"In order to understand this difference" (the difference between the sharp and the flat sounds), "it is necessary to take some mute consonants (p, b, f, v, t, d, th, k, g, s, z, sh, zh), and to pronounce them as independently of any vowel as it is possible to do. We must try to give a sound to such single consonants as p', t', &c. In attempting this, we shall succeed in making an imperfect sound.

"Now, if the mute consonant so taken and uttered be one of the following, p, f, t, th (as in thin), k, s, or sh, the sound will be that of a whisper. The sound of p', t' (such as it is), is that of a man speaking under the natural pitch of his voice, and at a whisper.

"But if the mute consonant so taken and uttered be either b, v, d, th (as in thine), g, z, or zh, the sound will be that of a man speaking at the natural pitch of his voice, and with a certain degree of loudness and clearness. This difference in the nature of the mute is highly important to be familiar with. Those that are sounded like p' and ƒ', &c., are called the flat mutes.

"When two or more mutes of different degrees of sharpness or flatness come together in the same syllable, they form a combination of sounds that is incapable of being pronounced." And so on in continuation follows the passage quoted, with some slight abridgment in our article on the sounds and letters. After which the author proceeds as follows:

"There is no fact that requires to be more particularly known than this." (Namely, the fact which forms the subject of the latter part of the extract introduced under the article just referred to.) "There are at least three formations in the English language where its influence is most important. These are, a) the possessive forms in -s; b) the plurals in -8; c) the preterites in -d and -t.

"Neither are there many facts in language more disguised than this is disguised in English. The s in the word stags is sharp; the g in the word stags is flat. Notwithstanding this, the combination ags exists. It exists, however, in the spelling only. In speaking, the s is sounded as z, and the word stags is pronounced stagz. Again, in words like tossed, plucked, looked, the e is omitted in pronunciation. Hence the words become tossd, pluckd, lookd; that is, the flat d comes in contact with the sharp k and s. Now, the combination exists in the spelling only, since the preterite of pluck, look, and toss, are, in speech, pronounced pluckt, lookt, tosst.

"For the sake of fixing the attention of the reader on the point, I will indicate in this place the reason for the difference between the spelling and the pronunciation, which has just been alluded to. This is as follows: For the possessive case singular, for the nominative plural, and for the preterite tense of verbs, the forms in Anglo-Saxon were fuller than they are in the present English. The possessive singular ended not in -s only, but in -es; and the nominative plural in -as. Similarly the preterite of the verbs ended either in -od, or -ed, not in -d only. E. g. wordes of a word (word's), flódes of a flood (flood's), landes—of a land (or land's), thinges of a thing (or

thing's), endas―ends, and so on throughout the language. In this case the vowel separated the two consonants, and kept them from coming together. As long as this vowel kept its place, the consonants remained unchanged, their different degrees of sharpness and flatness being a matter of indifferWhen the vowel, however, was dropped, the consonants came in contact. This reduced a change on one side or the other to a matter of necessity.

ence.

"Next to knowing that two mutes of different degrees of sharpness or flatness cannot come together in the same syllable, it is important to know that two identical letters cannot come together in the same syllable.

"In illustration of this, we may take a word ending in p, t, or s, and try to add a second p, t, or s to the first one; e. g. tap, bat, mis. To add a second d p to tap, a second t to bat, or a second s to mis, is impracticable. At the first glance this statement seems untrue. Nothing, apparently, is commoner than words like tapp, batt, miss. However, like the combinations indicated above, these are, in reality, combinations in spelling only; they have no existence in pronunciation. We have only to attempt to pronounce bat 't, sap 'p, &c., &c., to prove this.”—(Latham's El. Eng. Gram. pp. 18, 19, 21, 22.)

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42. FORMATION OF THE PLURAL OF ENGLISH NOUNS.

I. (1) The plural of English nouns is generally formed by adding either the sharp, hissing sound represented by the character s (the sound in son and hiss), or the soft sound (the sound of z), often represented in our language by the same character. (2) Examples. Roof, roofs; book, books; cup, cups; boot, boots; smith, smiths. All these, and all words terminating in similar sounds (viz., in the sounds represented by f, k, p, t, and th hard), add the sharp sound of s to the root to form the plural. (See the reason of this in § § 40.) (3) All nouns terminating in the vowel sounds represented by a, e, i or y, o, u; and in the consonantal sounds represented by b, d, g, l, m, n, r, v, and th soft, add the soft sound of s (the same as that represented in English by z), to the root to form the plural. (4) Examples. Bay, bays; bee, bees; tie, ties; bow, bows; virtue, virtues; cab, cabs; lad, lads; stag, stags; hill, hills; drum, drums; pen, pens; star, stars; wave, waves; tithe, tithes. These plural

§ 42. (1) How is the plural of English nouns generally formed? (2) What nouns tako the sharp sound of 8 to form the plural? Give examples. (3) What nouns take the soft Bound like? (4) Give examples, and tell how they are pronounced.

forms are pronounced as if spelled bayz, beez, cabz, stagz, &c. These sounds are always represented by the letter s.

II. (5) When the noun ends in an s sound—that is, in s, ss, x (which is equal to ks), sh, the soft sound of ch as in church, se, or ce, the syllable es (sounded ez) is added to form the plural.*

(6) Examples. Kiss, kisses; box, boxes; brush, brushes; church, churches; phrase, phrases; face, faces. We have scarcely any original English noun which in the singular form ends in a single s. We have from the Latin isthmus, fungus, rebus, omnibus, and a few others, which have the plurals isthmuses, omnibuses, &c. All these plurals are pronounced with the soft sound of s, kissez, boxez, isthmusez, &c.

