For the convenience of those who do not know the old Roman pronunciation of Latin, for which our alphabet is a perfect phonography, I will give the sounds of the letters here.
In the case of the vowels (voice letters),
| i | is pronounced | ĭh | as in ink, | (not eye.) |
| e | " | ěh | as in ell, | (not as in be.) |
| a | " | ăh | as in arm, | (not as in may.) |
| o | " | ŏh | as in old, | |
| u | " | ŭh | as in ruin, | (not as in unit.) |
in the case of the consonants, giving the power of the letter by making them finals, and obscuring the e as much as possible for the lip letters, ěb, ěf, ěp, ěv, while the semi-vowels m, n, l, r, require not even the obscure ě to their being sounded perfectly, shutting the lips and sounding m, opening them and shutting the palate to sound n, holding the tongue still to sound l, shaking it to sound r, (ěl, ěm, ěn, ěr;) the tooth letters ěd, ět, ěss, ězz—and the throat letters ěc, ěk, eq,[G] eg, and a breathing from the throat for h. Often children will come to the Kindergarten knowing the letters, in which case it is best to begin with the letters according to the organs, as is suggested in my first chapter, and when they give the old names—you can say, "No, I do not want that name but the sound."
The whole alphabet in order will then be ăh, ěb, ěc, ěd, ěh, ěf, ěg, h (breathed), ĭh, ěj, ěk, ěl, ěm, ěn, ŏh, ěp, ěq, ěr, ěss, ět, ŭh (oo) ěv, w (breathed) ěx, y, just like ĭh, and not called wye, ěz. Also the sign & for the word and.
In the first part of this chapter, I have detailed one method of beginning with a class,—that of giving the sounds of the letters first, classed according to the organs.
But my common way is to begin with whole words, which are more sure to interest a child. A limited number of words arranged in sentences, teaches them to know and write the whole alphabet. For the convenience of teachers who may not have either my "First Nursery Reading-Book," or Mrs. Mann's "Primer of Reading and Drawing" on hand, I will give here some sentences that contain the whole alphabet, which the teacher can teach by printing them on the black-board, and letting the children imitate them with pencil on the slate, or chalk on the black-board.
O puss, puss, pussy; O kitty, kitty, kitty; Kitty sings miu, miu; pussy sings mieaou; pussy is old, pussy is cold; put pussy into mamma's basket; mamma is singing to papa; papa is kissing mamma; pussy, go to kitty, go, go, go; kitty is in mamma's basket; go into mamma's garden, and pick roses, anemones, tulips, and pinks; mamma's velvet dress fits well; bells ring and cars go; cars go very quickly; hens sit; hens eggs; eggs in lark's nest; eggs in linnet's nest; larks sing tralala, tralala; fill mamma's basket full of roses, anemones, pinks, tulips, crocuses; Lizzy is dizzy, very dizzy; Helen is rosy red; Alexis sent his mamma a jar full of jelly; Barbara kisses Cora; Dora is spinning yarn; Flora is spinning yarn; Gilbert sent Henry a jar of guava jelly; Isabella is kissing Julia; Karlito sent a linnet's egg to Lilian; Margaret picks roses; Nina picks tulips in Olivia's garden; Penelope plants pinks in Ellen's garden; Rosalind sings to Quasi-modo; Susan puts eggs into mamma's basket; Tina brings roses to Vivian; Willy brings crocuses to mamma.
The above sentences, written over and over again, will teach all the letters; others must be added, but after certain letters are learnt, it is useful, and a pleasant variety, for the children to write columns of words, with only one letter differing; thus, old, cold, fold, gold, hold, sold, told, wold; ell, bell, dell, fell, hell, quell, sell, tell, well; art, cart, dart, hart, mart, part, tart, start; in, binn, din, fin, jin, kin, pin, sin, tin, win, &c., &c.
My "First Nursery Reading-Book" is entirely made up of such columns, after half a dozen pages of words in sentences; and long before the children have written it half through, they can pronounce the words on first sight, though many of them are five and six syllables long.