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a word of two syllables, a Dissyllable; a word of three syllables, a Trisyllable; and a word of four or more syllables, a Polysyllable.

All words are either primitive or derivative.

A primitive word is that which cannot be reduced to any simpler word in the language: as man, good, content.

A derivative word is that which may be reduced to another word in English of greater simplicity; as manful, goodness, contentment, Yorkshire.*

THERE are many English words which, though compounds in other languages, are to us primitives; thus circumspect, circumvent, circumstance, delude, concave, complicate, &c. primitive words in English, will be found derivatives, when traced to the Latin tongue.

The orthography of the English language is attended with much uncertainty and perplexity. But a considerable part of this inconvenience may be remedied, by attending to the general laws of formation; and for this end, the learner is presented with a view of such general maxims, in spelling primitive and derivative words, as have been almost universally. received.

RULE 1.

Monosyllables ending with f, l, or s, preceded by a single vowel, double the final consonant; as, staff, mill, pass, &c. The only exceptions are, of, if, as, is, has, was, yes, his, this, us, and thus.

RULE 2.

Monosyllables ending with any consonant but ƒ, l, or s, and preceded by a single vowel, never double the final consonant ; excepting add, ebb, butt, egg, odd, err, inn, bunn, purr, and buzz.

RULE 3.

Words ending with y, preceded by a consonant, form the plurals of nouns, the persons of verbs, verbal nouns, past participles, comparatives, and superlatives, by changing y into i; as spy, spies; I carry, thou carriest; he carrieth, or carries; carrier, carried; happy, happier, happiest.

*A compound word is included under the head of derivative words: as, pen-knife, tea-cup, looking-glass, may be reduced to other words of greater simplicity.

The present participle in ing, retains the y that i may not be doubled; as carry, carrying; bury, burying, &c.

But y preceded by a vowel, in such instances as the above, is not changed; as boy, boys, I cloy, he cloys, cloyed, &c. except in lay, pay, and say; from which are formed, laid, paid, and said; and their compounds, unlaid, unpaid, unsaid, &c.

RULE 4.

Words ending with y, preceded by a consonant, upon assuming an additional syllable beginning with a consonant, commonly change y into i; as, happy, happily, happiness. But when y is preceded by a vowel, it is very rarely changed in the additional syllable: as coy, coyly; boy, boyish, boyhood; annoy, annoyer, annoyance; joy, joyless, joyful.

RULE 5.

Monosyllables, and words accented on the last syllable, ending with a single consonant, preceded by a single vowel, double that consonant, when they take another syllable beginning with a vowel; as wit, witty; thin, thinnish; to abet, an abettor; to begin, a beginner.

But if a diphthong precedes, or the accent is on the preceding syllable, the consonant remains single; as, to toil, toiling; to offer, an offering; maid, maiden &c.

RULE 6.

Words ending with any double letter but 7, and taking ness, less, ly, or ful, after them, preserve the letter double: as harmlessness, carelessness, carelessly, stiffly, successful, distressful, &c. But those words which end with double l, and take ness, less, ly, or ful, after them, generally omit one l: as, fulness, skilless, fully, skilful, &c.

RULE 7.

Ness, less, ly, and ful, added to words ending with silent e, do not cut it off; as, paleness, guileless, closely, peaceful; exeept in a few words; as duly, truly, awful.

RULE 8.

Ment, added to words ending with silent e, generally preserves the e from elision: as abatement, chastisement, incitement, &c. The words judgment, abridgment, acknowledgment, are deviations from the rule.

Like other terminations, ment changes y into i, when pre

ceded by a consonant: as, accompany, accompaniament; merry, merriment.

RULE 9.

Able and ible, when incorporated into words ending with silent e, almost always cut it off: as, blame, blamable; cure, curable; sense, sensible, &c.: but if c or g soft comes before e in the original word, the e is then preserved in words compounded with able: as, change, changeable; peace, peaceable, &c.

RULE 10.

When ing or ish is added to words ending with silent e, the e is almost universally omitted: as, place, placing; lodge, lodging; slave, slavish; prude, prudish; blue, bluish; white, whitish.

