schoolmaster Alexander Hume

“ The undetermined noun is noated with an befoer a voual; as, an ald man sould be wyse; and with a befoer a consonant; as, a father sould command his son.
OF THE GENDER OF A NOUN.
Cap. 4.
1. Gender is the affection of a noun for distinction of sex.
2. Sex is a distinction of a noun be male and female, and these are distinguished the one from the other, or both from thinges without sex.
3. The one is distinguished from the other be he and she.
4. He is the noat of the male; as, he is a gud judge; he is a wyse man; he is a speedie horse; he is a crouse cock; he is a fat wether. ”

“ Cicero, in his buik de Oratore ad Brutum, makes it a natural harmonie that everie word pronunced be the mouth of man have one acute syllab, and that never farther from the end then the third syllab, quhilk the grammareanes cales to the same end the antepenult. Quhilk observation of so noble a wit is most true in tongues quhilk he understud, the greek and latin. But if Cicero had understud our tongue, he sould have hard the accent in the fourth syllab from the end ”

“ The positive is the first position of the noun; as, soft, hard; quhyte, blak; hoat, cald.
5. The comparative excedes the positive be more, and is formed of the positive be adding er; as, softer, harder; quhiter, blaker; hoater, calder.
6. The superlative excedes the positive be most, and is formed of the positive be adding est; as, softest, hardest; quhytest, blakest; hoatest, caldest.
OF THE VERB’S PERSON AND NUMBER.
Cap. 7.
1. This for the noun. The verb is a word of al persones declyned with mood and tyme; as, I wryte, thou wrytes, he wrytes. ”

“ Of i, also, our idiom receaves tuae soundes, as in a man’s wil, and the wil of a fox. Heer, also, I wald have our men learne of the south, for these soundes they wel distinguish, wryting wil, fil, mil, stil, with i; and wyl, fyl, myl, styl, with y.
6. Heer I see be Barrat, in his Alvearie, that sum wald be at symbolizing these soundes, the ane with the greek diphthong ει, and the other with ᴉ inverted; as, rειd, equitare; bειd, manere; rᴉd, legere; hᴉd, cavere. In this opinion I se an eye of judgement, and therfoer wil not censure it, except I saw the auctour’s whole drift. ”

“ Now followes the syllab, quhilk is a ful sound symbolized with convenient letteres, and consistes of ane or moe.
2. A syllab of ane letter is symbolized with a voual onelie; as, a in able, e in ever, i in idle, o in over, u in unitie, for a consonant can make no syllab alane.
3. A syllab of moe letteres is made of vouales onelie, or els of vouales and consonantes. Of onlie vouales the syllab is called a diphthong, of quhilk we have spoaken in the vouales quherof they ar composed. ”

“ Those who would raise any objection to these re-editions—as a few have raised them—are asked to consider the absurdity and injustice of debarring a large number of readers from the enjoyment of an old author, because a living editor has once printed his works, when the feeling of the editor himself is well expressed in the words of one of the class, ‘You are heartily welcome to all I have ever done. ”

“ To symboliz right, the sound of the voual is first to be observed, quhither it be a simple voual or a compound, and quhilk of them is to be chosen, for quhilk no rule can be geven but the judgement of the ear. ”

“ Case is an affection of a noun for distinction of person; as, the corner stone fel on me; stone is the nominative case. The corner of a stone hurt me; stone is the genitive case. Quhat can you doe to a stone; stone is the dative case. ”

“ They use alsoe to wryte logicque, musicque, rhetoricque, and other of that sorte, with cque. If this be doon to make the c in logica, etc., subsist, quhy wer it not better to supply a k in the place of it, then to hedge it in with a whol idle syllab; it wer both more orthographical and easier for the learner, for c and k are sa sib, that the ane is a greek and the other a latin symbol of one sound. In this art it is alyke absurd to wryte that thou reades not, as to read that thou wrytes not.
6. We use alsoe, almost at the end of everie word, to wryte an idle e. ”

