*1' ::: ^ ; *: :> I SSSSm w$5 ■■■_ ' ;:'A':.':*'i:"MJ' HHHH Bccl s ■ oxra BR t: \'x . ,,v ' " Sam nWWUJ ■HL Oass TCxfo^ Hunk . • fcj 6 d COURSE OF LESSONS IN THE FRENCH LANGUAGE, ROBERTSON IAN METHOD; INTENDED FOR THE USE OF PERSONS STUDYING THE LANGUAGE WITHOUT A TEACHER. A. H. MONTEITH, ESQ HON. MEMB. OF THE W. L. C. Stxtf) ^rtttou. LONDON: PUBLISHED BY SAMUEL GILBERT, 51 & 52, PATERNOSTER ROW; AND SOLD BY JOHN FIELD, 65, REGENT'S QUADRANT. M.DCCC.XLI1I. ton DON i PrlotH b> Manning «d.I HwOS. Ivviaoe, Palernoi.rr K«w. PREFACE. The object of the present course of lessons is to give persons disposed to study the French language without the aid of a teacher some directions for their guidance, and to furnish them with a model whereon their studies may be advantageously prosecuted. In order the more perfectly to supply the part of a teacher, a comprehensive, and at the same time practical, view of pro- nunciation has been given, together with such elucidations of the sounds peculiarly French as will enable the learner to enunciate them with a sufficient degree of accuracy. The prevalent notion that it is impossible to acquire French without a teacher, appears to have arisen from the lugubrious attempts of grammarians who have undertaken to explain the pronunciation of the language. No human intellect could possibly digest, and bring to bear on the words of the language, the pages of unintelligible rules and ill-organised observations they have amassed with this view. In the present course of lessons this prolixity has been carefully avoided; and whilst no useless detail has been introduced, every essential point is fully explained and brought prominently before the observation of the learner. French words being written in most cases exactly as they should be pronounced, there is nothing to prevent the acquisition of their pronunciation by theory; and the generality of persons who study the language, by relying upon the ear, that deceives them at every step, and by loosing sight of the theory, neglect the only certain means whereby they can acquire a really good pronunciation. PREFACE. A great many otherwise intelligent persons run away with the idea that French may be acquired by going to France: this is an excessively vulgar notion, and means that the language may be acquired by intuition, or some other magical process. Whether in France or England, persons of mature years will not acquire the language thoroughly without a diligent and assiduous study of its principles: hundreds of pounds have been expended by Englishmen, both in this country and in France, with a view to acquire French, without having attained the desired object — all the wealth of the Indies, and all the teachers in Christendom, will not suffice for the purpose, where diligence or intelligence is wanting on the part of the learner himself. On the other hand, any Englishman of ordinary capacity, whether in his own country or in France, whether with or without a teacher, if he set his mind earnestly to the subject, may in the course of twelve or eighteen months become perfectly conversant with the language. The present short course of lessons, besides containing a full apO$6 of the pronunciation, comprises an explanation of the chief difficulties the learner has to encounter, and will enable the diligent student, without the aid of any kind of oral instruction whatever, to see his way clearly into the materiel of the language. NOTICE TO FIFTH EDITION. The author, in revising the preceding editions of these lessons, has been much assisted by the observations of his correspondents. He takes this opportunity of thanking them for their valuable assistance, and will be happy to receive any further suggestions relative to the emendation or improvement of his works they may be pleasea to favour him with. 13, London Wall, August, 184a THE FRENCH LANGUAGE. LESSON FIRST. READING. Trois voyageurs trouverent un tresor dans leur chemin, et dirent, " nous avons faim, qu'un de nous aille acheter de quoi manger," un d'eux se detacha et alia dans l'intention de leur apporter de quoi faire un repas. Before the learner can read the above, he must first be taught the pronunciation of the words and their meaning. We shall therefore place under each word such a combina- tion of letters as may convey a notion of its sound to the English student. Afterwards we shall exhibit the meaning of each word in a literal translation of the entire passage. This done, the learner will be able to translate into English and to pronounce the text of the lesson, if not with absolute accuracy, at least with a sufficiently close approximation. It is not indeed to be expected that the learner should be altogether perfect the first step he makes in a language. A portion of each lesson will be reserved to point out the true pronunciation of such French sounds as cannot be exactly exhibited by a combination of letters. The following is a repetition of the text, with the pronun- ciation of the words, as also their euphonic connexion one with another, according as the language is read and spoken by a well educated native of Paris. Trois voyageurs trouverent un tresor dans leur Trwa wa-ee-a-shair troo-vair-t w un* traizor dan lair chemin, et dirent, "nous avons faim, qu'un de nous aille she-min ai deer, noo-z w av-on fin, kun w d noo-z w ah-\e acheter de quoi manger," un d'eux se detacha et ash-tai w d kwa ma/i-shay, un d w al w s day-tash-a ai alia dans l'intention de leur apporter de quoi faire al-la dan \in-ten-see-on w d tall ap-por-tai w d kwa fair un repas. un er-pa. In order to read the above as it ought to be, the learner should deal with the verbal pronunciation we have given just as if the combinations of letters that represent the French sounds were so many English words. There are no unheard of sounds in French that require the features to l>e distorted in enunciating them. The learner must avoid all straining, all effort, if he desires to speak French correctly. Before leaving this part of the Bubject we may observe, that a little attention to the pronunciation now will be worth more thati a hundred times the amount of labour afterwards; the same words will occur over and over again throughout this lesson and those that are to follow, so that a correct pronun- ciation at the outset will be of the greatest utility. The sign w we have used indicates that the words or letters it joins are to be pronounced as one word, and the sign - over the ai signifies that these letters should be pronounced with a more open sound than usual. • For the pronunciation of the comhinations an, en, in, on, and un, marked in italics, we refer the student to the article Pronunciation, page 13. VOCABULARY. TRANSLATION. Trois voyageurs trouverent un tresor dans leur chemin, Three travellers found a treasure in their road, et dirent, " nous avons faim, qu'un de nous and said, we have hunger, that one of us aille acheter de quoi manger," un may go (let one of us go) to buy of what (whereof) to eat, one d'eux se detacha et alia dans ^intention de leur of them himself detached and went in the intention of to them apporter de quoi faire un repas. to bring of what (whereof) to make a repast- Aided by the above translation the student may read into good English the text itself. And now that the meaning of the words, as well as their pronunciation, are understood, the learner should accustom himself to reading the French aloud; this exercise will familiarise the ear with a correct enunciation of the words, and serve to impress them more firmly on the memorv. VOCABULARY. As it is essential to the march of our method that the learner should be perfectly familiar with every French word introduced into a lesson, both as regards its general meaning and precise logical value, we shall range all the words with their various translations in separate columns, so that he may be enabled to test his proficiency in this particular. This may be done advantageously in the following manner : cover over with a card the English column, and translate each French word aloud ; verifying this translation by removing the card from the translation given of it. After all the French words have been turned into English in this way, cover over the French column of words, and translate in the same manner b2 VOCABULARY. the English words into French. This exercise should be repeated until all the English words can be rendered into French and the French words into English with perfect facility. Trois . three voyageurs travellers trouverent found un (one trcsor . treasure dans . in / their {to them leur die min road et . . and dirent . said , we nous . (US avons . have faim bung i tli.it (what que de . . of aille . may g< acheter to buy qaoi what manger to eat eux them (himself (themselves Be . uetaeha detached alia . went la . . the intention intention apporter to bring faire . J to make I to do repaa , U«(>rvi>«l fli it 1 DTI p ( repast. f the French \ significations, as in the case of the word lour, meaning in one case their, and in another, to them; the reason of this will be explained under the head Constri < HON. PHRASES. Not only must the learner, who desires to profit by our lessons, make himself familiar with each word in a sentence, but he must also observe carefully how words are made up into sentences, and the difference between the French and English manner of constructing phrases. All the points in which the French construction differs from the English must be sedulously noted and stored up in the memory. To assist the learner in doing this, we shall now arrange the sentences of the lesson, with their English equivalents, in opposite columns, so that the student may subject himself to self-examination in the same manner as in the case of the previous exercise. Trois voyageurs trouverent Three travellers found un tresor a treasure Et dirent And said Nous avons faim .... We are hungry Q, i .,, (Let one of us go u un de nous aille . > \r\ c * (One or us must go Acheter And buy rWhereof De quoi J Where withal 4 ] The wherewith l Something Manger To eat Un d'eux One of them Se detacha Departed Et alia And went Dans l'intention .... In the intention De leur apporter ... Of bringing to them De quoi faire .... Wherewith to make Un repas A meal. It will be observed, that the phrases as well as the words have occasionally two translations in English : quun de nous aille, for instance, is rendered in English by one of us must go, as well as let one of us go. It will be observed, at the same time, that these English expressions are as nearly as possible equivalent in meaning. CONVERSATION. One of the original features in the present course of lessons, and certainly not one of the least utility, is that of introducing in the first lesson an exercise in conversation, on the subject- matter of the lesson, and in the words of which it consists. Facility in conversation is the object sought by every student of French ; but is not to be attained by the usual mode of instruction. In this particular our first lesson will place the learner on a par with the student who has obtained his Degree at the University of Oxford or Cambridge, where the most able masters may be supposed to preside. In order to converse in French it will be necessary to become familiar with the following words used in asking questions: — Ou where, pronounced like oo in a Qoand when „ kang. Qui who ,, ket • • t i i 14 .1 -giving the letters the Qae what ,, ki ' sound tiny have in lis they „ eel II hi> ,, tei L the English word kill. .oiving tlio n\ the sound Tour fir „ poor f they have in the word | good. Le the before words in the singular, pronounced like the letter /. Les ///<■ before words in the plural, pronounced like /<■ in the word /■ /. Oni pronounced we Non no „ nong Monsieur, sir „ >/kis-i/,i/.' * VVr arc always disposed t>> laugh when we hear nn Englishman pro- nounce tin- word " Monsieur," lie gnu-rally makes such n mess of it. It seems impossible to teach this sound by the car: not two in twenty Englishmen, who have been taught the language by B master, pronounce it correctly, and yet there is no French sound more easily depicted to the eye. We have heard persons who have been one, two, nay three years under tBtelage, pron— Pea the word as if written moo-too; now nothing could he more prating to the ear of a well-educated Frenchman than to hear hiins.lt iddresM d l>y roch a barbarism as moo-too. The word monsieur is pronounced as if written mot-yai, and tin- plural metiieurt as if written mes-yai ; could anything he plainer than thi^.' CONVERSATION. 7 The pronunciation and meaning of all the other words introduced into the conversation have been already given. If then the previous exercises have been carefully gone over, there can be no difficulty with this. The learner should pronounce each question aloud, and proceed with the answers in the same manner as with the translation of the words and sentences. Que trouverent les trois voya- Un tresor geurs ? Les trois voyageurs trouve- Oui, Monsieur. rent-ils un tresor? Ou ? Dans leur chemin. Trouverent-ils de quoi man- Non, Monsieur. Que dirent-ils? lis dirent "nous avons faim." Quand ? Quand ils trouverent le tresor. Dirent-ils "nous avons de Non, Monsieur. quoi manger ?» Dirent-ils " nous avons de Non, Monsieur. quoi faire un repas ?" Dirent-ils " qu'un de nous Oui, Monsieur. aille acheter de quoi man- ger ?" Quand dirent-ils " nous avons Quand ils trouverent le tresor. faim? Ou dirent-ils " qu'un de nous Dans leur chemin. aille acheter de quoi manger ?" Qui se detacha? Un d'eux. Se detacha-t-il ? Oui, Monsieur. Quand ? Quand les voyageurs dirent "nous avons faim." Pourquoi se detacha-t-il ? . . Pour acheter de quoi manger. Ou alla-t-il ? II alia leur acheter de quoi faire un repas. Alla-t-il dans Pintention d'ap- Oui, Monsieur. porter de quoi faire un repas ? Quand ?....... Quand il se detacha. Que dirent les trois voyageurs Qu'un de nous aille acheter de quand ils trouverent un quoi faire un repas. tresor ? CONSTRUCTION. Quand, les trois voyageurs Un tresor. dirent "nous avons faim," que trouverent-ils ? Quand, les trois voyageurs Quand ils dirent "nous avons trouverent-ils un tresor? faim." CONSTRUCTION. We shall now point out such peculiarities in the structure of the passage we have given as may serve to illustrate generally the construction of the language. I. Que trouverent les trois voya- What found the three tra- geuis ? veiled. Quand trouverent-ils le tresor? When found they the treasure? Dans /'intention, for dans hi In the intention. intention. It will be observed h\ these phrases, that the French word equivalent to the English article the has three forms, viz. — h, In, and let. The French article is disposed in the following manner : /. U used before a noun in the masculine gender. /,/ „ ,, feminine gender. leg ,. ,, plural number of both genders. In English the word the is invariable: whether it comes before a masculine, a feminine, or a plural noun, it is always the same. The English say, tor instance, ///<■ man, //"■ ira/mui, and the women ; but a different form of the article would he employed in French under these circumstances, We ma) observe here, that nouns iu English are said to he Qf three genders: the word ///<.// is said to he of the masculine gend< r, the word woman is said to he of the feminine gender, and the word treasure is said to he in the neuter or no gender: this is a natural division, hut somehow or other it does not happen to he a grammatical one. In French there is no such thing as a neuter gender; all the nouns of the language must either he mas- culine or feminine : the word fn'sor, for instance, U said to he masculine, and th ! word intention is said to be feminine. \s g CONSTRUCTION. 9 different form of the article must be used in each of these cases it becomes a matter of some moment to know to which of the two genders any particular word may belong, we shall therefore give rules that will enable the learner to distinguish the gender of nouns when they become necessary. In the mean time the gender of the words in the lesson must be judged by the form of the article that exists before them; thus tresor will be recognised as masculine, since le stands before it. The learner then must take care always to render " the treasure" into French, by le tresor: it would be a blunder to write or pronounce la tresor. There is no difficulty about words in the plural, the same form of the article is always used before them; thus we say les intentions and les voyageurs, although, as we have seen, the former of these words is feminine, and the latter masculine. II. Un d'eux , . . . . . One of them. Dans /'intention .... In the intention. Qu'un de nous aille . . . Let one of us go. When the words le or la, the ; que, that ; or de, of, come before another word beginning with a vowel, the a of the one and the e's of the others are invariably cut off. This is done in order to avoid the too frequent recurrence of two vowels, these little words being very much used in French. The student therefore, in writing, must take care when he has the two words de and eux, for example, together, to cut off the e of the de, and be careful at the same time to supply its place with an apostrophe, as in the sentences given above. III. Qu'un de nous aille ) T . rr? > * ( Let one o- us ^o. that one ot us may go J b The above phrase occurring in our text, exhibits a very common mode of expression. The sentence " qu'un de nous aille" is incomplete; the words " il faut," it is necessary, being- understood. The phrase entire would be " il faut qu'un de nous aille," it is necessary that one of us go, or one of us must go. It is however the defective form of the phrase, the form which 10 CONSTRUCTION. appears in our text, that is generally employed, and consequently that is the form the student ought to imitate when he has a similar expression to turn into French. Being imperfect, the phrase when translated literally into English does not exhibit the sense it is meant to convey. The best way to deal with such a phrase, is to consider it entire, without regarding in- dividually the words of which it is composed, and look upon it as equivalent to a certain other phrase in English ; deal with it in short, in the same manner as if it were a single word. We cannot approve of the manner adopted in a grammar of some note,* of explaining this difficulty by saying, that " que" supplies an ellipsis, and ergo, that que is equal to let; such a solution of the difficulty is likely to beget a notion in the mind of the learner that que, in French, has the signification of the English word let, whilst these two words have not, nor can they logically have, any meaning in common. A similar kind of construction to that under consideration occurs in the Latin language; we find frequently the Roman writers employing the subjunctive as an imperative, for instance in the well-known verse of Virgil — " ilia mtjacUt in aula /Folus, et clauso ventorum eareere rcf/net." « Qv? Bole te eontente de regnei sur ses rochers, et d'exercer son pouvoir dans ses sombres cachots." " Let JBcihu vaunt himself in his own hall, and let him reign in the closed prison of the winds." Here we have a similar construction in Latin to that of "qu'un de nous aillo" in French; but think of a " tyro" translating the Latin relative qui by let} We shall have occasion to revert to the Logic of the construction of "qu'un de nous aille" in ■ future lesson. In the mean time it will be Sufficient lor the guidance of the student to say, that when he has an English phrase to translate, beginning with let, implying a command, he must set out in French with the word que. Two or three phrases of this kind will be introduced into the exercise on composition, in order to habituate the learner to this mode of expression. • Grammar of Ihe French Lan juage, bj J. C. Ddflla. CONSTRUCTION. 11 IV. Que trouverent les trois "j What found the three What did the three travellers voyage urs ? f find ? travellers ? J Que dirent-ils? ) ^r, . ,.,,, . What said they? } What Ad they say ? £™/ } Did they say? In English there are two ways of asking a question; with the auxiliary word did, or without it ; a question can either be put in the form, "did they say so and so," or " said they so and so." In French there is no such word as did, that can be made use of in this way, the French therefore cannot put a question in the first of these forms, and consequently are obliged to employ the second. In framing a question, the student must always bear in mind, that the word did has no equivalent in French — he must bear in mind that there are two manners of asking a question in English, one of which accords with the French idiom, and may be translated literally : but that the other cannot be rendered word for word into French. It will be observed that in English the word did is merely a sign of the past time, and may be dispensed with by using a past tense of the verb itself. In the phrase, " did the travellers find a treasure ;" and "found the travellers a treasure;" the words "did find" in the one, and the word "found" in the other, are precisely equivalent. Some English interrogative phrases containing the word did will be introduced into the exercises under the head of Composition. To translate these correctly into French, the learner must, as we have said, bear in mind that the question did he go ? can be put in a shape without the did, as went he? and that this last form of a question alone can be rendered literally into French. 12 CONSTRUCTION. Les voyageurs trouverent-ils ^ The travellers found they Found the travellers a trea- ? a treasure ? Les voyageurs dirent-ils, "\ The travellers said tfiey Said the travellers we have nous avons un tresor ?" ( a treasure ? we have a treasure' I Quand les voyageurs "| When tbe travellers When found the travellers trouverent-ils un tresor ? \ a treasure? found they a treasure J We have said last section, that the English have two ways of asking a question ; one with the word did, as "did three travellers find a treasure/' and another without this auxiliary, as "found three travellers a treasure." We also said that the first of these forms cannot be rendered into French, there bring no such auxiliary as did in the language, and consequently that the second of the two must always be translated. It is the pian ice also in French interrogations, to say " three travellers found they BO and so," " three travellers said they so and so:" instead of the English form " found three travellers BO and so," '-said three travellers so and so." These last phrases, indeed, were they translated literally, would not be French. It will be also observed by the sentences given above, that in ipi stions, the pronoun and the verb must be connected with a liii" drawn betwixt them. VI. On alla-t-il ? Where did he go . J When in a question the verb en. Is in ;, vowel followed by the pronoun ;7. be, the letter / is inserted between. This is done in order to prevent the hiatus in pronunciation caused by two vowels coming together. It may be asked why- is b / use. I for this purpose, iu pr any other eoiiso- PRONUNCIATION. 13 nant, when an n, an m, or a b, would answer the purpose, so far as euphony is concerned, quite as well. In order to answer this question, we must trace the language back to its source. We find in Latin, the parent language, that all the third persons of verbs end in a t, and we know that in French the t is only wanted when a question is asked in the third person. The phrase alla-t-il, did he go, is in Latin, word for word, ibat Me; in the Latin word we have a t. And although the t has been dropped in the affirmative form of the phrase in French, it makes its appearance again when wanted. The t moreover is still retained in the third person singular of some verbs, as il dit, he said, il avait, he had; and in cases where it has been lost, it appears again when a question is asked, as if to remind us that the language of Ceesar is still the language of Gaul. PRONUNCIATION. NASAL N. When the letter n, preceded by any of the vowels, occurs before another consonant, it has what is termed a nasal sound, being partially enunciated through the nose. The existence of this sound in the pronunciation of French has given rise to a notion amongst the English, that the French are very much addicted to speaking through their noses; but nothing could be more erroneous; the truth of the matter is that, if this peculiarity abounds in any language more than another, it is in English that it predominates. In the English words, clung, flung, swung, rang, fang, sioang, there is a nasal sound, and a very decided one too, it only differs from the French in being more nasal! A Frenchman has the greatest possible difficulty in acquiring a correct pronunciation of the words we have named, for the unique reason that they are a great deal more nasal than his own. The French nasal sound is exceedingly nice, and must be enunciated with utmost softness; it possesses more the characteristics of a simple aspiration, than of the unequi- vocal nasal of the English ng. The prevailing vice of begin- ners in French lies in the pronunciation of the nasal n; they 14 PRONUNCIATION. either for the most part sound it too harshly, or do not enun- ciate it at all; faults that it is the special object of these remarks to guard them against. It may also be observed that in English the nasal sound is variously modified, according to the vowel that precedes the ng; thus the ung of the word slung, and the ang of the word swung, are totally different in their inflection. We are led to mention this because beginners very generally make no distinction between the French sound of in and en, whilst in reality the difference between these two combinations is as marked as between their equivalents, ang and ing, in English. Keeping in view, that the difference between the English and French nasal sounds, is that the former partake more abundantly of the nasal character, and that the latter must be formed by a slight aspiration, the nasal sound being almost imperceptible, the following table will enable the learner to pronounce the nasal n in all cases correctly: an \ are pronounced like ang in the word clang, giving the a en J the Bound of that letter in the English word father. like eng or ang in the word anger, as that word is usually pro- nounced, that is, as if it were written eng-ger. tike ang in song. like ung in the word snug. When n is followed by another //, the nasal sound is lost; double n has the same sound as in English, but when it comes before any of the other consonants, it is always nasal* It will therefore be seen from the table we have- given, that the word "intention." in the lesson, should be pronounced as if written eng-tang-see-ong, the English nasal sounds of these letters being of course considerably modified. The student must bear in mind that // is only nasal when followed by a consonant; when followed by a vowel. // has the same sound as in English. These same remarks apply also to the letter ///; the pronun- ciation of this letter resembles in every particular that of //. Ill is |>r onoi on » un „ 15 COMPOSITION. The text of our present lesson, though it be short, illustrates a great many points in the structure of the French language. We have noticed a few of these under the head Construction, and have exhibited the others by a comparison of the English and the French sentences that occur in the passage under the head Phrases. The student may now put the know- ledge the text has opened to him into practice, by a little exercise in composition. We give a few phrases and sentences in English to be rendered into French. In order to translate these, the French words that have already appeared in the lesson alone are necessary ; all that the student has to do, in order to go through this exercise correctly, is to bear in mind the structure of the sentences contained in the text. We shall give a translation of these phrases in the next lesson, so that the learner may verify the accuracy of his version. They said, " we have a trea- sure." They said, " we are hungry." They said, " we have where- withal to make a repast." They found something to eat. They found the road. We have the treasure. We have ajneal. We are hungry. One of us. They said to us, " we are hungry." They found us in the way. We have their treasure. They found their treasure. They found their way. They told them to bring the treasure. They told them to buy some- thing to eat. They said to them, " we are hungry." We have. We have a treasure. We have the wherewith. We have wherewithal to make a repast. We have the wherewith to buy some meat. Have we ? Have we anything to eat ? Have we wherewithal to buy a repast? Have we anything to do? Are we hungry ? What have we ? Have we a meal? Let one of us go. Let one of them go. Let him go and buy where- withal to make a repast. Let one of us go and make a repast. Let the traveller go. 16 COMPOSITION. He went to buy them where- withal to make a repast. He went to make them a road. Did tin y sa y Did they say, "we have whore- withal to make a repast?" Did they say, " let one of us go?" ' Did they find their road? Did they find a treasure? Did they find wherewithal to make a repast ? Did he go ? Did be depart ? He departed. When did he depart '.' Why did he depart? Who departed ? They found a treasure. When did they find a trea- sure ? Why did they find a treasure? Where did they find a trea- sure ? Where did they find us? They said, " we are hungry." Did they say, " we are hungry ?" Who saiil we are hungry? He went. Did he go? Who went? When diil he go? Why did he go? All these phrases the student will be aide to render cor- rectly into French, if he has paid attention to the construction of the text, and our observations upon it. This exercise will not on a an introduction to writing French, but will tend also to impress the structure and idiomatica! peculiarities of the sentences it contains on his memory, and thus a basis will be formed whereon the structure of the language may rest. The student will now have read, spoken, and written a little French, and thus will have obtained a more extended noti.m of the language than if he had Keen turning over the of a grammars with a master, for a twelvemonth. Each bqcc ssive lesson will strengthen and augment the knowledge of the language the learner may now l>e supposed to have attained. THE FRENCH LANGUAGE. LESSON SECOND. READING. REPETITION. The following exercise in reading consists of a translation of the exercises given in the last lesson under the head Com- position, as an exercise in writing French. The pronunciation and meaning of the words have already been given, so that the learner should be able to read and translate what follows without hesitation. Nous avons. Nous avons un tresor. Nous avons de quoi. Nous avons de quoi faire un repas. Nous avons de quoi acheter de la viande. Avons-nous? Avons-nous de quoi manger ? Avons-nous de quoi acheter pour un repas ? Avons-nous de quoi faire ? Avons-nous faim ? Qu'avons-nous 1 Avons-nous un repas ? Qu'un de nous aille. Qu'un d'eux aille. Qu'il aille acheter de quoi faire un repas. Qu'un de nous aille faire un repas. Que le voyageur aille. lis dirent nous avons un tresor. lis dirent " nous avons faim." lis dirent "nous avons de 18 HEADING. quoi faire an repas.''' lis trouverent de quoi manger. lis trouverent le chemin. Nous avons le tresor. Nous avons un repas. Nous avons faim. Un de nous. lis nous dirent "nous avons faim." lis nous trouverent dans le chemin. Nous avons leur tresor. lis trouverent leur tresor. lis trouverent leur chemin. lis leur dirent d'apporter le tresor. lis leur dirent d'acheter de quoi manger, lis leur dirent " nous avons faim." II alia leur | acheter de quoi faire un repas. II alia leur faire un ohemin. Dircnt-ils ? Dirent-ils lt nous avons de qooi faire un repas?" Dirent-ils " qu'un de nousaille?" Trouverent-ils leur chemin? Trou- verent-ils un tresor? Trouverent-ils de quoi fttire mi repas 1 Alla-t-il? St: dctaeha-t-il? II se datacha. Quand se detaeha*t-il? Pourquoi se dt'tacha-t il ! Qui 96 d£tacha ? lis trouverent un Quand trouverent-ils u\\ tresor? Pourquoi trourerent-ila un tresor? Ou trouverent-ils un tresor ? Ou nous trouverent-ils ! lis dirent " nous avons faim.' Dirent-ils " nous avons faim?" Qui (lit "nous avons faim?" II alia. Alla-t-il ? Qui alia? Quand alla-t-il ( Pourquoi ;illa-t-il \ 1U CONTINUATION OF TEXT. Mais chemin faisant, il dit en lui-meme, il faut que j'empoisonne la viande, afin que mes deux camarades raeurent en la mangeant, et que je jouisse du tremor moi seul. II ex^cuta son dessein, et mit du poison dans ce qu'il avait apport6 a. manger In order that the learner may read, translate, and understand the above, we shall, as in the case of the text given in the previous lesson, proceed to give first the pronunciation of the words, as also their euphonic connexion, and then their signi- fication. Mais chemin faisant, il dit en lui-meme, ii May she-mire fe-zare, eel dee-t w en Itiee* maim, eel faut que j'empoisonne la viande, afin que mes deux fo ki w sh ere-pwa-zon la vee-ared afire w ki mai day camarades meurent en la mangeant, et que je ka-ma-rad mair-t w en la mare-share, ai ki w j jouisse du tresor moi seul. 11 executa son shoo-ees dfi trai-zor mwa sail. Eel exe-kii-ta son dessein, et mit du poison dans ce qu'il avait apporte d-sin, ai mee dtt pwa-so» daw ^_, s keel av-ai-t w ap-por-tai a manger, a mare-shay. In order to read the above correctly the learner must bear in mind what we said in the last lesson, under the head Pronunciation, about the nasal sound. We continue to mark the n with its accompanying vowel, when it is nasal, in italics, so that this most important matter may not be neglected. * For the pronunciation of the letter u, where we have marked it with an accent thus (&), we refer the student to the head Pronunciation, page 29, of the present lesson c2 20 VOCABULARY. We cannot too strongly impress upon the learner the necessity of his attention to the pronunciation we have given of the words in the text, and their euphonic connexion. The same words will be repeated over and over again in the exercises that are to follow, so that on the amount of attention paid at the outset will depend the learner's accuracy through- out the lesson. TRANSLATION. Mais chemin faisant il dit en lui-me'me, But road making (going along) he said in himself, il faut que j'empoisonne la viande afin it is necessary that I may poison the meat to end in order que mes deux camarades meurent en la mangeant, that my two companions may die in it eating, et que je jouisse du tresor moi seul. II and that I may enjoy of the treasure me alone. He executa son dessein, et mit du poison dans executed his ,n, and put of the poison in ce qu'il avait apporte a manger, what lie had hrought to to cat. The student can now read and pronounce the new portion of text; the next tiling is to turn the words acquired to ;t practical account. VOCABULARY. We again range the words of the text opposite their English equivalents, in order that the learner may test his knowledge of them before entering upon the more essential exercises of the lesson. Mais but chemin .... road faisant .... making 11 i!r lit said 2! VH RASES. en in lui-meme . . . himself faut is necessary que » that J e • l . empoisonne . . . poison la the viande .... meat afin in order mes my deux two camarades . . . companions meurent .... may die mangeant . . . eating et and jouisse .... may enjoy du of the tresor treasure moi me seul alone executa .... executed son his dessein .... design mit put du of the poison poison dans into ce que .... what avait had apporte .... brought a to manger . . . . to eat PHRASES. The value of each word being known, the meanings of the sentences have next to be observed. As we have had occasion to remark under this head in the preceding lesson, it sometimes happens that combinations of words have acquired a meaning they do not exhibit when translated singly; thus chemin faisant is, when translated into English, word for word, road making; but the two words together are in French employed to signify going along> just as the phrases making way and '1*2 CONVERSATION. going a-head are employed in English occasionally to express a similar notion. In considering- the phrases therefore, the power of the words collectively must be regarded more than their individual meaning. Mais But Chemin faisant Going along II dit en lui-meme .... He said to himself II faut que j'empoisonne la I must poison the meat viande. Afin que In order that Mes deux camarades meurent My two companions may die En la mangeant In eating it Et que And that Je jouisse moi seul du tresor . I alone may enjoy the treasure II execute son dessein . . . He executed his design Et mit du poison .... And put poison Dans ce que In what II avait apporte a manger . He had brought to eat. CONVERSATION. As in the preceding lesson, we shall now proceed to a con- versation on the subject involved in the text of the present lesson. It will be necessary for the student to bear in mind the words given as an introduction to the previous colloquial exercise, in addition to which the following will have to be acquired : f £ iv i n & t,,e a ' s t,,e Madame, Mudtim, pronounced Mmuam sound they have [ in the word part. Cela, that, ,, sla giving the de the Des, „/7/,,, „ ie sound those letters + nave in the hng- l lish word debt. w„ K ;,, i like se in the English I word sait. CONVERSATION. 