ETYMOLOGY THE NINE CLASSES OF WORDS-NOUNS AND ADJECTIVES. W. I LIKE grammar! Ion. So do I, really. I have written down the last lesson on a piece of paper, and have committed it to memory. Hear me say it. ENGLISH GRAMMAR. Memory Lesson 1.-DEFINITION, &c., ORTHOGRAPHY. 1. GRAMMAR teaches us how to speak and write correctly. 2. In order to do this, we must learn (a.) Spelling, or ORTHO GRAPHY. (b.) The "qualities" of words, and their different sorts, so as to arrange them into classes; this is called ETYMOLOGY. (c.) The "uses" of words, in different parts of a sentence; this is called SYNTAX. 3. ORTHOGRAPHY relates to letters, syllables, and words. are 4. A letter is a sound. There two sorts, viz., the five vowels, and the twenty-one consonants. Thus the English language has twenty-six letters. 5. A syllable is a sound without a meaning, formed by one or more letters. P. I have been listening to that lesson, Ion, and think you said it very well. You may all commit it to memory. Now for some Etymology. 66 Lesson 2. THE NOUNS. P. Etymology relates to the 'qualities" of words. I think as you have had so many "Object lessons," you ought to be very expert in finding out qualities. Ada. So we are! P. Hitherto you have observed the qualities of things; these you can discover with your senses. But how will you discover the qualities of the words? W. Oh, perhaps we shall feel them. Will you give us some to try? P. Yes; here is a collection of words with different qualities. I shall not tell you how many sorts I have mixed up; but if you arrange together all that are alike, you will see how many classes they will make. Boy-sheep-blue-wisdomwonderful-small-goodness-leaf -wind-pretty-horror-Jupiter young lady-bird - greasy Constantinople intemperate 6. A word is a sound with a rubbish-exhilarating-invigoratmeaning, formed by one or more ing-sheet-warm-water-cure. syllables. Words have different names, according to their lengths, such as "monosyllables," dissyllables," trisyllables," and "polysyllables." 66 those words. If you want to Now, do what you can with observe, you must use your mind's eye-think. L. We have arranged them, papa. We only make two classes Class 1.-Boy, Sheep, Wisdom, L. But we cannot tell exactly the difference in their qualities. I only feel that there is a difference, for I can put "the" before any word in the first class. Thus "the boy"-"the wisdom""the goodness"-but there is no such thing as "the blue,” or "the greasy. P. No; there is no such thing. W. Ah! ah! I see something, papa-the first are all THINGS! There is such a thing as boy, or sheep, or wisdom. P. Wait a minute, Willie! Grammar does not teach us of objects, or things, it teaches of words. There is all the difference between the great object boy, and the little word boy. Ion. To be sure. They are not the real things; they are all the names of things. What are we to call such words? P. All words that are the names of things, are called NOUNS. Wisdom, and goodness, and horror, are real things, although we cannot see them with our eyes. But is Jupiter real? P. No. Jupiter is the name of a heathen God; there never was such an individual-he was only imagined. W. And there are no such persons as the fairies-Queen Mab, Friar Puck, Jack the Giant-killer, and the Liliputians; they are imaginary people. P. True. Yet the words which represent them-their names-are NOUNS. W. Then, I know now what a Noun is; I will make its "definition." A noun is a name-that is all! P. True; but you may make your definition a little longer. W. Then, I will say Definition-A word which is the name of any real or imaginary thing is called a NOUN. Example-Girl, undertaking, rudeness, Apollo, Friar Puck, Willy. L. Yes! and the way to be sure whether anything is a noun or not, is to think what the word represents, and to ask"Is it really a thing?" You can't make a mistake then. P. You may now perform your "Parsing Exercise." Find out how many of the words L. But are all in the first in the underwritten exercise class names of real things, papa? | belong to the class nouns. No. 2. PARSING EXERCISE. (Write all the Nouns in these sentences.) John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, a baron of the times of the feudal system, lived in a great castle. The pig is used for food. Horses, cows, sheep, antelopes, deer, dromedaries, and other animals, eat vegetable food. Lesson 3. THE ADJECTIVE. L. I think, papa, I should like another lesson before you leave off. I should like to see why the words in the second column are all alike. P. Very well; proceed. W. I have been noticing that they may all be used with the nouns. Try any of them! You may say small leaf; or warm water; or pretty sheep. So they show what sort of things the nouns represent. Ion. Yes; I have noticed that they all express "qualities"; and if you add one to a noun, it shows directly that the noun has that quality. P. That is quite true. Such words are very easy to understand; and because they are added to nouns they are called Adjectives. L. Then I will make the "definition":: A word which is added to a noun to show its quality is called an ADJECTIVE such as small, warm, pretty, invigorating, young. P. Have you any other remarks to make on the adjective? Ion. I notice a great differ. ence between this class and the nouns. You can use a noun by itself; you may say horror, wisdom, goodness, boy; but if you try to use an adjective by itself, it has no meaning. For instance: the small, a warm, a pretty-that is nonsense. W. Ah, papa! I have