ENGLISH GRAMMAR. PART I-ORTHOGRAPHY. 1. Orthography (Greek, right writing) is that part of grammar which treats of letters and syllables. THE ALPHABET. 2. The English Alphabet contains twenty-six letters. 3. The letters are divided into two great classes— Vowels and Consonants. 4. A vowel is a letter which can be fully sounded by itself by the simple passage of the air through the organs of speech. The vowels are a, e, i, o, u. 5. A consonant is a letter which cannot be fully sounded by itself, but always requires the presence of a vowel. 6. Consonants are divided into five classes-Semivowels, Liquids, Mutes, Sibilants, and the Aspirate. 7. The semivowels are w and y, and they are so called because they are sometimes used as vowels and sometimes as consonants. The general principle is that these letters are consonants when used at the beginning of a word or syllable, or when they are followed by a vowel; and vowels when they occur at the end of a word or syllable, as W and y as consonants-worth, worship, unworthy, yew, yield. W and y as vowels-low, new, spy, spying. 8. The liquids are l, m, n, r, and they are so called because they run easily into the sounds of other letters. 9. The mutes are b, c, d, f, g, k, p, t, v. These letters are called mutes or dumb letters, because it is impossible to sound them by themselves. We can subdivide the mutes (a) according to the organs of speech by which they are pronounced, or (b) according to the kind of sound they make when pronounced. (a) If we have regard to the organ of speech by which they are pronounced, the mutes can be subdivided into Labials, or those formed by the lips; Dentals, or those formed by the teeth; and Gutturals, or those formed by the throat, as (b) If we examine the mutes in relation to the sound they make when pronounced, we find that certain of them can be pronounced only in a whisper, e.g., p, f, t, etc., whilst others of them can be pronounced with a certain degree of loudness and clearness, e.g., b, v, d, etc. Sharp Mutes or Those of the first class are called Sharps; those of the second class are called Flat Mutes or Flats. The two classifications of the mutes can be exhibited at one view : Note.-It will be observed that every sharp has its corresponding flat. Those letters that are pronounced by the same organs of speech are called cognate letters. We have in English two dental sounds for which we have no corresponding letter. These are the sound of th in thin and of th in thine. The sound of c is hard before the vowels a, o, u, as cat, cot, cut. 10. The sibilants are j, s, c (soft), x, and 2, are so called because of their hissing sound. and they Note.-The sound represented by j is in reality a compound sound, nearly equal to the sound of dsh, as in the word jest. The sound of c is soft before the letters e, i, y; as, cent, city, cynic. X is a compound letter, and can always be represented by ks. There are two sibilant sounds for which we have no corresponding letter. These are the sound of sh in shine, and the sound of z in azure, 11. The aspirate h is rather a breathing than a letter, and accordingly must be classed by itself. In many words h is entirely silent, as in heir, hour, etc. In some words it is still undecided whether the h should be sounded or not, e.g., herb, hospital. 12. Q is a redundant letter. It is always followed by the vowel u, and the qu is exactly the same in sound as kw, e.g., queen kween. = 13. A perfect alphabet should have a simple character to represent every simple sound. From the preceding analysis, it is evident that our English Alphabet is (a) Anomalous, inasmuch as it has the simple character j to represent the compound sound dsh. (6) Redundant, inasmuch as the sound of c could always be represented by k or s, the sound of x by ks, and the sound of q (always followed by u) by kw. (c) Defective, inasmuch as it has no character to represent the sound of th in thin, th in thine, sh in shine, and z in azure. To these deficiences may be added that of a character to represent the simple liquid sound of ng in such a word as king. It is very defective in vowel characters, e.g., there are no separate characters to represent the long and short sounds of a, e, o, etc. 14. A diphthong is the union of two vowel sounds in the same syllable. When both vowel sounds are distinctly heard, the diphthong is called proper; but when only one of the vowel sounds is pronounced, the diphthong is called improper. The only proper diphthongs in English are ay, ow, oy. Such combinations as ee in meet, ea in meat, ie in mien, oa in goat, etc., are in no sense diphthongs. They are merely conventional methods of indicating the length of the vowel sound in the particular syllable in which they occur, and are rendered necessary by the deficiency of vowel characters already referred to. 15. A syllable can contain only one vowel sound, and is made up of one or more letters sounded together. A word of one syllable is called a Monosyllable. In dividing a word into syllables, it is usual to make the division at the vowel; as, hu-mid, pre-cede. When there are two consonants together, they are generally split; as, im-port, com-mon-ly, ge-ne-ral-ly. But neither does the division take place at the vowel, nor are the consonants split, if thereby the etymology of the word would be obscured, e.g., im-portance, not im-por-tance; re-frain, not ref-rain; re-pre-sent, not rep-re-sent. 6. Accent is an emphasis or stress of the voice upon some particular syllable of a word; as, tyrant, na'ture, matu're. The general tendency in English is to throw the accent as far back, i.e., as near the beginning of the word, as possible. In a considerable number of English words, accent alone enables us to determine the meaning, e.g., conduct, conduct; co'nvert, convert; re'bel, rebel; to'rment, torment; transfer, transfer. In each of the foregoing examples, the change of position of the accent is accompanied by a corresponding change in the meaning of the word. |