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LESSON IX.

How many sounds in the word thin? By what is the first represented? Name three other words beginning with the same sound. This element is formed by breathing, the lips being well parted, and the tip of the tongue placed against the upper teeth. Do you hear the same sound in this? Explain. Represent the sonant by th; the non-sonant by th. This consonant is a kind of muffled, or softened, hiss, and is the sound given for s by children who lisp.

The digraph (double-writing) th occurs several times in the foregoing paragraph: in which words is it sonant?

Pronounce promptly the word pull. Now omit the sound of l, but speak the rest of the word as before. Now sound only the vowel. Practice with good in the same manner. We will name this vowel, whether represented by u as in full, pulpit, or by oo as in book, good, "short double o," but denote it by u. This vowel is abrupt, and must not be mistaken for o. Observe the difference: mood, ; foot, u; prove, o; put, u.

Use o in the words food, roof, hoop, truth, brute; but u in book, pullet, full, hook.

Utter abruptly a, e, o, u, i, e, u, o, u, e, a, o, u. Now, with prolonged tones, utter such of the following as are long; the short, as before: ā, ē, i, o, ō, u, u, ä, a, o, ô, e, u, u, e, u, o, i.

Analyze this, that, both, food, thieves, soothe, sooth, puss, buzz, bathe, put, took, tooth (o), Thebes.

Represent the foregoing list; also thenceforth, breathe, truth, beneath (th), playful, fulfill.

LESSON X.

Is

Study the first sound in the word jar; in gem. the initial sound the same in the two words? Is it aspirate or sonant? Represent it by j.

If, in uttering the word jar, you simply breathe the first element, but speak the remainder of the word, as before, you hear char. The sound represented here by ch is as simple as j, and, as we have seen, is its cognate. Denote this by the letter c with a comma beneath, thus,

ç. [Do not infer, however, that ç in the dictionary or gazetteer stands for ch.]

In uttering the sonant j, the resonance should be clear and unmistakable. Pronounce jar, char; chin, gin; large, larch; Jane, chain; rich, ridge; etch, edge.

Observe how you form the first sound in gate. Is it resonant? What difference in sound between the words gate and Kate?

k.

Represent the sonant by g, and the non-sonant by The former is commonly called "hard g," to distinguish it from "soft g" (j), as heard in gem.

Arrange the following eight words in pairs, the words of each pair differing in sound only as k differs from g: brick, call, lack, Gaul, got, lag, brig, cot. Forcibly pronounce the words of each pair.

Represent charm, resonant, ledge, porches, jarred, scorched, engulfed, liege, bilged, arched, charged, giddy, stoical, north, sorrows, badge, lathes, acorn, ached, orthoëpy.

How many syllables in the last word?

On which is the accent? The mark over the e is a diaresis: what is its use? Meaning of orthoëpy?

LESSON XI.

A vowel more frequently heard, perhaps, than any other, occurs before r in her, fir, word, murmur, myrrh. In how many different ways do you here find this sound

represented? Some writers have thought that r of itself denotes this sound; but if you will place the tongue in position to begin the utterance of the word rose, and then, without moving it, attempt to give the initial element in the word earth, you will readily perceive that a more open position of the organs is required for beginning the latter word.

In the formation of the consonant sound denoted by r, the sonorous breath is driven over the vibrating tip of the tongue, which is raised to the roof of the mouth. Practice on sounding r. Many persons make no distinction between bah and bar; they pronounce forlorn fawlawn. you say bahn or barn, fahm or farm, aw or or?

Do

The vowel heard in the word earth has been called the "neutral vowel," as having no strongly marked distinctive character. In Webster's Dictionary four representations

are employed for it; one of these we will adopt, namely e with a tilde over it, thus, e. Call the sound "tilde e,” or, if you prefer, "the neutral vowel."

In the word the, when not emphatic, the vowel is indistinct. If followed by a vowel, the pronunciation approximates the or thi-before a consonant, the or thu.

Practice sounding r. Now utter r th; now ĕr th. Recall what has been said of the position of the tongue in sounding r, and do not fail to pronounce e-a-r-t-h ĕrth, not ĕth. R SHOULD NEVER BE SUPPRESSED, except where two r's stand side by side in one word; then only one is, in general, to be heard.

Analyze bird, further, birth, turbid, therefore, church, Turk.

Represent the foregoing list; also myrrh, journey, fertile, cur, rehearse, mermaid, Herbert, curled, cracker, zenith, nadir, northern, southern.

LESSON XII.

