 The Study of Living Languages Part 2 by Sir Arthur Cotten Read for the LibriVox Language Learning Collection, Volume 1. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org Second, begin with a restricted vocabulary. In the first place, reject of course all words which will never be required, such as those used only in learned works. Next, reject all those that hardly ever occur even in books. Next, let alone those that are chiefly in use only in certain particular lines of life and are more or less technical. Again, have nothing to do with any words that are not commonly used in the ordinary matters of life. What can be gained but clear loss by birthing the young beginner with a multitude of words by far the greater part of those in the language? That will thus be rejected when they have nothing whatever to do with his acquiring a useful knowledge of the language. And when, if required, they can afterwards be added in a tenth part of the time that they would require at first. Probably out of 20,000 words in a language, the knowledge of 5,000 would set him so perfectly at liberty in all ordinary conversation that neither he himself nor those he converses with would be reminded that he does not know all. And if occasionally a person used one of the remaining words, probably he could not mistake the meaning of it in the midst of so many known ones, and if he could not perceive what it must mean, he could have no difficulty in asking the meaning or understanding the explanation. Having thus relieved our student from such a mass of useless labour, let us next divide these 5,000 words, or whatever the number is, into several portions, taking out first 1,000, and then another of the least common and least immediately necessary words, till we have only a thousand left. Out of these again, take 253 times, and then 150 in the same way, so that to begin we have only 100 of the commonest words in the language, but consisting of all the different parts of speech, so that little sentences may be formed out of them. The learner then deals with only one of these batches of words at a time, not troubling himself with the others, till he knows the first batch, as well as he does so many words of his own language. This is one of the great essentials of the system proposed. Words should never be partially learned and forgotten again, nor imperfectly, that is, so that their true value and use are not thoroughly known. When once a word is taken up, it should of course be thoroughly secured, both as respects the meaning of it and its use, and it must be particularly observed that it is not the bare knowledge of a word that is wanted, so that a person, by more or less thought, can recall it to his mind. It must, to be of any use in conversation, be perfectly familiar, and it must have been repeated aloud so many times that the organs of speech have been thoroughly exercised in it, and that it may be pronounced both correctly and with the utmost freedom. Nothing but multiplied repetitions of it allowed, with continued reference to a correct standard and in connection with various other words, can accomplish this. It must take some time, thus, to appropriate new words, and especially the first hundred words of a language. But the process cannot possibly be hastened, but on the contrary, indefinitely delayed by attempting thousands of others before the first are secured. The number 100 is chosen for the first batch, as being about the smallest number that can enable one to take up some variety of short sentences, so that each word may be seen in a variety of situations and in its various inflections, and they are sufficient to provide for exercising the student in the first rudiments of grammar. Third, to each of these batches of words, a set of sentences is to be added. These are all to be the commonest colloquial expressions. They should consist of a certain number written on each word in the batch and contain no words that are not in it. It is essential that they should be written by natives, and those who cannot speak English would be preferable, in order that there may be a security for the sentences being true native expressions. It is also essential that the writers should not be highly educated men, but ordinary intelligent men of the middle classes, otherwise the sentences would be almost sure to be full of fanciful things. The list of words should be given to several different persons in order to secure a good variety of expressions, and some selection should be made. The first set ought not to consist of less than one thousand sentences, that is, ten to each word. In order that by means of this batch of words, the first rudiments of grammar may be quite familiar, and some considerable notion obtained of the general style of expression peculiar to the language, keeping throughout the grand object in view, which is to arrange that, so far as possible, the attention may be concentrated on one thing at a time. When a hundred words have been acquired, all the use possible should be made of them, as the vehicle for conveying instructions in other respects before the attention is encumbered by new words. In order that when new words are taken in hand, the student may have his attention in a great measure released from the pressure of the elementary points of grammar, peculiar style of expression, etc. It is also most essential that these sentences should consist of only two or three words, never more than the latter. It is astonishing how very little new matter overloads the attention of a beginner, and the utmost care is necessary that no more should ever be placed before him at a time than that he can receive a distinct impression of it. A sentence of four or five words is quite too much at first, and nothing is gained by attempting more than the student is equal to. Comparatively speaking, a very considerable time to the first set of sentences, for there is a great deal to be learnt by them. It is evident that they involve almost all the pronunciation, the inflections of the nouns and verbs, the mode of combining the different parts of speech, the exercise of the organs of speech, and that of the ear on the sound of the language, etc. The first progress of a student in a new language, at least in one entirely dissimilar to his native tongue, is indeed astonishingly slow, and it is of no use attempting to push him on faster than he can go. We constantly meet with what are called easy books for beginners, but probably there is not one published in any language that is a hundredth part easy enough, or that does not seem to suppose a progress at first a hundred times more rapid than any student makes. The sentences must of course be translated into English, but it is essential that they should not be written originally in English and then translated into the foreign language. We do not want to teach a man to speak English sentences in foreign words, but to use the foreign expressions. The second set of words consisting of 150 may perhaps contain 10 sentences for each word or 1500 in all. These may be a little longer than the first, as the student will be able to obtain a clear impression of a greater number of words together, but probably they should not exceed five. After this, the sets of sentences may consist of fewer upon each word and perhaps only one upon each of the last two batches, and they may be lengthened gradually, the last being of any length. The essential points of these sentences are therefore first that they should be Bonafide expressions commonly used in the language, and consequently that they should be originally written in the language by a native. Second, that they should be simple ordinary colloquial expressions and therefore that they should not be written by learned men who would probably spoil them. Third, that they should be extremely short, the first set not exceeding three words and the others very gradually lengthened. Fourth, that there should be a large number of them