Page:Collier's Cyclopedia of Commercial and Social Information.djvu/19

Rh RAMMAR is divided into two parts—one which treats of the classification, formation, derivation, and inflection of words by themselves, and is called Etymology;—and another, which treats of the combination of words into sentences, &c., and is called Syntax. When languages are analyzed in any state already reached, and not in a state of transition, they become the subject of special grammar belonging to the province of linguistics. Comparative grammar seeks, by comparing the grammars of several languages, to reach the laws of inflection and construction common to them, and finally to all languages. General or historic grammar attempts to explain the growth of language within a specified group.

In this short treatise the formation and derivation of words are not included under Etymology, but are added by way of illustration to the concise History of the English Language, which forms the concluding portion of it. By this means, not only is some repetition spared, but, being disencumbered of that which is rather curious than useful, this Etymology is rendered more serviceable to those for whom it is specially intended.

Both Etymology and Syntax, it must be observed, are arranged, in the first place, with a view to assist in a study of the English language; and next, to present such an elucidation of its principal facts, and such an interpretation of its most important laws, as shall give to those who consider them attentively, some real and practical knowledge of their own tongue. And with the same intent, those technicalities only have been introduced, and those technicalities only have been introduced and those examples selected, which might be expected to aid in the simplification and explanation of the subject.



2. There are twenty-six letters in the English Alphabet; which have always been arranged in the following order, and are of these forms in Roman type: The number of sounds to be represented by these letters is estimated at about forty; and, in consequence, several of them have to stand for more sounds than one. It is somewhat remarkable that since this is the case, the letters c, q, and x should be superfluous; the two sounds of c being represented by s and k, as in cell, sell; calends, kalends; q, being always followed by u, with the sound expressible by kw; and the sounds of x differing in no respect from those of ks, gz, and z (in some words borrowed from the French). It would be of considerable advantage, if symbols for the sounds represented now by the combinations of letters, ch, sh, th, ng, &c., could be devised and introduced; but this is a matter of such great difficulty, as to be almost, impossible. 3. The twenty-six letters are divided into two classes—Vowels and Consonants. The vowels are, a, e, i, o, u; and with them w and y ought to be placed. They represent the sounds which are produced by the transmission of the voice through the mouth, whilst the cavity is more or less enlarged in different directions. All the rest are named