There is also a Grammar of musically measured Sentences; and this grammar is called Prosody.

(i) Orthography comes from two Greek words: orthos, right; and graphē, a writing, The word therefore means correct writing.

(ii) Etymology comes from two Greek words: etumos, true; and logos, an account. It therefore means a true account of words.

(iii) Syntax comes from two Greek words: sun, together, with ; and taxis, an order. When a Greek general drew up his men in order of battle, he was said to have them "in syntaxis." The word now means an account of the build of sentences.

(iv) Prosody comes from two Greek words: pros, to; and ōdē, a song. It means the measurement of verse.

THE GRAMMAR OF SOUNDS AND LETTERS, OR ORTHOGRAPHY.

6. The Grammar of Sounds.-There are two kinds of sounds in our language: (i) the open sounds; and (ii) the stopped sounds. The open sounds are called vowels; the stopped sounds consonants. Vowels can be known by two tests-a negative and a positive. The negative test is that they do not need the aid of other letters to enable them to be sounded; the positive test is that they are formed by the continuous passage of the breath.

(i) Vowel comes from Fr. voyelle; from Lat. vocālis, sounding.

(ii) Consonant comes from Lat. con, with; and sono, I sound.

(iii) Two vowel-sounds uttered without a break between them are called a diphthong. Thus oi in boil; ai in aisle are diphthongs. (The word comes from Greek dis, twice; and phthongē, a sound.)

7. The Grammar of Consonants: (1) Mutes.-There are different ways of stopping, checking, or penning-in the continuous flow of sound. The sound may be stopped (i) by the lips-as in ib, ip, and im. Such consonants are called Labials. Or (ii) the sound may be stopped by the teeth-as in id, it, and in. Such consonants are called Dentals. Or (iii) the sound may be stopped in the throat-as in ig, ik, and ing.

These consonants are called Gutturals. The above set of sounds are called Mutes, because the sound comes to a full stop.

(i) Labial comes from Lat. labium, the lip.
(ii) Dental comes from Lat. dens (dents) a tooth.
(iii) Guttural comes from Lat. guttur, the throat.
(iv) Palatal comes from Lat. palātum, the palate.

Hence also dentist.

8. The Grammar of Consonants: (2) Spirants. Some consonants have a little breath attached to them, do not stop the sound abruptly, but may be prolonged. These are called breathing letters or spirants. Thus, if we take an ib and breathe through it, we make it an iv-the b becomes a v. If we take an ip and breathe through it, it becomes an if the p becomes an f. Hence v and f are called spirant labials. The following is a complete

TABLE OF CONSONANT SOUNDS.

(i) The above table goes from the throat to the lips-from the back to the front of the mouth.

(ii) b and d are pronounced with less effort than p and t. Hence b and d, etc., are called soft or flat; and p and t, etc., are called hard or sharp.

9. The Grammar of Letters.-Letters are conventional signs or symbols employed to represent sounds to the eye. They have grown out of pictures, which, being gradually pared down, became mere signs or letters. The steps were these: picture; abridged picture; diagram; sign or symbol. The sum of all the letters used to write or print a language is called its Alphabet. Down to the fifteenth century, we employed a set of Old English letters, such as a b c−x y z, which were the Roman letters ornamented; but, from that or about that time, we have used and still use only the plain Roman letters, as a b c―x y z.

The word alphabet comes from the name of the first two letters in the Greek language: alpha, beta.

10. An Alphabet.—An alphabet is, as we have seen, a code of signs or signals. Every code of signs has two laws, neither of which can be broken without destroying the accuracy and trustworthiness of the code. These two laws are:

(i) One and the same sound must be represented by one and the same letter.

Hence: No sound should be represented by more than one letter.

(ii) One letter or set of letters must represent only one and the same sound.

Hence: No letter should represent more than one sound.

Or, put in another way:

(i) One sound must be represented by one distinct symbol. (ii) One symbol must be translated to the ear by no more than one sound.

