Of the Orthographie and Congruitie of the Britan Tongue: A Treates, noe shorter than necessarie, for the Schooles — John Shaqi
Of the Orthographie and Congruitie of the Britan Tongue: A Treates, noe shorter than necessarie, for the SchoolesHume, Alexander, schoolmaster
Philosophy
Of the Orthographie and Congruitie of the Britan Tongue: A Treates, noe shorter than necessarie, for the Schooles
Hume, Alexander, schoolmaster
English language -- Orthography and spelling -- Early works to 1800
5. The imperfect distinction divydes the partes of a period, and is
marked with tuoe punctes, the one under the other, thus : and is red
with half the pause of a perfect punct; as, al have synned, and fallen
from the glorie of god: but are justifyed frelie be his grace.
6. The com_m_a divydes the least partes of the period, and is pronunced
in reading with a short sob.
7. The parenthesis divydes in the period a sentence interlaced on sum
occurrences q_uhi_lk coheres be noe syntax w_i_th that q_uhi_lk
preceedes and followes; as, for exemple of beath, and to conclud this
treatesse:
Bless, guyd, advance, preserve, prolong Lord (if thy pleasur be)
Our King _and_ Queen, and keep their seed thy name to magnifie.
* * * * *
NOTES.
The foregoing Tract is one of great interest, not only on account of its
intrinsic merit, but also for the racy style of writing adopted by its
author. We find him continually garnishing his language with such
idiomatic and colloquial expressions as the following:--“Quhae’s sillie
braine will reache no farther then the compas of their cap” (page 2);
and again, “but will not presume to judge farther then the compasse of
my awn cap” (p. 20). He observes of the printers and writers of his age
that they care “for noe more arte then may win the pennie” (p. 2), and
on the same page he says, “quhiles I stack in this claye,” which appears
to be equivalent to our term “stuck in the mud.” At p. 3 he says, “and
it wer but a clod;” at p. 14, “neither daer I, with al the oares of
reason, row against so strang a tyde;” and again, on p. 18, we find
reason under another aspect, thus, “noe man I trow can denye that ever
suked the paepes of reason.”
It seems that the expression, _Queen’s English_, is by no means of
modern date, as we have it as the _king’s language_ at p. 2.
Hume laments, in his Dedication, the uncertainty of the orthography
prevailing at the time he writes, and yet we find him spelling words
several different ways, even within the compass of a single sentence,
without being able to lay the blame upon the printers; thus we find him
writing ju_d_gement on p. 11, ju_d_ge p. 8, and ju_d_g p. 33, but juge
p. 18; and there are numberless other instances that it would be tedious
to enumerate. Again, the author uses a mixture of Scotch and English, so
we have sometimes ane and sometimes one; nae on page 1 and noe on p. 2;
mare and mast, and more and most, even in the same sentence (p. 30); and
two is spelt in three different ways, tuae, tuo, and tuoe.
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