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6. Fast, cast, last, lass, pass, grass, shaft. and ä].

[Shun â, à, Each one should observe his own tendencies in speech. Many, perhaps most, young people need to guard watchfully and perseveringly against an indolent utterance. This indolent or feeble enunciation is chiefly perceptible on short vowels, and on the eight sonants, b, d, j, g, v, th, z, and zh.

Analyze and Write void, thou, shawl, musing, shining, wringer, clashing, prudent, useful, wherever, which, where'er, cerulean, useful, usury (zhu), sugar, sumac, mercury, merry, council.

LESSON XX.

In some instances, the error referred to in the previous lesson consists in repeating the vowel, rather than in substituting the long cognate,-thus, ha-and (or ha-und) for hand, me-et (or me-ut) for met. Whichever the error, the corrective is this, a quick, decisive pronunciation. pains should be spared to acquire this, not only in recitation, but as a habit of speech.

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Orthoëpists do not recognize any correspondent for ō. We must pronounce hole and whole precisely alike. Say rō road; bō, boat.

Close observation upon ō will convince the student that it is not strictly an element; the close, or "vanish," is, quite distinctly, o or u,-o-o. And though it is not well to give prominence to this "vanish," it is not allowed to omit it altogether, except, perhaps, in a few instances when ō is unaccented, as in geology.

Long a has likewise a vanish (in ē or i), the omission of which, if indeed possible, is certainly a less frequent error than its too great prominence.

p t &

k f th S sh

d J g v th Ꮓ zh

Which of the foregoing represent non-sonants?

The first four consonants in each line have been called abrupts; the remaining four, continuants. Why should these names be thought appropriate?

In some languages, as the German, the difference between a sonant and its cognate is not so clearly marked as in the

English. Thus, if you pronounce tok, you give very nearly the consonant sounds used by a German when he attempts to say dog. Whoever fails to make unmistakably clear, in his speech, the difference between a sonant and its cognate cannot be a good speaker of the English language.

Memorize (in order) the sixteen sounds indicated above; also the list of simple vowels given in Lesson XIX.

Analyze and Write apparel, tomorrow, terrify, lasting, passive, passing [the accented vowels in the last two words differ], furry, music, German, continued, curfew, precisely, sounds, mischief, modulate, fulsome, seamstress, zealous, noisome, pincers.

LESSON XXI.

Pronounce bar, her, fir, for, cur. Monosyllables ending inr (or rr) preceded by a single vowel are so regular in their vowel sounds that readers early learn the power of each vowel thus placed; a (unless preceded by w or has the sound of a, o is o, and each of the others, qu This regularity aids the student essentially in the pronunciation of a word which he meets for the first time.

When to such a monosyllable a consonant is added, the vowel, if it is a, e, i, or u, is not changed in sound; if o, it may change to ō, as in port, torn, worn, or to ẽ, as in work, word.

If to the first-mentioned forms e be added, the changes are more noteworthy. Then a become â,—bar, bare; e,ēher, here; i, i,-fir, fire; o, ō,-for, fore; and u, ū,—cur, cure. Observe that each vowel except a [long a is never followed in the same syllable by r] now takes its 66 name sound," here, ē; fire, i; fore, ō; cure, ū.

If any one of the combinations ar, er, ir, or, occurs elsewhere than at the close of a word, and is immediately followed by a syllable beginning with a vowel, the vowel preceding the r has its proper short sound; thus, ar-id, ster-ile, mir-a-cle, or-ange. When not so followed, the vowel before r has the same power as before r in a monosyllable.

Ur is rarely followed by a syllable opening with a vowel, except when the r is doubled; in which case u likewise becomes short.

Rr not terminal (in sound) is uniformly followed in primitive words by a vowel; hence, in such words, it is

always preceded by a short vowel; thus, marry, herring, Pyrrhus, morrow, horror, furrow, mirror. Even in derivatives, the effect of the following vowel is sometimes felt. For example, though from abhor we have abhôrd, we also have abhorens; from concur, konkurent; and from conspire, konspirasi.

The following list embraces words often mispronounced, from a non-observance of the principle laid down in the fourth paragraph of this lesson. Re-state the principle; also note that in words where the r is initial in a syllable, the preceding vowel is long, as in mu-ral, pe-riod, se-ri-ous.

Arab, arable, arenaceous, Areopagus, arithmetical, aristocrat, apparel, alarum, barometric, Carib, carat, caravan, parachute, paradox, parallel, prevaricate, harass, paramount, hilarity, farinaceous, Saracen, larynx, rarefy, rarity, character, guarantee, caparison, carol, maritime, disparity, disparage, peroration, peril, perigee, perish, peradventure, cerebral, therapeutics, verify, very, peregrination, stereotype, derivation, sterile, ceremony, derelict, derogate, querulous, ferule, heron, kerosene, seraph, heroine, imperative, sheriff, cherub, erudition, heresy, virile, pyrotechnic, miracle, empyrean, delirium, empiricist, tyrannous, lyrical, pyramid, florid, foreign, orange, coral, florin, Doric, forage, forest, quarantine, horologe, orator, origin, orifice, oriflamme, chorister.

