A MANUAL

OF

OUR MOTHER TONGUE.

DEFINITIONS.

Language is the expression of thought by sounds or signs. The sounds employed may be either the human voice or any acoustical system of signalling. The signs used may be either different combinations of forms, as in writing, printing, etc., or motions as used by the dumb.

The senses appealed to by language are the ear and the eye, and, in the case of the educated blind, the touch also.

Grammar is the sum-total of the rules and principles by which Language is guided.

Grammar is a natural system of Logic applied to the communication of ideas, by the use of Language. Of necessity, therefore, without regarding the common origin of various languages, its fundamental rules and principles must be general to all.

Grammar is not an invention, it is a growth; before Grammar was, Language existed, and the former is an Analysis of the logical methods employed by the latter, in order that Language in the future may conform more exactly with the precedents of the past. In fact Language is broader than Grammar, and many of its occasional modes of expression defy classification according to rule.

A

Within living memory, Christian missionaries have compiled 'Grammars' for languages which had not previously possessed even written characters, and these 'Grammars' have necessarily been the collection, and reduction into order, of the mass of inchoate vocal usages.

Comparative Philology.-This comparatively modern study may perhaps be defined as the investigation of the structure, affinities, and history of numerous languages, with a view to the discovery of truths concerning language in general.

THE DIVISIONS OF GRAMMAR.

1. Orthography (Greek orthos, 'right,' and grapho, 'I write').— That part of Grammar which treats of the letters of which words are composed, and of the proper mode of writing and spelling words.

2. Orthoepy (Greek orthos, 'right,' and epos, 'a word') is the science of correct pronunciation.

3. Etymology (Greek etymos, 'true,' and logos) means, literally, discourse respecting the true or original form of words.' It includes the classification of words, considered as different Parts of Speech; the theory of inflections; and of the derivation and composition of words.

4. Syntax (Greek syn, 'together,' and taxis, arrangement').— The arrangement of words in sentences, and the combination of sentences with one another. It defines also the right uses of inflections.

5. Prosody (Greek prosodia, 'accent').-The part of Grammar which treats of the laws of versification.

6. Accidence (Latin accido, 'to fall to').-In most grammatical treatises Accidence appears in contradistinction to Syntax, and is used in almost the same sense as Etymology. By Accidence is meant the study of forms. This department of Grammar concerns itself with the forms (present and past) of the words comprised under the eight classes called the Parts of Speech, leaving to Syntax the rules which regulate their use when considered as component parts of a sentence.

SOME GRAMMATICAL TERMS DEFINED.

Article--a little joint.' Latin, articulus.

Noun a name.' Latin, nomen; Greek, ovoμa.

Pronoun-'a substitute for a Noun.' Latin, pronomen; Greek, ἀντωνυμία.

Adjective 'what is added to a Noun.' Latin, adjectivum ; i.e. quod adjicitur substantivo; Greek, éπíberov.

Verb the word,' par excellence; i.e. the word that most affects discourse.' Latin, verbum; Greek, pñua. Adverb—‘an addition to a Verb.' Latin, adverbium (quia ad verbum est); Greek, éπípрημa.

Preposition that which is placed before.'

Latin, præpositio (præ-ponere, to place before); Greek, półeσis. Conjunction-the link.' Latin, conjunctio (con-jungere, to unite); Greek, σúvdeoμos.

Interjection-'something thrown in or inserted.' Latin,

interjectio (for interjectum); Greek, πapévbeσis, wapeμßodń. Note. In several of these words, both Latin and Greek, the Abstract Noun is put for the Concrete, e.g. præpositio for præpositum, 'a placing before,' instead of 'a thing placed before;' similarly the Greek, πρόθεσις, παρένθεσις.

The following terms are also frequently employed in Gram

mar:

Asyndeton (Greek, a, not, σuvderov, bound together) is the omission of Conjunctions.

Aphaeresis (ápaípeois, 'taking away'), the omission of one or more letters at the beginning of a word, as 'neath, 'gainst. Aроcoре (άжокоń, chopping off'), the throwing away of one or more letters at the end of a word, as tho', th' (before a vowel).

Syncope (σUVкоTý, 'knocking together'), the shortening of a word by the omission of a letter or syllable in the middle, as o'er for over, ta'en for taken.

Diaeresis (diaípeois, 'taking asunder'), the separation in pronunciation of two vowels which might otherwise form a diphthong, as aëronaut (not æronaut).