Making English Grammar Meaningful and Useful: Chapter 13, Consonant Sounds

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Some euphemisms are appropriate, others are or disingenuous. Where there is honest intention to avoid causing offence or upset in sensitive human situations, euphemisms are usually appropriate. Where a politician or business person uses euphemistic language to avoid responsibility, blame, etc. The term figurative is very broad and can potentially mean any use of descriptive language which is not factual.

A figure of speech may be a popular and widely used expression, or one that a person conceives for a single use. There are very many thousands of figures of speech in language, many of which we imagine wrongly to be perfectly normal literal expressions, such is the habitual way that many of them are used. In modern times font tends more to refer to an entire font family or typeface such as Times or Helvetica.

The word font is derived from French fonte and fodre, to melt, referring to the making of lead type used in traditional printing. Its sister word is latter, which refers to the last usually second item mentioned in a preceding passage of text. An example in use is, ' There was a problem involving the keys and the house, when the former were locked inside the latter Its usage normally seeks to differentiate a broad sense from a specific sense.

Generic is the opposite of specific or unique or individual. The word derives ultimately from Latin genus, meaning stock or race. There are surprisingly very many such names. Corporations and other owners of genericized trademark names typically resist or object to the effect, because legally the 'intellectual property' is undermined, and its value and security as an asset is lessened which enables competitors to sell similar products.

There is however a powerful contra-effect by which owners of genericized trademarks potentially command a hugely serious and popular reputation, which can be used to leverage lots of other benefits and opportunities if managed creatively and positively. It is, as the saying goes, 'a nice problem to have'. Originally from Latin gerundum, which is the gerund of the Latin verb gerere, to do. Gerundive constructions do not arise in English as gerunds do, but they appear in words that have entered English from Latin, often ending in 'um' for example 'quod erat demonstrandum' 'which was to be demonstrated' - abbreviated to QED, used after proving something.

Interestingly the name Amanda is a female gerundive, meaning ' she is to be loved'. The words referendum, agenda, and propaganda are all from Latin gerundive words, which convert a verb into an adjective with the meaning of necessity to fulfil the verb. The glottal stop, while extremely common in speech, is not formally included in the English alphabet, but is included in certain foreign languages, notably in Arabic nations.

All letters are glyphs. Increasingly computer symbols are regarded as glyphs. A dot above an 'i' or 'j' has traditionally not been considered a glyph in English, although is a glyph in other languages where a dot alone has an independent meaning. From Greek graphos, meaning written, writing. Graphemes include alphabet letters, typographic ligatures, Chinese characters, numerical digits, punctuation marks, and other individual symbols of writing systems. In fact the use of the hash symbol for computerized sorting and analysis purposes first began in Internet Relay Chat Systems, first developed in the late s.

The hashtag is a major example of the increasing simplification, streamlining, coding and internationalization of language, and especially to this end, of the integration of numbers and symbols within words and letters and electronic communications to increase speeds of communicating and accessibility, and to reduce the quantity of characters required to convey a given meaning, and also to organize and distribute communications-related data.

From Greek holon, whole, and onuma, name. From Greek, heteros, other, and the suffix ' onym ', which refers to a type of name. From Greek heteros, other, and phone, sound or voice. Examples of heterophones include entrance entry, and put someone in a trance , row row a boat, and row meaning argue , wind a wind that blows, and wind up a clock. Each word looks the same as the other but has quite a different meaning.

A heteronym is a kind of homonym, and equates to a heterograph. From Greek hetero, other. Note that the definitions of these terms contain many overlaps and common features. Linguistics experts may disagree over precise certain finely detailed differences. Remembering these two simplex prefixes will help the understanding of hundreds of different terms. For example, 'I am so hungry I could eat a horse In turn 'animal' is a hypernym for 'bird' which is a hyponym of 'animal. In turn 'creature' is a hypernym of 'animal'. All hyponyms may accurately be called also the name of their hypernym, but not vice-versa, for example every hammer hyponym is a tool hypernym , but not every tool is a hammer.

Hypernym is from Greek huper, over, beyond. A hypernym is also called a superordinate or generic term. A hypernym word may always correctly be referred to as the hypernym word for example 'golf' is a 'game', as is every other hyponym of 'game' - but the same does not apply in reverse, i. Every word in the language is a hyponym, because every word refers to something which is part of a group of some sort. Hyponym is from Greek hupo, under, which is a good way to remember that hyponyms are 'under' a hypernym. A hyponym is also called a subordinate term. I am open to suggestions of when the i prefix was very first used in this way.

The Apple corporation could claim the first globally dominant usage. Apple has many trademarks covering the use of the i prefix notably iPhone, iTunes, iPad, iPod. Idioms may be widely recognized, or understood just by a small group, for example by virtue of locality or common interest. An idiom is generally an expression which is popularly used by a group of people, as distinct from a figurative expression created by an author or other writer for a single use within the created work, which does not come into more common use. The word idiom derives from Greek idios, 'own' or 'private'.

In most usage the full meaning of 'i. Implicitly, intellectual property commonly has a commercial value, which while relatively 'intangible' may in the case of popular brands and mass-produced products be considerable and stated in official financial accounts. Examples of registered intellectual property are: Different registration bodies exist for different types of work and different geographical territories.

Also, irony may be used for various effects such as comedy, dramatization, pathos, etc. So called because the Janus, Roman god of beginnings, transitions, gates, passages, etc. Janus, incidentally, is also the derivation of January, in the sense of a beginning or doorway to the new year. A juncture between syllables and words effectively avoids everything merging into a continuous stream of meaningless sounds.

A juxtaposition is the result or act of doing this. For example, the image or description of a homeless person begging on the street outside Buckingham Palace would be a juxtaposition. The expression 'take it or leave it' is a very simple juxtaposition. A juxtaposition commonly exaggerates or produces a competing effect, where in reality the two 'competing' items may not actually conflict with each other, or be a stark 'one or the other' choice.

A juxtaposition may be used for entertaining and uplifting purposes, as in poetry, drama, movies, etc. Latin is one of the fundamental root languages of European language development, specifically of the many 'Romance' languages, notably including Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian, and Romanian.

Latin, chiefly via French, had a significant influence in the development of the English language. The conventional English alphabet along with those of the Romance languages is known as the Latinate alphabet, because its origins are in ancient Latin. Many Latin terms survive in day-to-day English language, especially related to business, technical definitions, law, science, etc. The leet word for leet is I Most words in dictionaries tend to be lexemes. Examples of lexeme forms are run, smile, give, boy, child, blond; whereas inflections of these lexemes include for example: In informal and recent use however late s onwards , the term 'literally' is used widely and arguably very incorrectly to express precisely the opposite, i.

In this respect the term is potentially highly confusing, since the term 'literally' may mean in common use either that something is completely factual and true, or instead that something is highly exaggerated or distorted. The term 'literally' is perhaps prone to confusion given the similar words 'literature' and 'literary', whose meaning quite correctly encompasses symbolic and figurative writing in books, poetry, plays, etc. Whatever, the original technical meaning derives from the Latin equivalent 'litteralis', in turn from litera, meaning 'letter of the alphabet'.

Many examples of litotes have entered common speech so that we don't think about them as understatement. The word litotes is from Greek litos meaning plain or meagre. From Greek logos, word or reason. The term derives from a character called Mrs Malaprop in Richard Brinsley Sheridan's play called The Rivals, whose lines frequently included such mistakes. Other writers, notably Shakespeare, earlier made use of the technique without naming it as such. Lord Byron in is said to have been the first to refer specifically to a malaprop as a mistaken word substitution.

The term is far less popularly called a Dogberryism, after the watchman constable Dogberry character in Shakespeare's As You Like It, who makes similar speech errors. From Latin mater, mother. Also called a metronym. More specifically a meronym is a word technically referring to a part of something but which is used to refer to the whole thing, for example: From Greek meros, part, and onoma, name. Meronym is the opposite of a holonym a whole thing in relation to a part of the whole. From Greek, metonumia, 'change of name'. The expression 'Mother Earth' is perhaps the most fundamental universal example of all.

Some misomers originate first as correct and accurate terminology but then become misnomers because the meaning of language alters subsequently over many years. The 'ring' of a telephone is a misnomer because telephones no longer contain bells. When people refer to 'pulling the 'chain' in referring to flushing a lavatory this is also a misnomer because lavatories generally no longer have chain-pull mechanisms. The Indian food 'Bombay duck' is a misnomer because it is actually a dried fish. Misunderstood scientific phenomena aften produce misnomers, such as the term 'shooting star', which technically are meteors.

