GRAMMAR.

THE ALPHABET.

§ 21. An Alphabet is a collection of letters or signs used to represent sounds, so that letters combined into syllables and words convey through the eye the same ideas as are conveyed through the ear by sounds.

A perfect alphabet would neither have more than one letter for any one sound, nor express more sounds than one by one letter. But alphabets commonly have more letters than one for some of the sounds in the language, that is, they are redundant : (1) because some new letter has been introduced with new words from another language using a different sign for the sound, as in English K has been introduced expressing the same sound as c (hard), and has taken its place in many words, knight (cniht); (2) or because pronunciation has changed and assimilated sounds of letters which once were different, as the pronunciation of c before E and I, which was hard, has been assimilated to s, or the soft c of the French language. On the other hand, alphabets commonly express more sounds than one by one letter, that is, they are deficient: (1) because small varieties of sound are too many to be distinguished at the early stage of a language when writing is first used in a nation, as of vowel-sounds, ache, hat; being, bed; white, whit; brute, but: (2) or because intercourse with other nations brings in new sounds without new signs for them, as ch in cherry, z in azure, u in pure: (3) or because such intercourse lessens the distinction between two sounds, so that one sign is lost and the remaining one serves for both, as in English th stands for dh in this, and for th in thing.

The English alphabet of twenty-six letters, now used, is the common Latin alphabet (which was spread by the Romans over Western Europe), with one letter, w, added.

D

The letters have two forms :

The capital-A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y, Z.

The small-a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, j, k, l, m, n, o, p, q, r, s, t, u, v, w, x, y, z.

§ 22. Letters are Vowels, expressing sound by themselves, A, E, I, o, u; a, e, i, o, u:

Or Consonants, requiring a vowel to be sounded with them; as, в (be), L (el).

Consonants may be divided into—

Liquids, L, M, N, R.

Spirants, F, H, J, S, V.

Mutes, B, C, D, G, K, P, Q, T.

Y is sometimes a vowel; as, story, y-clept, hyssop: sometimes combined with a vowel to make an improper diphthong; as, day, buy sometimes a consonant; as, yard, young.

W is sometimes combined with a vowel to make an improper diphthong; as, blow, draw: and sometimes it is a consonant; as, ward, wood.

It is never really a vowel, but in such words as draw is like y in day, little more than a breathing, a slight remnant of a guttural or hard consonant, which was at one time distinctly pronounced. This may be seen by comparison of the forms draw, drag; day, daeg. In some dialects w was written instead of the vowel u, as in Scottish- It is he onlie that taks on ws cure.'

Consonants may be arranged according to the organs of speech.

c_is_hard,=K, before A, 0, U; as cat, cot, cut: but soft,=S, before E, I, Y; as cent, city, cypress.

CH is guttural in a few words, as mechanics, ache; but is soft in words introduced from French, as chapel, cherry, machine, and in some words of English origin which French has influenced, as churl, child, speech, teach.

=

G is hard before A, O, U, and in most English words before E, I, as game, get, gild, got, gut; but soft, J, before E, I, Y in words introduced from French, as gem, gin, gypsy; and in a few words of English origin influenced by French, as gibe1.

Almost all trace of aspirated guttural sounds has been lost from English, as for instance the old sound of GH, as lough, which has been weakened till in some words it has no sound,bough bock; cough=f; biccough=p; thorough, = a very slight aspirate or breathing; light, in which all trace is lost. And the other gutturals also are often almost or quite mute, G in gnaw, K in knee.

=

Q is always followed by U; its sound then is the same as that of kw or cw, as quite; in some words it is almost =k, as conqueror. x has two sounds, cs in axe, gs in exact.

s has two sounds, sharp as in so, this; flat, and like Z, in his, flies accordingly in many words s or z may be used, as civilise, civilize. In a few words it is = SH, as censure.

=

z is in some words introduced from French ZH, as azure, an Italian word brought into English through French.

Three letters, 3, D, F, of the earlier English alphabet are not now used, having fallen into disuse chiefly because they were not in the Latin or the Norman-French alphabet, and represented sounds difficult of pronunciation to the Norman-French invaders of the eleventh century, who exercised much influence on the English language and literature:

3 was a guttural, and was equivalent to an initial G or sometimes y (itself near akin to G), and to GH at the end of a word, or before T, as zive, zoure, kniztes, give, your, knights.

Đ, pp, were dentals, equivalent to db, th: they were used indifferently in different dialects and at different times. At last they passed from use, and are now represented by TH, which has two sounds dh and th, as this, thing.

§ 23. A diphthong is the combined sound of two different vowels, as ae, ai: Æthelstane, nail.

1 In one word, gaol (French géole), and its derivative gaoler, G before a has the soft J sound. The words are often spelt jail, jailer-an instance at once of the power of French influence, and of the truth of the rule that G is hard before a in English.

A syllable is one or more letters, one at least being a vowel, sounded in a single breath, as a, man, sword, stretch, al-so.

A word is one or more syllables having a meaning, as a, man, extraordinary.

A word of one syllable is a monosyllable; of two, is a dissyllable; of three, is a trisyllable; of more than three, is a polysyllable.

THE PARTS OF SPEECH.

§ 24. Words are called in Grammar Parts of Speech, and are of four kinds :

i. Nouns.

ii. Pronouns.

iii. Verbs. iv. Particles.

i. Noun is the name of anything.

Nouns are

(1) Substantive, the name of a thing existing or conceived by the mind; as man, grass, virtue, length,

whiteness.

(2) Adjective, the name of a quality conceived as belonging to the thing of which a substantive is

the name; as 'long grass,' remarkable virtue.'

ii. A Pronoun is a word used as either a substantive or an adjective; as he, my, who, that.

iii. A Verb is a word which expresses some judgment about a noun (its subject), and makes a sentence; as, Grass grows, Light shines.

iv. Particles are words which help to define the relations of nouns and verbs in sentences, or of sentences one to another. These are :

(1) Adverb, which qualifies a verb, or sometimes other words, as adjective, substantive, or another adverb; as, He writes badly.

(2) Preposition, which defines the relation of a noun to some other word or words in the sentence; as, They lived on land.

(3) Conjunction, which connects words, clauses, and sentences; as, Yesterday and to-day.

(4) Interjection, which is an exclamation, expressing feeling, but not grammatically part of a sentence; as, ah! fie!

Inflexion is a series of changes made in the form of a word to express changes in its meaning in relation to other words in a

sentence.

The part of a word on which the inflexions are based is the Stem.

Those letters in a word which are common to it and all kindred words form the Root.

Nouns and Pronouns substantive have inflexion to mark Gender, Number, Case. This inflexion is called Declension;

so we speak of declining a substantive.

Nouns and Pronouns adjective have inflexion to mark Degree. This is called Comparison; so we speak of comparing an adjective.

Verbs have inflexion to mark Voice, Mood, Tense, Number, Person. This is called Conjugation; so we speak of conjugating a verb.