EXERCISES

14. Extend the right arm horizontally in front, letting the hand hang perfectly limp and lifeless. Shake it vigorously up and down, striking down on the counts and recovering

on the and's, to a count of and 1, and 2, and 3, etc., up to and 8. Execute the same movement, first striking sidewise, and afterwards striking downward with the edge of the hand. Repeat with left hand and arm, and with both the left and right together. (See Fig. 8.)

15. Holding both hands in front of you, palms up, take hold of the right hand with the left, letting the thumb rest in the palm. Allow the fingers to fall in toward you. Now unroll them, letting the forefinger lead, to a count of 1, and 2, and 3, etc., striking out on the counts and recovering on the and's. Count up to and 8. Repeat with the left hand and then with both. Do not move the wrist. Don't spread the fingers, or plaster them together. (See Figs. 9 and 10.)

16. In this exercise, first name the letter, next give its sound in the

following word, then give the word itself. Remember to get firm con

tact and quick release.

17. Use the following words and sounds the same as in Ex. 16.

18. The following list of words, taken from Southwick's Elocution and Action," contains nearly all the difficult combinations of consonant sounds you are likely to meet in your reading." Practice them slowly at first, and then increase your speed up to the normal rate.

Acts, facts, lists, ghosts, depths, droop'st, adopts, fifths, laughst, hookst, desks, sat'st, help'st, twelfths, thefts, milk'st, halt'st, limp'st, attemptst, want'st, think'st, warpst, dwarfst, hurtst, sixths, eighths, texts, protects, stifl'st, sparkl'st, waken'st, robb'st, amidst, width, digg'st, rav'st, writh'st, prob'dst, hundredths, begg'dst, besieg'dst, catch'dst, troubl'st, trifl'st, shov'lst, kindl'st, struggl'st, puzzl'st, shield'st, revolv'st, help'dst, trembl'dst, trif'ldst, shov'dst, involv'dst, twinkl'dst, fondl❜dst, dazzl'dst, rattl'dst, send'st, wak'n'dst, madd'n'dst, lighten'dst, ripen'dst, hearken'dst, doom'dst, o'erwhelm'dst, absorb'st, regard'st, curb'dst, hurl'dst, charm'dst, return'dst, starv'dst, strength'nst, strength'n'd, wrong'dst, lengthen'dst, sooth'dst, act'st, lift'st, melt'st, hurt'st, want'st, shout'st, touch'd, parch'd, help'dst, bark'dst, prompt'st, touch'dst, rattl'st. 19. Practice the following sounds vigorously: ee-oo-ah, ah-oo-ee, ahee-oo, oo-ee-ah, oo-ah-ee, ee-ah-oo. Repeat each four or five times be

fore going to the next.

20. Practice the following as in Ex. 19. Ip-it-ik, it-ip-ik, ik-ip-it, ip-ik-it, ik-it-ip, it-ik-ip.

LESSON V

PRONUNCIATION OF SINGLE WORDS

THE USE OF THE DICTIONARY

Continued

IF a person comes to a word he does not know how to pronounce, he is told to look it up in the dictionary. This is very simple, but many a high school student does not know how to pronounce the word after he has found it in the dictionary. A few directions, however, will remove the difficulty.

First. Observe that, generally, in the dictionaries, the words are respelled right after they are given.

Second. Observe also that in the words thus respelled, some letters have certain marks above, below, or through them, and some letters are unmarked.

Third. If you do not know how a certain letter with a certain mark should be pronounced, first look at the bottom of the page, where you will probably find it in a common word that you do know how to pronounce. Transfer this sound to the word in question.

Fourth. If a letter is not marked, the only safe way is to refer to the "Key to Pronunciation" in the front of the dictionary. There you will find every letter, marked or unmarked, used in the respelling, together with its proper sound.

Fifth. When using dictionaries which do not have words at the bottom of the page, unless you are familiar with the system of marks used, the only safe way is to refer to the Key in the front of the dictionary at once.

Sixth.Where the words are not respelled, do as above; that is, look for the pronunciation of marked letters at the bottom of the page first, and, failing to find them there, look in the Key in the front of the dictionary. For all unmarked letters look in the Key at once.

NOTE. The best way is to take some one dictionary as your authority and thoroughly learn the system used for indicating pronunciation.

But after the correct sound of all the letters in a word has been determined, there is still an important thing left. This is accent, or the special prominence given to certain syllables in a word.

In a word of two syllables there is only one accent, as a-back'. This is called the primary accent.

In words of more than two syllables there is often more than one accent, as ac'' ci-dent' al. In these cases the stronger accent is the primary, while the lighter is called the secondary accent.

In very long words there may be a third accent, weaker than either of the others, and called the tertiary accent, as tran"-sub-stan"-ti-a'-tion.

NOTE. — The marks used to denote the different accents are usually those given above, but sometimes the same mark (') is used for all, with the exception that it is made lighter for each accent that is needed beyond the primary.

WRITTEN EXERCISE

With the above directions, let the pupil mark the following words, dividing them into syllables and placing the proper accents. Also let him be able to pronounce them in class without his paper.

CAUTION.

Remember that, according to any dictionary, if only one set of marks is given for a word, it can be pronounced in only one way. So, in the following list, if any

word marked by the pupil can be pronounced in two ways by the teacher, when only one set of marks is used, the word should be counted wrong.

21. Holding both hands in front of you, palms up, take hold of the right wrist with the thumb and first three fingers of the left hand, the thumb being on the inside of the wrist. Let the whole hand fall in

CA

FIG. 12.
Position at end
of stroke in Ex. 21.

toward you. Now unroll the hand slowly to a count of 1, 2, 3. Repeat eight times. Do the same with the left hand and with each alternately.

22. Facing a little to the right with the counterpart of the position shown in Figure 1, place the hands in the position shown in Figure 13, and carrying them clear out, imagine that you are welcoming some one. Bring back the hands and repeat eight times. Do the same, facing a little to the left.

NOTE. In going through this exercise, consult Figures 14 and 15, for common faults. Also examine Figure 16, which shows a better execution of the exercise.