All this is very awkward indeed, and ought to ne avoided, and might easily be so by a little attention.

If a man who is desirous of attaining propriety of peech, would sometimes take up his grammar con more, and search into this or that dubious point which negligence and bad example have contributed to obscure for him, acquaint himself with the mechanism of certain rules, and unmake and remake a few sentences constructed on them, he would soon acquire sufficient information for his own guidance. It is not necessary that he should make an Herculean labour of it—should regin with the first page of Etymology, and go plodding through to the last of Prosody, a proces which seems to be looked on as so inevitable by the mass, that they therefore eschew Grammars altogether; --but dip into syntax, my friend, take up the rules indiscriminately, if that be lighter labour fir the mind, and if you had ever "done grammar-les "ons” before, you will soon master the few remaining lifficulties, will acquire a purity of style in your wn writing and conversation, and add your mite owards refining the language of your fathers.

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37. It is obsolete now to use the article an be fore words beginning with long u, or with eu, ar l t has become more elegant, in modern style, t say, "a University," a "useful article," a Euro pean, a euphonious combination of sentences,' etc., etc., etc. It is also proper to say "such a one, such an one."

not "

99 66

38. Some people pronounce the plural of hand kerchief, scarf, wharf, dwarf, handkerchieves, scarves,

wharves, dwarves. This is an error, as these words, and perhaps a few others, are exceptions to the rule laid down, that nouns ending in ƒ or fe, shail change these terminations into ves to form the plural.

39. There is an illiterate mode of pronouncing the adverb too, which is that of contracting it into the sound of the preposition to, thus:-" I think I paid to much for this gun;" "This line is to long by half." The adverb too should be pronounced like the numeral adjective two, and have the same full distinct sound in delivery, as "I think I paid two much for this gun;" "This line is two long by

half."

40. One does not expect to hear such words as "necessi'ated," "preventative," etc., from people who profess to be educated, but one does hear them, nevertheless, and many others of the same genus, of which the following list is a specimen, not a collection.

"Febuary" and "Febbiwerry" instead of Febru

ary.

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Seckaterry" instead of secretary.

"Gover'ment "

"Eve'min"

66 Sev'm "

66 Holladiz "

Chapped" according to orthography, instead of chopped according to polite usage.

And we have even heard "continental" pronounced continential, though upon what authority we know not. Besides these, a multitude of other

might be quoted, which we consider too familiar to particularize, and "too numerous to mention."

41. There is an old jest on record of a person hearing another pronounce the word curiosity, "curosity," and remarking to a by-stander, "That man murders the English language;" "Nay," replies the person addressed, "he only knocks an eye (i) out." And I am invariably reminded of this old jest whenever I hear such pronunciations as the following: "Lat'n" for latin, and "sat'n" for satin; of which a few examples will be given on a subsequent page, not with the wild hope of comprising in so short a space all the perversions of Prosody which are constantly taking place, but simply with the intention of reminding careless speakers of some general principles they seem to have forgotten, and of the vast accumulation of error they may engraft upon themselves by a lazy adherence to the custom of the crowd. Before, however, proceeding to the words in question, it may be satisfactory to our readers to recall to their memory the observations of Lindley Murray on this subject. He says, "There is scarcely anything which more distinguishes a person of a poor education from a person of a good one, than the pronunciation of the unaccented vowels. When vowels are under the accent, the best speakers, and the lowest of the people, with very few exceptions, pronounce them in the same manner; but the unaccented vowels in the mouths of the former, have a distinct, open, and specific sound; while the latter often totally sink them, or change them into some other sound." The

words that have chiefly struck me are the following, in which not only the i but many of the other vowels are submitted to the mutilating process, or, as I have heard it pronounced, mutulating,

Amer'can instead of American.

And a long train of et ceteras, of which the above examples do not furnish a tithe.

Note. That to sound the e in garden and often, and the i in evil and devil, is a decided error: they should always be pro ounced gard'n and oft'n; ev'l and dev❜l.

42. It is affected, and contrary to authority, to deprive the s of its sharp hissing sound in the words precise, desolate, design, and their deriv atives.

43. I would venture to ask, with all humility, why the word chariot should be made to rhyme with carrot? If this mispronunciation, were con

ned to the lower and middle classes I would, withut hesitation, denounce it as a flagrant illiteracy; but having heard it occasionally from patrician lips, I naturally approach the subject with a degree of reverence, lest, to deform and vulgarize the language as much as possible, should be some mysterious aristocratic privilege, that we, in common life, are unacquainted with.

ON PUNCTUATION.

Punctuation treats of the points or marks insert in written composition, for the purpose of show g more clearly the sense intended to be conveyed, and the pauses required in reading.

The principal points or marks employed in punc uation are the comma [,], the semicolon [;], the colon[:], the period [.], the note of interrogation [?], the note of exclamation[!], and the dash[-].

The comma requires a momentary pause: the semicolon, a pause somewhat longer than the comma; the colon, a pause somewhat longer than the semicolon; and the period, a full stop. The note of interrogation, or the note of exclamation, may take the place of any one of these, and accordingly requires a pause of the same length as the point for which it is substituted.

The duration of these pauses depends on the cha