“ The acute raiseth the syllab quheron it sittes; as profésse, prófit, ímpudent.
5. It may possesse the last syllab: as supprést, preténce, sincere; the penult: as súbject, cándle, cráftie; the antepenult: as diffícultie, mínister, fínallie; and the fourth also from the end, as is said sect. 2; as spéciallie, insátiable, díligentlie. In al quhilk, if a man change the accent, he sall spill the sound of the word.
6. The grave accent is never noated, but onelie understood in al syllabes quherin the acute and circumflex is not. ”

“ And heer, to put our men af their errour quho had wont to symboliz yallou with an ȝ, and to put noe difference betueen v and w, ȝ 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 13 far distant, and the tuich so diverse, this symbol can be no reason serve that sound, nor nane of that kynd. ”

“ In this diphthong we commit 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, pronunces 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 pronunce it in mule and muse. ”

“ The author continually uses a singular verb to a plural noun; for instance, “of this we, as the latines, hes almost no use” (p. 22) , though on p. 20 he writes, “in our tongue we have some particles.” ”

“ Quhilk, seeing now they are worn out of the latin use, my counsel is that we leave the sound of them quhilk now is in the latin use to the latines, and take as our’s the sound quhilk they have left, and geve to the sound, quhilk now we use in latin, the latin symbol; as, jolie jhon; vertue is not vain ”

“ In school materes, the least are not the least, because to erre in them is maest absurd. If the fundation be not sure, the maer gorgiouse the edifice the grosser the falt. Neither is it the least parte of a prince’s praise, curasse rem literariam, and be his auctoritie to mend the misses that ignorant custom hath bred. Julius Cæsar was noe less diligent to eternize his name be the pen then be the suord. Neither thought he it unworthie 3 of his paines to wryte a grammar in the heat of the civil weer, quhilk was to them as the English grammar is to us ”

“ Wordes deryved from the latin in tia and tium we wryte with ce; as justice, from justitia; intelligence, from intelligentia; vice, from vitium; service, from servitium. In al quhilk, houbeit the e behind the c be idle, yet use hes made it tollerable to noat the breaking of the c, for al tongues bear with sum slippes that can not abyde the tuich stone of true orthographie.
7. C is alsoe written in our wordes deryved from x in latin; as peace, from pax; fornace, from fornax; matrice, from matrix; nurice, from 20 nutrix, quhilk the south calles nurse, not without a falt both in sound and symbol ”

“ The diphthong they defyne to be the sound of tuae vouales coalescing into ane sound, quhilk definition in au is plaen, in æ obscurer as now we pronunce it, for now we sound it generallie lyke the voual e, without sound of the a, quhilk, notwithstanding is the principal voual in this diphthong sound. Questionles at the first it semes to have had sum differing sound from a, sik as we pronunce in stean, or the south in stain. But this corruption is caryed with a stronger tyde then reason can resist, and we wil not stryve with the stream. ”

“ This difference we declyne, not as doth the latines and greekes, be terminationes, but with noates, after the maner of the hebrues, quhilk they cal particles.
3. The nominative hath no other noat but the particle of determination; as, the peple is a beast with manie heades; a horse serves man to manie uses; men in auctoritie sould be lanternes of light.
4. Our genitive is alwayes joyned with an other noun, and is noated with of, or s.
5. With of, it followes the noun quhar with it is joined; as, the house of a good man is wel governed. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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, turning 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 ”

“ A vast mass of our early literature is still unprinted, and much that has been printed has, as the late Herbert Coleridge remarked, ‘been brought out by Printing Clubs of exclusive constitution, or for private circulation only, and might, for all that the public in general is the better for them, just as well have remained in manuscript, being, of course, utterly unprocurable, except in great libraries, and not always there.’ It is well known that the Hon. ”

