Obs. 3. Ph, when sounded like f, as in Philip; sh, as in shine; and th, as in thin, thine, must be looked upon as single letters. The proper sound of h following p, s, or t, as a separate letter, may be perceived in the words sheep-hook, grasshopper, mast-head. In § 12. A Diphthong, or double sound, is the blended sound of two vowels meeting in one syllable. The true diphthongs are ay, ow, oy, as in the words aye, how, hoy. these diphthongs each of the two vowels may be distinctly heard, especially if the syllable be articulated slowly. But very often two vowels are written where only one is pronounced. This is the case with the words bear, boar, maul, mien, seam, sieve, gauge, goat, and very many others. Such combinations of vowels are not true diphthongs. Obs. 1. The long sound of i (in such words as bind, find) is a true diphthong, being the same as that of the word aye, only pronounced more briskly. It is composed of the sounds of a (as in father) and y (as in lady), the two being pronounced as closely together as possible. In words like maul, crawl, the vowel sound heard is that of a only; u or w being added only to indicate the broad sound of that vowel. Obs. 2. The combination eo is rare: it occurs only in yeoman, people, jeopardy, leopard. Obs. 3. The combination ea was at one time pronounced as ay in many words where it is now sounded as ee: as in clear, pease, please, tea, &c. [See § 335, Obs.] Ea is still sounded as ay in yea, great, break. § 13. A Syllable consists of one or more letters pronounced together, and has only one vowel sound. In breaking up a word into syllables, it is usual to make the division after the vowel, and to carry on the consonant following to the next syllable: as, hu-mid, divi-si-on, rhe-to-ri-cal, &c. When there are two consonants together, one usually goes with the former syllable and the other with the following one: as, nur-ture, mem-ber, &c. But regard must be had to etymology; the syllables being divided so as to show the composition or derivation of a word as far as possible; as, threat-en (not threa-ten), assist-ance (not assis-tance), re-strain (not res-train), &c. § 14. A word of one syllable is called a Monosyllable; of two syllables, a Disyllable; of three syllables, a Trisyllable; of more than three syllables, a Polysyllable. § 15. Accent is the stress of the voice upon a syllable: as, húmid, núrture. There is ordinarily one principal accent in every word: as, álgebra, múltitude, extraordinary, repartée. Obs. The tendency of the English language is to throw the accent back towards the beginning of a word. Many words which were formerly accented on the last syllable or the last but one, have undergone a change of accent: as, virtue, formerly virtue (Chaucer, prol. Cant. Tales); áspect, formerly aspect (Milt. P. L. iv., 541); doctrinal, formerly doctrinal (Johnson's Dict.); &c. PART I. ETYMOLOGY. § 16. Etymology treats of WORDS, arranging them in classes, and explaining their structure and changes of form. NOTE. The two most important parts of Etymology are Inflexion and Derivation. INFLEXION [Latin, inflecto, flexi, flexum, to bend or change] means some addition to or change in the word to denote a modification of meaning. The inflexional changes of words are explained in connexion with their classification. DERIVATION is treated separately, p. 90. Parts of Speech. § 17. Words are divided into classes, according to the different purposes which they answer in speech. There are eight classes of words, or, as they are commonly called, PARTS OF SPEECH. These are— 1. Noun. 2. Adjective, to which the Articles belong. 3. Pronoun. 4. Verb. 5. Adverb. 6. Preposition. The Noun. § 18. A NOUN is a word which is the name of something. There are two kinds of nouns: Proper Nouns and Common Nouns. § 19. PROPER NOUNS are such as denote only one person or thing of a kind: as, Adam, Noah, Alexander, William the Conqueror; Thames, Avon; Victory, City of Glasgow (names of ships); Excalibur (name of the fabulous sword of King Arthur). Obs. 1. The same proper name may be given to a number of individuals. Thus there are many Johns, Williams, &c.; several rivers called Avon; and more than one town named Boston. Still these names are strictly Proper Nouns, since they have been in each case separately given, and do not belong to all objects of the same kind. Obs. 2. Proper Names are sometimes used to denote a class or group: as, the Cæsars; the family of the Scipios; the Howards: meaning all those bearing the same proper name. Or the name of a well-known individual may be applied to others possessing similar features: as, the modern Solon; the infant Sappho. In such cases the Proper Name is used as a Cominon one. Many Common Nouns have in this way been formed from Proper ones: as, epicure from Epicure or Epicurus, the philosopher; Academy, from a gymnasium at Athens so named. § 20. COMMON NOUNS.