II. OF THE ACUTE, GRAVE, AND CIRCUMFLEX ACCENTS, AND OTHER ORTHOGRAPHICAL SIGNS.

6. The acute accent-in French, ACCENT AIGU—('), going from right to left, is placed over the vowel e only, to give it an acute or slender sound; as, bonté, goodness; charmé, delighted; porté, carried; &c. The acute accent is always placed over the past partic. of the verbs of the first conjugation. (222)

7. The grave accent-ACCENT GRAVE— -(), going from left to right, is placed over e to give it a broad or open sound; as, près, near; très, very; succès, success, &c.

8. The grave accent* is also placed over a in à, to, at; là, there; and over u in où, where, to distinguish these words from a, has; la, the; and ou, or.

9. The circumflex accent-ACCENT CIRCONFLEXE-(^), is the meeting of both the acute and the grave. It is found over vowels having a broad or open sound; as, âge, age; fête, festival; gîte, lodging, lair; môle, pier; flûte, flute.†

10. The apostrophe-APOSTROPHE ('), indicates the elision, or cutting off, of the final vowel of a word, before another word beginning with a vowel or an h mute (21); as, l'ami de l'homme, the friend of man; l'histoire de l'héroïne, the history of the heroine; j'ai vu l'armée, I have seen the army,-instead of, le ami de le homme; la histoire de la héroïne; je ai vu la armée. (31)

11. The cedilla-LA CÉDILLE-is a sort of comma, attached to the letter c, and is used when that letter is to be sounded as s, although followed by a, o, or u: ça, leçon, conçu, forçait.

"La cédille n'est qu'un e mal formé.

au lieu de forçait."— Vinet.

On écrivait autrefois forceait

12. The diceresis-LE TRÉMA-is a mark composed of two dots, placed over e, i, and u, when these vowels are to be pronounced separately from the preceding one: Noël, naïf, Saül. In the word ciguë, and in ambiguë, contiguë, &c., which are the f. forms of ambigu, contigu, the diæresis shows that the accent is laid upon the u, the final e not being sounded.

13. The hyphen-LE TIRET or TRAIT D'UNION—(-), connects together two or more words:

It is used:-1. Between a verb and the pronouns, je, moi, nous, tu, toi, vous, il, ils, elles, le, la, les, lui, leur, y, en, ce, on, whenever those pronouns are used as nominatives to, or are governed by, that verb; as ai-je? have I? parle-moi, speak to me; donnez-le-lui, give it to him. But if any of these pronouns are governed by a a verb which follows them, the hyphen is not used; as, va lui parler, go and speak to him; faites-moi lui parler, make me speak to him. 2. Between words so joined

* Les accents ont été inventés pour noter les syllabes sur lesquelles la voix doit s'élever plus ou moins dans la prononciation. Ils sont quelquefois utiles pour distinguer les significations d'un même mot, différentes suivant la position de l'accent.-Gram. Grecque de Burnouf.

L'accent circonflexe indique le plus souvent, ou la contraction de deux voyelles en une seule, comme dans age, autrefois aage, ou la suppression d'une consonne, comme dans fête, maitre, platt, qu'on écrivait feste, maistre, plaict, &c. Quelquefois il n'est qu'un signe de quantité qu'on place sur une voyelle longue: áme, pôle.-P.

that they are collectively considered as one only; as, arc-en-ciel, rainbow; c'est-àdire,, that is to say, &c. Also to connect très, very, with the word which follows it; as, très-vrai, very true. Même, self, is also connected by a hyphen with the personal pronoun which precedes it; as, lui-même, himself; moi-même, myself; nous-mêmes, ourselves. The hyphen is used also before or after the words ci, here, and là, there, accompanying a substantive, a pronoun, a preposition, or an adverb, with which they are immediately connected: celui-ci, this one; cet homme-ci, this man; ci-dessus, above; là-haut, up there, &c. 3. The hyphen is used between the numerals, from dix-sept, seventeen, to quatre-vingt-dix-neuf, ninety, inclusively; except when et is placed between the numbers, as in vingt et un, twenty-one; trente et un, thirty-one, &c.; soixante et onze, seventy-one, &c.—Delille.

III. THE FRENCH VOWELS.

14. The teacher alone pronounces the F. vowels: the learners repeat them several times after him :

A, e, i, o, u, Y.

A short. La, ma, ta, papa, va à Paris (the city).
A long. Pâte, âne, mâle, as, Páris (the shepherd).

