the gl, which is pronounced as the French il in bouilli, and the gn, which sounds as in French in the word Espagne. These we consider as the principal tests of Italian pronunciation, and the student himself will soon discover, by referring to a good grammar, such as that of Galignani, edited by Montucci, Lecture I., whether his teacher is deficient in any of these requisites. Let him not, however, carry his suspicion and fastidiousness to extremes, for he will find many well-educated Italians, and such most Italian teachers in this country certainly are, who are acquainted with the proper pronunciation in all the above cases, and who yet in common conversation occasionally deviate from it. If the pupil feels any doubts in some particular instance, he ought to call the attention of the teacher to the point, so as to define at once the proper sound of the word, which when acquired he will not easily forget. Of the aspiration by the Florentines of the ca, co, cu, che, chỉ, we have already spoken, and we can only add that it ought to be avoided. Montucci remarks that this habit is very ancient, and occurred in the Latin language, as appears by the epigram:

Chommoda dicebat, si quando commoda vellet
Dicere, et hinsidias, Arrius insidias.

Arrius must have said chommoda, exactly as a Florentine would; and hinsidias, like a modern vulgar cockney.

The pronunciation of Italian is not difficult to acquire by natives of England. It is much easier for them to pronounce Italian than French. We have known persons read Italian pretty correctly after one or two lessons. The greatest difficulty is in the accent, of which there is one, and only one, in every polysy

labic word. The stress is laid on the accented syllable by raising the voice. The Italian accent is seldom written, except when it falls upon the last syllable of a word where it is marked (); the Italians having adopted the grave accent for terminations, and reserved the acute for the middle of words. The accents do not, as in French, mark the broad or close pronunciation of the vowel itself. In the middle of words, the accent is used only where it is necessary to avoid ambiguity; as balia, power,' to distinguish it from bália 'nurse,' in the latter word the accent being on the first a. Some monosyllables are written with an accent for the same reason: dì, 'day,' as distinguished from the preposition di, 'of.' Likewise pie, foot,' is distinguished by the accent from pie, plural of the feminine adjective pia, 'pious,' and già, ' already,' from gia, a poetical word, signifying he went.' In these cases the accented word is invariably a monosyllabic diphthong, whilst its non-accented double may be counted in poetry as two syllables: pi e, gi-a. The first class of diphthongs are called raccolli, in which the first vowel is hurried over, and is less discernible by the ear than the latter; and the second class are called distesi, in which both vowels are equally sounded in pronunciation.

In dissyllables there can be no difficulty about the accent, for unless it is written on the last syllable, it lies necessarily on the first. But words of more than two syllables are often perplexing to a foreigner. Most dictionaries now, however, have the accented syllable marked.

We would advise the student to make his teacher read to him loud and slowly separate Italian sentences, with the proper accent and intonation, and he should

then repeat them after him until he can imitate him perfectly. From a short sentence he ought to pass to a long period, and lastly to a whole paragraph of good Italian prose, such as Villani or Machiavelli. This exercise ought to be frequently repeated; and in the absence of the master, the student ought to repeat aloud to himself the same paragraph. Indeed, reading aloud is a useful practice that ought to be repeated often, and persevered in. The ear cannot be too soon accustomed to the sound of foreign words and foreign periods. This is particularly important with regard to Italian, a language of which harmony is so essential an element, and which becomes absolutely odious when spoilt by bad pronunciation and bad into

nation.

Italian orthography is perhaps the easiest of any language in Europe. There are no mute letters, except the h in a few words; the vowels have each a distinct sound; the diphthongs retain the pronunciation of each of their component parts, and do not, as in French or English, produce a third sound different from both; in short, it is hardly possible for a person who hears an Italian word distinctly pronounced, and is familiar with the Italian alphabet, not to be able to write it correctly. Consequently, we do not meet with so much bad spelling among the Italians, as among other nations. A good ear is in most cases a sufficient guide. Writing under the dictation of a teacher is a very useful exercise for a beginner.

With regard to Italian grammars, of which the number is almost countless, both in French and English, all have some good parts in them, as well as many deficiencies. We would recommend at first a concise one, such as the little one of Biagioli, entitled Grammaire

Elémentaire à l'usage de la Jeunesse, 12mo., or the one of Vergani, edited by Piranesi. Bating his conceit, Biagioli was certainly one of the best Italian teachers in our days; but there is no occasion to follow him all the way in his favourite theory of the ellipsis, which he carried to a ludicrous extent. Galignani's Twentyfour Lectures on the Italian Language,' revised and edited by Dr. Montucci, we have already mentioned. Although not a complete grammar, it has some parts very complete, especially Lectures XI. and XII., on the intricate subject of the conjunctive pronouns or affixes, which deserve to be attentively studied. In the 18th Lecture also, there is a very useful table of the various auxiliaries which can be used with Italian verbs, corresponding to the English idioms:- I am (doing a thing), I must or ought to, I am going to,' &c. The reader, on perusing this table, with the accompanying remarks, will have an insight into some of the capabilities of the Italian language as to precision and variety of expression. Egli stava parlando, ei veniva parlando, egli andava parlando, all convey different meanings, while egli stava per parlare varies in degree from egli era per parlare; the first meaning 'he was on the very point of speaking,' and the second merely 'he was going to speak.' Si fece a parlare, he began, or set about speaking,' &c.

The diminutives and augmentatives furnish an almost inexhaustible store of Italian words; but we would caution the student against making use of them too freely, as the propriety of their application depends chiefly on custom and euphony, of which a foreigner can hardly ever be a competent judge. To show the variety of diminutive and augmentative affixes of which

some nouns are susceptible, we will quote ragazzo, a boy,' from which are made ragazzino, ragazzetto, ragazzello, ragazzuccio, ragazzotto, ragazzone, ragazzaccio; and the compound ones: ragazzellaccio, ragazzettuccio, ragazzettino, ragazzonaccio, &c. Each

of these expresses a different qualification or attribute: ragazzetto is merely a little boy, ragazzino a delicate little boy, ragazzello a common little boy, ragazzone a great boy, ragazzotto a stout boy, ragazzuccio a tiny little boy, ragazzaccio a good-for-nothing boy, &c. Some of the above affixes are applied to both substantives and adjectives, others to adjectives only, as verde, verdigno, green, greenish; rosso, rossiccio, &c. Others have a collective meaning, such as legna, legname; agro, agrume; alberi, albereto; concia, concime, &c. Some can only be used with particular nouns, as casa, casupola; libro, libercolo; medico, medicastro; cane, cagnazzo. We can say vecchiarello but not vecchiello, donnetta but not donnella, bastoncino and not bastonetto. Euphony and propriety in the association of ideas are the principal guides in these matters.

The vast field of derivatives has been yet hardly examined by grammarians. Many derived words, having a common termination, imply the same modification of the meaning of their respective radical, for instance, ferrajo, sellajo, materassajo, vasajo, calzettajo, &c., mean a dealer in, or workman of, the article expressed in the first part of the word, namely, ironmonger, saddler, &c. A numerous class of nouns derived from verbs end in tore, amatore, feritore, ingannatore, &c. Others in abile, ando or ivo, esecrabile, esecrando, nocivo. A large class of adjectives are formed from substantives by adding oso, amore, amoroso, paura, pau