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GRAMMAR, 
Pronunciation is juft, when every letter has its 
proper found, and when every fvllable has its proper 
accent, or, which in Englilh veriification is tlie fanie, 
its proper quantity. 
Tlie accent confifts in a particular elevation of the 
voice, by vvhich, in polyfyllables, one fyllable is as it 
were raifed above the others : thus in emer'ffcncy, employ'- 
mcni, the fyllables mer and ploy are called accentuated fylla¬ 
bles. The reafon of this mode of diftinguilhing one fyl¬ 
lable from another, is properly contained in the nature 
of the word and the intention of the fpeaker, who, by 
this elevation of the voice, points out that lyllable, 
■vviiich exprelfes the principal idea, and to which he 
cliiefly direits the attention of the hearer. Hence the 
two iiccentuated I'yllables, above-mentioned, contain the 
yirincipal ideas of the words in which they occur, and 
all the other fyllables denote only collateral ideas, or 
further determinations, inflexions, and the like. 'I'his, 
in the nature of tlie thing, is properly tlie intention of tlie 
accent; for this reafon, in the German, and probably too 
in all other unmixed languages, we meet with the ge¬ 
neral rule, that tlie radical lyllable, in fuch words as 
conlift of a plurality of lyilables, always receives the 
accent; lince it contains tlie principal idea of the word. 
In the German language this rule is fo general, that 
tlie few exceptions from it Icarcelv delerve any atten¬ 
tion. But, as the Engliih is a very mixed language, 
tills rule is liable here to a much greatei- number of ex¬ 
ceptions; efpecially with relpcct to words borrowed 
from the Latin and French, in which the radical fylla- 
ble has become obicui'e, lo that it cannot in all iiiftances 
preferve Us due accent. But thole words from the 
Aiiglo-Saxon, which are ftill current in the Eiiglilli lan¬ 
guage, follow tins rule, and perhaps as uniformly as in 
the German, ‘ 
The great diftinffion of our accent depends upon its 
feat ; which may be citlier ui..'On i vowel ora conionant. 
U[)on a VO.' el, as in the words, glory. father, holy. Upon 
a coiifonant, as in the words, kab it, bor'row, bat tie. \V hen 
the accent is on the vowel, the iylGble is long; becaufe 
the aceem is made by dwelling upon the vowel. Wlien 
it is on the confonaiii, the lyllable is ihort ; becaufe the 
accent is made by palnng rapidly over the vowel, and 
giving a fmart ftruke of tiie voice to the foliow ing con- 
I'oiian'r. '1 hus the words, ac/E', led', bid', rod', cub', are 
all Ihort, tlie voice palling quickly over the vowel to 
the conlon.im : luit tor a contrary reafon, the words, 
all, laid, bide, road,'cube, are long; tlie accent being on 
the vowels, on winch ilie voice dwells fome time, be¬ 
fore it takes in the found of the conionant. Obvious as 
this point is, it has wholly elcaped the oblervation of 
rnpll ot our grammarians, and compilers of didionaries ; 
\;^'ho, inftead of examining the peculiar genius of our 
tongue, have followed the Greek meihod, of always 
placing the accentual mark over a vowel. Now the 
reafon of this practice among the Greeks was, that as 
their accents conlilfed in change of notes, they could 
not be diftinCtly exprelfed but by the vowels; in utter¬ 
ing which, the pallage is entirely clear for tlie voice to 
illiie, and not interrupted or flopped by the dirterent 
pofitions of the organs in forming the confonants. But 
as our accent coiUilts in llrels only, it can juft as well be 
placed on a conionant as a vowel. By this method of 
matklng the accented fyllable, our compilers of dic¬ 
tionaries, vocabularies, and fpelling-books, iiiiift millead 
provincials and foreigners in the pronunciation of per- 
haus one half of the words in oiir language. F'or in- 
ftance ; if they ihoiild look for the word endeavour, find¬ 
ing the accent over the vowel e, they will of coiirfe 
found it endeavour. In the lame manner ded'\zd.tie will 
be called ife'dicate ; precip itate, prect'-pirate ; phenoni'e. 
non, phewo-menon; and I'o on through all words of the 
fame dais. And in fact we find the Scots do pronounce 
all fuch words in ih.it manner; nor do they ever lay the 
accent upon the cynfonant in any word in the whole lan= 
guage; in which the diver.'ity of their pronunciation 
from tiiat of the people of Eingland diiefiy confifts.' It 
is a pity that our compilers of didioiiaries Ihould have 
■fallen into fo grofs an error, as the marking of the ac¬ 
cents in the right way would have afforded one oi the 
nioft general and certain guides to true pronunciation, 
th.at is to be found with refpect to our tongue; this 
therefore is the method we have adopted. 
