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Indeed, the majority of people never acquire a good articulation, which results from want of proper training of the organs used in making these sounds.

Many persons lisp all their lives for the reason that they have never been taught where to place the tongue to insure a distinct utterance of the sounds of th and 8. They make the sound of th between the point of the tongue and the upper front teeth; then instead of withdrawing the tongue within toward the roof of the mouth, where the sound of 8 is always produced, they simply repeat the th, not making the sound of s at all. The words this, these, and others of like termination, lisping people pronounce as thith, thethe.

EXAMPLE.-A charming young gentleman expressed his lisping and confessed his love in this wise: "Thweet Thynthia, my heart-th treat hure, thmile upon me, or I thall fly acroth the broad bothom of the othean and thigh out my latht breath on thome foreign thore."

Parents sometimes think lisping in their children very cunning; but the time will come when the children will think it neither cunning nor wise in their parents to have allowed them to retain such a habit. Let no person indulge in this childish habit; it is not only ridiculous, but devoid of personal dignity.

C takes four regular sounds, or rather at times it becomes the equivalent of 8, sometimes of k, and again of z, and also of sh. When it is sounded as 8 in see or so, it takes what is called its soft or namesound.

To produce this clear, shrill sound the teeth nearly, but do not quite, meet; the lips are drawn away, and the end of the tongue is placed in close proximity to the roots of the upper front teeth, leaving just room enough for the breath to be forced over the end of the tongue and out through the mouth. With the organs in this position, make the endeavor to whisper the word see, and continue the sound of 8 without gliding into ee.

It is very difficult for persons who lisp to make this sharp, clear, whistling sound. Indeed, but very few persons can articulate it distinctly when, at the end of words, it follows t or th.

Practice the following with a view of gaining the sound distinctly: Withs, smiths, ghosts, hosts, masts, pasts, marts, Christs, boats, toasts, spits, splits, quits, writs.

Pronounce the following, where c and 8 take exactly the same sound: City, cite, cede, cease, cent, cell, cyprus, civet, citron, circle; saints, sinners, and singers saved Sampson's sisters, Sophia, Susan, and Cynthia.

A very pretty ventriloquial exercise of this sound (c) is produced by imitating the sharp, clear noise made by the carpenter planing a board. The sound is prolonged, and then brought suddenly to a close in the effort to pronounce p. To make the illusion more complete, the performer will take a book or block of some kind and perform the pantomimic action of planing on the surface of a table, but must be very sure to cease the effort as soon as the Ρ is sounded; thus:

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Cusually takes this sound before e, i, and y-Cecil, facile, vagrancy. When e borrows the sound of k it is said to be hard, but it simply assumes the sound of k. This is the correlative of g hard, as in go. To form these two sounds the organs are placed in exactly the same position; the mouth is slightly open, and the end of the tongue pressed down against the lower front teeth. This effort forces the middle of the tongue up near the roof or hard palate in the form of an arch. To produce the clicking sound of a, the breath is then forcibly thrown over the tongue; to make the hard sound of g, the breath is vocalized before it is thrown over-that is all the difference. It takes this sound before a, o, u, l, r, t—care, came, act, come, clock, craft, cane, cape, case, calf, cask, couple, cork. It is exactly like k in kin, kick, kirk, kit.

Pronounce and spell, by the use of the sounds of the letters, the following: Climac-teric, cackle, cake, calico, caloric, cal-ca-reous, capricorn, carcass, casque with classical cloak; kicking, clicking, and kissing the keepsake.

When these soft and hard sounds come together, 8 and c are required; as in screech, scrawl, scream, scrubble, scripture, scur-ril, scutch-eon, San-skrit, school.

Calso takes the subvowel-sound of z, and the manner of producing it is the same as in making the soft sound of c, of which it is a correlative; the difference being that in e soft the breath passes unvocalized; in z it is vocalized, giving a buzzing sound. C in suffice, 8 in cheese, and z in wheeze, all have the same sound, which is the first subvowel-sound of z.

Very many words ending in 8 take this sound also; as was, has, gas, arms, harms, swarms, rags, figs, drugs, tongs, gibs, fibs, bags, etc. When double s occurs, we give the soft sound; as in grass, pass, glass, wit-ness, good-ness, bright-ness.

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C sometimes takes the sound of sh after an accent followed by ea, ia, eo, ean, ion. This is a pure aspirate-sound, and is the coun

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terpart of the second sound of z, as in azure, and is produced by shutting the teeth together and forcibly blowing the breath between them. When the breath is vocalized before it is thus forced through, it makes the sound of z just mentioned-Grecian, conscientious, propitious ocean, retention, vicious. It has precisely the same sound as sh in sham, shine, shimmer, shoes.

EXAMPLES OF ALL THE SOUNDS OF C.-Cede, city, crime, clack, charm, social, suffice.

F is a pure aspirate. To make it the upper front teeth are placed on the lower lip and the breath blown through. V is the counterpart of this, only the breath is vocalized. In of, f takes the vocal sound, but its usual sound is a pure aspirate; as form, feet, fuss, fool, infinite, effete, affirm, etc.

H has one sound, which is produced by opening wide the mouth and forcibly expelling the breath. The vocal counterpart of this aspirate is the vowel ah-hit, harm, home, half, help, hand, etc.

P also has one sound, which is an aspirate. It is made by pressing the lips tightly together, then suddenly separating them, as though going to whisper the word puff. It is simply a puff of air-pipe, port, post, ripe, pale, pip-pin. The vocal sound of this same effort is bbribe, Jacob, break, babble. In Jacob, Jupiter, and Baptist, it is quite difficult to distinguish the one from the other.