in the first set of words, so as to make as much use as possible of those words before proceeding to new ones. Fifth, that there should be as great a variety of expressions in the sentences as possible. In printing the sentences there should be first the native words separately and in the proper character, second under each of them the same word in the English character, third the most exact English meaning of each individual word and fourth the full power of the sentence freely given in English. The use of the native character is to enable a native to teach from the book who does not know English. As one great point in preparing these materials is to provide for a person having to learn the language with the help of natives who do not understand English or who are not thoroughly qualified teachers, it is desirable if possible that these sentences should have numerous notes subjoined giving all the information that can be suggested by each sentence and that can in any way help to give the student an intelligent knowledge of the language. These notes should if possible be written by an intelligent Englishman who will know from his own experience what misapprehensions beginners are liable to form on account of their English ideas and what points are likely to be difficulties to them. If the first two sets of words had ten sentences in each and the last thousand words four on each the whole of the sentences on suppose two thousand words would amount to about ten thousand which would be sufficient to make the student thoroughly at home in expressing himself freely on all common subjects. Besides these general words and sentences each student according to his profession ought to have a separate set of words and expressions belonging to his peculiar occupations whether those of a magistrate, a merchant, a missionary, an engineer etc. But it would be of no use his acquiring this information till he was in some good measure grounded in the more general use of the language and therefore he should not perhaps take such a list of words in hand till he had gone through the first two thousand general words with their sentences. The professional sentences should contain of course only those words already learnt in addition to the technical words. With these sets of words and sentences there should be a short grammar containing only the first rudiments in the simplest possible form so that it can be referred to without loss of time on any point. This however in fact should be made comparatively very little use of. Rules of grammar are not wanted. A man in conversation cannot possibly stop to form the participle of a verb from the root by considering the rules if it does not come of itself into his mouth nothing can make amends for that defect. What is wanted is such a knowledge of grammar as a child of four years old possesses that is a knowledge which enables him to speak correctly intelligibly and without hesitation he does not know a single rule for anything he says his speaking must be independent of any rules whether he has learnt any or not yet a short grammar to be looked into occasionally at first maybe of some little assistance in acquiring the inflections of the nouns and verbs etc. But the grand means of acquiring a grammatical use of the language must be simply the repetition multiplied of a good variety of correct forms of expression. Nothing can be more absurd than insisting upon knowing the rules of grammar before a student can be allowed to know a language. If a man talks English grammatically that is correctly he is never examined as to whether he knows any rules perhaps he never learnt a line of any English grammar but it makes no difference but it is always expected that a man studying a foreign language should be able to stand an examination of a kind neither he nor his examiner could stand in his mother tongue. The same man who meets a stranger in the street and knows well by the first sentence that he utters whether he is perfectly acquainted with English or not is perhaps on his way to some place where he will pass hours in ascertaining whether a student has a good knowledge of a language foreign to him. These are therefore the materials which I would put into any man's hands who wants to study a foreign language for colloquial purposes namely a vocabulary of perhaps 2000 words divided into sets of from 100 to 250 with about 10,000 common forms of expression composed only of each set of words and those words previously learnt. These printed both in the native and English character with a verbal and a free translation the sentences to be aided if possible by copious notes giving all the collateral information possible and to these to be added a very short rudimental grammar. It will not perhaps be necessary to give the verbal translations of any but the first two or three thousand sentences. As to the student's further study he may of course now with perfect ease follow the ordinary plan that is take up any book that contains the sort of words and matter most suited to his line of life with an ordinary dictionary and grammar to which however he will have very seldom to refer. He will know so large a portion of the words that the context will generally show the meaning of any new word he meets with and he will lose very little of his time in that which usually occupies about three fourths of all the time expended in such studies namely in turning over the leaves of a large dictionary and guessing which of the several meanings there found for a word is compatible with those of the other words of the sentence before him many of which he has also yet to ascertain but his great business should of course be to converse as constantly as possible in order further to exercise his tongue and his ear and to add to his stock of forms of expression it is to be remembered that in using books a principal exercise should be reading aloud and having them read aloud to him by a native if his occupation will require formal writing or translating of course he must exercise himself a good deal with books it is well known that the most easy and certain way of acquiring a correct and easy style in writing in any foreign language is to make or procure accurate translations of native books and then retranslate them comparing such retranslation with the original and thoroughly considering the difference between them this can be done with the greatest ease and economy of time when such a good fundamental knowledge has been acquired as is supposed to be obtained through the system now proposed the next point to be considered is the mode of using these materials the student begins with the English letters representing the sounds the teacher sounds each letter and the student repeats it immediately after this is done many times with those letters which represent sounds entirely strange to the learner the most essential thing is to learn where to place the tongue in these last sounds without doing which it is impossible he should utter them correctly and this must be most patiently and diligently practiced because this new motion of the tongue must be acquired to the same degree of facility as he has in pronouncing the sounds of his own language this cannot possibly be affected except by long continued use of the organs of speech at first each of these letters should be pronounced perhaps ten times over by the teacher and repeated by the student instantly the latter always observing correctly the difference between his own pronunciation and that of the teachers which immediately follows the grand means to attain a correct pronunciation must always be thus for the learner to attempt to both immediately after and immediately before hearing it correctly pronounced by a native just as in learning to write it is not sufficient first to look at the original and then try to imitate it but after writing it to look again at the original to see in what respect the copy has failed of course it will only be necessary