matter they contain, notwithstanding their bulk; for were all the improprieties, to be met with in the greater part of the sentences, expunged from these works, their size, and consequently their price, would be considerably reduced, and they would be found to contain less matter truly useful and fit for polite company, than the COLLECTION OF COLLOQUIAL PHRASES now offered to the students of the French language. This little work, which it is hoped will be found to answer the end for which it has been compiled, is composed of the phrases most select and most necessary to maintain a conversation; part of which have been written by the author, and the rest culled by him from other works. THE GREATEST CARE HAS BEEN TAKEN IN THE SE LECTION, THAT THE SENTENCES SHOULD BE FREE FROM A SINGLE WORD CALCULATED TO OFFEND THE MOST SCRUPULOUS READER; and that the language should be correct; and it is hoped that every sen tence will present those modes of expression only, which are received among persons of education in both countries. The two greatest obstacles to the proper pro nunciation of the French language proceed from the difficulty of ascertaining, First, On what occasion the unaccented e should be entirely mute* or have the sound of u in the English word tub. Second, In what case the last consonant of a *Several of our best orthoëpists express themselves thus on that subject: "The proper utterance of the unaccented e characterises, in part, the pronunciation of the gentleman, as a vicious one marks the low-bred and the ignorant. The unaccented e is sometimes pronounced, and sometimes not; and in that consists a great difficulty for foreigners, who, always pronouncing it full, are long before they are able to follow a French conversation, and thence are inclined to believe that the French speak much faster than any other people. The truth is, that the French, taking them in general, do not speak faster than other people; but in conversation and in familiar reading, they drop the unaccented e as often as they can do it, and thus go quicker through a sentence than does a foreigner, who gives the full sound of u in tub to every unaccented e he meets with. Thus the word contenance, and the phrase je n'ai pas reçu tout le vêtement, will be pronounced by a foreigner and a Frenchman native of Gascony, con-te-nan-ce,-je né pa re-çu tou le vê-te-men; whereas a well-bred Frenchman will pronounce cont-nans,—jné pa rsu toul vêt-men, sounding in the first word two syllables only, where the others would sound four; and, in the sentence, sounding six syllables, where the others would sound ten. See on that subject, ENCYCLOPÉDIE MÉTHODIQUE, Grammaire et littérature, 1st vol. part II, page 649. Laveaux, Dictionnaire des difficultés de la langue Française, letter E, Paris 1818, and Grammaire des grammaires, vol. 1st, page 9, Paris 1818. All works of the first authority in the French language. word should be joined to the vowel beginning the following word. པ As the numerous rules given by French grammarians on the above could not be introduced here, it will be sufficient to state, that the silent e, and almost all the mute consonants, whether at the end or in the middle of words, have been printed throughout this book in Italic, and that the sign is put between words that must be joined; which will afford, in all cases, an easy solution of these difficulties, and enable the scholar to acquire early, by practice, two things that are very necessary to his speaking the French language with propriety. Though well-bred French people differ very much in the way of pronouncing the unaccented e and the final consonants, yet there are many instances in which they generally agree; and to deviate from their general manner betrays, in a native, except he be from Gascony, an ill-bred man, and, in a foreigner, a badly taught pupil. |