Write and Analyze the first twenty words in the foregoing list.

LESSON XXII.

Which syllable can you utter more easily, latçd or lagt, helpt or helpd, bagd or bagt? It is found that two nonsonants or two sonants may be more easily spoken with a single impulse than a combination embracing one of each class.

ASSIMILATION is the act of bringing or changing into a likeness; in Pronunciation, it consists in sounding a sonant for its cognate non-sonant written in the word, or the reverse, for the purpose of making it coalesce with an adjacent sound. Thus t is sounded for printed d in oped, and z for s in odes. Notice that, as written, the two consonants in oped are of unlike classes; so, also, in odes: in speaking, they are brought to a likeness, assimilated.

Show what assimilation takes place in pronouncing the words in each of the following lists:

1. Latched, lapped, cracked, laughed, passed, lashed. 2. Eliab's, David's, dove's, crag's.

3. Clods, eggs, tubs, wives.

4. Ebbs, treads, begs, loves.

Form a preterit, or past tense, in ed, as in list (1), but let the non-sonant preceding the termination be t. Ed now becomes a syllable. Why does not d assimilate with t? Try it.

Form four possessives, in the singular, whose nominatives end in four different non-sonants. What assimilation here? Form four plurals, ending respectively in ps, fs, ts, and ks. Why does the terminal s retain its sound?

Blackguard is pronounced blag-ård, and cupboard, kubord. Why?

Write and Analyze the second twenty words in the list at the close of Lesson XXI.

LESSON XXIII.

The following seven words, bath, cloth, lath, mouth, oath, path, wreath, change the non-sonant th of the singular to sonant th in the plural, the added s, of course, becoming sonant. Pronounce the seven plurals. No other nouns show this irregularity; the plural of truth ends with two non

sonants.

The terminal consonants dth and dths do not assimilate. Give to d its full sonant power in width, breadth, hundredth, hundredths, thousandth, thousandths.

Why are l, m, n, r, and n called liquids? Are they sonant or non-sonant? Consider the words milk, harp, pant, tempt (p silent), length, drink, and state whether any one of the liquids compels the following consonant to assimilate. What of assimilation in prow, flay, shrine, smart,—in which the liquid follows a non-sonant? Is it the same with chasm, spasm, prism, microcosm? What other combination than sm can you find, in which the former of two consonants assimilates to the latter?

Write and Analyze the last ten words in Lesson XXI.; also while, uniform, truths, plural, smoked, bathes, sheaths, sheathes, dodged, draped.

LESSON XXIV.

In the formation of the consonants, the tube or passage of the voice is closed at three different stations; at the lips, at the anterior part of the hard palate (or roof), and at its posterior part. Consonants formed at the first station are called labials; those formed at the second station, dentals or linguo-dentals; and those at the third, gutturals or palatals.

Utter the list of consonants in Lesson XIX., and tell at which station each is formed. To which station will you assign v? y? hw? 1? r?

In pronouncing the sounds b, d, and g, the pupil was cautioned against allowing a resonance in the nasal cavity. When this is allowed while the lips are in contact as for forming b, m is sounded and not b. M is properly called nasal; it is also labial. Each other station also furnishes a nasal. The second, closed as for d, gives n; and the third, closed as for g, gives n. In what respect does m differ from b? n from d? n from g?

With one closure of the first station we can form the combination, mb; with one of the second, nd; and with one of the third, ng. In pronouncing cabman, amber, candy, goodness, younger, the stations are not opened between b and m, n and d, n and g; but the former consonant is left without being articulated, that is, it is not disjoined from the succeeding consonant element. So of double consonants: though in chilly we give less time to the ll than in coolly, in felly (a felloe) less than in felly (fiercely), and less to the nn in pennon than in penknife, yet even in the latter we do not articulate two l's or two n's. We dwell upon the former consonant for a moment, and then, without opening the station, give a new impulse, thus forming the latter perfectly.

It is well in representing penknife, coolly, &c., phonetically, to write the consonant twice, distinguishing the utterance from that of the duplicate consonants in banner, folly, &c., which are strictly simple in power.

Few persons need be cautioned lest they form the habit of over-exactness in enunciation. It would be a violation of good usage, however, fully to enunciate the closing element of the adjective in uttering the phrase small larch, or the k in the phrases dark green and black cobbler.

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