Versification is tlie arrangement of a certain num¬ 
ber of fyllables according to certain laws. The feet of 
our verl'es arc either iambic, as aldf, create-, or trochaic, 
as holy, lofty. Tlie iambic meafuie comprehends verfes 
of four, lix, eight, ten, and even of twelve and fourteen, 
fyllables; in all wliich meafures the accent is to be 
pi.iced on the even fyllables, i. e. the fecond, fourth, &c. 
ill every line; and every line, conlidered by iifelf, is 
more liarnionious, as this rule is more ftiidly obferved. 
—I'he trochaic meafure includes verl'es of three, five, and 
feven, fyllables; the accent being on the odd i'yllables. 
There is ;ilfo another meafure in Engliih verfe, called 
thz anapefic, in which, though the imniber of/ylla,bles 
may be even, ftill the accent is upon the odd one; 
May I govern my palfions with ubfolute fway, 
And grow vviler and better as time wears away. Dr.Pope. 
To this meafure Mrs. Hannah More has tliought fit ta 
refer the heroic meafure of the French, tvliich Ihe fays 
is to be read like our long of “ A cobler there was and 
he liv’d in a ft.'ill.” Noihing can be more erroneou.s, 
OI lliow a greater ignorance of French metre, than fuch 
an alfertioii. The French verfe is our Alexandrine line 
ot twelve lyllable.s, with the accent on each even fylla¬ 
ble; and tliould be read like “ I'lie long lyajcllic march 
and energy' divine.”—Example : 
Je chdiite ce herds qui regna fur la France 
Et piar droit do conquetc er par droit de nailTance. 
Not as H. M. would read it; Je chant’ ce herds qui 
regna fur la EraiKe, &c. 
Our veriification admits of few licences, except a 
fynalitpha, or elilion of c in the before a vowel, as th' eter¬ 
nal ; .Old more rarely of o in to, as d accept ; and a fynxrefs, 
by which two Ihort vowels coaleicc luio one lyli..ble,as 
quefion,fpcciai\ or a word is contracted by the ex pul lion 
oi a iliort vowel before a liquid, as aurke, temp'rance. 
Cutting oft' the e in liv'd, clos'd, See. is now frequent¬ 
ly neglected in poetry, being thouglit unneccllaiy, be- 
caule t!ic words, though written at length, are gene¬ 
rally (hortened in pronunciation, even in prole. But 
this realon is very infuflicieiit; for the meafure fre¬ 
quently requires fuch words to be pronounced with 
their full complement of fyllables. 1 iift.uices are very 
numerous indeed in Spenfer; but we lliali jqiiote only 
one trom a modern w-riter : 
Her eyes which fo bea^itiful ftiorte 
Are c\uied for ever in llec-p. Lytilttotr,. 
On the other hand, a ciiftom has obtained of printing 
the words though and thorough clliptically, thus, tho', 
thro'; now, being words aheady of one lyllable, there 
can be no necejflity for contratftiug them, as tlie clliplis 
cannot make them more fuitabie to the mealiu'C of any 
verfe. 
Of PUNCTUATION, 
Punftuation has generally been confidered as a mo¬ 
dern invention; but I’ome fpecies of paufes and divi- 
lions of fentences in I'peaking and writing mull have 
been coeval with the knowledge of communicating ideas, 
by founds or by fymbols. Suidas fays, that the period 
and the colon were dilcovered and explained by 'i'hra- 
fymacus, about 380 years before tlie Chrillian era. 
Cicero lays, that Thrafymacus was the firft wlio ftudied 
oratorical numbers, which entirely conliited in the artifi¬ 
cial ftruifture of periods and colons. It appears from a 
pialfage in Ariftotle, that punctuation was knov^ii in his 
time. The learned Dr, Edward Bernard relers the know. 
X kdgli 
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