A. In the English language there are twenty-six letters, called the English alphabet*, namely, a b cdefghijklmnopq r s t u v w x y z.

Q. What are these letters?

A. These letters are the representatives of certain articulate sounds, the elements of the language.

Q. What is an articulate sound?

A. An articulate sound is the sound of the human voice formed by the organs of speech. Q. Into how many kinds are letters divided? A. Letters are divided into two kinds, vowels and consonants.

Q. What is a vowel?

A. A vowelt 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.

Q. What is a consonant?

A. 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.

Q. Which are the vowels?

A. The vowels are, a, e, i, o, u, and sometimes w and y.

* From alpha, beta, the first two Greek letters. +From the Latin vox, a sound, or voice.

From the Latin consonans (con together, sono to sound)

consonant, sounding with a vowel.

Q. When are w and y vowels, and when consonants?

A. W and y are consonants when they begin a word or syllable; but in every other situation they are vowels.

Q. Into how many parts are consonants divided?

A. Two, mutes and semi-vowels.

Q. What are mutes?

A. Mutes are those letters which cannot be sounded at all without the aid of a vowel. They are b, p, t, d, k, and c and g hard.

Q. What are semi-vowels?

A. Semi-vowels are those which have an imperfect sound of themselves. They are ƒ, l, m, n, r, v, s, z, x, and c and g soft.

Q. Which are liquids, and why are they so called?

A. Four of the semi-vowels, namely, l, m, n, r, are distinguished by the name of liquids, from their readily uniting with other consonants, and flowing, as it were, into their sound. Q. What is a diphthong?

A. A diphthong* is the union of two vowels, pronounced by a single impulse of the voice; as, ea in beat, ou in sound.

Q. What is a triphthong?

A. A triphthong is the union of three vowels

From the Greek Diphthongos (dis twice, phthongos a sound) a diphthong, or double sound, made up of two vowels in the same syllable.

pronounced in the like manner; as, eau in beau, iew in view.

Q. How do you distinguish between a proper and an improper diphthong?

A. 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, oɑ in boat.

OF SYLLABLES.

Q. What is a syllable?

A. 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.

Q. What is spelling?

A. Spelling is the art of rightly dividing words into their syllables; or of expressing a word by its proper letters.

OF WORDS IN GENERAL.

Q. What are words?

A. Words are articulate sounds, used by common consent as signs of our ideas.

Q. What is a word of one, two, three, four, or more syllables respectively called?

A. A word of one syllable is termed a

From the Greek sullabe, (sun together, lambano to take,) the comprehension of one sound in a word.

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.

Q. What is a primitive word?

A. A primitive word is that which cannot be reduced to any simpler word in the language; as, man, good, content.

Q. What is a derivative word?

A. A derivative word is that which may be reduced to another word in English of greater simplicity; as, manful, goodness, contentment, Yorkshire.

ETYMOLOGY.

Q. Of what does Etymology, the second part of Grammar, treat?

A. Etymology* treats of the different sorts of words, their modifications, and their derivation.

Q. How many sorts of words or parts of speech are there in English?

A. Nine: viz. the article, the substantive, the adjective, the pronoun, the verb, the adverb, the preposition, the conjunction and the interjection. Q. What is an article?

A. An article † is a word prefixed to sub

From the Greek etumologia, (etumos true, logos a word,) the origin and derivation of words.

From the Latin articulus, a joint. As joints in the human frame are the principle of easy motion, so is the article requisite to the fluency and perspicuity of language.

stantives, to point them out, and to show how far their signification extends; as, a garden, an eagle, the woman.

Q. What is a substantive?

A. A substantive* or noun is the name of any thing that exists, or of which we have any notion; as, London, man, virtue.

Q. How may a substantive be known?

A. 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.

Q. What is an adjective?

A. An adjective† is a word added to a substantive, to express its quality; as, an industrious man, a virtuous woman.

Q. How may an adjective be known?

A. By its making sense with the addition of the word thing; as, a good thing, a bad thing: or of any particular substantive; as, a sweet apple, a pleasant prospect.

Q. What is a pronoun ?

A. A pronount is a word used instead of a noun, to avoid the too frequent repetition of the same word: as, the man is happy; he is benevolent; he is useful,

Q. What is a verb ?

From the Latin substo, to subsist.

From the Latin adjectivum (ad to, and jacio to cast). It being added to substantives to shew their nature.

From the Latin pronomen (pro for, nomen a noun).