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, quhilk 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, etc.

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.

OF THE SYLLAB.
Cap. 6.

1. 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.

4. A syllab of vouales and consonantes either beginnes at the voual, as al, il, el; or at one consonant, as tal man; or at tuo consonantes, as stand, sleep; or els at thre at the maest, as strand, stryp. It endes either at a voual, as fa, fo; or at one consonant, as ar, er; or at tuo, as best, dart; or at thre at the maest, as durst, worst.

5. Heer is to be noated, that in divyding syllabes, the consonantes, one or moe, that may begin a syllab anie way in the middes of a word belong to the voual following, as in que-stion, qua-rel, fi-shar, sa-fron, ba-stard, de-scrib, re-scue.

6. 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. As, for exemple, if this word magistrat fel to be divided at the first syllab, it behoved to be ma-gistrat; if at the second, it behoved to be magi-strat; but no wayes to parte the m from the a, nor the g from the i, nor the s from t, nor the t from r.

OF THE RULES TO SYMBOLIZE.
Cap. 7.

1. 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.

2. Next the consonantes are to be marked; and first, quhither they break the voual befoer or behind; then quhither they be one or moe; and lastlie, with quhat organes of the mouth they be broaken.

3. For be the organes of the mouth, quherwith the syllab is broaken, the consonantes are discerned be quhilk the syllab must be symbolized, quhilk we have said, cap 1, sect. 5.

4. The consonantes may differ in hammar (as we called it, cap. 4, sect 3) and stiddie, as b and d. Or they may agre in hammer and differ in stiddie, as b and v. Or they may agre in both and differ in the tuich, as f and v, m and p, t and g.

5. The tuich befoer the voual is be lifting the hammer af the stiddie; as da, la, pa; and behind, be stryking the hammer on the stiddie; as ad, al, ap. 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.

6. Of this quhilk now is said may be gathered that general, quhilk I called the keie of orthographie, cap. 1 sect. 5, that is the congruence of the symbol and sound symbolized; that is, that bathe must belang to the same organes and be tuiched after the same form.

7. And, be the contrarie, here it is clere that soundes pronunced with this organ can not be written with symboles of that; as, for exemple, a labiel symbol can not serve a dental nor a guttural sound; nor a guttural symbol a dental nor a labiel sound.

8. To clere this point, and alsoe to reform an errour bred in the south, and now usurped be our ignorant printeres, I wil tel quhat befel my self quhen I was in the south with a special gud frende of myne. Ther rease, upon sum accident, quhither quho, quhen, quhat, etc., sould be symbolized with q or w, a hoat disputation betuene him and me. After manie conflictes (for we ofte encountered), we met be chance, in the citie of Baeth, with a Doctour of divinitie of both our acquentance. He invited us to denner. At table my antagonist, to bring the question on foot amangs his awn condisciples, began that I was becum an heretik, and the doctour spering how, ansuered that I denyed quho to be spelled with a w, but with qu. Be quhat reason? quod the Doctour. Here, I beginning to lay my grundes of labial, dental, and guttural soundes and symboles, he snapped me on this hand and he on that, that the doctour had mikle a doe to win me room for a syllogisme. Then (said I) a labial letter can not symboliz a guttural syllab. But w is a labial letter, quho a guttural sound. And therfoer w can not symboliz quho, nor noe syllab of that nature. Here the doctour staying them again (for al barked at ones), the proposition, said he, I understand; the assumption is Scottish, and the conclusion false. Quherat al laughed, as if I had bene dryven from al replye, and I fretted to see a frivolouse jest goe for a solid ansuer. My proposition is grounded on the 7 sectio of this same cap., quhilk noe man, I trow, can denye that ever suked the paepes of reason. And soe the question must rest on the assumption quhither w be a labial letter and quho a guttural syllab. As for w, let the