23 Que dit un des voyageurs? A qui dit-il cela ? . . . . Quand? Qui dit, il faut que j'empoi- sonne la viande? Quand dit-il cela? .... Pourquoi faut-il que le voya- geur empoisonne la viande? Le voyageur dit-il, il faut que j 'empoisonne mes cama- rades? Dit-il, il faut que je jouisse du tresor moi seul? Avait-il trois camarades? . . Avait-il deux camarades? . . Qui avait deux camarades? . Pourquoi faut-il que ses ca- marades meurent? Qu'avait-il apporte a manger? Avait-il apporte de la viande ? Avait-il le tresor? .... Qui avait le tresor? . . . Qu'avait un des trois voya- geurs? Executa-t-il son dessein? . Qu'executa un des trois voya- geurs? Avait-il apporte de quoi manger? Avait-il apporte le tresor? Dans quoi un des trois voya- geurs mit-il du poison? . Avait-il apporte" de la viande? Mit-il du poison dans la viande qu'il avait apportee a manger? Pourquoi? Quand mit-il du poison dans ce qu'il avait apporte a manger? II faut que j'empoisonne la viande. A Iui-meme. Chemin faisant. Un des trois voyageurs. Chemin faisant. Afin que ses deux camarades meurent en la mangeant. Non, Madame. Oui, Madame. Non, Madame. Qui, Madame. Un des trois voyageurs. Afin qu'il jouisse seul du tresor. De la viande. Oui, Madame. Non, Madame. Ses deux camarades. Un dessein. Oui, Madame. II executa son dessein. Oui, Madame. Non, Madame. Dans ce qu'il avait apporte a manger. Oui, Madame. Oui, Madame. Afin que ses deux camarades mourussent en la man- geant, et qu'il jouisse seul du tresor. Chemin faisant. 24 CONSTRUCTION. Under this head we shall continue to bring into view the points of the text that illustrate the general structure of the language. These remarks, as we stated in last lesson, are intended to guide and facilitate the learner in writing French. VII. II faut ^Me/empoisoiine la I must poison the meat, viande. In our progress we shall occasionally fall in with a French word that has no corresponding word in the English language, and sometimes we shall in the same way have to deal with an English word that cannot be rendered into French by any single word of that language, this is the case with the English word must in the sentence before us. There is no single word in French that is precisely equivalent to the English must: and as this word must is very much employed in English, it be- comes to the learner a matter of some importance to know how a sentence in which must occurs, may be rendered cor- rectly into French — a difficulty that our text by chance amply illustrates. We find in the sentence quoted above, that I must is represented in the French sentence by il faut que jc, and it is by these four words arranged as we sec them, that / must is most usually rendered in French. The essential word of the equivalent for the English I must, \a faut, and it will be seen from the translation of the text, that this word faut is equivalent to the two English words is MM* sari/; so that the French phrase il faut que je, conveying the idea of / must, is literally in English, U u necessary that I. The learner, therefore, in order to render J must in French, has to translate literally the phrase it is necessary that I; bearing in mind that the single word//?// is equivalent to the two English words is necessary. In the same way when you must, In- must, W» must, or they must, have to be rendered into French, a similar process is to be gone through, suhsti- tuting for the jc the pronoona equivalent to you, he, we, and they; thus in order to say, hi mutt poison the meat, the phrase, CONSTRUCTION. $5 it is necessary that he may poison the meat will have to be taken and translated literally; the result will be, ilfaut qu'i/.empoisonne la mande, and so in all similar cases. We shall introduce some phrases of this kind into the exercise on Composition which we shall expect the learner, aided by the foregoing remarks, to render correctly into French. It will no doubt occur to the observing- student, that « it is necessary that he may poison the meat," is rather a clumsy way of saying -he must poison the meat," and most certainly such is the case. The French are as sensible of this defect in their language as an Englishman can be, and in order to remedy the evil, the words "51 faut" are occasionlly omitted m such phrases, the other part of the sentence being made to answer the purpose. An instance of this kind of abbreviation occurred in the text of our last lesson, where we have the phrase "one of us must go" rendered by "qu'un de nous aille; the words «il faut" it is necessary, being entirely sup- pressed. We stated in speaking of this sentence, section III of our last lesson, that the words f'il faut" were frequently omitted in such expressions, and the fact of the contracted form being found m our text may be cited as a proof that the abbre- viated form of such sentences is employed by the best writers in the language. We would suggest the learner to refer back to our previous observations on this construction, before reading the next section. 8 VIII. P ° U Tur S qUG Ie VOya " WI ^ must tfae teller poison Sade"? ^ ^ ^ hi§ —Prions ? P The above phrase, occurring in the exercise on Conversa- tion exhibits to us the manner of dealing with the English ^ when the word occurs in an interrogation. Transited literally the phrase in question appears as follows: Pourquoi faut-il que , e vo empoisonne ses camaradesr 160688 ^" ^ ** ^ ***** * companions ? 26 CONSTRUCTION. Here it will be observed that faut-il literally signifies " is it necessary," just as we have seen the literal equivalent for ilfaut is " it is necessary/' It is possible and usual to omit the words il faut in ex- pressing a command ; but when a question is asked, the case is altered, for in an interrogation ilfaut is not so easily dis- posed of. It is perfectly good French to say " qu'un de nous aille," instead of " il faut qu'un de nous aille;" but it is quite impossible to ask a question with such an assemblage of words as "qu'un de nous aille." In order to say "must one of us go." the faut-il cannot be dispensed with, the phrase entire is re- quired, and must be written " faut-il qu'un de nous aille;" in Mich a ease ilfaut becomes an indispensable adjunct. In the previous section we have noticed the exceedingly clumsy substitute that exists in tin- French language for the English word must, and we have static! that the means adopted to remedy the evil is by omitting the words ilfaut, but we have seen that il faut cannot always be B6 dispensed with, and is absolutely accessary in an interrogation. In order to say in French " must \\ e i at ': " the phrase ,v i^ it necessary that we may eat" would bave to 1>.' employed; decidedly too long and round about to answer the purpose; brevity is the soul of social converse, and in tin- intercourse of eoinmon life long heavy locations like this arc totally inadmissible. The expedient adapted to abridge such expressions i> to suppress the pronoun and tin- que, employing onl) the indispensable faut-il with the simple form of the verb; thus instead of saying "faut-il que nous mangions," trout we eat, the following construction is usually employed : Faut-il manger ? .... Must we eat? It will be observed that this phrase faut-il manger f implies nothing more than, u it necessary to eat? and consequently may Ne employed to express, t? or mutt you eat fas well as must we eatf When however a question of this kind is to be put in the third person, no abbreviation is practicable; thus, must hi go? must they die? will have t«» be rendered in 1 jnut il uu'il aille? faut-il qu*il» meurent? We shall introduce CONSTRUCTION. 27 into the exercise on Composition, some English interrogative phrases containing the word must, to be rendered into French, in order that the learner may be habituated to this kind of construction. IX. Le tresor The treasure. La viande The meat. In the first section of the remarks, under the head Con- struction, we have stated that all words in the French language are either masculine or feminine, and also that the is rendered by le before masculine words, and by la before feminine words. The learner must bear in mind, when he has to render the English article the into French, that he cannot use the words la or le indiscriminately ; it very often happens that a word in French has one meaning when le is before it, and another when la is before it: thus le manche is in English, the broomstick, and la manche is the English Channel. Now if an Englishman were to say, speaking of having been to France, "I went across le manche," instead of saying la manche, a Frenchman would naturally suppose him to mean that he went to France on a broomstick ! this would be an awkward mistake for an elderly lady tomake. X. En la mangeant .... In eating it. The learner, from what we have said in the last and previous sections, will now know how to proceed when he has the word the to render into French ; we have said that the is to be trans- lated in the following manner: — Before a noun in the masculine gender by le. Before a noun in the feminine gender by la. Before a noun in the plural number by les. But it must not be supposed from this, that the words, le, la, and les always signify in French the; it is true that the is rendered in French by le, la, les, but it is not true that le, la, and les, are always to be rendered in English by the, as we see 28 CONSTRUCTION. by the sentence quoted above, from the text, where the word la has the signification of the English word it. When the words le, la, and les occur before a noun, they are equivalent to the English article the; but when they occur before a verb, they are no longer articles but pronouns, and will have to be translated into English in the following manner: le before a verb by him or it. la before a verb by her or it. les before a verb by than. In the sentence before us the word mangeant is a verb, and consequently the la before it must be rendered into English by the word it, since it refers to the word meat. This diversity of the meaning in the words le, la, and les, arising from their position in a sentence, requires to be parti- cularly noted ; as otherwise it is likely to cause a great deal of trouble to the beginner, and is apt even to mislead persons who have attained some proficiency in the language. Prop, rlv speaking the words le and la mean simply him and her, because every thing in French being cither masculine or feminine, the word it has no existence in the language. In the phrase given above, in speaking of the meat, the French say in eating her, and not eating it. Just as the English say in speaking of a steam-boat, "she sails well;" so the French him or Acr all objects whatever. The met that all objects in nature arc considered masculine or feminine may very likely give rise tn this question in the mind of the learner: Why is it that there are only two genders in French? In answering this question we may observe thai must persons who have written French Grammars, assert that it is impossible to teach theoretically the pronunciation of the language; this may be perfectly true, so far as they are individually concerned, but instead of ascribing the impossibility to their own incompetency, they usually ascribe n to soin. impenetrable difficulty in the subject itself. In the same w.iv when such a point is to be resolved as the question before us, we have nothing but mystery ami perplexity. A vt rv slight knowledge of the history of the language is Sufficient to account for the use in French of two genders only. PRONUNCIATION. 29 When the Franks overran Gaul, the inhabitants spoke Latin, and in order to understand the people they had conquered they were obliged to learn their language; but, as may be readily supposed, the conquerors did not trouble themselves much about the niceties of the Latin terminations and the distinct tions of gender depending upon them, they were content with being able to make themselves understood, and beyond what was necessary to effect this, disregarded the subtilties of the Latin syntax; they were obliged, however, to make a distinc- tion between male and female, and gradually embraced under these two heads, all the words that had hitherto been considered as of the neuter gender; thus it is simply from the circum- stance of the Franks being more a warlike, than a learned people, that two genders only exist in the language. In rendering the English word it into French, the learner must observe whether it relates to a masculine or a feminine noun; for instance, if in the phrase, "they found it," the word it refers to the treasure, the phrase wiH have to be rendered in French— lis le trouverent. But if the word it refers to the meat, the phrase must be- lls la trouverent. It will be remembered that these pronouns are placed before, and not as in English, after the verb. PRONUNCIATION. THE CHARACTERISTIC. There exists in nearly all the modern languages some par- ticular sound that is rarely, if at all, made use of in English- these sounds may be considered by the English as characteristic of the languages to which they belong. Viewing in this way the French sounds as they stand in relation to those of the English language, the sound of the vowel u may be called the French characteristic. The nearest approximation to the French sound of the vowel u, made use of in English, with which we are acquainted, occurs 30 PRONUNCIATION. in the word doing, when that word is quickly pronounced, as it usually is, especially when used with other words in a sentence; in such a case the sound of the o in the word, blending with the i of the termination ing, produces exactly the sound given by the French to the vowel u. If then the learner pronounces rapidly the word doing two or three times over, and stops short at doi, he will pronounce the French word du almost as accu- rately as a native of Paris. He must bear in mind, however, that the sound of the o in do is not the French sound of u. It is only when the o of that word is blended with the i that follows it in the word doing that it resembles the French u. In English the vowel u has three sounds; that in tube, another in tii//, and a third in such words as )-ude. In French the vowel // has only one sound, which must always be given to it, except when it is associated with another vowel: there are three words in the lesBon in which this letter stands alone; these are the words o taken ? (The poi- ion. | Must are eat them f Must it be bought ? He executed his design. Who executed a design ? Where did be execute liis design I When did ho execute it F ( roing along, one of the three travellers said, " I must When the learner has rendered these phrases, he will have become familiar with some of the chief difficulties he has to encounter. In the next lesson we shall have to speak of some other leading features in the construction of the langu l poison my two compa- nions." oing along, a traveller put poison in the meat, and said, " my two compa- nions must die on eating it." Two travellers on their jour- ney found some meat on the road, and said, Gen- tlemen (Messieurs), we must eat it. He must eat his companions. Why must he eat his com- panions ? When must he eat his com- panions? A gentleman (tin Monsieur) put meat in the poison. What did he put in the poison ? Why did he put meat in the poison ? When did he put it in ? I must poison tin- lady (Madame). When must I poison the lady ? Why must I poison her? Who must I poison ? We must eat some meat. Must we oat the meat ? Why must we eat it? When must we eat it? Must my two companions die ? The three travellers must die. Why must they die ? When must they die ? They must die on eating the meat that one of them bought to make a repast. THE FRENCH LANGUAGE. LESSON THIRD. READING. REPETITION. Il faut que j'empoisonne la viande. II faut que j'empoisonne mes camarades. II faut que je jouisse du tresor. II faut que mes camarades meurent. II faut que mes deux camarades meurent. II faut qu'il jouisse seul du tresor. II faut que les voyageurs meureut. II faut qu'ils meurent. II faut qu'il empoisonne la viande. II faut qu'il empoisonne les voyageurs. II faut qu'il empoisonne un de ses cama- rades. Faut-il que le voyageur empoisonne la viande? Faut-il qu'un des trois voyageurs empoisonne ses camarades? Faut-il que les voyageurs meurent? Faut- il que mes deux camarades meurent? Faut-il qu'un des voyageurs empoisonne la viande ? Faut-il que ses deux camarades meurent? 11 faut manger. II faut manger la viande. II faut manger le tresor. II faut manger les voyageurs. II faut manger le poison. II faut acheter du poison. II faut acheter de la viande. II faut acheter de quoi manger. # Faut- il manger? Faut-il manger la viande? Faut-il manger le tresor? Faut-il manger les voyageurs? Faut-il manger le poison ? Faut-il manger mes camarades? Faut-il acheter du poison? Faut-il acheter de la viande ? Faut-il acheter de quoi faire un repas ? 34 READING. II faut que j'empoisonne la viande afin que mes deux camarades meureut en la mangeant. II faut que je rempoisonne. II faut que je les empoisonne." II le mit dans la viande. II la mit dans le poison. II le dit. II faut le manger. II faut la manger. II faut les manger. Faut-il que je l'empoisonne? Faut-il que je les empoisonne? Le rait-il dans la viande ? Le dit-il ? Faut-il la manger ? Faut-il le manger? Faut-il les manger? Faut-il Tacheter? 11 executa son dessein. Qui executa uu dessein? Ou l'executa-t-il ? Quand Pexecuta-t-il ? Chemin faisant un dcs trois voyageurs dit, il faut que j'em- poisonne mes deux camarades. Chemin faisant un voyageur mit du poison dans la viande, et dit, il faut que mes deux camarades nieurent en la mangeant. Chemin faisant deux voyageurs trouvcrent de la viande dans leur chemin et dirent, Messieurs, il faut la manger. II faut manger sea camarades. Pour- quoi faut-il manger ses camarades? Quand faut il manger ses camarades ? Un Monsieur mit de la viande dans le poison. Que mit-il dans le poison? Pourquoi mit il de la viande dans le poison I Quand la mit-il ? II faut que j'empoisonne Madame. Quand faut-il que j'empoisonne Madame 1 Pourquoi faut-il que je rempoisonne? Qui faut-il que j'empoisonne ! II faut manger de la viande? Faut-il manger la viande!' Pourquoi faut-il la manger? Quand faut- il la manger? Faut-il que mes deux camarades meurenl I 11 faut que les trois voyageurs meurent? Pourquoi faut-il qu'ils meurent ? Quand faut-il qu'ils meurent? II faut qu'ils meurenl en mangeant la viande qu'ttU d'eux a apportee pour lairo un repas. 35 READING. CONTINUATION OF TEXT. Mais les deux autres qui avaient concu un sem- blable dessein contre lui pendant son absence, l'assas- sinerent a son retour, et demeurerent les maitres du tresor. Apres l'avoir tiie" ils mangerent de la viande empoisonnee et moururent aussi tous deux. In order that the learner may be able to read and pronounce the above, we shall have, as in the case of the two preceding sections of the text, to give first the pronunciation of the words, and then their meaning. Mais les deux autres qui avaient concu un Mai le* dai-z w o-ter kee av-ai kore-sii mi semblable dessein contre lui pendant son absence, son -bla-bel w d-sin core-ter lii-ee ^en-dan so-n w ab-sens, l'assassinerent a son retoirr, et demeurerent les maitres la-sa-see-ner-t w a sore re-toor, ai w d-mair-rer le mai-ter du tresor. Apres l'avoir tue ils mangerent de la dii trai-zor. A-pre lav-war tu6 eel mare-shair w d la viande empoisonnee et moururent aussi tous deux. vee-ared en-pwa-zon ng ai moor-iir-t w o-see too dai. In reading the above the learner must bear in mind what we have said of the nasal sound in the first lesson, and what we have said of the vowel u in the second. We continue to represent the nasal sound by italics, and to place a short accent over the u when that letter has its pure sound. The nasal and the sound of the u are two very important features in French pronunciation, and habitual attention to what we have said of them will do more to perfect the learner in pronunciation than a twelvemonth with a master. * For the sound of the e we have accented thus e and thus e, see the article Pronunciation, page 44. d2 36 avaient conc.u un had conceived a TRANSLATION. Mais les deux autres qui But the two others who semblable dessein contre lui pendant son absence, similar design against him during his absence, l'assassinerent a son retour, et demeurerent les maitres him assassinated at his return, and remained the masters du tresor. Apres l'avoir tue ils mangercnt de la of the treasure. After him to have killed they ate of the viande empoisonnee, et moururent aussi tous deux. meat poisoned, and died also all two (both). VOCABULARY. The text of the present lesson consists of forty words, twenty of which have already appeared in the preceding sections, we shall therefore limit the vocabulary to the twenty new words, as the learner may be supposed to have got the others pretty well fixed on his memory already. A nt res avaient concn . semblable contre . lui . . . pendant . absence assassiuerent retour demeurdrent maitres apres . . avoir . . tue mangerent empoisonnee moururent aussi . . . tous others had conceived similar against him during absence assassinated return (remained | lived masters after to have killed ate poisoned died also all. CONVERSATION. 37 Of these twenty words, the greater part are mere modifica- tions of those already seen : avaient, had, is the plural form of avait in the text of the preceding lesson ; mangtrent, ate, is formed from the same root as manger, to eat; moururent, died, is from the same root as meurent, die. The principle operating these changes in the form of a verb will soon have to engage the learner's attention. PHRASES. Mais les deux autres . . . But the two others Qui avaient congu un sem- Who had conceived a similar blable dessein contre lui design against him Pendant son absence . . . During his absence L'assassinerent Assassinated him A son retour On his return Et demeurerent les maitres And remained masters of the du tresor treasure. Apres l'avoir tue .... After having killed him, lis mangerent de la viande They ate some of the poisoned empoisonnee, meat, Et moururent aussi tous deux. And they also both died. In comparing these sentences, the learner will observe that the English say poisoned meat, and that the French reverse the English order of these two words, and say meat poisoned. It will also be observed, that the equivalents of the English words a// and two are used in French to signify both; the reason of this is that there is no single word equivalent to both in the French language. CONVERSATION. All the words introduced into the following exercise have already appeared, either in the text of the present, or in the conversation of the preceding lessons. Their meaning and pronunciation have consequently been already given. Qu'avaient concu les deux Un semblable dessein. autres voyageurs? Qui avait conqu un semblable. Les deux autres voyageurs. dessein ? 38 CONVERSATION. Quand ? Ou? Contre qui les deux autres voyageurs avaient-ilsconcu un dessein? Qui avait le tresor? . . . Quand avaient-ils le tresor? . Qu'avaient les deux autres voy- ageurs pendant l'absence de leur camarade ? Qui les deux voyageurs assas- sinerent-ils? On l'assassinerent-ils? . . Quand l'assassinerent-ils ? Pourquoi l'assassinerent-ils? . Ajuvs l'avoir tile, demeurrrent- ils maitres do tresor ? Qui demeora maitre du tre- sor? Les deux autres voyageura mangi-rent-ils lew eaina- rade i Aprt's I'avoii tiu', de quoi demeurerent-ils les mai- trcs ? Qu'avail apporte' on dea voy- ageurs r Avait-il empoi8onn4 la viande? Pourquoi avait-il empoisonnc la viande ? Qu'avaienl i manger li - trea 'In tresor J ( v >ui avait de la viande a man- gl i I I., i maitres cc are hungry. In the above sentence, the words now avons /aim are trans- lated literally ta have junger, and this is the manner in which the English expression we are hungry must be rendered into French. In the same way, we were hungry would have to be rendered we had hunger. The English say, I have a headache, and I have a cold, and it would only be according to the analogy of their own language to say, I have hunger also, however, sine.' it happens thai thi> is no! the case, the learner CONSTRUCTION. 4'J must bear in mind the difference in this respect between the construction of his own and the French language. The English phrases, he zvas hungry, and they were hungry, will have to be rendered, II avait faim .... He had hunger. lis avaient faim . . . They had hunger. XVI. lis moururent tous deux . . . They both died. We have already said, chemin faisant, that the English word both has no single equivalent in French, so that the notion of both has to be rendered in the latter language by a periphrasis. The word is most usually rendered by the phrase, tous les deux, all the two; but occasionally the article les is dropped, and the phrase assumes the form tous deux, all two, as we have it in our text. It is very likely that they died all two may sound somewhat odd in the ears of an Englishman, but it is only because he has not been used to it. The phrase, they died all two, is just as logical as they died all three, although the first appears very bad English, and the second very good. We mention this because the learner generally, when he meets with a construction that he is not familiar with, is very apt to suppose that there is some great mystery at the bottom of it, while in reality it exists in his own language, and is as simple in itself as the construction of any other assemblage of words: a little judgment exercised in the study of a language will dissipate a vast number of apparent difficulties of this nature. The learner has to bear in mind that the word both is to be rendered by all two, tous deux in French, or when a greater degree of exacti- tude is wanted, by all the two, tous les deux. In English, the word both may be put either before or after the verb; it would be as correct to say, they both died, as to say they died both. In French, however, the adverb cannot be moved about in this way; there is only one way of arranging the words in a phrase like this, that is by placing the adverb tous deux after the verb, as in the text. 44 PRONUNCIATION. ACCENTED LETTERS. The vowel e has altogether in French four sounds: in order to shew when it should be pronounced in one and when in another manner, little marks called accents are employed. The following table exhibits the various sounds of the e, together with the manner in which they are distinguished one from another. e with an acute accent thus e, is pronounced like a in the English word mate. e with a grave accent thus e, is pronounced iike e in the English word best. e with a circumflex accent thus o, is pronounced like e, but a little longer. e without an accent is called the e mute, and is generally silent; when pronounced it has the sound of ca in the English word earth. From this table the learner will observe that when he meets with an e having an BCtlte accent upon it thus .', be must pro- nounce it like the a iii tin- English words, make, cake, hike; and when he meets with an <■ having the grave accent e, <>r the eircuinilex accent thus r, lie must pronounce it like e in the English words prete, dress, mess. So far as the accented e's are concerned there is no difficulty, the e and the c may lie considered as two distinct letters of the French alphabet, each having its own sound and characteristic properties, whilst the c may he Balled a long S, and considered as such. We should now advise the learner to go over the sections of the text, an I pronounce the accented e's according tn the foregoing directions without paying attention to tin- equivalents we have given of them in our verbal pronunciation, in this manner the habit will be acquired of pronouncing the accented e correctly. We would also h>re strongly impn ss upon the observation of the 1 arner the necessity of ATTENTION : he has been accustomed from his infancy to MSOCJnte the letter e with a set of sounds, many of which arc totally different from tin' French sounds of PRONUNCIATION. 45 the letter, he must therefore be watchful lest his inherent notions mislead him in the pronunciation of the French e. The accented e's in French have only the sounds we have described; these must always be given them, otherwise the word in which they occur will be rendered unintelligible, and the sense or meaning of the speaker, consequently, totally obscured. The e mute, as its name implies, so far as pronunciation is concerned, is a nonentity; it is a mere orthographic sign, not an absolute letter. There are some cases, however, in which it may be pronounced. The phrase, il se detacha, occurring in our text, may be pronounced eels detacha, suppressing entirely the unaccented e, or the little word se may be pronounced distinctly, giving the e the shut sound of ea of the English word earth, as already stated. The pronunciation of the e mute is therefore quite arbitrary, depending entirely upon the taste or the style of the speaker. This unaccented e has given rise to much learned disquisition amongst writers of French gram- mars; they have contrived to discover in this simple matter the most insuperable difficulties, and the greatest possible amount of doubt and dubity. These perplexities are not said to consist in explaining the sound itself; that we have given is sufficiently precise, but in knowing when to pronounce the letter, and when to leave it entirely silent: one Frenchman,* who has written two very respectable duodecimo volumes to enlighten the English on this knotty point, after quoting a dozen pages of illustrations, says, " All these examples show, rather than solve the difficulty; but it is impossible to give certain and invariable rules by which foreigners may be able to make so many nice distinctions, which depend greatly on the judgment of the speaker or reader, and are not always (qy. never) attended to by the natives themselves." Had this writer limited his treatise to this one passage, we conceive he would have acted wisely, for in this single sentence he has said all that need be said on the subject. The pronunciation of the e mute is admissible in an elevated style, but its pro- nunciation in colloquial intercourse would only be tolerated * Duvergers' Treatise on the French Pronunciation, Part I. 46 PRONUNCIATION. when the meaning of a word or the sense of a sentence would be obscured by its omission, or when great clearness of ex- pression is required. In every instance where the unaccented e occurs in our text, it may be left entirely silent, and on the other hand, it might be in most cases slightly enunciated. The unaccented e is rarely pronounced in ordinary conversation, and very rarely silent in a solemn discourse ; it might be pronounced at the Palais du Luxembourg, but would be silent within the precincts of the Tuileries. The accents, besides being employed to point out the sounds of the e, are occasionally used to distinguish some words from certain other words resembling them in orthography, but differing materially in meaning; thus the letter a in French without an accent is a verb, and is equivalent to the English word luis, but a With a grave accent thus d, is a preposition, and signifies in English to or at; and again, the adverb ou, where, has a grave accent to distinguish it from the conj unction on, or. The accents in these cases do not affect in any way the pronunciation of the letter over which they are placed, they are orthographic >\. The word vuiilrc in the text is derived from the Latin word maiistsr, or according to the modern Latin spelling vuii/ist, r, the Romans writing an s, though very probably they did not pronounee it. The older French writers wrote the word maistrr, whence the English have obtained their word tn<.st,r, where the i is retained and the i dropped. The eircumflex aeeent requires the voiee to rest slightly Oil the letter whereon it is placed, in order to compensate for the omission of the \. an in the ease of the r already deseribed. We have now explained the use and application of the accents in French, they only affect the pronunciation, iii as the a ifl Concerned; we shall henceforth, in giving the pro- nunciation of the French words, leave the accented < '> to »peak for themselves, as the learner may now be fairly supposed to know how to pronounce them. • And it may be u-iful to observe that the . oly if used in . the acut« accent it never employed men ly t<> disti 47 COMPOSITION. He had. He had a treasure. Had he a treasure ? Who had a treasure? They had. What had they? They had a companion. Had they the meat? They had the meat, two trea- sures, and three inten- tions. Had they three designs? No, but they had three com- panions. Who had three companions ? The traveller who had the two intentions. Who had the treasure ? The two other travellers. When they had the treasure, had they also their com- panion ? No, they had poisoned him. After the two others had poi- soned their companion, what had they ? They had the treasure and also the meat, but their companion had poisoned it. When had their companion poisoned the meat? He had poisoned the meat during the absence of his companions. Who had conceived a design? One of the travellers. Against whom had he con- ceived a design ? Against the masters of the treasure. After having conceived his design, did he execute it? Yes, he executed his design. The masters of the treasure, had they also conceived a design ? Yes, they had conceived a design against the treasure, and two others against their companions. Who was hungry? One of the travellers. Had he anything to eat ? Were his two companions hungry ? Yes, but they had something to eat. What had the two travellers to eat? They had the treasure, the poisoned meat, and a companion to eat. Where did the travellers live ? They lived, at Paris. When did the masters of the treasure live at Paris ? They lived at Paris after having killed their com- panion. Whom did the three travellers assassinate ? They assassinated two travel- lers and their companion. Why did they assassinate their companion ? In order to have his trea- sure. After having killed tneir com panion, whom did they assassinate ? They assassinated two other travellers. Did they assassinate their companion after having killed the travellers? 48 COMPOSITION. No, they assassinated the tra- vellers after having killed their companion. Where did they assassinate their companion ? They assassinated him on the road. Whom did they assassinate on the road ? They assassinated the masters of the treasure, the three travellers, and also their two companions. They ate. What did they eat? They ate the treasure. After having eaten the trea- sure, what did they eat ? They ate the meat. After having eaten that, what did they cat t They ate their companion. After having eaten the trea- sure, the meat, and their companion, what did they eal 7 They ate two Other com- panions. Why did they cat their com- panions? They were hungry. After having eaten all tin ir companions, what did they cat ? They ate each other (se). They died. Did all the three travellers die ' .11 the travellers died. Did the masters of the trea- sure die also ? Yes, they both died. When did the two travellers die? After having killed and eaten their companion. Where did the travellers die ? Two died at Paris, the other three died on the road. During the absence of their comrade, the travellers ate each other. After having killed some and poisoned others, the two travellers remained mas- ters of the meat; but after having eaten it, they both died. The masters of the treasure assassinated, and ate their companion, but they both died also. During the absence of their companion, the two others had eaten the treasure. Whilst the two travellers remained masters of the treasure, they had where- withal to eat ; but after having killed their com- panion, they both died of hunger. One of the travellers, during the absence of the other two, had conceived the design of eating the trea- sure, but the two others on their return assassi- oated him. After having killed their com- panion, the two others ate some poisoned meat as a refreshment. The poison killed one of the travellers, the treasure killed all three. After having eaten the trea- sure, the meat, and their companion, toe three tra- vellers died of hunger. THE FRENCH LANGUAGE. LESSON FOURTH. READING. REPETITION. Il avait. II avait un tresor. Avait-il un tresor? Qui avait un tresor; lis avaient. Qu'avaient-ils? Us avaient un caraarade. Avaient-ils la viande ? lis avaient la viande, deux tresors, et trois intentions. Avaient ils trois desseins ? Non, mais ils avaient trois camarades. Qui avait trois camarades? Le voyageur qui avait les deux intentions. Qui avait le tresor? Les deux autres voyageurs. Quand ils avaient le tresor avaient-ils aussi leur camarade ? Non, ils l'avaient empoisonne. Apres que les deux autres eurent empoisonne leur camarade, qu'avaient- ils? Ils avaient le tresor et la viande, mais leur camarade l'avait empoisonnee. Quand, leur cama- rade avait-il empoisonne la viande? II avait empoisonne la viande pendant l'absence de ses camarades. Qui avait con^u un dessein ? Un des voyageurs. Contre qui avait-il con^u un dessein? Contre les maitres du tresor. Apres avoir concu son dessein l'executa-t-il? Oui, il executa son dessein. 