WORDS IN COLUMNS AND SENTENCES FOR ORAL AND WRITTEN EXERCISES; TOGETHER WITH PREFIXES, AFFIXES, AND IMPORTANT ROOTS FROM THE Greek and Latin Languages. BY WILLIAM D. SWAN, PHILADELPHIA: THOMAS COWPERTHWAIT AND COMPANY HARVAR.. Entered, according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1848, by in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the District of Massachusetts. CITY OF ROXBURY. IN SCHOOL COMMITTEE, Nov. 1, 1848. Ordered, That "Swan's Spelling-Book" be introduced into the Schools of this city, from and after this day. Copy from records.-Attest, JOSHUA SEAVER, Secretary. JOSHUA SEAVER, Secretary. Extract from the Records of the School Committee of the City of Boston. IN SCHOOL COMMITTEE, Mar. 7, 1849. Ordered, That the "Spelling-Book" of WILLIAM D. SWAN take the place of B. D. Emerson's, subject to the conditions prescribed by the regulations. A true copy from the records.-Attest, S. F. MCCLEARY, Secretary. PREFACE. THIS work has been compiled to furnish teachers with a complete and systematic series of exercises in English orthography. Experience has convinced the author that the old method. of requiring children to study words in columns, arranged according to their accent and number of syllables, and to spell them orally, without reducing the exercise to practice by writing the words, is a useless task, and will never accomplish its design. Children may be able to spell words correctly when pronounced by the teacher; but, without frequent practice in writing, they will misspell them in composition. The recent reports of school committees upon this subject, bear testimony to the truth of this conclusion. There are great and paramount difficulties in learning to spell correctly the English language These difficulties arise principally from the anomalous and peculiar structure of the language, from the variety of sounds given to the several vowels,—from silent consonants in certain classes of words, — and from the similarity of sounds in syllables formed by different combinations of letters. To obviate these difficulties, to classify and arrange them under distinct heads, that they may be more readily and easily learned and remembered, has been the principal design. of the author. Easy words, illustrating the simple sounds of vowels and consonants; words containing one or more silent consonants; words pronounced alike, but differing in orthography and signification, have been arranged into distinct classes. But the great and distinguishing feature of the work is the arrangement of Exercises for Writing, in connection with the several classes. It has often been urged, and with good reason, against the spelling-books in common use, that children are required to learn to spell words, of the meaning and use of which they have no idea. These Exercises for Writing provide a remedy for this defect. Most of the words in the columns occur in the sentences, and the learner is thus shown their meaning and application. The Rules for Spelling and the Exceptions should be thoroughly committed to memory by the learner, and frequent allusion should be made to them by the teacher, by questions like the following: (RULE I.) Why is the word muff spelled with two ƒ's? What are the exceptions to Rule I.? b's? (RULE III.) Why is the word robber spelled with two (RULE IV.) Why is the letter t not doubled in spelling the words cheated and limited? (RULE V.) Why are the words libeller and revelling spelled with two l's? (RULE VI.) Why are the words almighty, albeit, and already spelled with one ? What are the exceptions to this rule? Words containing syllables or terminations, pronounced alike or nearly alike, but spelled differently, are arranged in parallel columns, which are also followed by appropriate exercises for writing. Much attention should be bestowed upon these terminations, as they form one of the chief difficulties in spelling. Take, for instance, the terminations eive and ieve, which have both the same sound, as in the words receive and believe. If the learner be told that whenever the letter c precedes the termination, it is spelled eive; but if any other consonant precede, it is spelled ieve, he will have but little difficulty in spelling this class of words in future; and so with all the other classes which have been arranged and explained. Another prominent feature in the work is the introduction of the Prefixes and Affixes, by means of which the meaning of words is variously modified. There has also been added, for more advanced pupils, a large number of the important Greek and Latin roots, with some of their derivatives. These derivatives form an important class of words for spelling, independently of the roots, which may be traced to their origin or not, according to the age and capacity of the pupil. |