You would write player plaer, and prayer, one who prays, praer; but prayer, a petition, has a different sound of a, one formed through a more open vocal tube. Call this "long flat a," and let à represent it. This sound enters no word, except when immediately followed by r, as in air, heir, ere, e'er, [These four words are pronounced precisely alike], hair, care, where, there, their. We must distinguish between layer and lair, stare and stayer, flayer and flare; but there and their do not differ in sound.

Though no English word contains the digraph zh, yet the sound of the z in glazier and of the s in leisure is known as the "sound of zh." Probably this name was given, because the sound is cognate to the "sound of sh," in share, sure, as z is to s. Represent the aspirate by sh, or, if preferred, by the script "long s;" the sonant by zh, or by the common script z, with a fold below the line.

Analyze beget, fourths, scarce, soothed, patter, proceeds, goods, prepare, sharer, perplexed, disturbed, shadowy, devised, chairs, pitchers, excursion [not zhun], thirty, forty, parent, merciful.

Represent the foregoing list.

LESSON XIII.

RULE.-A as a word, also a unaccented and ending a word, or constituting an unaccented syllable at the beginning of a word, has the sound of ä, but briefer.

Thus, America should be pronounced ämerikä, the two a's very brief, and, because not accented, both spoken lightly, like the final sound in Hannah.

Apply the Rule in pronouncing the last syllable of each of the following words: Anna, Cuba, Mendota, Pāna, algebra. Avoid saying amazed for a(b)mazed, awry for a(h) wry, and again for a(h)gain.

Call this sound "short Italian a," and represent it by ȧ.

The words aôrta and aerial, since they have the initial "unaccented a" immediately followed by a vowel, are exceptions to the second branch of the Rule.

Notice that Asa, Ada, āōrist, etc., have the initial a accented: the Rule does not pertain to initial a under

accent.

Utter, from memory, the following eight non-sonants, in the order here given, and after each its sonant: p, t, ç, k, f, th, s, sh.

Analyze deserve, Martha, pensive, quaked, Noah, Augusta, specie, eightieth, mendicant, modification, erysipelas.

Represent the foregoing list: also, screened, carriage(i), initial, special, equation, explosion, algebra, gauntlet, gutta-percha.

LESSON XIV.

The "short Italian a " is frequently found in monosyllables and in accented syllables, as well as in the positions named in Lesson XIII.

Speak ah explosively, as in Hannah, and with the falling slide, before each of the following words, and give the same sound to the a within the word: ah, task; ah, fast; ah, grass; ah, last; ah, aghast [the same sound twice]; ah, bath; ah, command; ah, staff. Review this practice attentively until the correct utterance becomes

easy.

The subjoined list contains the most common words in which "short Italian a" is used with stress:

Advance, advantage, after, alas, amass, ant, ask, asp, bask, basket, blanch, blast, bombast, branch, brass, cask, casket, cast, caste, chaff, chance, chant, clasp, class, contrast, craft, dance, draft, draught, enhance, fast, flask, gasp, ghastly, glance, glass, graft, grass, lance, lass, last, mass, mast, pass, past, pastime, pastor, plaster, prance, quaff, raft, rafter, repast, shaft, slant, staff, task, trance, vast, waft.

The following list of proper names is inserted for convenience in drill. Let it be used until final unaccented a (a) is no longer heard as "short e," "long a," or "short i.” Say Mendota, not Mendōti; Alabama, not Alabama.

Asa, Ira, Joshua, Amanda, Amelia, Celia, Clara, Eliza, Julia, Laura, Martha, Melissa, Rhoda, Sophia, Africa, Indiana, Minnesota, Pennsylvania (ni-a), Virginia, Louisiana [Say Lo'-i, not Lo-e'; then, zi-an'-a. Now, with strongest accent on "an," pronounce Lo'-i-zi-an'-a].

Represent grandly, aërial, aloof, polka, steady, acorn, sacred, knows, snare, partly, becomes, artisan, arnica, acid, Africa, Peoria, Alps, Norway, morrow, affair.

LESSON XV.

in

With one impulse pronounce côl; also cōk. Compare these syllables with yawl, yoke. With one impulse pronounce oet; ooz. Compare with wet, was. Which represents a more open sound, o or the w in wet? è or the У yoke? In Lesson VII., the elements o and è were called imperfect vowels, on account of the partial closure of the vocal tube during their formation. Each of these vowels, when immediately followed by a vowel in the same syllable, becomes yet closer; o becomes w, as in wet; and è (or i) y, as in yet, pinion. Practice uttering these elements in was and in you; and use w and y to represent them.

Why should the term participial elements or participles appropriately designate initial w and y? They have also been called vowel-consonants, and, by some, semi-vowels. Why?

Which form of the indefinite article is used before yard and watch? To which class, then, the vowel or the consonant, must w and y be regarded as more strictly belonging?

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