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Read Ebook: McGuffey's Eclectic Spelling Book by McGuffey Alexander H Alexander Hamilton
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Ebook has 833 lines and 47099 words, and 17 pages
ECLECTIC EDUCATIONAL SERIES.
McGUFFEY'S
ECLECTIC
SPELLING-BOOK.
REVISED EDITION.
McGuffey Editions and Colophon are Trademarks of
John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
NEW YORK-CHICHESTER-WEINHEIM-BRISBANE-SINGAPORE-TORONTO
PREFACE In revising this book, care has been taken to preserve all the excellences that have so long and so favorably distinguished McGUFFEY'S ECLECTIC SPELLING-BOOK: and the chief changes that have been made, have been suggested by the evident plan of the original work.
A number of lessons have been added in the department of prefixes and suffixes, and now nearly all the more common of these etymological principles have been explained. In arranging the text of the several lessons, the object has been not to appeal merely to arbitrary memory, but to associate each lesson with some principle of sound, meaning, or accent, which would tend to aid the pupil in acquiring a knowledge of our language. Several distinct lessons on pronunciation are given, and towards the close of the book numerous lessons of difficult words in orthography have been introduced.
Instead of indicating silent letters by italics, as has hitherto been done, a new type has been made in which such letters are canceled, thus enabling the pupil to discover their status at a glance.
The pages have been enlivened, as in the other books of this Series, by attractive engravings.
The publishers take pleasure in acknowledging the valuable services of W. B. Watkins, D. D., who planned and executed this revision. DECEMBER, 1879.
THE ENGLISH ALPHABET.
The English Alphabet consists of twenty-six letters, viz.: a,b,c,d,e,f,g,h,i,j,k,l,m,n,o,p,q,r,s,t,u,v,w,x,y,z.
Letters are divided into VOWELS and CONSONANTS.
The Vowels are those letters which can be perfectly sounded without the aid of any other letter. The vowels are a, e, i, o, u, w, and y.
The vowel sounds of w and y are the same as those of u and i. A, e, and o are always vowels. I, u, w, and y are sometimes consonants.
A Diphthong is the union of two vowels in one sound. When both vowels are sounded, the diphthong is called PROPER, because then it is really a DIPHTHONG, or double sound; that is, the sounds of the vowels unite; as, oi in oil; ou in sound.
When only one of the vowels is sounded, the diphthong is called IMPROPER, because then, as one of the vowels is silent, it is not properly a DIPHTHONG, though it takes that name; as, oa in boat, ui in suit, where a and i are silent.
The following diphthongs are in common use, viz.: oi, oy, ou, ow, ae, ai, au, aw, ay, ea, ei, eo, eu, ew, ey, ia, ie, oa, oe, ua, ue, ui; as in toil, boy, round, plow, seal, coal, head, sail, say, aught, yeoman. Of these, oi, oy, ou, and ow are generally proper diphthongs; though sometimes ou and ow are improper, as in famous, where o is silent, and in slow, where w is silent.
A Triphthong is the union of three vowels in one syllable; as, eau in beau, iew in view. The triphthong is properly a union of letters, not sounds.
OF THE VARIOUS SOUNDS.
All the vowels, and some of the consonants, have several sounds; in this book these sounds are indicated by diacritical marks, as in the following tables:
TABLE OF VOCALS. Long Sounds.
e eve e err i ice o ode u use
Short Sounds.
Diphthongs.
oi,oy,as in oil, boy ou,ow, as in out, owl
v valve th this z zinc zh azure r rare w we y yet
t tart sh she ch chat th thick wh why
NOTE.--The foregoing forty-four sounds are those most employed in the English language. Some of these sounds are represented by other letters, as shown in the following table. For further instruction concerning the sounds, see Lessons 36-57.
y i myth c k can c s cite ch sh chaise ch k chaos g j gem n ng ink s z as s sh sure x gz exact gh f laugh ph f phlox qu k pique qu kw quit
W, in its vowel sounds, corresponds with u; an in new .
A has, in a few words, the sound of e; as in any .
U has, in a few words, the sound of e; as in bury ; or that of i, as in busy .
OF THE CONSONANTS.
The Consonants are those letters which can not be perfectly sounded without the aid of a vowel. The consonants are b, c, d, f, g, h, l, k, l, m, n, p, q, r, s, t, v, x, z, and sometimes i, u, w, and y. The consonants are divided into MUTES and SEMI-VOWELS.
The Mutes are those consonants that admit of no sound without the aid of a vowel. They are b, d, k, p, q, t, and c and g hard.
The Semi-vowels are those consonants that can be sounded imperfectly by themselves. They are f, h, j, l, m, n, r, s, v, x, z, and c and g soft.
Four of the semi-vowels are called LIQUIDS; viz., l, m, n, and r. They are called liquids because they unite so readily with other sounds, or flow into them.
OF SYLLABLES AND WORDS.
A Syllable is a sound, or a combination of sounds, uttered by a single impulse of the voice: it may have one or more letters; as a, bad, bad-ness.
A Word is either a syllable or a combination of syllables; as, not, notion.
A word of one syllable is called a Monosyllable; as, man.
A word of two syllables is called a Dissyllable; as, manly.
A word of three syllables is called a Trisyllable; as, manliness. Words of more than three syllables are called Polysyllables.
Accent is a stress of voice placed upon some one syllable more than the others. Every word composed of two or more syllables has one of them accented. This accent is denoted by a mark at the end of the accented syllable; as, mid'night, a ban'don.
A Primitive Word is one which is not derived from any other word; as, man, great, full.
A Derivative Word is one which is formed from some other word by adding something to it; as, manful, greatness, fully.
A Simple Word is one which is not composed of more than one word; as, kind, man, stand, ink.
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