to do this with the new sounds which will generally be only very few the student next takes the first list of 100 words which are all written in the shortest form that is the radical form of the verb etc as we should write in English good go little come etc the teacher should then pronounce the first word deliberately and the student should repeat it followed by the English meaning of it when it should again be repeated by the teacher and this suppose five times at first in this way the whole hundred words would be gone over many hundred times before the student ventures to attempt pronouncing them by himself the teacher and students should sit at some distance apart so that it may be necessary to speak pretty loud in these first exercises the student should have the printed words before him that he may have the assistance of sight in addition to that of hearing in impressing them on his memory it will of course be at first tiresome to continue this exercise long nevertheless the longer the better and if a person could arrange to do it for one or two hours at three or four different times in the day it would probably be best but he should not attempt to learn them by heart because his pronunciation will not be sufficiently confirmed when he has become tolerably familiar with the words of the first set of sentences both as to pronunciation and meaning by thus repeating them with his teacher several times and with his book before him he should put down his book and go over them again in the same way several times without seeing the words so as to be wholly dependent upon the ear from the first the ear must be exercised as far as possible without any aid from the eye it must be kept continually in mind that the sight is to be used as little as possible for the reasons before given the sentence should not be read together the first time of going over because the student is not yet able to receive any distinct impression from more than one word at a time the student should not yet trouble himself about the mode of framing the inflections that he meets with but be content to take the word with its exact English meaning as he finds it in this way he should go through the first thousand sentences with his teacher which will perhaps take him fifteen hours or suppose three days study during which time he would have repeated every word of the first hundred words on an average about a hundred and fifty times including the separate readings of the list of words less than three times repetition of each word is not sufficient to ensure the students correcting himself when he pronounces it imperfectly the first time after the first and second reading of the sentences repeating each word by word the whole sentence should be repeated in the same way at least three times over the student repeating the free English translation after the foreign sentence the readings should be repeated till every word has been heard and uttered suppose six hundred times during these readings the grammar of the nouns and verbs may be looked into a little and lastly the sentence should be learnt by heart and when the student is well exercised in the pronunciation by these means so that he can trust himself to utter it without first hearing it spoken the sentence should be again gone over in the same way but the teacher beginning by repeating first the English word when the student gives the foreign one the teacher immediately repeating it again and so on but if it is found that the student cannot yet remember the word and pronounce it with perfect ease they should be read over again in the former way when able to do it the whole set of sentences should be again gone through without the words being repeated individually the teacher the first time giving the foreign sentence and the next time giving first the English sentence it may be supposed that all this will not be necessary and it certainly is not in order to obtain such a knowledge as is usually supposed to be sufficient that is a knowledge which when brought to the trial of conversation is found to be of little or no use but it will be found that to obtain a really familiar acquaintance with the first set of words and their easy and correct pronunciation and use these multiplied repetitions are absolutely necessary nothing but a long continued exercise of the ear and the organs of speech upon a great variety of actual expressions can give either that quickness at hearing and pronouncing or that facility of correctly combining the words which are essential to their effective colloquial use it must be particularly observed that this first set of sentences thus acquired implies much more than might appear from the first glance namely, there is involved in it as it were the whole pronunciation of the language for a man who can pronounce freely and correctly 100 words will have little difficulty in pronouncing all the rest second, a knowledge of all the inflections of the nouns and verbs third, the mode of combining and arranging the different parts of speech thus, though only 100 words are used some real and considerable progress has already been made in the knowledge of the language this first set of sentences should not be laid aside till they are so perfectly familiar that almost any one of them can be repeated with the utmost readiness on the English translation being uttered nothing whatever will be gained by meddling with new materials till these first are thoroughly wrought into the student and made as much part of himself as the words and expressions of his own language the second set of words and sentences must be read over and thoroughly appropriated in the same way as the first probably, these first 250 words with their sentences may be mastered in a month of steady study of 3 or 4 hours a day and 750 additional words with about 3,000 longer sentences in another month completing the first 1,000 words in two months after the thorough grounding which this will give in every respect in pronunciation, in expression in hearing, in grammar etc the additions will be made with much greater rapidity everything depends upon this first grounding being thorough and complete nothing but such repetitions will accomplish this object there is no other way of doing it a soldier may be shown how to march and he may be made to move his legs in the manner shown in a few steps but nothing but long continued practice can possibly enable him to do it both correctly and with ease and it is the same with the muscles of the tongue, the ear and the brain as it is with the limbs a girl may have the finest ear possible but that will not enable her fingers to run over the notes of a piano or her throat to produce the notes of a song without long exercise of those organs after the first month the teacher will be required much less because the student can be trusted to pronounce provided he exercises with the teacher for some time daily he should also read aloud by himself just as when he reads with the teacher both because the great point is the exercise of the organs of speech and hearing and also because the pronouncing of the word is so great a help to remember the meaning it must however be remembered that in this solitary study as little use as possible should be made of the eye the word or sentence should be merely glanced at when necessary and the repetition should then be made without looking at the book with respect to the time required I cannot speak certainly because I have never had an opportunity of seeing the study commenced with such materials properly prepared beforehand but so far as I have seen it tried with imperfect materials the result was certainly excellent in the only case where an approach was made to a fair trial a gentleman studied irregularly but equal to about 2 months of continuous study of 5 hours a day and from that time he went out and performed all his duties without an interpreter having constantly to converse with the middling and lower classes most