DIRECTIONS TO FOREIGNERS, In order to attain a knowledge of the marks in this Dictionary, and to acquire a right pronunciation of every word in the English Language. AS the sounds of the vowels are different in different languages, it would be endless to bring parallel sounds from the various languages of Europe; but, as the French is so generally understood, if we can reduce the sounds of the English letters to those of the French, we shall render the pronunciation of our language very generally attainable; and this, it is presumed, will be pretty accurately accomplished by observing the following directions: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R ess ti iou vi dobliou ex ouaï zedd The French have nearly all our vowel sounds, and will, therefore, find the pronunciation of them very easy. The only difficulty they will meet with seems to be i, which, though demonstrably composed of two successive sounds, has passed for a simple vowel with Mr. Nares, a very competent judge of English pronunciation. The reason is, these two sounds are pronounced so closely together as to require some attention to discover their component parts: this attention Mr. Sheridan never gave, or he would not have told us, that this diphthong is a compound of our fullest and slenderest sounds à and è; the first made by the largest, and the last by the smallest aperture of the mouth. Now, nothing is more certain than the inaccuracy of this definition. The third sound of a, which is perfectly equivalent to the third sound of o, when combined with the first sound of e, must inevitably form the diphthong boy, joy, &c. and not the diphthongal sound of the vowel i in idle, and the personal pronoun I; this double sound will, upon close examination, be found to be composed of the Italian a in the last syllable of papa, and the first sound of e, pronounced as closely together as possible; and for the exactness of this definition, I appeal to every just English ear in the kingdom. The other diphthongal vowel u is composed of the French i, pronounced as closely as possible to their diphthong ou, or the English èè and 8, perfectly equivalent to the sound the French would give to the letters you, and which is exactly the sound the English give to the plural of the second personal pronoun. The diphthong oi or oy is composed of the German 4 and i; thus, toy and boy would sound to a German or Hollander like tai and bai. There is no sound in the French language equivalent to that of oi or oy in English; consequently, Frenchmen must learn the pronunciation of these diphthongs from the mouth of a native. The diphthongs ou and ow, when sounded like ou, are composed of the French a and the diphthong ou; and the English sound of thou and now may be expressed to a Frenchman by spelling them thaou and nâou. Wis no more than the French diphthong ou; thus West is equivalent to Ouest, and we to oui. Y, when it begins a word, is equivalent to the French y and i; thus you and yore sound to a Frenchman as they are written. When not at the beginning of a word, y has a variety of sounds; thus, at the end of some words, as glorify, testify, deify, and several other verbs, it has the long sound of i. At the end of some other words, as variety, ability, nativity, &c. it has the long sound of e. In other words again, as martyr, satyr, &c. it has the short sound of u. Experience will best teach the proper mode of pronouncing this letter in its various combinations. J, or I consonant, must be pronounced by prefixing d to the French j; thus, jay, &c. sound to a Frenchman as if spelled djé, &c. If any difficulty be found in forming this combination of sounds, it will be removed by pronouncing the d, ed, and spelling this word edjé, &c. Ch, in English words not derived from the Greek, Latin or French, is pronounced as if t were prefixed; thus the sound of chair, cheese, chain, &c. would be understood by a Frenchman if the words were written tchére, tchize, tchéne. Sh in English is expressed by ch in French; thus shame, share, &c. would be spelled by a Frenchman chéme, chére, &c. The ringing sound ng, in long, song, &c. may be perfectly conceived by a pupil who can pronounce the French word encore, as the first syllable of this word is exactly correspondent to the sound in those English words. But the greatest difficulty every foreigner finds in pronouncing English, is the lisping consonant th. This, it may be observed, has, like the other consonants, a sharp and flat round; sharp as in thin, bath; flat as in that, with. To acquire the true pronunciation of this difficult combination, it may be proper to begin with those words where it is initial; and first, let the