THE ART OF READING AND WRITING ENGLISH, Etc. CHAPTER. I. Of Letters and Syllables. I. QUESTION. WHAT is reading ? Answer. To read, is to express written or printed words by their proper sound. 2 Q. What are words made of ? A. Words are made of letters and syllables, either one or more ; as 1, by, fire, water. 3 Q. What is a letter ? A. A letter is the mark of a single sound; and it is the least part of a word, as a, m, s. 4 Q. What is a syllable ? A. A syllable is one distinct sound, made by one letter alone ; as a, e, i ; or by more letters joined together; as ha, bi, dan, den, pint, sport. 5 Q. How many letters are there ? A. There are usually counted twenty-four letters in Eng- lish, abcdefghijktnznopgrstuwxyZ. O. Q. Are all these letters of one sort ? A. Five of them are vowels, as a, e, i, o, u; and all the rest are consonants. Note, I have here followed the old and usual custom of making twenty-four letters, and distinguishing the u and i into vowels and consonants afterwards ; though it had been much more proper and natural, if our fathers had made the v and j consonants two distinct letters, and called them ja and ore, and thu* made it six and twenty. 7 Q. What is a vowel ? A. A vowel is a' letter which can make a perfect and distinct sound of itself, and often makes a syllable alone, as i, o, a. 8 Q. What is a consonant ? A. A consonant is a letter which can never make a syllable alone, nor give a clear and perfect sound without a vowel pro- nounced with it. 9 Q. How does it appear that a consonant can make no perfect sound by itself alone ? A. The very names of the consonants cannot be spoken, VOL. vi. I)
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