E. (a.) e mute (unaccented) has either a guttural sound, as in monosyllables ending with e, and in words beginning with me, pe, or re, &c.; or it is not sounded at all, when at the end of words of more than one syllable: le, me, de, que, je, ce, &c.; mesure, peser, refuse, venir, &c.; village, courage, porte, grande, &c.

(b.) é acute (with an acute accent) as in dé, dice; né, born; éte, summer; café, coffee; taxé, taxed; âgé, aged; chassé, chased; partagé, distributed; dégénéré, degenerated; répété, repeated; révéré, revered; célébrité. (6)

The é with an acute accent is called é fermé (close), because it is pronounced with the mouth nearly shut, and is sounded in a clear and rather sharp manner.

e unaccented has the sound of é in clef, key; pied, foot; and before r and z mute, as aimer, to love; venez, come.

(c.) è open (with a grave accent) is pronounced as in très, very; accès, progrès, sévère; il dégénère, he degenerates; je répète, I repeat; il révère, he reveres. (7)

e has the open sound, but not quite so broad as è, when the following consonant is sounded with it; as liberté; fer, iron; chercher, to seek.

(d.) é with a circumflex accent, as in tête, head; fête, feast; tempête, tempest; honnête, honest. (9)

e has the sound of é before s silent: mes, my; tes, thy; les, the; ses, his, her, or its; ces, these or those.

I is never sounded as in the English word empire; it is uttered like i in the word possible. It is short in joli, titi, ami, and long in gîte.

Y like the French i at the beginning and at the end of words: yeux, yeuse, Saint-Valery, Bondy; or in the body of words: style, métaphysique.

But y between two vowels is sounded like two i's, as in moyen, means; joyeux, joyful; ayant, having; pronounced moi-ien, joi-ieux, ai-iant;—also in pays, country; paysan, countryman; paysage, landscape; pronounced pai-is, pai-i-san, pai-i-sage.

IV. THE LETTER H.

15. H* is mute or aspirate.

his mute in more than half of the words beginning with that letter, and is aspirated in the remainder. The h aspirate (from the Latin aspiro, to breathe), so called on account of the full and hard breathing with which that letter is pronounced in some languages, gives, however, a false notion of the nature of the French h aspirée, the breathing being very slight. This letter merely prevents the elision of the e, or the union of the preceding consonant, as in the following examples:

h, called aspirated.

Le héros, the hero.

Les héros, the heroes.

Le grand héros, the great hero.

Les grands héros, the great heroes.

h mute.

L'homme, the man.

Les hommes, the men.

Le grand homme, the great man.
Les grands hommes, the great men.
(Delille.)

16. The following are the words in which h is aspirated :

Ha! hableur (and its derivatives), hache (and its derivatives), hagard, haha, hahé, haie, haïe, la Haie, haillon, haine, haineux, haïr, haire, halage, halbran, halbrené, hâle, halener, haler, hâler, haletant, hallage, halle, hallebarde, hallebreda, hallier, haloir, halot, halte, hamac, hameau, hampe, han, hanap, hanche, hangar, hanneton, hanse, hanscrit, hansière, hanter, hantise, happe, happelourde, happer, haquenée, haquet, harangue (and its derivatives), haras, harasser, harceler, harder, hardes, hardi (and its derivatives), harem, hareng, harengaison, harengère, hargneux, haricot, haridelle, harnacher, harnais, haro, harpailler, harpe, harper, harpie, harpin, harpon, harponner, hart, hasard (and its derivatives), hase, hâte, hâter (and its derivatives), haubans, haubert, hausse, hausse-col, hausser, hautain, haut, haute (and its derivatives), hâve, havir, Havre, havresac, hé! heaume, héler, hem! hennir, hennissement, Henri (in elevated style), héraut, hère, hérisser, hérisson, hernie, hernieux, héron, héros,† hersage, herse (and its derivatives), hêtre, heurt, heurter, heurtoir, hibou, hic, hideusement, hideux, hie, hiérarchie, hisser, ho! hobereau, hoc, hoche, hocher (and its derivatives), holà! Hollande (and its derivatives), homard, hongre, Hongrie, honnir, honte (and its derivatives), hoquet, hoqueton, horde, horion, hors, horsd'œuvre, hotte, Hottentot, houblon (and its derivatives), houe, houille, houlette, houle, houppe, houppelande, houpper, hourdage, houret, houri, hourvari, housard, hussard, houspiller, houssage, houssaie, housse (and its derivatives), houssine, houssoir, houx, hoyau, huche, hucher, huées (and its derivatives), Huguenot, huit (and its derivatives), humer, hune, hunier, Huns (peuples), huppe (and its derivatives), hure, hurhau, hurlement, hurler, hutte, hutter.

