SUPPLEMENTARY. QUESTIONS. 1. Who invented the alphabet? 2. Why was the alphabet so called? 3. Can you give the history of our alphabet? 5. What two letters have disappeared from the English Alphabet? 6. What four letters might be omitted from our Alphabet without affecting its usefulness? 7. Have any reforms in English orthography ever been attempted? 8. Is the spelling of the English language still changing? 9. Can you give an example showing how words have been constantly losing their inflectional endings? 10. Has custom varied in the use of capital letters? 11. Why do people from some foreign countries find it difficult to produce the sound of “th?” 12. What are cognates? 13. What are sibilants? 14. What are synonyms and homonyms? 15. What is the longest syllable in the English language? 16. From what languages, and in what proportions, have the words in our language been derived? 17. Can you write sentences whose words shall constitute keys for the different sounds of each vowel? 18. Can you think of a word which contains the vowels in their regular order? 19. Can you form a sentence of the letters of the alphabet alone? 20. What is the longest word in our language? ANSWERS. 1. The ancient Phoenicians were the first to make use of an alphabet. It consisted of sixteen letters. 2. The Greek names of the first two letters of the alphabet are, alpha and beta; so the list was named from the first two letters. 3. When the Phoenician Alphabet was adopted by the Greeks, the number of letters was increased to twenty-one, and later to twenty-four. When adopted by the Romans, the use of three letters was discontinued. The five additional letters in the English Alphabet. viz., j, v, w, y and z, are of Anglo-Saxon origin. 4. It does in all languages except in the Ethiopian and the Runic. In the first of these it stands thirteenth, and in the other, tenth. 5. In the Anglo-Saxon there were two letters which represented, respectively, the sub-vocal and aspirate sound of "th." 6. The sounds of the letters, c, j, q and x, are represented by other letters; hence, these letters are redundant. 7. One of the most noted attempts, was the "Standard Alphabet," proposed by Lepsius. It was a modified form of the Roman Alphabet. 8. Words are constantly changing in their spelling, and also, in their pronunciation. In a thousand years, if our language should live that long, its appearance upon the printed page will have changed to such an extent, that could we now have a specimen of it, we would not be able to read it readily, nor to understand it when read. 9. The adjectives, golden, wooden and others, which still retain their ancient forms are now frequently written without the en, as, a gold ring, a wood bridge, instead of a golden ring, a wooden bridge. 10. At the time when Gray wrote the "Elegy in a Country Churchyard," it was the custom of some writers to capitalize all the nouns. In the original copy of the "Elegy" every noun began with a capital letter. In the German language every noun begins with a capital. 11. This sound does not exist in the German, and several other languages, and these people, not having practiced this sound, find it difficult to produce it. 12. Those sounds which are produced with the vocal organs in the same position are called cognates. The sounds of p and b, s and z, t and d, and k and g are examples. 13. Those letters which represent a hissing sound are called sibilants. S and and z are sibilants. 14. Synonyms are words having nearly the same meaning; as kill, slay, murder, slaughter, assassinate. Homonyms are words having the same sounds but differing in the meaning; as right, write, rite, wright. 15. The word strength is said to be the longest syllable in the English language, and is therefore, also the longest monosyllabic word. 16. The original Anglo-Saxon furnished 60 per cent of our words; the Latin, 25 per cent; the Greek, 5 per cent; and the remaining 10 per cent were obtained from a variety of sources. 17."Kāte, hǎve fâir fäther åsk Paul what's said. We met whêre eight herds [had] been. Nine tin stirring machines. Ōld odd fôrk, one moves woman's food good. Pūre fun hûrts Ruby Fuller's burying business. Fly mystic martyr." In said, a is a substitute for short e. The ee in been is a kind of substitute for short i. Originally it was pronounced bēn. The u's in burying, and in business are, respectively, substitutes for short e and short i. In martyr, y is a substitute for û. 18. The word abstemious contains all the pure vowels in their regular order. There are a number of words that contain the vowels in irregular order. 19. J. Q. Vandz struck my big fox whelp.. 20. The longest word in the language is, unexceptionableness. There are several words that have the same number of letters, but not as many different letters, nor would they occupy as much space in print. 3. Number; 1. Singular; 2. Plural. 4. Formation of the Plural. 1. Nouns adding,-1. s; 2. es; 2. Nouns ending in,-1. y; 2. f or fe; 3. o; 3. Compound Nouns; 4. Titles and Names of Persons; 5. Letters, Marks, and Signs; 6. Irregular; 7. Proper Nouns; 8. Nouns from Foreign Languages. 5. Case. 1. Nominative; 1. Subject; 2. Predicate. 2. Possessive; 1. Formation of the Possessive Case; 3. Objective; 1. Direct Object; 2. Indirect Object. 4. Nominative Absolute; 6. Declension. 7. Parsing. SUPPLEMENTARY. QUESTIONS. 1. What is a substantive? 2. How many common nouns does the English language contain? 3. What are mass nouns ? 4. What is personification? 5. Why are such nouns as, ship and moon regarded as feminine while sun and mountain are regarded as masculine? 6. What is enallage? 7. Can you give an example of enallage? 8. Can the following sentence be true: Moses was the daughter of Pharaoh's son? 9. What other term is sometimes used for declension? 10. Why is the Nominative case so called? 11. By what name is our Possessive case known in other languages? 12. What is an idiom? 13. How many ways can you test a word to determine whether it is a noun? 14. How many cases did the English language originally have, and what were their names? 15. Is gender as closely allied to sex in other languages as it is in the English? ANSWERS. 1. Any expression used as a noun, or in the relation in which a noun may be used, is called a substantive. 2. There are about 30,000 common nouns in the language. 3. Nouns which denote a collection of inanimate objects are frequently called by this name. 4. When life is ascribed to inanimate objects, the nouns denoting them are considered masculine or feminine. 5. Those objects which are distinguished for grace, loveliness, or other feminine qualities are regarded as |