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 Cæsar, Kaisar; and
Plut., in Galba, symbolizes principia, πρινκιπια.
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 κυριακὴ, 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, and (excep my memorie fael me) in these wordes: κυριακὴ ut
βασιλικὴ suppresso substantivo ὀικία domus domini est. Unde nostrum
derivatur, quod Scoti et Angli boreales recte, pronu_n_ciant a kyrk, nos
corrupte a church.
7. Yet, notwithstanding that it is barbarouse, seing it is more usual in
our tongue then can be mended befoer the voual, as chance, and behind
the voual, as such, let it be symbolized, as it is symbolized with ch,
hou beit nether the c nor the h hath anie affinitie with that sound;
1, because it hath bene lang soe used; and 2, because we have no other
mean to symbolize it, except it wer with a new symbol, q_uhi_lk it will
be hard to bring in use.
8. Now, quheras ch in nature is c asperat, as it soundes in charus and
chorus; and seing we have that sound also in use, as licht, micht; if I
had bene at the first counsel, my vote wald have bene to have geven ch
the awn sound. But as now the case standes, ne quid novandum sit, quod
non sit necesse, I not onlie consent, but also com_m_end the wisdom of
the south, quho, for distinction, wrytes light, might, with gh and
referres ch to the other sound, how be it improperlie, and this
distinction I com_m_end to our men, quho yet hes not satis attente
observed it.
9. Next cumes g, howbe it not so deformed as c; for, althogh we see it
evin in latin, and that, in one word (as is said cap. 5, sect. 2),
distorted to tuo sonndes, yet both may stand with the nature of the
symbol and differ not in the instrumentes of the mouth, but in the form
of the tuich, as the judiciouse ear may mark in ago, agis; agam, ages.
10. This consonant, in latin, never followes the voual; befoer a, o, u,
it keepes alwayes the awn sound, and befoer e and i breakes it.
11. But with us it may both begin and end the syllab; as, gang; it may,
both behind and befoer, have either sound; as, get, gist, gin, giant.
12. These the south hath providentlie minted to distinguish tuo wayes,
but hes in deed distinguished noe way, for the first sum hath used tuo
gg; as, egg, legg, bigg, bagg; for the other dg; as, hedge, edge,
bridge; but these ar not κατὰ πάντος. Gyles, nomen viri, can not be
written dgiles; nor giles doli, ggiles; nether behind the voual ar they
general; age, rage, suage, are never wrytten with dg. Quherfoer I
conclud that, seeing nether the sound nor the symbol hath anie reason to
be sundrie, without greater auctoritie, nor the reach of a privat wit,
this falt is incorrigible.
13. Here I am not ignorant quhat a doe the learned make about the
symboles of c, g, k and q, that they be al symboles, but of one sound;
but I wil not medle in that question, being besyde my purpose, q_uhi_lk
is not to correct the latin symboles, but to fynd the best use of them
in our idiom.
14. T, the last of these misused souldioures, keepes alwayes it’s aun
nature, excep it be befoer tio; as, oration, declamation, narration; for
we pronunce not tia and tiu as it is in latin. Onelie let it be heer
observed that if an s preceed tio, the t keepes the awn nature, as in
question, suggestion, _et_c.
15. Thus have I breeflie handled the letteres and their soundes, quhilk,
to end this parte, I wald wish the printeres, in their a, b, c, to
expresse thus:--a, ae, ai, au, ea, b, c, d, e, ee, ei, eu, f, g, h, i,
j, k, l, m, n, o, oa, oo, ou, p, q, r, s, t, u, ui, v, w, x, y, z, and
the masteres teaching their puples to sound the diphthonges, not be the
vouales quharof they be made, but be the sound quhilk they mak in
speaking; lykwayes I wald have them name w, not duble u nor v, singl u,
as now they doe; but the last, vau or ve, and the first, wau or we; and
j, for difference of the voual i, written with a long tail, I wald wish
to to be called jod or je.