Book Description

Excerpt from A Course of Lessons in the French Language on the Robertsonian Method: Intended for the Use of Persons Studying the Language The object of the present course of lessons is to give persons disposed to study the French language without the aid of a teacher some directions for their guidance, and to furnish them with a model whereon their studies may be advantageously prosecuted. In order the more perfectly to supply the part of a teacher, a comprehensive and at the same time practical view of pronunciation has been given, together with such elucidations of the sounds peculiarly French as will enable the learner to enunciate them with a sufficient degree of accuracy. The prevalent notion that it is impossible to acquire French without a teacher appears to have arisen from the lugubrious attempts of grammarians who have undertaken to explain the pronunciation of the language. No human intellect could possibly digest, and bring to bear on the words of the language, the pages of unintelligible rules and ill-organised observations they have amassed with this view. In the present course of lessons this prolixity has been carefully avoided, and whilst no useless detail has been introduced, every essential point is fully explained and brought prominently before the observation of the learner. French words being written in most cases exactly as they should be pronounced, there is nothing to prevent the acquisition of their pronunciation by theory; and the generality of persons who study the language, by relying upon the ear that deceives them at every step, and by loosing sight of the theory, neglect the only certain means whereby they can acquire a really good pronunciation. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.