So too is 'thunderbolt' a misnomer, because it's actually a representation of a lightning strike. The 'lead' of a pencil is a misnomer, because it is graphite. When we suggest that someone will 'catch a cold' by not wearing enough clothes in winter this is a misnomer because a cold is a virus and cannot be 'caught' from or produced by cold weather. Many creatures are named as misnomers, due to inferring a species by similarity of appearance, for example, a 'king crab' is not a crab, a 'koala bear' is not a bear, and a 'prairie dog' is not a dog.

Changes in legal terminology can also produce misnomers, for example it is a misnomer to refer to sparkling wine as 'champagne' when it does not come from the Champagne region in France. The term 'football club' is a misnomer where in most cases the 'club' is a commercial company. There are thousands more misnomers in common use, and commonly people don't appreciate that the terms are technically quite wrong. The word mnemonic is pronounced 'nemonic' and is commonly misspelled 'numonic'.

It's from Greek mnemon, mindful. The study of the development and assistance of memory is called mnemonics or mnemotechnics. The term mondegreen was suggested by US writer Sylvia Wright in a Harpers Magazine article 'The Death of Lady Mondegreen', in which she referred to her own long-standing mistaken interpretation: Mondegreens commonly arise in song lyrics because the art form is one which ordinarily contains lots of weird words and phrases anyway, and so the imagination requires very little stretching to accept even quite ridiculous misinterpretations.

Popularly referenced mondegreens include the following and amusingly the first two examples are said to have been encouraged by the singers themselves who on occasions intentionally sang the mondegreen instead of the correct lyrics during live performances:. A monophthong is also called a pure vowel, because it is constant and involves no alteration in voicing. There seems no absolute quantification of a mora, except that one mora is a short syllable and two or three 'morae' represent proportionally longer syllables.

The term monomoraic refers to a syllable of one mora. Two morae is bimoraic. Three morae is trimoraic. The word mora is from Latin mora, linger or delay. Morph means form in Greek. There are many other sorts of neologisms, which are effectively different ways in which new words evolve or become newly established. Obvious examples are words like happiness, sweetness, goodness, darkness, etc. In more modern times the 'ness' suffix is used to make new or made-up slang words, particularly for a specific situation, some of which can be quite amusing, or childish and silly, depending on your viewpoint, such as 'flatness of beer is a problem for drinkers who like froth', or 'over-eating produces a bigness of belly', or 'the workforce frequently suffered with can't-be-botheredness'.

The 'ness' suffix originated in old Germanic languages. Other suffixes which achieve a similar effect are 'hood' as in motherhood , 'th' as in strength, from strong , and 'ity' as in nudity. Nouns other than variants are also called 'common nouns'. From Latin nomen, name. A noun phrase may contain aother noun phrases, for example, 'a two-litre pot of green paint', or the best days of our lives', or 'the shops which were open for business during the storm'.

A noun phrase may be a subject or object or perform another nounal function in a sentence, for example, 'The touring party from Spain visiting Iceland noun phrase 'subject' - longed verb to preposition go verb back preposition to preposition - their homes in the warm sunny countryside noun phrase 'object'.

Originally from Greek onoma, name, and poios, making. It is from the Greek word with the same meaning, onumon, from onoma, name. A commonly quoted example is the phrase 'I scream', which by moving the joint may sound instead as 'ice cream', and vice-versa. Oronyms that are wrongly interpreted from heard song lyrics and poetry, etc. A popular and highly amusing category of oronyms is found among website domain names URLs , which accidentally or intentionally contain a usually rude or inappropriate and ironic double-meaning, for example the now famous pen website 'penisland.

Website domain names URLs are especially prone to oronymic effect because prime URL convention usually entails phrases without word-spaces. Other amusing apparently maybe real examples of website name oronyms include: There are many more. Palindromes tend to become increasingly daft and nonsensical with greater length, for example, 'Was it a car or a cat I saw? Palindrome may also refer to reversible numbers, notably numerical dates, for example Alternatively called a 'holoalphabetic sentence', the most famous and early English example is: A 'perfect pangram' is a sentence containing each letter of the alphabet once only, i.

Besides offering miniscule testing efficiences, a 'perfect pangram' is mostly a curiosity and creative challenge for language enthusiasts, although no one seems yet to have devised a 'perfect pangram' which makes actual sense. Wikipedia's best example is 'Cwm fjord bank glyphs vext quiz' which definitely requires the translation: The best example of a 'perfect pangram' which contains abbreviated recognizable dictionary 'proper name' initials and other abbreviations is probably the: The letter pangram 'Pack my red box with five dozen quality jugs' is a pleasingly sensible modern alternative to 'The quick brown fox..

Quite separately, many ordinary pangrams in non-English languages produce delightful translations into English N. The non-English language versions are the pangrams, not the English translations given here , and prove that the pangram fascination is truly international, for example - 'A hiccoughing dragon spits at a driver who has reached someone else's campsite' Bulgarian ; 'Wrong practising of xylophone music bothers every larger dwarf' German ; 'A dust bat escaped through the air conditioner, which exploded due to the heat' Hebrew ; 'Lunch of water makes lopsided faces' Italian ; and the wonderful Polish perfect pangram: I am open to all sorts of suggestions on this subject, especially an English perfect pangram which makes perfect sense From Greek para, meaning beside.

The word paradox is Latin, originally referring in English s to a statement that opposed accepted opinion, from Greek paradoxon, contrary opinion, from para, distinct from, and doxa, opinion. Modern styling increasingly does not feature the first line indent. The term paragraph is often abbreviated by writers and editors, etc. A paragraph may contain just one sentence or very many sentences. This glossary contains entries which each may be termed a paragraph. For example, 'I would not stoop so low as to exploit his past infidelities A common retort to a speaker obviously using paralipsis, i.

From 'para', Greek for 'besides', used to refer to something resembling another, or an alternative, and 'onomasia', meaning 'naming', in turn from 'onoma' meaning 'name'. Para is Greek for beside. From Greek, pathos, suffering. I or we did or saw or gave or said, etc this or that, whatever ', and we refer to 'me' and 'mine' or 'us' and 'ours'.

In English the word 'you' acts as both second person singular and plural, although in many other languages these would be different words. Human beings have dramatically wide-ranging control over the way they 'voice' word-sounds, especially vowels, by controlling the vocal chords and larynx voice-box , and generally phonation refers to the study of this and the bodily processes entailed. The subtleties of phonemic theory are not difficult to understand - they are simply the individual sounds which make words sound different - although the detailed explanation of these effects via text-based information is only possible using quite complex phonetic symbols.

Phonetics particularly refers to very detailed sounds of words and syllables, letters, vowels, consonants, etc. From Greek phone, meaning sound or voice. A phrase is technically a single concept or notion: A great connoisseur in things of this sort, who professes to have been long "in the habit of listening to sounds of every description, and that with more than ordinary attention," declares in a recent and expensive work, that "in every language we find the vowels incorrectly classed "; and, in order to give to "the simple elements of English utterance" a better explanation than others have furnished, he devotes to a new analysis of our alphabet the ample space of twenty octavo pages, besides having several chapters on subjects connected with it.

And what do his twenty pages amount to? I will give the substance of them in ten lines, and the reader may judge. He does not tell us how many elementary sounds there are; but, professing to arrange the vowels, long and short, "in the order in which they are naturally found," as well as to show of the consonants that the mutes and liquids form correspondents in regular pairs, he presents a scheme which I abbreviate as follows. I --as ah-ee ; 2. U --as ee-oo ; 3. Mutes,-- c or s, f, h, k or q, p, t, th sharp, sh ; 2.

Liquids,-- l , which has no corresponding mute, and z, v, r, ng, m, n, th flat and j , which severally correspond to the eight mutes in their order; 3. Subliquids,-- g hard, b , and d. See "Music of Nature," by William Gardiner , p.

Rush comes to the explanation of the powers of the letters as the confident first revealer of nature's management and wisdom; and hopes to have laid the foundation of a system of instruction in reading and oratory, which, if adopted and perfected, "will beget a similarity of opinion and practice," and "be found to possess an excellence which must grow into sure and irreversible favour. Let us now show, by our works of analysis, how she manages the simple elements of the voice, in the production of their unbounded combinations. That one mode, some say, his philosophy alone teaches.

Of that, others may judge. I shall only notice here what seems to be his fundamental position, that, on all the vocal elements of language, nature has stamped duplicity.

