NOTE I. The Letters of a word are sometimes called its Literal Elements. The term, Letter, is sometimes expressed by the word, grain, a contraction of the Greek word, gramma, meaning a letter; hence, our English word, grammar.

Alphabet.

LIT. DEF. The word, alphabet,' means A, B, C's.

385. The term, ALPHABET, is applied to a table or arrangement of the letters, as literal or graphic elements of words.

1 ALPHABET.

bet beta, Greek name for the letter, B; alpha, Greek name for

the letter, A. See abacus.

NOTE II. The Alphabets of the different languages vary in the number of letters which they contain. In the Alphabet of the English language there are 26, in the Latin, 25, in the Greek, French, Italian, Spanish, 24, Abyssinian, 202, and the Brahmanic, 240.

386. Since, in the English Language, there are about forty sounds, and only twenty-six letters, some letters must represent more than one sound, or else some sounds must be represented by a combination of these letters, both of which, in practice, are done.

NOTE III. A new Alphabet, called the Phonetic Alphabet, is now used, in which, the number of letters is equal to the number of sounds in the English language. These letters are so simple in their forms, that a speech may be written as rapidly by the narratee as it is uttered by the speaker, a feat which has never yet been performed by words written in the common Alphabet.

By using the Phonetic Alphabet, also, a speech may be copied and then be read by a copyist, who does not know the meaning of a single word, used by the speaker. A few years since, in New York City, a boy reported a speech in the Russian language, and then read it to the gratification of several Russians, while the boy himself did not understand a single word of the speech. The mastery of this Alphabet and its familiar use, cannot be too highly commended to students.

Ideagraphic.

LIT. DEF. The word, ideagraphic, means belonging to the picture of an idea.

387. IDEAGRAPHIC is a term applied to a picture, a drawing, or a delineation, and to any character or mark, which expresses an idea to the sense of sight.

Thus, in geography, some ideas are expressed by pictures, some by drawings or delineations called maps, charts, diagrams, etc.; some by arbitrary characters, as squares, triangles, etc., denoting cities, towns, etc., and their populations; some by lines, or marks to denote boundary lines, roads, canals, etc., and some by printed words, or, as they may be called for convenience, Graphic words. The Arabic Figures are Ideagraphs.

NOTE IV. Several Eastern languages, as the Siamese, Chinese, Japanese, etc., are rather Ideagraphic than Phonographic; hence, it happens that, while the Chinese and Japanese read each other's writ

ings, they can not understand each other's speech; but this will be readily understood by recollecting that the same is true of an Englishman and a Frenchman in regard to Mathematical signs or characters.

Phonographic.

388. PHONOGRAPHIC is a term applied to a character used as the sign of a sound only.

Thus, the letters of the English alphabet, when used separately, aro phonographs. A, i, and o, when used as words, are both Ideagraphs and Phonographs.

NOTE V. The North American Indians used rude pictures to record events. They were also used by the ancient Egyptian priests, and hence were called "hieroglyphics or priests' writing. These were sometimes used as signs of sounds. It is probable that pictures were first used, and that Ideagraphs, and Phonographs or Alphabets are modifications of these pictures. (See Gliddon's 20 years in Egypt.)

389. A GRAPHIC Syllable is one or more letters used as an immediate element of a word.

390. The Letters, forming a Syllable, are divided into two kinds; namely, Phonic Letters, and Aphonic or Silent Letters.

391. The PHONIC Letters of a syllable are those which express sounds.

392. The APHONIC or SILENT Letters of a syllable are those which do not express sounds.

393. Aphonic or Silent Letters are of two kinds; namely, Quantitative, and Mute.

394. A QUANTITATIVE Silent Letter is a vowel which modifies the quantity of another vowel.

Thus, the letter e, in the words grate, great, is quantitative; because, it is used to give the long sound to the vowel, a, which is short in the word, grat. In the words, heat, read, etc., a is the quantitative vowel; in the words, gait, raid, etc., i is the quantitative vowel.

395. A MUTE Silent Letter is one which neither expresses a sound, nor a modification of a sound.

NOTE VI. Originally, these Silent Letters expressed sounds. These sounds, in that process of the contraction of words, to which we have several times referred, have been dropped in speaking, while they have been retained in writing the word. Common sense requires that the mute silent letters should be entirely dropped.

396. The Quantity of a Graphic Syllable is the same as that of its vowel element; hence, in speaking and in singing, the vowel sound only should be used to lengthen, or to shorten the syllable.

Rules for the Quantity of Syllables.

397. GENERAL RULE. Assume that the Vowel of every syllable is short, and that, when lengthened, it must be in accordance with the following Special Rules, to which there are many exceptions.

398. RULE I. Digraphs, Trigraphs, etc., and vowels affected by quantitative vowels, must be long; few exceptions.

As, oi in boil; ou in found; ea in great; ea in heat, etc.

A in hat is short; a in hate is long; because, it is affected by the quantitative vowel, e; so e in mete; i in kite; o in note; u in flute.

399. RULE II. A vowel, before a double consonant, or before two, or more consonants, must be long by its position; many exceptions.

Literal or Graphic Spelling.

400. LITERAL or GRAPHIC SPELLING is spelling by giving the letters forming the ultimate elements of a word, and should generally be done in writing.

NOTE VII. In Oral Spelling, a word should be spelled phonically or by giving the sounds used in speaking it; in Written Spelling, a word should be spelled literally or by the letters used in writing it.

The practice of naming the letters, in Oral Spelling, should be seldom used, and even then, with extreme caution, on account of its tendency to hinder the student from acquiring habits of correct pronunciation.

401. CLASSIFICATION. The Literal Elements of words may be classified in four ways; first, according

to importance; second, according to form; third, according to size; and fourth, according to sound.

402. According to importance, Letters are divided into Large Capitals, Small Capitals, and Small or Body Letters.

Large Capital Letters.

LIT. DEF. The word, capital,' means belonging to the head or chief. 403. A LARGE CAPITAL Letter or a CAPITAL LEtter, as it is usually called, is of the largest letters of its kind.

Rules for the Use of Capital Letters.

404. RULE I. A Capital Letter must be placed at the beginning of a word used as an appellation of the Deity, a proper noun, a proper adjective, a titular noun, the first word of a period, the first word of each line of poetry, and the first word of a full quotation.

EXAMPLES.

1. A word used as an appellation of the Deity. From all creatures, Heaven hides the Book of Fate. Hallowed be Thy name. Man should worship that Supreme Being by

which he has been created.

2. A proper noun. Henry crossed the Atlantic Ocean in the good ship, Neptune. In London, he saw the Parliament House, and the Royal Exchange.

3. A proper adjective. The Lord Mayor's Day is a great day with the London people.

The

4. A titular noun. The General sent his Adjutant to order the Surgeon to take care of the wounded Lieutenant. President, the Vice-President, and the Secretary of State were present.

5. The first word of a period. The President is coming. Is the President coming? Where is your brother? See yonder house.