III. (7) Nouns ending in fe form plurals by the change of this termination into ves, as wife, plural wives; knife, knives; pronounced wivez, knivez. Strife, plural strifes, is an exception, retaining the hard sound of f, and the hissing sound of s, which serves to distinguish this plural from the verb strives; also, fife, plural fifes. (8) Many nouns, also ending in a single f, form plurals by changing the f into v and adding es―ez; as, loaf, loaves; leaf, leaves; half, halves; sheaf, sheaves; &c.† (9) Words ending in ff form their plurals regularly by adding the sharp sound of s; except staff, plural staves.

*The reason of this is that we cannot utter the sound of s after another 8 without the interposition of a vowel sound. In regard of words ending in an s sound, we must, therefore, either be contented to employ the same form in expressing a single object and a plurality of objects—that is, fail in distinguishing the plural from the singular noun-or interpose a vowel sound between the two s sounds, and thus add a syllable to the word. The first of these alternatives has been followed in the French language in the case of words ending in s sounds, the second in the English.

The words in ƒ and fe which form plurals in ves are said to be all of Anglo-Saxon origin, except beef, plural beeves; and writers on Anglo-Saxon grammar agree that ƒ in the end of Anglo-Saxon words was pronounced with the softened sound of v. This fully accounts for the formation of these plu

(5) In what cases do we add the syllable es to form the plural, and how is the 8 in this syllable pronounced? (6) Give examples.

(7) How do nouns ending in fe form plurals? Mention exceptions. (S) How do many nouns ending in ƒ alone form their plurals? Examples. (9) How do nouns ending in f form the plural? Mention exceptions.

IV. (10) Nouns ending in o preceded by a consonant generally add the termination es to form the plural; as, hero, plural heroes ; cargo, cargoes; wo, woes; echo, echoes; &c. Exceptions: canto, grotto, junto, portico, quarto, tyro, solo, add only s. (11) When the o is preceded by a vowel, s alone is added, as folio, plural folios; &c. V. (12) Nouns ending in y preceded by a consonant change the y into ies in the plural, as city, plural cities; lady, ladies.*

(13) There are some few plurals, of old English words, which are not formed on the same general principle with the classes of nouns already enumerated: viz., by the addition of an s sound, but by a modification of the vowel sound of the root (see § 35: 2). We subjoin a list of the principal nouns of this class, as some of them are familiar words, frequently employed in discourse, and we may find it necessary to introduce them in the construction of examples.

We may add the personal pronouns and their plural forms used

rals in ves. The word dwarf, though Anglo-Saxon, forms its plural by adding the sharp sound of s.-(See Latham's Eng. Gram. p. 61.)

* In the beginning of the 17th century, the singular forms of these nouns ended in ie, for which y has since been substituted. In the early editions of the authorized English version of the Bible, city is spelled citie; mercy, mercie; &c. The present plurals of these nouns are the regularly constructed plurals of these ancient singular forms. Nouns ending in y preceded by a vowel add s soft to form the plural.

(10) How do nouns ending in o preceded by a consonant form their plurals? Give exceptions. (11) What happens when the o final is preceded by a vowel?

(12) What is said of the formation of the plural of nouns ending in y preceded by a con. sonant? Give examples.

(12) What is said of exceptions? What is the plural form of man? &c.

EXERCISES ON THE FORMATION OF THE PLURAL.-EXERCISE 1 Let the pupil furnish a list of a certain number of nouns which form their plurals by adding the sharp sound of 8, and give the reason-viz., because they end in one of the sharp consonantal sounds, f, k, p, t, th hard.

EXERCISE II. Give a similar list of nouns forming the plural by the addition of the soft sound of s=z; and assign the reason-viz., because they end in one of the vowel sounds, or in one of the flat consonantal sounds, b, d, g, l, m, n, r, v, and th soft.

EXERCISE III. A similar list of nouns ending in an s sound with their respective plurals.

EXERCISE IV. Nouns in f, and fe, forming plurals in ves.

EXERCISE V. Nouns in o preceded by a consonantal sound, taking the addition es in the written plural.

EXERCISE VI. Nouns in y preceded by a consonantal sound, and taking ies in the plural.

What we have said above will be sufficient for the student to learn on first passing through the book. We subjoin some additional remarks to be studied on a second perusal, together with a table of irregular forms. The pupil will remember that plurals are almost universally formed by adding either s or es, soft or hard. The exceptions are not very numerous, though they give the grammarian considerable trouble, on account of their various forms.

[$ 43. ADDITIONAL REMARKS ON THE FORMATION of Plurals.—(1) A. few English nouns form their plurals by the addition of en to the root. This plural termination was more common in Anglo-Saxon than in English. It seems to have been in earlier use than the formation in 8; which, however, superseded it (in living use) even in AngloSaxon long before the Norman invasion. (2) The only plurals of this form, in current use at the present day, are oxen, plural of ox; children, plural of child; and brethren, one of the plural forms of brother.

Dr. Latham has justly observed (Eng. Language, p. 220, 2d edit.), that the irregularity (if it may be so called) of the formation of the plurals, both of nouns ending in o preceded by a consonant, and of nouns ending in y, is a matter of orthography rather than of etymology-of spelling rather than of grammar. In the spoken language, all these plurals are regularly formed by the addition of the soft sound of s to the noun. For more on the subject of the formation of the plural, exceptions, &c., see Additional Remarks, § 43.

[ 43. (1) What is said of the formation of plurals in en? (2) Name the plurals of this form in current use.