RULE 11.

Compounded words are generally spelled in the same manner as the simple words of which they are formed; as, glasshouse, skylight, thereby, hereafter. Many words ending with double 1, are exceptions to this rule; as, already, welfare, wilful, fulfil and also the words wherever, christmas, lammas, &c.

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The orthography of a great number of English words, is far from being uniform, even amongst writers of distinction. Thus, honour and honor, inquire and enquire, negotiate and negociale, control and controul, expense and expence, allege and alledge, surprise and surprize, complete and compleat, onnexion and connection, abridgment and abridgement, and many other orthographical variations, are to be met with in the best modern publications. Some authority for deciding differences of this nature, appears to be necessary: and where can we find one of equal pretensions with Dr. Johnson's Dictionary? though a few of his decisions do not appear to be warranted by the principles of etymology and analogy, the stable foundations of his improvements.-"As the weight of truth and reason (says Nares in his Elements of Orthoëpy,) is irresistible, Dr. Johnson's Dictionary has nearly fixed the external form of our language. Indeed so convenient is it to have one acknowledged standard to recur to; so much preferable, in matters of this nature, is a trifling degree of irregularity, to a continual change, and fruitless pursuit of unattainable perfection; that it is earnestly to be hoped, that no author will henceforth, on light grounds, be tempted to innovate."

This Dictionary, however, contains some orthographical inconsistencies, which ought to be rectified: such as, immovaVol. I.

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ble moveable, chastely chasteness, fertileness fertility, sliness slyly, fearlessly fearlessness, needlessness needlessly. If these, and similar irregularities, were corrected by spelling the words analogically, according to the first word in each part of the series, and agreeably to the general rules of spelling, the Dictionary would doubtless, in these respects, be improved.

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Every thing deserves praise, which is done with a view to make language durable: for on the permanency of any tongue depends that of the literature conveyed in it. And if new words, new letters, or new modes of spelling, might be introduced at pleasure, language would soon be disfigured and altered; the old authors would ere long be laid aside as unintelligible, and the new would be consigned to oblivion before their time. Yet several attempts were made in the sixteenth century, to alter the spelling, and even the alphabet, of the English tongue. Sir Thomas Smith, Dr. Gill, and Charles Butler, thought it absurd to speak one way, and write another; and seem to have founded their respective plans of improvement upon this principle, that pronunciation ought to determine orthography: not considering that, as Dr. Johnson well observes, 'This is to measure by a shadow, and take that for a model or standard, which is changing while they apply it. For, according to this rule, pronunciation ought to be uniform throughout the kingdom; which, however desirable, and however easy it may have appeared to some projectors, is indeed scarcely practicable: and the alphabet, or the mode of spelling, must vary continually as the pronunciation varies; which would be a matter of such nicety, as no degree of human wis dom could regulate. Besides reformations of this kind, supposed practicable, would obliterate etymology, and with that, the remembrance of many old customs and sentiments; would take away from the significancy of many important words; and involve in confusion both our grammar and our policy."

PART II.

ETYMOLOGY.

CHAPTER I.

A GENERAL VIEW OF THE PARTS OF SPEECH.

The second part of grammar is ETYMOLOGY, which treats of the different sorts of words, their various modifications, and their derivation.

There are in English, nine sorts of words, or, as they are commonly called, PARTS OF SPEECH; namely:

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1. An Article is a word prefixed to substantives, to point them out, and to show how far their signification extends: as a garden, an eagle, the woman.

2. A Substantive, or noun, is the name of any thing that exists, or of which we have any notion: as London, man, virtue.

A substantive may, in general, be distinguished by its taking an article before it, or by its making sense of itself: as, a book, the sun, an apple; temperance, industry, chastity.

3. An Adjective is a word added to a substantive, to express its quality: as, "An industrious man, a virtuous woman.'

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An Adjective may be known by its making sense with the addition of the word thing: as, a good thing; a bad thing: or of any particular substantive: as, a sweet apple, a pleasant prospect, a lively boy.

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