13. Ch is similar to the German ch. (14.) Sch, however, has not, as in German, the sound of the English sh, but the pure sound of s, followed by the guttural ch, resembling sk in English.

OBS. The FLEMISH is so closely allied to the Dutch, that it may be regarded as essentially the same language.

FRENCH.

XIX.

1. A, in French, is generally considered to have two sounds; the first long, as in the English word far, e. g. in pas; the second short, almost like a in fat, e. g. in bal. A, circumflexed (â), however, has a sound broader than the a in pas, being intermediate between that in far and that in fall. In giving the pronunciation of French names containing an â, we have used the same letter, as we have no equivalent in English.

OBS. The French a would frequently seem to be intermediate between its second English sound and that of short u.* However this may be, the French writers often employ a in spelling oriental names, when the English make use of u, e. g. in CUTCH (Fr. Catch); FURRUCKABAD (Fr. Farrakâbâd); MUSKAT (Fr. Mascate).

2. E has three sounds: (1.) close, like a in fate, e. g. in été; (2.) open, nearly as in met, but more prolonged, e. g. in procès and tête ;† (3.) obscure, as in battery, e. g. in retour, devrait.‡

3. I has two sounds; the first nearly as in the English word fig, e. g. in il, ami; the second like ie in field or ee, e. g. in gîte.

4. O has three sounds: (1.) nearly as in robe, e. g. in trône; (2.) as in rob, e. g. in parole; (3.) as in lord, e. g. in corps.

OBS. O circumflexed, in French, has a deeper and fuller sound than o long in English: in giving the pronunciation of French names containing this letter, we have used the same, as no English vowel or

The late Mr. Du Ponceau, who, though a native Frenchman, was an accomplished and thorough English scholar, in giving in English the French pronunciation PARIS, wrote it pur-ree. He remarked, however, that it might be written par-ree.

+ In pronouncing this sound, the mouth must be freely opened, whence the

name.

The e in these and similar cases is often scarcely sounded at all, and appears to pass imperceptibly into e mute: retour and devrait may be pronounced r'toor and d'vray.

vowels could accurately indicate its sound, e. g. PUY DE DÔME, рwe d'dôme.

5. The sound of the French u has no equivalent in English. It may be said to be intermediate between ee and oo; but it can be learned from an oral instructor only. In the present work it is represented by the German ü (or ue).

OBS. U, before n, nasal, has its second English sound nearly, un being pronounced almost ung.

10. Eu is similar to the English u in tub, but the sound is more prolonged, nearly resembling u in fur.

OBS. Eu in the different parts of the verb avoir, "to have," always has the sound of simple u.

11. Ie is like ee in English, or î.

12. Oi usually sounds like wå, e. g. moi is pronounced mwå or mwõh.

OBS. Oi was formerly used in the termination of the French verbs, e. g. avois, avoit, avoient; also, in the final syllable of a number of adjectives, as Polonois, Polish," and Lyonnois, "belonging to Lyons." The oi in these words,-which are now usually written avais, avait, avaient, Polonais, Lyonnais,—sounds like ai (or è).

13. Ou sounds like oo in English.

14. B, c,* d, f, k, p, t, v, and z, are the same as in English.

15. G, before a, o, and u, is hard, as in the English word gap; before e, i, and y, it is soft, having the sound of zh, or of s in pleasure. Gu sounds like g hard; thus, gue', guide, are pronounced gå, gheed.

16. H is never pronounced in French so forcibly as in English. Some orthoepists say that h has no sound in French.t

17. J sounds like soft g in French, or zh in English.

18. L has usually the same sound as in English; but when it ends word, being preceded by i, or when I follows i, in any situation, it usually has what is called its liquid sound. This may be said to

C, with a cedilla (c), before a, o, and u, sounds like s; thus, ça, ço, çu, are pronounced sa, so, su.

+ See Bolmar's Fabies-Remark on the letter h, page 4.

answer nearly to the sound of lli in million, the sound of l in such cases being blended with that of y (consonant); e. g. papillon is pronounced på'-peel`-yon'; CHANTILLY, shån`-teel`-ye', &c. It should, however, be observed that, according to the present practice of the more polite French speakers, the sound of l is scarcely heard at all in such words, so that their pronunciation might rather be indicated thus-pâ`-pe`yos'; shan-te-ye'.

19. M and N, when followed by a vowel, or when double, have the same sound as in English; but when at the end of a word (not immediately followed by another word beginning with a vowel), or when followed by another consonant in the middle of a word, they have what is termed the nasal sound, which resembles that of ng, as in long, pang, &c., but is somewhat softer ;* thus, m and n are nasal in such words as comparer, contexte, but have their natural sound in such as commune, connu. MELUN, before a consonant, or standing by itself, would be pronounced almost m'lung; but if followed immediately by a vowel, as in the sentence, Melun a six mille habitans, "Melun has six thousand inhabitants," the final n is sounded distinctly like nn : the pronoun sien, when not followed immediately by a vowel, is pronounced nearly se-ing'; but when it takes the feminine termination, the n being doubled, has the same sound as in English, so that sienne is pronounced se-enn'.