of whom had never spoken to a European before this was a real practical and effective acquaintance with the language though within small limits as to his number of words and expressions at first starting but then his ear and tongue having been well exercised he could both make himself understood and he could recognise the word spoken to him and consequently he was in a position to make steady progress in the correct use of the language from his intercourse with the people and this he accordingly did it would of course have been much better if he could have continued the same course of study though it were only for an hour or two a day by which he would have far more rapidly added to his stock of words and expressions an educated native who had, I believe helped to teach this gentleman lately told me that he had overheard natives speaking of him said that if they had not seen him they should not have known that it was not a native who was speaking Telugu it is very probable that many persons will complete the appropriation of the first thousand words and their sentences in one month I would now only ask which is preferable as a foundation such a really effective use of a language though within small limits or such a loose, vague and useless knowledge of a vast number of words with the rules of grammar as is usually acquired after at least many months of hard study during the whole of which time too the attention has been kept in a very injurious state of tension by the overwhelming load of new things that has continually been laid upon it at one and the same time I believe that in general little effective colloquial use of such a language is acquired within a year of hard study and that often two or three years or more pass before the student can talk it tolerably and that often two or three years or more pass before the student can talk it tolerably though only a portion of that time of course is actually employed in study on one occasion I was acquainted with two men who studied intensely about ten hours a day for nine months after which upon trial they found that they could scarcely hold the slightest communication with natives a remarkably opposite passage from the life of Dr. Hope may here be quoted which I have just met with and in which a part of the very means here proposed is stated to have been used by him with the most remarkable success though he did not begin upon this plan but merely learnt the colloquial use of a language after he had acquired a considerable stock of words he had already picked up a good knowledge of French and Italian so far as mere reading went and he imagined like many others that a little practice on the road would enable him to speak the language sufficiently to carry him through his tour but it was a very different thing to hear the lessons of professors and to converse with the natives of the country of this he found a very humiliating proof he went to engage apartments at a private hotel but after a pantomimic performance of twenty minutes between himself and the landlady it was found that neither could in the slightest degree understand the other and after laughter and reciprocal boughs he returned in despair having settled at another hotel he now determined to devote twelve hours a day to the mere practice of speaking French his first step was to engage a French master for twelve lessons and to make him go through the drudgery of reading three words at a time while he mimicked them as closely as he could this was singularly disagreeable to the master but it was all that Dr. Hope wanted and he was inflexible he thus secured himself against any gross error in pronunciation he happened to possess a van Oestrocht's grammar with a key to it a grammar which is remarkable for the great number of simple exercises which illustrate each rule he now translated these exercises from English to French correcting himself by constant reference to the key in this way he went two or three times through the grammar in the course of a month gaining flexibility of tongue and losing the fear of hearing his own voice he at the same time adopted another device he went to dine daily at a small and crowded restaurant frequented by the Gald de Cour where the company was so closely packed that he could not help hearing the conversation of two or three contiguous talkers in this way his ear got familiarised with all the sounds of the French language whether quick or slow, correct or provincial at the end of a month he ventured to Sally Forth and having a fancy for the rooms of the private hotel to which he had originally gone he waited on the landlady on entering he addressed her in fluent French explained his wishes etc the landlady the meanwhile with upraised hands and a look of utter amazement exclaiming you cannot be the same gentleman that came here a month ago and could not speak a word of French this case has no reference to the principles here proposed so far as the use of a restricted vocabulary is concerned but it shows how perfectly ineffectual the knowledge of book language and the exercise of the eye was for colloquial purposes and how complete the success was both in respect of time and effect when the means here proposed were used namely thorough appropriation of a good stock of simple familiar sentences and the diligent exercise of the ear and tongue he was totally without the colloquial use of the language so that he could neither understand a word spoken nor speak one intelligibly when he began to adopt the means he did and in one month he found himself perfectly at liberty in conversation in the same memoir it is afterwards related having had a lesson in France on the occasion of not being able to speak the language of a country in which one is travelling and studying Doctor Hope guarded against a similar inconvenience in Italy before leaving Paris he improved his pronunciation of Italian by taking 12 lessons as he had formally done in French and he provided himself with a brief practical Italian grammar with exercises referring to the rules and a key to them during a tour in Switzerland it was agreed that he should walk in advance of his friend for an hour daily to give him an opportunity of practicing these exercises Viva Voce this plan answered perfectly at the end of the time he spoke Italian fluently it may perhaps help to show yet more distinctly how father principles here advocated differ from or agree with some of the commonly received notions on the subject if I place my views side by side with those lately advanced in an elementary book for helping the student of an Indian language the first principle laid down is don't proceed too quickly an entirely new language requires great accuracy in the mastering of its elements in this I agree but I consider the book itself implies a progress in the learner immeasurably beyond the reality second write down everything from the beginning read always with pen or pencil in hand this is directly opposed to two of my principles one an essential one the other one of great importance the first that everything is to be learnt through the ear and not through the eye because it is the ear that is to be employed in using the language and not the eye the other that the foreign character should not be used by the beginner because time must be saved in learning one thing at a time and the character is not necessary to enable one to learn the language itself third read aloud all the exercises with a Tamil teacher and be very careful in ascertaining the correctness of what you have written here it is evident that there was some sort of loose notion about the exercise of the tongue but it also shows that there was nothing like a real apprehension of the essential importance of this nor to the extent to which that exercise should be carried nor is anything at all said about that which I insist upon as the main point namely the impossibility of learning to pronounce correctly and the certainty of being established in a