50 READING. Les maitres du tresor avaient-ils aussi conc.u un des- sein ? Oui, ils avaient cone, u un dessein contre le tresor et deux autres contre leurs camarades. Qui avait faim ? Un des voyageurs. Avait-il de quoi manger ? Ses deux camarades avaient-ils faim? Oui, mais ils avaient de quoi manger. Qif avaient les deux voya- geurs a manger? lis avaient a manger le tresor, de la viande empoisonnee, et un camarade. Ou demeu- rerent les trois voyageurs? Ils demeurerent a Paris. Quand les mattres du tresor demeurerent-ils a Paris? Ils demeurerent a Paris apres avoir tue" leur cama- rade. Qui, les trois voyageurs assassinerent-ils ? Ils -iuercnt deux voyageurs et leur camarade. Pour- qiioi assassinerent-ils leur camarade ? Ann d 'avoir son tresor. Apres avoir tue leur camarade qui assas Binereiit-ilsl Us assassia&renl deux autres voyageurs. — !ii< Tent-Ms leur eauiarade apres avoir tue les royagemsS Won, ils aasassfn-erenl les voyageurs ajin ■> avoir tue leur camarade. Ou assassiuerent-ils leur camaraile \ Ils [*asaatsioeren< dans le chemin. Qui assassinerent-ils dans le eheinin ? Ils I -iuercnt les uiaitres du treSOT, les trois voyageurs, el aussi leun deux camarades. lis inaii!_ake of emphasis or euphony; but be this as it may, cc/ui must always be used under similar circumstani CONSTRUCTION. 59 XVIII. Un philosophe passant par cet A philosopher passing by that endroit-la. place. We have already spoken fully of the various significations of the little words le and la : we have said, that when le or la occur before a noun, they are to be rendered in English by the; as Nous avons le tresor . . We have the treasure. Nous avons la viande . . We have the meat. But when they occur before a verb, le and la are pronouns, and have to be rendered in English by him, her, or it. lis la mangerent .... They ate her or it. lis le mangerent .... They ate him or it. It will be observed from the phrase we have quoted above from the text, that the word la has also to be rendered in English by the adverb there. When, however, this is the case, the a of the la is always marked with a grave accent, thus— Id, as we see in the text; there cannot, therefore, be any difficulty when la has the meaning there y since so visible a sign is used to point it out. It may be asked, what business has the word there in the sentence under consideration? This is another matter, and merits a little explanation. The English have the two little demonstrative words this and that — this expressing an object spoken of to be near, and that expressing the object spoken of to be distant. The French have only the little particle ce to express both these relative positions of an object, and are consequently obliged to use some other word along with it to indicate more exactly the position of the object. The words used for this purpose are ci, here, and Id, there. In order to express the English words this and that, the French are obliged to proceed in the following manner: This world. . . ce monde-ci . . this here world. That treasure . ce tresor-la . . that there treasure. This philosopher, ce philosophe-ci . this here philosopher. That place . . cet endroit-la . that there place. 60 CONSTRUCTION. The English occasionally employ a similar construction; for instance, in the phrases "down that 'ere street," u up that 'ere stair," but we presume such phrases are exotics, as the word 'ere or there is superfluous in such cases, the word this or that expressing precisely enough the relative position of the objects indicated. In French, however, it is necessary to say, " that there place," or rather, " that place there," and to employ the adverb there in all cases where the object spoken of is not present to the speaker; as otherwise, the ce would not, if employed alone, indicate with a sufficient degree of clearness the object spoken of. It will be observed by the learner, that the adverb Id, when employed in this way, is joined by a hyphen to the noun that precedes it, and also that ce is used before a word beginning with a consonant, and cct before words beginning with a vowel. XIX. lis avairo/ They had. 11 avail He had. The syllable ait at the end of verbs is never pronounced; it follows, that the word aoaiatt, given above, should be pro- nounced as if written av-ui. We may also observe here, that final consonants are generally silent in French; so that the word avail, given above, should also be pronounced as if written av-ai. The two words arait and avaicnt, consequently, though differing in spelling, are pronounced exactly alike. The learner must, however, be careful always to write in the plural avairiit, and in the singular avait, as — lis avaient un tresor They had a treasure. II avait un tresor . . He had a treasure. 61 PRONUNCIATION. DIPHTHONGS. In the English language two vowels are occasionally used to represent a particular sound. The vowels ou, for instance, in the word house, represent a sound that neither the o nor the u resemble when pronounced individually. The same is the case in French: two vowels are used to represent some one particular sound of the language; and when two vowels are so employed, they are usually though improperly called diphthongs. There are in French altogether five diphthongs, representing five distinct sounds of the language, of which the following is a table exhibiting the sounds they represent. oi is pronounced like wa in the English word wall, at „ ai „ „ laid, au „ o „ „ go. ou „ oo „ „ good, eu „ eu „ „ guest.* The only one of these diphthongs that requires a special notice is the eu. This diphthong is very much/ used in French, and most Frenchmen pronounce it precisely as the English do the eu in their word guest. The natives of Paris, however, give the eu a deeper inflection, somewhat approaching to a in the English word bath. Natives of London, in their pronunciation of such words as birth, mirth, give the ir a sound that is an exact counterpart to the Parisian inflection of the French eu, so that they have only to transfer this sound to the French eu, in order to pronounce that diphthong in absolute perfection. Those amongst our students unacquainted with this local inflection of ir, must use the sound of eu in the word guest, which, though not the most elegant, is nevertheless the most common pronunciation of the diphthong. The learner should now go over the words of the text, and pronounce the diphthongs in the manner pointed out in the table; by doing this carefully and attentively, he will make him- * In all other combinations of vowels besides these, each vowel has its own individual sound. 62 PRONUNCIATION. self familiar with the sounds and value of the combined vowels. When he has accomplished this, he will have gained an important point in his progress towards acquiring the French pronuncia- tion ; we say an important point, because the sounds of the five diphthongs may almost be said to constitute the language. We would here guard the student against allowing the peculiarities of his own language to mislead and retard him in the study of French. In English, diphthongs are employed to represent single sounds as well as in French; but the sound represented by a diphthong in the one language is in most cases totally different from the sound it represents in the other. Unless therefore the learner be exceedingly careful at the outset, he will naturally give the English sound to the French diphthong, and the result will be a bad pronunciation of the latter. The English student of French must also guard himself against the unfixed notions as to the value of letters he has imbibed with his mother tongue. An English diphthong, like the ehamelion, has the property of change, varying its sound ti) suit the convenience of the word in which it is used; take tor an example of this, on in the words C'ou-'ii. eourt, could, count. In each of these four words the ou has a perfectly distinct sound. Sneh a mrlmujc eunnot but superinduce a vague iin- prc anion of the value of letters i sceedingly pernicious in the study of spoken language But having a variety of sounds is not tlu- onlv noxious circumstance attendant on the English diphthong! some of the sounds of one diphthong arc occasion- ally given to another: the sound of <>u in could is also DOBf by the diphthong <>o in ijoiul : the OU in court is claimed by the on in rtmrsi ■; and the OU in count is enjoyed by the on-, in cow- li.nL li is a favourite theme with wrihrsol English grammars to sty, that an Englishman should be well grounded in his own, before be studies another language; we must observe that, if another language be grounded upon the discordant materials we have been now speaking of, it could not stand, it would soon he swallowed up in the perplexities of its foundation, and \er\ |.rohaU\ " leave not a wreck behind/' The mingling of the sounds peculiar both to the vowels and diphthongs of the COMPOSITION. 63 English language, destroys the relation that should subsist between its orthography and pronunciation, and must at the same time destroy the impression that such should exist. Throughout the whole series of modern languages, except the English, and perhaps the Chinese, there is an intimate con- nexion between the orthography and the pronunciation. We do not know much either of the language or of the literature of the Esquimaux ; but we know enough of both, to be aware that greater consistency reigns between their written and spoken language than there does in English. The learner therefore must endeavour to divest his mind of the views of language he has obtained from his mother tongue, and replace them by some more stable notions as to the relation between sound and letter. He must not suppose that because a vowel, or a com- bination of vowels, has three or four different sounds in his own language, that such is the case in any other. The sounds we have given of the five French diphthongs in the preceding table they always have, under all circumstances and in every position: in this particular the French pronunciation is not only fixed and immutable, but exceedingly clear and simple: nothing- can be more easy than to pronounce the diphthongs correctly, and few points in the language are of more importance. COMPOSITION. He has. Is he here? What has he? No, he is there. Has he wherewithal to eat? Where is the philosopher? Is he wealthy? The philosopher is at Paris. Yes, he is rich. What is that person? He has said. He is a traveller. What has he said? What is that other person? Who said that? It is the philosopher. When did he say that? He wants. To whom did he say that? What does he want? Hesaidthatto the philosopher. He wants wealth. He is. Who is it that wants wealth? Who is he? It is the philosopher. Is he a philosopher? From whom does he want No, he is a traveller. wealth? Where is he? Why does he ask for riches? 64 COMPOSITION. What does that traveller want? He wants a place. What place does he want? He wants the place where the three travellers died. He wants also his companion. The person he wants is at Paris. That is a pity. Lookat thatperson goingalong there, thatis a philosopher. There is a traveller from Paris. Look at that place. There is a misfortune. Here is another. Here is a traveller. There is another. This person is like that. This philosopher is similar to that. What a pity! What misfortunes! What wealth! What a philosopher. What a lot of travellers! What a crowd (it people! What excessive politeness! What a place! There are riches I One of the travellers said to the other, we are hungry and must have something to eat, let one of us go and boy some meat. Is it .lurti to he rieh said two travellers who diet! of hunger. A philosopher passing the place where the two tra- vellers were eating (man- geaient) their companion, said: there is a manner of making a meal ! The three travellers said that their two companions died after having poisoned a philosopher. We are unfortunate, said two travellers who found a philosopher on their road. It is necessary to have some- thing to eat, said a phi- losopher, after having killed his comrade. We have something to eat, said the two travellers when they found the poi- soned meat. Now we are poisoned, said the two travellers, after having eaten the meat. How rich we are! said the three travellers when they found the treasure. We are hungry, said two persons when they ate their companion. We have a treasure, said two persons when they found a philosopher. What is wealth! said a pas- senger. There are three travellers who found a treasure, and afterwards died of hunger. The world treated the three travellers in such a man- ner that they all died. There is a way of going to work said a philosopher, when the traveller put poison in the meat he had brought to eat. We must eat, said the two travellers when they ate their companion. Here we are masters of the treasure! said the two travellers after having killed their companion. THE FRENCH LANGUAGE. LESSON FIFTH. READING. REPETITION, II a. Qu'a-t-il ? A-t-il de quoi manger ? A-t-il des richesses ? Oui, il a des richesses. II a dit. Qu'a-t-il dit? Qui a dit cela? Quand a-t-il dit cela ? A qui a-t-il dit cela ? II a dit cela au philosophe ? II est. Qui est-il ? Est-il philosophe ? Non, il est voyageur. Ou est-il? Est-il dans cet endroit-ci? Non, il est dans cet endroit-la. Ou est Monsieur le philosophe ? Monsieur le philosophe est a Paris. Quelle est cette personne-la ? C'estun voyageur. Quelle est cette autre personne? C'est le philosophe. II demande. Que demande-t-il ? II demande des richesses ? Qui est-ce qui demande des richesses? C'est le philosophe. A qui demande-t-il des richesses ? Pourquoi demande-t-il des richesses? Que demande ce voyageur-la? II demande un endroit. Quel endroit demande-t-il ? II demande l'endroit ou moururent les trois voyageurs. II demande aussi son camarade. La personne qu'il demande est a Paris. Voila un malheur. Voyez cette personne passant par la, c'est un philosophe. Voila un voyageur de Paris. Voyez cet endroit-la. Voila un malheur. Voici un autre malheur. Voici un voyageur. Voila un autre voyageur. Cette perr sonne-la est semblable a cette personne-ci. Ce philosophe-ci est semblable a celui-la. Quel 66 READING. malheur ! Que de malheurs ! Quelles richesses ! Quel philosophe ! Que de voyageurs ! Que de monde ! Que de manieres ! Quel endroit ! Voila des richesses ! Un des voyageurs dit a 1'autre : nous avons faim, et il faut avoir de quoi manger, qu'un de nous aille acheter de la viande. Est-ce un malheur d'avoir des richesses? dirent deux voyageurs qui moururent de faim. Un philosophe, passant a Fendroit ou les deux voyageurs mangeaient leur camarade, dit voila une maniere defaire un repas. Les trois voyageurs dirent que leurs deux camarades moururent apres avoir empotsonne un philosophe. Nous avons du malheur dirent deux voyageurs qui trouverent un philosophe dans leur chemin. II faut avoir de quoi manger dit un philosophe apres avoir Un* son camarade. Nous avons de quoi manger dirent les deux voyageurs quand ils trouverent la viande empoisonnee. Nous voila empoisonnes ! dirent les deux voyageurs apres avoir mange la viande. Que de richesses nous avons ! dirent les trois voyageurs quand ils trouverent le tresor. Nous avons faim, dirent deux personnes quand ils mange- rent leur camarades. Nous avons un tresor, dirent deux personnes quand ils trouverent un philosophe. Qu 'est-ce que Les richesses? dit un passant, voila trois voyageurs qui trouverent un tresor ct moururent de (aim apres. Le monde a traite* les trois voyageurs de maniere qu'ils moururent tous les trois. Voila une maniere de faire dit an philosophe quand le voyageur rait du poison dans la viande qu'il avait apporte*e a manger. II faut manger, dirent les deux voyageurs quand ils mangerent leur camarade. Nous voila maltres du tresor! dirent les deux voyageurs apivs avoir tin- leur camarade. 67 READING. Instead of giving a fresh portion of text, we shall make what we have already given the subject of the present lesson. A few words well known, and a few leading principles thoroughly understood and firmly established on the memory, will be of more use to the learner than a vagrant notion of twenty times the number. The following is the text constituting the preceding lessons, united under one head, and with which the learner ought now to be quite as familiar as with his paternoster. LES VOYAGEURS AVIDES. Trois voyageurs trouverent un tresor dans leur chemin, et dirent, " nous avons faim, qu'un de nous aille acheter de quoi manger," un d'eux se detacha et alia dans l'intention de leur apporter de quoi faire un repas. Mais chemin faisant, il dit en lui-meme, il faut que j'empoisonne la viande afin que mes deux camarades meurent en la mangeant, et que je jouisse du tresor moi seul. II executa son dessein, et mit du poison dans ce qu'il avait apporte a manger. Mais les deux autres qui avaient con^u un sem- blable dessein contre lui pendant son absence, l'assas- sinerent a son retour, et demeurerent les maitres du tresor. Apres l'avoir tue ils mangerent de la viande empoisonnee et moururent aussi tous deux. Un "philosophe passant par cet endroit-la, dit, voila, quel est le monde ! Voyez de quelle maniere il a traite ces trois personnes. Malheur a celui qui lui demande des richesses. f2 68 CONVERSATION. In addition to the words already introduced under this head, we shall in the present colloquial exercise make use of the following new ones. Mesdemoiselles, young ladies, pronounced mtd-ma~zel. Y there, „ e (of it, or of them,') En < about it or about I „ eng [ them, J On one „ ong From the translation we have already given in the text, of the word dit, the learner will be aware that on dit is word for word one sags, but in translating a sentence he should not rest satisfied with a mere literal translation of the words, he should see whether some other English expression will not bring out the sense of the context with greater clearness. The sentence 011 dit is very much used in French, and the literal translation one says is scarcely English ; some other kind of phraseology must therefore be employed in English in cases where on dit is employed in French, ami it is the business of the learner to find these out. The other words of the phrase will generally suggest how on dit should be translated. The expressions thrg sag, people sag, it is said, will be frequently found the actual English equivalents for on dit. In the same way the learner will be aware that the phrase on avait apporte de la viande, is word for word one hud brought of the meat, but a moderate exertion of intelligence will suggest " some meat had been brought," M the English translation of this phrase. When the words of a sentence are known, the learner should exercise his ingenuity in supplying the English for the French construction; by this means facility and accuracy in translation will eventually be acquired. We shall introduce abundantly tin- pronoun on in the following colloquy, in order to familiarise the learner with the use of the word, and habituate him to rely upon his own judgment in making English of an expression wherein it occurs. CONVERSATION. 69 The foregoing remarks are also applicable to the pronoun y, there ; and to en, of them, or, of it ; both of which are of very common occurrence in French. The word en has already appeared in the text, but in that case it is equivalent to the English word in. En has two perfectly distinct significations ; in one case it is a form of the Latin preposition in, and in the other is a contraction of the Latin word inde : in the first case it is equivalent to the English preposition in, and in the second it is a pronoun, and will have to be rendered by one or other of the expressions we have pointed out. The intelligent learner will always be able to judge by the words of the context whether en is a preposition or a pronoun, and it will be necessary for him to pay attention to this distinction in translating the word. We have said that y is equivalent to the English word there. The y is used exactly as the word there, in all cases where there indicates a place, with this difference, that y is always placed before a verb, whereas there is usually placed after one. Besides the common use of the y, in such phrases as il y etait, he was there, an idiomatic use is made of the word, that requires to be noticed here. The French, to signify what is meant in English by the expression there was, say, it there had, il y avait ; and in asking such a question as, was there so and so ? say there had it so and so ? y avait-il so and so ? This idiomatic construction will have to be borne in mind in going over the following exercise. The words, y, en, and on, being much employed in French, it is necessary that their use and value be well understood. We have introduced them abundantly in our present colloquial exercise,' because the subject of conversation being known, and all the other words, the learner will very easily find out the meaning of these three, and thus he will be able to detect for himself the principle that determines their use. A careful observation of the application we shall make of the en's, y's, and orc's, will greatly facilitate the learner in reading a French author, and will pave the way to a clear perception of the genius of the language. 70 CONVERSATION. Dit-on que les trois voyageurs moururent a Paris ? Dit-on qu'ils assassinerent un philosophe ? Dit-on qu'ils avaient empoi- sonne leur camarade? Les voyageurs mangerent-ils de la viande empoison- nee? Enf moururent-ils? Qu'en dit un philosophe? . . Que trouverent les trois voya- geurs dans le chemin ? Qu'en dit Fun d'eux? . . . Combien des voyageurs y avait-il en chemin ? Y avait-il d'autres personnes ? Y avait-il un tresor dans 1c chemin ? Y avait-il de quoi manger dans Le chemin? Y avait-il de la viande dans ce qu'en avait apport£? Dans quoi y avait-il du poison? De quoi mangercnt les voya- geurs? Y avait-il du poison dans ce qu'ils avaient mange' ? On dit-on qu'ils demean rent ? Y trouvtrent-ils de quoi man- ger? Y trouverent-ils un camarade ? Qu'y trouvcrent-ils .... Non, Mesdemoiselles,* on dit q'ils moururent dans le chemin. Non, Mesdemoiselles, mais on dit qu'ils assassinerent leur camarade. Non, Mesdemoiselles. Oui, ils en mangerent. Oui, ils en moururent. II dit, voila comment le monde a traite ces personnes Ils y trouverent un tresor. II dit, il faut que j'en jouisse seul. Trois. II y avait aussi un philosophe. Oui, il y en avait un. Non, mais on en avait apportc. Oui, il yen avait. II y en avait dans la viande qu'un de voyageurs avait apportee pour manger. Ils mangerent de la viande. Oui, il y en avait. On dit qu'ils demeurerent dans le chemin. Non, Mesdemoiselles. Non, Mesdemoiselles. Ils y trouverent un tresor. • In addressing young ladies the compliment MeademoMlM is thraya employed in French. f It will be observed that rri will be lure better translated by in const- quence }f thai, than by its simple equivalent of it. CONVERSATION. 71 Qu'y dirent-ils ? Qui y assassinerent-ils ? . . Qu'y mangerent-ils ? . . . Dit-on qu'ils y moururent? . Dit-on qu'ils moururent de faim? Qu'avaient les trois voyageurs en chemin? Qu'en dirent-ils? . . S'en detacha-t-il un dans cette intention? Alla-t-il acheter de la viande? Dit-on qu'il avait apporte de la viande ? Avait-il du poison ? Mit-il du poison dans la vi- ande? Pourquoi? Combien de camarades avait- il? Avait-on empoisonne les trois voyageurs? Avait-on un tremor? . . . Alla-t-on acheter de quoi man- ger? Alla-t-on acheter de la viande? Alla-t-on manger un philo- sophe? Alla-t-on a Paris? .... Dit-on que les trois voyageurs demeurerent a, Paris? Dit-on que les trois voyageurs mangerent un philosophe? lis dirent: nous avons faim, qu'un de nous aille ache- ter de quoi manger. lis y assassinerent un de leurs camarades. lis y mangerent de la viande. Oui, on dit cela. Non, il y en eut un de tue et les deux autres mouru- rent en mangeant de la viande empoisonnee. lis avaient faim. lis dirent, qu'un de nous aille acheter de quoi manger. Oui, un d'eux se detacha. Oui, il alia en acheter. Oui, on dit qu'il en avait apportee. Oui, il en avait. Oui, il en mit. Afin que ses camarades mou- russent en la mangeant. II en avait deux. Non, Mesdemoiselles, Oui Mesdemoiselles, les trois voyageurs en trouverent un dans le chemin. Oui, on y* alia. Oui, on y alia. Mais non, Mesdemoiselles. Non, Mesdemoiselles. Non, Mesdemoiselles. Mais non, Mesdemoiselles. * It will be observed that y here has rather the significati on of for that purpose, than its primitive signification there. 72 CONVERSATION. Que dit-on qu'ils mangerent? On dit que les voyageurs mangerent de la viande. Dit-on que le philosophe avait Non, mais on dit qu'un de mis du poison dans la leurs camarades l'avait viande? empoisonnee. Avait-on faim? Oui, les trois voyageurs avaient faim. quoi Avait-on apporte de manger? Avait-on assassine un voya- geur? Avait-on tue~ un philosophe? . Comment le monde a-t-il traite les trois voyageurs? Qu'en dit un philosophe? . . En quel endroit dit-il ccla ? . Executa-t-on an dessein? Quel dcssein exccuta-t-il? Comment l'exccuta-t-il? . . l!n mangea-t-il lui-mcme? . Pendant son absence <>u de- meurerent les deux autrcs? Qoand il appOfta la viande empoisonnee qni en mangea? En moururent-ils ? . . . . Les trois voyageurs mount i en t- ils tons ? Ou moururent les trois voya- geurs ? Oui, le voyageur qui se de- tacha en avait apporte. Oui,lesdeuxvoyageursavaient assassine un de leurs camarades. Non, Mesdemoiselles. De maniere qu'ils moururent tous les trois. II en dit, voila, quel est le monde ! voyez de quelle maniere il a traite ces trois personnes. Mal- heur a celui qui lui demande des richesses. Dans I'endroit ou moururent les trois voyageurs. Oui, le voyageur avait execute* son dessein. Le dessein d'assassiner ses camarades. II acfaeta de la viande etymit du poison. Non, il apporta le tout a Kt camarades. Ils demcurerent en chcmin. Ses deux camarades. Oui, ils moururcntapresl'avoir mangle. Oui] ils moururent tons. Dans I'endroit ou ils trou- verent \o tresor. 73 CONSTRUCTION. XX. Trois voyageurs trouverent Three travellers found a un tresor. treasure. lis dirent They said. lis meurent They may die. lis l'assassinerewf . . . They assassinated him. lis demeurererc* .... They remained lis mangerewf They ate. lis moururent They died. It will be observed that these verbs are all of the third person plural, that they all end in ent; and if the learner has been attending to the pronunciation, he will be aware that this ent is not pronounced in any of them. If we inquire whence comes this ent, and wherefore it is not pronounced, we must go back a century or two in the history of the language in order to find the cause. In the Latin language, of which French is nothing more than a barbarous dialect, the third person plural of all tenses of verbs end in ent, or nt preceded by some other vowel: this ent in Latin is equivalent to the English pronoun they, and to the French Us. The Franks, when they got possession of Gaul, preferred expressing themselves when speaking in the third person, by a pronoun, and as they do not appear to have paid the smallest respect to Latin grammar dropped the ent altogether, having found that they could make themselves perfectly well understood without it. The Latin termination however continued to exist in the written language even although its equivalent Us had been introduced, and thus a solecism was created, and exists in the language. It may be some consolation for an Englishman to know, that whilst his own language is yet in a state demi-savage, there are also barbarisms in languages that boast a higher degree of civilization. The French cannot, any more than the English, declare itself an independent language, it is still a "motley clown," one half belonging to the transalpine con- querors of Gaul, and the other half to the Goths and Vandals 74 CONSTRUCTION. from beyond the Rhine. From the one it has got its personal endings, and from the other the habit of using subsidiary words; in continuing to use both in defiance of logic and grammatical analogy, the French only perpetuate a monument of their double subserviency. The learner must bear in mind that though ent is written at the end of all the third persons plural of verbs, it is never pronounced. XXI. FORMATION OF A NEGATION. The English negative particle not is rendered in French by the two words ne and pas, the ne being placed before the word negatived, and the pas after it; in this way the affirmative, ils trouverent un tresor, they found a treasure, forms the negative, ils ne trouverent pas de tresor, they did not Jind a treasure; and so in the case of all other negatives. When ne comes before a word beginning with a vowel, the t is elided, as from the affirmative e'est, it is, is formed the negative Ce n'est pas it is not. Id asking a question with a negative, the ne is then placed hi fore the simple interrogation itself, and the pas at the end of it; as from the interrogation est-ce? is it? is formed the negative interrogation N'est-ce pas? is it not? We may here observe that this particular interrogation, this a'est-ce pas (pronounced iics-jh/), is very often used in asking questions. It is of universal application, and on being put to the end of any affirmative forms an interrogative. The following examples will shew the use and application of n'est-ce pas: Vooj avez le tresor 7i'est-ce You have the treasure, have patf you not? Nous avons faim, n'est-ce pas% We are hungry, arc ire not? Ils mangerent leur camarade. They ate their companion, t/irf n'est-ce pus? they not? II alia a Paris, n'est-ce j»as? . He went to Paris, did he not? CONSTRUCTION. 75 We shall introduce a series of negatives under the head Composition, for the practice of the learner in their construc- tion. XXII. lis demeurerent les maitres They remained masters of the du trcsor. treasure. In English the use of the definite article the is subject to greater exactitude than in French; the is only used in English when some special object or objects are alluded to; but in French, as may be observed by the phrase before us, the defi- nite article is used even although no definition is signified. "When the two travellers killed their companion they remained masters of the treasure;" there is certainly no necessity for saying here, "they remained the masters of the treasure." In French however an article of some kind or other is used before almost every noun ; this appears to be done in order more to point out its gender than to serve any other purpose. We have already said (§ ix.) that nouns sometimes have a different meaning when they have the feminine article la before them, than when they are distinguished by the masculine article; hence the article is used in French in many instances where it is totally unnecessary as an instrument of definition, and consequently would not be employed in English. In most of the French grammars we have seen, a large portion is taken up explaining the use of the article in French, in which the authors generally contrive to embarrass themselves, and create a complication of difficulties where there is absolutely nothing but the utmost simplicity, the article being used in French on all occasions that it possibly can be used. We have seen a large octavo volume written on this one subject, and we think the author merits the pillory for his pains; not only because he has thereby confounded and misled all his brother grammarians, but because he has led people who have no means of knowing better, to suppose that there is a difficulty where none exists, and so to waste, in hunting after a shadow, the time that might be profitably employed. 70 PRONUNCIATION, There are in French, as in English, the five vowels — a, e, i, o, u. Of these we have already given (page 29, lesson second) the pronunciation of the u; and page 45, lesson third, that of the e. The other three are pronounced in French as follows: a is pronounced like a in the English word part. i „ ee „ seen. o „ o „ stone. Besides these, there is the letter y, usually considered in both languages to be a vowel. Y is pronounced in French exactly like the t, that is, like ee in the English word seen; but when y occurs between two vowels, it then becomes equivalent to two ?'s ; for example, the word voyageurs is pronounced as if written vuiiageurs ; the first of the i's in conjunction with the o forms the diphthong oi, pronounced as we have said wa, and the second i having its own sound makes up the pronunciation (ira-cr-a-s/tair) we have given of the word in the text. Each of the English vowels has two or three sounds, some of which are enjoyed in common by all the five, but no such confusion exists in the French language. Each of the French vowels has the one particular sound we have assigned to it, which must always be given to it in order that the word in which it occurs may be intelligibly pronounced. Nothing therefore can be more easily attained than a correct pronunciation of the French vowels, and yet we know that it is frequently a long time before the learner accomplishes this part of his task. We have said that the letter a ha9 the sound of a in the English word part, but this is not the most com- mon English sound of that vowel. An Englishman, when he meets with an a in a word whose pronunciation he is unac- quainted with, will naturally give it the sound of a in made. The French a never has, under any circumstances, such a sound; and if this sound be given to the a, the meaning of the PRONUNCIATION. 77 word in which it is so pronounced will be totally obscured. These remarks are applicable to the other vowels. The natural predilections of the learner will lead him to pronounce them all inaccurately, he must therefore endeavour to associate the French vowels with their French sounds. To effect this, he should again go over the words of the text, and pronounce all the a's that do not form a part of one or other of the five diphthongs, like a in the English words part, start, dart; all the i's like ee in the English words seen, been,: green; all the o's like o in stone, gone, bone. This exercise will serve to impress on the memory a fixed notion of the sounds peculiar to the French vowels, that will be of the greatest use to him in his future intercourse with the language. CONSONANTS. Singles. With the following five exceptions, and the nasal sound given to the m and n already spoken of, the consonants are pronounced in French precisely as they are in English. 1st. The letter g in French before i, e, and y, is pronounced like the z in azure, as voyageur, pronounced voyazhair. The letter j is always so pronounced, as jour, day, pronounced zhoor. The learner is requested to pay attention to these sounds of the j and g, as these letters are pronounced in English in a very different manner. 2nd. When s or x occur between two vowels, they are pronounced in French like z in the English word zone, as empoisotmer, to poison, pronounced empoizonne. 3rd. The letter t before i is generally pronounced like s, as in the word intention, pronounced in-ten-see-on. 4th. The letter r has always the vibrating sound er-r-r of the English word term. 5th. The letters gu are pronounced like g in the English word get, as in the word guerre, war, pronounced ger, giving the g the hard sound. And in the same way qu are pronounced like k, as in the word qui, who, pronounced kee; quel, what, pronounced kel; question, pronounced kes-tee-on, etc. 78 PRONUNCIATION. These five observations should be read over two or three times, so that they may be well fixed on the memory, as they are essential to a correct pronunciation. The most marked feature in the pronunciation of French is, that a consonant at the end of a word is silent. No final consonants are pronounced except r, which is also silent at the end of manger, to eat, pronounced mange; tuer, to kill, pro- nounced tue, and other infinitives of the first conjugation. This peculiarity presents little difficulty, the learner has only to cut off the concluding consonant of each word before pronouncing it; thus he will pronounce trois, triva, voyageurs, wa-ee-a-geur, and so with all other words ending in a conso- nant.* When, however, there is a close connexion between two words, such as exists between a verb and its pronoun, one of which ends in a consonant and the other begins with a vowel, the final consonant is then pronounced with the vowel that follows it; as, Nous avons pronounced noo-zavo/t. Faut-il „ fo-teel. Son absence „ so- nab-sens. We have already remarked, under the head Const ruction, § xx., that nit of the third persons plural of verbs is also silent; the / when followed by a vowel is however enunciated, as mangbrent-iUf pronounced manger-teel. This will be better understood by referring to Construction, § 71. Dollhh'S. Besides the sounds represented by the single consonants, there are two others Uied in French, represented by double Consonants, these are the liquid u(j and the / mouille. When u r between two vowels, these letters arc pronounced like mj in English ! :i-. La campagne pronounced la cam-pan-ye. Boulogne ,, Boo-lon-ye. enunciating the ye very slightly. When two //'s occur after i, • There ure a few words of which tin- final consonant is pronounced : these tin- student will become acquainted witli as lie progresses in the language. COMPOSITION. 