§ 6. SPELLING. Modern English spelling, which tolerates almost any inconsistency in the representation of sounds provided the same word is always spelt in the approved way, is the creation of printers, schools, and dictionaries. A Middle English writer was bound by no such arbitrary rules. Michael of Northgate, whose autograph MS. survives, writes _diaknen_ III 5 and _dyacne_ 9; _vyf_ 22, _uif_ 23, _vif_ 37; _þouzond_ 30 and _þousend_ 34. Yet his spelling is not irrational. The comparative regularity of his own speech, which he reproduced directly, had a normalizing influence; and by natural habit he more often than not solved the same problem of representation in the same way. Scribes, too, like printers in later times, found a measure of consistency convenient, and the spelling of some transcripts, e.g. I and X, is very regular. If at first ME. spelling appears lawless to a modern reader, it is because of the variety of dialects represented in literature, the widely differing dates of the MSS. printed, and the tendency of copyists to mix their own spellings with those of their original. The following points must be kept in mind: (i) _i_ : _y_ as vowels are interchangeable. In some MSS. (for instance, I) _y_ is used almost exclusively; in others (VIII _a_) it is preferred for distinctness in the neighbourhood of _u_, _n_, _m_, so that the scribe writes _hym_, but _his_. (ii) _ie_ is found in later texts for long close _ẹ̄_: _chiere_ XII _a_ 120, _flietende_ XII _a_ 157, _diemed_ XII _b_ 216. (iii) _ui_ (_uy_), in the South-West and West Midlands, stands for _ǖ_ (sounded as in French _amuser_): _puit_ XIV _c_ 12; _vnkuynde_ XIV _c_ 103. The corresponding short _ü_ is spelt _u_: _hull_ '_hill_', &c. (iv) Quite distinct is the late Northern addition of _i_ (_y_), to indicate the long vowels _ā_, _ē_, _ō_: _neid_ X 18, _noyne_ 'noon' X 67. (v) _ou_ (_ow_) is the regular spelling of long _ū_ (sounded as in _too_): _hous_, _now_, _founden_, &c. (vi) _o_ is the regular spelling for short _u_ (sounded as in _put_) in the neighbourhood of _u_, _m_, _n_, because if _u_ is written in combination with these letters an indistinct series of downstrokes results. Hence _loue_ but _luf_, _come_ infin., _sone_ 'son', _dronken_ 'drunk'. In _Ayenbyte_ _o_ for _ŭ_ is general, e.g. _grochinge_ III 10. In other texts it is common in _bote_ 'but'. (vii) _u_ : _v_ are not distinguished as consonant and vowel. _v_ is preferred in initial position, _u_ medially or finally: _valay_ 'valley', _vnder_ 'under', _vuel_ (= _üvel_) 'evil', _loue_ 'love'. (Note that in XII the MS. distinction of _v_ and _u_ is not reproduced.) (viii) So _i_, and its longer form _j_, are not distinguished as vowel and consonant. In this book _i_ is printed throughout, and so stands initially for the sound of our _j_ in _ioy_, _iuggement_, &c.