most part, when the conjunction and comes immediately before a word beginning with a vowel; thus, he and I went, would be pronounced, he an I went; ham and eggs, ham an eggs, &c. 2. The words of the are also shortened so as to become merely the, or th; thus, the beak of the eagle would be made to assume a variety of forms; as, the beak of th' eagle; the beak o' th' eagle; the dog and the horse the dog 'n th❜orse. 3. The word to is often contracted to the letter t; be becomes b; as, my duty t'wards God is to b'lieve in Him. 4. Small words, too, are frequently omitted altogether; at other times, different words are substituted for those in the sentence, as, no for on; nor for for; of for if; in for on; and vice versa. The greatest care should be exercised with respect to these small words, as the sense of a whole passage, or the point of an entire argument, frequently depends on such simple monosyllables. 5. In some cases the letters are misplaced, and quite a new word is formed, which often has no meaning whatever. This is a curious mistake, and arises from a want of connection between the perception of form and the sound of words; thus, scold becomes scłod; form becomes from; calms becomes clams, &c. Thus With easy course The vessels glide; unless their speed be stopped By dead calms (clams). Errors of the above description may be remedied by practice in analyzing words into their component sounds. Instead of requesting the children to spell the word that has been incorrectly pronounced, let it be analyzed into its separate sounds: thus, scold, s-c-old scold; form =form; c-alms=calms. By dissecting words in this manner, their true pronunciation will easily be obtained. 6. Errors frequently occur in the pronunciation of the vowels e and o, when these vowels are found in syllables at the beginning of a word. In such cases they are either omitted altogether, or their true sound is lost, through careless articulation and enunciation. Their correct sounds are heard in re-vere, pro-vide; but we have such pronunciations as, b'hold, b'fore, cummit, cullect, for be-hold, be-fore, com-mit, col-lect, &c. 7. The letter a, when compounded with words, is often, and erroneously, made long. Such mistakes occur in the words, a-bout, a-fraid, a-way, &c. If we give to these words the long, instead of the obscure sound of a, we accent both syllables, which is not in accordance with the genius of the English language; for words that are dissyllables admit of only one accent. The only exception to this rule is the word a-men, which is accented both on the first and second syllable. 8. The vowels, a, e, o, u, are incorrectly pronounced or obscured, or omitted, especially when they occur as middle syllables of a word. Although vowels in such a position ought never to be rendered prominent, they should always be clearly and distinctly articulated. Thus :(1.) E and o are omitted in the following words :-ev'ry for every; tott'ring for tottering; histry for history, &c. (2.) U is omitted in the following words :-artic'late for articulate; reg'lar for regular; pop'lation for population; sing'lar for singular. (3.) O and u are changed or obscured in such words as,―oppersite for opposite; eluquence for eloquence; wumman for woman; pŭt for pūt; pūnish for punish. I is sounded like ei; as, Peilate for Pilate. (4.) Oo, having the second sound of o, as in moon, is sounded as u in bud; thus, good becomes gud; stood, stud; livelihood, livelihud. Again, where oo should have the sound of o in moon, it is sounded as o in more; thus, we have pore for poor; more for moor, &c. (5.) Ea, which has the long sound of e, is pronounced like a in pare; as, fare for fear; hare for hear; apparance for appearance, &c. (6.) Au, which has the sound of aw in law, is pronounced like o; as, Sol for Saul; becose for because, &c. (7.) The diphthong oi is sounded like i; as, pint for point; jint for joint. (8.) The diphthong ei is sounded like a; as, desave for deceive; belave for believe. (9.) The diphthong ew is sounded like u in rude; as, stude for stewed. (10.) The diphthong oe, having the sound of u, is sounded like oo; as dooz for does. (11.) The diphthong ou is sounded like ow in now; as, groups for groups. 9. At the beginning of words, mistakes also frequently occur in pronunciation; thus, un is changed into on; as, onclean for unclean; onleavened for unleavened; onto for unto. 10. The syllable su is changed into shu; as shupreme for supreme; shuicide for suicide. 11. In terminations we have the following:-a, ah, aw, as terminations, having the sound of ah and aw, and the vowel o, are all pronounced as if they had the letter affixed to them; thus, idea is called idear; law, lawr; Noah, Noahr; tobacco, tobacker; and we have drawring for drawing. 12. The termination ing is sometimes sounded like in, and sometimes as ink: thus, nothing is called nothin, or nothink; having is called havin; saving's bank, savin's bank. 13. En, ain, and eign, are changed into ing; as, garding for garden; founting for fountain; sovering for sovereign. 