(i) The first law is broken when we represent the long sound of a in eight different ways, as in-fate, braid, say, great, neigh, prey, gaol, gauge.

(ii) The second law is broken when we give eight different sounds to the one symbol ough, as in-bough, cough, dough, hiccough (=cup), hough (=hock), tough, through, thorough.

11. Our Alphabet.—The spoken alphabet of English contains forty-three sounds; the written alphabet has only twenty-six symbols or letters to represent them. Hence the English al

For it

The work

phabet is very deficient. But it is also redundant. contains five superfluous letters, c, q, x, w, and y. of the letter c might be done by either k or by s; that of q by k; is equal to ks or gs; w could be represented by 00; and all that y does could be done by i. It is in the vowelsounds that the irregularities of our alphabet are most discernible. Thirteen vowel-sounds are represented to the eye in more than one hundred different ways.

(i) There are twelve ways of printing a short i, as in sit, Cyril, busy, women, etc.

(ii) There are twelve ways of printing a short e, as in set, any, bury, bread, etc.

(iii) There are ten ways of printing a long ē, as in mete, marine, meet, meat, key, etc.

(iv) There are thirteen ways of printing a short u, as in bud, love, berth, rough, flood, etc.

(v) There are eleven ways of printing a long u, as in rude, move, blew, true, etc.

THE GRAMMAR OF WORDS, OR ETYMOLOGY.

There are eight kinds of words in our language. These are (i) Names or Nouns. (ii) The words that stand for Nouns are called Pronouns. (iii) Next come the words-that-go-withNouns or Adjectives. (iv) Fourthly, come the words-thatare-said-of-Nouns or Verbs. (v) Fifthly, the words that go with Verbs or Adjectives or Adverbs are called Adverbs. (vi) The words that-join-Nouns are called Prepositions; (vii) those that-join-Verbs are called Conjunctions. Lastly (viii) come Interjections, which are indeed mere sounds without any organic or vital connection with other words; and they are hence sometimes called extra-grammatical utterances. Nouns and Adjectives, Verbs and Adverbs, have distinct, individual, and substantive meanings. Pronouns have no meanings in themselves, but merely refer to nouns, just like a in a book. Prepositions and Conjunctions once had independent

meanings, but have not much now: their chief use is to join words to each other. They act the part of nails or of glue in language. Interjections have a kind of meaning; but they never represent a thought-only a feeling, a feeling of pain or of pleasure, of sorrow or of surprise.

NOUNS.

1. A Noun is a name, or any word or words used as a

name.

Ball, house, fish, John, Mary, are all names, and are therefore nouns. "To walk in the open air is pleasant in summer evenings." The two words to walk are used as the name of an action; to walk is therefore

a noun.

The word noun comes from the Latin nomen, a name. From this word we have also nominal, denominate, denomination, etc.

THE CLASSIFICATION OF NOUNS.

2. Nouns are of two classes-Proper and Common.

3. A proper noun is the name of an individual, as an individual, and not as one of a class.

John, Mary, London, Birmingham, Shakespeare, Milton, are all proper

nouns.

The word proper comes from the Latin proprius, one's own. Hence a proper noun is, in relation to one person, one's own name. From the same word we have appropriate, to make one's own; expropriate, etc.

(i) Proper nouns are always written with a capital letter at the beginning; and so also are the words derived from them. Thus we write France, French, Frenchified; Milton, Miltonic; Shakespeare, Shakespearian.

(ii) Proper nouns, as such, have no meaning. They are merely marks to indicate a special person or place. They had, however, originally a meaning. The persons now called Armstrong, Smith, Greathead, no doubt had ancestors who were strong in the arm, who did the work of smiths, or who had large heads.

(iii) A proper noun may be used as a common noun, when it is employed not to mark an individual, but to indicate one of a class. Thus we can say, "He is the Milton of his age," meaning by this that he possesses the qualities which all those poets have who are like Milton.

(iv) We can also speak of "the Howards," "the Smiths," meaning a number of persons who are called Howard or who are called Smith.