of the highest importance, and essential to enable the pupil both to speak readily and at once to recognize what is said by a native; but the effort in these is far greater than in merely repeating the words and sentences after the teacher, and cannot be continued with advantage for more than half-an-hour or an hour together, but the repetitions may be continued perhaps for two hours together, or the five supposed hours of the lecture in the day may be broken into three lessons.

4. After some progress has been made, and a tolerable pronunciation established, the pupil may begin to repeat by himself word by word and sentence by sentence for a short time, but never for a single day without the exercise with the teacher if possible, lest he get into a slovenly and incorrect habit of pronunciation, which he will inevitably do if he is not continually checked by a true standard in hearing the native teacher.

5. It is evident that in this system an experienced teacher is not absolutely necessary, but any moderately educated native will be able to give the necessary help.

6. One main point in this system is that not a day's work is thrown away, whether the study is followed up or not. Ten, fifty, or a hundred words with little sentences are of an immense use even if nothing further is learnt, and there is thus full inducement for every one in a foreign country to begin to learn the language, whether he expects to be there a day, a month, or a year.

7. In thus acquiring a thousand words, the grammar, &c. will be perfectly acquired with little effort, so far as is

required for all use of the language in social life. If a critical knowledge of the language is required for any purpose, it may of course be mastered, as of course be mastered, as it would be by the pupil in his own language, by special means, though he has used it perfectly, grammatically and correctly before, without having a rule of grammar, &c.

8. It will be found in these sentences that, as in other languages, some are used by educated people which are not grammatical, as in English the educated say correctly, “I did it myself," or "you did it yourself," but, incorrectly, they say, "he did it himself," while the uneducated say correctly," he did it hisself."

There are also some arbitrary expressions, as the word "fih," literally, "in it;" but used to express "it is,” or "there is." The word "tufaddul" is constantly used, corresponding with our, "do me the honour," or "be pleased to," but without expressing what is intended, as "to come in," "to sit down," "to take a cup of coffee," &c., which is understood or. indicated by some gesture, or by the circumstances of the case.

THE ALPHABET.

Alif; the letter a, but it acquires different sounds according to the marks over it, &c., as afterwards explained. Ba; b, English b.

" Tạ ; t,

ج

خ

Tha; th,

Zhim; zh, as z in azure, in Palestine; but in North Syria as j in jem, and in Egypt as g in good.

Ha; h, guttural h.

Cha; ch, guttural ch, as in the Scotch Loch, but harder. > Dal; d, English d.

s Thal; th, as th in that, but with a slight sound of z

و

Mim; m,

པ

h.

w, but this letter is also a vowel, having different sounds according to the mark preceding it.

y, also a vowel.

NOTE. All the sounds peculiar to Arabic, that are not existing in English, are denoted by either one or two dots

under them.

خ

ع

ق

k

The five gutturals, h, ch, દ ,g, and are pronounced quite in the throat, with the back part of the tongue; the sound cannot be produced except with the tongue in this position, and the mouth open, and to acquire the easy pronunciation of them can only be done by multiplied repetitions of the words containing them, after hearing them uttered by a native.

The four palatals are pronounced with the tongue pressed against the palate, and are denoted by one dot under the English letter.

The vowel sounds are these :

-C

:

Fathah denoted by this mark over the consonant which its sound follows; it has generally the sound of short a,

as in 'America;'zhadid, 'new' and often as short e in

Kasrah, denoted by this mark under the consonant,

sounded as short i in 'it,' as

.kirsi, a chair كريسي

Dammah, denoted by this mark over the consonant, sounded as short u in 'full,' as kull, 'all.'

These vowel marks are compounded with the vowel letters \ alif,, wau, and ya; thus, alif with fatḥah before it has the sound of long a, but not the English long a exactly; it is one of the peculiar Arabic sounds, which must of course be learned by the ear, as in kitab, a book.' This sound is denoted in this system by the English @ with a long mark over and a dot under it.

It has a third sound, also not known in English, similar to the first here mentioned, but short, as in Ỷ la 'no,' denoted here by the a with the dot under it, and nothing over it. In other words it has the sound of broad English a in 'mast;' Júkal, he said,' denoted by the English ā with a long mark over it, and nothing under it.

و

Fathah is also compounded with, wau, thus, loun, 'colour,' sounded as ou insound;" and with ya, thus, beit, 'house,' when it has the sound of ei in 'height.' Kasrah is compounded with ya, thus,

having the sound of double e in 'meet.'

zhadid, 'new,'

Dammah is compounded with 9 wau, thus,„„; zuhūr, 'flowers,' sounded like u in 'rule.'

131

There is another mark called hamzah, written over or under the alif, rendering it guttural in sound and very short, thus, with the fathah over | alif, as jakala, 'he eat,'

,akala,

denoted here by the letter a, with two dots under it to mark the guttural, and nothing over it to distinguish it from the long guttural a, & ain.