false pronunciation unless for some considerable time no word is pronounced without referring at the time to a correct standard without the student hearing one word at a time pronounced both immediately before and immediately after himself by a native as to the latter clause of this hint I urge that the only possible way to secure the correctness of what one learns is not to attempt to invent anything but to be content to learn everything every sound every word every expression from a native forth at first whenever you meet with a new word look for it in the vocabulary and decline and conjugate it in full my rule is never meet with a new word and never lose a minute in looking for a word in a vocabulary or in guessing which of the different meanings that may be there given is the right one and never lose time in declining and conjugating a word in full use only limited lists of words and thoroughly appropriate everyone by hearing it applied in a great variety of short sentences in the course of which exercises the grammar will necessarily be picked up long before the pronunciation and value and use of the word are fully acquired yet it will be of some use to look occasionally into a short grammar containing the inflections of words fifth begin to talk though with stammering lips as soon as possible the very first day never speak English to a native if you can help it why say salt when you know the word do not be afraid of making mistakes this rule contains the very essence of the ordinary system or rather of the old notions it is diametrically opposed to the universally acknowledged and universally applicable principle whatever is habitual is easy it is always easier to do a thing the second time than the first my principle is be afraid of one thing making mistakes every time that a mistake is made one step more is taken towards a confirmed habit of making that mistake why do men in talking English as their own language go on putting H's in the wrong places and leaving them out all their lives in spite of their getting into a different class of society where they continually hear the correct pronunciation in this respect without ever being corrected because by habit their perceptions have been so blunted that they never perceive that they make a mistake do we not keep this principle of avoiding mistakes in view in almost all other cases accepting this do we set a child to make a rude imitation of some letter and then leave him to repeat it without a standard or do we insist upon his incessantly looking at a standard and never making one written letter without trying to imitate that standard which is placed before his eyes my principle therefore is never attempt to guess at anything whether it is a sound or word or an expression take the most effective steps you can to prevent you ever making a mistake is there not enough work to do to learn the real language that you must take measures to oblige yourself to add to it the unlearning of your own mistakes every time you pronounce a word wrong you have that to unlearn on no account therefore attempt to speak in the proper sense of that word till you are established in first a sound pronunciation second in the knowledge of the true value of a stock of words third in that of a good amount of grammar fourth in that of a large stock of bona fide native expressions is not this principle undeniable does a drawing master tell his pupil go and make rude and absurd drawings of a hand or a foot and then occupy yourself in unlearning the habit you have been acquiring or does he set before his pupil a true representative of a thing and say imitate this with the most earnest and close attention and never make a line without referring to the standard which pupil would make the greatest progress and which would be most likely to attain to perfection in his study one who was always trying to make rude drawings of a foot out of his own imagination and then laboring to correct them or one who did not attempt to invent at all but kept exercising himself in imitating a correct representation of a foot sixth be very careful in noting down differences in idiom between your own language and Tamil if you hear much Christian or cutury Tamil beware of thinking all you hear to be really Tamil try to cultivate a Tamil ear so as to detect an unidiomatic expression as you would a false note in music you should understand all you hear you need not use any expression that is not good Tamil I would only ask how a student can possibly learn to distinguish between true language and false except by learning the true and taking care as far as possible not to come in contact with false language whether coming from himself or anybody else till he has acquired a sound taste and judgment by a confirmed knowledge of the true language the simple rule is learn the true language and then you will not waste your time in acquiring and trying to unlearn a false one so clean wheat in your ground and not wheat and weeds mixed together and then you will not require to employ all the season in trying in vain to root out the weeds which you have yourself sewn it is this sort of instructions continually inserted in books of instruction in languages and which are directly opposed to well known general principles which show so plainly how entirely undigested the subject still is and how people in general are still acting upon notions that they have never examined and which will not bear the least examination in the book which is prefaced by these rules the materials provided assist the learner of Tamil are all prepared upon the usual false principles first an unlimited vocabulary is used so that every word must be learnt and forgotten a hundred times over second all sorts of words are introduced words perfectly useless to a beginner words derived from Sanskrit and scarcely ever used in conversation words used only in books translated from English by Englishman etc third the sentences are certainly not all written by a native so that the learner takes up the book with the encouraging feeling that he does not know which are true Tamil sentences and which are not fourth almost all the sentences are much too long for a beginner fifth many of the sentences are such as it is quite useless for a beginner to learn sixth English sentences are given without the corresponding Tamil how is the learner to discover what the proper Tamil would be unless he is told seventh the same with the Tamil sentences what can be the use of leaving the learner to guess what the English meaning is knowing that when he has guessed it it may be either right or wrong suppose a Tamil man were learning English how could he find out the expression we use when we ask who a certain person is how could he ever guess the expression who's that or could he find out of himself these expressions what's the matter where has he been come away I'd rather not never mind whether or no I can't help it you might as well set a man to guess at the words of a language as at its common expressions when I put this book into a Munshi's hand the first thing he said was many of these expressions are not common Tamil expressions and many of the words are not commonly used in conversation this might be said of almost any book I suppose every book of the kind what is a learner to do who has no better materials it is destructive for a learner to use a book when he is not sure whether the sentences are Tamil or not I mentioned these particulars of this book as illustrative of the mistakes and undigested ideas that are current on the subject end of the study of living languages part 2 end of the study of living languages by Sir Arthur Cotton recording by Nicholas James Bridgewater recorded in London England read for the LibriVox language learning collection volume 1 this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org a grammar of the English tongue a dictionary of the English language in which the words are deduced from their originals explained