SEVENTEENTH ORDINARY MEETING. 219 
A paper was then read by Mr. Wm. Houston on “Old 
English Spelling and Pronunciation.” 
In dealing with the subject, Mr. Houston dwelt for sometime on 
the changes which have taken place in the pronunciation of English 
words since Anglo-Saxon, in its various dialects, was the spoken 
language of the common people of England. The principal authority 
cited was Mr. A. J. Ellis, who has established by a wide induction 
from a variety of sources a considerable number of indisputable 
conclusions, though there are still many points left doubtful. As 
pronunciation changed, spelling should have changed also, and, as a 
matter of fact, it did so to some extent before the invention of print- 
ing, and to a less extent since; but the growing tendency of modern 
times is to allow the printers, to whom uniform spelling is a matter 
of great convenience, to fix the forms of words, not only absolutely 
but arbitrarily. The reader of the paper cited numerous instances 
of old spelling from Milton back to Chaucer to show (1) that spelling 
in Old English was more phonetic, and therefore better than now ; 
(2) that spelling varied with pronunciation in the use of words by 
the same writer ; and (3) that so far from adherence to a uniform 
system of spelling being regarded as a chief criterion of scholarship, 
old writers allowed themselves a great degree of latitude in their 
modes of spelling words. Spenser is an extreme instance of this 
free and easy view of orthography, for it is not uncommon to find 
him spelling the same word three or four different ways on the same 
page. In conclusion, Mr. Houston contended for greater freedom in 
orthography, not in the interest of diversity, but in the interest of 
simplicity of spelling. 
The following gentleman took part in the discussion which 
followed: Dr. Workman, Dr. Bryce, Mr. J. Howard Hunter, 
Mr. D. Boyle, Mr. Murray, Mr. Shaw, Mr. Notman, Mr. 
Keys, Mr. Livingstone, Mr. Macdougall. 
