THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY

ASTOrî, LCNOX AND

TILDEN FOUNDATION S

CopjrriKht, 1906

by

Chas. M. Marchand

Kntered al Stationer's Hall I^ondon

AU rifirhts rcserved

J. S. Paradis, Imprimeur Denver, Colorado

Note de PEditeun

L'intéressant Journal de Cléry a été choisi comme livre de lecture pour les classes intermédiaires parce qu'il est d'un style simple, facile et sobre. Au point de vue pratique, "il fait d'une pierre deux coups" et l'emporte sur les livres de fiction.

Les liaisons indiquées, ainsi que les e non prononcés, imprimés en italique, habitueront pour toujours les élèves à les trouver naturellement dans un texte ordinaire, et dispenseront le mattre de faire des corrections sans nombre qui créent le double inconvénient d'énerver la classe et d'absorber un temps précieux.

La Société Nationale des Professeurs de Français en Amérique, dans une de ses conférences pédagogiques, a condamné les vocabulaires. Il faut l'en féliciter. En effet, neuf fois sur dix, sans parler de l'étymologie latine dont les jeunes élèves ne peuvent pas encore se servir, les points de similitude entre le mot français, qui semble inconnu à première vue, et ses correspondants anglais, les mettront sur la voie, avec un peu d'attention. Par exemple : perdre n'a aucune ressemblance à to lose^ mais se rattache au mot 2Si^w perdition ; oublier ne rappelle en rien to forget^icid\% le mot anglais oblivions*Y rattache; manger est tout différent de to eat^ cependant le nom anglais manger ("pour les chevaux^ en vient directement, etc. En un mot, il faut habituer les élèves à trouver eux-mêmes le sens des mots chaque fois qu'il y a un point de contact entre les deux langues; s'ils n'y parviennent pas, le mattre sera le vocabulaire vivant

On trouvera, au bas de chaque page de ^t livre de lecture courante, la signification des mots difficiles à repérer, et non dans un vocabulaire final, qui est trop souvent une sorte de prime à la paresse, sans parler du temps perdu à le feuilleter pour chaque mot nouveau. Il arrive fréquemment que, pour éviter cette peine, l'élève s'en dispense.

Au point de vue grammatical, le Journal de Cléry est un exemple admirable de l'emploi du Passé défini et de l'Imparfait. Ces deux temps dominent dans tout le récit.

Chaque page doit être traduite et bien comprise avant d'être lue à haute voix, car l'attention ne peut se porter en même temps sur le sens et la prononciation.

How to Read French Aloud G>rfectl7*

Llnking of Words, or Slarring.

French read aloud sounds as though ail the words between the différent signs of punctuation were joined together, contra ry to what is done in English. As a conséquence of this, the last consonant of a French word is often carried to and pronounced with the next word commencing wîth a vowel, as: /7^^j/^^/=e-la-t-c, but not eel-ate-e-c AU euphoneous linkings are indicated in the first part of thîs reader, as bas been done for over twenty years in " Marchand's French . Conversation."

In spelling, uneducated French people, being most uncertain, seldom link their words, not knowing whether it is s, i, r, X or 2 which is to be slurred and pronounced, conséquent! y, they make too many wrong hiatuses as : pa^ encore, sanj eux, j'en veor un peu, c*es/ amusant, il veu/ aller, etc., which are trying on an educated French ear, just as the dropping of ^ in English, by cockneys, is on an Englishman of éducation. This is why schoolmasters in France hâve to insist so much upon the necessity of the proper linking of words. (See Marchand's French Pronunciation and Diction, page 54 and following ones where the subject is fuUy treated.)

When final d is linked, it has the sound of /: le grande hôtel, un grand^omme. In words ending in rt, rd, as sort, fort, perd, lourd, d ox t \% silent before a vowel ; r alone is sounded, to avoid a double meaning. In la mort a vaincu, death has vanquished, if the t of mort is linked, it would sound as: the dead woman has vanquished.

When final / is linked, it sounds like v: neuf^ans\ x, in the same case, sounds like 2; so does finale: deux^ans, vous^ avez, mieux ^encore,

The final toi et, and, is never carried over the following vowel, so that it may not be confused with est, is : et il^ est^icù

Siletit and Sounded e's*

£, not accented, is mute when it occurs between Two CONSONANTS : saixi^i, vivement, av^iue^d^ l*opéra, un^ rein^, boulevard, etc. Ail silent /s are printed in italics in the first part of this reader, in order to save the necessity of numberless and repeated corrections by the instructor.

When one or two consonants are followed by a final silent tf, they arc pronounced with the beginning vowel of the foilowing Word : un^^îdé^, nobl^^ami, notr^^enfaht.

£, not accented, is fuUy pronounced (uk) whenever it cornes between three sounded consonants, two bcfore and one after ; then it will not be printed in italics : vendrEdi, je parlErai, il nE sait pas, l'autrE jour.

Effects of the rules II and III compared together: Perdr^^au change. Per-dre-son temps.

Entr^^eux. En-tre-nous.

Un^^œuvr^^admirable. Un^^œu-vre-d*art La tabltf^est ronde. Un^ ,ta-ble-ronde.

L'arbr^^a des fruits. Un^ar-bre-vert.

Common French people often drop re, le, when it must be sounded as in the second column : une tab* ronde, vof sœur, not* fils, It is a very bad error which foreigners must avoid carefully.

When two monôsyllables ending in e corne together as : je ne, me le, de ne, que de, se le, the e of the second one is silent and its consonant, left alone, is pronoanced with the preceding word; never with the foUowing one: je^^n^sais pas, il me*^ \e dit, il^est^impossible de'^n^ pas manger, il se'^l^ dit. It is the same when the silent e is in the first syllable of a longer word: la'^férnêtre.

The ending ent in the third person plural of verbs, which reminds one of the corresponding Latin termination, is silent: il donne and ils donnent are pronounced aiike, but the t being slurred gives the différence; ils donn^^/^un bal.

Ch is only one hissing consonant, so e is silent after it: Ic^ch^val, la^ch^minée, en^ch^min, etc.

E after //, ««, pp, rr, ss, //, is silent because only one of thèse double consonants is sounded: nouvellement, abonnement, appeler, enterrement, grassement, nettement. (For the exceptions, see Marchandas Pronunciation, pages 29, 32, 33,

In maintenant, lentement, longuement and similar ones, e is silent, although it seems to be between three sounded consonants, because n, belonging to a nasal vowel, is silent.

French Intonations of Inf lections.

The division of words into separate syllables, is net made as in English; it occurs before a consonant: artiste, verser, con-di-tion, con-si-dé-ra-bie-ment, i-nu-ti-li-té, em-pe-reur, Na-poli-on,

The tonic accent is given by a stress of the voice on the last sonorous vowel in polysyllables: deMAiN, lunDi, bonjouR, bonSOiR, enTREZ, voiLA. If English speaking students are not careful on this point, they naturally emphasize the beginning of words, then their pronunciation of the French keeps the English intonations. (See Pronunciation, page 59, etc.)

In a long statement, the words being . joined together, the French people transfer the strong tonic accent to the last sounded vowel preceding a sign of punctuation, but even then, they perceptibly, though lightly, emphasize the last sonorous vowel of every polysyllable.

In reading aloud, the voice must rise slightly before a coMMA and drop at a full stop or semicolon.

The voice is fully raised on the last sounded vowel of a question, contrary to the English, when it is raised only at the end of questions requiring yes or no in answer. (For Diction see Marchand's Pronunciation, from page 113 to 180.)

Mademoiselle Anna l. wolcott

Ce livre est respectueusement dédié

Chas. M. Marchand