Growth and structure of the English language

»s.

;rowth and structure )f the english language BY

OTTO JESPERSEN,

ph.d., lit.d.,

PROFESSOR IN THE UNIVERSITY OF COPENHAGEN, AUTHOR OF "progress IN LANGUAGE", "lehrbuch der phonetik", "phonetische grundfragen", "how to teach a foreign language", "a modern english grammar", etc.

AWARDED THE VOLNEY PRIZE OF THE INSTITUT DE FRANCE

1906

SECOND EDITION REVISED

LEIPZIG

PUBLISHED BY

B. G.

1912

TEUBNER

"^I^ -10-76

PREFACE. volume have been set forth in the introductory paragraph. I have endeavoured to write at once popularly and so as to be of some In some cases I have profit to the expert philologist. advanced new views without having space enough to give all my reasons for deviating from commonly accepted theories, but I hope to find an opportunity in future works of a more learned character to argue out the most debatable points. I owe more than I can say to numerous predecessors in the fields of my investigations, most of all to the authors of the New English Dictionary. The dates given for the first and last appearance of a word are nearly always taken from that splendid monument of English scholarship, and it is hardly necessary to warn the

The scope and plan

this

reader not to take these dates too literally.

was

When

say,

from 1 290 to 1548, I do not mean to say that the word was actually heard for the first and for the last time in those two years, but only that no earlier or later quotations have been discovered by the painstaking authors of that dictionary. I have departed from a common practice in retaining the spelling of all authors quoted. I see no reason why for instance, th^it fenester

in so

many

in use

English editions of Shakespeare the spelling

modernized while

quotations from other Elizabethan

authors the old spelling

followed.

Quotations from

Shakespeare are here regularly given in the spelling of the First FoHo (1623). The only point where, for the convenience of modern readers, I regulate the old usage,

236288

IV is

Preface.

with regard to capital letters and

for instance,

and

love

«,

z',

z*,

instead of vs and

avoid misunderstandings,

printing,

loue.

must here expressly

that by Old English (O. E.)

— To state

always understand the often termed Anglo-Saxon. I

language before 1150, still to thank Mr. A. E. Hayes of London, Dr. I want

Lane Cooper

Cornell University,

and especially Pro-

Moore Smith of Sheffield University, who has in many ways given me the benefit of his great knowledge of the English language and of English

fessor G. C.

literature.

have here and there modified an expression, added a fresh illustration, and removed a remark or an example that was not perhaps very felicitously chosen; but in the main the work remains unchanged. In the second edition

Gentofte (Copenhagen), September 191

O.J.

CONTENTS. Chapter

^*^® I

Preliminary Sketch

Chapter

The Beginnings Chapter

III

Old English Chapter IV

The Scandinavians Chapter

V 84

The French Chapter VI

Latin and Greek

Chapter VII 152

Various Sources

Chapter VIII ^7^

Grammar Chapter IX Shakespeare and the Language of Poetry Chapter

X 234

Conclusion

Phonetic Symbols.

Index

210

Abbreviations

249

250

Chapter

Preliminary Sketch. 1. It will be

endeavour

in this

ize the chief peculiarities of the

volume

to character-

English language, and

growth and significance of those features structure which have been of permanent import-

to explain the in its

The

ance.

older stages of the language, interesting as

study is, will be considered only in so far as they throw light either directly or by way of contrast on the main characteristics of present-day English, and an attheir

be made to connect the teachings of linguistic history with the chief events in the general history of the English people so as to show their mutual bearings on each other and the relation of language to national

tempt

will

character.

The knowledge that the

latter conception

one to deal with scientifically, as it may easily tempt one into hasty generalizations, should make us wary, but not deter us from grappHng with problems which are really both interesting and important. My plan will be, first to give a rapid sketch of the language

very

difficult

—

of our

own

days, so as to

show how

— a foreigner who has devoted of English,

but who

strikes a foreigner

much time

to the study

feels that in spite of all his

efforts

only able to look at it as a foreigner does, and not exactly as a native would and then in the following

—

chapters to enter more deeply into the history of the language in order to describe its first shape, to trace the Jespershn: English. 2nd ed.

