accented, different from what it has when unaccented. This is only true of e, a, o (see § 79). 1. The accent over e may only show that it is not 'mute.' This the acute shows over atonic and therefore short syllables; the grave over tonic and therefore long syllables (§ 78). But not always (see § 79): général, 2. The circumflex over a, o, alters the pronunciation of the vowels tache, tâche, mode, côte (see § 79, iv.). vii. The accent may be used to distinguish one word from another.* This only occurs in a few words: But many words of similar spelling, but of different meaning, have no accent to distinguish them : plat, flat plat, dish tu, past part. of taire. viii. "The present system of French accentuation is scarcely a hundred years old, and has been of very slow growth. The Neufchâtel Bible of 1535 has not a single accent. The acute accent on the final e seems to have been the first written accent used. Towards the end of the sixteenth century the grave accent is used as a mark of distinction over à, où etc. The use of the circumflex over e instead of es (même instead of mesme) is severely censured by the Academy in the preface to the first edition of its Dictionary. Jacques Dubois † (sixteenth century) was the first who had a regular, though somewhat whimsical, system of accentuation. Up to the end of the last century considerable diversity prevailed as to accentuation. In an edition of Crébillon (2 vols. 4to, Imprimerie Royale, 1750) every word appears accented as at present, with the additional use of the circumflex over vû, pû, aperçû, and so on. The Geneva edition of Rousseau, in thirty volumes of 1782, and a Paris edition of Montesquieu of 1782, have, as far as I have observed, the system now in use. Bayle and the Dictionnaire de Trévoux use accents with great carelessness in the commonest words. The grave accent on the penultimate is regularly discarded in *Several reasons may combine thus dû (owed), sûr (sure), have accents both to mark contraction and to distinguish them from du (of the), sur (upon). † Silvius. an edition of Racine of as late a date as 1799 (Paris P. Didot l'aîné). "Who was the inventor of the present system? Not the Academy, which simply followed the received usage; nor Voltaire, who was notoriously careless as to spelling, but who, if he had invented it, would at least have laid down a guiding principle. Beza used accents, but I have no means of consulting his book. The plan of Du Guez (an Introductorie for to learn French trewly London, no date, probably published about 1550) of writing accents below the line, is evidently a mere device for the use of foreigners." *—Meissner. § 57. Words in English with French Accentuation.— "Accent is the stress of the voice upon a syllable of a word. Syllabic accent is an etymological one, and in oldest English it was upon the root, and not upon the inflectional syllables. By the Norman Conquest a different system of accentuation was introduced, which towards the end of the twelfth century began to show itself in the written language."-MORRIS. "The vocabulary of the French language is derived, to a great extent, from Latin words deprived of their terminal inflexions. The French adjectives, mortal and fatal, are formed from the Latin mortalis and fatalis, by dropping the inflected syllable; the French words nation and condition, from the Latin accusatives, nationem and conditionem, by rejecting the em final. In most cases the last syllable retained in the French derivatives was prosodically long in the Latin original; and either because it was also accented, or because the slight accent which is perceivable in the French articulation represents temporal length, the stress of the voice was laid on the final syllable of all these words. When we borrowed such words from the French, we took them with their native accentuation; and as accent is much stronger in English than in French, the final syllable was doubtless more forcibly enunciated in the former than in the latter language."-MARSH. "French accentuation even affected words of pure English origin, and we find in Robert of Gloucester wisliche (wisely) for wis'liche; begynnyng', (endyng', etc.; and Chaucer rhymes gladnes'se with distres'se, etc. * Palsgrave (1530) employs the acute to point out the tonic syllable: Apportez moi un fagót. Parainsi lheretique se convertist. Beza (1533) employs - with the same object. He points out the advantages of accents for the help of learners, but does not employ them like Du Guez. Pelletier (1555) suggests the use of an accent to show the omission of s, and the length of the vowel. Henri Estienne employs accents as they were employed for a long time afterwards, on the final e only to show when it is not mute: verité. § 86. Oignon, ognon.-In older French oign was the usual spelling in this and similar words; the pronunciation was that of ogn in ognon.* Most words have changed their spelling or their pronunciation, cigoigne, roignon, coigner, have become cigogne, rognon, cogner, etc. Eloigner, témoigner, etc., have retained their old spelling, but have changed their pronunciation. In poigne, poignée, poignard, etc., we have the old spelling and the old pronunciation together.† Oignon and ognon are both written. § 87. Nasal Vowels and Nasal Consonants.-The socalled nasal vowel sounds are nothing but modifications of four of the oral vowels. But their connection is greatly hidden by the symbols employed : Nasalized a (fâchez) is represented by an, am, en, em, (fantaisie). Nasalized a (fatigue) is represented by in, im, ain, aim, (fin). Nasalized o (modéré) is represented by on, om, (mon). Nasalized eu (jeu) or e (je) is represented by un, um (jeun).