ontract the termination of such words, and insert the
apostrophe; as, _quicken'st, happen'st, scatter'st, render'st, render'dst,
slumber'st, slumber'dst_. The nature and idiom of our language, "the accent
and pronunciation of it," incline us to abbreviate or "contract even all
our regular verbs;" so as to avoid, if possible, an increase of syllables
in the inflection of them. Accordingly, several terminations which formerly
constituted distinct syllables, have been either wholly dropped, or blended
with the final syllables of the verbs to which they are added. Thus the
plural termination _en_ has become entirely obsolete; _th_ or _eth_ is no
longer in common use; _ed_ is contracted in pronunciation; the ancient _ys_
or _is_, of the third person singular, is changed to _s_ or _es_, and is
usually added without increase of syllables; and _st_ or _est_ has, in
part, adopted the analogy. So that the proper mode of forming these
contractions of the second person singular, seems to be, to add _st_ only;
and to insert no apostrophe, unless a vowel is suppressed from the verb to
which this termination is added: as, _thinkst, sayst, bidst, sitst, satst,
lov'st, lov'dst, slumberst, slumber'dst_.

"And know, for that thou _slumberst_ on the guard,
Thou shalt be made to answer at the bar."--_Cotton_.

OBS. 41.--Ho man deserves more praise for his attention to English
pronunciation, than John Walker. His Pronouncing Dictionary was, for a long
period, the best standard of orthoepy, that our schools possessed. But he
seems to me to have missed a figure, in preferring such words as
_quick'nest, strength'nest_, to the smoother and more regular forms,
_quickenst, strengthenst_. It is true that these are rough words, in any
form you can give them; but let us remember, that needless apostrophes are
as rough to the eye, as needless _st_'s to the ear. Our common grammarians
are disposed to encumber the language with as many of both as they can find
any excuse for, and vastly more than can be sustained by any good argument.
In words that are well understood to be contracted in pronunciation, the
apostrophe is now less frequently used than it was formerly. Walker says,
"This contraction of the participial _ed_, and the verbal _en_, is so fixed
an idiom of our pronunciation, that to alter it, would be to alter the
sound of the whole language. It must, however, be regretted that it
subjects our tongue to some of the most hissing, snapping,