-All nouns which are not Proper are Common. They denote the same kind of thing under whatever circumstances it may be found: as, man, city, river, ship; air, water, gold, iron; beauty, truth, time, space. § 21. Three kinds of Common Nouns require to be specially noted: Collective Nouns, Abstract Nouns, and Names of Materials. § 22. (1) Collective Nouns.-A Collective Noun denotes a number of persons or things forming one body: as, a crowd of persons; a group of states or stars; a committee, a jury, a parliament; Her Majesty's Government; the Ministry. Obs. 1. Collective Nouns are sometimes so used as to refer rather to the individuals composing the group than to the group itself. Thus we say, the crowd (that is, the people in the crowd) were noisy; the jury (that is, the men composing the jury) were not agreed. See ◊ 250. Obs. 2. Such nouns are also called Nouns of Multitude. (2) Abstract Nouns.-Abstract Nouns are the names not of objects but of ideas. The following kinds of Abstract Nouns may be enumerated : 1. Names of qualities: as, whiteness, blackness, bitter- 2. Names of states or conditions of things: as, life, 4. Names of actions or processes: as, reading, writing, multiplication, justification, punishment, coronation, abdication. 5. Names of arts and sciences: as, poetry, sculpture, astronomy, chemistry, zoology. Obs. The word abstract is derived from the Latin word abstractus (abstraho), drawn off; implying that a quality or state is thought of by itself, and detached from an object. Thus when we speak of the size of a globe, attention is directed to its size only, without regard to the colour, weight, or material of the globe. (3) Names of Materials: as, gold, silver, wood, stone. § 23. Nouns have Gender, Number, and Case. I. GENDER. $ 24. There are two genders properly so called: Masculine and Feminine. The distinction of male and female in nature is called The distinction between Masculine and Feminine in words is called Gender. sex. Obs. The word Gender comes from the Latin word genus, generis, a sort or kind. 25. The English language, unlike most others, applies the distinction of Masculine and Feminine only to the names of persons and animals: as, man, woman; boy, girl; lion, lioness. Nouns which denote things without animal life are said to be Neuter or of Neuter Gender, from the Latin word neuter, neither (i.e. neither masculine nor feminine): as, iron, stone, river. The only exception to this rule is when some inanimate things are exhibited as persons, and consequently become either Masculine or Feminine: see §§ 28, 29. § 26. When the same name is used for male and female, it is said to be Common or of Common Gender: as, bird, fish, parent, sovereign, friend. § 27. There are three ways of indicating difference of Gender in Nouns : 1. By inflexion. 2. By using some word indicative of sex. 3. By distinct words. I. THE GENDER DISTINGUISHED BY INFLEXION. 1. The feminine is usually distinguished from the masculine by the ending -ess: as, NOTES.-The ending -ess comes through the French from the Latin ending -ix. (See below, 2.) 1 Duchess is from Fr. duchesse. 2 Marchioness from late Latin marchio, marchionissa. 3 Sempstress and songstress, see below, No. 2 (3). Obs. Many feminine forms besides the above are occasionally to be met with, especially in our older authors: as, victoress, or victress (Spenser, Shakspeare, Jonson); offendress (Shakspeare); tyranness (Akenside). [Mätzner, i. pp. 244, 245.] But the present tendency of the language is to reduce the number of such words by using the masculine form as common, as in the case of author, poet, elector (except when used as a sovereign title). In the case of official titles the feminine form is carefully preserved. 2. A few isolated instances of other feminine endings occur: (1.) -trix, in a few Nouns taken directly from the Latin: as, |