Page:Grammar of the French language - De Vere - 1867.djvu/18

10 VOWELS.

Five of these letters are called Vowels, from a word which originally suggested that they were produced by a simple utterance of the voice, without the aid of other letters; whilst Consonants were so called, because they cannot be sounded without the assistance of another sound (con-sono).

A has but one sound, which resembles that of a in father.

Ex. la, the; ma, my; ta, thy; sa, her; annales, annals; carte, card.

E has the sound of e in ell, but accents change it slightly, as will be explained under the head of Accents.

Ex. mortelle, mortal; bref, brief: sept, seven.

I has the sound of ee in eel.

Ex. file, file; minime, smallest; ciel, heaven; vie, life.

O has the two sounds which we give to o in the word post-office, the former close, the latter open.

Ex. (close) apôtre, apostle; repos, repose; silôt, so soon, (open) choc, shock; social; soldat, soldier.

U has no corresponding sound in English. It is pronounced by pointing the lips as if preparing for a whistle. It must be heard to be imitated, and then requires, like all the sounds, practice to become perfectly correct.

Ex. vu, seen; flûte, flute; minute, minute; uni, plain.

These Vowels, however, suffer certain changes under the influence of three causes: the addition of Accents, their combination with m and n, and their combination with other vowels. Y. as a vowel, will be mentioned hereafter.

1. When they are accented:

The French has three accents, viz.: the three signs ( ′ ), ( ` ) and ( ^ ), which are placed over the vowels for different purposes: