Wis either a vowel, or a diphthong; its pro per found is the fame as the Italian u, the French ou, or the English oo: after o, it is sometimes not founded at all; fometimes like a fingle #.

The rest of the letters are confonants; which cannot be founded alone: fome not at all, and thefe are called Mutes: b, c, d, g, k, p, q, t: others very imperfectly, making a kind of obfcure found; and these are called Semi-vowels, or Half-vowels, l, m, n, r, f,s; the first four of which are also distinguished by the name of Liquids.

The Mutes and the Semi-vowels are diftinguished by their names in the Alphabet; those of the former all beginning with a confonant, bee, cee, &c.; thofe of the latter all beginning with a vowel, ef, el, &c.

X is a double confonant, compounded of c, or k, and s.

Z seems not to be a double confonant in English, as it is commonly supposed; it has the fame relation to s, as v has to f, being a thicker and coarfer expreffion of it.

H is only an Afpiration, or Breathing and fometimes at the beginning of a word is not founded at all; as, an hour, an honest man.

Its initial found is generally like that of i in shire, or ee nearly it is formed by the opening of the mouth, without any motion or contact of the parts: in a word, it has every property of a Vowel, and not one of a Confonant.

C is pronounced like k, before a, o, u; and foft, likes, before e, i, y: in like manner g is pronounced always hard before a, o, u; fometimes hard and fometimes foft before i, and y and for the most part foft before e.

The English Alphabet, like most others, is both deficient and redundant; in fome cafes, the fame letters expreffing different founds, and different letters expreffing the fame sounds.

A

SYLLABLE S.

SYLLABLE is a found either fimple or compounded, pronounced by a single impulse of the voice, and conftituting a word or part of a word.

Spelling is the art of reading by naming the letters fingly, and rightly dividing words into their fyllables. Or, in writing, it is the expreffing of a word by its proper letters.

In fpelling, a fyllable in the beginning or middle of a word ends in a vowel, unless it be followed by x; or by two or more confonants: these are for the moft part to be feparated; and at least one of them always belongs to the preceding fyllable, when the vowel of that fyllable is pronounced short. Particles in Compofition, though followed by a vowel, generally remain

undivided in spelling. A mute generally unites with a liquid following; and a liquid, or a mute, generally feparates from a mute following: le and re are never feparated from a preceding mute. Example: ma-ni-feft, ex-e-cra-ble, un-e-qual, mif-ap-ply, dif-tin-guish, cor-ref-pond-ing.

But the best and easiest rule, for dividing the fyllables in fpelling, is to divide them as they are naturally divided in a right pronunciation; with-out regard to the derivation of words, or the poffible combination of confonants at the beginning. of a fyllable..

WORD S.

WORDS are articulate found's, used by

notions.

common consent as figns of ideas or

There are in English nine Sorts of Words, or, as they are commonly called, Parts of Speech.

1. The ARTICLE; prefixed to fubftantives, when they are common names of things, to point them out, and to fhew how far their fignification extends.

2. The SUBSTANTIVE, or NOUN; being the name of any thing conceived to fubfift, or of which we have any notion.

3. The PRONOUN; ftanding inftead of the

noun..

- 4. The

4. The ADJECTIVE; added to the noun to exprefs the quality of it.

5. The VERB; or Word, by way of eminence; fignifying to be, to do, or to fuffer.

6. The ADVERB; added to verbs, and alfo to adjectives and other adverbs, to exprefs fome circumstance belonging to them.

7. The PREPOSITION; put before nouns and pronouns chiefly, to connect them with other words, and to fhew their relation to those words. 8. The CONJUNCTION; connecting fentences together.

9. The INTERJECTION; thrown in to exprefs the affection of the fpeaker, though unneceffary with respect to the construction of the fentence.

EXAMPLE.

2 8 5

5

7 3 7 3

man, and was bestowed on him by his beneficent

8

6

6

3

5

7 1

but alas! how often do we pervert it to the

4 7 2.

worst of purposes.

In the foregoing fentence, the Words the, a,s are articles; fower, fpeech, facu'ty, man, creator, uses, purposes, are Substantives; him, his, we, it,

are

are Pronouns; peculiar, beneficent, greateft, excellent, worst, are Adjectives; is, was, bestowed, do, pervert, are Verbs; most, how, often, are Adverbs; of, to, on, by, for, are Prepofitions; and, but, are Conjunctions; and alas is an Interjection.

The Subftantives, power, Speech, faculty, and the reft, are General, or Common, Names of things; whereof there are many forts belonging to the fame kind; or many individuals belonging to the fame fort: as there are many forts of power, many forts of speech, many forts of faculty, many individuals of that fort of animal called man; and fo on. Thefe general or common names are here applied in a more or lefs extenfive fignification; according as they are ufed without either, or with the one, or with the other, of the two Articles a and the. The words Speech, man, being accompanied with no article, are taken in their largest extent; and fignify all of the kind or fort; all forts of fpeech and all men. The word faculty, with the article a before it, is ufed in a more confined fignification, for fome one out of many of that kind; for it is here implied, that there are other faculties peculiar to man befide speech. The words, power, creator, uses, purposes, with the article. the before them (for his Creator is the fame as the Creator of him,) are used in the moft confined fignification, for the things here mentioned and afcertained: