junction donc is silent; as in allons donc nous promener, let us then go and take a walk, pronounce as if it were allons don, etc. When c is doubled, both letters are sounded only before e, i; the first c takes the sound of que, and the second that of se; accordingly, accessit, accepter, accident, accès, are pronounced aqsessit, aqsepter, aqsident, aqsès. See page 34 for the pronunciation of ch. C has the sound of gue only in second and its derivatives. D initial or placed in the middle of a word before a consonant preserves its own sound: Dame, admirable, etc. It is also heard when final in proper names: Obed, David, Joad, Sud, etc. It takes the accidental sound of t if the word ended by d is an adjective immediately followed by its substantive, beginning either with a vowel or a mute h; thus, grand homme, profond abîme, are pronounced gran-thomme, profon-tabîme. The same pronunciation takes place when dis final in verbs followed by any of the pronouns il, elle, on: Coud-elle bien ? Répond-on ainsi ? Entend-il ? which must be pronounced, Cou-telle, répon-ton, enten-til, etc. The connexion of the final d with the following initial vowel greatly depends on the degree of relation existing between the two words, as was mentioned before (p. 25), in speaking of the final 2. Accordingly the d final is heard and joined to the following initial vowel like a t in these expressions: de fond en comble, de pied en cap; but not in pied-à-pied, pied-à-terre. For the same reason, the d final of the third person of the present of verbs is united like a t to the following initial vowel: il entend un discours, il répond à tout, etc., pronounce, il enten-tun discours, il répon-tà tout, etc. In short, if the d final of adjectives precede a word of the feminine gender, the d being followed by the weak sound formed by the mute e, which is the mark of the feminine, is pronounced, and the mute e seems lost in the following initial vowel; as grande ardeur, gran-d'ardeur. If it were not pronounced so, the distinction in the genders would no longer be marked by the pronunciation. The only words in which double d is pronounced are addition, additionnel, reddition, adducteur; in other cases only one d is heard, but the syllable is short in both cases. F.-Original sound, fe: fini, forêt, funeste. Accidental sound, ve: neu-vans, neu-vhommes. This letter almost always preserves its original sound at the beginning and in the middle of words. When final, it is sounded in the singular as well as in the plural, both before words beginning with a consonant and before those beginning with a vowel: vif désir, soif brûlante, pièce de bœuf tremblante, are pronounced like vif amour; soif ardente; bœuf à la mode, in which the final fof vif, soif, bœuf, is heard. There are, however, a few exceptions to this rule, namely, clef, in which the final ƒ is sounded neither in the singular nor in the plural; in éteuf, the final ƒ is only heard in poetry; in œuf frais, œuf dur, nerf-de-bœuf, cerf-volant, cerf-dixcors, chef-d'œuvre, bœuf-gras, bœuf sale, the fis sounded neither in prose nor in poetry. In nerf-de-bœuf, the ƒ of bœuf is the only one heard. The ƒ is also silent in the words nerfs, bœufs, œufs, in the plural only. The final ƒ of neuf, a numeral adjective, is mute when immediately before a word beginning with a consonant, as neuf cavaliers, neuf chevaux; but when the following noun begins with a vowel, custom prescribes that ƒ should be pronounced like v, as neu-vans, neu-vhommes; and if neuf is not followed by any word whatever, or if it be not followed by an adjective, whether numeral or any other, or by a substantive, the final ƒ keeps then its original sound: de cent qu'ils étaient, ils ne restèrent que neuf, out of a hundred that there were, only nine remained; les neuf arrivèrent à la fois, the nine (things or persons) arrived at once; neuf et demi, nine and half; ils étaient neuf en tout, they were nine in all. When the ƒ is double, only one is heard. G.-Original sound, gue: gage, guérir, guide, guttural. Accidental soundje, before e, i: gelée, gibier, giboulée. ke: rang élevé, long accès. The g when initial or in the middle of a word has its own ori. ginal sound before the vowels a, o, u, and before the consonants b, r: galon, gosier, guttural, gloire, agréable. Before the vowels e, i, it has the accidental sound je: Gène, gentil, gingembre, pigeonneau, are pronounced as if they were jène, gentil, etc. Gesner is pronounced Guesner. A mute e is added after the consonant g when it is required to change the guttural sound which is peculiar to it before a, o, u, into the sound of je, which it has before e, i; thus, in the first person plural of verbs in ger of the present indicative, instead of mangons, nagons, we write, mangeons, nageons, which are pro nounced manjons, najons. In the words guérir, guide, à ma guise, the g has its proper sound, and the u is not heard. There are, however, a few words in which the u is heard: aiguille, aiguillon, aiguiser, arguer, inextinguible, and the proper names, d'Aiguillon, le Guide, de Guise. In the word gangrène, the g initial takes the accidental sound of k, kangrène. G final sounds gue in foreign words: Doëg, Agag ; the g final of joug is gently sounded even before a consonant. G final has the accidental sound of k in bourg, and in words followed by a vowel; as, suer sang et eau, un long accès, rang honorable. But it is mute in faubourg, legs, doigt, vingt, étang, poing, coing, hareng, seing. In words in which the g is doubled, one only is sounded, except when followed by gé, and then the first g has the sound of gue: suggérer. The same sound also occurs in the middle of words before d, m, h: Magdebourg, augmenter, Bergheim. G followed by the consonant n forms different