HARVAR Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1864, by the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. IN PRESS. SARGENT'S STANDARD FIFTH READER. PART II. An entirely new work, containing the best elocutionary exercises in the language. UNIVERSITY PRESS: CAMBRIDGE. PREFACE. It was SOME time since, the present compiler submitted to the public a new system of notation for the unaccented vowel-sounds. quite as simple as Columbus's expedient for making the egg stand on end. The whole principle lay merely in putting the long and short marks under a vowel letter instead of over it, to indicate the modification caused by the absence of accent. The great point of difference between the English and American lexicographers has been in reference to these unaccented vowelsounds; the former generally giving to them the regular long or short mark, and the latter giving either no mark at all, or one that would better be omitted altogether. The advantage of the new system we have here applied for the first time to a Spelling-Book is, that, while this system avoids the objection brought against the English mode, it enables the student to see at once how the great majority of words are marked under that mode; thus clearly conveying a knowledge of the pronunciation of Walker, Smart, and Cooley, and giving the true quality of the unaccented vowels, as exhibited by the highest orthoëpical authorities. In reference to these unaccented vowel-sounds Walker, more than half a century ago, remarked: "Some persons have saved themselves the trouble of further search by comprehending these vowels under the epithet obscure." He alluded especially to Kenrick, whose plan of disposing of difficulties was afterwards extended and systematized in this country by Worcester, who indicates the "obscure sounds of the vowel letters by putting beneath them a dot. Of this expedient Professor Whitney of Yale College, one of the most profound and original orthoëpists of the century, remarks: "Worcester has applied his sign of obscurity so generally and so indiscriminately as entirely to destroy its significance." 66 Let it be admitted, however, that Worcester himself frankly forewarns us that his obscure mark "is employed rather to indicate a slight stress of voice than to note any particular quality of sound." But, as all his other marks are applied to denote a particular quality of sound," those persons who use his Dictionary will generally infer, in spite of prefatory admonitions which few look at, that, when the same letters have the same mark, it is intended to imply that they shall be pronounced nearly alike. Let us see how this obscuring system works. Under it the u in forum has the same mark as the u in regular, century, &c.; and so in impudent; sulphur and penury; monstrous and statue. The a in village has the same mark as the a in mental; the e in paper, as the e in travel; the e in emit, as the e in covert. Well may Professor Whitney remark of such a system: "We can never know whether the dotted vowel is merely to be left unemphatic, while unaltered in respect either to quantity or quality of sound, or whether it is liable to be abbreviated without change of quality, or whether, finally, it may pass over into the indiscrete u." Our reformed system of notation, it will be seen, is not so much an innovation as it is a simple means of reconciling the English and American modes of treating the unaccented vowel-sounds. In this Spelling-Book, when the short mark is seen under a letter, it may almost invariably be inferred that the same mark is over the letter in the dictionaries of Walker, Smart, and Cooley; and so, with a very few exceptions, in regard to the long mark. These exceptions relate principally to some thirty or forty words ending in -age and -ain, as village, fountain. To the vowel of the unaccented syllable in these words Walker gives the sound of short i, while Cooley puts the regular long mark over the a. By putting this mark under the a, we indicate his notation, and at the same time avoid the too emphatic sound which a close conformity to it in utterance would convey. For reasons given in the Introduction, we have applied a special mark to indicate the effect of r (as in care, more) in modifying long vowel-sounds. In the disposition of words in Lessons the object has been to combine with simplicity in the graduation the advantage of classification. This is done through references interlinking many of those Lessons illustrating similar difficulties or peculiarities of vowel or consonant sounds. The objection often brought against the classification system that it makes spelling too much a matter of rote, by furnishing a pattern for a long list of words of similar form placed in juxtaposition has been obviated by distributing the words through various Lessons, and making nearly every Lesson include a variety of literal forms and sounds. Our object has been to make this eminently a book of spelling exercises, spelling properly including an accurate pronunciation. Where definitions are essential as a guide to the spelling (as in homophonous words), they are added; but we have not attempted to do too many things at once, or to make this a miscellany of impertinent though curious information. In regard to orthography, we have adopted the plan of classifying the bulk of the words (see Lesson 231) wherein Webster differs from Worcester, - placing the two spellings side by side, so that the Teacher may recommend that which may be preferred. In other parts of the book, where a spelling or pronunciation has our own preference, we indicate it by giving it precedence. For many valuable orthoëpical hints, we have been indebted to the distinguished teacher of elocution, Professor Lewis B. Monroe. |