The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1878-10-06

treatise. Is the recent date and very slow growth
OF the present system OF French accumulation.
The Nouichatcl Bible Of 1885 has not. It seems.
a single accent. The acute accent on the final
first crept in. and toward the end OF the six
teenth century the grave accent was used as
mark Of distinction over tho proposition a. On
the other hand tho use Of the circumfex over
In n,6ns is severely censured by the Academy
in the preface TO the first edition Of its dicton-
airy. Up TO the end OF the last century. consider
able diversity prevailed ae to accentuation.
Dayle. Tor instance. uses It with great careless
ness in the comrioncst words. and so
docs voltaire. who is equally loose in his
habit of spelling. How seldom nccents
were employed by Corneille. Racine and
Boileau is manifest enough from the ex,ant
letters of those authors. 1t is no less curious
to motto how recently the gender Of many
French nouns was determined. for example.
aUrre work Ia now usually feminine. whereas
until lately il was commonly made masculine.
and still remains 50 whom employed MS n law
term or term OF architecture OF inspeakng
collectively of an artists achievements. SO.
too. eremple. which to-day ia normally mnscu-
line. was not long ago made feminine when
taken in the sensc of sample Of penmanship.
Again. dufomne is now generally masculine.
while Il Ia feminine in the writings Of Fenelon
and Nine. de S,vignd. In the caso Of gems
an extraordinary compromise has been ef-
fectod. the epithets which Immediately
precede being required 10 Ne feminine.
while those which dstanty preccdc and
those which follow must he masculine. In the
phrase gems ds leres the masculine gender has
boon lyed upon as II the proportion Of women
In the literary fraternity wcro not worth con-
sdcring. Dot was masculine as late us Molerc
nd dattft th. f,nr
S,ienre. at present the only masculine word
ending in "erce" was always feminine until
the sixteenth century. when for n scnson either
gender WAS employed. Mensopoe. now always
masculine. was feminine until the fifteenth
century. and iiGe in our day feminine, was
masculine n late as the sixteenth. During tho
last two centuries the word amour was en-
ployed indiilereutly In both gcnders. hut a. to
the modern use the following rule is given by
Lttr6: "Ainour. in tho singular. is only fem
ininc In poetry. while in the plural It is fem
thine not only in verse but in ordinary CONVEX
sation."
There arc many other topics 10 which. had we
space. we should Ike to direct attention. such
as the curious history OF the apostrophe in
French. the gradual disappearance OF the aspe-
rite n lspiriius asperl which WAS pronounced
in French ne late IA the sixteenth century. and
th' "'h'I'u' pl'HhhciA'i'u "i Z iH"ui'' vac III
biRoi at Paris and in the provinces. ard even as
between the Paris houlevaris ana the stngc of
the Theatre Francois. II would be well 70 note.
also. the explanation Of the growing tendency
"a iidiSon. or linking az ilnal consonant 10 the
initial vowel Of thu next word. which is only one
phase in the rehabilitation 81 disiranchised let
ters now going on in French phonolocy. Nor
should we omit 10 sisnali,e the explanation ~
French metre, OF the so-called phrase or
"oratoriral" accent. and the rules governing
tho pronunciation Of mute IN verse contained
in the last chapter OF this useful and engaging
Iocl