10. Exercise. 1. Tell which letters are vowels, and which are consonants, in the following words: Name, war, come, peace, tree, fish, good, live, old, sad, young, wine, said, yet, win, new, gay, day. 2. Tell which of the following letters represent vocals, which subvocals, and which aspirates: a, f, g, m, c, k, d, p, o, w, s, h, y, t, r, v, x, 1, e, j. 3. Analyze the following words by giving, in order, the elementary sounds (not the names of the letters); tell how many sounds and how many letters each has; also what letters are silent :— Mete, laugh, bought, fought, believe, phthisic, balm, rough, piece, beauty, thought, blight. MODEL. M-e-t: final e is silent. mete:-three sounds and four letters. The 4. In the following examples, tell what words contain equivalents of a in name; of a in ball; of a in fare; of e in mete; of e in end; of i in iron; of i in ink; of o in go; of o in dot; of u in music; of u in pull; of u in gun; of ou in plough, and of oi in toil :— Grain, air, awl, see, bread, symbol, floor, what, new, could, son, now, deign, lair, nor, defraud, brought, awed, key, deaf, been, owed, blue, should, rough, boy, feign, bear, sea, women, coat, lieutenant, tough, hay, there, lief, buy, beaux, pay, perceive, guile, bouquet, league, rain, sought, nay, brief, bee, deceive, instead. 5. Tell what words in the following list contain equivalents to any sounds of c, f, g, x, z, sh, and ch: Kent, phlegm, tacks, chagrin, righteous, phonography, physician, sacrifice, champagne, single, exist, ferocious, partition, nation, phonetics, physics, sit, stand, chamois, quarrel, join, Xenophon, passion, phosphorus, just, oceanic, jump, beaux. 11. Combination of Letters. 1. When two or more letters unite, to represent a union of elementary sounds, they form a combination of letters; as, ou, oi, bl, on, no, not, breath, breadth, thrusts. 2. Sometimes a combination of elementary sounds is represented by a Combination of Letters. single letter; as, i = =ae (a in far, and e in me); u in union = yu; o in one wu. 3. Sometimes a combination of letters represents a single elementary sound; as, th in this; ti, ci, si, ce, in martial, mission, official, ocean; oo, ee, aa, gg, zz, bb, ff, ll, tt, in door, feet, Isaac, egg, buzz, ebb, off, call, butt. 12. Union of Vowels. 1. A diphthong is the union of two vowels in one syllable; as,. ou in sound, oi in voice. 2. A proper diphthong is one in which both vowels are sounded; as, ou in thou. 3. An improper diphthong is one in which one of the vowels is silent; as, the a in heat. 4. A triphthong is the union of three vowels in one syllable; as, eau in beauty. 5. A proper triphthong is one in which the three vowels are sounded; as, uoy in buoy. 6. An improper triphthong is one in which one or two of the vowels are silent; as, ea in beauty, ie in adieu. 13. Union of Consonants. 1. Two consonants are said to unite when their sounds coalesce; as, bl-e-nd, thr-ee. 2. If they represent two mutes, these must be similar, that is, both subvocals or both aspirates; as, apt, adze, hats. (See 5, 10, (d).) 3. If two consonants representing dissimilar mutes come together, the sound of one, usually the latter, is changed to its correlative, though the letter remain the same; (5, 6); as, bag, bags, pad, pads bagz, padz, placed plact. In oath, bath, and others, th aspirate becomes th subvocal in the plural, and a follows the rule. Not so with th in truths, youths. = plac'd = = NOTE.-By analyzing the plurals bags and pads, and the possessives dog's and stag's, it will be seen that, though we add the letter 8, which should represent an aspirate, we do not add an aspirate sound, but the subvocal sound represented by z, and that because it is preceded by the subvocals represented by g and d. Mark the difference in the following plurals, where s is preceded by an aspirate: caps, hats, locks. 8 Though d should represent a subvocal, yet in plac'd it takes the sound of Diphthongs, proper and improper. Triphthongs, proper and improper. Consonants coalesce. look'd = its correlative t, because it is made to unite with a preceding aspirate. In the present state of the language, this rule is quite uniform, as may be seen in the past tenses and participles of several verbs; as, looked lookt. This will account for the changes in many of the verbs now called irregular; as, weep, weeped wept. So sleep, creep. wep'd = = 3. When they represent two liquids, they are always similar (5, 8, 9), and their sounds, with some exceptions, readily coalesce; as arm, elm, barn, marl. N becomes silent after m, as in hymn, and after in kiln. 4. When they represent, the one a mute, and the other a liquid, even though dissimilar, their sounds readily unite; as, spend, spent, halt, hart. (See 5, 10, (d).) 5. When two identical letters (double letters) come together, whether standing for mutes or liquids, they seldom represent more than a single sound (11, 3); thus, egg, butt, ebb, whiff - eg, but, eb, whif. = 14. Union of Vowels and Consonants. 1. Any consonant sound may unite with a vowel sound; as, an, no, did, call. 15. Exercise. 