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language with them. Upon the shores of America it came in contact with the numerous dialects of the native Indians; and upon these it steadily and effectively encroached. Numerous languages

then became entirely lost, and, at the same time, the tribes which spoke them. Sometimes they were wholly exterminated; sometimes they were driven far into the interior of the land. In a short time populous cities stood upon the hunting-grounds of the expelled tribes, and the language of the mother-country became naturalized in a New World. The subsequent settlement of Maryland, Georgia, and the remaining States of America completed the preponderance of the English language from the boundaries of Canada to the Gulf of Mexico.

During the Protectorate of Cromwell, the island of Jamaica was taken from the Spaniards, and from that time forwards the English has been the language of a greater part of the West Indian Islands.

In Canada, it first took root after the taking of Quebec in the reign of George the Second. As Canada, however, had been previously a French colony, the European language that was first spoken there was not the English but the French. Hence, when Quebec was taken, the language of the country fell into two divisions. There were the different dialects of the original Indians, and there was the French of the first European colonists. At the present moment, both these languages maintain their ground; so that the English is spoken only partially in Canada, the French and the Indian existing by the side of it.

At the Cape of Good Hope the English is spoken in a similar manner; that is, it is spoken partially. The original inhabitants were the Caffre and Hottentot tribes of Africa, and the earliest European colonists were the Dutch. For these reasons Dutch and English, conjointly with the Hottentot and Caffrarian dialects, constitute the languages of the Cape of Good Hope. In Guiana, too, in South America, English and Dutch are spoken in the neighbourhood of each other, for the same reason as at the Cape.

In Asia the English language is spoken in India; but there the original languages of the country are spoken to far greater extent than is the case in either America or Africa.

Australia and New Zealand are exclusively English colonies, and, consequently, in Australia and New Zealand English is the only European language that is spoken. In each of these settlements it encroaches upon the native dialects.

Malta, Gibraltar, Heligoland, Guernsey, and Jersey, and many other localities of less note, are isolated spots, which, being portions of the English dominions, use the English language.

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ORTHOËPY AND ORTHOGRAPHY.

15. THE first part of Grammar treats of Orthoëpy and Orthography; in close connection with which stand Accent and Prosody.

16. Orthoëpy signifies the right utterance of words. It deals with language as it is spoken and determines how a word is to be pronounced. Orthography signifies the right use of letters. It deals with language as it is written and determines how words should be spelt.

§. In speaking, we represent our ideas and thoughts by means of words; which words are composed of certain elementary sounds. In the word go there are two such; in the word got, three; and so on. As long as we limit ourselves to speaking, these elementary sounds are all that require notice. They address themselves to the

ear.

They are capable, however, of being represented by certain signs called letters; by which we are enabled not only to speak but to write. Letters address themselves to the eye. In the word go the letter g is the sign of its first, the letter o the sign of its second, sound.

§. All languages were spoken long before they were written; and, at the present moment, there are numerous forms of speech which have never been reduced to writing at all. Hence, letters come later than the sounds they express, and orthography is subordinate to orthoëpy.

But as a picture never exactly and perfectly represents the object from which it is taken, so the orthography of a language never exactly and perfectly represents the orthoëpy; in other words, there is always some difference between language as it is spoken and language as it is written. Sometimes there are more sounds than letters. Sometimes words change their pronunciation as they pass from one people or from one generation to another; whilst no corresponding change is made in the manner of writing them.

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Sometimes fresh sounds from other languages are introduced; and, as no fresh letters are brought to represent them, they must be represented, as they best may, by the letters already in use.

17. There are forty Elementary Sounds in English, thirty-four of which are simple and six compound.

S. Vowels.

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18. The Letters of the English language are twentysix in number, their form, order, and names being as

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§. The arrangement of the alphabet is artificial; the arrangement of the sounds (as in § 17) is natural.

The vowel sounds

come first, then the semi-vowels, then the mutes, &c.

§. The English letters are sometimes reckoned at twenty-four; in which case i and j, as well as u and v, are considered the same. They were originally expressed by the same letters.

19. Syllables are made up of certain elementary sounds taken together, as man, from m, a, and n; words which consist of one syllable, and no more, being called monosyllables.

20. Words which consist of two syllables, and no more, are called dissyllables.

21. Words which consist of three syllables, and no more, are called trisyllables.

22. Words which consist of four syllables, and no more, are called quadrisyllables.

§. In words like miss, less, butt, &c., we see one and the same letter repeated in the same syllables. Why is this? It does not

indicate that the double sound is to be pronounced; for, if we try to utter it, we shall find it difficult to do so. It is simply a mode of expressing the shortness of the previous vowel.

§. ACCENT is the leaning of the voice on one particular syllable in a word, to bring it into prominence. This stress or accent may be expressed by a sign, thus', placed over the part of the word to which we wish to give especial importance. Some words are accented on the last syllable, as brigáde, preténce, assúme. Some are accented on the last syllable but one, as fáther, árgue, archángel. Some on the last syllable but two, as ántidote, fórtify. And some, though not so large a class, on the last syllable but three, as ábsolutely, lúminary.

§. In a certain class of words, the accent is distinctive, i.e. it lies sometimes on the one, sometimes on the other syllable; the change being accompanied by a change of meaning. In such a sentence as The éxports from London are great; the imports to London are great also, the words éxport and import are substantives. In America exports corn, and impórts cloth,

they are verbs.

§. This gives us the rule that accents on the first syllable make substantives, whilst accents on the last syllable make verbs. Each of the following words can be either a substantive or a verb.

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§. Sometimes the change of accent converts substantives into adjectives. We speak of the month August, and of an august person. Thus it is with compact, invalid, minute, supine. Some words, without losing their position as nouns, or as verbs, change their meaning in changing the accent, as, e. g. désert (a wilderness), desért (merit). The verb conjure, by a change of accent, becomes conjure.

ETYMOLOGY.

23. The second part of Grammar treats of Etymology. Etymology exhibits the changes of form which words undergo.

24. Changes are effected by either Composition or Derivation.

25. When two or more separate words are joined

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