THE ORDER OF ORTHOGRAPHIE:
OR, Sixty sixe Rules shortly directing to the true writing, speaking, and pronouncing the English Tongue.
Necessary for all sorts, for want whereof Strangers blame our English Tongue of difficultie: many of our owne Nation speake it corruptly, many write it falsely, and many are discouraged from learning to write it; and others that can write are ashamed to write to their best friends.
LONDON, Imprinted by Augustine Mathews for William Lee, and are to be sold at his shop in Fleete street, at the signe of the Golden Buck, neare Seriants Inne. 1622.
To the Reader.
the sundry complaints that I haue heard of many, and the great offers, that they would giue much, so they could write English truly, and reade it distinctly and perfectly; hath made me venter into the Presse, and to publish for thy benefit this litle Booke; which though it contain much in effect, yet I haue contriued into this small Octauo, that [Page]thereby I might become a sociable companion for euery mans pocket; and therefore I haue shut out all verses in laudem Authoris, and tedious Dedicatories, which now a daies will cost the buyer as much as the Booke it selfe. And if I find my indeuour accepted, I shall endeuour to continue worthy thy friendship.
THE ORDER OF ORTHOGRAPHY.
1 THe first and least thing in writing, is a Poynt or tittle, which is marked thus (.) without length or breadth.
2 By artificiall extention or drawing forth of which, inlarging the forme is made a Letter, as a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, k.
3 The ordinary number of Letters is foure and twenty.
4 The Letters are two sorts, the one called Vowels, and the other Consonants.
5 These fiue, a, e, i, o, u, are Vowels, all the rest are Consonants.
6 A Vowell maketh a full and perfect sound of it selfe. A Consonant, or [Page]diuers Consonants without a Vowell, spell not any thing.
7 A Syllable is a perfect sound made of so many letters as are speld or sounded together in a word, as in this word la-men-ta-ti-on you see are fiue syllables.
8 Any of the fiue vowels will make a syllable alone; as in these words, amongst e-vils I-dolatrie o-verthroweth v-nitie.
9 When two vowels come together in one syllable, it maketh a sound called a dipthong or double sound, which must not be deuided, but sounded together; and they are in number eight, which are these, ai, ei, oi, au, eu, ou, oo, ee, as in these words: Faith, heighth, moist, taught, neuter, ought, foote, feete.
10 There are two Latine dipthongs vsed in English writing, ae and oe, as Aeneas, Oedipus, which you must sound as if they were written with E only, as Eneas, Edipus; not Aneas, Odipus.
11 Aa and ao make no dipthongs, and therefore must be deuided when they are found in a word, as Ba-al, Na-omy.
12 J or V comming before another vowell in the beginning of a word or [Page]syllable make no dipthongs, but changing their sound are turned into Consonants, as in these and the like, James, Ieremy, Iupiter, vaine, verely, viper, vocation.
13 Ie hath the sound of ee dipthong in these and the like words, chiefe, Shriefe, briefe, siege, shield, field, atchieue, &c.
14 Ʋi in these and the like words, is no dipthong, but is pronounced like u long, as suite, fruite, bruite, bruise, sound them as lute, sute, confute.
13 Y is a Greeke vowell, and naturally ought to be vsed but in words borrowed of the Greekes, as hypocrite, mysticall: yet it is vsed for i vowell, especially if the syllable following begin with a vowell, as saying, flying; also in words ending in ie, as denie, or deny, leauing out e, and ordinarily in words of one syllable, as by, thy, why; not bie, thie, whie.
16 When y begins a word, it it made a Consonant, as yet, yet, your, which differ in sound from ies, iet, iour.
17 Obserue that th hath two manner of sounds, as you may obserue in these words the, theefe, thy, thigh, thine, thinne, and many other.
[Page] 18 Ca, co, cu, sound alwaies like ka, ko, ku, bu; but ce, ci, like se, si.
19 Ph is sounded alwaies like f, as Phisicke, Prophet, Philosophie, Phillip.
20 Ga, go, gu, keepe alwaies one and the same sound; but ge and gi change, as agent, get, giddie, Giles, but there is no certaine rule found to know when to change the sound.
21 This sound si, may be expressed fiue diuers waies, as si, ci, sci, xi, and ti.
22 ti before a vowell, ordinarily spels si, as in these words affection, action.
23 If s come before it, it keepes the ordinary sound, as question, digestion.
24 Some words by changing their manner of writing, change also their signification and yet not their sound, as.
- A Prophet, much profit.
- The Sunne, a Sonne.
- He heard, it is hard.
- The Reigne of a King.
- The rayne that falleth.
- The reine of a bridle.
- He ought to doe it oft.
[Page] 25 Some words are written with one and the same letters, and yet are different in signification, as
- The hart of a Man.
- A beast called an Hart.
- A Foule in the ayre.
- Foule weather.
- Thou art skilfull in Art.
- He may liue till May.
26 Sometime the same writing is diuersly sounded, as to vse, an vse, an abuse, to abuse: where s is sounded also like z, amased which differeth from chased.
27 Ow is likewise diuersly sounded, as know how a bow to bow.
28 Some words are written diuersly, and yet change not their sound, nor signification, as Broune, or Browne.
29 Some change both the writing and sound, and yet not the sence, as a bottell, or botle.
30 Words ending in or, are indifferently written with our; as honor, honour; sauor, fauour; except dor, for, nor, abhor, &c.
31 Marke for your next rule what Consonants follow one another in the [Page]beginning of a word, as after, b will follow only l or r, as bla, bre; for bsa, or the like, will spell nothing.
