Word-Breaking.—At the end of a line do not divide (a) a monosyllable, (b) a short disyllable, such as real, doing. Divide polysyllables according to their etymological composition (to be found in the dictionary). Some authors discountenance beginning a second line with -ic, -al, -ing, -ly. These breakings are perhaps permissible, if the hyphen is made very distinct.
Written and Oral Exercise.—The instructor should ask each pupil in turn to recall, spell, and pronounce some word that doubles the letter c. The class should then be given a few minutes to write from memory as many of those given as they can recall. After this the pronouncing and spelling should proceed as long as possible, alternately with the writing. The lists should then be compared, and the pupil who has reproduced the largest number of words should be asked to spell and pronounce each one on his list. The other pupils should then be called upon to read from their own lists words that the first fails to give. Each should then be asked to add to his paper all words remembered by other members of the class, but not by him.[8]
Pronunciation.—A person who regards good usage in pronunciation and who articulates with unaffected nicety, is received at once as an educated man. It is interesting to see how often Lord Chesterfield, the best-mannered of Englishmen, insists that a gentleman is known by his accent. Chesterfield’s letters to his son are full of this idea. A sense of ease and security blesses him who knows how to sound every word that occurs to him as he talks; it is such a sense as a man feels when he is sure that his clothes fit him and are cut according to the accepted conventions. It is accordingly worth all the trouble involved, to form a habit of letting no word pass unchallenged as to its orthoëpy. Look it up in the dictionary, or in a good manual like Phyfe’s Seven Thousand Words often Mispronounced.
Exercise.—Below is given a short list of words frequently mispronounced. The instructor should pronounce the words, and ask the class to pronounce them.
- Abdomen,
- abject,
- absinthe,
- abstruse,
- acacia,
- accessory,
- acclimate,
- acoustics,
- actor,
- adagio,
- adult,
- advertisement,
- aëronaut,
- again,
- aged,
- aggrandize,
- aide-de-camp,
- allopathy,
- ally,
- alma mater,
- alternate (noun and adjective),
- amenable,
- apricot,
- arbutus,
- aroma,
- aspirant,
- bade,
- bellows,
- biography,
- bitumen,
- boatswain,
- bravado,
- bronchitis,
- canine,
- cant,
- can’t,
- cement (noun),
- cemetery,
- cerebrum,
- clematis,
- coadjutor,
- daunt,
- decade,
- devil,
- diphtheria,
- disdain,
- dislike,
- drama,
- duke,
- dynasty,
- enervate,
- evil,
- exhale,
- exhaust,
- extant,
- extempore,
- finale,
- finance,
- financier,
- garrulous,
- gaunt,
- genuine,
- gibber,
- gibbet,
- glacier,
- gratis,
- grimace,
- half,
- hegira,
- heinous,
- impious,
- jugular,
- lamentable,
- learned (adj.),
- legend,
- lever,
- literature,
- nape,
- nomad,
- opponent,
- pageant,
- patriot,
- patron,
- petal,
- precedence,
- precedent,
- quay,
- revolt,
- rise (noun),
- sacrifice,
- squalor,
- subtile,
- subtle,
- vagary,
- water,
- wrath,
- zoölogy.[9]
- Abélard,
- Abernethy,
- About (Edmond),
- Abydos,
- Acheron,
- Achitophel,
- Adonis,
- Ægean,
- Æolus,
- Æschylus,
- Afghanistan,
- Agincourt,
- Agnes,
- Aguilar (Grace),
- Aïda,
- Aix-la-Chapelle,
- Alaric,
- Alcantara,
- Alcuin,
- Aldebaran,
- Alighieri,
- Amphion,
- Andronicus,
- Antinous,
- Aquinas,
- Arab,
- Aral,
- Arundel,
- Athos,
- Avon,
- Aytoun,
- Bajazet,
- Balliol (college),
- Balmoral,
- Czerny,
- Latin,
- Laocoön,
- Medici,
- Mivart, (St. George),
- Orion,
- Paderewski,
- Pepys,
- Proserpine,
- Sienkiewicz,
- Southey,
- Thalia,
- Tschaikowsky,
- Volapük,
- Wagner,
- Ygdrasil.