an edition of Racine of as late a date as 1799 (Paris P. Didot l'aîné).

"Who was the inventor of the present system? Not the Academy, which simply followed the received usage; nor Voltaire, who was notoriously careless as to spelling, but who, if he had invented it, would at least have laid down a guiding principle. Beza used accents, but I have no means of consulting his book. The plan of Du Guez (an Introductorie for to learn French trewly London, no date, probably published about 1550) of writing accents below the line, is evidently a mere device for the use of foreigners." *—MEISSNER.

§ 57. Words in English with French Accentuation."Accent is the stress of the voice upon a syllable of a word. Syllabic accent is an etymological one, and in oldest English it was upon the root, and not upon the inflectional syllables. By the Norman Conquest a different system of accentuation was introduced, which towards the end of the twelfth century began to show itself in the written language."--MORRIS.

"The vocabulary of the French language is derived, to a great extent, from Latin words deprived of their terminal inflexions. The French adjectives, mortal and fatal, are formed from the Latin mortalis and fatalis, by dropping the inflected syllable; the French words nation and condition, from the Latin accusatives, nationem and conditionem, by rejecting the em final. In most cases the last syllable retained in the French derivatives was prosodically long in the Latin original; and either because it was also accented, or because the slight accent which is perceivable in the French articulation represents temporal length, the stress of the voice was laid on the final syllable of all these words. When we borrowed such words from the French, we took them with their native accentuation; and as accent is much stronger in English than in French, the final syllable was doubtless more forcibly enunciated in the former than in the latter language."-MARSH.

"French accentuation even affected words of pure English origin, and we find in Robert of Gloucester wislíche (wisely) for wisliche; begynnyng', 'endyng', etc.; and Chaucer rhymes gladnes'se with distres'se, etc.

* Palsgrave (1530) employs the acute to point out the tonic syllable : Apportéz moi un fagót. Parainsi lheretique se convertíst. Beza (1533) employs with the same object. He points out the advantages of accents for the help of learners, but does not employ them like Du Guez. Pelletier (1555) suggests the use of an accent to show the omission of s, and the length of the vowel. Henri Estienne employs accents as they were employed for a long time afterwards, on the final e only to show when it is not mute: verité.

Spenser's accentuation exhibits the influence of French accent, and Shakespeare and Milton retain many words accented upon the final syllable, which are now accented according to the Teutonic method, as aspéct, convérse, accéss.

As early as Chaucer's time an attempt was made to bring the words of French origin under the Teutonic accentuation, and in the "Canterbury Tales we find mórtal, tem'pest, sub'stance; and many words were pronounced according to the English or French accentuation, as pri'son and prison', tem'pest and tempest'.

In the Elizabethan period we find a great tendency to throw the accent back to the earlier syllable of Romance words, though they retained a secondary accent at or near the end of the word, as na'ti'on, sta"ti'on.

1. Many French words still keep their own accent, especially

(1) Nouns, in -ade, -ier (eer), -è, -ee or -ine (-in), as cascade', crusade', etc.; cavalier', chandelier', etc.; gazetteer', pioneer', etc. (in conformity with these we say harpooneer', mountaineer'); legatee', payee', etc.; balloon', cartoon', etc. ; chagrin', violin', etc.; routine', marine', etc.

Also the following words :- cadet', brunette', gazette', cravat', canal', control', gazelle', amateur', fatigue', anti'que, poli'ce, etc.

(2) Adjectives (a) from Lat. adj. in us, as august', benign', robust', etc.; (b) in ose, as morose', verbose', etc.; (c) in -esque, as burlesque', grotesque', etc.

(3) Some verbs, as baptize', cajole', caress', carouse', chastise', escape', esteem', etc., etc.

In many words, mostly of Latin origin, a change of accent makes up for the want of inflectional endings, and serves to distinguish (a) a noun from the verb, (b) an adjective from a verb, (c) an adjective from a noun :—

(a) augment
tor'ment

(b) ab'sent

fre'quent

(c) a com'pact

an ex'pert

to augment',

to torment', etc.
to absent',

to frequent', etc.
to compact'.
to expert', etc.

(MORRIS.)

CHAPTER II.-VOWEL SOUNDS.

§ 58. The vowel sounds are formed bythe voice, modified, but not interrupted, by the various positions of the tongue and lips examples

Paris.

fâchez.

doux.

The union in one syllable of any two vowel sounds forms a double vowel sound or diphthong: ui in lui; oui in Louis; ouan in louange.

SYMBOLS EMPLOYED TO REPRESENT VOWEL SOUNDS.

§ 59. There are more vowel sounds than there are distinct letters to represent them. Various expedients are employed to remedy in part this defect in the alphabet :

1. Accents are employed.

2. Two of the letters a, e, i, o, u, are employed in combination.

3. N and m are employed in combination with a, e, i, o, u. § 60. There are in French about fifteen vowel sounds.* Nine of these vowel sounds can be represented by the simple letters a, e, i, o, u, sometimes with, sometimes without graphic accents.

1. a as in fatigue.

*This number might be increased, but fifteen are enough for

ordinary accuracy.

E

Several of these can be also represented by two of these letters combined, thus:

Two can only be represented by combinations of the simple. letters.

Four can only be represented by combinations of the simple vowels with n or m.

The last four are called nasal * vowels, the remainder oral vowels.

SYMBOLS GROUPED ACCORDING TO THEIR SOUNDS.

The

§ 61. The three principal vowel sounds are i, á, ou. others are mere modifications of these three. For purposes of comparison they are better arranged in groups. vowel sounds in each of these groups are closely related.

1. i as in key-word Paris.

The

* This name is misleading: the sound does not come through the pose. (§ 85.`

No English key-words are given: almost all the French vowel sounds differ essentially from the English ones, and can be learnt by the ear only.

A careful study of the key-words given is absolutely necessary. The vowel sounds should also be separated from their accompanying consonants, and studied alone.

DETAILS OF THE VALUE OF EACH SYMBOL. § 62. Unfortunately it is very inconvenient, from the different values given to the symbols, to make the grouping given above the basis of the necessary details. No way seems possible, except an alphabetical arrangement according to the symbols. This is done for the most part.

Vowels are 'long', 'common,' and 'short,' in French as in other languages, but the question of "quantity" is not introduced here except in one or two instances, for it is of comparatively small importance. A "common" length will seldom be wrong. In all the key-words the vowel has this 'common' length.

a, à,

§ 63. a, à are generally sounded as in key-word fatigue. But:

1. a when tonic, and closed by r, has somewhat the sound of a in fachez. Example: gare, gendarme.

2. a is silent in août (August), but not in aouté (ripened), its derivative.

*For Quantity, see § 78.

† Or open and tonic: chat (p. 66, note). But care must be taken not to make the sound quite like the â in fâchez. Englishmen are too apt to make this mistake.