The Grammar of English Grammars/Part I

To establish this extraordinary doctrine, he first attempts to prove, that "the letter a , as heard in the word day ," combines two distinguishable yet inseparable sounds; that it is a compound of what he calls, with reference to vowels and syllables in general, "the radical and the vanishing movement of the voice,"--a single and indivisible element in which "two sounds are heard continuously successive," the sounds of a and e as in ale and eve. He does not know that some grammarians have contended that ay in day is a proper diphthong, in which both the vowels are heard; but, so pronouncing it himself, infers from the experiment, that there is no simpler sound of the vowel a.

If this inference is not wrong, the word shape is to be pronounced sha-epe ; and, in like manner, a multitude of other words will acquire a new element not commonly heard in them. The philosopher examines, in some similar way, the other simple vowel sounds, and finds a beginning and an end, a base and an apex, a radical and a vanishing movement, to them all; and imagines a sufficient warrant from nature to divide them all "into two parts," and to convert most of them into diphthongs, as well as to include all diphthongs with them, as being altogether as simple and elementary.

Thus he begins with confounding all distinction between diphthongs and simple vowels; except that which he makes for himself when he admits "the radical and the vanish," the first half of a sound and the last, to have no difference in quality.

This admission is made with respect to the vowels heard in ooze, eel, err, end , and in , which he calls, not diphthongs, but "monothongs. After his explanation of these mysteries, he says, "The seven radical sounds with their vanishes, which have been described, include, as far as I can perceive, all the elementary diphthongs of the English language. But all the sounds of the vowel u , whether diphthongal or simple, are excluded from his list, unless he means to represent one of them by the e in err ; and the complex vowel sound heard in voice and boy , is confessedly omitted on account of a doubt whether it consists of two sounds or of three!

The elements which he enumerates are thirty-five; but if oi is not a triphthong, they are to be thirty-six. Twelve are called " Tonics ; and are heard in the usual sound of the separated Italics , in the following words: A -ll, a -rt, a -n, a -le, ou -r, i -sle, o -ld, ee -l, oo -ze, e -rr, e -nd, i -n,"-- Ib. Fourteen are called " Subtonics ; and are marked by the separated Italics, in the following words: B -ow, d -are, g -ive, v -ile, z -one, y -e, w -o, th -en, a- z -ure, si- ng , l -ove, m -ay, n -ot, r -oe. Nine are called " Atonics ; they are heard in the words, U- p , ou- t , ar- k , i- f , ye- s, h -e, wh -eat, th -in, pu- sh.

My opinion of this scheme of the alphabet the reader will have anticipated. In printed books of the English language, the Roman characters are generally employed; sometimes, the Italic ; and occasionally, the [Font change: Script letters] are used, the forms of which are peculiarly adapted to the pen. Characters of different sorts or sizes should never be needlessly mixed ; because facility of reading, as well as the beauty of a book, depends much upon the regularity of its letters.

In the ordinary forms of the Roman letters, every thick stroke that slants, slants from the left to the right downwards, except the middle stroke in Z; and every thin stroke that slants, slants from the left to the right upwards. Italics are chiefly used to distinguish emphatic or remarkable words: In manuscripts, a single line drawn under a word is meant for Italics; a double line, for small capitals; a triple line, for full capitals.

In every kind of type or character, the letters have severally two forms , by which they are distinguished as capitals and small letters. Small letters constitute the body of every work; and capitals are used for the sake of eminence and distinction. The titles of books, and the heads of their principal divisions, are printed wholly in capitals. Showbills, painted signs, and short inscriptions, commonly appear best in full capitals. When particular books are mentioned by their names, the chief words in their titles begin with capitals, and the other letters are small; as, "Pope's Essay on Man"--"the Book of Common Prayer"--"the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments.

The first word of every distinct sentence, or of any clause separately numbered or paragraphed, should begin with a capital; as, "Rejoice evermore. In every thing give thanks: Quench not the Spirit. Those compound proper names which by analogy incline to a union of their parts without a hyphen, should be so written, and have but one capital: The compounding of a name under one capital should be avoided when the general analogy of other similar terms suggests a separation under two; as, "The chief mountains of Ross-shire are Ben Chat, Benchasker , Ben Golich, Ben Nore, Ben Foskarg, and Ben Wyvis.

So, when the word East, West, North , or South , as part of a name, denotes relative position, or when the word New distinguishes a place by contrast, we have generally separate words and two capitals; as, "East Greenwich, West Greenwich, North Bridgewater, South Bridgewater, New Jersey, New Hampshire.

Language, Grammar and Literary Terms - www.farmersmarketmusic.com

When a common and a proper name are associated merely to explain each other, it is in general sufficient, if the proper name begin with a capital, and the appellative, with a small letter; as, "The prophet Elisha, Matthew the publican, the brook Cherith, the river Euphrates, the Ohio river, Warren county, Flatbush village, New York city. The name of an object personified, when it conveys an idea strictly individual, should begin with a capital; as, "Upon this, Fancy began again to bestir herself.

Every line in poetry, except what is regarded as making but one verse with the line preceding, should begin with a capital; as,. The first word of a full example, of a distinct speech, or of a direct quotation, should begin with a capital; as, "Remember this maxim: Other words of particular importance, and such as denote the principal subjects treated of, may be distinguished by capitals; and names subscribed frequently have capitals throughout: Capitals are improper wherever there is not some special rule or reason for their use: Which wou'd then be Much More Liberal.

As it was when the Church Enjoy'd her Possessions. They are a sort of universal signs, by which we may mark and particularize objects of any sort, named or nameless; as, "To say, therefore, that while A and B are both quadrangular, A is more or less quadrangular than B, is absurd. Hence they are used in the sciences as symbols of an infinite variety of things or ideas, being construed both substantively and adjectively; as, "In ascending from the note C to D, the interval is equal to an inch; and from D to E, the same.

Any of their forms may be used for such purposes, but the custom of each science determines our choice. Thus Algebra employs small Italics; Music, Roman capitals; Geometry, for the most part, the same; Astronomy, Greek characters; and Grammar, in some part or other, every sort. On many occasions, however, their use or disuse is arbitrary, and must be left to the judgement and taste of authors and printers.

Instances of this kind will, for the most part, concern chief words , and come under the fifteenth rule above. In this grammar, the number of rules is increased; but the foregoing are still perhaps too few to establish an accurate uniformity. They will however tend to this desirable result; and if doubts arise in their application, the difficulties will be in particular examples only, and not in the general principles of the rules. The others differ in meaning; because they construe the word father , or Father , differently.

Which is right I know not. The first agrees with the Latin Vulgate, and the second, with the Greek text of the Septuagint; which two famous versions here disagree, without ambiguity in either. In amending the rules for this purpose, I have not been able entirely to satisfy myself; and therefore must needs fail to satisfy the very critical reader. But the public shall have the best instructions I can give. On Rule 1st, concerning Books , it may be observed, that when particular books or writings are mentioned by other terms than their real titles, the principle of the rule does not apply.

Thus, one may call Paradise Lost, "Milton's great poem ;" or the Diversions of Purley, "the etymological investigations of Horne Tooke. Because the name of Esaias, or Isaiah, seems to be the only proper title of his book. Our grammarians frequently manufacture a parcel of puerile examples, and, with the formality of apparent quotation, throw them together in the following manner: These sentences, and all others so related, should, unquestionably, begin with capitals. Of themselves, they are distinct enough to be separated by the period and a dash.

With examples of one's own making, the quotation points may be used or not, as the writer pleases; but not on their insertion or omission, nor even on the quality of the separating point, depends in all cases the propriety or impropriety of using initial capitals. To say nothing of the punctuation here used, it is certain that the initial words, you, they, the , and he , should have commenced with capitals. The former, as a title of honour to men, is usually written with a capital; but, as a common appellative, with a small letter.

The latter, when used with reference to any fabulous deity, or when made plural to speak of many, should seldom, if ever, begin with a capital; for we do not write with a capital any common name which we do not mean to honour: But a diversity of design or conception in respect to this kind of distinction, has produced great diversity concerning capitals, not only in original writings, but also in reprints and quotations, not excepting even the sacred books. Perhaps the writer here exalts the inferior beings called gods, that he may honour the one true God the more; but the Bible, in four editions to which I have turned, gives the word gods no capital.

See Psalms , xcv, 3. The word Heaven put for God, begins with a capital; but when taken literally, it commonly begins with a small letter. Several nouns occasionally connected with names of the Deity, are written with a very puzzling diversity: Sabaoth , being a foreign word, and used only in this particular connexion, usually takes a capital; but the equivalent English words do not seem to require it.