“ Betuene tuae wordes we abate either from the end of the former or the beginning of the later.
5. We abate from the end of the former quhen it endes in a voual and the next beginnes at a voual; as, th’ ingrate; th’ one parte; I s’ it, for I see it.
6. In abating from the word following, we, in the north, use a mervelouse libertie; as, he’s a wyse man, for he is a wyse man; I’l meet with him, for I wil meet with him; a ship ’l of fooles, for a ship ful of fooles; and this we use in our common language. And quhilk is stranger, we manie tymes cut of the end of the word ”

“ It is alsoe heer to be observed in printing and wryting, that quhen a word fales to be divyded at the end of a lyne, that the partition must be made at the end of a syllab, soe that the one lyne end at the end of the whol syllab, and the other begin the next lyne. ”

“ This s sum haldes to be a segment of his, and therfoer now almost al wrytes his for it, as if it wer a corruption. But it is not a segment of his; 1. because his is the masculin gender, and this may be fœminin; as, a mother’s love is tender; 2. because his is onelie singular, and this may be plural; as, al men’s vertues are not knawen.
8. The dative is noated with to, and for; as, geve libertie evin to the best youth and it wil luxuriat. Al men doeth for them selves; few for a frende.
9. The accusative hath noe other noat then the nominative; as, the head governes the bodie. ”

“ In our tongue we have some particles quhilk can not be symbolized with roman symboles, nor rightlie pronunced but be our awn, for we in manye places soe absorb l and n behynd a consonant, quher they can not move without a voual intervening, that the ear can hardlie judge quhither their intervenes a voual or noe. ”

“ We wish be wald god, god grant, and god nor; as, wald god I knew the secretes of nature.
8. We permit the will of otheres be letting; as, let God aryse; let everie man have his awn wyfe.
9. We bid our inferioures, and pray our superioures, be postponing the supposit to the verb; as, goe ye and teach al nationes; here me, my God.
OF THE TYME OF THE VERB.
Cap. 9.
1. Tyme is an affection of the verb noating the differences of tyme, and is either present, past, or to cum.
2. Tyme present is that quhilk now is; as, I wryte, or am wryting. ”

“ Hyphen is, as it wer, a band uniting whol wordes joined in composition; as, a hand-maed, a heard-man, tongue-tyed, out-rage, foer-warned, mis-reported, fals-deemed.
OF THE CONGRUITIE
OF OUR BRITAN
TONGUE. LIB. 2.
27
OF THE PERSON.
Cap. 1.
1. Al wordes quhilk we use to expresse our mynde are personal or impersonal.
2. A personal word is quhilk admittes diversitie of person.
3. Person is the face of a word, quhilk in diverse formes of speach it diverselie putes on; as, I, Peter, say that thou art the son of God. Thou, Peter, sayes that I am the son of God. ”

“ Quherupon person is first, second, and third.
5. The first person is of him that speakes; as, I wryte.
6. The second person is of him that is spoaken to; as, thou wrytes.
7. The third person is of him that is spoaken of; as, Peter wrytes.
OF NUMBER.
Cap. 2.
1. Number is distinction of person be one and moe; and soe is singular and plural.
2. The singular speakes of one; as, a hand, a tree, a sheep, a horse, a man. ”

“ Steven’s History of the High School, Edinburgh, and from M’Crie’s Life of Melville, I have been enabled to extract and put together the following scanty particulars of our author’s life:—The time and place both of his birth and of his death are alike unknown ”

“ They rely with confidence on the Subscribers to use their best endeavours to increase the list of Members, in order that funds may not be wanting to print the material that editors place at their service. ”

“ 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 quhilk I hard doctour Laurence, the greek professour in Oxfoord, a man bothe of great learning 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. ”

“ And quhen the hammer and the stiddie are ane, the difference is in the hardnes and softnes of the tuich; as may be seen in ca and ga, ta and da. But w and y maekes sae soft a mynt that it is hard to perceave, and therfoer did the latines symboliz them with the symbol of the vouales. They are never used but befoer the voual; as we, ye, wil, you; behynd the voual thei mak noe consonant sound, nor sould be written, and therfore now and vow, with sik otheres, are not [to] be written with w, as is said befoer. ”