79 followed by another vowel, they are pronounced like y, as in the wordjille, girl, pronouncedyee-ye. In conclusion, we may add, that if the learner has followed up attentively what we have said in this and the four preceding lessons, he is now capable, so far as the pronunciation is concerned, of reading French. There are here and there exceptions to the rules we have laid down, but these will become known to the learner as he proceeds. Once familiar with the broad principles and leading features of the pronunciation of a language, and the minute detail will be no obstacle; the learner's own observation and judgment will tell him when a rule may be judiciously departed from. COMPOSITION. The traveller is not at Paris. Is he not in France? No, he is not in France. Where is the treasure? Is it not on the road? No, it is not there. The philosopher is not rich. Has he not the treasure? No, he has not the treasure. The masters of the treasure had nothing to eat. Had they no meat? No, they had none. You have (vous avez). You have eaten your com- panion, have you not? You have killed a philosopher, have you not? You have the treasure, have you not? You are hungry, are you not? You have wherewithal to eat, have you not? Have you nothing to eat? Are you not hungry? Have you not the treasure ? Have you not the meat ? The travellers did not find a treasure. They did not eat their com- panion. They did not poison any other traveller. They did not bring anything , to eat. They did not go to Paris. They did not pass into France. The did not live on the road. They did not buy any meat. They did not kill any philo- sopher. They did not assassinate any one. They did not seek riches. They did not execute their intention. They did not separate them- selves. They did not die. They did not conceive a de- sign. They did not say we are hungry. They did not enjoy the trea- sure. They did not put any poison in the meat. They did not make any repast eo COMPOSITION. They did not see any philo- sopher. The traveller did not find a treasure. He did not eat his companion. He did not poison any other traveller. He did not bring anything to eat. He did not go to Paris. He did not go into France. He did not remain on the road. He did not buy any meat. He did not kill a philosopher. He did not assassinate any- body. He did not seek for riches. He did not execute his inten- tion. He did not separate himself from his companions. He did not die. He did not conceive a design. He did not say that a philo- sopher is an evil. He did not put any poison in the meat. He did not enjoy the treasure. He did not see any other traveller. He did not make a repast. No one found a treasure on the road. No one brought any meat there. No one ate any. No one bought any No one lived on the' road. No one killed a philosopher there. No one assassinated a traveller there. No one executed an intention there. Were the three travellers not eaten ? No, they were not eaten. They are dead (ils sont morts), are they not? Yes, they are dead. That is a pity, is it not? Yes, it is a pity. Are all the three travellers dead? Yes, they are all dead. Good-bye (adieu) to the three travellers. THE FRENCH LANGUAGE. LESSON SIXTH. READING. REPETITION. Le voyageur n'est pas a Paris. Est-ce qu'il n'est pas en France? Non, il n'est pas en France. Ou est le tresor? N'est-ce pas dans le chemin? Non, ce n'est pas la. Le philosophe n'a pas de richesses. N'a-t-il pas le tresor? Non, il n'a pas le tresor. Les maitres du tresor n'avaient pas de quoi manger. N'avaient-ils pas de viande? Non, ils n'en avaient pas. Vous avez. Vous avez mange votre camarade, n'est-ce pas? Vous avez tue un philosophe, n'est-ce pas? Vous avez le tresor, n'est-ce pas? Vous avez faim, n'est-ce pas? Vous avez de quoi manger, n'est- ce pas? N'avez-vous pas de quoi manger? N'avez- vous pas faim? N'avez-vous pas le tresor? N'avez- vous pas de viande? Les voyageurs ne trouverent pas un tresor. Ils ne mangerent pas leur camarade. Ils n'empoisonnerent pas d'autre voyageur. Ils n'apporterent pas de quoi manger. Ils n'allerent pas a Paris. Ils ne passerent pas en France. Ils ne demeurerent pas dans le chemin. Ils n'acheterent pas de viande. Ils ne tuerent pas de philosophe. Ils n'assassinerent personne. lis ne demanderenr, 82 READING. pas de richesses. Us n'executerent pas leur intention. Jls ne se detacherent pas les uns des autres. lis ne moururent pas. lis ne concurent pas un dessein. lis ne dirent pas nous avons faim. lis ne jouirent pas du tresor. lis ne mirent pas de poison dans la viande. lis ne firent pas de repas. lis ne virent pas de philosophe. Le voyageur ne trouva pas un tresor. II ne mangea pas son camarade. II n'empoisonna pas d'autre voyageur. II n'apporta pas de quoi manger. II n'alla pas a. Paris. II ne passa pas en France. II ne demeura pas dans le chemin. II n'acheta pas de viande. II ne tua pas un philosophe. II n'assassina personne. 1\ ne demanda pas de richesses, II n'executa pas son intention. II ne se detacha pas de ses camarades. II ne mourut pas. II ne concut pas un dessein. II ne dit pas qu'un philosophe est un mallieur. II ne mit pas de poison dans la viande. II ne jouit pas du tresor. II ne vit pas d'autre voyageur. II ne fit pas de repas. On n'a pas trouve un tresor dans le chemin. On n'y a pas apporte de viande. On n'en a pas mange. On n'en a pas achete. On n'est pas demeure dans le chemin. On n'y a pas tue de philosophe. On n'y a pas assassine de voyageur. On n'y a pas execute de dessein. Est ce qu'on n'a pas mange les trois voya- geurs? Non, on ne les a pas mange. lis sont morts, n'est-ce pas? Oui, ils sont morts. C'est un mainour, n'est-ce pas? Oui, c'est un malheur. Est ce que tous les voyageurs sont morts? Oui, ils sont morts tous. Adieu, aux trois voyageurs. 8.'3 READING. IDIOMS. An acquaintance with a few of the common-place phrases of every-day use will be found of considerable utility to the student of a modern language. These phrases, in general, involve the most idiomatic constructions of the language, and may aid the learner in comprehending other expressions of a similar nature, but of less frequent occurrence. Besides, if the learner has any intercourse at all with persons who speak the language, he will hear these phrases so often repeated that they cannot fail of becoming familiar to his ear, and so he will ulti- mately arrive at understanding a part at least of what is said. To charge the mind, however, with a multitude of these phrases would not be advisable ; a single phrase, if properly handled, might be turned to as much account as a whole book of "Dialogues." Suppose, for example, the learner to put in French, to a native of France, the question " What do you call tkis in French," he might by this means elicit the whole voca- bulary of the language, and carry on a colloquy of as much practical utility as a more extended conversation. Again, supposing the learner on the other side of the Channel, the phrase " Which is the way to " would elicit an indefinite variety of reply that would be readily understood by the querist. The learner might in this manner get familiarised with the realities of the language, even whilst his knowledge of it were limited to the two phrases we have been speaking of. All the benefit that a beginner could possibly derive from a teacher is an early induction to the practice of a language, but how few teachers of French possess the art of making them- selves understood to their junior pupils in French ! Their lessons for the most part consist in illogical explanations, and commonly in so very bad English as to excite laughter — how the ear of the student can be familiarised with the French lan- guage by such means we cannot possibly conceive. We shall give for the present reading exercise a series of such familiar every-day expressions as we may consider most likely to be of g2 84 INTRODUCTORY PHRASES. practical utility. Of these, we shall give the English equi- valents, together with the value of each individual word. There is no necessity for us giving the pronunciation of these phrases, as the learner who has carefully attended to our remarks in the preceding lessons, can now pronounce French perfectly well. We shall, however, point out any peculiarity in the pronunciation of the words that is not in accordance with the principles we have laid down. INTRODUCTORY PHRASES. Parlez*-vous Francais? . . Do you speak French? Un peu A little. Jecomprendsle Francais, mais I understood French, but do je ne le parle pas. not speak it. Vous£te8t Francais, je pense, You are a Frenchmen, I sup- Monsieur ? pose, Sir? Oui Monsieur, je le suis . . Yes Sir, I am. Combien de temps$ fites-vous How long have you been in reste en Angleterre?| England? Aimez-vom beauooup Lon- How do you like London ? 1 inal, tin' unaccented not being pro- pounced; ites is pronounced as if written it. I When the litters j\ not speak French. Je suis Anglais I am an Englishman. Vive la reins God save the Queen. • The French like the English, have a natural abhorrence to aspirates and gutturals; for this reason, marly all the h'a in the language are silent, con- sequently when an // is followed by a vowel, the word is considered to begin a vowel, and the rule we have given (§ n.)> relative to elision of certain letters before words beginning with a vowel, is applicable to them also. There are however some words in the language, such as honi, of which the A is aspirated : these are usually written in italics in the Dictionaries, and should be committed to memory by the learner. t The e mute is inserted after the g in this word, to shew that the g is soft, just as an e is sometime! inserted after the g in the English word acknowledgement, for the same purpose. 87 TRANSLATION. The following is a literal translation of the phrases, giving the exact English equivalent for each French word contained in them. INTRODUCTORY PHRASES. Parlez-vous Francais? Un peu. Je comprends le Speak you French ? A little. I understand the Frangais, mais je ne le parle pas. Vous etes Francais, French, but I it speak not. You are French, je pense, Monsieur? Oui, Monsieur, je le suis. I think, Sir? Yes, Sir, I it am. Combien de temps £tes-vous reste en Angleterre? How much of time are you rested in England? Aimez-vous beaucoup Londres ? Vous m'obligeriez, si Love you much London ? You me would oblige, if vous me parliez Francais. Je vous comprends you to me speak French. I you understand parfaitement bien. Excusez-moi. Je n'ai pas compris perfectly well. Excuse me. I have not understood ce que vous m'avez dit. Seriez-vous assez bon pour what you to me have said. Would be you enough good for repeter ce que vous avez dit? Fumez-vous? Voulez- to repeat what you have said ? Smoke you ? Will (have) vous un cigare ? Avec plaisir. Merci. you a cigar? with pleasure. Thanks. RECOGNITORY. Bon jour, Monsieur. Comment vous portez-vous? Good day, Sir. How yourself carry you? Assez bien, et vous ? Je suis charme de vous voir. Enough well, and you? 1 am charmed of you to see II fait une superbe matinee. II fait vraiment It makes (is) a superb morning. It makes (is) truly chaud. II fait beau depuis quelques jours. C'est warm. It makes fine for some days. That is TRANSLATION. vrai. Y a-t-il quelque chose de nouveau? Rien, true. There has it (is there) any thing of new ? Nothing que je sache. Quand viendrez-vous me voir? Un that I know. When will come you me to see ? One de ces jours. Messieurs, je vous souhaite le bon of these days. Gentlemen, I you wish the good soir. Adieu, Messieurs, evening. Adieu, Gentlemen. GENERAL. est-i is it i vrai A peu Almost Je le pense. I it think. Quelle heure What hour Est-ce bien Is that well (von) true J'ai tort. Vous avez raison. I have (am) wronp. You have right aye/ la bonte de me dire. the goodness of en Francois? in French .' bite hi ;i>t. gs li nit heures. eight ' hours. Je suis occupe. I am husy. Monsieur, Sir, have eel a thai je suis I am to mo to tell J' y i Ccla Thai there est Le croyez-vous ? It believe you .' Oui, SUIS. am. bon. good. le crois. it believe, Precise in ent. Exactly. Comment appele/.-vous How call you Quelle betise. nonsense ne What Je I Que What sais know pas. not. i \i.l ISH GALLICISMS, A la Francaise. Iloni soit qui To (after) the French. Ashamed be (he) who Diett et mon droit. Cuisine luuirgeoise God ami my right. Cookery mal y pense.* evil there thinks. Table bourgeoise.f Table d'hote a cinq henres. An bon gourmet. Dejeuners of guest at live hours. To the (go) good cater. Breakfasts • Fidt Order of the Garter. t This is one of the words that it is difficult to find an exact equivalent tor in English — its meaning, in the phrase befon us, however, is evident enough; it clearly indicates that the cookery ill question has all the exuber- ant. , without the refinement, of res in wbe. TRANSLATION. a la fourchette to (with) the fork. Francais. French. Fete-champetre. Holiday field. Ici on parle Here one speaks LOCAL. Madame Madam, salutations. salutations. j'ai 1'bonneur I have the honour de vous presenter mes of to you to present my Monsieur, veuillez recevoir les miennes. to receive the mine. Sir, will Est-ce la le chemin de Paris? Voulez-vous m'indiquer Is that there the road of Paris? Will you tome indicate la rue St. Honore? Combien la douzaine? Un franc.* the street St. Honor6? How much the dozen? A franc. lis sont chers. Voulez-vouz me donner la monnaie They are dear. Will you to me to give the change de cinq francs? Que voulez-vous? Comprenez-vous of five francs? What will you? Understand you 1' Anglais? Je ne parle pas Francais. Je suis Anglais, the English ? I speak not French. I am English. Vive la reine. Garcon du cafe. Quels vins Live the queen. Waiter of the (some) coffee. What wines avez-vous? Apportez-moi une bouteille de Macon.f Un have you? Bring me a hottle of Macon. A petit verre de Cognac. Servez-moi des cotelettes de little glass of brandy. Bring me of the ribs of mouton. Donnez-moi une omelette.^ Monsieur, voulez- sheep. Give me an omelette. Sir, will vous me passer le pain, s'il vous plait, you to me pass the bread, if it to you pleases. * A franc is a current silver coin equivalent to 20 sous. f Macon is a wine similar in flavour to Burgundy, and is a vin ordinaire very commonly used in the restaurants and cafes of Paris. In price it varies from 7\d. to 15c?. a bottle. % Une omelette will generally be found the most satisfactory dish that can be had at a road-side auberge in France. 90 PRONUNCIATION. SUMMARY. Under this head, in the five preceding lessons, we have comprised all the leading principles of the pronunciation of the French language. In summing up our observations on this subject, we have to remark that there is an order to be followed in the pronunciation of the letters making up a word, that requires attention. In pronouncing a word it is usual to begin at the first letter, and to go on spelling the others in succession to the end; this process must, however, be slightly departed from in pronouncing the French words. We have said that there are certain combinations of letters used to represent single sounds, it follows therefore that the single letters composing these combinations must not be enunciated individually. Again, of these combinations the nasal sound takes the precedence in pronunciation of all others; for example, we have said that ai is pronounced like ai in the word paid, according to that rule the at of the word faun should be so pronounced; but this is not the ease, the im is of necessity nasal, and when the nasal syllable is deducted from the word /aim, the diphthong ai no longer exists, the syllable fa only remains, and the fa blending with the nasal im makes the pronunciation fin we have given of the word faim in the text. The nasal syllable must always in the same way go for its full value in a word, and it is only after the nasal syllable has been allowed its rights, that the other letter! can claim theirs. We may here remind the learner, that m and ■ are pronounced exactly as in Bnglish, when followed by another Bl or 71, or a vowel, as in the words, honneur, honour, fumer, to tmoke; but under all other circumstances these letters combine with the vowel that precedes, and form the nasal syllable. When more than one vowel occur in a syllable, the learner must see that they do not involve one or other of the five diph- thongs, before pronouncing them singly: in the word beaux, fine, for example, we have the diphthong an, which is pronounced ft, PRONUNCIATION. 91 then the consonant x being final, and the e unaccented, the pronunciation of this word is in consequence simply bo. In conclusion, we have to say that, if the learner has followed up our instructions attentively, he is capable of pronouncing French correctly; he will be more or less accurate, according to the degree of stability the different points illustrated have obtained upon his memory. The first of the series of phrases given as a reading exercise in the present lesson, is " Parlez- vous Francais?" — if our observations are fresh upon his memory the learner will know that p is one of the consonants pronounced in French as in English, that a has always the sound of a in the English word part, that r has always its vibrating sound, that / is another of the consonants pronounced as in English, that z being final is silent, and that in consequence the e mute preceding it is pronounced e; that v is pronounced as in English, that ou is one of the five diphthongs, that s being final and not followed by another word beginning with a vowel, is silent; that^}- are pronounced as in English, that an is one of the five nasals, that c with a cedilla is pronounced like s, that ai is one of the five diphthongs, and finally, that s, being final, is silent. Our observations providing for all the exigencies of pronunciation, with a very few uninimportant exceptions, the learner may in this way analyse all the words of the language, and by this process he will acquire more speedily, a much more accurate and an infinitely more permanent notion of the French pronunciation, than he could possibly obtain from a teacher. Any one wishing to have the French Alphabet, may construct one for himself, by taking an English A. B. C, striking out the w, and naming the letters all, bay, say, instead of ai, bee, see. This however can serve no useful purpose ; some advantage might be derived from constructing a table of the sounds, arranged in the order we have pointed out. This table should begin with the five nasals, as being the first sounds in order of importance in pronunciation, and should conclude with the observations we have given in the notes to the text of the present lesson. 92 HOW THE LEARNER SHOULD PROCEED. We have now given some general views of the construction of the French language. We have shewn how words being known, they may be made use of in practice. We have shewn how questions are put, and answered. We have explained the manner of expressing a negative, and we have exhibited the chief idiomatic difficulties of the language. We have also given such a view of the pronunciation, as will serve the learner for every practical purpose. He must now follow up our instructions by a diligent and careful course of reading; we would suggest for this purpose Gil Bias, which is by far the best author for the beginner's perusal, both as regards the style and the diction. Before however he can read this, he will require to make himself acquainted with the desinences of the French verb. We are sorry that the limits we have prescribed for our present course of lessons will not admit of our giving a satisfactory analysis of the verb. The learner must therefore in this matter have recourse to one or other of the common Grammars. He must make himself familiar with what are called the four regular conjugations, to one or other oi which series of formula most of the verbs in the language ■ ire subject lie must then write twice over, in full, all the verbs that are not in accordance with either of these conjuga- tions. This done, with the aid of a good Dictionary, The learner will fu.d little difficulty in translating Gil Bias. He will very soon he aUe to dispense with the dictionary, and on arriving at this point his task will be well nigh accomplished; once able to read a French author, a month or two in France will do the rest We have spoken of nearly all the difficulties the self-instructor has to encounter, none "of them are of so formidable a character that a little intelligence will not suffice to overcome. We a that a little perseverance, I in the manner pointed out, will put tin- learner who ■ ntivcly gone over on n (>{ - ., mm? accurate knowledge of the li • attained by persons who bm it by means of oral instruction. Printed by Manning »nd M««,„, It, , „ (i|C _ ROBERTSONIAN METHOD. COURSE OF LESSONS SPANISH LANGUAGE, INTENDED TO ENABLE PERSONS TO ACQUIRE THE LANGUAGE WITHOUT ORAL INSTRUCTION. BY A. H. MONTEITH, ESQ., HON. MEMB. OF THE V. Ii. C. THIRD EDITION. L OND ON: SAMUEL GILBERT, 51 & 52, PATERNOSTER-ROW ; AND SOLD BY JOHN FIELD, 65, REGENT'S QUADRANT. MDCCCXLIV. PAISLRY : mnrrra bv nmuon and murra* PREFACE. The object of the present Series of Lessons being to enable persons who may not have the aid of a master, to acquire some notions of the Spanish language ; the treatise will be of a perfectly elementary character, and will embrace only such features as are essential to an exact comprehension of the structure and genius of the language . The author, notwithstanding the popular dogma, that it is impos- sible to acquire a modern tongue without the aid of a master, hopes to enable the diligent student to become acquainted with the language of Castile without the aid of any kind of oral instruction whatever ; nay, he is satisfied that the learner who has assiduously gone through the exercises of the first lesson of the present series, will know more about the language than many who have been under a master for upwards of twelve months. The plan pursued in the construction and arrangement of these exercises, is that of Mr. Robertson of Paris. The principle of this method is to introduce the learner to a general view of a language before he is led to a consideration of its minutiae — to teach a few words at a time, but so to fix them upon the understanding that they may be always at command, and ready for use when wanted. Whilst the author adopts the method of Mr. Robertson as his model, he will introduce any new feature his own experience may suggest as likely to facilitate the learner in acquiring the language. Each lesson will consist of an extract from some Spanish writer, each word of which will be fully explained, both as it regards its pronunciation and etymology, and the entire passage will be sub- jected to a thorough analysis, and made to exhibit the structure and genius of the language. By these means a little will be taught at once, but that little well, which will be found in the end to be the mode of procedure most profitable for the student. To those who have studied a modern language by the usual routine, the plan of our method is especially submitted : they have experienced the ennui of the continued series of declension and con- jugation dictated by onr common elementary books ; they know the futility of acquiring a thousand and one minute rules, before thero is any material to apply them to, and consequently are qualified to appreciate an effort to furnish the learner with a treatise free from such anomalies. The author expects to comprise within the limits of four lessons, such notions of the structure and pronunciation of the language as will enable the student to read, write, and speak Castilian, to a limited extent perhaps, but to that extent, correctly, —proposing, should the plan of his method be favourably received, to extend at some future period the number of lessons, until they embrace the language in its entire detail. l.i, London Wall, October, 1841. ROTICE TO THE THIRD EDITION. In accordance with the foregoing promise, some additional exercises have been appended in the present edition. These, without em- bracing the tntirc range of constructive formulae, will enable the learner to dispense with the grammar until he can read and under- stand the language. Januarft 1844. THE SPANISH LANGUAGE. LESSON FIRST. HEADING. Tres viajantes hallaron un tesoro en el camino, y dijeron : tenemos hambre, preciso es que uno de los tres vaya 6. comprar algo que comer; lo que se verific6 asi. El que salio con este intento dijo asimismo : voy a envenenar la carne, a fin de que mis compafieros mueran al comerla, y pueda yo disfrutar solo del tesoro. Ejecuto su proyecto, y puso veneno en lo que habia traido para comer. In order to read the above correctly, two things are requi- site : the first, to know the pronunciation of the words, and the second, to know their signification. To acquaint the stu- dent with the pronunciation, the passage will be repeated, and under each word will be placed such a combination of letters as may serve to represent its sound ; accents will be added, to point out where the stress of the voice should rest ; and where the combinations of letters given are inadequate to convey an idea of the true sound, a further explanation will be appended. Tres viajantes hallaron un tesoro en el camino y Trace vee-ac/i-an'-tys hal-ya'-ron oon tay-so'-ro en el cam-ee'-no, e dijeron : tenemos hambre, preciso es que uno de dee-c/ It is produced by breathing strongly, and making the air strike the roof of the mouth. We have represented the sound by (//, but the Student must be careful not to give the sound these letters have in the word arch or chorus to the Spanish j ; neither of these, of course, is the sound wc mean. Let him bear in mind the h in the word alcohol if lie is not acquainted with the still more exact sound in the Scottish words we have mentioned. The words in the lesson to which these remarks apply arc — viajantes dijo dijeron ejecuto Good speakers make no distinction between the sound of the I) and the v. The sound the Castilians give these letters is the English sound of the b, with a slight tinge of the v affixed. n is equivalent to gn, and has the liquid sound of these two letters in sign, consignee, ete. The manner however in which we have written the word compaheroa exhibits the pronuncia- tion of the gn sufficiently well. TRANSLATION 1 . The student being now acquainted with the pronunciation of the words, must next be taught their meaning. We shall again repeat the passage, and place under each Spanish word its exact equivalent in English. By the aid this translation affords him, the student must endeavour to read into English the passage itself. When he can do this without hesitation, he should make a translation of it into good English, and re- translate this version again into Spanish, comparing it when done with the original. This will be an exercise in compo- sition, as well as a means of impressing the construction of the passage more firmly on the mind. Tres viaj antes hallaron un tesoro en el camino; y Three travellers found a treasure in (on) the road; and dijeron : tenemos hambre, preciso es que (they) said : (we) have hunger, necessary (it) is that uno de los tres vaya a comprar algo que comer; one of the three may go to to buy something what to eat ; lo que se verifico asi. El the which itself verified thus (which was accordingly done). He que salio con este intento dijo asimismo : voy that went with this intention said to himself : (I) go a envenenar la carne, a fin de que (I am going) to to poison the meat, to end of that mis companeros mueran al comerla, y (in order that) my companions may die in the eating it, and pueda yo disfrutar solo del tesoro. Ejecuto su may I to enjoy alone of the treasure. (He) executed his proyecto, y puso veneno en lo que habia project, and (he) put poison in the what (he) had traido para comer, brought for to eat. VOCABULARY. In order that the student may ascertain whether he has acquired a proficiency in the words, we shall range them in two columns, the Spanish on one side and the English on the other ; so that either the one or other column being covered over, the student may submit himself to a special examination in this particular. This exercise should be persisted in until the meaning of each Spanish word is firmly impressed on the memory, and the English ones can be turned into Spanish with the utmost facility. Tres . viaj antes halluron un tesoro en . . el . . camino I. : ■ dijeron tenemoa liambrc preciso es . . que uno de . los vaya Three travellers found . treasure . in . the . road . and . said . have . hunger . necessary . is it is (that, what \ or which . one . of, from . the . may go . to comprar algo . comer lo . . se . . erificu asi el . . salio . con cste . intento dijo . asfmismo voy . envenena la . . came . The remaining words to be written out in the same manner . to buy fanything, \ something . to eat . the . itself f verified ^carried out . thus . he . went out . with . this . intention . said . to himself . I am going . to poison . the . meat. PHRASES. The student having made himself perfectly familiar with the words of the lesson, must next turn his attention to the manner in which they are arranged in sentences, and so mark the difference between the English and Spanish construction. He may proceed with the sentences in precisely the sune manner he did with the words. 9 Three travellers found a trea- Tres viajantes hallaron un sure. tesoro. Upon their way .... En el camino. And they said ..... Y dijeron. We are hungry Tenemos hambre. One of us must go . . . . Preciso es que uno de los tres vaya. To buy something to eat . . A comprar algo que comer. Which was done accoi*dingly. Lo que se verifico asi. He who went El que salio. In this intention .... Con este intento. Said to himself Dijo asimismo. I am going to poison the meat. Voy a envenenar la came. In order that my companions A fin de que mis compaiieros may die. mueran. On eating it Al comerla. And that I may enjoy the Y pueda yo disfrutar solo del treasure alone. tesoro. He executed his project . . Ejecuto su proyecto. And he put poison in what he Y puso veneno en lo que had brought to eat. habia traido para comer. CONVERSATION*. By the introduction of one or two new words, we shall be able to make our lesson the subject of a conversation to be carried on entirely in Spanish. This feature in our method, which is not presented by any other hitherto published, enables the student to converse in the language he is studying, even before he has terminated his first lesson. The following are the new words we shall introduce, together with their pronun- ciation and signification. <; Quien ? who ? used in asking questions relating to persons in the singular, pronounced kee-en'. (? Quienes ? who ? used in asking questions relating to persons in the plural, pronounced kee-en' -es. <; Donde ? where ? pronounced don-dy. Si, yes ; pronounced see. Esto, this or that ; pronounced esto. Dos, two ; pronounced dos. I Porque ? why ? pronounced por-kay'. All the other words to be used in the conversation have already occurred in the lesson, and ought now to be perfectly well known. This exercise should be proceeded with in the same manner as the preceding ones : that is, by first pro- nouncing the question aloud, and enunciating in the same way the answer ; or the answer may be written, and afterwards compared with that printed. s tres viajantes vaya ;i comprar algo que comer. Los viajantes. los tres viajantes ? <: Quedijeron los tres viajantes? I Donde dijeron esto ? I En el camino que dijeron los tres viajant I Se verified esto ? I Que se verified ? ,: Salio uno ? I Con qui intento ? I Quien Bali I Para que Bali6 '.' I Que es preciso ? ,; Quienes dijeron esto ? . , Para que es preciso que un< de los tres vaj a ,; Porque dijeron los tiv> via jantes tenemos hambre I Quien salio con este intento? A donde ? I Que dijo el que sali<. '.' . I Dijo esto asimismo? . I Quien dijo asimismo, voy a envenenar la carne ? . treciso que uno de los tlCS vaya ? . . . . , Es preciso que los doe com paneroe mueran ? Para comprar algo que comer. A fin de que uno de los tres vaya a comprar algo que coiner. I 'no de los tres. A comprar algo que comer. Voy ;i envenenar la came. Si, lo dijo. El que salio. Asi dijeron los tres viajant**. Asi dijo uno de los ti- 11 (i Que ejecuto el que solio ? . Su proyecto. £ Que proyecto ? .... El de envenenar la came. I Ejecuto este proyecto ? . . Si. I En que puso veneno ? . . En la came. i Quien puso veneno en la came ? El que salio. I Que puso en la came ? . . Veneno. <: Donde puso veneno en la carne ? En el camino. <: Que habia traido ? . . . Algo que comer. PRONUNCIATION. VOWELS. We have already alluded to the opinion entertained by some philological writers, that it is impossible to acquire by means of the eye alone correct notions of the pronunciation of a language. We are disposed to question the accuracy of this opinion, and to contend that it is perfectly practicable for an Englishman to acquire a correct pronunciation of any language without the aid of oral instruction ; nay, we are disposed to go further than this, and assert that the eye alone is a much surer means for a person of matured judgment acquiring the pro- nunciation of a language than the ear alone. Oral impressions are with difficulty fixed upon the mind, and when there are easily effaced ; ocular ones make a much more stable impres- sion, and may keep their hold as long as the memory itself retains its functions. If in acquiring a modern language absolute sounds had to be learned, perhaps the case would be otherwise, and the ear be the better means of the two ; for it is no easy matter to paint a sound, or describe it upon paper; but an Englishman, in speaking his own language, makes use, in some shape or other, of nearly all the sounds found in the modern languages of Europe. The difficulty of acquiring the pronunciation of a modern tongue does not then arise from any diversity of sound, but in recognising the sounds of one language by the signs made use of to represent them in another. Were an Englishman, for instance, unacquainted with Spanish, to attempt to pronounce 12 the word preciso, he would do so in such a manner as to be perfectly incomprehensible to a Castilian ; but had the word been written pretheeso, he would have pronounced it as accu- rately as the Archbishop of Granada. It is the relative difference between the value of the letters of his own language and that of another that he has to learn, in order to pronounce that other correctly, and he may be taught this quite as well, if not better, by ocular as by oral instruction. The English student is frequently embarrassed in the pro- nunciation of another language by the want of fixed principles in his own ; this is peculiarly the case with respect to the vowels: each of the vowels in English has from half a dozen to a dozen and a halt' different sounds; take for example the vowel a in the words ability have alas ! ball * half card sat halfpenny share A good English speaker would not pronounce the a in any ..in" of thus,- words precisely alike. In no Language besides the English is Bach a variety of sound given to one letter. In every Other the \ sound. If lie goes on using at hazard the sounds he has been accustomed to give a, he will run the risk ot being misunderstood, or. to speak more correctly, of not being understood at all. In order that he may habituate himself to a correct enunciation of this letter, he would do well to go over all the words of the lesson, and give the a the sound it has in the word part / by this means he will acquire the habit of pronouncing this important letter correctly, and so have made one great step towards a good pronunciation of the ( 'astilian tongue. W hat we have said relative to the vowel a is in some measure 13 applicable to the i. This letter, at all events, has three totally different sounds in English. 1st. That in pique, pronounced peek. 2d. That in pin, a piece of wood. 3d. That in pine, a kind of tree. The i in Spanish never has either of the two last sounds, but always that of the first ; that is, of ee in the word been. The student must be careful not to use either of the two last sounds of the i in pronouncing the Spanish words, if he is desirous of avoiding being laughed at. The next vowel in the order of importance after the i, is the c. This letter in English has a frightful variety of sounds ; perhaps from thirty to forty words might be cited, in which it has a different sound, under very nearly the same circumstances. In Spanish, this vowel, like all the others, has only one uniform sound, the nearest approximation to which is a in the English word made* It would be advisable for the student to go again over the words of the lessons, and pronounce the e like a in the word we have named : it is hardly necessary to add that the e is never mute, either at the end of words or in the middle of them, as in the English words killed, have, etc. Such an absurdity as this in their language would not be tolerated for a single day by the Academy of Madrid. We next come to the o. In the English phrase — I do not know — this letter occurs three times, and as a matter of course, has, in every instance, a different sound. 1st. In do, it has the sound of ou in could. 2d. In not, it has the sound of u in nut. 3d. In know, it has its name sound. In this case it is the first two sounds that must be avoided, and the third that must be given to the o, whenever it occurs in a Spanish word. What horrid nonsense the student would make of the language of Castile, were he to give the o the sound it has in the word do ! * Perhaps the e in the English words let, met, get, is nearer the sound of the Spanish e, the a in the English word made will in most cases pronounce correctly enough the Spanish e. The learner will he able to judge by his own ear when the other sound should be preferred. 