For " Judge ," in the last example, I would use a capital; for " good " and " goodness ," in the preceding ones, the small letter: Alger writes, " the Son of Man ," with two capitals; others, perhaps more properly, " the Son of man ," with one--wherever that phrase occurs in the New Testament. But, in some editions, it has no capital at all. Of the difference between these two classes of words, almost every child that can speak, must have formed some idea. There is, therefore, some very plain ground for this rule. But not all is plain, and I will not veil the cause of embarrassment. It is only an act of imposture, to pretend that grammar is easy , in stead of making it so.

What is a Vowel?

Innumerable instances occur, in which the following assertion is by no means true: Nor do the remarks of this author, or those of any other that I am acquainted with, remove any part of the difficulty. We are told by this gentleman, in language incorrigibly bad, that, " Nouns which denote the genus, species, or variety of beings or things, are always common; as, tree , the genus; oak, ash, chestnut, poplar , different species; and red oak, white oak, black oak , varieties.

Now, as it requires but one noun to denote either a genus or a species, I know not how to conceive of those " nouns which denote the genus of things," except as of other confusion and nonsense; and, as for the three varieties of oak, there are surely no " nouns " here to denote them, unless he will have red, white , and black to be nouns.

But what shall we say of--"the Red sea, the White sea, the Black sea;" or, with two capitals, "Red Sea, White Sea, Black Sea," and a thousand other similar terms, which are neither proper names unless they are written with capitals, nor written with capitals unless they are first judged to be proper names? The simple phrase, "the united states," has nothing of the nature of a proper name; but what is the character of the term, when written with two capitals, "the United States?

And what shall we say to those grammarians who contend, that " Heaven, Hell, Earth, Sun , and Moon , are proper names;" and that, as such, they should be written with capitals? How many of the oceans, seas, lakes, capes, islands, mountains, states, counties, streets, institutions, buildings, and other things, which we constantly particularize, have no other proper names than such as are thus formed, and such as are still perhaps, in many instances, essentially appellative!

The difficulties respecting these will be further noticed below. A proper noun is the name of some particular individual, group, or people; as, Adam, Boston , the Hudson , the Azores , the Andes , the Romans , the Jews , the Jesuits , the Cherokees. This is as good a definition as I can give of a proper noun or name. Thus we commonly distinguish the names of particular persons, places, nations, tribes, or sects, with capitals. Yet we name the sun, the moon, the equator, and many other particular objects, without a capital; for the word the may give a particular meaning to a common noun, without converting it into a proper name: With some apparent inconsistency, we commonly write the word Gentiles with a capital, but pagans, heathens , and negroes , without: The names of the days of the week, and those of the months, however expressed, appear to me to partake of the nature of proper names, and to require capitals: The Hebrew names for the months, were also proper nouns: So, sometimes, in addresses in which even the greatest respect is intended to be shown: The Bible, which makes small account of worldly honours, seldom uses capitals under this rule; but, in some editions, we find "Nehemiah the Tirshatha ," and "Herod the Tetrarch ," each with a needless capital.

Murray, in whose illustrations the word king occurs early one hundred times, seldom honours his Majesty with a capital; and, what is more, in all this mawkish mentioning of royalty, nothing is said of it that is worth knowing. These examples, and thousands more as simple and worthless, are among the pretended quotations by which this excellent man, thought "to promote the cause of virtue, as well as of learning! But if Mars must needs be put in the possessive case, which I doubt, they are all wrong: We often use nouns adjectively; and Areios is an adjective: I would therefore write this name Mars Hill , as we write Bunker Hill.

Whitehaven and Fairhaven are commonly written with single capitals; but, of six or seven towns called Newhaven or New Haven , some have the name in one word and some in two. Haven means a harbour , and the words, New Haven , written separately, would naturally be understood of a harbour: In England, compounds of this kind are more used than in America; and in both countries the tendency of common usage seems to be, to contract and consolidate such terms.

But the best books we have, are full of discrepancies and errors in respect to names, whether foreign or domestic; as, " Ulswater is somewhat smaller. The handsomest is Derwentwater. Gazetteer , " Ulleswater , lake, Eng. These words, I suppose, should be written Ullswater and Derwentwater. Thus, if I were to write Stow Bridge , it would be understood of a bridge ; if Stowbridge , of a town: So Belleisle is the proper name of a strait ; and Belle Isle of several different islands in France and America. Upon this plain distinction, and the manifest inconvenience of any violation of so clear an analogy of the language, depends the propriety of most of the corrections which I shall offer under Rule 6th.

But if the inhabitants of any place choose to call their town a creek, a river, a harbour, or a bridge, and to think it officious in other men to pretend to know better, they may do as they please. If between them and their correctors there lie a mutual charge of misnomer, it is for the literary world to determine who is right. Important names are sometimes acquired by mere accident. Those which are totally inappropriate, no reasonable design can have bestowed. The official title of this little republic, is, " the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations.

It is capable of being understood in four different ways. A stranger to the fact, would not learn from this phrase, that the "Providence Plantations" are included in the "State of Rhode Island," but would naturally infer the contrary. It may be understood to mean "Rhode Island and Providence [i. It may be taken for "Rhode Island" [i. It happened that he meant the last; but I doubt whether any man in the state, except perhaps some learned lawyer, can parse the phrase, with any certainty of its true construction and meaning.

This old title can never be used, except in law. To write the popular name " Rhodeisland ," as Dr. Webster has it in his American Spelling-Book, p. As for Rhode Island , it ought to mean nothing but the island; and it is, in fact, an abuse of language to apply it otherwise. In one of his parsing lessons, Sanborn gives us for good English the following tautology: Think of that sentence! Again the question may be, whether they ought not to be joined to the foregoing word, according to Rule 6th.

Let the numerous examples under these four rules be duly considered: Perhaps we may reach some principles of uniformity and consistency, by observing the several different kinds of phrases thus used. We often add an adjective to an old proper name to make a new one, or to serve the purpose of distinction: All names of this class require two capitals: Names of this class generally have more than one capital; and perhaps all of them should be written so, except such as coalesce; as, Gravesend, Moorestown, the Crowsnest. Such nouns are usually written with more than one capital.

I would therefore write "the Mount of Olives" in this manner, though it is not commonly found so in the Bible. In this class of names the adjective is the distinctive word, and always has a capital; respecting the other term, usage is divided, but seems rather to favour two capitals. We frequently put an appellative, or common noun, before or after a proper name; as, New York city, Washington street, Plymouth county, Greenwich village.

John, connecting lake Pontchartrain with the Mississippi river. In phrases of this kind, the common noun often has a capital, but it seldom absolutely requires it; and in general a small letter is more correct, except in some few instances in which the common noun is regarded as a permanent part of the name; as in Washington City, Jersey City. But they are not always so written, even in modern books; and in the Bible we read of "mount Horeb, mount Sinai, mount Zion, mount Olivet," and many others, always with a single capital.

They seldom, if ever, need it, unless they are employed as adjectives; and then there is a manifest propriety in inserting it. Thus the phrase, "the New London Bridge," can be understood only of a new bridge in London; and if we intend by it a bridge in New London, we must say, "the New-London Bridge. I have seen several books with titles which, for this reason, were evidently erroneous.

With respect to the ancient Scripture names, of this class, we find, in different editions of the Bible, as well as in other books, many discrepancies. The reader may see a very fair specimen of them, by comparing together the last two vocabularies of Walker's Key. He will there meet with an abundance of examples like these: Webster restereotyped from Walker, in his octavo Dictionary!

I see no more need of the hyphen in such names, than in those of modern times. They ought, in some instances, to be joined together without it; and, in others, to be written separately, with double capitals. But special regard should be had to the ancient text.

The phrase, "Talitha, cumi,"--i.

See Mark , v, 41st, in Griesbach's Greek Testament , where a comma divides this expression. And proper names of persons are so marked, not with any reference to personality, but because they are proper nouns --or names of individuals, and not names of sorts. It may here be added, that, according to their definitions of personification, our grammarians and the teachers of rhetoric have hitherto formed no very accurate idea of what constitutes the figure. Now this is all wrong, doubly wrong,--wrong in relation to what personification is, and wrong too in its specification of the objects which may be personified.

For " life and action " not being peculiar to persons , there must be something else than these ascribed, to form the figure; and, surely, the objects which Fancy thinks it right to personify, are not always " inanimate. So Murray, copying Blair, speaks of " Latinised English ;" and, again, of style strictly " English , without Scotticisms or Gallicisms. But it is questionable, how far this principle respecting capitals ought to be carried.