in their different meanings and authorized by the names of the writers and whose works they are found abstracted from the folio edition by the author Samuel Johnson LLD to which is prefixed Dr. Johnson's preface to the original folio edition and his grammar of the English language 1812 a grammar of the English tongue grammar which is the art of using words properly comprises four parts orthography etymology syntax and prosody in this division and order of the parts of grammar I follow the common grammarians without inquiring whether a fitter description might not be found experience has long shown this method to be so distinct as to obviate confusion and so comprehensive as to prevent any inconvenient omissions I likewise use the terms already received and already understood though perhaps others more proper might sometimes be invented Silbergius and other innovators whose new terms have sunk their learning into neglect have left sufficient warning against the trifling ambition of teaching arts in a new language orthography is the art of combining letters into syllables and syllables into words it therefore teaches previously the form and sound of letters the letters of the English language are a b c d e h i j k l m n o p q r s t u z to these may be added certain combinations of letters universally used in printing as f l f f f i f f i f f l and ampersand our letters are commonly reckoned 24 because anciently i and j as well as u and v were expressed by the same character but as those letters which had always different powers have now different forms our alphabet may be properly said to consist of 26 letters vowels are 5 a e i o u such as the number generally received but for i it is the practice to write y in the end of words as thy holy before i as from dye dyeing from beautify beautifying in the words says days and in words derived from the greek and written originally with greek y as sympathy sympathy system for u we often write w after a vowel to make a diphthong as raw grew view flowing the sounds of all the letters are various in treating on the letters i shall not like some other grammarians inquire into the original of their form as an antiquarian nor into their formation and prolation by the organs of speech as a mechanic anatomist or physiologist nor into the properties and gradation of sounds or the elegance or harshness of particular combinations as a writer of universal and transcendental grammar i consider the english alphabet only as it is english and even in this narrow disquisition i follow the example of former grammarians perhaps with more reverence than judgment because by writing in english i suppose my reader already acquainted with the english language and consequently able to pronounce the letters of which i teach the pronunciation and because of sounds in general it may be observed that words are unable to describe them an account therefore of the primitive and simple letters is useless almost alike to those who know their sound and those who know it not of vowels a a has three sounds the slender open and broad a slender is found in most words as face main and in words ending in ation as creation salvation generation the a slender is the proper english a called very justly by herpenius in his arabic grammar anglicum cum imistum as having a middle sound between the open a and the e the french have a similar sound in the word pious and in their e masculine a open is the a of the Italian or nearly resembles it as father rather congratulate fancy glass a broad resembles the a of the german as all wall call many words pronounced with a broad were anciently written with a u as salt malt and we still say fault vault this was probably the saxon sound for it is yet retained in the northern dialects and in the rustic pronunciation as mon for man hond for hand the short a approaches to the a open as grass the long a if prolonged by e at the end of the word is always slender as graze fame a forms a diphthong only with i or y and u or w a i or a y as in plane wane gay clay has only the sound of the long and slender a and differs not in the pronunciation from p l a n e w a n e a u or a w has the sound of the german a as raw naughty a e is sometimes found in latin words not completely naturalized or assimilated but is no english diphthong and is more properly expressed by single e as caesar anias e is the letter which occurs most frequently in the english language e is long as in seen or short as in seller separate celebrate men then it is always short before a double consonant or two consonants as in vex perplexity relent reptile serpent seller cessation blessing fell felling debt e is always mute at the end of a word except in monosyllables that have no other vowel as the or proper names as Penelope Phoebe being used to modify the foregoing consonants as since once hedge oblige or to lengthen the preceding vowel as ban bane can cane pin pine ton toon rub roub pop pope fur fire cur cure tub tube almost all words which now terminate in consonants ended anciently in e as year y-e-a-r-e wildness w-i-l-d-n-e-s-s-e which probably had the force of the French e feminine and constituted a syllable with its associate consonant for in old editions words are sometimes divided thus c-l-e-a-r-e f-e-l-l-e k-n-o-w-l-e-d g-e this e was perhaps for a time vocal or silent in poetry as convenience required but it has been long wholly mute camden in his remains calls it the silent e it does not always lengthen the foregoing vowel as glove live give it has sometimes in the end of words a sound obscure and scarcely perceptible as open shapen shatten deciple meter leuker this faintness of sound is found when e separates a mute from a liquid as in rotten or follows a mute and liquid as in cattle e forms a diphthong with a as near with i as dain receive and with u-r-w as new stew e sounds like e-long as mean or like e-e as deer clear near e-i is sounded like e-long as seize perceiving e-u sounds as u-long and soft e-a-u are combined in beauty and its derivatives but have only the sound of u e may be said to form a diphthong by reduplication as agree sleeping e-o is found in yeoman where it is sounded as o-short and in people where it is pronounced like e-e i i has a sound long as fine and short as thin that is eminently observable in i which may be likewise remarkable in other letters that the short sound is not the long sound contracted but a sound wholly different the long sound in monosyllables is always marked by the e-final as thin thine is often sounded before r as a short u as flirt first shirt it forms a diphthong only with e as field shield which is sounded as the double e except friend which is sounded as f-r-e-n-d i is joined with e-u in lu and e-w in v-u which triphthongs are sounded as the open u o-o is long as bone obedient corroding or short as block knock oblique dal women is pronounced the short o has sometimes the sound of close u as sun come o coalesces into a diphthong with a as moan groan approach o-a has the sound of o long o is united to e in some words derived from greek as o-e-c-o-n-o-m-y but as being not an English diphthong they are better written as they are sounded with only e e-c-o-n-o-m-y with i as oil soil moil noisome this coalition of letters seems to unite the sounds of the two letters as far as two sounds can be united without being destroyed therefore approaches more nearly than any combination in our tongue to the notion of a diphthong with o as boot hoot cooler u has the sound of the Italian u with u or w as hour power flower but in some words has only the sound of o long as in soul bowl soul grow these different sounds are used to distinguish different significations as bowl an instrument for shooting bow a depression of the head sow the shea of a boar so to scatter seed bowel an orbicular body bowl a wooden vessel o u is sometimes pronounced like o soft as quart sometimes like o short as cough sometimes like u close as could or u open as rough tough