sounds; the proper sound of gn forms two articulations, gue and ne; and the accidental or liquefied sound of gn is gne. At the beginning of words, gn preserves its original sound: gnome, gnide, gnostique, gnomon, are pronounced guenome, guenide, guenostique, guenomon, etc. The liquefied or softened sound of gn only takes place in the middle of words; as, magnanime, cognassier, cognée, cigogne, guignon, incognito, magnétisme, Sévigné (proper name), agneau, règne, gagner, compagnie. But in the following words both the g and n are heard separately: agnat, diagnostic, stagnation, cognat, cognation, régnicole, inexpugnable, ignée, Prognée. In the proper names, Clugny, Regnaud, Regnard (a comic author), the letter n is sounded and the g is mute, as well as in the word signet; but in signer, assigner, assignation, the sound gn is liquefied; and though the gn is softened in agnus, the g and n are separately pronounced in agnus-castus, the name of a shrub. H is pronounced he: Hameau, hibou, héros. 1st, When his aspirate, as in hameau, héros, it gives to the sound of the following vowel a guttural articulation, and has then the same effect as the other consonants. Thus, at the beginning of a word the aspirate h either prevents the elision of the final vowel of the preceding word, or causes the final consonant of that word to be mute; so that, instead of saying, with elision, funest'hasard in four syllables, we say funes-te-hasard in five syllables; une haine is pronounced u-ne-haine ; j'aurais honte we pronounce j'aurè honte (I would be ashamed). 2d, If the letter h is mute, as in homme, harmonie, it communicates no articulation to the sound of the following vowel, which is pronounced with the simple emission of the voice. The h is then merely an etymological letter, and if it be initial in the word, the final letter of the preceding word, whether a vowel or a consonant, is considered as being immediately followed by a vowel. Therefore titre honorable must be pronounced as if it were titr’onorable, the same as titr'-onéreux. There are no general rules to distinguish the words in which the h is aspirate from those in which it is not. Some grammarians are of opinion that in words beginning with an h, and derived from the Greek or Latin, the h is not aspirate, and that the reverse takes place in words of different origin. This rule is far from being general; we therefore introduce here a List of all the words in which the h is aspirate. ha! interjection, ha! hâbler, and its derivatives, to talk much and ostentatiously une hache, axe, hatchet un hachoir, a chopping-board haha,an opening in a garden-wall ha! ha! hahé (terme de chasse), 'ware there haie, hedge, fence haillon, rag haine, and its derivatives, hatred haire, hair-cloth haireux, hazy hair, to hate halage, towage halbran, a young wild duck, teal halter, to halt hamac, hammock hameau, hamlet hampe, staff or shaft, the handle of a brush, the lungs of a stag han, a sort of inn hanap, a large bowl or mug hanche, hip, haunch hangar, cart-house, shed, storehouse hanneton, May-bug hanscrit, sanscrit hanse, the Teutonic hanse hanséatique, hanse hansière ou haussière, halser or hawser hanter, to haunt hantise, haunting happe, a piece of iron at the end of an axletree happe-chair, a bailiff halbrené, fatigued, ragged, fea-happelourde, a counterfeit dia halbrener, chasser aux, halbrans happer, to snap hâle, and its derivatives, sun-haquenée, pacing horse or mare burning haler, to tow a boat, to hale haletant, out of breath, panting haleter, to pant, to breathe short hallage, hallage, market-duty hallali (cri de chasse), whoo, mort, death halle, market, hall hallebarde, halberd hallebreda, a lubberly fellow hallier, thicket, a thick bush haloir, the place where hemp is dried halo (couronne lumineuse), halo halot, a rabbit's hole halotechnie, halotechnia halte, halt haquet, dray harangue, and its derivatives, speech, harangue haras, stud of horses harasser, to harass harceler, to torment harde, a herd of fallow-deer harder, to tie dogs, four or six, together hardes, apparel, clothes hardi, and its derivatives, bold hardilliers, pins harem, harem hareng, and its derivatives, herring harengaison, herring season hargneux, morose, peevish haricot, kidney-bean haridelle, jade havir, to scorch harnacheur, and its derivatives, hâvre, haven, harbour harpailler, to grapple harpe, harp harpeau, grappling iron harper, to grapple harpie, harpy harpin, a waterman's pole harpon, harping iron, or harpoon harponner, to strike with the harpoon hart, the band of a fagot or halter hasard, and its derivatives, hazard hase, a doe-hare hâte, and its derivatives, haste hâtier, a rack hâtiveau, the hasty pear haubaner, to fasten the stay of a gin to a stake haubans, shrouds haubert, a coat of mail hausse, and its derivatives, a lift hausse-col, gorget or neck-piece haut, and its derivatives, high hautbois, hautboy hêler, to hail a ship hem, hem, soho hère, a sorry fellow, a wretch hérissonne, a sort of echinated caterpillar hérissonné, rolled into the form of a ball haut-bord (vaisseau de), large heurtoir, and derivatives, knocker ship haut de chausses, hose, breeches haute-contre, counter-tenor haute-cour, a supreme tribunal haute-futaie, lofty trees more than 60 years old haute-lice, and its derivatives, tapestry, hangings haute-lutte (de), by main force haute-marée, high water haute-paye, high pay haut-le-corps, a bound or skip haut-le-pied, an exclamation, rise, depart haut-mal, epilepsy hautesse, highness have, pale, wan hibou, owl hic, the knot or principal diffi culty of a business hideux, and derivatives, hideous hiérarchie, and its derivatives, hierarchy hie, paving-beetle hisser, to hoist hobereau, hobby hoc, a sort of game at cards hochement, and its derivatives, |