The examples in Dr. Johnson's quarto Dictionary exhibit the words, gallicisms, anglicisms, hebrician, latinize, latinized, judaized , and christianized , without capitals; and the words Latinisms, Grecisms, Hebraisms , and Frenchified , under like circumstances, with them. Webster also defines Romanize , "To Latinize ; to conform to Romish opinions. Now, with respect to adjectives from proper names, and also to the nouns formed immediately from such adjectives, it is clear that they ought to have capitals: With respect to Americanism, Gallicism , and other similar words, there may be some room to doubt.

But I prefer a capital for these. And, that we may have a uniform rule to go by, I would not stop here, but would write Americanize and Americanized with a capital also; for it appears that custom is in favour of thus distinguishing nearly all verbs and participles of this kind, so long as they retain an obvious reference to their particular origin.

But when any such word ceases to be understood as referring directly to the proper name, it may properly be written without a capital. Thus we write jalap from Jalapa, hermetical from Hermes, hymeneal from Hymen, simony , from Simon, philippic from Philip ; the verbs, to hector , to romance , to japan , to christen , to philippize , to galvanize ; and the adverbs hermetically and jesuitically , all without a capital: Webster's octavo Dictionary mentions "the prussic acid" and " prussian blue," without a capital; and so does Worcester's.

Consequently, the few erroneous examples which will be exhibited for correction under it, will not be undesigned mistakes. Among the errors of books, we do not find the printing of the words I and O in small characters; but the confounding of O with the other interjection oh , is not uncommon even among grammarians.

The latter has no concern with this rule, nor is it equivalent to the former, as a sign: O is a note of wishing, earnestness, and vocative address; but oh is, properly, a sign of sorrow, pain, or surprise. In the following example, therefore, a line from Milton is perverted: And, in this, the practice of beginning every line with a capital is almost universal; but I have seen some books in which it was whimsically disregarded.

Such poetry as that of Macpherson's Ossian, or such as the common translation of the Psalms, is subjected neither to this rule, nor to the common laws of verse. One may suggest certain words by way of example, as see, saw, seeing, seen , and they will require no capital; or he may sometimes write one half of a sentence in his own words, and quote the other with the guillemets and no capital; but whatsoever is cited as being said with other relations of what is called person , requires something to distinguish it from the text into which it is woven.

Cobbett says the whole of this; but he here refers one short phrase to the French nation, and an other to the English, not improperly beginning each with a capital, and further distinguishing them by Italics. Our common Bibles make no use of the quotation points, but rely solely upon capitals and the common points, to show where any particular speech begins or ends. In some instances, the insufficiency of these means is greatly felt, notwithstanding the extraordinary care of the original writers, in the use of introductory phrases.

Murray says, "When a quotation is brought in obliquely after a comma, a capital is unnecessary: But, as the word that belongs not to Solomon, and the next word begins his assertion, I think we ought to write it, "Solomon observes, that, Pride goeth before destruction. A correct example will occasionally he admitted for the sake of contrast, or that the learner may see the quoted author's inconsistency.

It will also serve as a block over which stupidity may stumble and wake up. But a full explanation of what is intended, will be afforded in the Key. But, according to Rule 1st, "When particular books are mentioned by their names, the chief words in their titles begin with capitals, and the other letters are small. I Kings , xi, Luke , xxiv, Kirkham's 'Grammar in familiar Lectures. But, according to Rule 2nd, "The first word of every distinct sentence should begin with a capital.

I have alienated my friend; alas! I fear for life. Author make new words when he pleases? But, according to Rule 3d, "All names of the Deity, and sometimes their emphatic substitutes, should begin with capitals. James , v, 4. But, according to Rule 4th, "Proper names, of every description, should always begin with capitals.

The word is also misspelled: But, according to Rule 5th, "Titles of office or honour, and epithets of distinction, applied to persons, begin usually with capitals. Luke , vi, But, according to Rule 6th, "Those compound proper names which by analogy incline to a union of their parts without a hyphen, should be so written, and have but one capital.

Anderson died at West Ham, in Essex, in But, according to Rule 7th, "The compounding of a name under one capital should be avoided when the general analogy of other similar terms suggests a separation under two. But, according to Rule 8th, "When any adjective or common noun is made a distinct part of a compound proper name, it ought to begin with a capital. Acts , xvii, But, according to Rule 8th, "When a common and a proper name are associated merely to explain each other, it is in general sufficient, if the proper name begin with a capital, and the appellative, with a small letter.

Luke, the Evangelist, was a physician of Antioch, and one of the converts of St. But, according to Rule 10th, "The name of an object personified, when it conveys an idea strictly individual, should begin with a capital. Luke , xvi, I am the offspring of truth and love, and the parent of benevolence, hope, and joy. That monster, from whose power I have freed you, is called superstition: But, according to Rule 11th, "Words derived from proper names, and having direct reference to particular persons, places, sects, or nations, should begin with capitals.

Doddridge was not only a great man, but one of the most excellent and useful christians, and christian ministers. Rapin, the jesuit, uniformly decides in favour of the Roman writers. Spell "calvinistic, atticism, gothicism, epicurism, jesuitism, sabianism, socinianism, anglican, anglicism, anglicize, vandalism, gallicism, romanize. But, according to Rule 18th, "Every line in poetry, except what is regarded as making but one verse with the preceding line, should begin with a capital.

But, according to Rule 14th, "The first word of a full example, of a distinct speech, or of a direct quotation, should begin with a capital. Many words commonly belonging to other parts of speech are occasionally used as nouns; and, since it is the manner of its use, that determines any word to be of one part of speech rather than of an other, whatever word is used directly as a noun, must of course be parsed as such.

Song , vii, Interjections or phrases made nouns: Nouns are divided into two general classes; proper and common. A proper noun is the name of some particular individual, or people, or group; as, Adam, Boston , the Hudson , the Romans , the Azores , the Alps. A common noun is the name of a sort, kind, or class, of beings or things; as, Beast, bird, fish, insect,--creatures, persons, children. The particular classes, collective, abstract , and verbal , or participial , are usually included among common nouns.

The name of a thing sui generis is also called common. A collective noun , or noun of multitude , is the name of many individuals together; as, Council, meeting, committee, flock. An abstract noun is the name of some particular quality considered apart from its substance; as, Goodness, hardness, pride, frailty. A verbal or participial noun is the name of some action, or state of being; and is formed from a verb, like a participle, but employed as a noun: A thing sui generis , i.

Nouns have modifications of four kinds; namely, Persons, Numbers, Genders , and Cases. Persons, in grammar, are modifications that distinguish the speaker, the hearer, and the person or thing merely spoken of. The first person is that which denotes the speaker or writer; as, " I Paul have written it.

The second person is that which denotes the hearer, or the person addressed; as, " Robert , who did this? The third person is that which denotes the person or thing merely spoken of; as, " James loves his book. The speaker or writer, being the mover and maker of the communication, of course stands in the nearest or first of these relations. The hearer or hearers, being personally present and directly addressed, evidently sustain the next or second of these relations; this relation is also that of the reader, when he peruses what is addressed to himself in print or writing.

Lastly, whatsoever or whosoever is merely mentioned in the discourse, bears to it that more remote relation which constitutes the third person. The distinction of persons belongs to nouns, pronouns, and finite verbs; and to these it is always applied, either by peculiarity of form or construction, or by inference from the principles of concord. Pronouns are like their antecedents, and verbs are like their subjects, in person.

Hence, it is necessary that our definitions of these things be such as will apply to each of them in full, or under all circumstances; for the definitions ought to be as general in their application as are the things or properties defined. Any person, number, gender, case, or other grammatical modification, is really but one and the same thing, in whatever part of speech it may be found.

This is plainly implied in the very nature of every form of syntactical agreement; and as plainly contradicted in one half, and probably more, of the definitions usually given of these things. But persons, in common parlance, or in ordinary life, are intelligent beings , of one or the other sex. These objects, different as they are in their nature, are continually confounded by the makers of English grammars: So Bicknell, of London: The second person has the speech directed to him , and is supposed to be present; as, Thou Harry art a wicked fellow.

The third person is spoken of, or described, and supposed to be absent ; as, That Thomas is a good man. And in the same manner the plural pronouns are used, when more than one are spoken of. And how can the first person be "the person WHO speaks ," when every word of this phrase is of the third person? Most certainly, it is not HE, nor any one of his sort.