14 The next and last vowel is u. This has the sound in Spanish that a native of London gives it in such words as institution, that is of oo in good. The student should go over the words of the lesson once more, and pronounce the u in all cases (except when it follows q*) like oo in good. After having done this, he will have attained such a pronunciation of the words of the lesson as may entitle him to use them without hesitation. The lesson should therefore be now read over aloud, so that the ear may assist the eye in impressing the words and their sounds upon the memory. Before leaving this part of the subject, we may remark that when the two vowels come together, each continues to retain its own particular sound, but both are pronounced by one single emission of the voice : thus in the word )»ucran, the u and the c have the sounds we have already described, but when together are pronounced with greater rapidity, so that the sound of the one runs a little into the sound of the other, and the word is consequently pronounced as if written mweran. Two vowels are never jumbled into one, and made to represent a sound foreign to them both, as <» Wi Did he execute this project? eEn que puso veneno? j i„ wha t did he put poison ? In what put (he) poison ? J r r *§h U t P r U r S H°> en i a Cam f;l What did he put in the meat? What put (he) m the meat ? J r puso veneno -\ put (he) poison I Where did h la carne ? r in the he meat ? J *S?t h h ?^? aid ^ I What did he bring? What had (he) brought ? J & In asking a question in English, the auxiliary verbs do, did, etc., are employed, as did they say so and so ? or the pronoun is put after the verb instead of before it, as said they so and so ? Now there are no such words in Spanish as do or did, that can be made use of in this way, so a question cannot be constructed in Spanish according to the first of these English forms ; and the pronouns not being employed, a question cannot very well be constructed like the second. What then is to be done with the words in order to ask a question in Spanish, since there are neither do's nor did's, nor pronouns to place after the verb ? Clearly, nothing. The same words, and in the same arrangement that they make an as- sertion, also ask a question. For instance, the phrase " we are hungry" in Spanish, is tenemos hambre. In order to say, " are we hungry," the same words must be employed and the same order maintained, with the addition simply of a note of interrogation, thus — tenemos hambre? And so in all other cases. The student then, in rendering such an interrogation into Spanish, as " did he go out," must first consider what " he did go out" is, and he finds that it is salio ; he has nothing more to do than to write salio and place the sign of interrogation after it, in order to express, " did he go out?" This is the whole mys- tery of constructing an interrogation in Castilian ! 28 XIII. Algo que comer j Something to eat. Something what to eat J ° Lo que se verified j Which was verified! That which itself verified ) Voy a comprar algo am going to to buy something (I am going to buy que comer j something to eat. what to eat Tratadoaestas tres personas J Treated these three ns> I reated to those three persons J * T * fill /5 ?"? } To the end that. To the end of that j Disfrutar solo del tesoro } T o enjoy alone the treasure. J. o enjoy alone of the treasure J J J Desgraciado del que aspira"} Miserable of ho who aspires ( Miserable he who aspires a riquezas j to riches, to riches J On comparing the English with the Spanish construction in the above sentences, it will be observed that there arc some words used in the former language which have no equivalents in the latter. There are in all languages some littlo words introduced into sen- tences called encletics, either with a view of reposing the voice in speaking, or of rounding off nmre harmoniously the turning of a period. In English, the word got, in such a phrase as I have got the book., is an cnclctic A foreigner meeting with such a phrase as this would be very much puaaled indeed to discover the value of the word got, and would very likely conclude that it was some bctixe Anglaise, which could only be accounted f<>r by supposing the lan- guage to be still in a barbarous state. The words a, de, and que, in the Bentence& we have Quoted from our text, are Spanish encletics, and being congenial to the idiom of the language are very often introduced where perhaps they might have been very well dis- ]■>< QSed with. It is true that were we to consult the syntax of the Latin language we might, in most instances, find a logical reason for the employ of these words, but as we cannot see how any suofa learned disquisition would benefit the student, we shall not enter upon it here. As constituent parts of Spanish construction, the student must note well the cases in which these particles are employed, and make use of them accordingly. In this way he will acquire the habitude of employing them correctly. 29 XIV. Respecto de el I Iu respect to hi m . In respect of him ) * Quedandose de consiguiente I Remaining in consequence. Remaining of consequence ) Ved de que manera J See in what manner. See of what manner J It will be seen by tbe above phrases, that the word de is employed in Spanish to represent the English prepositions in and to as well as of. There are rules for the employment of the prepositions in Spanish, which, from their complexity, cannot be given here. The student must observe in the mean time, that the words respecto, quedandose, and ved, must have de (of) after them, whatever pre- positions follow their equivalents in English. XV. No tenemos hambre | W e are not hungry. Not we have hunger. ) ° J No dijeron nada J They did not say anything. Not they said anything J J J J ° The construction of a negation in Spanish is a very easy matter. The rule is to place the negative particle no, in all cases, immediately before the verb ; thus, we are hungry, is tenemos hambre. By putting no before the verb tenemos, the phrase, we are not hungry, is the result, and so in the case of all other negations. There are in English two ways of constructing a negation ; firstly, without the auxiliary, as they said nothing ; secondly, with the auxiliary, as they did not say anything. The word did in the second form is very likely to embarrass the learner at the outset. "We have already stated (§ 13), that the words do and did, when auxiliaries, have no equivalents in Spanish. The student must bear in mind, that do and did are mere signs of time, and have no real value in a sentence. He must find the simple English form, we mean the form of the sentence in which the auxiliary is not introduced, and translate that into Spanish ; he will then encounter no difficulty. 30 PRONUNCIATION. CONSONANTS. The only Spanish consonant that we shall have any difficulty in conveying to the learner a precise notion of, is that of the consonant j. The nearest approximation to the sound used in English is that given to the letter h in the word alcohol, but it must be admitted that this is far from being an exact equi- valent. There is, besides the difficulty of conveying an exact idea of the sound, another circumstance with regard to it likely enough to embarrass the beginner. The sound that approaches the nearest to it in the English pronunciation is very rarely made use of. Perhaps the word alcohol is the only one in which the h is universally enounced with a guttural aspiration. ( )n the other hand the j is of exceedingly frequent recurrence in Spanish ; it is found in almost every sentence, and not un- frequently occurs twice in the same word. The student, therefore, in order to pronounce correctly, must habituate himself to the frequent repetition of a sound the organs of his voice have been almost unaccustomed to enunciate. Though the Spanish sound of the j is not found perfectly enounced amongst the sounds used in the pronunciation of the English. Ml some of our readers will be acquainted with it. The Oriental linguist makes use of the sound in pronouncing the He and the Hetb of the Hebrew. It is also the guttural sound the Greek scholar gives to the y_. The sound is more- over a characteristic in the German language, and is exactly that given by the Saxons to the g in Saxe-Coburg. We have already stated that the Castilian sound of j is equi- valent to the ch of the Scottish dialect ; any one therefore solicitous about an accurate enunciation of this sound has only to observe the inflexion given by a native of Scotland to the ich in the word Ballengeich, which is an exact counterpart of the Castilian j. We also said last lesson that the sound was produced by breathing hard, and causing the air gently to strike the roof of 31 the mouth ; the learner, if he can form a conception of what is meant by a guttural sound, cannot fail, by following the direc- tion there given, to produce the sound. The sound of the j being comprehended, the other conso- nants present no great difficulties. With the exception of g before e and i, which is then pronounced like the j ; v pro- nounced like b ; c before e and i ; and z pronounced like th in think ; they have the same sounds as their equivalents in Eng- lish. All that is wanting is a little attention on the part of the student to what has been said. An Englishman has been ac- customed to give the z the hissing sound of ts, and although the careless student is told that z in Spanish is sounded like th he will go on giving it the sound he has been accustomed to attach to it, thus barbarising the word in which it occurs, and rendering himself to all intents and purposes unintelligible. Let the learner pronounce over and over again the words in which letters occur that have a totally different sound from those they have in English ; in this way the predisposition to give English sounds to the Spanish letters will be easily and effectually overcome. COMPOSITION*. An accurate knowledge of any language is only to be attained by writing it. By this means alone can the niceties of structure be acquired, so necessary to a comprehension of the genius of a language. It is essential therefore that the student should translate the phrases given, as an exercise in Composition. The words in those that follow have already occurred repeatedly, either in this or the preceding lesson, so that they can present no difficulty. All the student has to do, in order to translate into good Spanish the sentences that follow, is to bear in mind the rules of construction that have been deduced from the text. He aspires. He aspires to the treasure the To what does he aspire ? travellers found. Does he aspire to that ? Ah ! he aspires to that ? He aspires to the treasure. Yes, Sir (Si, Senor). To what treasure does he Who aspires to the treasure ? aspire ? A philosopher is miserable. 32 He who went out is miserable. He who came back is miser- able. The world is miserable. He who aspires to riches is miserable. Is he who went out miserable? Is he who came back miser- able? Is a philosopher miserable ? Is the world miserable ? Is the person who aspires to riches miserable ? Are (son) travellers miser- able ? Are the other two miserable ? Is he who cried out miserable? Who is miserable ? Who are miserable ? Are the masters of the trea- sure miserable ? The person who aspires to riches is not miserable. The world is not miserable. The philosopher is not miser- able. A traveller is not miserable. Travellers are miserable. Are traveller^ miserable? Travellers are not miserable. What is a philosopher? What is the world? Is the meat poisoned ? Who is the master of the treasure ? Who is that ? What is that? Are they master^ of the trea- sure ? Who are masters of the trea- sure ? Who has poisoned the meat ? He has poisoned the meat. Has he poisoned the meat ? What has he poisoned ? Who cried out ? The philosopher cried out. Did he cry out ? W T ho was passing ? A philosopher was passing. They died. W 7 ho died ? The travellers did not die. Did both die ? They did not die on eating the meat. Who died on eating the meat ? Did he return ? Who returned? He who went out returned. He did not return, lie did return. When did he return ? Who is master of the prize ? The world is master of the prize. What is the world master of? When did he who went out return ? When did the other two die ? When did they assassinate thei companion When did the three travellers run! the treasure? When did he aspire to riches ? Whom did they assassinate'.* Did they assassinate the phi- losopher? Why did they assassinate him? They did not assassinate him. Why did they not assassinate- him ? LESSON THIRD. To the Learner. The student will do well to pass carefully in review the exercises of the previous lesson before entering upon the pre- sent. In this way what has been learned will contribute to facilitate the acquisition of what has to be learned. READING. REPETITION. As in the case of the opening reading exercise in last lesson, the following consists of a translation of the phrases given in English, to be rendered into Spanish. The English of these phrases being already given, as well as the value and pronun- ciation of each word, the student should be able to read them either in Spanish or into English with perfect facility. Aspira. i A que aspira ? £ Aspira a esto ? Aspira al tesoro. i A que tesoro aspira ? i Aspira al tesoro que los viajantes hallaron ? ; Ah ! Aspira & esto ? Si seiior. i Quien aspira al tesoro ? Un filosofo es desgraciado. El que salio es desgraciado. El que volvio es desgraciado. El mundo es desgraciado. El que aspira a riquezas es desgraciado. i El que salio es desgraciado? i El que volvio es desgraciado ? I Un filosofo es desgraciado ? La persona que aspira a riquezas es desgraciado. £ Los viajantes son des- 34 graciados ? £ Los otros dos son desgraciados ? ^ El que esclamo es desgraciado ? i Quien es desgraciado? I Quienes son los desgraciados ? i Los duefios del tesoro son desgraciados ? La persona que aspira & riquezas no es desgraciada. El mundo no es des- graciado. El filosofo no es desgraciado. Unviajante no es desgraciado. Los viajantes son desgraciados. I Los viajantes son desgraciados? ^,Que es un filosofo? ^Que es el mundo? ^Es la came envenenada? I Quien es dueiio del tesoro ? i Quien es este ? ^ Que es esto? i Son duenos del tesoro? £ Quienes son duenos del tesoro ? i Quien ha envenenado la carne ? Ha envenenado la carne. % Ha envenenado la carne ? i Que ha envenenado? I Quien esclamo ? El filosofo esclamo. i, Esclam6 ? ^ Quien pasaba ? Un filosofo pasaba. ;, Murieron? £ Quienes murieron ? No murieron los viajantes. £ Murieron ambos? No murieron al comer la carne. 4 Quienes murieron al comer la carne? | Volvio? i Quien volvi6 ? El que 8ali6 volvio. No volvio. Volvio. i Cuando volvi6 ? i Quien es el dueiio del hallazgo ? El mundo es el dueno del hallazgo. ^De que es el mundo dueno? £ Cuando volvi6 el que sali6 ? ;. Cuando murieron los otros dos? £ Cuando asesinaron k su companero? i Cuando los viajantes hallaron el tesoro ? i Cuando aspira a riquezas? . ,: A que fin puso el veneno ? . A fin de que sus companeros muriesen. I Quienes murieron al comer Los dos que asesinaron al que la came ? salio. ,: Quien puso en obra su pro- yecto ? El que salio. £ Que dijo asimismo el que salio? \'ov ;i envenenar la came. f ; Que dijeron los viajantes ? . Tenemos hambre, es | que uno de los trea vav.i imprar algo que comer. 37 (iRespectode quien concibieron Respecto del que puso veneno una idea ? en la carne. <;Que concibieron en ausencia del que salio ? . . . . Una idea semejante. <; Quien es el dueno del tesoro? No lo sabemos (not it we know). <; Quien es el desgraciado ? . El que aspira a riquezas. I Quien aspira a riquezas ? . Todo (all) el mundo. I Quien esclamo : Ah ! lo que Un filosofo que pasaba por es el mundo ? . . . . alia. <; Cuando los otros dos concibie- Durante la ausencia del que ron una idea semejante ? salio. I Quien ha tratado de esta ma- neraaestas tres person as? El mundo. I Que es el que aspira a, rique- zas ? Desgraciado. I Quien aspira a disfrutar solo El que puso veneno en la del tesoro ? . . . . carne. I Durante la ausencia del que salio que concibieron los otros dos ? Una idea semejante. <: Quienes concibieron una idea semejante ? . . . . Los ostros dos. ^Quienesdijerontenemosham- bre ? Los tres viajantes. I Quienes le asesinaron al que Los viajantes que concibieron salio ? un proyecto durante su ausencia. I A que salio uno de los tres ? A comprar algo que comer. sonorcs Good morning, sir. How do you do ? Pretty well, thank you. I am glad to see you. There is a beautiful morning. It is rather cold. The weather has been shock- ing bad lately. Very. Are there any news ? Nothing particular. When are you coming to see me? One of these days. Gentlemen, I wish a good evening. Good bye, gentlemen. 53 GENERAL. <; Que hora es ? . . . . Las ocho, poco mas 6 menos <; De veras ? . . Si por cierto Muchisimas gracias Cara a cara . . Chanzas aparte . Ir pasando . . Tengo que hacer Me he equivocado Tiene V. razon . Perfectamente . Tenga V. la bondad de de- cirme caballero. £ Como se llama esto en Es- panol ? Ya voy Ya lo se Ya lo sabra V Venir a las manos .... A la Espanola ..... Tonteria <; Que es esto ? No se Creo que si Causa admiracion .... (i Lo cree V. caballero ? . . Si . . . Aqui se habla Espaiiol . . What o'clock is it ? About eight. Is it? I think so. Thank you. Face to face. Joking aside. To make shift. I am busy. I am wrong. You are right. Exactly. Have the goodness to tell me, sir. What do you call that in Spanish ? I am coming. I know it already. You will soon know it. To come to blows. In the Spanish fashion. What nonsense. What is that ? I do not know. I suppose so. That is good. Do you think so, sir ? I do. Spanish spoken here. A los pies de V. Sefiora . . Beso a V. la mano, caballero. <; Es este el camino de Madrid? <: Por donde se va a la calle de Alcala? Mozo, un cafe Waiter, a cup of coffee. ^Quejenerosde vino tiene V? What kind of wine have you Good morning, madam. Your servant, sir. Is this the road to Madrid ? Where is Alcala-street ? Traiga V. una botella de Jerez. Quisiera un vaso de aguar- diente. got? Bring a bottle of sherry. I want a glass of brandy. 54 Deme V. un par de chuletas. Give me a mutton chop. Deme V. un par de huevos . Give me an egg. Sirvase V. traerme un poco Some bread, please. de pan. Con muchisimo gusto . . . With much pleasure. ^Dondeestalacasadecorreos? Where is the post-office ? Deme V. un real de naranjas. Give me twopence worth of oranges. t Tiene V. cigarros ? . . . Have you any cigars ? £ Quanto vale la docena ? . W r hat is the dozen ? Una peseta A shilling. Son carisimos They are dear. I Puede V. darme cambios de Can you give me change for un duro ? half-a-crown ? <: Que quiere V? . . . . What do you want? I Entiende V. el Ingles ? . Do you understand English ? No se absolutamente hablar el I do not speak Spanish. Espanol. Yo soy Ingles I am an Englishman. Viva la reyna muchos aiios . God save the Queen. PRONUNCIATION. Castcllano ? Un poco. Entiendo la Ab'-la oos'ty. Cas-tel-ya'-no oon po'-co. cnt-yen'-do la lengua Espanqla pero no puedo hablarla. << Caballero, lcn'-gwa Espan-yo'-la pay'ro no pwe-da ab-lar'-Ia. Cab-al-ye'-ro, cs Y. Bspanol ? Si senor, para servir a V. ais oos'-ty Es-pan-yol' ? See sain'-yor, pa ra ser'-becr ah oos'-ty. ^Desde cuando Be lialla V. en Inglaterra? Que Days'-dc kwan'-do say al'-ya oos'-ty en Eengla-ter'-ra ? Kay tal lialla \'. Londres? Me hara V. mucho* favor, tal al-ya oos'-ty Lon'-dres? May ah'-ra oos'-ty mootch'-o fah-bor / en bablar Bspanol. Le entiendo ;i A 7 . per£ectamente. en ab-lar' Es-panyol. Lay cut -yen- do ah oos'-ty per-l'ec-ta-men'-ty. Sirvase V. disimularmclo. No he entendido lo que Seer-ba'-say oos'-ty dee-see-moo-Iar -inay-lo. No ai en-tain-dco'-do lo kay X. ha dicho. Tenga V. la bondad de repetir oos-ty ah deetch'o tain'-ga oos'-ty lah bon-dad' day rai-pay-tecr' * Ch in Spanish is Bounded like ch in the English words churefa and ditch. 55 lo que V. ha dicho. Que jeneros de vino tiene V.? Traiga coll'ee. What kinds of wine has his worship ? Let bring V. una botella de Jerez. Quisiera un vaso his worship a bottle of Sherry. He should like a glass de aguardiente. Dome V. un par de of ardent water. Let him give me his worship a couple of chuletas. Dome V. un par de huevos. mutton chops. Let him give me his worship a pair of eggs. Sirvasc V. traerme un poco de pan. Con Lit serve himself his worship to bring mo a little of bread. With muchisimo gusto. <: Donde esta la casa de correos ? very much pleasure. Where is the house of couriers? Deme V. un real de naranjas. ^ Tiene V. Lit give me his worship a real* of oranges. Has his worship cigarros? <; Quanto vale la docena? Una peseta* cigars ? How much is worth the dozen ? A peseta.f • A Real is a current silver coin, about the value of twopence -halfpenny. f A Peseta i^ a current silver cniu. value about iiiiicpencc. 59 Son carisimos. ^Puede V. darme cambios de They are very dear. Can his worship to give me change of Yin duro? gentlemen. have their worships. ) In looking over a Spanish author, in which the colloquial style is introduced, a person ignorant of the language will be surprised at the number of Vm's and Vmd's that present themselves in every page. These letters are a contraction of the words vuestra merced, which signify in English, when translated literally, your grace; or, as they are more generally translated, " your worship." They are equivalent in value to the English you, with this difference, that you, in English, requires a verb in the second person plural, whilst vuestra int nt (I requires a verb in the third person singular. Some writers use V . to represent vuestra merced; others Vra, and others again Ymd. We have preferred employing the V. only, and \'.\'. for the plural: firstly, because these are the forms most commonly used by good writers ; and secondly, for a reason which will appear in the sequel. In the pronunciation of vuestra merced, the word merced lias become totally obsolete, and the word vuestra has been dimi- nished into USti . These two syllables then are all that are em- ployed in pronouncing vuestra merced, and it is for this reason we employ V. in writing the contraction. It will be observed, that there is neither an ///, nor a >/, in the pronounced form, and consequently there is no necessity tor introducing these letters into the written form of the contraction. When more than one person is spoken of, the word ustedes is pronounced j this is presumed to mean your worships or your graces, and in the Word itself, the d of mercedes does appear. Still we think that V.Y. is as good a way of writing the contraction as Vmd's, and have therefore preferred employing the former. 61 PRONUNCIATION. SUMMARY. We have in detail given the pronunciation of the Spanish vowels and consonants ; we shall now give a synopsis of what has been said about thern, so as to serve as a table for the student to refer to when he is in doubt about the sound of a letter. For this purpose we shall employ the alphabet, placing opposite each letter its sound when it differs from that of the English. We may observe that the Spanish and English alphabets are virtually the same (they are both derived from one original, the Latin), and ought to be so. There is, however, in the English alphabet, a letter borrowed from the Goths, which of course does not exist in the Spanish — we mean the w ; and the c being found to answer all the purposes of the k, as well as its own, the latter has been expunged from the Spanish alphabet ; but, with these exceptions, the alphabets of the two languages are one and the same. We may repeat here, that the sound of the Spanish j is the only one that we cannot precisely represent, and is the only one that can cause the student any difficulty. It is essential that every one desirous of pronouncing the language accurately should know this sound. We have already said that even should the learner not have an opportunity of procuring the exact sound from a native of Spain, or from some one conver- sant with the language, there is a variety of other means by which he may become acquainted with it. It has been stated that it is the guttural sound given in some of the colleges to the Greek ^, and may consequently be obtained from the classic scholar ; that it is the sound of the Hebrew letter Heth ; that it is also the sound given by the Scottish to ich in the word Ballengeich ; the sound given by the elite to ich in the Prince of Wales' motto "ich dien;" and that it is the sound of ich in the German word " nicht;" and again the sound given by the Irish to the ich in their exclamation " oich!" The sound in question, therefore, is within the reach of every English- man who is desirous of obtaining it. We may observe that the r in Spanish has always its vibrating sound er-r-r-r, and is never transformed into the vowel «, as it frequently is by the natives of London. 62 Letters. A B C D E F G L M \ O P Q R s T U V X Y Z ah bay thay day ai effy xay atchy ee xotta elly emmy CllllV o pay koo crry tay oo oo ek] b ee theta SPANISH ALPHABET. Pronounced. Like a in the English word cart. Before e and i, like th in the word think ; before a, o, and u, like k. Like a in the English word made. As in the English word go, before the vowels a, o, u ; before e and i it has the guttural sound of the j, which we have already described. Always mute in Spanish. Like i in the English words ma- chine, pique. Has the guttural sound described in previous lesson. Like u in the English word rult Like b. Like the i in j>ii///< or machine. Like th in the English word think. DOUBLE LETTERS. Ch . thayatchy Like ch in the English words ditch ami church, LL . aiilyai . Like 11 in William. N . cnyai . Like gn in consign* t. These three compound letters having sounds peculiar to themselves, may he considered to form three more distinct Letters of the Spanish alphabet. LESSON EIFTH. BEADING. Having acquired the pronunciation of the language, some general notions of its structure, and an idea of the nature of its idioms, together with a multitude of words, the question now is, in what manner is proficiency best to be obtained ? We have said that in order to attain perfection in any language there must be much practice in writing it. To com- pose however, in a language, the words, or at least the great portion of the words, of that language must first be known. If, in order to write, the student had to look into his diction- ary for every word he wanted, it would be impossible for him to maintain anything like continuity in the train of his ideas, so that composition in such a case would eventually prove more a work of fatigue than profit. We think, and experience strengthens the supposition, that reading is the best means of attaining the object in question. By much attentive reading, joined to a judicious choice of authors, not only the words of a language and their desinences may be acquired, but also its genius and structure. Once able to read and translate freely a language, composition and con- versation will follow of themselves. We shall now, for the learner's practice in reading, give a fragment of Don Quixote, and the first chapter of Gil Bias. Hitherto an interlineal translation has accompanied the por- tions of text introduced into our lessons ; in the present in- stance, the Spanish words with their English equivalents will be arranged in alphabetical order. With the aid of this vocabulary the learner may draw out an interlineal translation for himself, as also render the text into good English. In order that these portions of text may, at the same time, serve to illustrate the construction of the language, we shall likewise give the three regular conjugations of the Spanish verbs, together with one or two of the irregulars that are most frequently met with. In the vocabulary the class to which each word belongs — its mood and tense, if a verb, its gender, if a noun — will be indicated. By these means the learner may subject each sentence to the same sort of analysis that has hitherto been pursued, and so strengthen and augment his acquaintance with the organization of the language, as well as obtain some fresh rules for his guidance in writing Spanish. k i -s o 13 S c o « o . „ a w H aT c s d o . . . <2" . 6 .2 a \i) \S vS \ B B * 3 d . .6.2 .2 -2 -2 a 2 £ c o* c fj a o u '•- 1 o . . «T . 8 .2 a .!( V3! \rt Ml M) vrt 1 III 1 1 1 linn C3 K H K S . H -2 s > 2 j i •5 CO | fa o P ,° „j s s •». ►> ■D - _3 o < o . =' a" £ •2-° O „ -6.2 rt rt rt H _2 cT o . E "« p t- U t- t- i- i-i w c § a f i a ei rS a oJ rt fl -S vS n »«? (Sv : \3 v ~ s - t< Bj « e« c3 rt i 3 1 1 1 •< 1 < 1 < > ^ b 1 H - - W s H M H u u H ■ c en H g M < as s? XI O e- Ch a- PU b «, ^ *, *. o a o „ o „ « ™ J.Sa - '£ « a .3 cs . ■* . a .s a a 1 a 1 a 1 H ' 1 ' ' 1 H l » 1 1 1 ^ i I I i i BS TO ii ^ t- Jj ft- U =~ CONJUGATION OF THE IRREGULAR YERBS HABER, TENER, SER, and ESTAR. INFINITIVE.... .HABER, To have TENER, To have. PBE9.PARTiciPi.E.Habiendo, having. Teniendo, having. Past Participle. Habido, had. Tenido, had. Pbes. INDICAT .He, Has, Ha, Hemos, Habeis, Han. I have. Tengo, Tienes, Tiene, Tenemos, Teneis, Tienen. I have. Imperfect .Habia, Habias, I had. Tenia, Teniae, I had. Habia, Tenia, Habiamos, Teniamos, Habiais, Teniais, Haitian. Tenian. Past ..Hube, Hubiste, I had. Tuve, Tuviste, I had. Uubo, Tuvo, Hubimos, Tuvimos, HubUteis, Tuvisteis, Hubieron. Tuvieron. Future ..Habre, Habras, Habia, Habrenios, Habreis, Habran. I will have. Tendre. Tendria, Tendra, Tendremos, Tendreis, Tendran. I will have. CONDITIONAL . Habria, Habrias, Habria, Habriamos, Habriaia, Habrian. I should have. Tendria, Tendrias, Tendria, Tendriamos, Tendriais, Tendrian. I should have. IMPERATIVE.. ..Not used. Ten tu, Tenga el, Tengamos, hate. Tened vosotros, Tengan ellos Pres.SUBJUNC ..Hay a. Hayas, Haya, Hayamos, Hayais, Hayan. I may have. Tenga, Tengas, Tenga, Tengamoa, Tengais, Tengan. I mag have. 67 Past Hubiese, Hubieses, Hubiese, Hubiesemos, Hubieseis, Hubiesen. Future Hubiere, Hubieres, Hubiere, Hubieremos, Hubiereis, Hubieren. Conditional Hubiera, Hubieras, Hubiera, Hubi&ramos, Hubierais, Hubieran. / might have. I could have. I would have. Tuviese, Tuvieses, Tuviese, Tuviesemos, Tuviessis, Tuviesen. Tuviere, Tuvieres, Tuviere, Tuvieremos, Tuviereis, Tuvieren. Tuviera, Tuvieras, Tuviera, Tuvieramos, Tuvierais. Tuvieran. / might have. I could have. I would have. INFINITIVE SER, PBEs.PAKTiciPLE.Siendo, Past Participle. Sido, Pbes. INDICAT..Soy, Eres, Es, To be. being, been. I am. Son. Imperfect.... Era, Eras, Era, Eramos, Erais, Eran. 1 was. Estaba, Estabas, Estaba, Estabamos, Estabais, Estaban. I was. Past Fui, I was. Estuve, Estuviste, I was. Fuiste, Fue, Estuvo, Fuimos, ' Estuvimos, Fuisteis, Estuvisteis, Fueron. Estuvieron. Future Sere, I will be. Estare, Estaras, I will be. Seras, Sera, Estara, Seremos, Estaremos, Sereis, Estareis, Seran. Estaran. CONDITIONAL. Seria, I should be. Estaria, I should be. Serias, Estarias, Seria, Estaria, Seriamos, Estariamos, Seriais, Estariais, Serian. Estarian. ESTAR, Estando, Estado, Estoy, Est as, Esta, Estamos, Estais, been. I am. G8 IMPERATIVE. . Se tii, be. Sea el, Seamos, Sed vosotros, Sean ellos. Pres. SUBJLTNC.Sea, Sea, Seamos, Past. FUTUBE. Conditional. ....Fuese, Fueses, Fuese, Fuesemos, Fueseis, Fuesen. ....Fuere, Fueres, Fuere, Fueremos, Fuereis, Fueren. ....Fuera. Fuera.*, Fuera, Fueramos, Fueraia, Faerao. / may be. 1 might be. I could be. Esta tii, i Este el, Estemos, Estad vosotros Esten ellos. Este, Estes, Este, I may be. Esten. Estuviese, / might be. Estuvieses, Estuviese, Estuviesemos, Estuvieseis, Estuviesen. Estuviere, I could be. Estuvieres, Estuviere, Estuvieremos, Estuviereis, Estuvieren. Estuviera, I would be. EstuvieraB, Estuviera, Estuvieramos, K-tuvK-rais, EstuTieran. It will be observed that there arc two verbs in Spanish correspond- ing with the English verb to have. Tlic one (haber) is nscd as an auxiliary in constructing the tenses of other verbs, as in the sentence Hcmos hallado un tesoro. We HAVE FOUND a treasure. The other (tener) is employed in oases where to have in English has the attributes of an actual verb, as in the sentence Tei ui n os un tesoro. We have a treasi It will likewise be observed that the English verb to be has two equivalents in Spanish. The one (scr) is used in constructing the passive voice of other verbs, as in the sentence Soy tratado con injusticia. I am treated with injustice. The other (estar) is the equivalent for to be, when not employed as an auxiliary thus — Estoy enfermo. I am unwell. In order that the learner may know when one form and when an- other of a verb is employed in Spanish, the tense of each verb occurring in the following text will be stated in the vocabulary. Each sentence will thus ser\ e to illustrate the use and application of some particular tense of a Spanish verb. FRAGMENT FROM DON QUIXOTE. Viendo que el prado donde estaban, estaba colmado de verde y menuda yerba, dijo Sancho : No es posible, seiior mio, sino que estas yerbas dan testirnonio de que por aqui cerca debe de estar alguna fuente 6 arroyo que estas yerbas humedece, y asi sera bien que vamos un poco mas adelante, que ya toparemos donde podreraos mitigar esta terrible sed que nos fatiga, que sin duda causa mayor pena que la hambre. Pareciole bien el consejo a Don Quijote, y tomando de la rienda a Rocinante, y Sancho del cabestro a su asno, despues de haber puesto sobre el los relieves que de la cena quedaron, comenzaron a caminar por el prado arriba a tiento, porque la oscuridad de la noche no les dejaba ver cosa alguna; mas no hubieron andado dos- cientos pasos cuando llego a sus oidos un grande ruido de agua, como que de algunos grandes y levantados riscos se despeiiaba. Alegroles el ruido en gran manera, y parandose a escuchar hacia que parte sonaba, oyeron a desbora otro estruendo que les aguo el contento del agua, especialmente a Sancho, que naturalmente era medroso y de poco animo : digo que oyeron que daban unos golpes a compas, y con un cierto crujir de hierros y cadenas, que acompaiiados del fu- rioso esti'uendo del agua pusieran pavor a cualquier otro corazon que no fuera el de Don Quijote. Era la noche, como se ha dicho, oscura, y ellos acertaron a, entrar entre unos arboles altos, cuyas hojas movidas del blando viento hacian un temeroso y manso ruido ; de manera que la soledad, el sitio, la oscuridad, el ruido de la agua con el susurro de las hojas, todo causaba horror y espanto, y mas cuando vieron que ni los golpes cesaban, ni el viento dormia, ni la maiiana llegaba, anadiendose a todo esto el ignorar el lugar donde se hallaban. Pero Don Quijote, acompanado de su intrepido corazon, salto sobre Rocinante, y embrazando su rodela tercio su lanzon, y dijo : Sancho amigo, has de saber que yo naci por querer del cielo en esta nuestra edad de hierro para resucitar en ella la de oro, 6 la dorada como suele llamarse : yo soy aquel para quien estan guardados los peligros, las grandes hazanas, los valerosos hechos. Bien notas, escudero fiel y legal, las tinieblas desta noche, su extrano silencio, el sordo y confuso estruendo destos arboles, el temeroso ruido de aquella agua, en cuya 70 busca venimos, que parece que se despena y derrumba desde los altos montes de la luna, y aquel incesable golpear que nos hiere y lastima los oidos ; las cuales cosas todas juntas y cada una por si son bastantes a infundir miedo, teraor y espanto en el pecho del mismo Marte, cuanto mas en aquel que no esta acostumbrado a semej antes acon- tecimientos y aventuras : pues todo esto que yo te pinto son incentivos y despertadores de mi animo, que ya hace que el corazon me reviente en el pecho con el deseo que tiene de acometer esta aventura por mas dificultosa que se muestra. Asi que aprieta nn poco la cincha a Rocinante, y quedate a Dios, y esperame aqui hasta tres dias no mas, en los cuales si no volviere puedes tii volverte a nuestra aldea, y desde alii por hacerme merced y bucna obra iras'al Toboso, donde diras a la incomparable senora mia Dulcinea, que su cautivo eaballero murio por acometer cosas que le hiciesen digno de poder Uamarse suyo. Cuando Sancho oyo las palabras de su amo, comenzo a llorar con la mayor ternura del mundo, y a decide : Senor, yo no se porque quiere vuestra merced acometer esta tan temerosa aventura ; ahora es de noche, aqui no nos ve nadie, bien podemos torcer el camino y desviarnos del peligro, aunquc no bebamos en tres dias ; y pues no hay quien nos vea, menos hahra quien nos note de cobardes. Cuanto mas que yo he oido muchas veces predicar al cura de nuestro lugar, que vuestra merced muy bien conoce, que quien busca el peligro pcrece en el : asi que no es bien tentar a Dios acometiendo tan desaforado hecho, donde no se puede cscapar sino por milagro ; y bastan los que ha hecho el cielo con vuestra merced en lihrarle de ser manteado como yo lo fui, y en sacarle vencedor, libre y salvo de entre tantos enemigos. Y cuando todo esto no mueva ni ablande ese duro corazon, muevale el pensar y creer que apenas so habra vuestra morccd apartado de aqui, cuando yo de miedo de mi annua a quien quisiere llevarla. Yo sail de mi tierra, y deje hijos y muger por vonir ;i scrvir a vuestra merced, oreyeudo valer mas y no menos ; pero como la codicia rompe el Baco, a mi me ha raegado mis espe- ranzas, pues cuando mas vivas las tenia de alcanzar aquella negra y malhadada