THE ninth and eleventh editions of this work have been much enlarged and improved. Exercises adapted to the rules have, in many instances, been copiously supplied. In particular, the exercises in parsing have not only been very considerably augmented; they have also been moulded into a new form and arrangement, which the author hopes will facilitate to young persons the acquisition of this fundamental part of grammatical knowledge. An Abridgment must necessarily be concise, and it will, in some points, be obscure. Those teachers, therefore, who do not make use of the author's larger Grammar, in their schools, will find an advantage by consulting it themselves. Many of the rules and positions are, in that work, supported and illustrated by particular disquisitions; and the connexion of the whole system is clearly exhibited. The sixteenth edition of the duodecimo Grammar has, in these respects, received considerable improvements. Grammar and Exercises, in two volumes octavo, may be consulted with still greater advantage. Holdgate, near York, 1803. The ADVERTISEMENT TO THE BOSTON SECOND STEREOTYPE EDITION. THE principal object of this edition of Grammar, has been to supply some of the defects, which have been experienced in the use of Mr. Murray's Abridgment, and so to enlarge it, that it may the more effectually assist the pupil in parsing and in the correction of the English Exercises.-All that is important, in the large Grammar, concerning Syntax and Punctuation, has been carefully condensed within the compass of this volume. Care has also been taken to preserve the "Abridgment" entire, and not to violate nor distort, in the enlargement, any principle of the author, but to give his own rules and principles, as nearly in his own language, as the nature of the work would admit. The list of Questions, it is believed, will give value to the book, and prove a useful incitement to application and correctness in the pupil. It is also believed, that this book will be found not only more convenient for use than a larger one; but, likewise, sufficiently copious to answer the purpose of teachers and pupils generally, and thereby prevent the necessity and expense of another book. Persons desirous of obtaining an extensive and critical knowledge of grammar, it is not expected, will content themselves simply with the use of a compendium. Boston, Jan. 1824. N. B. TO THE SECOND EDITION. As the plates of the first edition of this work were destroyed by fire, a second has been prepared with additions, and other improvements, interspersed through the book, which, it is believed, will render it much more useful and valuable than were former impressions. The Rules, Appendages, and Notes, in this Grammar, are numbered to correspond to the English Teacher, and the "Boston Stereotype Edition of Murray's Exercises" prepared by the EDITOR. ENGLISH GRAMMAR is the art of speaking and writing the English language with propriety. It is divided into four parts, viz. ORTHOGRAPHY, ETYMOLOGY, SYNTAX, and PROSODY. ORTHOGRAPHY. LETTERS Orthography teaches the nature and powers of letters, and the just method of spelling words. A letter is the first principle, or least part, of a word. The letters of the English language, called the English Alphabet, are twenty-six in number. These letters are the representatives of certain articulate sounds, the elements of the language. An articulate sound, the sound of the human voice, formed by the organs of speech. Letters are divided into vowels and consonants. A vowel is an articulate sound, that can be perfectly uttered by itself; as, a, e, o; which are formed without the help of any other sound. A consonant is an articulate sound, which cannot be perfectly uttered without the help of a vowel ; as, b, d, f, l; which require vowels to express them fully. The vowels are a, e, i, o, u, and sometimes w and y. W and y are consonants when they begin a word or syllable; but in every other situation they are vowels. Consonants are divided into mutes and semivowels. The mutes cannot be sounded at all without the aid of a vowel. They are b, p, t, d, k, and c and hard. g The semi-vowels have an imperfect sound of themselves. They are f, l, m, n, r, v, s, z, x, and c and g soft. Four of the semi-vowels, namely, l, m, n, r, are also distinguished by the name of liquids, from their readily uniting with other consonants, and flowing as it were into their sounds. A diphthong is the union of two vowels, pronounced by a single impulse of the voice; as, ea in beat, ou in sound. A triphthong is the union of three vowels, proounced in like manner; as, eau in beau, iew in view. A proper diphthong is that in which both the vowels are sounded; as, oi in voice, ou in ounce. An improper diphthong has but one of the vowels sounded; as, ea in eagle, oa in boat. SYLLABLES. A syllable is a sound either simple or compounded, pronounced by a single impulse of the voice, and constituting a word, or part of a word; as, a, an, ant. Spelling is the art of rightly dividing words into their syllables; or of expressing a word by its proper letters.* WORDS. Words are articulate sounds, used by common consent, as signs of our ideas. *Dr. Johnson's Dictionary is considered the best standard of English Orthography. 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 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. ETYMOLOGY. 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, the ARTICLE, the SUBSTANTIVE or NOUN, the ADJECTIVE, the PRONOUN, the VERB, the ADVERB, PREPOSITION, the CONJUNCTION, and the INTERJEC TION. the 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. 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 substanti re; as, a sweet apple, a pleasant prospect. |