If any body can boast of being " the first person in grammar ," I pray, Who is it? Is it not I , even I? Many grammarians say so. Charles Adams, with infinite absurdity, makes the three persons in grammar to be never any thing but three nouns , which hold a confabulation thus: The noun that speaks [,] is the first person; as, I, James , was present.

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The noun that is spoken to, is the second person; as, James , were you present? The noun that is spoken of is the third person; as, James was present. What can be a greater blunder, than to call the first person of a verb, of a pronoun, or even of a noun, " the noun that speaks? Nouns are of the second person when addressed or spoken to. Thou is the second person, singular. He, she , or it , is the third person, singular. We is the first person, plural. Ye or you is the second person, plural. They is the third person, plural.

Murray's Grammar , p. Adams's , 37; A. Flint's , 18; Kirkham's , 98; Cooper's , 34; T. Now there is no more propriety in affirming, that " I is the first person ," than in declaring that me, we, us, am, ourselves, we think, I write , or any other word or phrase of the first person, is the first person. Yet Murray has given us no other definitions or explanations of the persons than the foregoing erroneous assertions; and, if I mistake not, all the rest who are here named, have been content to define them only as he did.

Some others, however, have done still worse: I, who is the person speaking ; 2d thou, who is spoken to; 3d he, she , or it, who is spoken of, and their plurals, we, ye or you, they. Here the two kinds of error which I have just pointed out, are jumbled together. It is impossible to write worse English than this!

Nor is the following much better: I , in the first person, speaking; Thou , in the second person, spoken to; and He, she, it , in the third person, spoken of. This exception takes place more particularly in the writing of dialogues and dramas; in which the first and second persons are abundantly used, not as the representatives of the author and his reader, but as denoting the fictitious speakers and hearers that figure in each scene. But, in discourse, the grammatical persons may be changed without a change of the living subject. In the following sentence, the three grammatical persons are all of them used with reference to one and the same individual: Consequently, nouns are rarely used in the first person; and when they do assume this relation, a pronoun is commonly associated with them: But some grammarians deny the first person to nouns altogether; others, with much more consistency, ascribe it;[] while very many are entirely silent on the subject.

Yet it is plain that both the doctrine of concords, and the analogy of general grammar, require its admission. The reason of this may be seen in the following examples: Again, if the word God is of the second person, in the text, " Thou, God , seest me," why should any one deny that Paul is of the first person, in this one? And so of the plural: How can it be pretended, that, in the phrase, " I Paul ," I is of the first person, as denoting the speaker, and Paul , of some other person, as denoting something or somebody that is not the speaker?

Let the admirers of Murray, Kirkham, Ingersoll, R. Smith, Comly, Greenleaf, Parkhurst, or of any others who teach this absurdity, answer. In the following example, the patriarch Jacob uses both forms; applying the term servant to himself, and to his brother Esau the term lord: For when a speaker or writer does not choose to declare himself in the first person, or to address his hearer or reader in the second , he speaks of both or either in the third. So Judah humbly beseeches Joseph: And Abraham reverently intercedes with God: And the Psalmist prays: So, on more common occasions: Ye mountains , that ye skipped like rams; and ye little hills , like lambs?

Tremble, thou earth , at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob. The plural number is that which denotes more than one; as, "The boys learn. The plural number of nouns is regularly formed by adding s or es to the singular: When the singular ends in a sound which will unite with that of s , the plural is generally formed by adding s only , and the number of syllables is not increased: But when the sound of s cannot be united with that of the primitive word, the regular plural adds s to final e , and es to other terminations, and forms a separate syllable: In some languages, as the Greek and the Arabic, there is a dual number, which denotes two , or a pair ; but in ours, this property of words, or class of modifications, extends no farther than to distinguish unity from plurality, and plurality from unity.

It belongs to nouns, pronouns, and finite verbs; and to these it is always applied, either by peculiarity of form, or by inference from the principles of concord. Pronouns are like their antecedents, and verbs are like their subjects, in number. The terminations which always make the regular plural in es , with increase of syllables, are twelve; namely, ce, ge, ch soft, che soft, sh, ss, s, se, x, xe, z , and ze: All other endings readily unite in sound either with the sharp or with the flat s , as they themselves are sharp or flat; and, to avoid an increase of syllables, we allow the final e mute to remain mute after that letter is added: In some instances, however, usage is various in writing, though uniform in speech; an unsettlement peculiar to certain words that terminate in vowels: There are also some other difficulties respecting the plurals of nouns, and especially respecting those of foreign words; of compound terms; of names and titles; and of words redundant or deficient in regard to the numbers.

What is most worthy of notice, respecting all these puzzling points of English grammar, is briefly contained in the following observations. To this rule, the plurals of words ending in quy , as alloquies, colloquies, obloquies, soliloquies , are commonly made exceptions; because many have conceived that the u , in such instances, is a mere appendage to the q , or is a consonant having the power of w , and not a vowel forming a diphthong with the y. See Rule 12th for Spelling.

So nouns in i , so far as we have any that are susceptible of a change of number, form the plural regularly by assuming es: Common nouns ending in y preceded by a consonant, are numerous; and none of them deviate from the foregoing rule of forming the plural: The termination added is es , and the y is changed into i , according to the general principle expressed in Rule 11th for Spelling. But, to this principle, or rule, some writers have supposed that proper nouns were to be accounted exceptions. And accordingly we sometimes find such names made plural by the mere addition of an s ; as, "How come the Pythagoras' , [it should be, the Pythagorases ,] the Aristotles , the Tullys , the Livys , to appear, even to us at this distance, as stars of the first magnitude in the vast fields of ether?

This doctrine, adopted from some of our older grammars, I was myself, at one period, inclined to countenance; see Institutes of English Grammar , p. To pronounce the final a flat, as Africay for Africa , is a mark of vulgar ignorance. This class of words being anomalous in respect to pronunciation, some authors have attempted to reform them, by changing the e to y in the singular, and writing ies for the plural: A reformation of some sort seems desirable here, and this has the advantage of being first proposed; but it is not extensively adopted, and perhaps never will be; for the vowel sound in question, is not exactly that of the terminations y and ies , but one which seems to require ee --a stronger sound than that of y , though similar to it.

In words of this class, the e appears to be useful as a means of preserving the right sound of the o ; consequently, such of them as are the most frequently used, have become the most firmly fixed in this orthography. In practice, however, we find many similar nouns very frequently, if not uniformly, written with s only; as, cantos, juntos, grottos, solos, quartos, octavos, duodecimos, tyros.

So that even the best scholars seem to have frequently doubted which termination they ought to regard as the regular one. The whole class includes more than one hundred words. Some, however, are seldom used in the plural; and others, never. Wo and potato are sometimes written woe and potatoe. This may have sprung from a notion, that such as have the e in the plural, should have it also in the singular. But this principle has never been carried out; and, being repugnant to derivation, it probably never will be.

The only English appellatives that are established in oe , are the following fourteen: The last is pronounced dip'-lo-e by Worcester; but Webster, Bolles, and some others, give it as a word of two syllables only. Nay, for lack of a rule to guide his pen, even Johnson himself could not remember the orthography of the common word mangoes well enough to copy it twice without inconsistency. This may be seen by his example from King, under the words mango and potargo.

Since, therefore, either termination is preferable to the uncertainty which must attend a division of this class of words between the two; and since es has some claim to the preference, as being a better index to the sound; I shall make no exceptions to the principle, that common nouns ending in o preceded by a consonant take es for the plural. Murray says, " Nouns which end in o have sometimes es added, to form the plural; as, cargo, echo, hero, negro, manifesto, potato, volcano, wo: This amounts to nothing, unless it is to be inferred from his examples , that others like them in form are to take s or es accordingly; and this is what I teach, though it cannot be said that Murray maintains the principle.

These, however, may still be called proper nouns , in parsing; because they are only inflections, peculiarly applied, of certain names which are indisputably such. So likewise when such nouns are used to denote character: The proper names of nations, tribes , and societies , are generally plural; and, except in a direct address, they are usually construed with the definite article: And those which are only or chiefly plural, have, or ought to have, such terminations as are proper to distinguish them as plurals, so that the form for the singular may be inferred: Here the singular must certainly be a Tungoose.

Here the singulars may be supposed to be a Pawnee , an Arrapaho , and a Cumanche. Here all are regular plurals, except the last; and this probably ought to be Natchezes , but Jefferson spells it Natches , the singular of which I do not know. Sometimes foreign words or foreign terminations have been improperly preferred to our own; which last are more intelligible, and therefore better: As any vowel sound may be uttered with an s , many writers suppose these letters to require for plurals strictly regular, the s only; and to take es occasionally, by way of exception.