insula que tantas voces vuestra merced me ha prometido, veo que en pago y trueco della me quiere ahora dejar en un lugar tan apartado del trato humano. Por un solo Dio<, senor mio, que no >c me haga tal desaguisado; y ya que del todo no quiera vuestra merced deeistir de aeometer eate hecho. dilatelo ;i lo menos hasta la mafiana, que ;i lo que a mi me muestra la ciencia que aprendi cuando era pastor, in > debe de haber desde aqui al alba tres lioras, porque la booa de la boeina esta enoima de la eabeza, y hace la media noche en la linea del brazo izquierdo. I Como puedes tu, Sancho, dijo Don Quijote, ver donde hace esa 71 linea, ni donde esta esa boca 6 ese colodrillo que dices, si hace la noche tan oscura que no parece en todo el cielo estrella alguna? Asi es, dijo Sancho; pero tiene el miedo muchos ojos, y ve las cosas de- bajo de tierra, cuanto mas encima en el cielo, puesto que por buen discurso bien se puede entender que bay poco de aqui al dia. Falte lo que faltare, respondio Don Quijote, que no se ba de decir por mi ahora ni en ningun tiempo, que lagrimas y ruegos me apar- taron de bacer lo que debia a estilo de caballero : y asi te ruego, Sancbo, que calles, que Dios que me ha puesto en corazon de aco- meter a bora esta tan no vista y tan temerosa aventura, tendra cui- dado de mirar por mi salud, y de consolar tu tristeza : lo que bas de hacer es apretar bien las cincbas a Rocinante y quedarte aqui, que yo dare la vuelta presto 6 vivo 6 muerto. Viendo pues Sancho la ultima resolucion de su amo, y cuan poco valian con el sus lagrimas, consejos y ruegos, determino de aprovecharse de su industria, y bacerle esperar hasta el dia si pudiese ; y asi cuando apretaba las cinchas al caballo, bonitamente y sin ser sentido, ato con el cabestro de su asno ambos pies a Rocinante ; de manera que cuando Don Quijote se quiso partir, no pudo, porque el caballo no se podia mover sino a saltos. Viendo Sancbo Panza el buen suceso de su embuste dijo : Ea, seiior, que el cielo conmovido de mis lagrimas y plegarias ba ordenado que no se pueda mover Rocinante ; y si vos quereis porfiar y espo- lear, sera enojar a la fortuna, y dar coces, como dicen, contra el aguijon. Desesperabase con esto Don Quijote, y por mas que ponia las piernas al caballo, menos le podia mover, y sin caer en la cuenta de la ligadura, tuvo por bien de sosegarse y esperar 6 a que amaneciese, 6 a que Rocinante se menease, creyendo sin duda que aquello venia de otra parte que de la industria de Sancbo, y asi le dijo : Pues asi es, Sancho, que Rocinante no puede moverse, yo soy contento de esperar a que ria el alba, aunque yo Uore lo que ella tardare en venir. No hay que llorar, respondio Sancho, que yo entretendre a vuestra merced contando cuentos desde aqui al dia, si ya no es que se quiere apear, y echarse a dormir un poco sobre la verde yerba a uso de ca- balleros andantes, para hallarse mas descansado cuando llegue el dia y punto de acometer esta tan desemejable aventura que le espera. l A que llamas apear, 6 a que dormir? dijo Don Quijote : i soy yo por ventura de aquellos caballeros que toman reposo en los peli- gros ? Duerme tu que naciste para dormir, 6 haz lo que quisieres, que yo hare lo que viere que mas viene con mi pretension. No se enoje vuestra merced, sefior mio, respondio Sancho, que no lo dije por tanto ; y llegandose a el, puso la una mano en el arzon delantero, y la otra en el otra, de modo que quedo abrazado con el 72 muslo izquierdo de su amo sin osarse apartar del un dedo : tal era el miedo que tenia a los golpes que todavia alternativamente sonaban. Dijole Don Quijote que contase algun cuento para entretenerle, como se lo habia prometido : a lo que Sancho dijo que si hiciera si le dejara el teraor de lo que oia ; pero con todo eso yo me esforzare a decir una historia, que si la acierto a contar y no me van a la mano, es la mejor de las historias, y esteme vuestra merced atento que ya comienzo. Erase que se era, el bien que viniere para todos sea, y el mal para quien lo fuere a buscar ; y advierta vuestra merced, seiior mio, que el principio que los antiguos dieron a sus consejas no fue asi como quiera, que fue una sentencia de Caton Zonzorino romano, que dice : Y el mal par a quien L: fuere d buscar, que viene aqui como anillo al dedo, para que vuestra merced se este quedo, y no vaya a buscar el mal a ninguna parte, sino que nos volvamos por otro ca- mino, pues nadie nos fuerza a que sigamos este donde tantos miedos nos sobresaltan. Sigue tu cuento, Sancho, dijo Don Quijote, y del caniino que hemos 'le seguir dejame ;i mi el cuidado. Digo pues, prosiguio Sancho, que en un lugar de Estremadura habia un pastor cabrerizo, quiero decir, que guardaba cabras, el cual pastor 6 cabrerizo, como digo de mi cuento, se llamaba Lope Ruiz, y este Lope Ruiz andaba enamorado de una pastora que se llamaba Torralva, la coal pastora llamada Torralva era hija de un ganadero rico, y este ganadero rico... si desa manera cuentastu cuento, Sancho, dijo Don Quijote, repi- tiendo dos voces lo que vas diciendo, no acabaras en dos dias: dilo aeguidamente, y euentaio como hombre de entendimiento j y si no, no digas nada. De la misma manera que yolo cuento, respondio Sancho, se cuen- ran en mi tierra todas las consejas, y yo no se contarlo de otra,ni es bien que vuestra merced me pida que haga usos nuevos. J)i como qnisieres, respondio Don Quijote, que pues la suerte quiere que no pucda dejar de eseucharte, prosigue. -\>i que, sefior mio de mi anima, prosigui6 Sancho, que como ya tengo dicho, este pastor andaba enamorado de Torralva la pastora, que era una mora rolliza, zaharefia, y tiraba algo a liombruna, porque tenia unos pocos bigotes, ia nacido. Casose con una aldeana, y yo naci al mundo diez mesefl despuee que se habian casado. Paearonse a vivir a Oviedo, donde mi madre se acomodo por ama de gobierno, y mi pa- dre por escudcro. Como no tenian mas bicnes que su salario, corria gran peligro mi edueacioo de no haber Bido la mejor, si Dios ao me hubiera deparado un ti<», que era can6nigo de aquella iglesia. Llama- il Pen/ : era hennano mayor de mi madre, y habia sido mi padrino. Figurate alia en tu imaginacion, lector mio, un hombre peqaeno, de tree \>\vs j medio . m. Suffering, pain. do, Penetrated, past part, of Penetrar. Penetrar, v. To penetrate. Ptnsaba, Thought, 1st and 3d pers. im- perf. ind. of Petuar. . v. To tliinL. Fequcno, adj. Little. Perdt r, v. To lose. Perece, Perishes, 3d pers. pres. Perectr. Pereccr, v. To perish. Pero, conj. Hut. Persona, s. f. Person. Pisadumbre, s. f. Chagrin, inquietude, anxiety. Pesrador, s. m. Fisherman. I'ida, Kequire, 3d pers. pres. subj. of PedSr. PiS, b. in. Foot. Looses, 3d pers. pres. iud. of Perdt r. Pierna, s. f. Leg. J'inlar, v. To paint, to describe. Pinto, Describe, 1st. pers. pres. ind. of Pintur. Plegaria, s. f. Supplication, prayer. Pobre, adj. Poor. Poco, s. no. adj. and adv. Little. Pocos, adv. plur. of Poco, Few. Podamos, "We may, 1st pers. pres. subj. of Poder. Podemos, "We can, 1st pers. pres. ind. of Poder. Poder, v. To be able, may, can, should, would. Podia, Could, I could, he could, 1st and 3d pers. imperf. iud. of Poder. Podian, It could, 3d pers. imperf. ind. of Poder. Podra, Will be able, 3d pers. fut. ind. of Poder. Podras, Thou wilt be able, 2d pers. fut. ind. of Poder. Podremos, AVe may, 1st pers. fut. ind. of Poder. Poet a, s. m. Poet. Poner, v. To put. — Poner las piernas al cdbaUo, To spur, to urge. Ponerme, To put me. Ponia, He put, 3d pers. imperf. ind. of Poner. Por, prep. For, through, by, at. Porque, conj. Because, why. Portia r, v. To strive. Posible, adj. Possible. Prado, s. m. Prairie, park. Prebenda, s. f. Prebend. Preceptor, s. m. Preceptor, teacher. Preeuado, Obliged, past part, of Pre- cis, ir. Precisar, To force, to oblige. Predicar, v. To preach. Preguntar, v. To ask. Pregunti, Asked, 1st pers. past ind. of Preguntur. Presto, adv. Promptly, soon. Pretention, s. f. Pretension. Principio, s. m. Commencement. I'rimiitir, v. To promise. Prometido, Promised, past part, of Promcter. Proponer, v. To propose. Proponerlet, To propose to them. Pr opo n er m e, Propose to me. Proseguir, v. To pursue, to continue. Prosigue, Go on, continue, 9d pers. sing. imperative of Prosegmir. ProtiguiS, Continued, 3d pers. past ind. of Proeeguir. I'uiln, Could, he was able, 3d pers. past ind. iif J'mli r. Pudieee, He could, 3d pers. past ind. of Poder. Pueda, Can, may bo able, I can, 1st and 3d pers. pres. subj. of P»'l>r. Puedc, Is possible, it may be, can, may, 3d pers. pres. ind. of Poder. I',,., I, s, Mayest, canst, thou canst, 2d pers. pres. ind. of Poder. Pues, adv. conj. and interj. Since, then, well. Puesto, Placed, past part, of Poner. — Puesto que, conj. Although, at the same time. Puesto, s. in. Pluce, post, appointment. RES 85 Punto, e. m. Point, moment. Pusieran, Inspired, 3d pers. cond. subj. of Porter. Puso, He put, 3d pers. past ind. of Porter. SEN Que, coiij. As, than, if. — Qui a lo que a mi me, For as. Que, pron, "Who, which, that, what, whereat, wherefore. — Lo que, Which, what. — La que, Which. Queda, Remain, 2d pers, sing, imper. of Quedar. Quedate, Remain thee. Quedaba, Remained, 1st and 3d pers. imperf. ind. of Quedar. Quedar, v. To remain. Quedaron, Remained, 3d pers. past ind. of Quedar. Quedo, He became, 3d pers. past ind. of Quedar. Quedo, adj. Quiet, tranquil, peaceable. Quereis, Will wish, 2d pers. fut. ind. of Querer. Querer, v. To wish, to love, to desire, will,— subs. Will. Querido, Wished, desired, loved, past part, of Querer. Quien, pron. Whom, he who, whomso- ever, any one. Quiera, May wish, 3d pers. pres. subj. of Querer. Quiere, Wishes, you wish, 3d pers. pres. ind. of Querer. Quiero, I wish, I mean, 1st pers. pres. ind. of Querer. Quise, I wished, 1st pers. past ind. of Querer. Quisiere, Should wish, 3d pers. fut. subj. of Querer. Quisieres, Thou shalt please, 2d pers. fut. subj. of Querer. Quiso, "Wished, desired, 3d pers. past ind. of Querer. Quiza, adv. Perhaps. Rasgado, Torn to rags, past part, of Rasgar. Rasgar, v. To tear up. Raya, s. f. Limit, bound. Regalar, v. To regale. Regalaron, They regaled, 3d pers. past ind. of Regalar. Reino, s. m. Kingdom. Reir, v. To laugh. Relieves, s. plu. Fragments. Rertta, s. f. Revenue, income. Repitiendo, Repeating, pres. part, of Repetir. Repeiir, v. To repeat. Reposo, s. m. Repose. Reputacion, s. f. Reputation. Resbalozo, adj. Slippy. Resolucion, s. f. Resolution. Resolver, v. To resolve. Resolvio, He resolved, 3d pers. past ind. of Resolver. Responder, v. To reply. Respondio, Replied, 3d pers. past ind. of Responder. Restccilar, v. To resuscitate. Resuelto, adj. Resolved. Retirar, v. To retire. Retiro, Retired, 3d pers. past ind. of Retirar. Reventaba, I burned with desire, 1st and 3d pers. imperf. ind. of Reventar. Ria, May smile, 3d pers. subj. of Reir. Rico, adj. Rich. Rienda, s. f. Rein. Rio, s. m. River. Risco, s. m. Precipice. Rodela, s. f. Buckler. Rogar, v. To pray, to beg. Ro'lliza, adj. Hardy, romping, rolliking. Romano, adj. Roman. Rompe, Breaks, bursts, 1st pers. pres. ind. of Romper. Romper, v. To break. Ruego, I beg, 1st pers. pres. ind. of Rogar. Ruego, s. m. Prayer, entreaty. ' " >, s. m. Noise. Saber, v. To know. Sabia, You knew, 3d pers. past ind. of Saber. Sabio, s. m. Knowledge, wisdom. Sacar, v. To draw, to secure. — En sa- carle, In rescuing you. Saco, s. m. Sack. Salario, s. m. Salary. Sali, Left, set out, 1st pers. past ind. of Salir. Salir, v. To go forth, to set out. Saltar, v. To leap. Salto, Mounted, 3d pers. past ind. of Saltar. Salto, s. m. Jump, leap, hop. Salud, s. f. Safety. Salvo, adj. Safe. Sazon, s. f. Season. Se, pron. Himself, itself, herself, them- selves. Se, Know, 1st pers. pres. ind. of Saber. See, Let it be, 3d pers. sing, imperative of Ser. Sed, s. f. Thirst. Seguia, Followed, 3d pers. imperf. ind. of Seguir. Seguidamente, adv. Currently, flowingly . Seguir, v. To follow, to pursue. Segun, prep. According to, as. Seis, adj. Six. Semejante, adj. Similar. Senor, s. m. Signor, sir, gentleman. Senora, s. f. Lady. Sentencia, s. f. Sentence. Sentido, Observed, past part, of Sentir. Sentimiento, s. m. Sentiment. Sentir, To smell, to observe. TAN 86 TU Separar, v. To separate. Separarme, To be severed from. Ser, v. To be. Sera, It will be, 3d pers. fut. ind. of Ser. Servido, Served, past part, of Servir. Servir, v. To serve. Si, conj. If. Si, adj. Yes. Si. pron. Himself, herself, itself. Sido, Been, past part, of Ser. Siete, adj. Seven. Sigo, I continue, 1st pers. pres. ind. of Seyuir. Sigue, Continue, follow, 2d pers. sing. imperative of Seguir. Sigamos, We may follow, 1st pers. pros. subj. of Seguir. Silencio, s. m. Silence. Sin, prep. Without. Sino, conj. But, except. Sitio, s. m. Site, place. Sobre, prep. Upon. Sobresaltan, Overwhelm, 3d pers. pres. ind. of Sobretaltar. Sobresaltar, v. To frighten, to alarm. Sulamcnte, adv. Only. Suledad, s. f. Solitude. Soler, v. To be accustomed. Solo, adj. Single, only, — adv. Alone. Son, Arc, 3d pers. pres. ind. of Ser. Sonar, v. To sound, to vibrate. Sonata, It sounded, 3d pers. import, ind. of Sonar. Sonaban, Sounded, 3d pers. imperf. ind. itir. Sordo, adj. Btnnning, deafening. Sosegarse,v. To tranquillise himself. Sog, Am, 1st pers. pres. ind. of Ser. Su, adj. pron. His. her, its, their. Sua, plur. of Su, Their. Suceder, v. To arrive, to happen. Sucedid, It followed) it happened, 3d pers. past ind. of Suceder. Succso, s. m. Success. Sucle, It is accustomed, 3d pers, pres. ind. of Soler. Suerte, a. t. Fate, destiny. Suficientemente, adv. Sufficiently. Suminittraba, Supplied, ministered, 1st and 3d pers. pres. imperf. of Sumini>- trar. Stipe, I knew how, I was able, 1st pers. ind. of Saber. Supo, Knew, 3d pers. past indicative of Saber. Susurro, s. m. Rustling. Sugo, pron. His, hers. T.ti, adj. Such. Talento, s. m. Talent, genius. Talcs, adj. Such. Tambien, adv. Also. Tun, adv. So, so mueli. Tantas, adj. f. plur. So many. Tonto, adj. in. s. So much, that. Tuntos, adj. m. plur. So many. Tardaba, Delayed, 1st and 3d pers. im- perf. ind. of Tardar. Tardar, v. To delay. Tardare, May delay, 3d pers. fut. subj. of Tardar. Te, pron. Thee, to thee. Temeroso, adj. Fearful. Temor, s. m. Fear, dread. Tendra, Will take, 3d pers. fut. ind. of Tener. Tener, v. To have, to hold. Tenerme, To have me. Tenga, Keep, 3d pers. sing, imperative of Tener. Tenqo, I have, 1st pers. pres. ind. of Tener. Tenia, Had, I had, I held, I hoped, she had, 1st and 3d pers. imperf. hid. of Tener. Tenian, They had, 3d pers. imperf. ind. of Tener. Tentar, v. To tempt. Terciar, v. To stop, to arrest. TerciS, Couched, 3d pers. past ind. of Terciar. Tt'-rmino, s. m. Limit. Ternura, s. m. Tenderness. Terrible, adj. Terrible. Testimonio, s. m. Testimony. Tiempo, s. in. Time. Tiene, It has, 3d pers. pres. ind. of Tener. Tienee, Thou hast, 2a pers. pies. ind. of /'' iter. Tiento, a. in. Tact, care. — A tienlo, Warily. Tierro, s. f. Country, ground, earth. Tinieblae, s. f. plur. Darkness. Tio, s. m. Uncle. Tirana, Inclined, tended, 1st and 3d pers. imperf. ind. of Tirar. Tirar, v. To draw, to resemble. Toda, adj. f. All. Todo, adj. and subs. All. 'I'oilos, adj. All. Todavia, adv. Still, yet, always. Toman, Take, 3d pers. pres. ind. of Totnar. Tomando, Taking, pres. part, of Tomar. Tomor, v. To take. Topaba, Encountered, 1st and 3d pers. imperf. ind. of T«p/c and already; either will do; fuera has also occurred before, and has been translated out; do the learner knows to be • J5 per-kay'. see. The translation and pronunciation of all the words we shall introduce in the following exercise having been already given, the learner has no difficulty here to encounter. Che trovarono i viaggiatori ? . Un tesoro. Dove ? ........ Sulla via. Trovarona il cibo ? .... Non Signore. 4 CONSTRUCTION. Trovarono di che mangiare ? Non Signore. Trovarono un tesoro ? . . Si Signore, trovarono un tesoro. Che dissero ? Dissero, noi abbiam fame. Quando ? Quando trovarono il tesoro. Dissero, noi abbiamo di che mangiare ? Non Signore. Dissero, noi abbiamo il cibo ? Non Signore. Che dissero ? Dissero, noi abbiam fame. Dissero, che un di noi vada ? Si Signore, dissero, che un di noi vada a comperar di che mangiare. Quando ? Quando trovarono il tesoro. Parti un d'essi ? .... Si Signore, un d'essi parti. Perche ? Per comperar di che mangiare. Chi trovo un tesoro ? . . . I viaggiatori. Quando trovarono il tesoro, Dissero, che un di noi vada a che dissero ? . . . . comperar il cibo. Quando dissero, noi abbiam fame ? Quando trovarono il tesoro. Quando i viaggiatori dissero, che un di noi vada a comperar di che mangiare rlii parti ? Un d'essi. Quando parti Tun d'essi? . Parti tosto. CONSTRUCTION. Under the head Construction, we shall bring into view- such points of the text as exhibit the general structure of the language. Our object in this, is to furnish the learner with some rules and principles, to guide him in writing Italian. I. I II I ARTICLE. I viaggatori avidi . The avaricious travellers Sa-lo via .... On the road. // cibo The food. It will be seen from the above phrases, quoted from the text, that the English word the is rendered in Italian by a variety of words ; in one case the is represented by ?', in another by la. and in a third bv il ; and. as these different forms of the Italian CONSTRUCTION. 5 equivalent /or the English article cannot be employed indis- criminately, it is necessary that the learner should know when to use the one, and when the other. In Italian, as in most other languages, there are only two genders, the masculine and the feminine ; all objects in nature, as well as men and women, being said to be either male or female ; the word door, for example, in Italian is feminine, whilst the word knocker is said to be masculine. This distinction of inanimate objects by gender has its use. In English, the words the host may mean either an army or a licensed victualler ; in the same way in Italian, the word oste may either signify an army or a tavern-keeper ; but in the one case the word is said to be feminine, in the other masculine ; and a different form of the article being employed under these two circumstances, the meaning intended to be conveyed by the word is thus clearly indicated. Besides the forms of the article employed to point out the genders of nouns, there is another set employed to distinguish the number. In English, when more than one of an object is spoken of, an s is added to the singular form of the word, as the king, the kings. An s is never employed in Italian for this purpose, and it very often happens that a word has precisely the same form in the plural that it has in the singular — as il re\ the king, i re, the kings — the distinction of number depending entirely upon the form of the article. The article serving so many important purposes, the necessity of becoming familiar with its various forms and the cases in which they are employed is apparent. The following table, if carefully committed to memory, will enable the learner to render the English article in all cases correctly. Before masculine nouns* the is rendered by il, as — II signore .... The gentleman. II tesoro .... The treasure. II cibo The food. * We shall not at present give rules for distinguishing the genders of nouns ; the learner must in the mean time judge the genders of the words in the text by the articles he finds before them. 6 CONSTRUCTION. But when the word begins with a vowel, the z'/js changed into l\ as — L'avido The miser. L'inglese .... The Englishman. L'italiano .... The Italian. Before feminine nouns the is rendered by la, as — La Signora . . . The lady. La via The way. La povera .... The poor woman. As in the case of the masculine article, la before a vowel is abridged in /', as — L'avida The female miser. L'intenzione . . . The intention. L'italiana .... The Italian woman. Before masculine nouns in the plural, the is rendered by I, as — I Signori .... The gentlemen. I tesori The treasures. I cibi The eatables. But when a masculine noun in the plural begins with a vowel, i is changed to gli*, as — Gli avidi .... The misers. Gl' inglesi .... The Englishmen. Gl' italiam .... The Italians. the i of the gli being elided before another i. Before a feminine noun in the plural, the is rendered by le, as — Le Signore . . . The ladies. Le vie The ways. Le intension] . . . The intentions. These then are the various points to be attended to by the learner in translating the English article the. It is also to be * For the pronunciation o( yli, sec article Pronunciation, pag« 15. CONSTRUCTION. 7 observed, that when a word begins with z or an s, followed by another consonant, the is rendered by lo, and by gli in the plural. It will be seen by the foregoing table, that masculine nouns generally end in o, and have i in the plural ; that feminine nouns generally end in a, and have e in the plural. The same is the case with adjectives, which must agree in gender and number with the noun they accompany, as — La bella Signora. . The beautiful lady. We shall give some phrases in English, under the head Composition, to be translated into Italian, in order that the learner may make a practical application of these observations. II. Noi abbiam di che mangiare. We have something to eat. Noi abbiamo il tesoro . . . We have the treasure. In the above sentences we have the word corresponding in Italian to the English have, written in one case abbiam, and in another abbiamo. The reason of this is, that all words in Italian end in a vowel, but this final vowel may be omitted whenever such an omission contributes to the harmony of a sentence. The application of this singular attribute in Italian words is, except in a few instances, quite arbitrary ; the learner may omit or employ the final vowel, as well in writing as in pronunciation, according to the dictates of his own taste : this is a matter of euphony in which he is entirely left to himself. III. Abbiam di che mangiare . We have something to eat. Trovarono un tesoro . . They found a treasure. As in the case of final vowels, the use or omission of the pronouns I, we, you, they, etc., is optional. The Italian verbs express these words in their terminations, and consequently in cases where no particular emphasis is wanted it is better to omit them. In ordinary conversation, we would not say, " noi abbiamo un tesoro," but simply " abbiamo un tesoro," the noi, we, being in such a case in a great measure superfluous. 8 CONSTRUCTION. IV. HOW TO ASK A QUESTION. Abbiamo di che mangiare ? Have we anything to eat ? Perche parti ? . . . . Why did he go away ? In English, in asking a question, the practice is to place the pronoun after the verb, as — Have we anything to eat? We have said that the pronouns are not expressed in Italian ; it follows then that a question must be put in the latter language precisely in the same words as the affirmation ; thus, if abbiamo di che mangiare signifies " we have something to eat," the same words, with a note of interrogation at the end, will also signify " have we anything to eat ?" Under certain circumstances, it is the practice in English to use the words do and did in asking questions ; there are no such words as do and did in Italian. The word parti means " he went away ;" so parti t signifies " did he go away ? — the word dissero is " they said ;" so dissero ? is " did they say ?" The construction of a question in Italian is therefore a matter of the utmost possible simplicity. V. Che un di noi vada . . Let one of us go. The learner should not rest satisfied in the study of a language with merely what is told him. An intelligent student will endeavour to find out for himself a great many things. By considering the words of any particular idiom he will endeavour to discover for himself in what it consists, and so dip a little deeper into the subject than what meets his eye. By such means not only a thorough knowledge of a language will be obtained, but also such a critical acquaintance with it as may aid him in the study of cognate subjects. It would be difficult for us to explain at length all the peculiarities of structure that occur in the short portion of text we have given as the subject of the present lesson ; there are man)- phrases, BUch as that we have cited above, whereof the learner must discover the logic for himself; and certainly no great degree of mental exertion is necessary to eomprehend why " that one of us may go" CONSTRUCTION. V signifies " one of us must go ;" but in tracing such relations and exercising the ingenuity in logically identifying an assem- blage of words with the meaning they convey, consists the true art of acquiring language ; and by this kind of inquiry the learner will not only benefit himself, but he will benefit us, in so far as he will profit the more by our instructions, and so promote the practical effect and increase the utility of our method. VI. Sulla via .... On the road. Coll' intenzione . . With the intention. Dei viaggiatori . . Of the travellers. The above sentences occurring in the text, exhibit to us a peculiarity in the Italian construction that requires to be spe- cially noted. In English, the words do not are very generally abbreviated into don't, and it is are not unfrequently made to assume the form 'tis. Something similar takes place in Italian, subject however to fixed and determined rules, which must in all cases be followed. When in Italian any of the preposi- tions, of, at, to, from, with, or in, are immediately followed by a form of the article 4he, the preposition combines with the article and gives birth to a new word. As an example of this, we shall exhibit the combinations formed by the preposi- tion di, of, in conjunction with the various forms of the article the. di and il form del, as del tesoro, of the treasure. de'tesori, of the treasures. della carne, of the meat. delle carni, of the meats. dell' avido, of the miser. degli avidi, of the misers. as nel tesoro, in the treasure. „ ne'tesori, in the treasures. ,, nella carne, in the meat. „ nelle carni, in the meats. „ nelPavido, in the miser. „ negli avidi, in the misers. di >) i 55 dei or de' di 55 la 55 della, di 55 le 55 delle, di 1) 1' 55 dell', di 33 gli 55 degli, i the same way in and il form nel, in 33 l 55 nei or ne' in 33 la 55 nella, in 35 le 55 nelle, in 33 1' 55 nell', in 35 gli 55 negli, 10 , CONSTRUCTION. It will be seen then, that o/and the, when together are not written di and il, or di and la, but are rendered by del before a masculine noun, and della before a feminine word ; in the same way the preposition con, with, and il form col ; the pre- position per, for, and il form pel ; the preposition sw, on, and ?7 form sw/ ; the preposition a, to, or at, and ?7 form al ; and the preposition da, from, and ?7 form dal. These combina- tions going through precisely the same series of changes as the words del and nel that we have declined in full. It is necessary that the learner make himself familiar with the nature of this union of article and preposition, as in writing- Italian he will scarcely meet with a sentence of which one or other of these combinations do not form a part. VII. No, Signore No, Sir. Conversation is undoubtedly the primary aim of every one who studies a modern tongue — all who begin the study of a living language, do so in the hope of one day or other being able to speak it. Aid to the learner in attaining this object, we should imagine, ought to be afforded by the elementary treatises on the subject ; but so far from this being the case, we have not seen any book in the English language that professes to assist the learner in speaking Italian. Apart from any other advantage our method may be found to possess, it will at least be found to render the learner some assistance in this important matter. Teachers appear generally to suppose that the learner should be taught all the words of a language, and all the desinences of the words, before he is taught its colloquial use. We conceive that a learner cannot be too early introduced to the practice of a language : we think that as soon as a few words are known, they may be advantageously made use of. in illustrating the prineiples of conversation. In § IV. we have explained the manner of asking a ques- tion ; we have now to show how a question is answered in where a negation is to be expressed. CONSTRUCTION. 11 It will be observed, from the sentence quoted at the head of this article, that the negative particle wo, is used in precisely the same manner and under similar circumstances in Italian as in English. When, however, a negative sentence embraces an entire proposition, a different kind of expression is employed. In Italian, the negation is constructed by putting the negative particle non before the verb of the sentence, in the following manner — Non so I do not know. Non trovarono un tesoro . They did not find a treasure. If the phrase abbiam fame expresses we are hungry ', then non abbiam fame will express we are not hungry, and so in all other cases the word non is placed before the verb of the affirmative form of the sentence — to say more on this subject would only be to complicate the matter. It will be necessary for the learner to bear in mind, in translating a negative sentence into Italian, that the words do and did, often found in English negations, are a sort of exuber- ance of the English idiom, and are not found employed in the same way in any other language. The learner will have to observe that the expressions I do not know. I did not know. may be expressed quite as well, so far as the sense is concerned, by- I know not. I knew not. The former of these manners of speaking, that containing the do and did, cannot be rendered literally into Italian, whilst the latter may be translated word for word, thus : Non so. Non sapeva. We mention this matter more particularly, as we have often found beginners very much at a loss what to make of the do's and did's in translating English negations. 12 CONSTRUCTION. VIII. La via The way. In all languages there are certain words which, though the same in orthography, are very different in meaning ; this is the case with some of the words that represent the article the in Italian ; and as these words are very much employed in both their significations, it is necessary that the learner be able to distinguish when they are used in one sense, and when in another. When the words lo, la, gli, le, are used before a noun, as in the case of la, in the sentence we have quoted above, they are articles, and are equivalent to the in English ; but when they occur with a verb, they are no longer articles, but pronouns, and require to be translated in the following manner — Lo, with a verb, by him or it, I . u, .. her or it. (H<, „ to him, to them* /-*, ,, tin 1)1. Thus, if the learner meets with lo trovarono, he will be aware, that as trovarono implies an action, lo will have to be rendered by him or it in English. In our next conversational exercise we shall introduce these words in both their capacities, and shall expect the learner to discriminate their meaning without any further explanation. IX. Via signori . . . Come along, gentlemen. The word via in the text of our lesson has simply the signi- fication of a way or road. Via has however a variety of other significations in Italian, amongst which the most remarkable is the one it has in the sentence given above. Via is com- monly used with the verb to go, in the same way as the English adverb away : thus, go away is in Italian andate via ; an expression generally used in eases where be <>//' with yam would !>e used in English. We shall in this way occasionally CONSTRUCTION. 13 allude to the idiomatic use of words occurring in our lesson, so that the learner may be acquiring some notion of the irregu- larities of the language as he proceeds. X. Si, Signore Yes, Sir. The learner, in studying a foreign language, may expect to meet some little peculiarities that may appear very singular ; he will occasionally find combinations of words that are quite new to him, and at the same time very much at variance with all his preconceived notions of the organization of language. This will probably be the case with some of the Italian sen- tences, containing the little word si ; this word as regards its various attributes having no equivalent in the English lan- guage. Si, besides being equivalent to the English abverb yes, is a pronoun, and is rendered in the dictionaries by itself, him- self', or themselves. One or other of these words will gen- erally translate si ; but, in order to comprehend the phrase in which it is so translated, it will be necessary to give a more extended signification to the words itself, etc., than they usually possess. In English, the expressions — The sun discloses himself to the world below, and The sun is disclosed to the world below, convey precisely the same notion, the sentence is disclosed and discloses himself being nearly equivalent ; in the same way in Italian, the primitive meaning of the word si, has been extended to express a passive act, a process performed, or operating by its own agency ; but this principle is carried to a much greater extent in Italian than in English, and the si will be found employed in cases where the English construction will not admit of himself, or itself, being used ; for example, in the following phrases : II pane si mangia . . . thread is eaten. Si dice It is said. The reflective pronoun, itself, cannot be used in English in 14 PRONUNCIATION. such expressions as these : to translate il pane si mangia, by bread eats itself, would be to produce an assemblage of words of which it would be difficult to imagine the import. Si, then, as a pronoun, is used in expressing a reflective act, as si trovo, he found himself, in which the agent and the object are one, and in expressing an action in which no agent appears, as si dice, it is said ; in the first case, the si may be rendered in English by himself, itself, or themselves, as the case may be, but in the second, a part of the verb to be must be employed in translating it. Although, as we have seen, itself, himself or themselves, may in general be considered the equivalents to the pronoun si, there are cases where, in translating si by one or other of these words, a meaning would be given to the sentence in which the si occurs totally opposite to that it was intended to convey ; for example, the phrase Si loda l'uomo virtuoso . The virtuous man is praised. Were we to translate the si in this sentence by one of the English reflective pronouns, we should have " the virtuous man praises himself," a translation that obviously exhibits its own inaccuracv. We shall revert to the use and value of the pronoun si in a future lesson. PRONUNCIATION. ( li \u tCTERISTIt s. Of all the modern European languages, the pronunciation of Italian is most easily acquired without the aid of a teacher. There are no silent letters to embarrass the learner, every word is pronounced precisely as it is written. What contributes most to render the pronunciation of Italian of easy acquisition to the English learner is, that there are no sounds used in it which are not also to be found in English. We have, therefore, no new sounds to teach ; the learner lias only to become familiar with the value of the letters, and his task is accomplished. There are, however, two sounds rarely used in English, but COMPOSITION. 