ENGLISH GRAMMAR. PART I. MEN make known their thoughts by using words. Words are either spoken or written. A spoken word consists of a sound or a succession of sounds, shaped by the movements of certain organs of speech. The chief shaping organs are the lips and the tongue. A written word consists of marks called letters. OF LETTERS AND SYLLABLES. The English Alphabet consists of twenty-six letters. Some letters stand for sounds of the Voice, and are hence called Vowels, (from the Latin, vocalis; French, voyelle.) Others, representing merely the movements which shape the sounds, are called Consonants, (Latin, con-sono, I sound with,) —a wrong name, for these letters do not represent Voice sounds at all. A Vowels. The pure vowels are five—a, e, i, o, u. These marks represent about fifteen sounds :— e three be, bet, her. " Note. The sounds are sometimes interchanged; as, clerk, pronounced clark; what, pronounced whot; love, pronounced luv. W and y are vowels, except at the beginning of a syllable. W as a vowel is always sounded like u; and y, like e or i. Even at the beginning of a syllable, when regarded as consonants, they are little more than double vowels: Two vowels in the same syllable make a Diphthong; as, boil, loud. When the vowel sounds are blended, as in the given examples, the diphthong is called proper; but, if one vowel is silent, as in boat, bread, the diphthong is called improper. Three vowels in the same syllable make a Triphthong; but one of the three is always silent, making the sound that of a diphthong; as, beauty beuty. SILENT VOWELS.-Vowels are sometimes silent; as, e in pine and a in boat; but it may be noted that though silent they are not powerless, for they cause the companion vowel to assume its long sound. y, Consonants. Excluding w and there are nineteen Consonants in the English Alphabet. They are classified thus: |