which use only can teach o u is frequently used in the last syllable of words which in Latin and in o r and are made English as o u r l a b o u r f a v o u r from honor labor favor some late innovators have ejected the u without considering that the last syllable gives the sound neither of o r nor u r but a sound between them if not compounded of both besides that they are probably derived to us from the French nouns in e u r as honor favor u u is long in use confusion or short as us concussion or less as with a e i o but has rather in these combinations the force of the w consonant as quaff quest quit quite languish sometimes in u i the i loses its sound as in juice it is sometimes mute before a e i y dies by u is followed by e in virtue but the e has no sound u e is sometimes mute at the end of a word in imitation of the French as pro rogue synagogue plague vague harang y is a vowel which as quintillion observes the Roman letters we might want without inconvenience but that we have it it supplies the place of i at the end of words as thy before an i as dying and is commonly retained in derivative words where it was part of a diphthong in the primitive as destroy destroyer betray betrayed betrayer pray pray say sayer day days y being the Saxon vowel y which was commonly used where i is now put occurs very frequently in all old books general rules a vowel in the beginning or middle syllable before two consonants is commonly short opportunity in monosyllables a single vowel before a single consonant is short as stag frog many is pronounced as if it were written m a n n y of consonants b b has one unvaried sound such as it obtains in other languages it is mute in debt debtor subtle doubt lamb limb dumb thumb climb comb womb it is used before l and r as black brown c has before e and i the sound of s as sincerely centric century circular cistern city before a o and u it sounds like k as calm concavity copper incorporate curiosity concupiscence c might be omitted in the language without loss since one of its sounds might be supplied by s and the other by k but that it preserves to the i the etymology of words as face from facies captive from captive us c h has a sound which is analyzed into t s h as church chin crutch it is the same sound which the Italians give to the c simple before i and e as chitta ch is sounded like k in words derived from the greek as chemist scheme collar ar ch is commonly sounded arc before a vowel as archangel and with the english sound of ch before a consonant as archbishop ch in some french words not yet assimilated like s h as machine chase c according to english orthography never ends a word therefore we write stick block which were originally s t i c k e b l o c k e in such words c is now mute it is used before l and r as clock cross d d is uniform in its sound as death diligent it is used before r as draw dross w as dwell f f though having a name beginning with a vowel is numbered by the grammarians among the semi vowels yet has this quality of a mute that it is commodiously sounded before a liquid as flask fry freckle it has an unvariable sound except that of is sometimes spoken nearly as o v g g has two sounds one hard as in gay, go, gun the other soft as in gem, giant at the end of a word it is always hard as ring snug sang frog before e and i the sound is uncertain g before e is soft as gem, generation except in gear, geld geese get yuga and derivatives from words ending in g as singing stronger and generally before er at the ends of words as finger g is mute before n as nash sign foreign g before i is hard as give except in giant, gigantic gibbit giblets giles jill jillaflower gin ginger jingle g h in the beginning of a word has the sound of the hard g as ghostly in the middle and sometimes at the end it is quite silent as though right soft spoken t-h-o r-i-t-e s-o-u-t-e it has often at the end the sound of f as laugh once laughter retains the same sound in the middle cough trough soft tough enough slough it is not to be doubted but that in the original pronunciation g-h has the force of a consonant deeply guttural which is so continued among the scotch g is used before h, l, and r h h is a note of aspiration and shows that the following vowel must be pronounced with a strong emission of breath as hat force it seldom begins any but the first syllable in which it is always sounded with a full breath except in air herb osler honor humble honest humor and their derivatives it sometimes begins middle or final syllables in words compounded as blockhead and Latin as comprehend j j consonant sounds uniformly like the soft g and is therefore a letter useless except in etymology as ejaculation jester jocund juice k k has the sound of hard c and is used before e and i where according to English analogy c would be soft as kept king skirt skeptic for so it should be written not s-c-e-p-t-i-c-k because s-c is sounded like s as in scene it is used before n as nel, not but totally loses its sound pronunciation k is never doubled but c is used before it to shorten the vowel by a double consonant as cockle pickle l l has in English the same liquid sound as in other languages the custom is to double the l at the end of monosyllables as kill will these words were originally written k-i-l-l-e w-i-l-l-e f-u-l-l-e and when the e first grew silent and was afterward omitted the l-l was retained to give force according to the analogy of our language to the foregoing vowel l is sometimes mute as in calf half calves could would should some talk salmon falcon the Saxons who delighted in guttural sounds sometimes aspirated the l at the beginning of words as h-l-a-f aloof or bread but this pronunciation is now disused l-e at the end of words is pronounced like a weak e-l in which the e is almost mute as table shuttle m has always the same sound as murmur monumental n has always the same sound as noble manners n is sometimes mute after m as damn condemn him p has always the same sound which the Welsh and Germans confound with b p is sometimes mute as in Psalm and between m and t as tempt p-h is used for f in words from the Greek as philosopher philanthropy Philip q as in other languages is always followed by u and has a sound which our Saxon ancestors well expressed by c-w as quadrant queen equestrian inquiry quotidian q-u is never followed by u u is sometimes sounded in words derived from the French like k as conquer liquor risqué checker r has the same rough snarling sound as in the other tongues the Saxons used often to put h before it as before l at the beginning of words r-h is used in words derived from the Greek as myrrh marine cataris rheum rheumatic rhyme r-e at the end of some words derived from the Latin or French is pronounced like a weak e-r as theatre sepulcher s has a hissing sound as cibulation sister except in the third person of verbs as loves grows and the plurals of nouns as trees bushes distresses the pronouns this his ours, yours, us the adverb thus and words derived from Latin as rebus surplus always either in s-e as house horse or in s-s as grass dress bliss less anciently g-r-a-s-s-e d-r-e-s-s-e s single at the end of words has a grosser sound like that of z as trees eyes thus us rebus surplus it sounds like z before i-o-n if a vowel goes before it as intrusion and like s if it follows a consonant as conversion it sounds like z before e-mute as refuse and before y-final as rosy and in those words bosom, desire wisdom, prison prisoner, present present damsel, casement it is the peculiar quality of s that it may be sounded before all consonants except x and z in which s is comprised x being only k-s and z a hard or gross s this s is therefore termed by grammarians sue puttastatus littera the reason of which the learned dr. clark erroneously supposed to be that in some words it might be doubled at pleasure thus we find in several languages greek, spanimi scatter, stegno strucciolo spaviare greek, sphinx scumbrare scrannare shake, slumber smell snipe space, splendor