15 which from their frequent recurrence in Italian may be styled the characteristics. These are the liquid sounds of gn and gl, to which we shall now direct the learner's attention. The first of these sounds, that of the gn, presents little diffi- culty ; — it has already occurred in the word Signore. We have written this word — seen-yo-rai. And the learner may readily form a conception of the sound from the manner we have exhibited it in this instance. The letters gl have in Italian the sound of the double I in the English word William, as in the case of the words — Famiglia, family, pronounced fam-eel'-ya. Figlio, son, „ feel'-yo. The only difficulty with this sound, lies in transferring it to gl when these letters begin a word, as in the case of the article gli, the; but a little attention on the part of the learner to the nature of the sound he gives the double I in the word we have named, will enable him to pronounce theglm all cases correctly. An exact conception of the sounds of the gn and gl being formed, there is little else in the pronunciation of Italian that can cause the learner any difficulty. A moderate possession of the sentiment of harmony, and a little attention to the principles of the language, will enable any one to pronounce Italian with a greater degree of purity than two-thirds of the natives themselves. COMPOSITION. The learner must now translate the following phrases in Italian. In order to acquire the detail of a language a little labour is necessary, and care bestowed in writing it will be most productive of advantage in this respect. The learner may translate the whole of the following phrases by means of the words in the text, of which he has already had the translation and pronunciation. His accuracy will depend on the degree of attention he has paid to the preceding exercises, and to our remarks on the structure of the language under the head 16 COMPOSITION. Construction. We shall give a translation of these phrases in the next lesson, so that the learner may compare his translation with ours, and see what degree of accuracy he has attained in writing Italian. The traveller. The treasure. The miser. The treasures. The eatables. The misers. The road. The lady. The intention. The ways. The ladies. The intentions. An Italian. A traveller. A gentleman. Three misers. Three ladies. Three English women. Three poor men. The avaricious gentleman. The avaricious gentlemen. The beautiful Italian lady. The poor lady. The beautiful road. The beautiful Englishwomen. The poor ladies'. The beautiful roa ' > si dissero, they told themselves, [himself, y * The next and last class of pronouns is that to which not, in the sentence, un di noi, one of us, belongs ; they present little difficulty, being written apart from the verb : they are disposed as follows : Me, me, as parlarono di me, they spoke of me. Noi, us, „ parlarono di noi, they spoke of us. Te, thee, „ parlarono di te, they spoke of thee. Voi, you, ,, parlarono di voi, they spoke of you. S^> *! t, • //• c parlarono di se, they spoke of themselves. Lui, him, „ parlarono di lui, they spoke of him. Lei, her, „ parlarono di lei, they spoke of her. Loro, them, ■ „ parlarono di loro, they spoke of them. These pronouns are always used as above, after a preposition. The learner should in the mean time read over these tables attentively, as we shall have occasion to revert to them very frequently throughout the course of our lessons. XIII. Nel recar/a . . . .In bringing it. In speaking of the pronouns, lo, him or it, and la, her or it, we have said that they are placed before the verb, and not as in English after it : for example, instead of saying he said it, 26 CONSTRUCTION. the Italians would say he it said, lo disse. The sentence nel recarla, quoted above, shows that there are some exceptions to this rule, and that these pronouns are sometimes placed as in English after the verb. This happens when the verb is a present participle, or is in the imperative or infinitive moods ; and when such is the case, the pronoun is joined to the verb, and written with it in one word, as recar and la in the sentence before us. It will be observed that the Italians, instead of saying in bringing it, say, in to bring it. The reason of this construc- tion is, that the prepositions govern in Italian the infinitive mood of a verb. XIV. Mangiandone On eating it. Mangiandone, appears in our text as one word, but it in reality consists of two distinct words, the participle present mangiando, on eating, with the pronoun ne attached to the end of it, in accordance with the principle we have stated in the preceding section. This pronoun ne lias no equivalent in the English language. It performs the duties of the French en, and is used under precisely the same circumstances. In a sentence it indicates some object or objects that have previously been spoken of, and must, vary in its English translation according to the nature of the matter to which it alludes. The ne in our text refers to the poisoned meat, and in this case may be rendered in English by some of it. In most cases, some of it, or some of them, will render the pronoun we in English ; as for example in the following phrases, supposing the subject of conversation to be travellers — E d'uopo chio ne avveleni . I must poison sonn of them. Ne trovarono sulla via . They found some of them on the way. Or supposing the subject in question to be poison : Ne abbiamo ? . . . . Have we any of it ? Ne aveva I had some of it. Neavro? Will I not have some of it f CONSTRUCTION. 27 But though some of it, or some of them, may be considered the English equivalents for ne, there are many instances where other expressions would have to be employed in translating this pronoun ; as for example in the following cases : Un d'essi se ne parti . . One of them went away font the others. Ne dissero They spoke about it. These examples will suffice to give the learner a notion of the value of the ne in construction. Once an idea of the nature of the pronoun obtained, there will be little difficulty in recognising its meaning in a sentence. We shall make use of this little word in our next colloquial exercise, in order that the learner may acquire some notion of its use in practice as well as in theory. XV. II suo disegno .... His design. I suoi soci His associates. The possessive pronouns of the Italian language, are — Mio my. Tuo . Suo . Nostro Vostro Loro his. our. your, their. These pronouns agree in number and gender with the person or thing to which they are attached : thus, in the phrase my treasures, the word treasures is of the plural number, and con- sequently the word my in Italian must also be of the plural number. These pronouns vary their terminations in respect of gender and number, as in the case of the adjectives : for example, my, in Italian, is — Mio, with a masculine noun. Miei, with a masculine noun in the plural. Mia, with a feminine noun. Mie, with a feminine noun in the plural. 23 CONSTRUCTION. And all the others, except loro, which is invariable, change their terminations under the same circumstances, in the same manner. It will also be observed by the phrases we have quoted above, that the Italians use the article with the possessive pronouns; and instead of saying as in English, my treasures, say the my treasures, i miei tesori. XVI. Vi trovarono . . . They found you. Ci trovarono . . . They found us. In speaking of the difficult class of pronouns, we give the above two sentences as examples of the use of vi and ci. In the first, we have vi rendered in English by you, and in the second sentence we have ci rendered by us. These are the most common acceptations of vi and ei, and the meanings these words will most generally be found to have ; but they are not their only significations. Besides the simple meaning of you and us, attached to the vi and et, these pronouns, in the posi- tion we see them, that i-, before a verb, are frequently used for to you and to us after a verb : thus, instead of saying — Disse a voi . . . . He said to you. Disse a noi .... He said to us. The Italian construction prefers the expressions — Vi disse He said to you. Ci disse He said to us. The Learner then must bear in mind that vi and ci must sometimes l>e rendered in English by to you and to us, as well :i^ by you and us. I / and ci are also equivalent to the English words here and ////// , and have very frequently these meanings, as — Ci trovarono . . . They found here. Vi trovarono . . . They found there. \\ ben vi and ci occur before a word beginning with t, (lie i is cut off, and its place supplied with an apostrophe, as — ( Here he i^. V'e The.,- he is. PRONUNCIATION. 29 The meanings of vi and ci are somewhat diversified, and consequently require to be very closely observed, in order that a wrong acceptation may not be given to a sentence in which one of them happens to be employed. PRONUNCIATION. There are in Italian, as in English, the five vowels a, e, i, o, and u ; these are pronounced by natives of Florence and Rome in the following manner : a, like a in the English word part. ,, made. e, 55 a h 55 ee o, 55 u, 5? 55 go. „ do. When the accent of a word falls upon the letter e, it occasionally has the sound of e in the English word let. In cases where an e occurring in our lessons should have this sound, we shall represent it by an e accented thus e ; and if the learner bestow a little attention upon the position of the e's that have this sound, his own observation will enable him to judge why and when the e should be so pronounced, even should we give him no rule to guide him in the matter. Beyond this occasional sound of e, the vowels in every case and under all circumstances are each pronounced precisely in the manner we have stated. The letter a, for example, wherever it is found is always pro- nounced like a in part ; nothing therefore exists to prevent the learner from pronouncing the a always correctly, and once the learner can do this, he will have made an essential and important step to a good pronunciation. The organization of Italian in all its details renders the pro- nunciation of the language of easy acquisition by theory. We fear, however, that this very facility may be a bar to its perfect attainment, for generally, where no difficulty exists no pains are taken; and in a case of this kind, in which a well-sustained accuracy is of the utmost moment, a want of attention may be 30 PRONUNCIATION. of the greatest detriment. We know how difficult a thing it is to get an Englishman to imagine an a pronounced in every position and under every circumstance precisely alike. The English orthography is so barbarous, each vowel varying its sound so arbitrarily, that it is almost impossible for an Eng- lishman to form an adequate conception of the real bona fide value of an Italian vowel. In order to drive away the dissi- pated notions of letters he has obtained from his mother tongue, the English learner will have to be extremely watchful in pro- nouncing the Italian vowels; let him not enunciate one in any case without recalling his attention to the sound we have stated it to possess, — let him continue this practice throughout the course of these lessons, and he will ever after pronounce the vowels correctly. It must not be supposed, however, though the vowels are always to be pronounced with the sounds we have assigned to them, that each individual letter is to have the benefit of a clear and distinct enunciation ; this would have the effect of rendering the Italian, instead of being harmonious and chaste in its intonation, drawling, vapid, and monotonous: for instance, in pronouncing such a word as muoiano, where a combination of vowels exist, it would not do to say moo-o-o- (/■/iii. The voice should rest only on the accented vowel, and be made simply to aspirate the others ; if this be done in the case of the word before us, something like mo-yano will be the result. Again, in the pronunciation of such a word as indvbi- tatissiiiuiwSittt , (which by the way the learner may now pro- nounce correctly) the necessity for a rapid enunciation of all the vowels, except that accented, must be apparent. We shall treat this matter more fully when we come to speak of accent ; meantime, let the learner firmly bear in mind that all the o's in Italian are pronounced like <> in part, start, dart ; that all the e's, except those accented, arc pronounced like a in made, fade, wadt .- that all the »"s are pronounced like ee in Si , a. hi en, in en : that all the o's are pronounced like o in 80, go, ii" : and that all the //'s are pronounced like 00 in good, wood, /mud. He may rest assured that he will attain by this means a pronunciation of Italian, not interior, if not superior, to most persons who have undergone the usual course oi oral instruction. 31 COMPOSITION. The. following sentences maybe translated into Italian with the words that have already appeared in the present or preced- ing lessons : the learner, in order to render them correctly, has only to bear in mind what we said under the head Construc- tion of the arrangement of words and of their various mean- ings. As in the case of the exercise on Composition in last lesson, we shall give a translation of the following as an exer- cise in reading in the next lesson. Where did he execute it ? How did he execute it ? He had. What had he ? He had not the treasure. He had not the poison. Had he the meat ? No, he had it not. Who had the meat and the poison ? The companion of the two travellers had the meat. Had he all the meat ? Yes, he had it all. Who had the treasure ? One of the three travellers had it. Was he hungry ? Yes, he was hungry. When was he hungry ? When he had the treasure. Had he any thing to eat ? No, he had nothing to eat. Had the traveller who went away a companion ? He had two companions. He executed ? He did not execute a design. Why not ? Who executed a design ? The traveller who went away executed his design. Why did he execute it ? When did he execute it ? It is necessary. What is necessary sr his One of us must poison companion. Why must one of us poison his companion ? I must eat. He must eat. Must I 2:0 ? When must I go I must go immediately. " . Why immediately ? Must I not go immediately ? Must poison be bought ? Must the traveller be eaten ? Must I eat my companion ? I will have. Will I have all the treasure to myself ? Will I be hungry ? Will I have anything to eat ? I will not have the meat. Why not ? My two companions going along, said, we are hungry and have nothing to eat. One of the travellers went away, not with the design of bringing food, but of buying poison. 32 COMPOSITION, The two travellers going along- said to themselves, we are hungry and must eat our companion. One of the travellers who went away in order to buy food, being hungry, said to himself going along, I must poison my com- panions and so have all the meat to myself. All the three travellers must die of hunger. Why must all the travellers die? Because one of them put poi- son in the food he had brought to eat. But as only one put poison in the food, why should all three die ? Ho said. What did he say ? The traveller who went away said to himself, I will have all the food to myself. When did he sav so ? He said so going along. Did one of the travellers say he had brought something to eat ? Yes, he said so. To whom did he say so ? He said so to his companion. He put. Did he put poison in the meat ? Why did he put poison in the meat ? He is. Where is he ? Where is who ? Where is my companion ? He is on the road. Who is on the road ? The traveller who went away. Who is he ? He is not an Englishman. Ho is an Italian. Your companion is a miser. Is tin 1 traveller avaricious? Yes, he is. Must all the poor travellers die ? YeSj they must all die. LESSON THIRD. BEADING. REPETITION. Aveva. Che aveva ? Non aveva il tesoro. Non aveva il veleno. Aveva la carne ? No, non l'aveva. Chi aveva la carne ed il veleno ? II socio de' due viaggiatori aveva la carne. Aveva tutta la carne ? Si, l'aveva tutta. Chi aveva il tesoro ? L'aveva uno dei tre viaggiatori. Aveva fame? Si, aveva fame. Quando aveva fame? Quando aveva il tesoro? Aveva di che mangiare ? No, non aveva di che mangiare. II viaggiatore che parti aveva un socio? Aveva due soci. Esegui. Non esegui un disegno. Perche no ? Chi esegui un disegno ? II viaggiatore che parti esegui il suo disegno. Perche 1' esegui ? Quando l'esegui ? Dove l'esegui ? Come Fesegui ? E d'uopo. Che e d'uopo ? E d'uopo che un di noi avveleni il suo socio. Perche e d'uopo che egli avveleni il suo socio ? Mi e d'uopo mangiare. Gli e d'uopo mangiare. E d'uopo ch'io vada. Quando e d'uopo ch'io vada ? E d'uopo ch'io vada tosto. Perche tosto ? Non e d'uopo ch'io vada tosto ? E 34 READING. d'uopo comperar veleno? E d'uopo mangiare il viaggiatore ? E d'uopo mangiare il mio socio ? Avrb. Avrb tutto il tesoro per me solo ? Avrb fame ? Avrb di che mangiare? Non avrb la carne. Perche no ? I miei due soci, cammin facendo dissero : noi abbiam fame, e non abbiam di che mangiare. Uno de' viaggiatori parti non col disegno di recar il cibo, ma di comperar veleno. I due viaggiatori cammin facendo dissero fra se stessi : noi abbiam fame, e d'uopo di mangiare il nostro socio. Uno de' viaggiatori che parti onde comperar di che mangiare, perche aveva fame, disse cammin facendo fra se stesso : e d'uopo ch'io avveleni i miei soci, e cosi avrb tutta la carne per me solo. E d'uopo che tutti i tre viaggia- tori muoiano di fame. Perche e d'uopo che tutti i viaggiatori muoiano ? Perche un d'essi pose veleno nel cibo che aveva recato per mangiare. Ma un solo pose il veleno nella carne, perche e d'uopo che tutti muoiano? Disse. Che disse? II viaggiatore che parti disse fra se stesso : avrb tutta la carne per me solo. Quando lo disse ? Lo disse cammin facendo. Uno de' viaggiatori disse, egli aveva recato di che mangiare ? Si, lo disse. A chi lo disse ? Lo disse al suo socio. Pose. Pose il veleno nella carne? Perche pose il veleno nella carne ? E. Dov' e ? Dov' e chi ? Dov' e il mio socio ? E sulla via. Chi e sulla via ? II viaggiatore che parti. Chi e ? Non e Inglese. E Italiano. II vostro socio e avido. E il viaggiatore avido ? Si e avido. E d'uopo che tutti i poveri viaggiatori muoiano ? Si e d'uopo che tutti muoiano. TRANSLATION. 35 I due altri che avevano da! canto loro concertato, durante la sua assenza, di disfarsi di lui, 1'uccisero al suo ritorno, e si trovarono padroni del tesoro. Dopo il loro misfatto, mangiarono i cibi avvelenati, e morirono entrambi. As in the case of the text of the two preceding lessons, we shall first give the pronunciation and accentuation of the words, and then a literal translation of them. The following scheme of the pronunciation will enable the learner to read correctly in Italian the foregoing portion of text. I due altri che avevano, dal canto loro E doo'-y al'-tree kay a-vai'-va-no, dal can'-to lo'ro concertato, durante la sua assenza, di disfarsi concher-ta'-to, doo-ran'-ty la soo'-a as-send'-za, dee dees-far'-see di lui, 1'uccisero al suo ritorno, e si dee loo'-ee, loo-chees'-ero al soo'-o ree-tor'-no, e see trovarono padroni del tesoro, Dopo il tro-var'-ono pa-dro'-nee del tai-so'-ro. Do'-po eel loro misfatto, mangiarono i cibi avvelenati, lo'^ro mees-fat'-to, man-jar'-ono ee chee'-be av-ve-le-na'-tee, e morirono entrambi. e mo-reer'-ono en-tram'bee, TRANSLATION. I due altri che avevano dal canto The two others who had from the side loro concertato, durante la sua their (on their side) concerted, during the his 36 CONVERSATION. assenza, absence disfarsi to rid themselves lui, him, 1 ' uccisero him assassinated at the del of the SUO his tesoro. treasure. ntonio, return, e and si trovarono themselves found mangiarono they ate entrambi. both 1 the Dopo After il the cibi eatables avvelenati poisoned loro their e and padroni masters misfatto misdeed morirono they died PHRASES. The two others Who had determined to rid themselves of him. . . On their side During his absence They killed him on his return And they became masters of the treasure After their misdeed They ate the poisoned food . And they both died . . I due altri. Che avevano concertato di disfarsi di lui. Dal canto loro. Durante la sua assenza. L' uccisero al suo ritorno. E si trovarono padroni del tesoro. Dopo il loro misfatto. Mangiarono i cibi avvelenati. E morirono entrambi. CONVERSATION. Iii the following exercise we shall make use of some second- ary tenses of the verbs in the text : for example, of the verb mangutre, to eat, we shall introduce mangid, he ate; of com- j>( /■(//■< , to buy, we shall employ oompro, he bought : and so in the case of some others. The similarity of these words with the forms in the text will enable the learner easily to recognise them, and the tenor of the sentence will indicate their precise meaning. We shall also introduce abundantly the pronouns Dc and si, and would suggest, previous to going over this ex- ercise, a careful perusal of Sections X. and XIX., wherein the value and construction of these little words are treated. Che avevano concertato gli Avevano concertato il discgno altri due viaggiatori ? di disfarsi del loro socio. Quando 1'avevano concertato? Durante la sua assenza. CONSTRUCTION. 37 Si, esegui il loro disegno ?* . Si, si esegui. Come si esegui ? .... I due altri uccisero il loro socio. Quando l'uccisero ? . . . Al suo ritorno. Aveva il viaggiatore che parti Si, Signori, f dal canto suo concertato un disegno dal aveva concertato il di- canto suo ? segno di avvelenare i suoi due soci. L'esegui ? Si, pose veleno nella carne che loro| aveva recato per mangiare. In che pose veleno ? . . . Lo pose nel cibo. Perche pose veleno nel cibo ? Onde i due soci morissero mangiandolo. Ne mangiarono gli altri due ? Si, ne mangiarono. Chi uccise un de' viaggiatori ? L'uccisero i suoi soci. Perche l'uccisero ? . . . . Onde disfarsi di lui ed avere essi soli tutto il tesoro. Come si trovarono gli altri Si trovarono padroni del tesoro. due dopo il loro misfatto? Si trovarono padroni di altra Si, si trovarono padroni de' cosa (anything else ?) cibi avvelenati. I padroni del tesoro mangia- Si, lo mangiarono. rono il cibo avvelenato ? Ne morirono ? Si, ne morirono. Chiavevaavvelenato la carne ? II viaggiatore che parti. Perche aveva avvelenato i cibi? Onde disfarsi de' suoi soci. Ne mangio ? No, Signori, non ne mangio. Chi ne mangio ? .... I suoi soci ne mangiarono. Quando li aveva avvelenati ? Durante la sua assenza. Durante la sua assenza, che Disse, cammin facendo, e disse ? d'uopo ch'io avveleni la carne onde i miei due soci muoiano mangian- done. Disse altre cose ? .... Si, disse, avro tutto il tesoro per me solo. * It will be observed, that in this sentence the si is employed in its passive capacity, and consequently that the interrogation in question signifies in English, tvas their design executed ? t The letter i being the masculine plural termination, Signori must signify Sirs or Gentlemen, and is only used in Italian in cases where its equivalents would be used in English. % Bear in mind that loro before a noun signifies their, but before a verb, to them. 38 CONVERSATION. Disse, e d'uopo ch'io mangi i miei soci ? Pose il veleno nella came ? Ebbe egli cosi il tesoro a lui solo? Perche no ? Perche parti ? Aveva comprato di che man- giare ? Per chi aveva comprato i cibo? Ne aveva loro recato ? . . Gliene avevano comprato gli altri due ?* Gli avevano recato altra cosa ? Si dissef che i tre viaggiatori trovarono un tesoro. Si disse che avevano concer- tato il disegno di disfarsi del tesoro. Si disse che avevano concer- tato il disegno di uccidere il loro socio ? Si disse che avevano concer- tato di mangiarlo ? Si disse, che il viaggiatore che parti, aveva comprato del veleno ? Si disse che gli altri due man- giarono la carnc avvele- nata ? No, non lo disse. Si, lo pose. No, Signori. Perche gli altri due l'uccisero al suo ritorno, e s'impa- dronirono del tesoro. Per comperar di che mangiare. Si, ne aveva comprato. Per i suoi due soci. Si, ne aveva loro recato. No, non gliene avevano com- prato. No, non gli avevano recato altra cosa. Si, si disse che i viaggiatori, cammin facendo ne tro- varono uno. No, non si disse. Si, si disse che avevano con- certato durante la sua assenza il disegno di disfarsi di lui al suo ritorno. No, non si disse. No, ma si disse che aveva posto del veleno nella carne che aveva recato per man- giare. Si, si disse che la mangiarono. • This Bentence in English is, had they bought /mi/ for him. The first gli being before a verb, is in English to or for him ; and the second being before a noon, is equivalent to the English artiele the. The com- prehension of such phrases as this will depend very much upon the learner's attention to the value and construction of the pronouns. f Si disse, iras it said. Here again the pronoun Si is employed in its passive capacity. CONSTRUCTION. 39 Ne morirono gli altri due ? . Si, ne morirono entrambi. Morirono tutti e tre, i viaggia- Si, tutti e tre, i viaggiatori tori ? morirono. Quando morirono? . . . . L'uno che parti dopo.il suo ritorno, gli altri due dopo averlo ucciso. Come morirono i tre viaggia- I due viaggiatori uccisero il tori ? loro socio che parti, ed essi dopo aver mangiata la carne avvelenata che l'altro aveva recata, mori- rono. CONSTRUCTION. XVII. Dal canto loro . * ... On their side. Each of the English prepositions has its equivalent in Italian : for of, there is di ; for to and at, there is a; for with there is con ; for from, there is da ; and so in the case of all the others. The English and Italians do not however agree in the use of the prepositions ; the Italians often say with, when the English say of and the English frequently make use of with in cases where its equivalent con would be totally inadmissible. Each language has its own peculiar notions and partialities in this matter ; a preposition that is held in high esteem in the one language, appears in the other, like angels' visits, " few and far between." So widely do the two lan- guages differ in the application and use of the prepositions, that though to all intents and purposes di signifies of, in order to render every sentence correctly in which di occurs, it will be necessary to make use of all the English prepositions in turn : nay, though di in a great majority of cases will be correctly translated into English by of, such a translation of di would in very many instances produce nothing but ab- solute nonsense. In the sentence, dal canto loro, on their side, quoted above, we have an example of this mixing up. and substitution of prepositions peculiar to the two languages : in the Italian 40 CONSTRUCTION-. sentence, da, from, is employed, and in the English sentence, on is made use of. In the sentence, al suo ritorno, on his return, occurring in another portion of the text, we have a, to or at, made use of in Italian, and again on in English. In the sentence, disse fra se stesso, he said to himself, the English employ into, and the Italians between ; two words, one would think, differing too widely to be used in expressing the same idea ; but no ; between the two languages, the prepositions of both, by some process or other, have acquired a wonderful degree of affinity, at least in meaning. The dissimilarity between the use of the prepositions of the two languages creates a series of obstacles to the beginner, which he can only overcome by assiduity and attention ; there is no rule of grammar that will tell him to render on their side into Italian by from their side, yet this must be done in order to render the expression correctly. In reading, the learner should not take it for granted that di means of, but he should judge by the context the relation that (//' is used to express, and render it by some other English preposition, if of will not bring out the sense. Such phrases as da/ canto loro and//// se stesso, where a different construction from that made use of in English exists, should be eonsidered as single words, and committed to memory as such ; they will serve as a key to other expressions of a similar nature. In our literal translation of the text, we have given to or at a> the equivalent for a ; but the learner must bear in mind that though to and at maybe the literal acceptations of a, that a may also signify by, with, from, on, and, in short, all the other prepositions of the English language. In order to show the necessity of attending to the value of a preposition, and not to its literal equivalent, we shall give a few examples of the uses to which da, from, are applied in Italian : Parto da Roma . . . I am goings/row/ Rome. Questo dipende n\ te . . . That depends on you. E amato da tutti .... He is loved by all. L'uomo da mantello verde The man with the green mantle. CONSTRUCTION. 4 1 Comincio da fanciullo . . He began at his youth. Casa da vendere .... A house to sell. Stette infermo da sei mesi . He was sick about six months. Non l'ho veduto da tre anni . I have not seen him for three years. Passai da casa vostra ... I passed before your house. Lo disse da burla .... He said it in joke. Were all the da's in these phrases to be translated from, some of them would be totally incomprehensible : what sense, for example, could be gleaned from such a sentence as " a house from to sell," the literal translation of casa da vendere. In translating a preposition, the learner must use his own dis- cretion ; the examples we have given will suffice to show the futility of attempting to translate da by any single word of the English language; and whatever may be the English equivalent for any of the other Italian prepositions, the learner must bear in mind that he is at liberty to choose amongst all the English ones that best calculated to exhibit clearly the sense conveyed by the text. XVIII. Gliene avevano comprato gli Had the other two bought any altri due ? for him ? No, signori,non gliene avevano No, gentlemen, they had not comprato. bought any for him. The chief difficulties that will present themselves to the learner when he begins to read Italian arise from the con- struction of the pronouns. These little words are disposed in the two languages very differently ; their arrangement in English is simple, natural, and clear, but in Italian this is far from being the case : the construction of the pronouns is highly artificial, involves the most complex intricacies of the language, and embraces its most puzzling combinations. It is only by a close attention to the relative position and conse- quent value of these words, that the learner can arrive at facility in comprehending an Italian author, or hope to attain an exact notion of the genius of the language. We have already alluded to the uses of the pronoun si in composition, G 42 CONSTRUCTION. and we have had occasion to observe that si, as well as several other pronouns, are also other parts of speech, and consequently are represented in English by a set of words of a totally dif- ferent import. We have now to speak of another peculiarity that contributes much to increase the embarrassment of the beginner. The most powerful operating cause in Italian is harmony ; to this leading principle everything else must yield ; letters and even entire syllables are destroyed or created in obedience to the dictates of the ear, and the pronouns, in common with the other words of the language, are subject to variations in their orthography on this account. When any of the pronouns, mi, ti, si, ci, or vi, occur with lo, la, li, le, or ne, the i's of the former are changed into e ; as, Ve lo recai .... I brought it to you. Ce lo reco .... He brought it to us. Me lo reco .... He brought it to me. Te lo recai .... 1 brought it to thee. Thus it is correct to say, mi teed, he brought me, but an error to write or pronounce, mi lo reco, he brought it to me. It will be seen from this, that si and the other pronouns in i are sometimes written with e, and it is of the greatest importance that the learner be sufficiently familiar with these euphonic changes to recognise a particular word in the various forms it may hence assume. We have stated, Section XIII., that the pronouns in Italian are generally placed before the verb, unless the verb be a participle, or in the infinitive or imperative moods ; with either of these last forms, the pronouns modified in the manner we have pointed out are placed, as in English, after the verb, but written with it as one word, in the following manner : — Recatemelo Bring it to me. Recatemene Bring me some of it. Rccatemeli Bring them to me. The i of gli is retained to preserve the liquid sound of the gl ; but in order at the same time to maintain the euphony, when gli occurs with another pronoun, an r is inserted between CONSTRUCTION. 43 them, and whether before or after a verb, both pronouns are written together; as, Glielo rec6 . . He brought it to him. Gliene recai . . I brought some of it to him. The phrases we have quoted at the head of this article are also examples of the construction of gli. The euphonic changes and various meanings of these little words constitute the real difficulties the learner has to overcome ; and, after all, they are of no great magnitude ; a little attention to the examples we have given will enable him to see his way clearly enough. XIX. Si trovarono padroni del tesoro They found themselves masters of the treasure. Avevano concertato di disfam They had determined to rid di lui. themselves of him. We promised in Sec. X. to revert to the use of the pronoun si. The sentences quoted above, occurring in the text, give us occasion to redeem our promise. In both these sentences, however, the si is equivalent to the English reflective pronoun themselves, and consequently has its simplest meaning. It is when employed in expressing a passive act, that it will present any difficulty to the learner. In the Conversation of the present lesson, we have occasionally employed si in its passive capacity ; for example, Si esegui il suo disegno ? . Was his design executed ? Si, si esegui Yes, it was executed. Si disse It was said. The other words of these sentences being known, the value of si will be apparent, and will enable the learner to form such a conception of its attributes, as to employ the pronoun cor- rectly in translating sentences of a similar nature from English into Italian. 41 PRONUNCIATION. XX. Trov-arono . They found. Trov-6 . . He found. Mangi-arono They ate. Mangi-6 . He ate. Concert-arono They concerted. Concert-6 . He concerted. It will be observed, that these verbs are all of the past tense and third person, — that the plural terminates in arono, and the singular in o. This being the case with the greater part of the Italian verbs, the learner may form third persons of the past tense from some of the other verbs that occur in the text. For example, from comperare, to buy, may be formed compr- arono, they bought, and compr-o, he bought ; from avvelenata, poisoned, may be formed avvelen-arono, they poisoned, and avvelen-o, he poisoned ; and again, such third persons as occur in the text, by reversing the process, may be changed into infinitives ; for example, from trov-arono, they found, may be formed trov-are, to find ; and from concert-arono, they con- certed, may be formed concert-are, to concert. In the exer- cises on writing Italian, under the head Composition, the English of some forms of the verbs in the text will be intro- duced, which the learner may construct himself on the prin- ciple we have pointed out. PRONUNCIATION. « ONSONANTs. With (lie exception of the letters c and z, the consonants are pronounced in Italian precisely as they are in English. The letter c in English, before a, o, and a, is pronounced like //, as in the words cat, cot, cut, and so it is in Italian. Before the other two vowels e and i, the consonant c has the sound ot s in English ; but in Italian, c before e and /, is pronounced like c/i in the English word cheese : for example, the word Cibo is pronounced chec'-ho. Faccndo ,, fa-chen'-do. Conccrtato ,, ton-ditr-ta'-to. The letter c then is pronounced exactly as in English, except when it OCCUTS before an < or ;m »" and then it has a sound PRONUNCIATION. 45 that is never given to it by the English. The consonant z is pronounced like ds, the d being very slightly enunciated : for example, the word Intenzione is pronounced een-tend-zee-6-ny . Assenza ,, as-send'-za. And so in all other cases the letter z is pronounced as in English with a slight tinge of the d sound prefixed. In order to pronounce the Italian consonants in all cases accurately, the learner has only to bear in mind the peculiar- ity we have stated, attached to the sound of the z ; and to give c before e and i the sound of ch in the English word named. The letter _/ is very rarely used by modern Italian authors : in cases where it occurs, it is considered to be equivalent to double i, and is pronounced accordingly. The letter h may also be deemed to have no existence in Italian ; this letter has no actual sound in the language, it is never pronounced under any circumstances. There are, however, some uses to which it is applied that require to be noticed here. The word has is written ha, to distinguish it from the prepo- sition a, to ; but, notwithstanding this distinction, ha and a are pronounced in exactly the same manner. We have said that c before e and i is pronounced like ch in cheese ; when an h is inserted between the c and the e or i, then the c acquires its hard sound, and is pronounced like k, as in the word che, that, pronounced hay, and chi, who, pronounced kee. The consonant h is also used in Italian, to give the hard sound to g before e and i. In English, g is pronounced hard before a, o, and u, as in the words got, gap, gun ; and soft before e and i, as in the words gin, gem. In Italian, the g under similar circumstances is pronounced exactly in the same manner. This rule is, however, often set at defiance by the English, for in such words as get and give, g has the same sound before e and i, that it has before o, a, and u. There are no vagaries of this kind in Italian, g is always hard before a, o, and u, and always soft before e and i, in the language of Dante. When it is necessary that g should be hard before e or i, the h is made use of, and then the g being followed by a consonant, has of course 46 PRONUNCIATION. its hard sound. In such words as laghi, lakes, the plural of lago, a lake, pronounced lag -ee ; leghee, alliances, plural of lega, an alliance, pronounced leg-ai, h is employed as we have said, simply to give the hard sound to the g before e and i, which otherwise it would not have. The combinations ch and gh, then, may be considered to form two actual consonants of the Italian alphabet ; the one equivalent to the letter k, and the other to g, of the English word get. All the consonants used in Italian are used in English, but all the consonants made use of in writing English are not found in Italian ; the letters k, w, x, and y, being somewhat uncouth in form, and decidedly gothic in sound, have been expunged from the Italian alphabet ; none of these letters are employed by modern Italian writers under any circumstances. Nothing more need be said of the single consonants : we shall now speak of some peculiarities to be attended to in pronouncing two of them when together. DOUBLE CONSONANTS. The orthography of the English language having little or nothing to do with its pronunciation, it may be readily supposed that double consonants are occasionally pronounced like single ones, and vice versa,* — for example, in the words very and sorry, we have a single r in the one, and a double r in the other, both of which are nevertheless pronounced as nearly as possible alike. This is not the case in Italian : when two consonants occur in an Italian word, both are distinctly enun- ciated, and a sufficient pause must be made between them to show that they are so, — for example, we have said viagyi- atore is pronounced as if written vec-aj-jee-a-tu-ry, but in order that this word may be accurately pronounced, a distinct and unequivocal pause must be made between the syllables aj and jee, and as in the case of gg in the word before us, a pause must be made in the same way between the letters of every * A gentleman well (nullified to judge in matters of English ortho- epy lias favoured lis with the Sight of a work on the eve of publication. in which he urges the necessity of denuding the English language of about five hundred Buperfluoui Pa, COMPOSITION. 