About the Book
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1903 Excerpt: ...and their proper representation by phonographic characters may be of service to the student. Taking up the vowel-letters in their alphabetic order, and considering them in all their various phases as exhibited in syllables other than those which receive the tonic accent, we reach the following results: "A" IN UNACCENTED SYLLABLES. 596. The letter a has the sound of a (a in at), and should be written with the light-dot 3, in most initial unaccented syllables ending with a consonant, as in Sb-hor', Sb-jure', Sc-count', addi'tion, Sf-fect', ag-grieve', al-lege', am-bi'tion, in-gel'ic, &pos-tol'ic, ar-range', as-cribe', at-tack', av-a-ri'cious, etc. In a few words, before r, it has the sound of a, and should then be written with the heavy-dot a, as in ar-cade', Sr-bo're-al, etc. 597. A has the sound of a (a in ask), and should be written with the light-dot a, in the following cases: 1. When it either constitutes or ends an unaccented syllable, either initial, medial, or final; as in the words a-bet', a-bove', a-cad'e-my, Ba-va'ri-an, ma-chine', ca-noe', na-tiv'i-ty, pathol'o-gy, era-vat', pla-ton'ic, sal'a-ry, par'a-graph, mas'sa-cre, ma-hog'a-ny, pa-pil'la, sa-git'ta, Ma-don'na, al'ge-bra, cu'po-la, quo'ta, etc. 2. When it occurs in final or medial unaccented syllables ending with n, I, nt, nee, nd, s, ss, st, p or ph or ff, m, or d; as in the words vet'e-ran, ten'on-cy, por'tal, sig'nal, dis'tant, sub'stance, thou'sond, at'las, tres'pass, stead'fast, jal'ap, ser'aph, dis'taff, myr'iad, etc. In the dictionary this sound in such syllables is usually (though not always) indicated by italic a instead of a. 598. Exceptions.---4 has the sound of a (a in senate), and should be written with the heavy-dot a, in unaccented endings ace, age, and ate (term...