‡ The word 'nasal,' applied by every one to these four vowels, is misleading. Professor Max Müller gives the following explanation of what is meant : "If, instead of emitting the vowel sound freely through the mouth, we allow . . . . the air to vibrate through the cavities which connect the nose with the pharynx, we have the nasal vowels so common in French, as un, on, in, an. It is not necessary that the air should actually pass through the nose; on the contrary, we may shut the nose, and thus increase the nasal twang. The letters m and n, on the contrary, are the true nasals; with them the breathing is emitted, not through the mouth, but through the nose." § 88. en and em employed as prefixes.-It is stated in § 77 that en and em, followed by a vowel, as in venir, or by another n or m, as in ancienne, amnestie, have not the nasal sound heard in dent, but (1) that e regains its usual value before a consonant; (2) that n is a consonant as in English. The following observations are necessary to a full comprehension of the difficulty: *Eloigne and Pologne are made to rhyme by Sarrasin, 17th century. + Quelques-uns prononcent poi-gne, poi-gnard.- LITTRÉ. The main point here is to call attention to the fact that the symbols employed for the oral vowels do not correspond throughout to those of the nasal vowels. Other lists are given by different writers on phonetics. Mr. Ellis declares himself unable to solve the question of the exact correspondence of the oral vowels with the French nasals. (Early English Pronunciation, vol. iv., p. 1123, 'q.') (See also pp. 825-829.) (1) en and em employed as prefixes maintain their nasal value : en-ivrer, en-orgueillir, em-mailloter, em-mener. (2.) The sound of n is added to prevent hiatus: en(n)ivrer, en(n)orgueillir, en(n)harmonique (3) The same happens when en is a separate word: s'en aller. (4) But in enhardir, enharnacher, etc., in which h is aspirated, the sound of n is not added; there is hiatus: enhardir, en-harnacher (compare en haut). § 89. an, am, en, em, in, im, etc., in words imperfectly naturalized.-The following words are still imperfectly naturalized; am, em, etc., do not represent vowel-sounds: (a) Words borrowed from Latin: spécimen, album, minimum, factotum, ultimatum, forum, idem, item, postscriptum, Te Deum. (b) The Hebrew word Amen. (c) Pensum and intérim are anomalous. The first syllable has a nasal vowel, the last not. (d) Examen and hymen have either the pronunciation hymen, examen, or examin, hymin: more often the latter. (e) In Jérusalem, Ephraim, Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Lutzen, etc., am, em, en, are not nasal vowels. Adam is naturalized, am is a nasal vowel. § 90. Ena and in.-In modern French the nasal vowel heard in key-word fantaisie is variously symbolized by an, am, en, em; and it is doubtful whether at any time these symbols represented distinct vowel sounds.† However this may be, when now the nasal-vowel meaning of the symbols is lost, (through the n or m being doubled, or a vowel following, see $77), the sounds represented return, as a rule, to the respective sounds of a + n', a + m', é + n', é + m2 (§ 77). all cases where this return does not exist, will be found, on examination, to arise from the influence of the a sound, either oral as in fatigue, or nasalized as in fin (see § 87):- But 1. Emm equals amm in all words except the 'learned word dilemme. Ex.: ardemment, prudemment, femme, etc. Enn equals ann in hennir, nenni, rouennerie, solennel. 2. En equals in;-a. In the diphthong -ien, -yen: chien, moyen. B. In the diphthong -éen: européen. y. In agenda, appendice, mentor, pensum, Bengali, benjoin, benzoïque, effendi, Bengale, Benjamin, Penthiève, Rubens, Marengo, Spenser, etc.‡ 3. Em equals in in Thomas à Kempis, sempiternel. Ennemi alone excepted (ènemi), the en at the beginning of words has always its nasal sound. This may serve as a practical rule. † In Picardy they pronounce still en, enfer, enfre, entrer like in, infer, intre, intrer; in Wallon, bandeau, dent, vent, endroit, difficilement, différence, are pronounced like beindeau, daint, vaint, aindroit, difficilemaint, diferainss; in the Berry, langue like lingue. (See Diez. p. 449, vol. 1.) Mr. Meyer thinks they were distinct till the 12th century. In a few words of learned origin it is ‘an' (fantaisie) which is heard: orient, quotient, science, client, inconvénient, patience, expédient, récipient, efficient. CHAPTER III.-CONSONANT SOUNDS. § 91. A vowel sound has been explained to be a sound formed by the voice, modified, but not interrupted, by the various positions of the tongue and lips. When the sound is interrupted, a consonant sound is produced. SYMBOLS EMPLOYED TO REPRESENT CONSONANT SOUNDS. § 92. It was shown in § 59 that there are more vowel sounds than there are letters to represent them. The reverse is true of the consonant sounds; there are more letters than there are sounds. The following letters are superfluous: 1. q, which is sounded as k. 2. c, which is sometimes sounded as k, sometimes as s. 3. x, which is a double letter, and is sounded sometimes as ks, sometimes as gz. 4. h, which is not sounded at all. 5. W, which is sounded as ou, and is then a vowel, or as v, and is then a consonant. SYMBOLS GROUPED ACCORDING TO THEIR SOUNDS. § 93. There are in French sixteen consonant sounds. these, fifteen can be represented by simple letters: 1. b as in key-word bedeau. Of |