TO THE NINTH EDITION. THE eighth edition of this grammar received considerable alterations and additions: but work: of this nature admit of repeated improvements; and are, perhaps, never complete. The author, solicitous to render his book more worthy of the enconraging approbation bestowed on it by the public, h again revised the work with care and attention. The new edition, he hopes will be found much improved.. The additions, which are very considerable, are chiefly, such as are calculated, to expand the learner's views of the subject; to obviate objections; and to render the study of grammar both easy and inter. esting. This edition contains also a new and enlarg ed system of parsing; copious lists of nouns arrani; ed according to their gender and number; and many notes and observations, which serve to extend, or to explain, particular rules and positions.* The writer is sensible that, after all his endeavours to elucidate the principles of the work, there are few of the divisions, arrangements, definitions, or rules, against which critical ingenuity canuoi devise plausible objections. The subject is attended with so much intricacy, and admits of views so various, that it was not possible to render every part of it unexceptionable; or to accommodate the work, in all * The author conceives that the occasional strictures, dispersed through the book; and intended to illustrate and upport a number of important grammatical points, will not, to young persons of ingenuity, appear to be dry and useless aiscussions. He is persuaded that, by such persons, they will be read with attention. And he presumes that these strictures wil gratify their curiosity, stimulate application, and give se lity and permanence to thei, grammatical knowledgea respects, to the opinions and prepossessions of every grammarian and teacher. If the author has adoptd that system which, or the whole, is best suited to the nature of the subject, and conformable to the sentiments of the most judicious grammarians; if his reasonings and illustrations, respecting particular points, are founded on just principles, and the peculiaritics of the English language; he has, perhaps. done all that could reasonably be expected in a work of this nature; and he may warrantably indulge a hope, that the book will be still more exter sively approved and circulated. ENGLISH GRAMMAR. ENGL NGLISH GRAMMAR is the art of speaking and writing the English language with propriety. It is divided into four parts, viz, ORTHOGRAPHY, WTYMOLOGY, SYNTAX, and PROSODY. This division may be rendered more intelligible to young minds, by observing, in other words, that Grammar treats first, of the form and sound of the letters, the combination of letters into syllables, and syllables into words; secondly, of the different sorts of words, their various modifications, and their derivation; thirdly, of the union and right or lea of words in the formation of a sentence; and lastly, of tive just pronunciation, and poetical construction of sentences. PART I. ORTHOGRAPHY. CHAPTER I. OF THE LETTERS. SECTION 1-Of the Nature of the Letters, and of a perfect Alphabet. An articulate sound, is the sound of the human voice, formed by the organs of speech. Orthography teaches the nature and powers of leg ters, 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 A perfect alphabet of the English language, and, indeed, of every other language, would contain a number of letters, precisely equal to the number of simple articu. late sounds belonging to the language. Every simple sound would have its distinct character; and that charac ter be the representative of no other sound. But this is far from being the state of the English Alphabet. It has more original sounds than distinct significant letters; and, consequently, some of these letters are made to represent, not one sound alone, but several sounds. This will appear by reflecting, that the sounds signified by the united letters th, sh, ng, are clementary, and have no single appropriate characters, in our alphabet; and that the letters a and # represent the different sounds heard in bat, hate, buil s and in but, buil, mule. To explain this subject more fully to the learners, we shall set down the characters made use of to represent all the elementary articulate sounds of our language, as near ly in the manner and order of the present English alpasbet, as the design of the subject will admit; and shall annex to each character the syllable or word, which for tains its proper and distinct sound. And here it will be proper to begin with the vowels. i By this list it appears, that there are in the I 4guage fourteen simple vowel sounds; put as shen pronounce log, may be considered as diphther iphthongal vowels, our language, strictly speak |