[E] See the _North American Review_ of January and April--articles _Kraitsir"s Significance of the Alphabet_, from the pen of an eminent philologist; also Kraitsir"s _Nature of Language and Language of Nature_, published in 1851, by George P. Putnam in New York.
[F] The only possible advantage the present spelling has, is the help it gives to Etymologists, but it also often confuses them. A perfect alphabet, that is, an alphabet with eight more characters than the Roman, would have been the right thing to have had in the right place and time.
[G] k, q, and y were not Roman letters but Greek ones, k being introduced into the Latin originally as an abbreviation of ca and q as an abbreviation of cu. J and x were introduced into our alphabet by the first printers, but we have appropriated j to a new sound, not in the Latin language; and we have two sounds for x, (as printed Latin has), one being gs and the other cs. The Latins at first wrote lex legs, and vox vocs, as we see by the variations of these nouns for case.
[H] Nearly every one of these words are derived from the Latin, but they come into the English language from the Norman-French in which they were already corrupted. All nouns in ce are from Latin nouns in tia, and ought to have been written with se instead of ce, except peace and voice which come from the Latin pace and voce.
CHAPTER XII.
GRAMMAR AND LANGUAGES.
MRS. MANN has suggested, in the last part of this volume, the first exercises in grammar. But grammar is the most abstract of sciences.
There are at present few children sent to Kindergartens, who are not too young for the abstracting processes of cla.s.sing words into parts of speech.
But it is a lesson of orthography, to lead the children to make the few changes which there are in English words, to denote grammatical modifications. For instance, let them write cat, and then say--"If you are talking about more than one cat, what do you say?" They will say _cats_. Let them write at the head of two columns--cat and cats. After some exercises on words adding s only, tell them to write box, and ask, "What if there are more than one?" Then go on and get groups of other irregularities, as changing f into ves, y into ies, &c. Having gone over the nouns, and told all their changes, for number, also letting the children write a list of the nouns that do not change for number, go into verbs, and give the few personal terminations thus: tell the children to write, _I cry_. Then say, "Would you say George cry?" "No,"
they will reply, "George _cries_." I say, "I have a book; but should I say, George have a book?" They will say,--"No; George has a book." Also by asking questions whose answers shall give the comparison of adjectives, these can be written; and finally the past tense and past participles of irregular verbs. In my own Kindergarten I have given to about half a dozen children who know how to read fluently, and can print very prettily, a little LATIN. It is but a quarter of an hour"s lesson, and is conducted in this wise:--Write down _am_. Now, that means love in Latin; but if you want to say he loves you, add _at_, which makes _amat_. Write down _ar_. That means plough; if you want to write _he ploughs_ you write what? A bright child said _arat_. Now write down _cant_. That means sing. Now if you want to say he sings, you add what?
_at_, then it is _cantat_. But if you want to say _to love_ you must add _are_ to _am_. They all said _amare_. Now, if you want to say to plough?
_arare_; and to sing, _cantare_. Now make the whole sentence, he loves to sing. What is it he loves? They all wrote _amat cantare_. Now write he loves to plough. They wrote _amat arare_. I took the hint from Harkness"s edition of "Arnold"s First Lessons," and gave them six variations on the four regular conjugations, the infinitive and the third person singular of the present imperfect and future indicative, and Latinized their own names; and they were greatly entertained to improvise sentences, the most complicated of which was, O Helena, Anna loves to dance, Maria loves to sing. I give them no grammatical terms, but only English meanings, and shall not give any cases but the nominative and vocative at present; but I think I shall teach them to vary verbs throughout all the conjugations. It is perfectly easy to give so much of Latin grammar to children in the Kindergarten, because it will not involve the use of a book. They can have a ma.n.u.script book into which they can write their words and sentences, in print-letters.
French, so far as it can be taught by merely conversing with the children, is legitimate in the Kindergarten; also any other modern language. But let there be no books used, nor should French be written by the children, for it will confuse their English spelling, and not, like Latin words, aid it. In my Kindergarten, about a quarter of an hour a day is given to making French phrases by all but the smallest children. They have also been greatly interested in learning the French words of a play, which is a useful exercise in p.r.o.nunciation. I will give the words here:--
L"ESTURGEON (_Sturgeon_).
Commere Perche, Je vous salue!
Comment vous portez-vous?
LA PERCHE (_Perch_).
Je me porte tres bien, et vous?
Quelle est l"heure pour le ragout Fait de sole et de morue?
LA SOLE ET LA MORUE (_Sole and Cod_).
Commere Perche, je vous salue; Nous autres ne serons pas un ragout.
L"ESTURGEON.
Commere Baleine, Comment vous portez-vous?
LA BALEINE (_Whale_).
Tres bien, et vous?
L"ESTURGEON.
Pouvez-vous sauter en haut Comme moi, Au dessus de l"eau?
LA BALEINE.
Je ne puis sauter si haut; Mais je saurais faire jeter de l"eau.
L"ESTURGEON.
Commere Hareng, je vous salue, Dites moi, je prie, ou allez-vous?
LA HARENG (_Herring_).
Je vais chez moi, chercher les jeunes, Alors nous irons a l"ocean.
L"ESTURGEON.
Commere Brochet, je vous salue!
Commere Brochet, que mangez-vous?
LE BROCHET (_Pike_).
Je mange des truites Pour mon dejeuner, Et des eperlans Pour mon diner.
L"ESTURGEON.
Commere truite, Je vous salue!
Dites moi, je vous prie, Qu"avez-vous?
LA TRUITE (_Trout_).
Ah, par exemple, J"ai bien grand peur; Voila le brocheton Meme si de bonne heure!
L"ESTURGEON.
Commere Requin, Je vous salue!
Que faites-vous la Aupres du bateau.
LE REQUIN (_Shark_).
Je veux manger Le pet.i.t garcon, Qui peche dans l"eau.
Pour l"eperlan.
L"EPERLAN (_Smelt_).
Pet.i.t garcon, Je vous salue!
Voila la Requin Pres de moi, et pres de vous.
(_Tous les poissons se plongent._)