20. M or n, nasal, when preceded by e, usually causes this vowel to assume the broad sound of a: thus, dents, sens, are pronounced like the French words dans and sans, almost as if written in English, dong and song.

21. In, im, ain, aim, ein, oin, and en preceded immediately by i, when nasal, have a sound nearly resembling that of ang in the English word pang. In such cases in, im, ain, aim, ein, and en, are pronounced alike, ång; the o in oin has the sound of our w, so that loin and soin are pronounced almost lwâng, swâng.

22. In om and on, nasal, the o is long, as in won't.

OBS. The French nasal sound is represented in the present work by Nor M distinguished as a small capital, e. g. CHAUMONT, sho`-mÔN'; QUIMPER, kâm-pare'.

23. Q or qu, in French, always sounds like k; e. g. quel is pronounced kel; qui, kee, &c.

In uttering this sound, care should be taken not to press the back part of the tongue against the palate, as is done in pronouncing the English ng.

OBS. Q, in French words, (except when terminal, as in coq and cinq,) is always followed by u, though it is sometimes employed without this letter, in writing certain foreign names. Thus Balbi and several other authors, both French and English, write Qené for Keneh; Qoum for Kooм, &c. In such cases, q is used to denote a sound like that of k, but somewhat more guttural.

24. R is like the English, but is trilled more strongly, especially when it precedes another consonant, or stands at the end of a word, as in vertu, punir: in similar cases the English r is but very slightly sounded. This sound is indicated by a small capital R.

25. S, when single and between two vowels, sounds like z ; in other cases, it is the same as in English.

26. X generally has the same sound as in English, but is sometimes sounded like s; e. g. in six, pronounced seece, and Bruxelles (Brussels), pronounced brü'-sell'; and occasionally like z, as in dixième, de`-ze`-ame'. 27. Ch is like sh in English: th is like t.

28. Gn (the same as in Italian), has a sound which blends that of n and y (consonant), or in other words is equivalent to the sound of ni in minion. Thus, AVIGNON is pronounced å`-veen`-yon'.

OBS. This sound is represented in Spanish by ñ, and bears the same relation to n that the liquid (1) does to the ordinary l. In Hungarian it is expressed by ny, and in Portuguese by nh.

When it occurs in the middle of a word, we have represented it by n and y, as in the example above given; but when it stands at the end of a word, as it cannot then be expressed by any letter or combination of letters in English, it has been indicated by the Spanish ñ: accordingly the French pronunciation of such names as COLOGNE and BouLOGNE, are thus given-ko`-loñ', boo`-loñ'.

SILENT LETTERS.

29. The vowel e at the end of a word, when not marked with an accent, is invariably mute, e. g. in parle, contente,* &c.

30. The French consonants, when occurring at the end of a word are generally not pronounced, unless they are immediately followed by a word beginning with a vowel; e. g. in content, BORDEAUX, and dents. If, however, they are followed by a mute e, or any other vowel, they must always be articulated, e. g. in contente, denté, &c.

The particles le, ne, and the pronouns je, me, te, &c., are perhaps, strictly speaking, exceptions: but though the e in these words is not always absolutely mute, it is very often so; thus, the sentence vous me trouverez le meme, is pronounced voom troov rel mame, the vowel in me and ne being entirely suppressed, and the consonants attached to the preceding words.

OBS. 1. The letters c, f, l, and r, are, when final, very often pronounced; e. g. in avec, neuf, il, and punir.

OBS. 2. The French articulate the final consonants in almost all foreign and classical names; e. g. in AMSTERDAM (m not nasal), Vénus, &c.

REMARKS ON THE FRENCH ACCENT.

It may be observed that the French language has no accent in the sense in which we employ this term. The marks called accents, that are placed over the different vowels, serve only to indicate some particular sound of these letters, and not that peculiar impulse of the voice, which characterizes an accented syllable in the English and most other European tongues. Thus, the accent over the e in parlé serves to show that this vowel has its first French sound, and at the same time distinguishes it from parle, another form of the same verb, in which the e is mute. The circumflex imparts to the vowels over which it is placed, a longer and deeper sound than ordinary; e. g. in hâte, tempête, gîte, and apôtre.

It is commonly said, that the French pronounce all the syllables of a word with an equal stress of voice, but that they seem to an English ear to accentuate the last, because, in our language, the universal tendency is to throw the accent towards the beginning of the word. (See XII. Obs. 2.) Others, on the contrary, maintain that in pronouncing words of a number of sy. ies, the voice of a native French speaker almost invariably rises and dwells on the last, and that this peculiar terminal intonation is very analogous, and nearly equivalent, to our accent. This last opinion appears to us to be not without a real foundation. But, however the question may be settled, the fact that the English, who have learned the pronunciation of names from hearing them spoken by the French themselves, almost invariably throw the accent on the final syllable, furnishes, in our judgment, sufficient ground for establishing a general rule on this subject. Accordingly, in the present work, we have, with very few exceptions, placed the principal accent on the last syllable of French geographical names; at the same time, it has been thought proper to mark the others with secondary accents, in order to prevent them from being pronounced too slightly or indistinctly, as is usually the case with unaccented syllables in English. The pronunciation of ORLEANS, for example, has been thus given—on-là-dn.

OBS. Particular care, however, should be taken not to break such