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Some of the preceding rules may be liable to considerable exceptions; and therefore it is said by Dr. Lowth and others, that the best and easiest direction for dividing the syllables in spelling, is to divide them as they are naturally separated in a right pronunciation; without regard to the derivation of words, or the possible combination of consonants at the beginning of a syllable.

CHAPTER III.

Of Words in general, and the Rules for spelling them.

WORDS are articulate sounds, formed by the organs of speech, and used by common consent, as signs of our ideas.

A word of one syllable is termed a monosyllable; 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, derivative, or compound.

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 can be reduced to another word of greater simplicity; as, manful, goodness, contentment.

A compound word is that which is formed of two or more simple words joined together; as, basketmaker, book-seller, ice-house.

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 in 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, derivative, and compound words, as have been almost universally received.

RULES FOR SPELLING.

RULE I.

Monosyllables ending with ƒ, 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 II.

Monosyllables ending with any consonant but f, 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 III.

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.

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 IV.

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, &c.

RULE V.

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.

RULE VI.

Words ending with any double letter but 1, 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 VII.

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

RULE VIII.

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

Like other terminations, ment changes y into i, when preceded by a consonant; as, accompany, accompaniment; merry, merriment.

RULE IX.

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 X.

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.

RULE XI.

Compound words are mostly spelled in the same manner as the simple words out of which they are formed; as, millpond, stargazer, glasshouse, whereby, herein. Many words ending with double l lose one of the ls in composition; as, handful, withal, also, chilblain, fulfil, &c.

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 negociate, controul and control, expense and expence, allege and alledge, surprise and surprize, complete and compleat, connection and connexion, 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 Orthoepy, "is irresistible, Dr. Johnson's Dictionary has nearly fixed the external form of our language. Indeed, so convenient is it to have one acknow

ledged 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, immovable, moveable; chastely, chastness; fertileness, fertily; sliness, slyly; fearlessly; fearlesness; needlessness, needlesly. 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.

Martin, in his Grammar, observes, that "Hazlitt writes blameable and tameable; but the more modern Grammars agree to elide the e. Indeed, Hazlitt himself has sensible, curable, slavish, and facing; why, therefore, not blamable and tamable? Peaceable, changeable, outrageous, and other words, of course retain the e, in order to preserve the sound of the preceding variable consonant; hence also in singeing, from singe, it is retained to distinguish the word from singing. When the termination begins with a consonant, the e is retained, as in sameness, tastely, &c.: for if the e were omitted, the syllables would become short. Judgment, abridgment, acknowledgment, Westmorland, leave out the e, because the sounds are complete without it. B. Martin has the word truely, but by later writers the e is left out; yet rueful is still unnecessarily retained in our dictionaries, the sound being complete without it. Awful is a word in which the e of the primitive is preceded by a consonant in character, but by a vowel in sound, and speech is regulated by the latter. Wholly is a deviation from all rules.

"Mr. Churchill has a note on double 1, which deserves to be noticed: ‘Illness, fellness, shrillness, and stillness, retain the double 7: why then should we write chilness, dulness, fulness, talness, and smalness? This question is in part answered by himself. Before full, as in skilful and wilful, dropping one I prevents the recurrence of three very near each other.'

"With respect to ful, when it is a termination, it is a light syllable, and its feebleness is rendered more apparent by the omission of one l. This may be the reason why one of the ls is always omitted in derivatives or compounds of ful; and dull, from its similarity of form, is made to follow the example. Chilness, on the contrary, looks too bare when compared with shrillness and similar words; therefore the double I should be retained. Talness and smalness are also erroneous, because, when one l is elided, the syllable loses its sound: tall and small are long, but tal and smal would be short. All, final, should also be retained in syllables of weight: 'Lest, peradventure mischief befall him,' Gen. xlii. 4. Although and withal are words that have been in use from time immemorial; but both of these ords are now quite useless, and the latter in particular has given to modern style. Miscal, as Churchill observes, is calculated

to mislead the pronunciation; but if the double 7 were retained, the word would declare itself.

"Blair says, 'Derivatives from words that end with a consonant, sometimes double that consonant, when the termination begins with a vowel; and sometimes keep the consonant.single, according to the accent:' and Hort says, 'If a diphthong precede the final single consonant, or if the accent fall on the preceding syllable, then the consonant is not doubled:' hence, the latter author has worshiping, worshiped, though others write worshipping, worshipped. Mavor, Hazlitt, and others, also limit the rule to accented syllables; but Allen, having found the rule to fail, says, 'L final is often doubled, when the syllable is not accented; as, duel, duelling; revel, reveller.' Churchill says that 'I and p may be considered as exceptions; for they are commonly doubled, though the accent be not on the syllable to which they belong; as in counselling, leveller, libelled, kidnapper.' These are not the only exceptions: for Sutcliffe has biassed;' to which may be added canvassing from canvas, trafficking from traffic, &c. The fact is, that several short final syllables have their single consonants doubled, and especially such as end in l, c, p, or s; but c is not doubled, except before e and i.

“Mavor says, ‘All derivatives from words ending in er, retain the e before the r, except hindrance from hinder, remembrance from remember, disastrous from disaster, monstrous from monster: but the English vocabulary contains other words in which the e is omitted; as, lustring from luster, suffrage from suffer, sequestrate from sequester, wondrous from wonder, foundry from founder, theatrical from theatre, fibrous from fibre, mistress from master (mister). O is also left out in actress, benefactress, electress, &c. and empress comes from emperor. Most probably the elision of e final first occasioned that of e before r when followed by a termination beginning with a vowel.

"The orthography of terminations is one of the most disputed points in Grammar; and the reason is, that it has seldom been investigated: an examination of the principles of variable terminations cannot therefore be considered useless.

The

"Able and Ible.-Hazlitt informs us that able 'signifies that can, or is worthy to, bear, suffer, or receive the thing expressed by the original word;' and that ible 'is merely a variation of the foregoing.' Thus also Tooke, from whom the idea seems to have come. truth is, that able implies fitness or propriety, and ible possibility. Vendible may be sold, visible may be seen, tangible may be touched, and flexible may be bent; and the property of being sold, seen, touched, or bent, belongs to the object: also soluble is soluible, may be solved. From fallible, corrigible, miscible, delible, &c. come infallible, incorrigible, immiscible, and indelible; which words imply that the objects represented by them contain something that obviates the respective acts of erring, correcting, mixing, and taking out. Able, on the contrary, applies to the agent or operator: portable is able or fit to be carried; probable, able to be proved; tolerable, proper to be tolerated; tenable, fit to be held; amiable, fit to be loved; durable, fit for duration; comfortable, able to give comfort; honourable, proper to be honoured. That which is portable by on is not portable by another; and that which is comfortable to x

C

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