The final consonant of any word, if not immediately preceded by a single vowel, or not under the accent, remains single upon the addition of a suffix. * Derivatives formed from primitives ending in l, or p, are by some written with the final letter double; thus, traveller instead of traveler, worshipper instead of worshiper, etc. This, however, is against the rule followed by Dr. Webster, which is founded on analogy, and ought to be observed. *Words ending in ll, upon taking the suffix less, either insert a hyphen (-), as in thrall-less, or drop one 1, and so become exceptions to the rule; thus, bel-less, for bell-less. Words ending with e silent commonly drop the e upon taking a suffix beginning with a vowel. * The second, in each of these words, ill, dull, full, shrill, small, is left out, as is plain, to prevent the tripling of that letter in the middle of a word; otherwise they would have to be written ill-ly, dull-ly, full-ly, shrill-ly, and small-ly, as in the case of skill-less, &c. See note, page 66. |