPOSITION, put before nouns and pronouns chiefly, to connect them with other words, and to fhew their relation to those words.

8. The CONJUNCTION, Connecting fen tences together.

9. The INTERJECTION, thrown in to express the affection of the speaker, though unneceffary with refpect to the construction of the fentence..

7 2

8

5

7 3 7 3. +

to man, and was bestowed on him by his

8 9

6

6

5 3.

excellent ufes; but alas! how often do we

pervert it to the worst of purposes?

In the foregoing fentence the Words. the, a, are Articles; power, fpeech, faculty, man, creator, uses, purposes, are Subftantives; bim, bis, we, it, are Pronouns; peculiar, beneficent, greatest, excellent, worst, are Adjectives; is, was, bestowed, do, pervert, are Verbs; most, how, often, are Adverbs; of, to, on, by, for, are Prepofitions; and, but, are Conjunctions; and alas is an Interjection

The Subftantives power, Speech, faculty, and the reft, are General, or Common, Names of things; whereof there are many forts belonging to the fame kind, or many individuals belonging to the fame fort: as there are many forts, of power, many forts of fpeech, many forts of faculty, many individuals of that fort of animal called man; and fo on. Thefe general or common. names are here applied in a more or lefs. extenfive fignification, according as they are used without either, or with the one, or with the other, of the two Articles a and