SPELLING, in grammar, that part of orthography which teaches the true manner of resolving words into their syllables.
All words are either simple or compound, as use, disuse; done, undone; and the rules for dividing each must be such as are derived from the analogy of language in general, or from the established custom of speaking; which, for the English language, are reduced to the following rules: 1. A consonant between two vowels must be joined with the latter in spelling, as na-ture, ver-ily, ge-n-erous; except, however, the letter x, which is joined to the first, as in flax-en, ox-en, &c. and compound words, as in up-on, un-used, &c. 2. A double consonant must be divided, as in let-ter, man-ner, &c. 3. Those consonants which can begin a word must not be parted in spelling, as in de-fraud.
re-prove, di-find; however, this rule is found sometimes to fail; for though en begins a word, as gnaw, gnot, &c. yet it must be divided in spelling, as in en-gin-ner, ma-lig-ni-ty, &c. 4. Those consonants which cannot begin a word must be divided, as ld in fel-dom, li in mul-ti-tude, mp in tem-per, rd in ar-dent; but in final syllables there are exceptions, as tl in ti-tle, dl in han-dle, &c. 5. When two vowels come together, and are both of them distinctly sounded, they must be separated in spelling, as in co-e-val, mu-tu-al, &c. 6. The grammatical terminations or endings must be separated in spelling, as ed in swin-g-ed, est in de-li-ver-est, ing in hear-ing, ance in de-li-ver-ance, &c. 7. Compound words must be resolved into their simple or component words, as up-on, in-to, ne-ver-the-less, not-with-stand-ing, &c.