Q takes one sound, and is also an aspirate. The sound is quite similar to k, but in producing it the lips with the corners of the mouth protrude forward and closer together, instead of being drawn back, as in making k; nor is the tongue held down so firmly. Make the effort to whisper queen without reaching the vowel u-quill, quoth, quirk, sequel, sequence. The vowel effort that corresponds to this is

oo or close o.

S takes four sounds, two of which are pure aspirates-so, sh. It takes the sound of sh in sugar, sure, etc. Both of these sounds have been fully treated of in the remarks about the letter c. It also takes the two subvowel-sounds of z, which have been before presented.

EXERCISES IN THE SOFT SOUND OF S.-Sam saved and sawed six slim slippery saplings, and swimming, swam smack into the Swiss swamp, south of Smith's settlement. Amidst the mists he thrusts his fists against the posts, and insists he sees hosts of ghosts, and twists and boasts of toasts. Get the latest amended edition of Charles Smith's Thucydides, and study the colonists, best interests.

Z-The first sound of z is found in ro-se-ate, pleas-ures, cn-thu-si-ate, scis-sors; was and is on Iser's praise dis-dainful rais'd; a busy muse,

applause and despise, the noiseless waves and closing skies; sighs, fantasy, wisdom, and business.

The second sound of z is in the following words: Adhesion to ambro-sial inclo-sures to treasures and pleasures, take ho-siers, bra-zier's crosiers, brasions and treasures, for corrosions and explosions, illusions, confusions, conclusions, and intrusions.

To make the second sound of z the teeth meet firmly together, the lips are thrown out, while the tip of the tongue rests at the base of the lower front teeth, bending the tongue up so as to completely line the upper and lower front teeth, scarcely touching them. The vocalized breath is forced through the small aperture and between the teeth. The correlative of this sound is sh, made in the same way, but with unvocalized breath.

K takes one pure aspirate-sound, which has received attention under the letter c. Its vocal equivalent is g hard. Crickets, keen, kill'd, rebuke; quaker, quirk'd, work'd, cork'd, york'd, look'd and smok'd, provok'd and invok'd, joked, poked, and croak'd.

G hard and the vowel e are made with the organs in the same position. In the vowel-sound the vocalized breath passes out evenly without interruption, while in making the subvowel g and the aspirate k the expulsion is sudden and forcible.

T takes two sounds, its real one, which is an aspirate, and its vocal correlative d. To make it the tongue is first pressed tightly against the roof of the mouth and suddenly withdrawn, expelling the breath forcibly. Tilt, tit-tat, with a rat-tat-tat.

D is made in the same way.

quently takes the sound of t.

With the vocalized breath d fre

EXERCISE IN JAW-BREAKERS.-Thou wreath'd'st and muzzl'd'st the farfetched ox, and imprison'd'st in the volcanic mountains of Pop-o-cat-a-petl in Cot-o-pax-i. Thou prob'd'st my rack'd ribs. Thou trifl'd'st with his acts, and thou black'n'st and contaminated'st with his filch'd character. Thou lov'd'st the elves when thou heard'st and quick'n'd'st my heart's tuneful harps. Thou wagg'dst thy propp'd-up head, because thou thrust'dst three hundred and thirty-three thistles through the thick of that thumb that thou cur'dst of the barbed shafts.

CHAPTER X.

ASPIRATES CONTINUED—B; D; G; J; L; M; N; R; V; W; X-DIGRAPHS: ch, sh, gh, ph, th, wh.

B is a restrained vocal sound, made precisely as p is, only the vocal breath is thrown up against the lips, producing a swallowed sound. Compress the lips tightly and try to speak ub. Jacob hob-nob'd with a cobbler, dabbled in ribbons, bonbons, berries, and cabbage; the baboon baby babbl'd and gabbl'd its gibberish with a rub-a-dub-dub.

D is also a restrained vocal sound, explained under the aspirate t. It frequently takes the sound of t at the end of words. He escap'd vex'd and watch'd the spic'd food with arch'd brow; tripp'd his crisp'd feet; dash'd, smash'd, jump'd, and scratch'd like a tax'd turkey, burn'd and crisp❜d.

G takes three sounds. Its hard sound, and the manner of making it, was explained when treating of the letter c. It sometimes borrows the second sound of z, as in rouge. It also becomes the equivalent of j in many words; to make which will be explained when treating of that letter.

Hard sound of G.-A giddy gander got a cigar and gave it to a gangrene beggar. Goggles growled and giggled at the giddy girls, gloated over the gruel, till a ghastly ghost got good game and gave Brobdignag green glass goggles.

G as J.-A giant in Ghent, a genuine genius for gems and original magic, exaggerated the genealogy of Georgius, the logical sergeant, germinating genteel gingerbread just as the aborigines abjured Geneva, Genoa, and Germany.

When 9 takes the sound of z, it occurs generally in French words not Anglicised.

J takes one sound, which is semi-vowel; in reality it is a combination of the subvowel d and the aspirate ch, as in church. The tongue is thrown up to obstruct the voice-sound, as in producing the d sound, and the forcible aspirate explosion following gives the sound of ch referred to. Endeavor to speak quickly the syllable jup without sounding the p, and the sound of j will be perfectly rendered. June, July, Judith; judge and Judaism joined judgment; joyfully jolting

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