32 The Consonants that will follow one another in the beginning of a word are these, bl, br, cl, cr, ch, dr, dw, fl, fr, gh, gl, gr, gn, kn, pl, pr, ph, ps, sc, scr, sh, shr, sk, st, sm, sn, sp, spl, spr, sq, st, str, sw, tr, th, thr, tw, wh, wr.
Here marke that with those letters that you cannot begin a word, you must not begin a syllable.
33 Marke next those words and syllables that are shortened in English writing by a stroake ouer the head, for m or n, as ā for am or an, cō for com or con; and sometimes a word is shortened by leauing out e in the last syllable, as hang'd for hanged: other abreuiations also there are, as y t for that, y u for thou, y e for the, w t for with, w c for which, &c. for and so forth.
34 The vse of this letter e when it is not sounded in the end of a word is diuers.
35 First it is vsed rather for beautie then any necessitie after i in the end of a word, as bie, nor bi; but not after y as by.
[Page] 36 Secondly, it is vsed to draw the syllable long, as may be seene by the difference betweene these words man and mane, mill and mile, hid and hide.
37 Thirdly, it both draweth the syllable long, and changeth the sound of these letters c, u, g, as pac is sounded like pak, but pace like pase; so rag, rage, hau, haue, and if d be put before g, the syllable is pronounced short as ledge, lodge, &c.
37 For more distinct pronunciation marke that which the Gramarians call accent, which is the lifting vp of the voice higher in one syllable then in another, as to offer incense, to incense or prouoke.
38 Thus much for letters and syllables, and their pronunciation: now for the deuiding of long words of many syllebles, the generall rule is ordinarily to marke how many vowels a word hath, so many syllables it hath, as re-ge-ne-ra-ti-on.
39 First, except such words where e is little or not at all pronounced in the ende of the word, as madde, made, hide, &c.
40 Secondly dipthongs, as vaine, may, our.
41 Thirdly, words ending in es, as Iames, hones, names, hides.
[Page] 42 Lastly, after qu and g, as quicke languag [...].
43 Marke next for your diuision of words, if you haue two vowels come together, and both fully pronounced, you must put the first to the former syllable, and the next to the latter, as auoy-ance, tri-umph, mutu-all.
44 But heere take heede of deuiding the vowels ea, as some corruptly doe, pronouncing Whe-at, me-at, be-ans, pe-ase, for Wheat, mea [...], beans, pease.
45 When the middle Consonant is doubled, deuide them as com-mon, com-mand, let-ter, ac-cord.
46 Except they be needlesly doubled in words of the plurall number, as plumms for plums, hills for hils.
47 Thus much for deuision of words and syllables: for your more distinct writing and reading, obserue those markes called stayes or stops in reading, which are three.
48 The first betokeneth a small stay and is called a Comma, and marked thus (,)
49 The second sheweth a longer stay, and is called a Colon, & is thus marked (:)
[Page] The third is marked thus (.) with one point, and sheweth a full and perfect stop or stay, as if the sentence were ended, and it is named a Period.
51 When a question is asked in writing, it is noted with this marke (?) called an Interogation.
52 When some words may be left out of a sentence, and yet the sence perfect, it is marked thus ( ) and called a Parenthesis, as suffer me (I pray you) a little whil [...].
53 When a word endeth, and the next beginneth with a vowell, the ending vowell is sometime left out, and both the words ioyned together, as thintent for the intent, which exactly should be written with a marke called Apostrophu [...] thus, th'intent.
54 For your more commendable writing, begin alwaies the Sentence with a great letter; and likewise the names of Persons, Places, and Times, as Robert, London, April. Likewise, when you put a letter for a word, as B. for Bishop, L. for Lord; and [Page]ordinarily when you put a letter for a number, as V. for fiue, X. for tenne L. for fiftie, C. for an hundred, D. for fiue hundred, M. for a Thousand.
55 Next take heed of the barbarous speech of the common people, as of writing or pronouncing yarbs for herbs, stompe for stampe, Dater for Daughter, twonty for twenty, Feale and Fineger for Ʋeale and Vineger, and such like.
56 Marke further that some letters must be written, but not pronounced in some words,
57 As C. ordinarily when it comes before k, is not pronounced, as backe, packe, Rocke, where it only makes the syllable short.
58 G is not pronounced in signe, resigne, flegme, soueraigne.
59 H in Ghost, Iohn; p in receipt, nor s in Isle, and many such like which you must marke by reading with obseruation.
60 Note that all words that may haue this Article a or the put before them, are called Nounes, or names of things, as a Man the house.
[Page] 61 And whereas I spake before of words of the plurall number, note that in Nounes there be two numbers, the single or singuler number, which speaketh but of one, as a Man, the House, a Tree, and such like.
And the plurall which speaketh of more then one, as houses, men, trees.
62 The plurall number is made by putting s to the singuler, as one pot, many pots; a Iewell, two Iewels.
63 Except words ending in fe which make the plurall by changing into ves, as wife, wiues; knife, kniues; Calfe, Calues.
64 Some plurals vary or change from all rule, as a man, two men, a brother, brethren, so Oxen, teeth, feete, kine, lice, mice.
And some that make the singuler and the plurall all one, as a sheepe, two sheepe, one mile, twentie mile.
65 The singuler and the plurall haue ordinarily syllables alike, except words ending in ce, ch, g, dg, s, or sh, as graces, places, Churches, cages, hedges, roses, fishes.
[Page] 66 Note last of all when the Article a or my come before a word beginning with a vowell, you must change a into an, and my into mine; as an Oxe, mine or thine Oxe.