such a good thought! These classes of words are just like men, all the world over. They are dependent, and independent. There is a class of men called servants, who are dependent; and there are masters, who are independent. The adjective is the noun's servant; for you see it is dependent on him—it follows him to show his quality. L. So it is, Willie. And now we have heard of dependent letters, dependent syllables, and dependent words, let me say them over. b is a dependent letter, because it cannot be sounded without the help of a vowel. a is an independent letter, because it may be sounded by itself. oy is a dependent syllable, because it has no meaning by itself. because it has boy is an independent syllable. meaning by itself (and is thus a "word"). small is a dependent word, because it cannot be used by itself. girl is an independent word, because it has a meaning by itself. P. You may now attend to your parsing exercise. Draw a line under all the adjectives you find, or write them on a slate. No. 3. PARSING EXERCISE. (Mark all the adjectives in these sentences. My dear, good, kind, and affectionate mamma, you have a nasty, tiresome, troublesome cough. The good doctor cured the bad cold which I caught in the wet weather. THE FOREIGN TRAVELLER TURKEY. were "MY DEAR CHILDREN,- the view of the city from the "I landed at Constantinople river, a scene, said to be the with the Greek merchant. most imposing and magnificent "I dare say you remember in the whole world, I was grievour conversation. You know ously disappointed at the narthat the city was so called after row, crooked, dirty, ill-paved Constantine the Great, who streets. There were also large established the eastern empire spaces strewn with blackened of Rome here. (The ancient ashes, which told tales of fires name was Byzantium.) You that had recently happened. learned that the city is situated Soon I began to be very angry. on a triangle, and that it is I had to pick my way up steep, said to be built on seven hills, slippery places, midst filth of in imitation of ROME. You all kinds, and midst dirty, heard, too, of the beautiful mangy cur-dogs, who Bosphorus, which leads into the snarling over some putrid subBlack Sea; and of the appear-stance. I was at once reminded ance of the city from the water. of the accounts of Eastern I wrote to you also concerning cities, and the scavengers-the the Golden Horn; the New jackals. Seraglio, which forms a city within a city"; the Mosque of Solyman the Magnificent; the ancient Aqueduct; and the slender Watch-tower. Another remarkable place in the city is the Hippodrome, formed by the Greeks for horse exercises, and racing. This large open space is 400 paces long, and 100 paces broad. It is said that altogether Constantinople and its suburbs contain 14 imperial mosques; 200 ordinary mosques; 300 chapels; 80 bazaars; more than 500 fountains; and about 100,000 houses; so that you may imagine it to be a very large place. 66 As, led by the Greek merchant, I wended my way up some of the narrow streets, I cannot say that I was pleased. After "The houses of these streets were light and gaudy; they were composed of light timber, and the spaces between the timber were generally filled up with earth or brick. They are very combustible, and very fragile; and if they escape fire, they seldom last more than thirty or forty years. According to the customs of the East, men and women are separated; so, each house is divided by a very narrow passage; one side of the house belongs to the women, and the other to visitors and friends. "The 500 fountains in the city pleased me more than the houses. The number of these fountains may be accounted for, 1st, because of the Roman aqueducts, from which a good supply of water is obtained; 2ndly, according to the cusstom of the Turks, and the Mahometan religion, frequent baths and washings are necessary. "The inhabitants of Constantinople next engaged my attention. There is a great variety of people; the principal kinds are the Mahometans, the Greeks, the Armenians, the Jews, and the Franks. The name 'Frank' is applied to most foreigners: English, French, Russians, Austrians, and others are all called Franks; they visit each other frequently and live on friendly terms. They are thus separated because they are not Mahometans, but the separation causes them to forget their national differences, and to be more sociable. "Amongst so many different races, the different languages heard are amusing; indeed nearly all languages are spoken in Constantinople. The variety of dress is almost as great as the variety of language. The colour of the boots is an important distinction:-the Mahometans wear yellow boots, the Armenians red, the Greeks black, and the Jews blue. The wives of the Turks and the Armenians are dressed alikethey never appear in the streets without a veil which hides their faces. "The characters of the various people are also as different as the colours of their boots. You see this more particularly when doing business with them. It is said that the Armenians and Turks seldom ask too much for their goods; the Greek merchants and the Jews, however, are crafty, and not to be trusted. These people meet in the public market-places, or besestins, as they are called. "My guide, the Greek merchant, knew many of them, but I had no wish to make their acquaintance; for, so far, all was disappointment. I had heard much of the Turkish cemeteries, and thinking they would be even more pleasant that the city itself, I resolved to visit them. |