ENGLISH GRAMMAR.

1. A LANGUAGE consists of Letters, Syllables, Words, and Sentences.

The explanation of these elements is called the GRAMMAR of a language.

PART I ACCIDENCE.

LETTERS.

2. Letters are signs used in writing and printing to represent the sounds in a spoken language.

A collection of the letters used in any language is called an Alphabet.

3. The Alphabet of the English language contains the following letters:

1. Vowels.

a, e, i, o, u, w, y.

B

2. Liquids.

1, m, n, r.

3. Mutes.

Lip-letters or Labials: p, b, f, v.
Tooth-letters or Dentals: t, d.

Throat-letters or Gutturals: k, q, c hard (cat), g hard (go).

4. Sibilants.

s, z, j, c soft (city), g soft (gem).

5. Double letter.

x (=cs, ks, or gs).

6. Aspirate.

h.

The Liquids, Mutes, and Sibilants are usually called Consonants.

4. Two vowels are sometimes sounded together, as ei, oi, eu, ou, often written ey, oy, ew, ow. These are Diphthongs.

5. When two or more vowels are written together and only one is sounded, they are False or Improper Diphthongs: key (ke), vein (vane), sew (so), low (lo), said (sed), build (bild).

EXERCISE 1.

1. Separate the Vowels from the Consonants in the following words: cork, bad, fox, civil, gem, go, jet, pun, quit, size, wary.

2. Divide these Consonants into Liquids, Mutes, and Sibilauts.

3. Divide these Mutes into Labials, Dentals, and Gutturals.

4. Which are the Diphthongs in the following words?amount, noisy, heighten, tower, fewer, boyish, feudal, eying. 5. Point out the true and the false Diphthongs in mountain, joyous, playful, cloister, beam, money, beauty, beau, few, reign, sewing, cheerful.

SYLLABLES.

6. A vowel or diphthongal sound with, or without, one or more consonants forms a Syllable: mon-u-ment-al, reign, beau, ewe.

WORDS.

7. If a single syllable, or a combination of two or more syllables, has a distinct independent meaning, it forms a Word: I, strength, holiday.

8. A word consisting of one syllable is a monosyllable (man); of two syllables, a dissyllable (manly); of three syllables, a trisyllable (unmanly); of more than three, a polysyllable (hippopotamus).

9. Any addition to a word, if placed at the beginning, is called a Prefix (a-live, be-friend); if placed at the end, a Suffix (heal-th, friend-ly) a- and be- are Prefixes, -th and -ly Suffixes.

B 2

EXERCISE 2.

1. Arrange the following words in three columns—1, words with a Suffix only; 2, words with a Prefix only; 3, words with both; underline the Prefix or Suffix: unfriendly, heroic, inhuman, manly, undertaking, health, boyish, forgiven, songs, oxen, rebuild, afloat, unholy, imprison, weight, unfortunate, befriend, dishonour, concealment.

2. Write down six Monosyllables with a Suffix, six Dissyllables with a Prefix, and six Trisyllables with both.

COMPOUNDS.

10. One word is often prefixed to another to limit its meaning: deer-hound, a hound for deer; sea-green, green like the sea; walkingstick, a stick for walking. Words so formed are termed Compounds.

Occasionally the limiting term is placed after the word limited: court-martial, son-in-law.

DERIVATION.

11. If a Prefix or Suffix has no independent meaning, the word is said to be derived: thus weigh-t is derived from weigh, and hunt-er from hunt, because t and er have no independent meaning.

A word is also said to be derived when its form is changed and nothing is added: thus dike and ditch are derived from dig, tip from top, and wrench from wring.