Of the Orthographie and Congruitie of the Britan Tongue: A Treates, noe shorter than necessarie, for the Schooles — David Hume — John Shaqi
Of the Orthographie and Congruitie of the Britan Tongue: A Treates, noe shorter than necessarie, for the Schooles
David Hume · en
8. In this diphthong we co_m_mit a grosse errour, saving better
judgement, spelling how, now, and siklyk with w, for if w be (as it sal
appear, quhen we cum to the awn place of it) a consonant, it can noe
wayes coalesse into a diphthong sound, sik as this out of controversie
is.
9. U, the last of this rank, the south, as I have said in the latin
sound of it, pronu_n_ces eu, we ou, both, in my simple judgement, wrang,
for these be diphthong soundes, and the sound of a voual sould be
simple. If I sould judge, the frensh sound is neerest the voual sound
as we pronu_n_ce it in mule and muse.
10. Of it we have a diphthong not yet, to my knawlege, observed of anie;
and, for my awn parte, I am not wel resolved neither how to spel it, nor
name it. Onelie I see it in this, to bou, a bow. I wait not quhither I
sould spel the first buu, or the last boau. As, for exemple, if Roben
Hud wer nou leving, he wer not able to buu his aun bou, or to bou his
aun boau. And therfoer this with al the rest, hou be it in other I have
more for me, I leave to the censure of better judgement.
OF CONSONANTES.
Cap. 4.
1. This for the vouales, and diphthonges made of them without the
tuiches of the mouth. Now followe the consonantes.
2. A consonant is a letter symbolizing a sound articulat that is broaken
with the tuiches of the mouth.
3. The instrumentes of the mouth, quherbe the vocal soundes be broaken,
be in number seven. The nether lip, the upper lip, the outward teeth,
the inward teeth, the top of the tongue, the midle tong, and roof of the
mouth. Of these, thre be, as it were, ha_m_meres stryking, and the rest
stiddies, kepping the strakes of the ha_m_meres.
4. The ham_m_eres are the nether lip, the top of the tongue, and the
midle tongue. The stiddies the overlip, the outward teeth, the inward
teeth, and the roofe of the mouth.
5. The nether lip stryking on the overlip makes b, m, p, and on the
teeth it makes f and v.
6. The top of the tongue stryking on the inward teeth formes d, l, n, r,
s, t, and z.
7. The midle tongue stryking on the rouf of the mouth formes the rest,
c, g, k, j, q, and x, and so we have 18 consonantes borrowed of the
latines.
8. These they borrow al from the greekes, saving j and v, quhilk our age
soundes other wayes then it seemes the romanes did; for Plutarch, more
then 100 yeeres after Christ, expressing the sound q_uhi_lk they had in
his tyme, symbolizes them neerar the sound of the vouales quherof they
are maed then now we sound them in latin, for in Galba he symbolizes
junius vindex, ἰόυνιος ὀύινδεξ, q_uhi_lk, if then it had sounded as
now we sound it, he sould rather have written it with _gamma_ and
_beta_, γόυνιος βίνδεξ.