A Guide to the Pronuntiation of the French Language, with a progressive course of reading, etc

GUIDE

TO THE

PRONUNCIATION

OF THE

FRENCH LANGUAGE;

WITH

A PROGRESSIVE COURSE OF READING.

For the Use of Schools and Private Students.

By C. P. BUQUET,

French Master in the Edinburgh Academy, Author of "Nouveau Cours de
Littérature," and "A Grammatical Collection of Phrases and Idioms."

EDINBURGH:

PUBLISHED BY

OLIVER & BOYD, TWEEDDALE COURT;
AND SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, & CO., LONDON.

1837.

45.

[graphic][subsumed][merged small][merged small]

PREFACE.

THE principal object proposed to be attained by the present Work, is to enable young students to acquire speedily, and with ease to themselves, the correct pronunciation of the French language. With this view a method is here introduced, which has been long known and successfully practised, both in England and France. It consists in placing before the scholar's eyes the figures or images of such objects as are most familiar to him. The master, in pointing to any one of them, calls it aloud, as lune une, naming first the noun, and, immediately after, une, which follows as an echo; the pupil instantly repeats lune une, giving also the English name, moon. The same plan is pursued with the other words :-Lit i; femme emme, &c.

By acting thus upon the eyes and ears of the pupil, a greater impression is made upon the mind, his curiosity is excited, his energies are kept awake, and he derives both pleasure and information.

The four plates of figures may in this manner be learned successively, and the pupils exercised upon them, as well as upon the various combinations of sounds which accompany the plates; these combinations must be repeated, and the pupils made to find out from them the original words.

After these plates, a variety of Exercises are given upon the sounds of vowels, consonants, and diphthongs. Then follows a complete treatise upon the pronunciation of French, translated from the last edition, recently published, of that well-known standard work, La Grammaire des Grammaires, considered as the first authority upon all grammatical questions in the French language.

The Lectures graduées are adapted to the capacity of the young, and will, it is hoped, prove at once interesting and instructive.

In the latter part of the Work, illustrative passages on general knowledge have been introduced, particularly upon those important sciences, Geography and Astronomy.

The Work terminates by a Petit Manuel Littéraire, which will be found highly useful, as it conveys in a concise manner, general and accurate notions on the nature of French literature, and on the distinguishing qualities of the most celebrated authors.

EDINBURGH, 20th July 1837.

CONTENTS.

Page

Lesson I. Explanation of the Figures of Plate I.................................

Lesson II. Explanation of the Figures of Plate II...........................................11

Lesson III. Explanation of the Figures of Plate III...... 13

Lesson IV. Explanation of the Figures of Plate IV... ..................................15

Exercises on the Sounds of Vowels, &c.

Consonants

Exercises on Consonants...

Table of Diphthongs.................

Exercises on the French Diphthongs.....