T.—­T is sounded in take, temper. T before u, when the accent precedes, and generally before eou, sounds like tsh; as, nature, virtue, righteous, are pronounced natshure, virtshue, richeus. Ti before a vowel, preceded by the accent, has the sound of sh; as in salvation, negotiation; except in such words as tierce, tiara, &c. and unless an s goes before; as, question; and excepting also derivatives from words ending in ty; as in mighty, mightier.

Th, at the beginning, middle, and end of words, is sharp; as in thick, panther, breath.  Exceptions; then, booth, worthy, &c.

U.—­U has three sounds; a long; as in mule, cubic; a short; as in dull, custard; and an obtuse sound; as in full, bushel.  It is pronounced like short e in bury; and like short i in busy, business.

V.—­V has uniformly the sound of flat f; as in vanity, love.

W.—­W, when a consonant, has its sound, which is heard in wo, beware. W is silent before r; as in wry, wrap, wrinkle; and also in answer, sword, &c.  Before h it is pronounced as if written after the h; as in why, when, what;—­hwy, hwen, hwat.  When heard as a vowel, it takes the sound of u; as in draw, crew, now.

X.—­X has a sharp sound, like ks, when it ends a syllable with the accent on it; as, exit, exercise; or when it precedes an accented syllable which begins with any consonant except h; as, excuse, extent; but when the following accented syllable begins with a vowel or h, it has, generally, a flat sound, like gz; as in exert, exhort. X has the sound of Z at the beginning of proper names of Greek original; as in Xanthus, Xenophon, Xerxes.

Y.—­Y, when a consonant, has its proper sound; as in youth, York, yes, new-year.  When y is employed as a vowel, it has exactly the sound that i would have in the same situation; as in rhyme, system, party, pyramid.

Z.—­Z has the sound of flat s; as in freeze, brazen.

RULES FOR SPELLING.

SPELLING is the art of expressing a word by its proper letters.

The following rules are deemed important in practice, although they assist us in spelling only a small portion of the words of our language.  This useful art is to be chiefly acquired by studying the spelling-book and dictionary, and by strict attention in reading.

RULE I. Monosyllables ending in f, l, or s, double the final or ending consonant when it is preceded by a single vowel; as staff, mill, pass.  Exceptions; of, if, is, as, lids, was, yes, his, this, us, and thus.