* DE LA LETTRE H.-Cette lettre n'est pas, à proprement parler, une consonne, car elle ne orme jamais d'articulation. Elle n'a de valeur que comme signe d'aspiration et seulement en tête de certains mots; aussi dit-on qu'elle est muette ou aspirée.

Elle est muette, quand elle est nulle, et qu'elle n'empêche pas la dernière lettre du mot qui la précède de s'appuyer, dans la prononciation, sur la voyelle qui la suit, ou de s'unir avec elle une héroïne (prononcez u-n'héroïne), l'homme (pour le homme), les hommes, qu'on prononce les hommes.

Elle est aspirée, quand elle empêche la liaison et l'union de la syllabe qui la précède avec la voyelle qui la suit: un héros, le héros, les héros.

The derivatives of héros, i, e., héroïne, héroïsme, hérolque, héroïquement héroïde, all begin with h mute.

V. THE LETTER L.

17. L is generally sounded at the end of words: il, cil, fil, bal, &c. Except baril, fils (sounded fis), fusil, gentil, gril, outil, persil, sourcil, &c.

IS. Double is generally sounded as one, as in amollir, embellir, &c. Except in Apollon, allusion, allégorie, befliqueux, illégitime, intellectuel, intelligent, Pallas, gallican, constellation colloque, &c.

L liquid (L mouillée)!

19. One of the most peculiar sounds of the French language is that of final after 1, ai, oui, and of preceded by i in the body of words.

20. L is not liquid in codicille, camomille, Achille, armillaire, distiller, gille, idylle, mille, pupille, tranquille, vaciller, instiller, osciller, scintiller, ville, &c.

VI. OF THE ELISION OF A, E, AND I. (10.)

A, E, and I, are the only vowels which can be elided.

21. (a.) The elision of A only occurs with la, either as an art. (31), or as a pro. (37), before a vowel, or h m.:

1. L'Angleterre, l'Ecosse, et l'Irlande, forment le royaume de la Grande-Bretagne.

2. Nous lisons l'histoire de l'héroïne de la France.

3. Il la flatte, il l'admire, mais il ne l'aime pas.

22. But the a of the art. la is not cut off before onzième, eleventh, and ouate, wadding. Nor is a elided in the pro. la coming after the imper. Menez-la à Paris.

23. (b.) E is elided in le art. or pron., before a vowel or h m., except before onze, onzième, oui :

1. Le printemps, l'été, l'automne et l'hiver sont les quatre saisons de l'année.

2. Je l'aime et je l'honore.

24. E is also elided in je, me, te, se, de, ce, ne, que, and often in the compounds of que, such as jusque, parce que, puisque, quoique, &c., when these words come before other words beginning with a vowel or h m.

+ That peculiar pronunciation comes from the Italian gli. "I must also mention that, under the last princes of the house of Valois, the Italians whom Queen Catherine of Medici (1549) had brought to court with her, considerably impaired the pronunciation of the French language, and introduced many terms which have remained."-Vide SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF THE FRENCH LANGUAGE: an Introductory Lecture delivered by the Author in the Glasgow Athenæum, in 1852.

25. The elision also takes place in quelque, before un or une, il or elle, and in entre-1stly, before reciprocal verbs, as s'entr'égorger, &c. ; 2dly, before acte, in entr'acte; and 3dly, before eux and elles, according to some grammarians; but there are authorities for writing entre eux, entre elles.

26. The e in the f. adj. grande is also sometimes suppressed before faim, mère, peur, route, tante, &c., and supplied by an apostrophe: grand mère, grand'tante, grand' faim, &c.

27. (c.) The vowel I is only elided in si before il and ils :— 1. Il viendra s'il peut. 2. Ils auront tort s'ils se fâchent.

The elisions just mentioned are those that take place in writing; but the elision of e in speaking is too frequent to be explained here, and can be properly mastered only by intercourse with natives of France.

N.B.-Additional instruction for Pronunciation and Reading will be found in the Appendix.

EXERCISES IN PRONUNCIATION.

TO BE READ ALOUD, FIRST BY THE TEACHER, AND AFTERWARDS
BY THE LEARNERS.

The following exercises can be used as an introduction to translation. The pupils, after carefully reading them in French (observing at the same time the meaning in English), should cover the English column with a slip of paper, and translate the different sentences literally.

*S and x, used as final letters, are sounded like z before a word beginning with a vowel of ↑ *

h mute.