and alphabetic learners, we may be told, have, on the old plan, but five characters to commit to memory. But have we only five sounds? While we possess nearly thrice the number of vowel sounds that we have of letters, it is folly to think of teaching the sounds by the letters. Each letter has to be studied as many sounds; and a tedious enumeration of diphthongs and triphthongs, arbitrarily compounded to the eye, though generally simple to the ear, have to be committed to the memory, as symbolic of an immense plurality of sounds. By our plan, thirteen sounds must be associated with thirteen invariable marks, and there the difficulty ends. We may retain our irregular orthography as long as we like, and trouble our youth little about it, if we only teach them to associate vowel sounds with a simple numerical notation. To show the minute accuracy with which Pronunciation may be noted and taught by means of this vowel scheme, the following marked passages are inserted. In order to use the notation with certainty, the student must first thoroughly master the simple key SOUNDS, and associate them with the numbers, without any connexion with letters. He must next gain the power of vocally analyzing his utterances, so as to be able to produce singly the very same quality of vowel which he forms in the articulate combinations of words. NOTE.-The letter R, after any long vowel, has invariably the sound of the Eighth Vowel. L and N at the end of a word are printed in italics, to show that these letters then, of themselves, constitute syllables. A hyphen between two numbers indicates that the sounds are diphthongally blended. VARIABLE WORDS. The article the is pronounced the before an articulation, and before the first vowel; and generally the before any other vowel. The pronouns my The verbs were 7-1 2 2 2 and mine are pronounced my and mine when unemphatic. 7-1 4-8 and been are pronounced were and been, when not emphatic. The words 4-8 4-8 4-8 4-8 there, (impersonal,) their, wherefore, and therefore, are contracted into ther(e), their, wherefore and therefore, when unemphatic. Vice is the cruel enemy which renders men destructive to men: which racks the body with pain, and the mind with remorse ; 10 4 9 which produces strife, faction, revenge, oppression, and sedition; which embroils so-ci-et-y, kindles the flames of war, and erects inquisitions; which takes away peace from life, and hope from death; which brought forth death at first, and has ever since clothed it with all its terrors; which arms Nature and the God of Nature against us; and against which it has been the business 9 10 3 2 13 7-1 7-13 12 2 9 of all ages to find out provisions and securities, by var-i-ous By the term Liberty, I understand a freedom from all respon sibility, except what morality, virtue, and religion impose. That is the only liberty which is consonant with the true interests of man-the only liberty that renders his ci-ation with his fellows permanent and happy-the only liberty that places him in a peaceful, honourable, and prosperous com munity-the only liberty that makes him the son of a land that he would inhabit till his death, and the subject of a state that he would defend with his property and his blood. To set the mind above the appet i tes is the end of abstinence; which one of the Fathers observes to be, not a virtue, but the ground-work of a virtue. By for-bear-ing to do 2 12 4 2 1 9 innocently be done, what may 3 5 7-13-8 2 13 2 9 13 sure or interest shall lend their charms to guilt. The death that threaten'd him.-I could not shoot, Will care much more for him.-MARY HOWITT. THE ASPIRATION H. All the vowels are, of course, vocal: but it must be evident that the vowel positions may be assumed, to modify a voiceless current of breath. In this way is produced a common element of language—the aspiration H. H is simply a breathing of the vowels the organs are adjusted to the vowel position before the breathing of H is emitted. Thus h in he, hay, high, hoe, who, has a very different effect,-just as different as that of the vowels themselves in these words. H is to the vowels,-exactly what Pis to B, F to V, S to Z, &c..—a breath variety of the same formations. How, then, it may be asked, can h be recognised in whispering? The whispered vowel has, like the spoken one, an explosive commencement in the glottis—the H has not. Let this be tested in such words as is and his, eel and heel, art and heart, old and hold, &c. WHISPERED, and the difference between H and a whispered vowel will be manifest. All the elements of language, then, vowel as well as articulate, may be classed under the three heads,-BREATH, VOICE, and NASAL. H represents the breath forms of the vowels; and their nasal varieties are the French elements, en, in, on, &c.—thus : BREATH. VOICE. NASAL. .All Vowels........... French Semi-nasal Vowels. Breath Articulations... Voice Articulations... Nasal Articulations. |