47 double consonant in the language ; this is one of the essential characteristics of the Italian pronunciation, and must not be neglected by the student desirous of speaking the language with purity. The combinations cc before e and i, and zz, however, will have to be considered rather as characters repre- senting single sounds than as double letters. We have said that single z is pronounced like ds ; when double, it has not the sound of two ds's but of ts, as in the word rizzare, to rise, pro- nounced reet-sd-ry* In the same way, double c before e and i, is pronounced like single c before these vowels ; that is, like ch in the English word cheese, with this difference, that double c is enunciated with greater force ; cc before e and i should be pronounced like tchin the English words witch, ditch. Double c before a, o, and k, is equivalent to two k% as in the word ecco, behold, pronounced ek-ko. These remarks, conjoined with what we have said of the vowels, will enable the learner to pronounce Italian correctly, so far at least as the letters are concerned. In our next lesson we shall speak of the pronun- ciation of the words as affected by accent. COMPOSITION'. He ate. They killed. What did he eat ? Who did they kill ? He ate the meat. They killed one of their com- They ate. panions. What did they eat ? How did they kill him ? They ate one of their com- He bought. panions. What did he buy ? Did they eat anything else ? He bought the meat. Yes, they ate the poisoned When did he buy it ? meat ? Where did he buy it ? It was eaten. Why did he buy it ? What was eaten ? They bought. The meat was eaten. What did they buy ? When was it eaten ? The v bought something to eat. He killed. He had. Who did he kill ? What had he ? Why did he kill him ? He had poison. * In a few words zz has the sound of ds, as in the case of mezzo, midst, and occasionally single z has the sound of ts, as in the word zucchero, sugar ; but such exceptions to the rule we have given are not numerous. 48 COMPOSITION. They had. What had they ? They were hungry. Had they anything to eat ? No, they had not. Had they anything else ? Yes, they had a treasure. The poison is bought. The treasure is found. The food is eaten. The design is concerted. The meat is poisoned. The traveller is killed. Travellers, where is your com- panion ? We have eaten him. How ! eaten him. Yes, we have eaten him. One of the travellers poisoned the meat, the two others ate it, and so all three died. The traveller who went away killed with poison his two companions. The two others on their side executed a concerted mis- deed. One of the travellers executed his design, bought some- thing to eat, found poison, put it in the meat, and killed histwocompanions. The two others found a trea- sure, bought the food, concerted a misdeed, exe- cuted their design, killed theircomrade,ate the poi- soned meat, and died. The poison killed the masters of the treasure, and they killed the master of the poison. Two of the travellers killed and ate their companion. The two others killed f.heir companion : he being assassinated they became masters of the treasure ; but after their misdeed they died poisoned. How ! ate their companion ? Yes, they ate him, and after- wards died of hunger. Had they nothing else to eat ? No, gentlemen : they were hungry, and had nothing besides their companion to eat. Had they not wherewithal to buy food ? Yes, they had a treasure, but one of them went off with it, and so they had not wherewithal to buy food. Poor travellers ! but it was said that one of them went away to buy food. Yes, but he put poison in the meat, and so his com- panions killed and ate him on his return. But it was said, that he had during his absence con- certed the design of ridding himself of them. Yes, he said to himself going along, I must buy poison in order to poison my com- panions, and so become master of the treasure. My poor companion is poi- soned. Who poisoned him ? His two companions, during his absence, concerted the design of ridding them- selves of him, and poi- soned him on his return. Why did they poison him? LESSON FOURTH. READING. REPETITION. Mangio. Che mangid ? Mangio la carne. Man- giarono. Che mangiarono ? Mangiarono un de' loro soci. Mangiarono altra cosa ? Si, mangiarono la carne avvelenata. Si mangio. Che si mangio ? Si mangio la carne, Quando si mangio ? Uccise. Chi uccise? Perche l'uccise? L'uccissero. Chi uccisero ? Uccisero un de' loro soci. Come l'uccisero ? Compro. Che compro ? Comprd la carne. Quando la compro ? Dove la compro. Perche la compro ? Comprarono. Che comprarono ? Comprarono di che mangiare. Aveva. Che aveva? Aveva il veleno. Avevano. Che avevano ? Avevano fame. Avevano di che mangiare ? No, non ne avevano. Avevano altra cosa? Si, avevano un tesoro. II veleno e comprato. II tesoro e trovato. II cibo e mangiato. II disegno e concertata. La carne e avvelenata. II viaggiatore e ucciso. Signori viaggiatori dov' e il vostro socio ? Noi lo abbiamo mangiato. Come ! lo avete mangiato ? Si, lo abbiamo mangiato. Un de' viaggiatori avveleno la carne, i due altri la mangi- 50 READING. arono, e cosi tutti e tre morirono. 11 viaggiatore che parti uccise col veleno i suoi due soci. I due altri dal canto loro eseguirono un misfatto concertato. Un de' viaggiatori esegui il suo disegno, comprd di che mangiare, trovo del veleno, lo pone nella carne, ed uccise i suoi soci. I due altri trovarono un tesoro, comprarono il cibo, concertarono un misfatto, esegui- rono il loro disegno, uccisero il loro socio, mangiarono la carne avvelenata e morirono. II veleno uccise i due padroni del tesoro, ed essi uccisero il padrone del veleno. Gli altri due uccisero il loro socio, ucciso lui, si trovarono padroni del tesoro, ma dopo il loro misfatto morirono avvelenati. Due de' viaggiatori uccisero il loro socio e lo mangiarono. Come! lo mangiarono ? Si, lo mangiarono e dopo morirono di fame. Non avevano altra cosa per mangiare ? Non signore, avevano fame ma non avevano altra cosa che il loro socio da mangiare. Non avevano di che com- perar il ciho ? Si, avevano un tesoro, ma uno d'essi parti con quello e cosi non avevano di che comperar il cibo. Poveri viaggiatori ! ma si disse che uno d'essi era partito per comperare di che mangiare ? Si, ma avendo posto del veleno nella carne, i suoi soci Fuccisero al suo ritorno, e lo mangiarono. Ma si disse che durante la sua assenza aveva concertato il disegno di disfarsi di loro. Si, disse fra se stesso cammin facendo, e d'uopo chi'o vada per comperar del veleno onde avvelenare i miei soci e cosi impa- dronirmi del tesoro. II mio povero socio e avvelenato. Chi l'avveleno ? I suoi soci durante la sua assenza concertarono il disegno di disfarsi di lui, ed al suo ritorno Favvelenarono. Perche 1'avvelenarono ? TRANSLATION. 51 CONTINUATION OF TEXT. Un filosofo che s'avvenne a passare per quel sito disse : Ecco come furono trattati questi tre uomini ! Guai a coloro che hanno ambizione di ricchezze. As in the case of the preceding portions of text, we shall first give the pronunciation of the above, and then its transla- tion. The following is a table of the pronunciation and ac- centuation. Un Oon filosofo fee-lo'-sofo per per trattati quel kwel questi che kay sito, disse : ee'-to, dees'-sy : tre uomini ! s avvenne a sa-ven'-ny a Ecco come ek'-ko co'-my Guai a tra-ta'-tee kwes'-tee tre oo-o'-miny ! Goo-a'.ee a che hanno ambizione di ricchezze. kay an'-no am-beed-zee-o'-ny dee reek-ket-zy. pas-sa -ry furono foo'-rono coloro co-lo'-ro TRANSLATION. Un filosofo che s ' avvenne a A philosopher who himself happened to passare per to pass (was passing) by quel sito, disse : Ecco that place, said: Behold come furono trattati questi tre uomini ! how have been treated these three men ! Guai a coloro che hanno ambizione di Woe to those that have desire of ricchezze. riches. 52 CONVERSATION. In the present colloquy we shall introduce the following new words, with which the learner will have to make himself acquainted : Fu, he, or it was, pronounced foo. Morto, dead, „ morto. N *> &2U - nay - Bene, well, ,, bainy. Buono, good, ,, bwono. Male, ill, „ ma!$. We have also introduced abundantly the pronouns vi and ci, spoken of under the head Construction, Sections XII. and XVI. We have made use of these words in all their accepta- tions, so that the learner may be exercised in detecting the precise meaning any one of them may have in a sentence. Vi may signify you, or there, or to you ; and the learner, by con- sidering the words with which it is accompanied, must find out for himself which of these three meanings it may have in any particular case. The learner, in going over the following exercise, would also do well to observe the value of the pronoun ne in the sentences in which we have made use of it. Ne has no equivalent in the English language ; it corresponds with the French en, and is of constant occurrence in Italian colloquial phrases. Dove s'avvenne a passare un S'avvenne a passare per il filosofo ? sito dove i viaggiatori morirono. Che vi disse ? Vi disse, ecco come furono trattati questi tre uomini. Vi disse altra cosa ? ... Si, disse : guai a coloro chc hanno ambizione di ric- chezze. A chi disse questo ? . . . Lo disse fra se stesso. Quando lo disse ? ... Quando s'avvenne a passare per il sito dove si trova- rono i viaggiatori. Dove morirono i viaggiatori ? Sul cammino. CONVERSATION. 53 i? Uno fu ucciso, gli altri due furono avvelenati. Quello che parti, dopo il suo ritorno, gli altri due dopo averlo ucciso. Un filosofo. Disse, guai a coloro che hanno ambizione di ricchezze. Dove morirono. Ne trovo tre. Quando s'avvenne a passare per quel sito. Furono trattati male. L'uno fu ucciso, gli altri due furono avvelenati. Furono sulla via. Si, vi trovarono un tesoro ? Si, vi concertarono un misfatto. Si, vi dissero : abbiam fame. Si, vi dissero: che un di noi vada a comperar di che mangiare. Si, vieseguironoillorodisegno. No, Signore.f Si, vi avevano un tesoro. Si, s'impadronirono del tesoro. Si, mangiarono i cibi avvele- nati. Fu sul cammino. Disse e d'uopo ch'io avveleni il cibo, Vi esegui il suo disegno. * This ne may be translated ofit; but the sense of the interrogation will be rendered much clearer by translating the we, on the subject. The question, Che ne disse, implies, What did the philosopher say thereupon ? f The singular masculine and the feminine plural of this word being written in the same manner, Signore may signify either Sir or ladies. We intend the word in the present exercise to have the latter signifi- cation. Come morirono i viaggiatori Quando morirono i viaggia- tori ? Chi trovo i viaggiatori quando furono morti ? Che ne* disse ? Dove trovo il filosofo i viag- giatori ? Quanti viaggiatori vi trovo ? Quando li trovo ? Furono i viaggiatori trattati bene o male ? Come male ? Dove furono i viaggiatori ? . Vi trovarono qualche cosa ? . Vi concertarono qualche cosa? Vi dissero qualche cosa ? Vi dissero altra cosa ? . . . Vi eseguirono qualche cosa ? Vi comprarono qualche cosa ? Vi avevano qualche cosa ? . Vi s'impadronirono di qualche cosa ? Vi mangiarono qualche cosa ? Dove fu il viaggiatore che parti ? Che vi disse ? Che vi esegui ? 54 CONVERSATION. Che vi reed ? Che vi avveleno ? . . . . Ci furono* due viaggiatori avvelenati ? Ci furono tre uomini morti sulla via ? Ci furono dei viaggiatori uccisi sul cammino ? E questo possibile ? . . . Ci fu della came recata ai viaggiatori ? Ci fu veleno nella came ? Ci fu un tesoro sul cammino ? Chi reco la came ? . . . . Chi vif pose veleno ? . . . Chi la mangio ? .... Chi esegui un disegno ? . Chi compro il cibo ? Chi uccise quel viaggiatore ? Chi aveva trattato male i viaggiatori ? C'lii disse, guai a coloro che hanno ambizione di ric- chezze ? Quan ti viaggiatori vi furono ? Quanti ve ne furono avvele- nati ? Quanti ve ne furono uccisi? . Quanti uomini furono trattati male ? Quanti furono trattati bene ? Come aveva il viaggiatore che parti avvelenatolacame? Come furono trattati i viaggia- tori ? Aveva il viaggiatore che parti un disegno ? Fu buono ? Vi reco il cibo. Vi avveleno la carne. Si, ce ne furono due. Si, ce ne furono tre. Si, ce ne furono. Si, e possibile. Si, ce ne fu. Si, ce ne fu. Si, ci fu. II viaggiatore che parti. Un dei tre viaggiatori. I suoi soci. II viaggiatore che parti ne esegui uno, e gli altri due ne cseguirono un altro. 11 viaggiatore che fu ucciso. Gli altri due. Furono trattati male da loro stessi. Lo disse il filosofo. Ce ne furono tre. Ce ne furono due. Ce ne fu un solo. Ce ne furono tre. Non ce ne fu alcuno. Vi pose veleno. Furono trattati male. Si, ne aveva. Non, Signore, non fu buono. * Bear in mind, that as ci signifies there, Ci furono ? is equivalent to Were there? t The signification (fans, possessed by vi, is somewhat extended in this sentence. In this and similar casesjttt'li equivalent in therein, or in it. CONSTRUCTION. 00 Avevano gli altri due un Si, ne avevano. disegno ? Chi fu al sito dove morirono i Ci fu il filosofo. viaggiatori ? Facendo che ? Camminando. Che vi disse ? Disse, ecco come furono trat- tati questi tre uomini, guai a coloro che hanno ambizione di ricchezze. Vi furono tutti tre i viaggia- Si, vi furono tutti. tori? Furono uccisi ? Si, lo furono. CONSTRUCTION 1 . XXI. Guai a coloro che hanno am- Woe to those who desire bizione di ricchezze. riches. Ecco come furono trattati Behold how these three men questi tre uomini ! have been treated ! The little pronoun cid corresponds with the English words this and that, when no particular object is pointed out, as in the phrase cioe\ that is ; but when this and that involve an idea of proximity, as they generally do, cid is not sufficiently explicit to translate them. The English demonstrative pro- noun this is used to indicate an object near the speaker, and in such a case is rendered in Italian by questo before a masculine noun, and by questa before a feminine word ; as, Di che e questo tesoro ? . Whose treasure is this ? Chi e questa signora ? . What is this lady ? The English demonstrative this becomes these when used to determine several objects ; and in the same way questo be- comes questi and queste ; as, Di chi sono questi tesori ? . Whose treasures are these ? Chi sono queste signore ? . Who are these ladies ? The English demonstrative that is used to designate an object 50 CONSTRUCTION. at a little distance from the speaker, and is rendered in Italian by quello before a masculine, and by quella before a feminine noun ; as, Di chi e quel tesoro ? . Whose treasure is that ? Chi e quella signora ? . Who is that lady ? The plural of that is those, and those is rendered in Italian by quelli or quei, and quelle ; as, Di chi sono quel tesori ? . Whose treasures are those ? Chi sono quelle signore ? . Who are those ladies ? Besides the words we have named, there is another pronoun employed in Italian, in cases where this and that are made use of in English. This pronoun is cotesto, which, like the others, changes its termination to agree in number and gender with the noun it is employed to determine. It is difficult to state the precise circumstances under which this last pronoun should be made use of. Italian grammarians do not appear to have made up their minds on the subject, as no two of them coincide in their opinions of the matter. The best writers appear to employ cotesto instead of questo and quello, when such substi- tution of the pronouns tends to increase the harmony of a period. Cotesto, however, is invariably used in expressing an object at a little distance from another object ; as, Datemi cotesta came . . Give me that meat beside you. There is still another set of pronouns made use of in Italian, as demonstratives ; these are — Costui, this, masculine. Colui, that, „ Costei, this, feminine. Colei, that, „ Costoro, these, „ Coloro, those, „ These last named pronouns are never used with nouns; they are only employed in speaking of persons, never of things. In familiar language they express contempt, and in an elevated style quite the reverse : as, CONSTRUCTION. 57 Dite a colui che se ne vada . Tell that fellow to be off. Coloro che desiderassero ap- Those persons who may wish plicarsi alio studio della to study Italian. lingua Italiana. The number of Italian demonstratives renders it somewhat difficult to translate this and that correctly. In the great majority of cases, this will be correctly translated by questo, and that by quello, providing the terminations of these words are made to correspond in gender and number with the nouns they determine. The learner who knows something of Latin, and is familiar with the construction of Me and iste, will readily comprehend the value of the Italian demonstratives. XXII. Mangiarono la carne . . They ate the meat. Mangio la carne . . . He ate the meat. E d'uopo mangiarla ... It must be eaten. Mangiandone On eating it. The different forms of the verb mangiare, to eat, in the above sentences, have already been cited as models for the formation of corresponding tenses of other verbs. There is a form of the verb, however, that the text does not furnish us with an example ; we mean the form in which a command is given. This form is called the imperative mode, and is usually constructed by adding ate to the root of a verb, in the follow- ing manner : And-ate a Roma . . Go to Rome. F&rl-ate Italiano . . Speak Italian. D-ate-mi da pranzo . Give me some dinner. F-ate-mi il piacere . Do me the favour. In the same. way from the verb mangi- aue, to eat, in the text, may be formed mangi-ATE, eat ; from rec-ATO, brought, may be formed rec-ATE, bring ; and so on with the greater part of the others. We shall introduce, under the head Composi- tion, some English sentences involving a command, which, by keeping this construction in mind, the learner will be able to render correctly in Italian. 58 CONSTRUCTION. XXIII. Ecco come furono trattati Behold how these three men questi tre uomini ! have been treated ! The word ecco, in the above sentence, is very useful in Italian. It is a lineal descendant from the Latin cccc, which itself is derived from the imperative of an old Greek verb, signifying to see ; so the idea of seeing is an essential in the word ecco. In cases where look here or see there, would be used in English, ecco is used in Italian ; for example, such an expression as " Sec ! the traveller," would be rendered in Italian by, Ecco! il viaggiatore. What wc have chiefly to observe at present with regard to ecco is, the pronouns that we have said (Section XVIII.) are attached to the end of certain forms of the verbs, arc also written with ecco in precisely the same manner ; as, Eccomi Here I am. Ecconcli Here is some of it for them. Eccogliene Here are some them for him. Eccola Here she is. In reading, the learner must boar in mind that cccogliene is an assemblage of words : and in writing, the learner must take care to unite such words together as in the examples before us. tUGMSNTATIVBS AM) DIMINUTIVES. Italian nouns and adjectives arc susceptible to an enormous extent of expressing different shades and degrees of an object by the addition of certain syllables. For example, the word stanza signifies a room or chamber; .s7fl»:-ONE, a very large room ; fftanz-ACClA, a very large ugly room ; stanz-vcciA, an elegant room; stauz-ixo, a neat little chamber; stcmz-vcciACCiA, a little ugly disagreeable apartment. These and other syllables are made use of to modify in the same way the greater portion of the words of the language. It would be difficult to give any rules for the learner in a matter of this kind ; the shades of meaning given to the words by the addition of these syllables, are often so very nice that it is even difficult to translate the CONSTRUCTION. 59 word into English. We shall give a few words, with the various modifications of which they are susceptible ; these will serve the learner, if studied attentively, to modify other words, and to judge in reading, whether a particular word is so modi- fied or not. Bestia, a beast ; bestione, a great beast ; bestiaccia, a great ugly beast ; bestiuolo, a little beast ; bestiuolino, a very small insignificant beast. Cappello, a hat ; cappellone, a large hat ; capellaccio, a great ugly hat ; cappellino, a neat little hat ; cappell- uccio, a shocking bad hat. Canzone, a song; canzonaccia, a barbarous song; canz- onetta, a little song ; canzoncina, a sweet little song. Donna, a lady ; donnone, a huge woman ; donnaccia, a huge fright ; donnetta, a little lady ; donnuccia, a very little woman ; donnicchiola, a disagreeable young gossip. Giovine, a young man; giovinastro, a libertine; giovinotto, a fine young man ; giovine t to, a nice young man. Giallo, yellow ; gialletto, very yellow ; giallino, rather yel- low : gialluccio, yellowish; giallastro, particularly yel- low ; giallognola, intolerably yellow. Ladro, a vagabond ; ladrone, a very great rogue ; ladraccio, a villain; ladronnaccio, a wretch; ladroncello, a rascal. Poco, little ; pochetto, very little; pochino, particularly little ; pocolino, infinitely little : pochettino, ever so little. The foregoing is a fair example of a peculiarity that con- stitutes one of the essential features of Italian, at the same time thatit adds much to the strength and expression of the language. ADVERBIAL LOCUTIONS. In all languages, there are certain assemblages of words that are often very expressive collectively, ^but signify nothing when considered individually. The English phrase by and by is an example of the kind of expressions to which we allude. This singular combination of words signifies in English an indefinite 60 CONSTRUCTION. period of time ; but what the words taken separately have to do with this idea, is certainly by no means clear. Translated literally into Italian, by and by would signify nothing what- ever ; and had an Italian no other key to the phrase than a mere translation of the words, he certainly never would be able to comprehend it. The same is the case with some familiar locutions in Italian, a literal translation of the words would not show the meaning ; as the dictionary will not therefore in all cases aid the learner in discovering the signification of these expressions, we shall give the most useful of them, together with their literal translation, and their equivalents in English. Literal Translation. Meaning. Di poi . . . . of then . . . . since. Di certo . . . . of certain . . certainly. Di notte . . . . of night . . . by night. Di buon'ora . . . of good hour . . early. Di subito . . . of soon . suddenly. Di soppiatto . of hidden . . . secretly. Di fresco . of fresh . . . . freshly. Di rado . . . . of rare . , . . rarely. Del resto . . . of the rest . . . otherwise. Di quando inquando of when in when . . now and then Di capo . . . from head . . . anew. Da parte . . . from part . . . apart. Da quando in qua ? from when in there since when ? D'allora in qua . . from then in there since then. A minuto . . . (if minute . . . in detail. A tenore . . . at substance . . agreeably. A norma . . . at rule .... accordingly. A quattr'occhi . . at four eyes . . face to face. A un di presso . . at one of near . . , nearly. All ingrosso . at the great wholesale. Alia lunga . . . at the length. . . along. Alia sfuggita . . at the flight . . in passing. Alia rinfusa . a! the mixed . , . tumbled. A bello studio . . at Jim study . expressly. Per l'appunto . . for the appointment exactly. Non ha guari . . not has much . . recently. Spesse volte . t expression they appear to derive from their native tongue the GaeHci undoubtedly of Ea tern origin. IDIOMS. 69 ^uanto tempo siete stato in How long have you been in Inghilterra ? England ? Come vi piace Londra ? . . How do you like London ? Fatemi il piacere di parlare Be kind enough to speak italiano. Italian. Vi capisco perfettamente . . I understand you perfectly well. Scusatemi .1 beg your pardon. Non ho capito ci6 che mi I have not understood what avete detto you said. Vorreste aver la bonta di Have the goodness to repeat. ripetere ? Fumate ? Do you smoke ? Volete un zigaro ? . . . . Will you have a cigar ? Volontieri With pleasure. Grazie I thank you. RECOGNITORY. Buon giorno Signore . . . Good morning, Sir. Come sta ? How are you ? Passabilmente bene, ed ella ? Pretty well, thank you. Sono felice di vederla ... I am glad to see you. Fa una bellissima mattina . There is a beautiful morning. Fa veramente caldo . . . It is excessively hot. Ebel tempo da qualche giorno The weather has been very fine lately. E vero Yes, it has. C'e qualche cosa di nuovo ? . Is there anything new ? Niente ch'io sappia . . . Nothing, that I know. Quando verrete a vedermi ? When are you coming to see me ? Uno di questi giorni . . . One of these days. Signori vi do il buon giorno . Good morning, gentlemen. Stia bene Signore . . . . Good-bye, Sir. GENERAL. Che ora e ? . . . . . . What o'clock is it ? Otto ore in circa .... About eight. Davvero ! Is it. Credo , I think it is. Sono occupato I am busy. Avete ragione . . . . . You are right. Ho torto I am wrong. Dolce far niente .... It is sweet to do nothing. Precisamente Quite so. 70 IDIOMS. Signore, abbia la bonta di Have the goodness to tell me, dirmi Sir Come si chiama questo in What do you call that in italiano ? Italian ? Lo credete? Do you think so? Si, lo credo Yes, I do. LOCAL. Signora ho l'onore di pre- I wish you a good morning, sentarvi i miei rispetti. Madam. Signore ve li ricambio . . . Good morning, Sir. Signorina io le auguroilbuon I wish you a good morning, giomo. Miss. E questo ilcamminodiFircnze? Is this the road to Florence ? Vorreste aver la bonta di mos- Have the kindness to show trarmi la via Calzaioli ? me Calzaioli-street.* Vendete zigarri ? . . . . Do you sell cigars ? Si Signore Yes, Sir. Quanto la dozzina ? . . .. How much arc they a dozen ? Una lira A lira.t Sono cari They are dear. Volete cambiarmi uno scudo ? Will you give mc change for a scudo ?t Giovane, del carte .... Waiter, a cup of coffee. Che sorte di vini avete ? . . What kind of wine have you ? Portatemi una bottiglia di Bring me a bottle of Pul- monte pulciano. ciano || Quanto costa ? How much is it ?§ Dov'e l'urtizio della posta ? . Where is the post-ofiuv ? Intende ella Pinglese ? Parii inglese, la prcgo Cosa volete ? . . . Non parlo italiano . Sono inglese . . . Viva la regina ! . . Do you understand English Speak English please. What do you want ? 1 do not speak Italian. I am an Englishman. God save the Queen ! • Tlie principal street in Florence. t A current coin of the Italian states, worth aboul tenpenee of English money. % A silver coin, worth about four shillings and sixpence. || A favourite wine in Florence. I 1 1 is v. -r\ neoi -.u-y in Italy to demand the price of an article be !i uming it. IDIOMS. 71 TRANSLATION AND PRONUNCIATION. We shall now give a literal English translation of the fore- going phrases, and in order that the learner may pronounce the Italian words correctly, we shall place an accent on the syllable of each word whereon the stress of the voice should be made to rest ; beyond this, nothing is wanted to enable the learner who has attended to our remarks on the pronunciation of the vowels and consonants, to pronounce the words with perfect accuracy. INTRODUCTORY. Par-la'-te i-ta-li-a'-no ? Un po'-co. Ca-pis'-co Speak you Italian ? A little. I understand l'i-ta-li-a'-no, ma non' lo par'-lo. Credo che si-a'-te the Italian, but not it I speak. I believe that you be i-ta-li-a'-no, si-gno'-re? Si si-gno'-re, lo so'no. Quan'-to Italian, Sir ? Yes Sir, it I am. How much tem'-po si-e'-te sta'-to in In-ghil-ter-ra ? Co'-me vi time are you remained in England ? How to you pi-a'-ce Lon'-dra ? Fa'-te-mi il pi-a-ce'-re di par-la'-re it pleases London ? Do me the pleasure of to speak i-ta-li~a'-no. Vi ca-pis'-co per-fet-ta'-men-te. Scu-sa'-te- Italian. You I understand perfectly. Pardon mi. Non' ho ca-pi'-to cio che mi a-ve-te det'-to me. Not, I have understood what to me you have said. Vor-res'-te a-ver la bon-ta di ri-pe-tere? Fu-ma'-te? Will you to have the goodness of to repeat ? You smoke ? Vo-le'-te un zi-ga'-ro ? Vo-lon-ti-e'-ri. Gra'-zi-e. Will you a cigar ? Willingly. Thanks. RECOGNITORY. Bu-on' gior'-no, si-gno'-re. Co'-me sta? Ab-bas-tan'-za Good day, Sir. How stands? Enough be'-ne ed el'-la? So'-no fe-li'-ce di ve-der r -la. Fa well, and she ? I am glad of to see her. It makes un'-a bel-lis'-si-ma mat-ti'-na. Fa ve-ra-men'-te cal'-do. a most beautiful morning. It makes truly hot. 72 IDIOMS. E bel tem'-po da qual'-che gior'-no. E ve' ro. There is fine weather from some day. It is true C'e qual'-che co'-sa di nu-o'-vo ? Ni-en'-te ch'io There is any thing of new ? Nothing, that I sap'-pi-a. Quan'-do ver-re'-te a ve-der'-mi ? Un'-o di may know. When will come to to see me ? One of ques'-ti gior'-ni. Si-gno'-ri, vi do il bu-on' gior'-no. these days. Gentlemen, to you I give the good day. Sti'-a be'-ne si-gno'-re. May she stand well Sir. GENERAL. Che ora e ? Ot'-to ore cir'-ca. Dav-ve'-ro ! Cre'-do. What hour is it ? Eight hours about. Indeed ! I believe. So'-no oc-cu-pa'-to. Ho tor'-to. A-ve'-te ra-gio'-ne. I am occupied. I have wrong. You have reason. Dol'-ce far' ni-en'-te. Pre-ci-sa-men'-te. Si-gno'-re, Sweet to do nothing. Exactly. Sir, ab'-bi-a la bon-tii di dir'-mi. Co'-me si chi-a'-ma have the goodnesB of to tell me. How itself calls ques-to in i-ta-li-a'-no ? Lo cre-de'-te ? Si, lo cre'-do. this in Italian? It believe you ? Yes, it I believe. LOCAL. Si-gno'-ra, ho l'o-no'-re di pre-sen-tar'-vi i mi'-ei Madam, I have the honour of to present you the my ris-pet'-ti. Si-gno'-re, ve' li ri-cam'-bio. Si-gno'-ri-na, respects. Sir, to you them I repay. Miss, io' le a-u'-gu-ro il bu-on' gior'-no. E ques-to il I to her predict the good day. Is this tho cam-mi'-no a Fi-ren'-ze ? Vor-reste a-vcr la bon-ta road to Florence ? Will you to have the goodness di mos-trar'-mi la vi-a cal-zai-o'-li ? Ven-de'-te zi-ga'-ri ? of to show me the street Calzaioli ? Sell you cigars ? Si, si-gno'-re. Vo-le'-te cam-bi-ar'mi un'-o scu'-do ? Yes, Sir. Will you to change me a icudo ' CONJUNCTIVES. ( .3 Gio'-va-ne del caf-fe. Che sor'-te di vi'-ni a-ve'-te? Boy of the coffee. What kinds of wine you have ? For ta'-te-mi u'-na bot-ti'-glia di mon'-te pul-cia'-no. Bring me a bottle of Mount Pulciano. Quan'-to cos'-ta ? Do-v'e l'uf-fi'-zio delMa pos'-ta ? How much costs ? Where is the office of the post ? in-ten-de el-la l'in-gle'-se ? Par'-li in-gle'-se la pre'-go. Understands she the English ? Speak English her I pray. Co'-sa vo-le'-te ? Non par'-lo i-ta-li-a'-no. So-no in-gle'-se. Thing will you ? Not I speak Italian. I am English. Vi'-va la re-gi'-na. Live the Queen. CONJUNCTIVES. There are certain words and phrases made use of to connect sentences together, and give emphasis and expression to the various parts of a discourse. They are like the adverbial locutions already spoken of, of constant recurrence, and con- sequently the learner must be perfectly familiar with those that are most frequently made use of. The following are the con- junctives that are most essential in conversation, with examples of the manner and cases in which they are commonly employed. AncJie Also. Se partite vol, me n'andro If you go, I will go also. anch' io. Ne, ne Neither, nor. Non amo ne Vuno ne Valtro. I like neither the one nor the other. O Or. Mangero Vuno o Valtro. I will eat the one or the other. Oppure Otherwise. Vol verrete da me, oppure You must come to my house, verremo tutti da voi. otherwise we will all go to yours. 74 CONJUNCTIVES. Sia, sia Either, or. Sia cliegli non mi credesse, Either he would not believe sia cKegli non sifidasse. me, or he would not con- fide in me. Pure But. Sard vero, pure mi sembra That may be, but it appears impossibile. to me impossible. Nondimeno Nevertheless. Eyli e molto economo, e vero; He is very economical, it is nondimeno in certe occa- true ; nevertheless, in sioni e assai generoso. certain circumstances, he is very generous. Tuttavia ..... Yet. La veritd partorisce I'odio, Truth engenders hatred, yet tuttavia I'uomo one&td the honest man never nun mente giammai. lies. Benche Although. Benche sia giovim\ bella t Although die is young, rich, ricca, non i uncord and beautiful, she is still man' fata. unmarried. Aikoi chc Even though. Ancor che morto, Jhceva ter- Even though dead, he inspired rore. terror. Per I" order. Per esser devoto, non si cesaa In order to be devout, it is d'esser uomo. not necessary to cease to be a man. Se If. Se potessi, vi sefvirei oolen- If I could, I would serve you tieri. willingly. Purchi Providing that. Tutti ri gHmeranno, purche Every one will esteem you, siate ones? uomo. providing that you are an honest man. 11, ninh soch, . . . It beinganderetood that. Ben inte&OChe,/are*( a Uiodo It being understood that you mio. follow my advice. CONJUNCTIVES. 75 Quand'anche . . Quand'anche cio fosse, che ne concludereste ? Even if. Altrimenti . . . Pensate a correggervi, altri- menti sarete odiato da tutti. Resta a sapere . . Egli mi promette roma e to?na, resta a sapere se i fatli cor risponder anno alle parole. Non gid che . » . Lo sfuggo, non gia ch'io lo tenia, ma perche, ecc. Vale a dire . . La logica, vale a dire, Varte di pensare. Appunto come Le cose sono andate appunto come io Vaveva preveduto. Ond'J? . . . . Ond'e che siete si malinconicoi Percio Non Vho veduto ne ieri, ne stamane; percio sono an- dato io stesso da lui. If even that were the case, what conclusion would you draw from it ? . . Else. Turn over a new leaf, else you will be detested by every body. . * It remains to know. He makes me fine promises, but it remains to be seen whether he keeps them. Tu haipromesso; sei dunque obbligato a mantener la tua parola. Per consequenza Non gli ho promesso nulla ; per consequenza non gli debbo niente. Talmente che y Fu talmente malmenato in quell' incontro, che il cattivello ne mori. . . Not that. I avoid him, not that I fear him, but because, etc. . . That is to say. Logic, that is to say, the art of thinking. . . As. Things have come to pass as I anticipated. . . Whence is it ? Why are you so sad ? . Therefore. I neither saw him yesterday nor this morning, there- fore I went to his house myself. . . Therefore. You promised, therefore you are obliged to keep your word. . . Consequently. I promised him nothing, con- sequently I owe him no- thing. . . So that. He was so ill-used in the squabble, that he, poor fellow, died in conse- quence. 70 HOW THE LEARNER SHOULD NOW PROCEED. Having attained a general view of the structure of the language, the learner has next to make himself acquainted with the verbs. He will first have to make himself familiar with the auxiliaries avere and essere, then the three regular conjugations, as they are arranged in the common grammars ; and finally, he will have to write out carefully at full length all the irregulars. This done, with the aid of a good dictionary, he will be able to peruse an Italian author. We would suggest as the first book, the Commedie Scelte di Goldoni; next, Le Mie Prigioni di Silvio Pellico, and then, perhaps, I Pr&- messi Sposi di Manzoni. When the learner has attained an acquaintance with the verbs sufficient to enable him to detect any part of an irregular he may meet with, and so be able to trace it to the infinitive (the form of a verb given in the dic- tionaries), he should begin to translate one of the authors we have named, taking ;i passage a time, and putting, in the first instance, the precise English equivalent under each Italian word : this done, the words being known, the entire passage should be written into good English, and, finally, retranslated back again into Italian. This last process will serve the learner as practice in writing Italian ; and as the accuracy of each exercise may be verified by comparing it with the ori- ginal text, the aid of a master becomes unnecessary. The poets should not be meddled with until perfect facility has been obtained in reading the prose authors. In leaving the learner to his own exertions, we may remark that the foregoing les- sons have not occupied him with trifles ; they illustrate the points that are usually considered the most difficult in the lan- guage. We have begun where elementary books most gene- rally terminate. By this mode of procedure, we have left the learner without any obstacle that can materially retard his fu- ture progress. We leave him at a point, whence he may pro- ceed without further guidance. The acquisition of Italian is not considered to be a task of any great magnitude : but how- ever easy, in comparison with other languages, Italian is not to be acquired without much perseverance, diligence, and as- siduity on the part of the student— in the words of the adage. Non v'i rosa senza spin, . Paisley :— Printed bj Nkilsom Si Mui LIBRARY °P CONGRESS ilia 003 117 630 A