1. There are two general classes, unobstructed and obstructed rounds

2. The organs chiefly employed in the formation of sounds are the lips, tongue, teeth, gums, palate, and throat. It is impossible per.' fectly to separate the functions of these organs, but an approximate reference of the sounds is made in the table subjoined.

REMARK.-The ordinary distribution of long and short vowels in English is arbitrary; for it must be noticed that short i is not the

Elementary Sounds.

short sound of long i, but rather of long e.

The corresponding long and short sounds are those made with the organs in the same posi tions, as indicated in Table II.

32. Certain letters in the English Alphabet have no power of their own, but represent the sound of others in the preceding table, and may therefore be called Equivalents. Equivalents of vowels and diphthongs are numerous.

33. Of the Subvocals and Aspirates, eight pairs are Correlatives. In sounding the first of any of these pairs, the organs of voice*

*The Organs of Voice are those parts (called by physiologists the larynx and its appendages) which are employed in the produc tion of simple vocal sounds.

The Organs of Speech are those parts employed to obstruct or These are the tongue, lips, modify whispering or vocal sounds. teeth, gums, palate, and throat.

and speech are in the same position as in sounding its fellow, but the first, or subvocal, has vocality; the second, or aspirate, has not. 34. Equivalents and Correlatives.

35. The elementary sounds of the human voice, sometimes simple, but more commonly combined, are formed into Syllables and Words.

Syllables.

36. A Syllable is represented, in written language, by a letter or combination of letters uttered by one impulse of the voice, as farm, farm-er, ea-gle, a-e-ri-al.

37. Every word contains as many syllables as it has distinct vocal sounds, as gram-ma-ri-an.

38. A word of one syllable is called a Monosyliable.

39. A word of two syllables is called a Dissyllable.

40. A word of three syllables is called a Trisyllable.

41. A word of more than three syllables is called a Polysyllable.

Division of Words into Syllables.

42. The division of words into syllables is called Syllabication.

GENERAL RULE.

43. Place together in distinct syllables, those letters which make up the separate parts or divisions of a word, as heard in its correct pronunciation.

44. The only definite rules of much value on this subject are the following:-

45. Rule 1. Two or more consonants forming but one elementary sound, are never separated; such as, ch, tch, th, sh, ng, ph, wh, gh, silent, or sounding ƒ, lk sounding k, etc.; as, church-es, watch-es, worthy, fish-es, sing-ing, philoso-phy, sigh-ing, cough-ing, walk-ing.

46. Rule 2. The terminations, cean, cian, ceous, cious, cial, tion, tious, tial, geon, gian, geous, sion, are hardly ever divided; as o-cean, gra-cious, na-tion, coura-geous, etc.

47. Rule 3. Compound words are divided into their simple ones; as, rail-road, bee-hive, hope-less, thank-ful, etc.

48. Rule 4. The terminations of words, when they form a sylla ble, are usually separated from their roots; as writer, teach-es, think-ing, cold-er, old-est.

49. Two separate words combined as one name, are usually separated by a hyphen; as, glass-house, bee-hive.

To this rule, according to modern usage, there are some exceptions. 50. In writing, a word of more than one syllable may be divided at the end of a line, but a monosyllable or a syllable, never.

Spelling.

51. Spelling is the art of expressing a word by its proper letters.

52. The Orthography of the English language is so anomalous, and in many cases arbitrary, that proficiency in it can be acquired only by practice, and the use of the spelling-book or dictionary. The following rules are of a general character, though even to these there may be a few exceptions:

General Rules for Spelling Words.

RULE I.

53. Monosyllables ending with f, l, or s, preceded by a single vowel, double the final consonant; as, staff, mill, pass.

54. Exceptions.—Of, if, as, is, has, was, his, gas, yes, this, us, thus

pus.

RULE II.

55. Words ending with any consonant except f, l, or s, do not double the final letter; as, sit, not, up, put, that, in.

56. Exceptions.-Add, bunn, butt, buzz, ebb, egg, err, inn, odd, purr.

RULE III.

57.-1. Words in ending in y preceded by a consonant, change y into i before an additional letter or syllable; as, spy, spies; happy, happier, happiest; carry, carrier, carried; fancy, fanciful.

58. Exception 1. But y is not changed before ing; as, deny, denying.

59.-2. Words ending in y preceded by a vowel, retain the y unchanged; as, boy, boys, boyish, boyhood.

Exception 3. But lay, pay, say, make laid, paid, said; and day makes daily.

RULE IV.

60. Monosyllables and words accented on the last syllable, ending with a single consonant preceded by a single vowel, double that consonant before an additional syllable beginning with a vowel; as, rob, robber; admit, admittance, admitted.

Exception.-But x and h are never doubled.

61. But when a diphthong or a double vowel precedes, or the accent is not on the last syllable, the consonant is