INTRODUCTION

SPELLING: SOUNDS AND LETTERS

1. Symbols, sounds, or gestures, used by man to communicate thought, produce language. When language confines itself to a definite set of sounds for oral speech and adopts a definite set of symbols for written communication, its rules of usage may be classified and arranged for study.

English grammar is the orderly arrangement of the facts and rules of usage of the English language.

2. The English language confines itself to a set of distinct sounds for oral speech. Some of these are sometimes minutely distinguished, but for our purpose the following forty-eight sounds are sufficient:

21 vocal or voiced sounds, pure tones modified but not interrupted by the organs of speech.

15 sonants, sounds or tones modified and interrupted by the organs of speech.

12 surds, sounds consisting of breath modified by the organs of speech.

3. These forty-eight sounds are regularly represented by twenty-six different letters or symbols, called the English alphabet:

6 vowels, letters used to represent vocal or voiced sounds: a, e, i, o, u, y.

20 consonants, letters used to represent sonants and surds: b, c, d, f, g, h, j, k, l, m, n, p, q, r, s, t, v, w,

X, Z.

5. Some letters serve to represent more than one sound. The several sounds are distinguished by the use of diacritical marks; as,

The macron as a

The diæresis as ä

The cedilla as c

The dot as ȧ, a

The breve as ǎ

The caret as â

The sounds indicated by each mark are shown in § 4 above. The diæresis is used also to show that two vowels usually taken together are to be pronounced separately; as, coöperate, reëlect.

6. Consonants are oral, sounded through the mouth; and nasal, sounded through the nose.

1. The oral consonants are p, t, k, b, w, v, d, th, g, f, ch. 2. The nasal consonants are m, n, ng.

7. Consonants are also classified as mutes, liquids, semivowels, and sibilants.

1. Mutes are letters representing obstructed or stopped sounds, and are classified according to the organ of obstruction. Pure mutes begin with complete stoppage of breath; sonant mutes are accompanied by voiced sounds; and fricative mutes are accompanied by rough, guttural sounds.

2. Liquids are letters whose sound flows readily into the sound of other letters. They are 1, m, n, ng.

3. The semi-vowels are w and y. The sound of w is equivalent to oo or 00; the sound of y is equivalent to ē or ĭ,

4. Sibilants are the hissing sounds s, sh, z, ch (church), j, ġ.

8. Some letters are regularly used together; they either unite to form a single sound or only one of the letters is sounded.

The diphthong is the union of two vowels to form a single sound; as, oi, ou, oy, ow.

The vowel digraph is the union of two vowels, only one of which is sounded; as, ea in each, oa in coat, ua in guard.

The consonant digraph is the union of two consonants to form a single sound; as, ch, sh, th, and gh (in cough).

SPELLING: SYLLABLES AND WORDS

9. A syllable is the portion of a word requiring a single muscular effort of the organs of speech in pronunciation ; as, come, be-come, be-com-ing.

10. The following rules for dividing words into their component syllables will be found helpful in spelling and in pronunciation. They must be observed in dividing words at the end of a written or printed line.

I. Words of one syllable cannot be divided.

II. The letters of diphthongs and digraphs cannot be separated.

་

III. The following consonants never end a syllable: c and g, as in ra-cing, ra-ging, wa-ger, re-cite; t, s, sc, d, g, when pronounced with a following i or u, as in na-tion, vi-sion, vi-sual, fu-ture, con-science, reli-gion, proce-dure.

EXCEPTION: When c and g follow short vowels, as in recitation, prec-ipice, reg-iment.

x =

IV. The following consonants never begin a syllable : -ks or -gs as in box-ing; r preceded by â, as in par-ent; 1, n, v, followed by i = y, as in val-iant, un-ion, Sav-ior.