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Show thisy bisy ours, yours, us5 the adverb thus and word dcriye fr_o L'atm H RAMMAROF a 7 rebus, [furplus; the clofe being always either in fe, as boufe, borfe, or in fs, a grafs, drefs, blifs, lefs, anciently graffe, dreffe Z bégins no word originally Englifh; it has the fpund',‘-a clof wit uttere a o exprefles har o ixzar nam it S fingle, at the end of words, has a groffer found, like that o %, s frees, eyes, except this, thus, us, rebus, furplus It founds like = before ion, if 4 vowel goes before, as intrufion and like/; if it follows a confonant, as corwerfion It founds like = before e mute, as refu/e, and befogey fingl, a rofy5 and in thofe word &ofom, defire, wwifdom, prifon, prifoner before all confonants It is the peculiar quality of f; that it may be founde x and =, in which/ is comprifed, x bein of whic reafo onl ks, an o a har termed by grammarians fuee poteffatis literas th This [ is therefor grofs Dr. the learne fuppofcd.t Clarke erroncoudl fome words it might be doubled at pleafure be,- that i Thus we find in feveral fan guages [gombrare SCbwups, [eattery [degno, [drucciolo, ffavellare, oiy [granare Shakey flumber, [mell, [nipe, [pace, Jplendour, [pring, [quceze, fbrew, fepy [irength Srramen, firipe, fventura, [zvell as queftion ; exceptin a likewife derivatives fro 7% has two founds ; the one foft, as thus whether ; the othe 'The found is foft in thefe words, zhen #hence, and there, with their derivatives and compounds ; and i that, thefe, thou, thee, thy,- thine, their, they, this, thofe, them though, thus, and in all words between two vowels, as Sather awhether; and between » and a vowel, as burthen thick, thunder, faith, faithful. Where it is foftened at the end of a word, an ¢ filent muf added, as breah, 5reat/.7€7; clothy c/otéf.'» b is alway the other regular and {olemn, - The lgemg made different i vague and uncertain Tlfe folemn pro different mouths by negligence, unfkilfulnefs, or afi'c&atxon nunciation thoug by n immutabl mean permanent, is yet alv'mys‘ ‘an lefs remote from the orthography, and le_fs liable to capricious. innovation They have however generally formed their tables according -to the‘curf fpeech of thofe with whom the th whol natio combine t happene vitiat to converfe languag i an concluding tha manner on have ofte eftablifhed the jargon of the loweft of the people as the model of fpeech thofe as the moft ele. ¥ has a found of near affinity to that of £, wasn, wanity From f, in the Ul*ndick alphabet, = is only diftinguifhe point by ‘a diacritica W . Of w, which in diphthongs is often an undoubted vowel, fome grammarians have doubted whether it ever be a confonant ; and not rather, as it is called, a double « or oz, as water may b refolved into owarer; but letters of the fame found are alway reckoned confonants in other alphabets: and it may- be ob ferved, that o follows a vowel without any hiatus or difficulty o utterance, as frofty awinter #b has a {ound accounted peculiar to the Englifh, which the better exprefled by hp, hw, as whaz and uncertain an is ye fufliciently irregular Of thefe reformer fome have endeavoured to accommodate orthography better to the pronungiation, without confidering that this is to meafure by a flmdow:,,to Fakc, that fo Others; kf a model or ftandard which is. changing while they apply it abfurdly indeed, but with equal unlikelihood of fuccefs, have endeavoured t proportion the number of letters to that of founds; that every found may hav Such would be.th its own chara&er, and every charater a fingle found orthography of a new language to b?