Orthography or spelling is the art of expressing syllables and words by their proper letters. N. B. These questions upon the vowels, consonants, &c. should be repeated till children can readily distinguish them, and tell what they are. RULES FOR SPELLING. [These rules and exceptions should be committed to memory.] Rule 1. Monosyllables ending with the consonant f, l, or s, preceded by a single vowel, double the final or last consonant; as staff, mill, pass, &.c. The only exceptions are, as, has, is, this, was, his, if, of, us, yes, and thus. Rule 2. Monosyllables ending with any consonant but f, 1, or s, and preceded by a single vowel, never double the final consonant; as, far, thin, for, set The only exceptions are, add, ebb, butt, egg, odd, err, inn, bunn, burr, buzz. Examples. Spell, staff, mill, gross, stress, shall, will. Car, war, drug, nor, hum, fin, fur. Thief, heal, says, as, has, is, this. Small, thin, great, add, egg, odd, inn Practical Questions. Why should the final consonant 1, be doubled in the word spell? Why should the final consonant r be single in the word car? Why does not the word thief double the final consonant ƒ? Ans. Because the final consonant ƒ is not preceded by a single vowel, but by a diphthong; Rule 1. Monosyllables, &c. Why does not the word is, double the final consonants, as it is preceded by the single vowel i? Ans. Because it is an exception to rule 2; as the only exceptions are as, has, is, &c. Why does the word add double the consonant d? Ans. Because it is an exception to Rule 2d. Monosyllables ending, &c-The only exceptions are add, ebb, &c. N. B. These questions should be repeated and varied, till the rules are perfectly understood, and the exceptions readily recollectcd. 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 carries; carrier, carried; happy, happier, happiest. The present participle in ing, retains the y, that i may not be doubled; as, carry, carrying. But y preceded by a vowel, in such instances as the above, is not changed; as, boy, boys; cloyed. Except in lay, pay. and say; from which are formed laid. paid, said. Rule 4. Words ending with y, preceded by a consonant, upon assuming or taking an additional syllable beginning with a consonant, commonly change-y into ; as, happy, happily. But when y is preceded by a vowel, it is rarely changed in the additional syllable; as, boy, boyish, boyhood. 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 syllaole beginning with a vowel; as, wit, witty, thin, thinnish; begin, beginner. But if a diphthong precedes, or the accent is on the preceding syllable, the consonant remains single; as, toil, toiling; offer, offering. Rule 6. Words ending in any double letter but 1, and taking ness, less, ly, or ful, after them, preserve the le double; as, harmlessness, carelessness, carelessly, stiffly, successful. But words ending with double 1, and taking ness, less, ly, or ful, after them, generally omit one l; as, fulness, skilless, fully, skilful. Rule 7. Ness, less, ly, and ful, added to words ending with silent e, do not cut it off; as, paleness, guileless, peaceful ;except in a few words; as, duly, truly, awful. Rule 8. Ment added to words ending with silent e generally preserves the e from elision, or from being cut off; as, abatement, chastisement, incitement ;--but tne e is emitted in judgment, abridgment, acknowledgment. Ment added to words ending with y, preceded by a consonant, changes y into i; as, accompany, accompaniment; merry, merriment. Rule 9. Able and ible, added to words ending with silent e, almost always cut it off; as, blame, blamable; cure, curable; sense, sensible;-hut if c or g soft come before e in the original word, the e is preserved; as, change, changeable; peace, peaceable. Rule 10. When ing or ish is added to words ending with silent e, the e is almost always omitted; as, place, placing ; lodge, lodging; slave, slavish; prude, prudish. Rule 11. Words taken into composition, often drop those letters, which were superfluous in their simples; as, handful, withal, chilblain, foretel. N. B. The Practical Questions subjoined to the first two rules, may, with a little variation, be easily and usefully applied to the nine preceding rules. Prosody. Prosody teaches the true pronunciation of words, and comprises accent, emphasis, and cadence. Accent is a stronger and fuller sound of voice on a cer tain letter or syllable in a word, that it may be better heard than the rest. Ex. In the words ac'cent, emphasis, ca'dence, the first syllable is accented or pronounced fuller and stronger than the others. Emphasis is a stronger and fuller sound of voice on some word or words in a sentence, on which we design to lay pe culiar stress. Ex. "Be wise to-day, 'tis madness to defer." The words day and madness are emphatical. Cadence is the falling of the voice, and generally takes place at the end of a sentence. Punctuation. Punctuation is the art of dividing a written composition into sentences or parts of sentences, by points or stops, for the purpose of marking the different pauses, which the sense and an accurate pronunciation require. The points which are used to mark the various pauses in composition or written discourse, the different modulations of voice in reading, and for other purposes, are the following. The Period is a round dot, marked thus. (-) The Period or full point is used to denote the end of a perfect sentence. The Period is used after every letter or abbreviation, which stands for a word; as, U. S. the United States; Gov. Governor, &c. The Comma is a period with a turn to the left hand at the bottom. (,) The Comma generally denotes a little elevation of the voice, and is used to separate distinct numbers, or similar words in succession; as, one, two, 3, 4. John, James, and William, &c. The Semicolon is a comma with a period over it. The Semicolon is used to divide a compound sentence into two or more simple sentences; as, Fear God, and keep his commandments; this is the whole duty of man. The Colon is two periods, one over the other. (:) The Colon is used to divide a sentence into two or more parts, not so nearly connected, as those separated by the semicolon. It is thought by many, that the colon is superfluous. crooked mark with a period under it. (?) The note of Interrogation is used to show that a ques tion is asked; as, Who is there? The note of Admiration is a perpendicular straight mark with a period under it. The note of Admiration is used to express strong emo tions of joy, grief, surprise, &c. as, Oh, what folly! What madness! No precise rules can be given for the length of time we should stop at the several points. Different kinds of composition should be read differently. Serious and solemn subjects should be read more slowly, and with longer pauses at the same marks, than subjects of a cheerful and animated kind. The pauses usually allowed at the several points are, The Parenthesis is used to include a sentence, or part of a sentence, which might be omitted without injuring the sense. The Apostrophe is a comma placed over a word. (tho') The Apostrophe is used to denote the possessive case of a noun; or, that one or more letters are left out of a word to shorten it; as, the king's guard; lov'd for loved. The Caret is an inverted v, placed under the line. The Caret is used to show, that some letter, or word, or sentence, is left out by mistake, and must be taken in above it; as, m forgive "To err is huan; to divine." The Hyphen is a short straight mark. (-) The Hyphen is used at the right hand or last end of a line, when part of a word is written in the next line; and to connect compound words; as, school-boy. The Accent marked (or) shows that the syllable, after which it is placed, should be pronounced with a stronger and fuller sound of voice; as, des'ignate, demon'strate. The different sounds of the vowels are denoted, The short sound by(); as short a in hǎt. The broad sound by (); as broad a in hâll. long broad, by (), as in fàr for The sharp or circumflex sound by ('), which is peculiar to the vowel a, as in cåre. |