1. Point out the vowel combinations in the following words; tell whether the diphthongs are proper or improper :— Fear, pear, voice, sound, pierce, receive, Europe, people, view, adieu, beauty, though, chief, fail, Cæsar, how, sew, gaol, mail, deal. 2. Point out the consonant combinations in the following, and tell what letters are identical, and what are changed into their correlatives: Birds, blend, apt, capped, clapped, buzz, mats, heads, beads, brought, off, skiff, pass, insist, first, faced, round, word, gird, gold, sold, bulb, verb, worm, last, craft, compact, acts. SYLLABLES. 16. Formation of Syllables. 1. A syllable is a letter or combination of letters uttered with one impulse of the voice; as, mat, mat-ter, ma-te-ri-al. 2. The essential part of a syllable is a vowel. NOTE.-By vowel here is meant a vowel sound, whether represented by a single letter, a diphthong or a triphthong. 3. A syllable may consist, (a.) Of a vowel; as, a-cre, ei-ther. Union of liquids,—of identical letters,-of vowels and consonants. Syllables, essential part of. (b.) Of a vowel with one or more consonants prefixed; as, ba-sis, bri-er, three, phthi-sis. (c.) Of a vowel with one or more consonants affixed; as, in, elf, inter-ests, earths. (d.) Of a vowel with one or more consonants both prefixed and affixed; as, n-00-n, tr-u-th, thr-u-sts. 4. A vowel is said to be modified by the consonant which unites with it. Thus, in model, o, and not e, is modified by d. 5. The process of combining elementary parts is called synthesis, and that of separating a combination into its elements is called analysis. NOTE. In analyzing a syllable, let the learner tell, (1.) the essential part, that is, the vowel or diphthong; (2.) the consonant or combination (13.) of consonants which is prefixed to it; (3.) the consonant or combination of consonants which is affixed to it. An. Α n... 17. Exercise. MODELS FOR ANALYZING SYLLABLES. is a syllable consisting of two elements:— is the essential element,—it is a vowel. (Give its sound.) Break. is a syllable consisting of three parts: ea.... is the essential part,-it is a diphthong (why?), improper (why?); e is silent,- -α only is sounded. (Give its sound.) Br... is a union (13.) of two consonants, both representing subvocals, b and r, which are prefixed to ea. (Give their sounds separately, then together.) k.... is a consonant representing an aspirate, and is affixed to ea. (Give its sound.) 1. Analyze the following syllables, and describe each element : Kite, dog, numb, boat, friend, truth, day, wax, bat, view, sound, aid, meet, suit, rude, the, think, sit, leave, three, bursts, threats. 2. Form syllables by prefixing ONE consonant to a, ay, ey, ou, ieu, y; Two or MORE consonants to e, oo, oe, i, ou, oi, ee, ea, ay, ey; by affixing ONE, Two, or THREE consonants to any five of the above vowels or diphthongs. 3. Form ten syllables in which one, two, or more consonants shall be prefixed and affixed to any vowel or union of vowels. WORDS. 18. Words Classified by their Syllables. 1. A word is one or more syllables used as the sign of an idea. Formation of syllables. Vowel modified. Synthesis. Analysis. Words. REMARK.-Written words are used to represent both sounds and ideas. As the representatives of sounds, they are classified according to the number of syllables they contain. 2. A word of one syllable is called a monosyllable; as, boy, pen, tree. 3. A word of two syllables is called a dissyllable; as, na-ture, faith-ful. 4. A word of three syllables is called a trisyllable; as, nat-u-ral, faith-ful-ness. 5. A word of four or more syllables is called a polysyllable; as, unnat-u-ral, un-faith-ful-ness. 6. Accent is a stress of the voice placed upon a particular syllable, to distinguish it from others. 7. Every word of more than one syllable has one of its syllables accented. 8. The accented syllable may be either the first, last, or a middle syllable; as, duʼty, belong', pre-parʼing. 9. Some words have a primary and secondary accent; as, in''defat'igable, in''comprehen'sible. NOTE. In analyzing a word according to its syllables, it should be separated by (31, 1), the accented syllable pointed out, and then each syllable analyzed as in (17). 19. Exercise. MODELS FOR ANALYZING WORDS. Faithfulness. is a trisyllable; repeat (18, 4). Faith .... is the accented syllable; repeat (18, 6). ful and ness. are unaccented syllables. Change the accent first to ful, then to ness; restore it to its true place. Analyze each syllable, (17). 1. Analyze and describe the following words :— Beat, said, tree; friendship, social, himself, stately; complaining, interpret, indolence; incessantly, condemnation, interdicting, domesticate; consanguinity, confederation, impenetrable; mispronunciation, incomprehensible, indefatigable; impenetrability; incomprehensibility. 2. Correct the accent in the following words :— Local', indolence, memorable, ig/noble, frequent/ly, lament/able, actual, indisputable, immuta/ble, retro/spect, com'pletion, lateʼral. 3. Change the accent in the following words to the second syllable, and give their meaning : Au'gust, con'jure, des'ert, en'trance, min'ute, pres'ent, project, in/valid. Monosyllables. Dissyllables. Trisyllables. Polysyllables. Accent. |