Other irregularities have been occasioned by an injudicious application of the letters of one alphabet to the sounds of another language.
The Roman c some writers suppose was hard, like k, before all the vowels and diphthongs. It certainly was so before all except e and i; where, there is reason to suppose, it had the sound of ch or ts. It is very evident that it had not the sound of s, which we now annex to it in civil, cellar. When the Roman alphabet, therefore, took place of the primitive English characters, the Greek k should have been always written before a, o, u, as in cat, cord, cup; and s before e and i. Or c should have been called ke, limited to one sound, and always used instead of k. If our ancestors had retained the Roman pronunciation of c before e and i, they would probably have spelt cera, civilis, chera, chivilis,[35] ch having its English sound of tsh, as in charm. But if they pronounced these words as we do, they should have substituted s, sera, sivilis. In short, they should have limited every character to one sound; in which case, one of the three letters, c, k, s, would have been entirely omitted as useless. This would have delivered us from a large class of difficulties.
Whether the ph and ch, in Greek derivatives, were originally introduced into English, because our ancestors preserved the aspirate; or whether the h was retained merely to show the etymology of words, it is not easy to decide. The probability is, that these letters were never aspirated in English, but that ph has ever been pronounced f, and ch generally k; as in Philip, chorus. It is probable however that the Romans, from whom the English borrowed their characters, preserved the aspirate; for they very scrupulously retained the h after p and c; and they attempted to copy exactly the Greek pronunciation.[36] They borrowed all words in ph, ch and th from the Greeks. We have preserved the characters, but have mostly lost the aspirate; ph has invariably the sound of f; ch, in Greek derivatives, generally that of k; and th has become the representative of two simple consonants. With this change of pronunciation, the orthography should have changed; philosophy should now be written filosofy; and chorus, korus; th might become a single character and be called Eth.[F]
But it was the fate of our language to be shaken by violent revolutions, and abandoned to accident or the caprice of unskillful heads. The operation of imperceptible causes, common to all languages, in all ages, has also been gradually changing the spelling and pronunciation.
In Chaucer's time, the infinitive mode and plural number of verbs, in the present tense, ended often in en; as loven, for to love or they love. But loveth was sometimes used in the plural, and n began to be omitted in the infinitive. The French termination esse, as in Goddesse, richesse, was used, and the final e was often pronounced. The plural number of nouns usually ended in es, as houndes; and in the same manner terminated the genitive case. Nouns now ending in y, ended then in ie, as storie; y was still prefixed to participles, as ybent; and y was often used where we now write g, as yeve for give.
From that period the orthography was still varying, at least in some particulars, till the beginning of the present century. The group of eminent writers who were cotemporary with Swift, gave great stability to the spelling; yet some good authorities differ from them in several points. Johnson, who has been usually followed by succeeding compilers of dictionaries, preserves the u in honour, favour, and similar words; as also the final k in publick, &c. Ash, followed by many writers, very properly restores these words to the Roman spelling, by omitting the u and k. Excepting these particulars, the orthography of our language is nearly fixed.
The pronunciation has been neglected till a few years ago; when Sheridan and Kenrick, with several compilers of less note, attempted to give us a standard. Unluckily they have all made the attempt on false principles; and will, if followed, multiply the anomalies, which already deform the language and embarrass the learner.[37]
The language, is composed of a variety of materials, and it requires some labor to adjust the parts and reduce them to order.
To accomplish this purpose, we must search for such principles of analogy as still exist in its construction, and make them the pillars of a regular system. Where such principles cannot be found, let us examin the opinions of the learned, and the practice of the nations which speak the pure English, that we may determine by the weight of authority, the common law of language, those questions which do not come within any established rules.
