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

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 Lingu? Anglic? Scriptione Dialogus. _Luteti?_, 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 qu? 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 bae, q_uhi_lk the greek symbolizes be eta not alpha, +b��+ not +ba+. See Eustat. in Homer.
10. Of this letter the latines themselfes had tuae other sounds differing the ane from the other, and beath from this, quhilk they symbolized be adding an other voual, ? and au. And these they called diphthonges.
11. The diphthong they defyne to be the sound of tuae vouales coalescing into ane sound, quhilk definition in au is plaen, in ? obscurer as now we pronunce it, for now we