14. The syllable ture is sounded as tshur; thus, we have natshur for nature; featshur for feature, &c. 15. The syllable ous is sounded like chus, or yus; as, covetchus or covetyus for covetous; tremendyus for tremendous, &c. 16. The letters fs are sounded as if written ves; as, scarves for scarfs ; wharves for wharfs, &c. 17. The letters ols are sounded like els; as idels for idols. 18. The letters ews are sounded as ooze; as, nooze for news. 19. The termination th is changed into t, and the terminal letter t becomes th; thus, we have fift for fifth; sixt for sixth; heighth for height; and noting for nothing. 20. Many words are left unaspirated; as, edge for hedge; ouseolder for householder; and other words are aspirated which ought not to be ; as, hanimal for animal; Halps for Alps; haccept for accept. 21. V is changed into w, and w into v; as, Veal, wine, and vinegar, are very good victuals I vow= I vill call on you ven I go through the willage.* adg 22. We hear, too, such pronunciations as the following:-massacreed for massacred; exaggeratet for exaggerate; mountainious for mountainous; and many others. Errors in Accent. 1. The errors in accent consist in transferring the accent to syllables which custom neither warrants nor authorizes. Thus dissyllables accented on the second syllable have the accent transferred to the first ; as, de'tail for detail'; de'tain for detain'. 2. Polysyllables are erroneously accented on the second or third syllable instead of the first; as, contra'ry for contrary; interesting for interesting; lunatic for lu'natic; chastisement for chas'tisement ; prophecy for prophecy; maintain'ance for maintenance. 3. Polysyllables are also erroneously accented by putting the stress on the first syllable instead of the second; as, com'mendable for commend'able; precedency for preced'ency; con'densate for condensate. 4. We have errors of quantity and accent when we say orator for or'ator; progress for progress; produce for produce; testimony for testimon'y. 5. We have errors in the accentuation of words immediately derived from the Greek and Latin; as, apostrophe for apostrophe'; anemōne for anem'ony; extempōre for extem'pore'; antipōdes for antip'odes'. Mistakes in Emphasis. 1. Children are very apt to make the little words in a sentence emphatic; such as the, my, to, a, &c. It will be found, as a general rule, that the emphasis is placed on prepositions and pronouns. Thus, they would say― Load the tall bark, and launch into the main ; making the articles and the preposition the most emphatic words in the sentence. This is a habit that ought to be carefully guarded against. 2. The, before a word beginning with a vowel, should have the long sound; but before a word beginning with a consonant it should have the obscure sound, as in the second letter of the word bet. 3. My should always be pronounced with the short sound of i, unless in emphatic expressions or in solemn style; and, in the latter, only in phrases directly associated with solemnity. Familiar phrases, even in serious and solemn style, should retain the short sound, thus :-Mỹ hand, my heart, my mouth; so also in phrases of address, as, Mỹ friends, my countrymen. Alas! my noble boy! that thou shouldst die! 4. The article a is often pronounced with the sound of a in hate, instead of a in hat; thus And in a storm of fury shakes the ground.-For *These are used chiefly by the uneducated. + With both g's hard. Also an error in pronunciation. Errors of this description should be avoided, as rendering pronunciation formal, precise, and mechanical. 5. "How often do we hear, Lord have mercy upon us.' Now, if two books lie one on the other, and I send a person for the uppermost, I say, 'the book which is upon the other;' I mark the word upon, to impress the contrast between 'upper' and 'under.' Is that what we mean in 'Have mercy upon us?' If not, the emphasis is absurd, and suggests a false meaning, or hides a true one.” And again, "Follow almost any reader through our prayers, underline the words on which he lays the emphasis, and, in nine cases out of ten, we should find the marks chiefly under prepositions and monosyllables, or even syllables near the end of a sentence, or its members, to the utter confounding of all sense and meaning."* The chief reason of mistakes with respect to emphasis seems to be, that children are taught to read sentences which they do not understand; and as it is impossible to lay the emphasis right without perfectly comprehending the meaning of what one reads, they get a habit of reading in a monotone, or, if they attempt to distinguish one word from the rest, as the emphasis falls at random, the sense is usually perverted, or changed into nonsense. The way to prevent this is to put no book into their hands which is not suited to their capacities, and to take care that they never read anything of which they do not fully comprehend the meaning. 