Others, perhaps with more reason, assume, that the most usual, regular, and proper endings for the plural, in these instances, are ies, oes, and ues: This, I think, is right for common nouns. How far proper names are to be made exceptions, because they are proper names, is an other question. It is certain that some of them are not to be excepted: So the names of tribes; as, The Missouries , the Otoes , the Winnebagoes. Likewise, the houries and the harpies ; which words, though not strictly proper names, are often written with a capital as such.

Like these are rabbies, cadies, mufties, sophies , from which some writers omit the e. Johnson, Walker, and others, write gipsy and gipsies ; Webster, now writes Gipsey and Gipseys ; Worcester prefers Gypsy , and probably Gypsies: Webster once wrote the plural gypsies ; see his Essays , p. Yet there seems to be the same reason for inserting the e in these, as in other nouns of the same ending; namely, to prevent the o from acquiring a short sound.

Harris says very properly, 'We have our Marks and our Antonies: Whatever may have been the motive for it, such a use of the apostrophe is a gross impropriety. The word India , commonly makes the plural Indies , not Indias ; and, for Ajaxes , the poets write Ajaces. For example--in speaking of two young ladies whose family name is Bell--whether to call them the Miss Bells , the Misses Bell , or the Misses Bells. To an inquiry on this point, a learned editor, who prefers the last, lately gave his answer thus: This puts the words in apposition; and there is no question, that it is formally correct.

But still it is less agreeable to the ear, less frequently heard, and less approved by grammarians, than the first phrase; which, if we may be allowed to assume that the two words may be taken together as a sort of compound, is correct also. The following quotations show the opinions of some other grammarians: The foregoing opinion from Crombie, is quoted and seconded by Maunder, who adds the following examples: Stone, the editor above quoted, nor would his reasoning apply well to several of their examples.

Yet both opinions are right, if neither be carried too far. For when the words are in apposition, rather than in composition, the first name or title must be made plural, if it refers to more than one: Nor is that which varies the first only, to be altogether condemned, though Dr.

Priestley is unquestionably wrong respecting the " strict analogy " of which he speaks.

The joining of a plural title to one singular noun, as, " Misses Roy ,"--" The Misses Bell ,"--" The two Misses Thomson ," produces a phrase which is in itself the least analogous of the three; but, " The Misses Jane and Eliza Bell ," is a phrase which nobody perhaps will undertake to amend.

It appears, then, that each of these forms of expression may be right in some cases; and each of them may be wrong, if improperly substituted for either of the others. Sells; the two Miss Browns ; or, without the numeral, the Miss Roys. But in addressing letters in which both or all are equally concerned, and also when the names are different, we pluralize the title , Mr.

If we wish to distinguish these Misses from other Misses, we call them the Misses Howard. The elliptical meaning is, the Misses and Messrs, who are named Story. To distinguish unmarried from married ladies, the proper name , and not the title , should be varied; as, the Miss Clarks. When we mention more than one person of different names, the title should be expressed before each; as, Miss Burns, Miss Parker, and Miss Hopkinson, were present. In the following examples from Pope's Works, the last word only is varied: Three others in fe are similar: These are specific exceptions to the general rule for plurals, and not a series of examples coming under a particular rule; for, contrary to the instructions of nearly all our grammarians, there are more than twice as many words of the same endings, which take s only: The plural of wharf is sometimes written wharves ; but perhaps as frequently, and, if so, more accurately, wharfs.

Nouns in ff take s only; as, skiffs, stuffs, gaffs. But the plural of staff has hitherto been generally written staves ; a puzzling and useless anomaly, both in form and sound: Staffs is now sometimes used; as, "I saw the husbandmen bending over their staffs. In one instance, I observe, a very excellent scholar has written selfs for selves , but the latter is the established plural of self:. The word brethren is now applied only to fellow-members of the same church or fraternity; for sons of the same parents we always use brothers ; and this form is sometimes employed in the other sense.

Dice are spotted cubes for gaming; dies are stamps for coining money, or for impressing metals. Pence , as six pence , refers to the amount of money in value; pennies denotes the corns themselves. This last anomaly, I think, might well enough "be spared; the sound of the word being the same, and the distinction to the eye not always regarded. In this way, these irregularities extend to many words; though some of the metaphorical class, as kite's-foot, colts-foot, bear's-foot, lion's-foot , being names of plants, have no plural. The word man , which is used the most frequently in this way, makes more than seventy such compounds.

But there are some words of this ending, which, not being compounds of man , are regular: Thus we write fathers-in-law, sons-in-law, knights-errant, courts-martial, cousins-german, hangers-on, comings-in, goings-out, goings-forth , varying the first; and manhaters, manstealers, manslayers, maneaters, mandrills, handfuls, spoonfuls, mouthfuls, pailfuls, outpourings, ingatherings, downsittings, overflowings , varying the last.

So, in many instances, when there is a less intimate connexion of the parts, and the words are written with a hyphen, if not separately, we choose to vary the latter or last: The following mode of writing is irregular in two respects; first, because the words are separated, and secondly, because both are varied: Liberator , ix, According to analogy, it ought to be: Wright alleges, that, "The phrase, 'I want two spoonfuls or handfuls ,' though common, is improperly constructed;" and that, "we should say, 'Two spoons or hands full.

From this opinion, I dissent: Of the propriety of this, the reader may judge, when I shall have quoted a few examples: Such terms as these, if thought objectionable, may easily be avoided, by substituting for the former part of the compound the separate adjective male or female ; as, male child, male children. Or, for those of the third example, one might say, " singing men and singing women ," as in Nehemiah , vii, 67; for, in the ancient languages, the words are the same.

Alger compounds " singing-men and singing-women. But, in all such cases, I think the hyphen should be inserted in the compound, though it is the practice of many to omit it. Of this odd sort of words, I quote the following examples from Churchill; taking the liberty to insert the hyphen, which he omits: For, as there ought to be no word, or inflection of a word, for which we cannot conceive an appropriate meaning or use, it follows that whatever is of such a species that it cannot be taken in any plural sense, must naturally be named by a word which is singular only: But there are some things, which have in fact neither a comprehensible unity, nor any distinguishable plurality, and which may therefore be spoken of in either number; for the distinction of unity and plurality is, in such instances, merely verbal; and, whichever number we take, the word will be apt to want the other: It is necessary that every noun should be understood to be of one number or the other; for, in connecting it with a verb, or in supplying its place by a pronoun, we must assume it to be either singular or plural.

And it is desirable that singulars and plurals should always abide by their appropriate forms, so that they may be thereby distinguished with readiness. But custom, which regulates this, as every thing else of the like nature, does not always adjust it well; or, at least, not always upon principles uniform in themselves and obvious to every intellect.

Thus, a council , a committee , a jury , a meeting , a society , a flock , or a herd , is singular; and the regular plurals are councils, committees, juries, meetings, societies, flocks, herds. But these, and many similar words, may be taken plurally without the s , because a collective noun is the name of many individuals together. Hence we may say, "The council were unanimous. Where a purer concord can be effected, it may be well to avoid such a construction, though examples like it are not uncommon: Thus, cattle , for beasts of pasture, and pulse , for peas and beans, though in appearance singulars only, are generally, if not always, plural; and summons, gallows, chintz, series, superficies, molasses, suds, hunks, jakes, trapes , and corps , with the appearance of plurals, are generally, if not always, singular.

Webster says that cattle is of both numbers; but wherein the oneness of cattle can consist, I know not. The Bible says, "God made-- cattle after their kind. Here kind is indeed singular, as if cattle were a natural genus of which one must be a cattle ; as sheep are a natural genus of which one is a sheep: Gillies says, in his History of Greece, " cattle was regarded as the most convenient measure of value.

Sheep is not singular, unless limited to that number by some definitive word; and cattle I conceive to be incapable of any such limitation. Summonses is given in Cobb's Dictionary as the plural of summons ; but some authors have used the latter with a plural verb: Johnson says this noun is from the verb to summon ; and, if this is its origin, the singular ought to be a summon , and then summons would be a regular plural.

But this "singular noun with a plural termination," as Webster describes it, more probably originated from the Latin verb submoneas , used in the writ, and came to us through the jargon of law, in which we sometimes hear men talk of " summonsing witnesses. Chints is called by Cobb a "substantive plural " and defined as "cotton cloths , made in India;" but other lexicographers define it as singular, and Worcester perhaps more properly writes it chintz.