- formed by a fynod of grammarians But who can hope to prevail on nations to chang upon principles of fcience their practice, an malke all their old*books ufelefs 2. or wha advax{tagctwoul a new orthography ‘procure equivalent to the confufion and perplexity of fuch an alteration Some of thefe fchemes I fhall however exhibit, which may be -ufed accord ing to the diverfities of genius, as a guide to reformers, or terrour to innovators One of the firt who propofed a fcheme of regular orthogx:ap_hy, was Sit Thomas Smith, fecretary of ftate to Queen Elizabeth, a map of real learning ‘and much pra&ifed in grammatical difquifitions. Had he written the followin lines according to his fcheme, they would have appeared thus V §axon curfory pronunciatio variou words ending in #y, as mighty, mightier nunciation, one curfory and colloquial or according to the fancy of the earlieft writers in rude ages, was at firft ver before a vowel has the found of /7, as Jalvation, excep In other words it is hard, a nounced otherwife than they are writt_en., and feem not fufficmnt]y to hay confidered, that of Englifh, as of al.l livihg tongues, thefe is a doqble' pro There have been many fchemes oflerCfi for t}_lc emem'iamon and fettlement of our orthography, which, like that of other nations, being formed by chance T has its cuftomary found, as take, temptation hard, as thing, think bY‘pro found certa expre o ar th e lin o i b p r o t o e clu I have therefore obferved in what words any of the letters g7 charaters gant fpeakers who deviate leaft from the written words o J goes before In orthography I have fuppo fed orthocpy, or juft utterance of words, to be iy For pronunciatiom the beft general rule is, to confide § is mute in ifle, iffand, demefne, ifcount ml;\t/;;fi of the writers of Englifh grammar have given long tables of words pro préfent, prefent, damfel, cafement excep compreflion of the palate by the tongue, as freeze, froze whence, whiting 1 awhore only, and fometimes in wholefome, awh is founded lik a fimple 4 % X begins no Englifh word; it has the found of #s, as axle extraneous. Z', when it follows a confonant, is a vowel ; when it precedes either a vowel or diphthong, is a confonant, ge, young. It 1i thought by fome to be in all cafes a vowel. But it may be obferved of y as of w, that it follows a vowel without any hiatus as rofy youth The chief argument by which e and y appear to-be always vowels. is, tha the founds which they are fuppofed to have as confonants, cannot be uttere aftc{ a.vowel, like that of all other confonants ; thus we fay, tu, ut5 do, odd bat in wed, dew, the two founds of w haye no refemblance to cach other Atlength Erafmus, that great-injur'd name, The glary of the priefthood, and the thame, Stemm'd the wild torrent of a barb'rous age And drove thofe holy Vandals off the Ttage At leng8 Erafmus, Sat gret ingurd nim, ae glori of Seprefthiid, and Se zim Stemmd ¥e wild torrent of a barb'rous 43; And drov 8os holi Vandals off Se ftag After him another mode of writin was offered by Dr. Gill, the celebrate mafter of St. Paul's fchool in London; which I cannot reprefent exaétly fo ‘want of types, but will approach as nearly as I can by means of charafter ‘now in ufe; fo as to make it underftood, exhibiting two ftanzas of Spenfer in the reformed orthography Spenfer, book iii. canto 5 Unthankful wretch, faid he, is this the meed With which her fovereign mercy thou doft quite Thy life fhe faved by her gracious deed But thou deft ween with villanous defpight ‘To blot her honour, and her heav'nly light Die, rather die, than fo difloyally Deem of her high defert, or feem fo light Fair death it is to fhun more fhame;. then die Die, rather die, than ever love difloyally But if to love difloyalty it be Shall T then hate her, that from deathes doo Me brought ah! far be fuch reproach from me What can I lefs do, than her love therefore, Sith I her due reward cannot reftore Die, rather die, and dying do her ferve, Dying her ferve, and living her adore ‘Thy life fhe gave, thy life fhe doth deferve Die, rather die, than ever from her fervice fwerve Vnbankful wreo, faid hj, iz Eis Be mjd ‘Wil mio her folierain merfi Sou duft qujt Dj if rj fated bj her grafius djd But Sou duft wen wi) Bilenus difpjte |