PREF A C E.

By the publication of this work I hope to fulfill the wish of many Englishmen, who defire to find a practical Grammar, by which the means of acquiring the dutch language are fimplified and facilitated.

The several parts of Speech are arranged in the ufual order, and explained with precision, every rule being followed by practical exercifes. This mode of teaching being already appreciated, it will not be deemed necessary to point out the utility of it. As to Syntax, it is fully treated of in the fame

manner.

Throughout the whole compofition

my chief aim has been to unite cafe and fimplicity with accuracy and precifion, whilst care has been taken to render the exercises progressively difficult, to animate the efforts of the learner.

Dordrecht 28 Juny

R. VAN DER PYL.

1819.

OF THE

DUTCH LANGUAGE.

DUTCH GRAMMAR is the art of fpeaking and writing the dutch language with propriety.

It is divided into three parts, viz: Ortography, Etymology, and Syntax.

Ortography treats of the form and found of letters, the combination of letters into fyllables, and fyllables into words.

Etymology treats of the different forts of words, their various modifications, and their derivation.

Syntax treats of the union and right order of words, in the formation of a fentence.

PART. I.

Ortography teaches the nature and power of letters, and the just method of fpelling words.

A letter is the first principle, or least part of a word. The letters of the dutch language, called the dutch alphabet, are twenty fix in number.

A. B. C. D. E. F. G. H. I. J. K. L. M. N. 0. P. Q. R. S. T. U. V. W. X. Y. Z.

c, q, x and y are only used in spelling words, which derive from a foreign language.

Letters are divided into vowels and confonants.

A vowel is a fimple found, formed by a continued effufion of the breath, and a certain conformation of the mouth, without any alteration in the pofition, or any motion of the organs of fpeech, from the moment the vocal found commences, till it ends.

A

A confonant is an articulate found which cannot be perfectly uttered without the help of a vowel.

The vowels, in the dutch language, are five in number a, e, i, o, u.

The other letters are confonants.

The confonants are divifible into mutes, femi-vowels and liquids.

The mutes are fuch as emit no found without a vowel as b. p, t, d, k, g.

The femi-vowels are fuch as emit a found, the concurrence of a vowel, as: ƒ, s, x.

without The liquids are fuch as flow into, or unite easily with, the mutes, as: 1, m 2 n, r.

There is another diftinction of confonants, arifing either from the feat of their formation, or from those organs which are chiefly employed in forming them. The best diftinction of this kind feems to be that which divides them into: Lipletters, labials, as: b, p. v, f. — Tandletters, dentals, as: d, t, s. - Keelletters, gutturals, as: k, g, q.

Diphtongues.

A diphtongue, is the union of two vowels, pronounced by a fingle impulfe of the voice.

The diphtongues, in the dutch langague, are short, kort, or long, lang.

The fhort diphtongues are: au, ei, eu, ie, oe,

ou, ui.

The long diphtongues are: aai, aau, eeu and ooi. A triphtongue is the union of three vowels, pronounc'ed in like manner, as: ieu, oei.

A fyllable is a found, either, fimple or compounded, pronounced by a fingle impulfe of the voice, and conftituting a word, or a part of a word.

A word of one fyllable is named a monofyllable; a word of two fyllables, a disfyllable; a word of three fyllables a tri yllable, and a word of four and more fyllables, a polyfyllable.