Johnson cites Pope as speaking of " a charming chints ," and I have somewhere seen the plural formed by adding es. Walker, in his Elements of Elocution, makes frequent use of the word " serieses ," and of the phrase " series of serieses. This, however, is no rule for writing English. Blair has used the word species in a plural sense; though I think he ought rather to have preferred the regular English word kinds: Specie , meaning hard money, though derived or corrupted from species , is not the singular of that word; nor has it any occasion for a plural form, because we never speak of a specie.

The plural of gallows , according to Dr. Webster, is gallowses ; nor is that form without other authority, though some say, gallows is of both numbers and not to be varied: Some nouns, because they signify such things as nature or art has made plural or double; some, because they have been formed from other parts of speech by means of the plural ending which belongs to nouns; and some, because they are compounds in which a plural word is principal, and put last, are commonly used in the plural number only, and have, in strict propriety, no singular. Though these three classes of plurals may not be perfectly separable, I shall endeavour to exhibit them in the order of this explanation.

Plurals in meaning and form: Plurals by formation, derived chiefly from adjectives: To these may be added the Latin words, aborigines, antipodes, antes, antoeci, amphiscii, anthropophagi, antiscii, ascii, literati, fauces, regalia , and credenda , with the Italian vermicelli , and the French belles-lettres and entremets. Of this class are the following: The fact is, that these words have, or ought to have, the singular, as often as there is any occasion to use it; and the same may, in general terms, be said of other nouns, respecting the formation of the plural.

But the nature of a mass, or of an indefinite multitude taken collectively, is not found in individuals as such; nor is the name, whether singular, as gold , or plural, as ashes , so understood. Hence, though every noun must be of one number or the other, there are many which have little or no need of both. Thus we commonly speak of wheat, barley, or oats , collectively; and very seldom find occasion for any other forms of these words.

But chafferers at the corn-market, in spite of Cobbett,[] will talk about wheats and barleys , meaning different kinds[] or qualities; and a gardener, if he pleases, will tell of an oat , as does Milton, in his Lycidas, meaning a single seed or plant. But, because wheat or barley generally means that sort of grain in mass, if he will mention a single kernel, he must call it a grain of wheat or a barleycorn.

And these he may readily make plural, to specify any particular number; as, five grains of wheat , or three barleycorns. The word amends is represented by Murray and others, as being singular as well as plural; but Webster's late dictionaries exhibit amend as singular, and amends as plural, with definitions that needlessly differ, though not much.

I judge " an amends " to be bad English; and prefer the regular singular, an amend. The word is of French origin, and is sometimes written in English with a needless final e ; as, "But only to make a kind of honourable amende to God. The word remains Dr.

Webster puts down as plural only, and yet uses it himself in the singular: There are also other authorities for this usage, and also for some other nouns that are commonly thought to have no singular; as, "But Duelling is unlawful and murderous, a remain of the ancient Gothic barbarity.

It is some poor fragment, some slender ort of his remainder.

Thus, deer, folk, fry, gentry, grouse, hose, neat, sheep, swine, vermin , and rest , i. Again, alms, aloes, bellows, means, news, odds, shambles , and species , are proper plurals, but most of them are oftener construed as singulars. Folk and fry are collective nouns. Folk means people ; a folk, a people: Folks , which ought to be the plural of folk , and equivalent to peoples , is now used with reference to a plurality of individuals, and the collective word seems liable to be entirely superseded by it. A fry is a swarm of young fishes, or of any other little creatures living in water: Several such swarms might properly be called fries ; but this form can never be applied to the individuals, without interfering with the other.

Formerly, the plural was hosen: Of sheep , Shakspeare has used the regular plural: Thus means is the regular plural of mean ; and, when the word is put for mediocrity, middle point, place, or degree, it takes both forms, each in its proper sense; but when it signifies things instrumental, or that which is used to effect an object, most writers use means for the singular as well as for the plural: Johnson says the use of means for mean is not very grammatical; and, among his examples for the true use of the word, he has the following: Lowth also questioned the propriety of construing means as singular, and referred to these same authors as authorities for preferring the regular form.

Buchanan insists that means is right in the plural only; and that, "The singular should be used as perfectly analogous; by this mean , by that mean. Lord Kames, likewise, appears by his practice to have been of the same opinion: Caleb Alexander, too, declares " this means ," " that means. But common usage has gone against the suggestions of these critics, and later grammarians have rather confirmed the irregularity, than attempted to reform it. Principle is for the regular word mean , and good practice favours the irregularity, but is still divided.

Cobbett, to the disgrace of grammar, says, " Mean , as a noun, is never used in the singular. It, like some other words, has broken loose from all principle and rule. By universal consent, it is become always a plural , whether used with singular or plural pronouns and articles, or not. This is as ungrammatical, as it is untrue. Both mean and means are sufficiently authorized in the singular: Chalmers, Sermons , p.

Adams's Lectures on Rhetoric and Oratory , i, Thus manner makes the plural manners , which last is now generally used in the peculiar sense of behaviour, or deportment, but not always: But manner has often been put for sorts , without the s ; as, "The tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits.

Milton used kind in the same way, but not very properly; as, " All kind of living creatures. This irregularity it would be well to avoid. Manners may still, perhaps, be proper for modes or ways; and all manner , if allowed, must be taken in the sense of a collective noun; but for sorts, kinds, classes, or species, I would use neither the plural nor the singular of this word. The word heathen , too, makes the regular plural heathens , and yet is often used in a plural sense without the s ; as, "Why do the heathen rage?

The word youth , likewise, has the same peculiarities. Hence some grammarians affirm, that salmon, mackerel, herring, perch, tench , and several others, are alike in both numbers, and ought never to be used in the plural form. I am not so fond of honouring these anomalies. Usage is here as unsettled, as it is arbitrary; and, if the expression of plurality is to be limited to either form exclusively, the regular plural ought certainly to be preferred.

But, for fish taken in bulk , the singular form seems more appropriate; as, "These vessels take from thirty-eight to forty-five quintals of cod and pollock , and six thousand barrels of mackerel , yearly. In quoting, at second-hand, I generally think it proper to make double references; and especially in citing authorities after Johnson, because he so often gives the same passages variously. But he himself is reckoned good authority in things literary.

I regret the many proofs of his fallibility. The quantity of ; as, a mease of herrings. Gay has improperly mackarels. It is noted that roaches recover strength and grow a fortnight after spawning. There are also other nouns in which a like difference may be observed. Some names of building materials, as brick, stone, plank, joist , though not destitute of regular plurals, as bricks, stones, planks, joists , and not unadapted to ideas distinctly singular, as a brick, a stone, a plank, a joist , are nevertheless sometimes used in a plural sense without the s , and sometimes in a sense which seems hardly to embrace the idea of either number; as, "Let us make brick , and burn them thoroughly.

The same variety of usage occurs in respect to a few other words, and sometimes perhaps without good reason; as, "Vast numbers of sea fowl frequent the rocky cliffs. Our writers have laid many languages under contribution, and thus furnished an abundance of irregular words, necessary to be explained, but never to be acknowledged as English till they conform to our own rules. Dogma makes dogmas or dogmata ; exanthema, exanthemas or exanthemata ; miasm or miasma, miasms or miasmata ; stigma, stigmas or stigmata.

Of nouns in um , some have no need of the plural; as, bdellium, decorum, elysium, equilibrium, guaiacum, laudanum, odium, opium, petroleum, serum, viaticum. Some form it regularly; as, asylums, compendiums, craniums, emporiums, encomiums, forums, frustums, lustrums, mausoleums, museums, pendulums, nostrums, rostrums, residuums, vacuums. Others take either the English or the Latin plural; as, desideratums or desiderata, mediums or media, menstruums or menstrua, memorandums or memoranda, spectrums or spectra, speculums or specula, stratums or strata, succedaneums or succedanea, trapeziums or trapezia, vinculums or vincula.

A few seem to have the Latin plural only: Of nouns in us , a few have no plural; as, asparagus, calamus, mucus. Some have only the Latin plural, which usually changes us to i ; as, alumnus, alumni; androgynus, androgyni; calculus, calculi; dracunculus, dracunculi; echinus, echini; magus, magi.

But such as have properly become English words, may form the plural regularly in es ; as, chorus, choruses: Five of these make the Latin plural like the singular; but the mere English scholar has no occasion to be told which they are. Radius makes the plural radii or radiuses.

• Up the Republic!: Towards a New Ireland
• A Bed of Thorns
• Fall Vol.3
• Fat Man Thin Man. (McGee Book 2)
• Celephais (Angoisse) (French Edition)
• Strange Attractions (Black Lace)