pupil protrude his tongue a little beyond the teeth, and press it between them as if going to bite the tip of it; while this is doing, if he wishes to pronounce thin, let him hiss as if to sound the letters, and after the hiss, let him draw back his tongue within his teeth, and pronounce the preposition in, and thus will the word thin be perfectly pronounced. If he would pronounce that, let him place the tongue between the teeth as before, and while he is hissing as to sound the letter z, let him withdraw his tongue into his mouth, and immediately pronounce the preposition at. To pronounce this combination when final in bath, let him pronounce ba, and protrude the tongue beyond the teeth, pressing the tongue with them, and hissing as if to sound s. If he would pronounce with, let him first form wi, put the tongue in the same position as before, and hiss as if to sound z. It will be proper to make the pupil dwell some time with the tongue beyond the teeth in order to form a habit, and to pronounce daily some words out of a Dictionary, beginning and ending with these letters. The English accent is often an insurmountable obstacle to foreigners, as the rules for it are so various, and the exceptions so numerous. But scarcely any method will be so useful for gaining the English accent as the reading of verse. This will naturally lead the ear to the right accentuation; and though a different position of the accent is frequently to be met with in the beginning of a verse, there is a sufficient regularity to render the pronouncing of verse a powerful means of obtaining such a distinction of force and feebleness as is commonly called the accent: for it may be observed, that a foreigner is no less distinguishable by placing an accent upon certain words to which the English give no stress, than by placing the stress upon a wrong syllable. Thus, if a foreigner, when he calls for bread at table, by saying, give me some bread, lays an equal stress upon every word, though every word should be pronounced with its exact sound, we immediately perceive he is not a native. An Englishman would pronounce these four words like two, with the accent on the first syllable of the first, and the last syllable of the last, as if written giveme somebread; or rather givme sumbred; or more commonly, though vulgarly, gimme somebred. Of the Simple and Diphthongal Vowels referred to by the figures over the letters in this Dictionary. ENGLISH SOUNDS. 1. à. The long slender English a, as in fåte, på-per, &c. 3. à. The broad German a, as in fall, wall, wå-ter. 1. è. The long e, as in mê, hère, mè-tre, mê-dium, FRENCH SOUNDS. . é in fée, épée. a in fable, rable. a in natte, matin. i in mitre, épitre. e in mette, nette. ai in laïque, naïf. i in inné, innocent. o in globe, lobe. 1. 3. The long open o, as in nỏ, nôte, nỏ-tice, o in hotte, cotte. 1. ú. The long diphthongal u, as in cù-ri-ous, cù-pid-i-ty, iou in cioutat, chiourme 2. ủ. The short simple a, as in tui, củp, sắp. 3. ů. The middle or obtuse u, as in bull, füll, pull, .... [in houle, foule, poule not quite so broad as ou [Août ôi. The long broad d, and the short 1, as in oil. Th. The acute or sharp th, as in think, thin. When G is printed in the Roman character, it has its hard sound in get, gone, &c. as go, give, geese, &c. When it has its soft sound, it is spelled in the notation by the consonant J, as giant, ginger, ji-ant, jin-jer. The same may be observed of S; the Roman character denotes its hard sound in sin, sun, &c. as so, sit, sense, &c. Its soft sound is spelled by z, as rose, raise, &c. roze, raze, &c. PRONOUNCING DICTIONARY, AND EXPOSITOR OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. The figures over the letters refer to the vowels in the words at the top of the page.-The parts of speech are distinguished by the first letter or syllable of each; as, a. for adjective, al. for adverb, v. a. for verb active, &c. pret. stands for preterit, pass. for passive, &c. A Fåte, får, fåll, fât;-mẻ, met;-pine, pin ;-nó, move, nor, nôt;-tube, tåb, båll ;-ỏil ;-pound;-thin, THIS. A, or an, the indefinite article Abarticulation, âb-ãr-tik-ù-lå'shûn. s. ar- Abbess, åb'bês. s. superior of a nunnery Abbreviature, ab-bre'vè-à-tshire. s. a Abdicate, âb'de-kåte. v. a. to resign, give up right Abdication, ab-dè-kå'shûn. s. resignation Abatement, 4-båte'ment. s. the act of Abdicative, åb'de-kå-tiv. a. that which abating; the sum or quantity taken implies an abdication away Abdomen, âb-do'mên. s. the lower belly Abb, áb. s. the yarn on a weaver's warp Abdominal, ab-dom'me-nål. Abbacy, ab'bâ-sè. s. the rights or privi- Abdominous,âb-¿tm'mė-nūs. S leges of an abbot ting to the abdomen B } a. rela |