as in _new, now, brow,
frown_. _Aw_ and _ow_ are frequently improper diphthongs, the _w_ being
silent, the _a_ broad, and the _o_ long; as in _law, flaw,--tow, snow_.
_W_, when sounded before vowels, being reckoned a _consonant_, we have no
diphthongs or triphthongs beginning with this letter.

XXIV. OF THE LETTER X.

The consonant "_X_ has a _sharp_ sound, like _ks_; as in _ox_: and a _flat_
one, like _gz_; as in _example_. _X_ is sharp, when it ends an accented
syllable; as in _exercise, exit, excellence_: or when it precedes an
accented syllable beginning with a consonant; as in _expand, extreme,
expunge_. _X_ unaccented is generally flat, when the next syllable begins
with a vowel; as in _exist, exemption, exotic_. _X initial_, in Greek
proper names, has the sound of _z_; as in _Xanthus, Xantippe, Xenophon,
Xerxes_"--See _W. Allen's Gram._, p. 25.

XXV. OF THE LETTER Y.

_Y_, as a _consonant_, has the sound heard at the beginning of _yarn,
young, youth_; being rather less vocal than the feeble sound of _i_, or of
the vowel _y_, and serving merely to modify that of a succeeding vowel,
with which it is quickly united. _Y_, as a vowel, has the same sounds as
_i_:--

1. The open, long, full, or primal _y_; as in _cry, crying, thyme, cycle_.

2. The close, curt, short, or stopped _y_; as in _system, symptom, cynic_.

3. The feeble or faint _y_, accentless; (like _open e feeble_;) as in
_cymar, cycloidal, mercy_.

The vowels _i_ and _y_ have, in general, exactly the same sound under
similar circumstances, and, in forming derivatives, we often change one for
the other: as in _city, cities; tie, tying; easy, easily_.

_Y_, before a vowel heard in the same syllable, is reckoned a _consonant_;
we have, therefore, no diphthongs or triphthongs _commencing_ with this
letter.

XXVI. OF THE LETTER Z.

The consonant _Z_, the last letter of our alphabet, has usually a soft or
buzzing sound, the same as that of _s flat_; as in _Zeno, zenith, breeze,
dizzy_. Before _u primal_ or _i feeble, z_, as well as _s flat_, sometimes
takes the sound of _zh_, which, in the enumeration of consonantal sounds,
is reckoned a distinct element; as in _azure, seizure, glazier; osier,
measure, pleasure_.

END OF THE FIRST APPENDIX.

APPENDIX II.

TO PART SECOND, OR ETYMOLOGY.

OF THE DERIVATION OF WORDS.

Derivation, as a topic to be treated by the grammarian, is a species of
Etymology, which explains the various meth