As the syllables are not accented
the vowel sound is slightly obscured. Or in _lessor_ has the sound of
the word _or_ (nearly), not the sound of _or_ in _honor,_ which will be
found re-spelled (o`n'ur). It will be noted that the double s is
divided in two of the words and not in the other two. In _lesser_ and
_lessen_ all possible stress is placed on the first syllables,
since the terminations have the least possible value in speaking;
but in _lesson_ and _lessor_ we put a little more stress on the final
syllables, due to the greater dignity of the letter _o,_
and this draws over a part of the s sound.
Hon'-ey-co:mb (hu`n'y-ko:m): The heavy{ second} hyphen indicates that
this is a compound word and the hyphen must always be written.
The hyphens printed lightly in the dictionary merely serve to separate
the syllables and show how a word may be divided at the end of a line.
The student will also note that the _o_ in _-comb_ has its full long
value instead of being slighted. This slight added stress on the _o_
is the way we have in speaking of indicating that _-comb_ was once a
word by itself, with an accent of its own.
Pages:
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57