spring, squeeze shru step strength, strayman stripe, svanjura swell s is mute in isle island domain I count t t has its customary sound as take, temptation ti before a vowel has the sound of si as salvation except an s goes before as question accepting likewise derivatives from words ending in ty as mighty mightier h has two sounds the one soft as thus weather the other hard as thing think the sound is soft in these words then thence and there with their derivatives and compounds and in that these, thou thee, thy, thine there, they thus, those them, though thus and in all words between two vowels as father weather and between r and a vowel as berthen in other words it is hard as thick, thunder faith, faithful where it is softened at the end of a word an e silent must be added as breath breathe cloth v v has a sound of near affinity to that of f as vein vanity from f in the Icelandic alphabet v is only distinguished by a diacritical point w of w which in diphthongs is often an undoubted vowel some grammarians have doubted whether it ever be a consonant and not rather as it is called a w or o-u as water may be resolved into o-u-a-t-e-r but letters of the same sound are always reckoned consonants in other alphabets and it may be observed that w follows a vowel without any hiatus or difficulty of utterance as frosty winter w-h has a sound accounted peculiar to the English which the Saxons better expressed by h-w as what whence whiting in whore only and sometimes in wholesome w-h is sounded like simple h x x begins no English word it has the sound of k-s as axel extraneous y when it follows a consonant is a vowel when it precedes either a vowel or a diphthong is a consonant as ye young it is thought by some to be in all cases a vowel but it may be observed of y as of w that it follows a vowel without any hiatus as rosy youth the chief argument by which w and y appear to be always vowels is that the sounds which they are supposed to have as consonants cannot be uttered after a vowel like that of all other consonants thus we say t-u-u-t d-o-odd but in wed do the two sounds of w have no resemblance to each other zed zed begins no word originally English it has the sound as its name isard or s-hard expresses of an s uttered with a closer compression of the palate by the tongue as freeze froze in orthography I have supposed ortho-ope the utterance of words to be included orthography being only the art of expressing certain sounds by proper characters I have therefore observed in what words any of the letters are mute most of the writers of English grammar have given long tables of words pronounced otherwise than they are written and seem not sufficiently to have considered that of English as of all living tongues there is a double pronunciation one cursory and colloquial the other regular and solemn the cursory pronunciation is always vague and uncertain being made different in different mouths by negligence, unskillfulness or affectation the solemn pronunciation though by no means immutable and permanent is yet always less remote from the orthography and less liable to capricious innovation they have however generally formed their tables according to the cursory speech of those with whom they happened to converse and concluding that the whole nation combines to vitiate language in one manner have often established the jargon of the lowest of the people as the model of speech for pronunciation the best general rule is to consider those as the most elegant speakers to accommodate the least from the written words there have been many schemes offered for the emendation and settlement of our orthography which like that of other nations being formed by chance or according to the fancy of the earliest writers and rude ages was at first very various and uncertain and is yet sufficiently irregular of these reformers some have endeavored to accommodate the standard of pronunciation without considering that this is to measure by a shadow to take that for a model or standard which is changing while they apply it others less absurdly indeed but with equal unlikelihood of success have endeavored to proportion the number of letters to that of sounds that every sound may have its own character and every character a single sound formed by a synod of grammarians upon principles of science but who can hope to prevail on nations to change their practice and make all their old books useless or what advantage would a new orthography procure equivalent to the confusion and perplexity of such an alteration some ingenious men indeed have endeavored to deserve well of their country by writing H-O-N-O-R for H-O-N-O-U-R and L-A-B-O-U-R R-E-D for R-E-A-D in the preter tense S-A-I-S for S-A-Y-S R-E-P-E-T-E for R-E-P-E-A-T E-X-P-L-A-N-E for E-X-P-L-A-I-N or D-E-C-L-A-M-E for D-E-C-L-A-I-M of these it may be said that as they have done no good, they have done little harm both because they have innovated little and because few have followed them the English language has properly no dialects the style of writers has no professed diversity in the use of words or of their flexions and terminations nor differs but by different degrees of skill or care the oral diction is uniform in no spacious country but has less variation in England than in most other nations of equal extent the language of the northern counties retains many words now out of use but which are commonly used as a genuine teutonic race and is uttered with a pronunciation which now seems harsh and rough but was probably used by our ancestors the northern speech is therefore not barbarous but obsolete the speech in the western provinces seems to differ from the general diction rather by a depraved pronunciation than by any real difference which letters would express etymology teaches the deduction of one word from another and the various modifications by which the sense of the same word is diversified as horse, horses I love, I loved of the article the English have two articles an or a and the and a a has an indefinite modification and means one with some reference to more as this is a good book that is one among the books that are good he was killed by a sword that is some sword this is a better book for a man than a boy that is for one of those that are men than one of those that are boys an army might enter without resistance that is any army in the senses in which we use a or an in the singular we speak in the plural without an article as these are good books I have made an the original article because it is only the Saxon an or aen one applied to a new use as the German and the French an the an being cut off before a consonant in the speed of utterance grammarians of the last age direct that an should be used before h once it appears that the English anciently aspirated less an is still used before the silent h as an herb an honest man tries a as a horse a horse my kingdom for a horse Shakespeare an or a can only be joined with a singular the correspondent plural is the noun without an article as I want a pen I want pens or with the phenomenal adjective some as I want some pens the has a particular and definite signification the fruit of that forbidden tree whose mortal taste brought death into the world that is that particular fruit and this world in which we live so he giveth father for the cattle and green herbs for the use of man that is for those beings that are cattle that is man the is used in both numbers I am as free as nature first made man ere the base laws of servitude began when wild and woods the noble savage ran Dryden many words are used without articles as one proper names as John Alexander Longanus Jerusalem Athens Rome London God is used as a proper name to abstract names as blackness witchcraft virtue vice beauty ugliness love hatred anger good nature kindness being of any thing is implied this is not beer but water this is not brass but steel end of part one of a grammar of the English tongue by Samuel Johnson read by Bill Borscht