language of the northern counties retains many words now out of use,
but which are commonly of the genuine Teutonick race, and is uttered
with a pronunciation which now seems harsh and rough, but was probably
used by our ancestors. The northern speech is therefore not barbarous,
but obsolete. The speech in the western provinces seems to differ from
the general diction rather by a depraved pronunciation, than by any
real difference which letters would express.

* * * * *

ETYMOLOGY.

Etymology teaches the deduction of one word from another, and the various
modifications by which the sense of the same word is diversified; as horse,
horses; I love, I loved.

Of the ARTICLE.

The English have two articles, an or a, and the.

AN, A.

A has an indefinite signification, and means one, with some reference to
more; as This is a good book; that is, one among the books that are good;
He was killed by a sword; that is, some sword; This is a better book for a
man than a boy; that is, for one of those that are men than one of those
that are boys; An army might enter without resistance; that is, any army.

In the senses in which we use a or an in the singular, we speak in the
plural without an article; as these are good books.