As the intention of this short treatise is merely to point out what may be useful to an English learner, the writer forbears to follow l'Abbé d'Olivet and others, who have treated on French Prosody. With regard to the long and short vowels, they may generally be distinguished by the different accents, (p. 32), without the assistance of written rules; and of French Pronunciation, it may be said, that the characteristic chiefly to be aimed at, is an easy, flowing, continuity of utterance. Here follows a Praxis on some French words, most of which are spelt nearly alike in both languages, but all accented on the last syllable. IFL Attention. Entendement. Adversité. Agilité. Animosité. Antiquité. Aridité. Avidité. Divinité. OF THE EMPHASIS. The EMPHASIS, which is a stronger stress of the voice than that merely accentual, is placed on the most important word of the sentence. In French a pause is made before and after that word which is sounded with a louder tone, but with no forcible articulation or utterance, as in this example with the word excellent used emphatically: Voilà un excellent-ouvrage. Generally speaking, in French, a sentence is so constructed as not to need the assistance of a strong emphasis. By means of c'est in the affirmative, and est-ce or est-ce que in the interrogative, the emphatical word or words are sufficiently marked. So the word upon which an emphatical accent is laid comes first, preceded by c'est. Example: I shall go to town to-day.—C'est aujourd'hui que j'irai à la ville. I shall go to town to-day.—C'est à la ville que j'irai aujourd'hui. Instead of using the pronouns, je. tu, il, nous, vous, ils, by themselves, we add moi, toi, &c., either before or after the verb. Example: Moi je le ferai.—I shall do it. To me, te, le, being in the accusative case, we add moi, toi, lui, &c., after the verb, or make use of c'est; as, Vous me voyez moi, (or) C'est moi que vous voyez.— You see me. To me, te, lui, &c., being in the dative case, we add à moi, &c., or begin the sentence with C'est à moi, &c.; as, Vous me parlez à moi, (or) C'est à moi que vous parlez.—You speak to me. The demonstrative pronouns, ce, cet, cette, ces—this, that, &c., being emphatic, take ci and là; as, Non pas cet homme-ci, mais cet homme-là.-Not this man, but that man. Instead of y, en, we use là and de là, or dans, or de cet endroit. Instead of mon, ma, mes, we use à moi, à toi, &c. GENERAL RULES FOR READING FRENCH CORRECTLY. 1st.-Give each vowel its proper sound, according to the directions given, p. 4. 2nd.-Articulate the consonants clearly (particularly the r and s), and observe the rules laid down, pp. 23 and 24. 3rd. The accent should be nearly equal upon every syllable, excepting such as are composed of the e mute, or that precede the e mute, or that are immediately before a pause. See p. 38. 4th.-Glide over the e mute, when in the middle of a word, or before a consonant. See p. 35. 5th. Observe the rules on the junction of words. See p. 37. 6th. In reading, if a word should occur, the pronunciation of which is difficult, each syllable should be supposed to be divided (see p. 15), and the sound of each vowel to be given as in p. 4. 7th.-Avoid dropping the voice at a comma. Note. The pupil, when attending closely to the pronunciation, is not always able to understand what he reads, and cannot, therefore, be expected to give the right tone and pauses; but he will be perfectly intelligible, provided he mechanically keeps up his voice at each comma, suspending it still more at a semicolon, and so forth, till he comes to a full stop, at which mark the voice ought to have the falling inflection. |