A GRAMMAR OF THE FRENCH LANGUAGE. INTRODUCTION. OF THE FRENCH ALPHABET. FRENCH Grammar is the art of speaking and writing the French language correctly. The French alphabet is composed of twenty-five letters, viz : A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, French consonants are called by the sound they have in words, in the way here pointed out. In the new pronunciation as given here, the e having no accent is sounded as in the English word flattery. Formerly the consonants were pronounced bé, cé, dé, effe, gé, ache, elle, emme, enne, pé, qu, erre, esse, té, vé, icse, zéde; the other method (that adopted here), proposed by the most eminent grammarians the French ever had, is by far more rational, and is now generally adopted. As Girault Divivier justly remarks, fe, re, i, as pronounced according to the new method, make fri, whereas, according to the old effe, erre, i, make effëri; p, r, o, in the former case, make pro, in the latter péèrro, showing by these examples, the superiority of the new method by which consonants preserve, when joined with other letters, the sound they have when used singly. B The above twenty-five letters are divided into vowels and consonants. A vowel is a letter that forms a perfect sound when uttered alone. A consonant on the contrary, cannot be articulated without the assistance of a vowel. A, e, i, o, u, y, are vowels; the rest are consonants. The French language has no w; this, as well as k, is only found in words borrowed or derived from other languages. GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON THE VOWELS. The vowels are pronounced either short or long. From the simple vowels are formed what are called the compound and the nasal vowels. The above compound vowels form simple sounds, peculiar to the French language; they must not, therefore, be confounded with diphthongs which are syllables in which two distinct sounds are heard, though uttered with a single emission of the voice: as in the word Dieu, in which the sounds of i and eu are distinctly heard. OF ACCENTS. Accents are signs peculiar to the French language. They alter the pronunciation of the vowels over which they are placed. There are three accents in the French language. The acute (') placed over the letter e only, to give it the sound of a in English, as in témérité, été, vérité. The grave () placed over the letter e only, to give it an open sound, as in accès, succès, père. The circumflex (^) placed over any vowel, to give it a long sound, as, plâtre, fête, même, dôme. OBSERVATION ON THE GRAVE AND CIRCUMFLEX ACCENTS. The grave accent is placed upon : The apostrophe (') denotes the suppression of a vowel before another vowel, or an h mute: it is placed above the level of the line, as l'enfant, l'homme. This suppression is called elision; it is done to avoid an unpleasant sound. The vowel is suppressed in the monosyllables (e, je, me, te, se, de, ce,* ne, que, when coming immediately before a word beginning with a vowel or h mute. It is suppressed also in the compounds of que, such as : jusque, puisque, quoique, etc. The vowel a is suppressed in the article definite la; and, The vowel i only in the word si (if), before the pronouns il, ils. OF THE CEDILLA. The cedilla is a little sign made nearly like a comma, and placed under the c, thus (c), to give it the soft sound of S, before a, o, u, as in façade, garçon, aperçu, which are pronounced fasade, garson, apersu. OF THE DIERESIS. The diaresis or trema, is a double dot placed over the vowels e, i, u, to denote that their pronunciation is quite distinct from that of the vowel which precedes them; as in hair, Moïse, noël, Esau, which are pronounced ha-ir, Mo-ise, no-el, Esa-u. OF THE HYPHEN. The hyphen is a short mark, thus (-), placed between two words to shew that they are to be joined, or that they form a compound word, as in long-temps, dix-huit, nonseulement, dépêchez-vous, dites-moi, suis-je, moi-même, arc-en-ciel, vis-à-vis, etc. * Only when a pronoun; when ce is used as a demonstrative adjective, we add a t to it, as cet ami, cet homme. |