Of the Orthographie and Congruitie of the Britan Tongue | Page 5

greek almaest as common in Scotland as the latine. In this
alsoe, if it please your Majestie to put to your hand, you have al the
windes of favour in your sail; account, that al doe follow; judgement,
that al doe reverence; wisdom, that al admire; learning, that stupified
our scholes hearing a king borne, from tuelfe yeeres ald alwayes
occupyed in materes of state, moderat in theological and philosophical
disputationes, to the admiration of all that hard him, and speciallie them
quha had spent al their dayes in those studies.

[Footnote 3: "An Alvearie or Quadruple Dictionarie, containing four
sundrie tongues, namelie, English, Latine, Greeke and French ... by Jo.
Baret. London, 1580." Folio. An edition was published in 1573, with
three languages only, the Greek not being included.]
[Footnote 4: "De recta et emendata Linguæ Anglicæ Scriptione
Dialogus. _Lutetiæ_, 1568." 4to.]
Accept, dred Soveragne, your pover servantes myte. If it can confer
anie thing to the montan of your Majesties praise, and it wer but a clod,
use it and the auctour as your's. Thus beseeking your grace to accep my
mint, and pardon my miss, commites your grace to the king of grace, to
grace your grace with al graces spiritual and temporal.
Your Majesties humble servant, Alexander Hume.

OF THE ORTHOGRAPHIE
OF THE BRITAN TONGUE;
A TREATES, NOE
SHORTER
THEN NECESSARIE, FOR
THE SCHOOLES.

OF THE GROUNDES OF ORTHOGRAPHIE.
Cap. 1.
1. To wryte orthographicallie ther are to be considered the symbol, the
thing symbolized, and their congruence. Geve me leave, gentle reader,
in a new art, to borrow termes incident to the purpose, quhilk, being
defyned, wil further understanding.

2. The symbol, then, I cal the written letter, quhilk representes to the
eie the sound that the mouth sould utter.
3. The thing symbolized I cal the sound quhilk the mouth utteres quhen
the eie sees the symbol.
4. The congruence between them I cal the instrument of the mouth,
quhilk, when the eie sees the symbol, utteres the sound.
5. This is the ground of al orthographie, leading the wryter from the
sound to the symbol, and the reader from the symbol to the sound. As,
for exemple, if I wer to wryte God, the tuich of the midle of the tongue
on the roofe of the mouth befoer the voual, and the top of the tongue on
the teeth behind the voual, myndes me to wryte it g_o_d. The voual is
judged be the sound, as shal be shaued hereafter. This is the hardest
lesson in this treates, and may be called the key of orthographie.

OF THE LATINE VOUALES.
Cap. 2.
1. We, as almaest al Europ, borrow our symboles from the Romanes.
Quherforr, to rectefie our aun, first it behoves us to knaw their's. Thei
are in nu_m_ber 23: a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, k, l, m, n, o, p, q, r, s, t, u, x,
y, and z.
2. To omit the needless questiones of their order and formes; of them,
five be vouales, ane a noat of aspiration, and all the rest consonantes.
3. A voual is the symbol of a sound maed without the tuiches of the
mouth.
4. They are distinguished the ane from the other be delating and
contracting the mouth, and are a, e, i, o, u.
5. Quhat was the right roman sound of them is hard to judge, seeing
now we heer nae romanes; and other nationes sound them after their

aun idiomes, and the latine as they sound them.
6. But seeing our earand is with our aun britan, we purpose to omit
curiosities, et quæ nihil nostra intersunt. Our aun, hou-be it dialectes of
ane tong, differing in the sound of them, differ alsoe in pronuncing the
latine. Quherfoer, to make a conformitie baeth in latine and English, we
man begin with the latine.
7. A, the first of them, the south soundes as beath thei and we sound it
in bare, nudus; and we, as beath thei and we sound it in bar, obex.
8. But without partialitie (for in this earand I have set my compas to the
loadstar of reason), we pronunce it better. If I am heer deceaved, reason
sall deceave me.
9. For we geve it alwaies ane sound beath befoer and behind the
consonant: thei heer ane and ther an other. As in amabant, in the first
tuae syllabes they sound it as it soundes in bare, and in the last as it
sounds in bar. Quherupon I ground this argument. That is the better
sound, not onelie of this, but alsoe of al other letteres, q_uhi_lk is
alwayes ane. But we sound it alwayes ane, and therfoer better. Ad that
their sound of it is not far unlyke the sheepes