Chap. I. ORTHOPHONY, Section VII. CACOPHONY. is of Cacophony Boileau intends to speak, when he says, "Il est un heureux choix de sons harmonieux, Le vers le mieux rempli, la plus noble pensée, Quintilian also alludes to it, when he says, "But consonants have also their difficulties, especially those that are rough in the pronunciation, as they are liable to clash together."* A few Cacophonical phrases, composed on purpose to exhibit the deformity of this part of language, will be found below as an exercise. EXERCISE ON CACOPHONY. N. B.-The learner will suppress the Cacophony marked with Italics in the following sentences, and will reconstruct them according to the laws of pronunciation and composition. A la prise de Namur, les soldats montèrent un à un en haut de la tour, pour y planter un drapeau. Quiconque fait ouvertement profession d'Athéisme, sera haï i et hué et de tous côtés. B. Le Matelot qui tomba en bas du babord de ce vaisseau la bas, est mort. C. Ne dites rien à ce Monsieur, car c'est un coquart qui caquette partout et sur tout. D. Le Gouverneur de Lille vient de recevoir un présent de dix dindons dodus de Dudeldorf. F. Les faux fuyants de ce fieffé fanfaron, le font remarquer autant que sa forfanterie. * "Cæterum consonantes quoque, æque præcique, quæ sunt asperiores, in commissura verborum rixantur."-QUINT. de Inst. Ora. lib. ix. c. 4. Translation. Mais les consonnes ont aussi leur difficulté, sur tout celles qui sont un peu rudes à prononcer, étant sujettes à se mal accorder et à jurer, pour ainsi dire, dans l'enchaînement des mots."-L'ABBE GEDOYN. Chap. I. ORTHOPHONY, Section VII. CACOPHONY. G. Quand ce goguenard est en gogaille, il se gogue à gogo de goguenettes. L. Le général apprit sur le champ de bataille, que de là l'on alla le long du lac pour poursuivre l'ennemi. M. Quoique j'aie le malheur d'être né sourd-muet, ma maman m'aime mêmement. P. Un sénateur, ami de César, pompa le pompeux Pompée, mais ne put rien savoir. R. Les marais qui se trouvent dans les Etats du Pape, font que le bon air est très rare à Rome. S. Ces six sons ci sont si souvent répétés qu'on ne se soucie gueres de la chanson. T. J'ai vu ton médecin, il m'a dit que ton thé de thym t'ôta ta toux. V. Toutes les fois que ce bon vivant va vous voir, son humeur est vivifiante. Z. Le zinzolin fut la cause d'une zizanie, qui mit deux amis entre le zist et le zest. Ch. Remarquez comme ce chiche chuchotte à l'oreille de chacun. Gn hard. Parmi les familles regnicoles, les agnats et cognats, descendent du ligne stagnante. Gn liquid. Dans une saison prématurée le vigneron gagne à rogner la vigne. LL liquid. La grappe vermeille brillait comme l'émail sous les feuilles de la treille. TABLEAU, Exhibiting a Synoptical View of the Matter contained in the PROSODY. SECTION I. QUANTITY. SECTION II. ACCENT. DEFINITION OF PROSODIACAL QUANTITY. I. General Rules on Quantity, showing how to find the length of Vowels. II. Particular Rules on Quantity, pointing out the length of Syllables. III. Nature of Prosodiacal Homonymy,-its peculiarity. IV. Exercise on Prosodiacal Quantity, intended to familiarize the learner with the length or quantity of French Syllables. DEFINITION OF THE PROSODIACAL ACCENT. I. Syllabical Accent,-its meaning, use, power, situation. II. Nature and Names of Syllabical Measures. and 1. Masculine Monosyllables,-namely, Syllables ending with consonants. 2. Feminine Monosyllables;-namely, Syllables ending with e mute. 3. Masculine Dissyllables, namely, Syllables ending with consonants. 4. Feminine Dissyllables,—namely, Syllables ending with e mute. 5. Masculine Trisyllables,-namely, Syllables ending with consonants. 6. Feminine Trisyllables,—namely, Syllables ending with e mute. 7. Masculine Polysyllables,—namely, Syllables ending with consonants. 8. Feminine Polysyllables,—namely, Syllables ending with e mute. III. Exercise on the Syllabical Accent, intended to render the situation of the Prosodiacal Ac cent of easy comprehension to the learner. CHAPTER II. PROSODY, OR THE PROPER PRONUNCIATION OF FRENCH SYLLABLES. * DEFINITIONS. THE learned grammarian Beuzée, after having criticised the academician d'Olivet's Treatise on French Prosody, defines this word in the following manner: "Prosody is the art of pronouncing each syllable of each word with the tonic accent, and the proper degree of quantity, either because of the mechanical formation of the word, or in virtue of the usage belonging to the language which we are speaking." Syllables possess two distinct properties, viz. Accent and Quantity. In the first place, as all syllables are not pronounced with the same stress of voice, there are evidently various inflections, some to raise the sound, others to lower it,this is called Accent. In the second place, more or less time being occupied in uttering syllables, on account of some being long, and others short, hence arises Quantity. A brief view of those two essential bases of French Prosody shall now be given, namely, Quantity and Accent. Contrary to other writers on Prosody, we begin with Quantity, because the learner cannot pronounce a word with the proper accent, unless he be previously acquainted with the Quantity. These two bases form two Sections. SECTION I.-QUANTITY. DEFINITION OF QUANTITY. The Quantity of a syllable is the length of time em Prosody is derived from gordia, (prosodia); from gos, (pros,) for, according to; wòn, (ôdê,) singing. Chapter II. PROSODY, Section I. QUANTITY. ployed in pronouncing it, and is of course understood to denote, that an emission of the voice of longer or shorter duration must be employed. The difference between Quantity and Accent is very obvious; the former relates only to measure and time, whereas the latter denotes either an elevation or a depression of the voice in the pronunciation of words or syllables. Whether a language be spoken slowly or quickly, the measure is always the same. The power of the syllables that is fixed by the laws of Quantity never varies, although it may happen that one individual, owing to some defect in the organs of speech, may utterly mangle the half of what he says; while another, through pedantry, or a peculiar constitution, may lengthen the syllables, and loiter on the employment of the words. Suppose, for a moment, two individuals be equally well acquainted with a language, it may happen that although one of them have finished his speech ten minutes before the other, every syllable uttered by both has received its full quantity. It follows, therefore, that Quantity is not absolute, but merely relative. Quantity is either long or short; but let not the pupil imagine, that the French language is divided into these two classes only, for there are some syllables which differ in length. This is owing to some combinations of letters, as aient, the third person plural of the imperfect and conditional of all French verbs; and ée, ie, oue, ue, terminations long in the singular, and still longer in the plural. Syllables called very short, are those with an e mute, either medial or final, as le, de. This letter throws great impediments in the way of perfecting a simple system of French Prosody, because its capricious position prevents certain rules being general. For instance, fermeté presents three sorts of e's; the first is open, the second mute, and the third close. All the three are short; but the middle one, being mute, becomes very short, and throws its power on fer, which in consequence becoming long, takes possession of the |