1. When teaching the younger children to read, let them read first each word in rotation, as it occurs in the book; then to a stop, whether comma or semicolon; and lastly to a full stop. The teacher should first read the word or sentence, and then require the children to repeat it after him, sometimes an individual boy, at other times the whole class. This is the most effectual method of obtaining a correct pronunciation. 2. A child should not be required to spell and respell a word in order to obtain its true pronunciation; for, in almost every case, the spelling of a word is no index whatever to its pronunciation. Let the teacher pronounce the word clearly and distinctly; afterwards, the child or class. The spelling may come as an exercise after the pronunciation has been acquired. 3. When a child reads too fast, he should be required to pause after every word, until the evil is remedied, thus:-The-eye-is-theorgan-of-sight ;-the-ear-of-hearing, &c. Unless they be taught to read slowly, and to distinctly enunciate every word, they would read the above in this manner :-Thy is th'organ of sight, thear of earing. 4. When a sentence is read badly, the teacher should show how it ought to be read, both as regards enunciation, accent, emphasis, and pronunciation; and then the child should be required to read it until he is able to do so correctly. 5. Mistakes should never pass unnoticed; where this is not attended to, a two-fold evil is the result-the child is not taught what is right, * "English Journal of Education." and he is allowed to form habits of carelessness and inaccuracy, which, at a later period of his school life, it is difficult to eradicate. Besides, the others in the class will also be liable to make the same mistakes, when such words occur in the sentences which they are called npon to read. Care should be taken that one word is not run into another; that the words, the, of, to, my, &c., are not left out, nor have other words substituted for them; but that each word is distinctly and clearly enunciated. The above evils arise from reading quickly; hence the necessity of reading slowly, and attending to the stops. Care, too, must be taken to see that the termination ing, that the dipthongs ea, aw, oo, &c., receive their correct sound; and that words beginning with a or e are not aspirated, and on the other hand, that the aspirated letters are not dropped where they ought to be pronounced. 6. The usual mode of reading in rotation should at times be dispensed with. Where this plan prevails, each child prepares himself upon the verse or sentence which he calculates will fall to his turn, and during the rest of the lesson he is dreaming of something else. To remedy this evil, let the teacher, as the lesson proceeds, call upon one here and there to read, beginning at the word where the last stopped, in whatever part of a sentence such word may be. By this means, all will be kept on the alert, as no one knows who may be called upon to continue the reading. 7. It may sometimes happen, that the child who has just read a verse or sentence, considers himself at perfect liberty, for some time at least, to amuse himself as best he may. Should such a disposition manifest itself, the teacher, by calling on such a one to read, immediately after he has finished what he considered his lawful share, will show him that the eye of the master is continually on him; that there is no escape; that inattention and listlessness are out of the question. How often have we observed a boy secretly and busily counting the verse that will, as he supposes, fall to him. He is enjoying the secret satisfaction of being able to read, with some credit, verse 13, when lo! he is summoned to read verse 9 and when this verse has been read, he fancies he may give himself up to pleasant dreams of his own, until it comes to his turn again; his juvenile speculations are, however, abruptly terminated by his being called upon to continue the reading of verse 11. 8. It is an excellent exercise to make a child read two sentences, or until he is told to stop; or he may be required to read to a stop, whether comma, semicolon, or period. All the children in a class may be numbered, and during a readinglesson all those with odd numbers may read first, afterwards those with even numbers. When the scriptures are read, each child should be required, occasionally to read two verses, or to a full stop. 9. Every child when reading should stand erect, and turn his face towards his teacher; he should also hold his book in his left hand, and keep the book at such a distance from his mouth as will allow the free emission of sounds. If the book is held close to the mouth the sounds are driven backwards, and neither the teacher nor the majority of the class can hear what is being read. 10. Children should never be allowed to read a sentence in that dull, monotonous, hum-drum style, which too frequently characterizes our schools, and which many carry with them through life; such reading |