Of the Orthographie and Congruitie of the Britan Tongue | Page 8

use in latin, the latin symbol; as, jolie jhon; vertue is not vain; and to the soundes quhilk they have left the symboles q_uhi_lk we have usurped to that end; as, yallou, youk; water, wyne.
10. And heer, to put our men af their errour quho had wont to symboliz yallou with an {gh}, and to put noe difference betueen v and w, {gh} is a dental consonant, broaken betueen the top of the tongue and root of the teeth; yal, a guttural sound, made be a mynt of the tongue to the roofe of the mouth, and therfoer the organes being so far distant, and the tuich so diverse, this symbol can be no reason serve that sound, nor nane of that kynd.
11. As for v and w, seeing we have in our idiom, besyd the latin sound, an other never hard in latin, as now it is pronu_n_ced, I can not but com_m_end the wisdom of the south, q_uhi_lk gave the latin sound their awn symbol, and took to our sound a symbol quhilk they use not. Lyke was their wisdom in j and y; for as the latines usurped the voual i for a consonant in their use, q_uhi_lk the greekes had not, so they usurped y, a voual not mikle different from i, for the correspondent sound, not used in the latin as now it is pronu_n_ced.
12. Heerfoer, for distinctiones of both sound and symbol, I wald commend the symbol and name of i and u to the voual sound; as, indifferent, unthankful; the symbols of j and v to the latin consonantes, and their names to be jod and vau; as, vain jestes; and the symboles y and w to our English soundes, and their names to be ye and we, or yod and wau; as, yonder, wel, yallou, wool.
13. Now remaineth h, q_uhi_lk we have called a noat of aspiration, cap. 2, sect. 2, and is, in deed, noe voual, because with a consonant it makes noe sound; as, ch; nor consonant, because it is pronu_n_ced without the tuich of the mouth; as, ha.
14. It may affect al vouales and diphthonges; as, hand, hen, hind, hose, hurt, hail, hautie, health, heel, heifer, _etc._ But behind the voual in our tong (so far as yet I can fynd) it hath no use. Of consonantes, it affecteth g beyond the voual; as, laugh; p befoer the voual; as, phason; s and t also befoer the voual; as, think, shame. With c we spil the aspiration, tur_n_ing it into an Italian chirt; as, charitie, cherrie, of quhilk hereafter.

OF OUR ABUSING SUM CONSONANTES.
Cap. 5.
1. Now I am cum to a knot that I have noe wedg to cleave, and wald be glaed if I cold hoep for help. Ther sould be for everie sound that can occur one symbol, and of everie symbol but one onlie sound. This reason and nature craveth; and I can not but trow but that the worthie inventoures of this divyne facultie shot at this mark.
2. But, contrarie to this sure ground, I waet not be quhat corruption, we see, not onelie in our idiom, but in the latin alsoe, one symbol to have sundrie soundes, ye, and that in one word; as, lego, legis.
3. First, to begin with c, it appeeres be the greekes, quho ever had occasion to use anie latin word, quharein now we sound c as s, in their tymes it sounded k; for Cicero, thei wryt Kikero; for C?sar, Kaisar; and Plut., in Galba, symbolizes principia, +prinkipia+.
{Transcriber's Note: The word is written with nu, not gamma.}
4. This sound of it we, as the latines, also keepe befoer a, o, and u; as, canker, conduit, cumber. But, befoer e and i, sum tymes we sound it, with the latin, lyke an s; as, cellar, certan, cease, citie, circle, _et_c.
5. Behind the voual, if a consonant kep it, we sound it alwayes as a k; as, occur, accuse, succumb, acquyre. If it end the syllab, we ad e, and sound it as an s; as, peace, vice, solace, temperance; but nether for the idle e, nor the sound of the s, have we anie reason; nether daer I, with al the oares of reason, row against so strang a tyde. I hald it better to erre with al, then to stryve with al and mend none.
6. This consonant, evin quher in the original it hes the awne sound, we turn into the chirt we spak of, cap. 4, sect. 14, quhilk, indeed, can be symbolized with none, neither greek nor latin letteres; as, from cano, chant; from canon, chanon; from castus, chast; from +kyriakê+, a church, of q_uhi_lk I hard doctour Laurence, the greek professour in Oxfoord, a man bothe of great learni_n_g and judgement, utter his opinion to this sense,