,2%;

I.'-

Pvelim'inary Sketch.

various foreign influences

an account ot 2,

is,

its

own

of course,

has undergone, and to give

inner growth.

impossible to characterize a lan-

one formula; languages, like men, are too composite to have their whole essence summed up in one short expression. Nevertheless, there is one expression that continually comes to my mind whenever I think

guage

of the English

language and compare

with others:

seems to me positively and expressly masculine, it is the language of a grown-up man and has very little childish or feminine about it. A great many things go together to produce and to confirm that impression, things phonetical, grammatical, and lexical, words and turns that are found, and words and turns that are not found, in the language. In dealing with the English language one is often reminded of the characteristic English hand-writing; just as an English lady will nearly always write in a manner that in any other country would only be found in a man's hand, in the same manner the language is more manly than any other language I know. 3. First I shall mention the sound system. The English consonants are well defined; voiced and voiceless consonants stand over against each other in neat symmetry, and they are, as a rule, clearly and precisely pronounced. You have none of those indistinct or half-slurred consonants that abound in Danish, for instance (such as

where you hardly know whether it is a consonant or a vowel-glide that meets the ear. The only thing that might be compared to this in English, is the r when not followed by a vowel, but then this has really given up definitely all pretensions to the rank of a consonant, and is (in the pronunciation of the South of England) either frankly a vowel (as in here) or else nothing at all (in hart, etc.). Each English those

ha^e,

hage,

liz;lig)

Sound System.

consonant belongs distinctly to its own type, a / is a /, and a ^ is a ^, and there an end. There is much less modification of a consonant by the surroundmg vowels than in some other languages, thus none of that palatalization of consonants which gives an insinuating grace The vowel sounds, too, to such languages as Russian. are comparatively independent of their surroundings, and in this respect the language now has deviated widely from the character of Old English and has become more clear-cut and distinct in its phonetic structure, although, to be sure, the diphthongization of most long vowels (in

ale,

whole,

eel,

who, phonetically

eil,

houl,

ijl,

huw)

counteracts in some degree this impression of neatness

and evenness. 4.

Besides these

characteristics,

the

full

nature of

which cannot, perhaps, be made intelligible to any but those familiar with phonetic research, but which are still felt more or less instinctively by everybody hearing the language spoken, there are other traits whose importance 'can with greater ease be made evident to anybody possessed of a normal ear. 5. To bring out cleaily one of these points I select at random, by way of contrast, a passage from the language of Hawaii: 'T kona hiki ana aku ilaila ua hookipa ia mai la oia me ke aloha pumehana loa.'' Thus it goes on, no single word ends in a consonant, and a group of two or more consonants is never found. Can any one be in doubt that even if such a language sound pleasantly and be full of music and harmony, the total impression is childlike and effeminate? You do not expect much vigour or energy in a people speaking ouch a language; it seems adapted only to inhabitants of sunny regions where the soil requires scarcely any labour on the part of man to yield him everthing he wants, and where life therefore does not bear the stamp of a hard 1*

Preliminary Sketch,

struggle against nature and against fellow-creatures.

same phonetic structure in such languages as Italian and Spanish; but how different are our Germanic tongues. English has no lack of words I am speaking, ending in two or more consonants, a lesser degree

find the

—

of course, of the age,

wealth,

hence,

pronunciation, not of the spelling tent,

tempt,

tempts,

months,

—

helped,

and thus requires, as well as presupposes, no little energy on the part of the speakers. That many suchlike consonant groups do not tend to render the language beautiful, one is bound readily to concede; feasts, etc. etc.,

cannot be pretended that their number in English is great enough to make the language harsh or rough. While the fifteenth century greatly increased the number of consonant groups by making the e mute in monthes, helped, etc., the following centuries, on the contrary, lightened such groups as -ght in night, thought (where the "back-open'' consonant as German ch is still spoken in Scotch) and the initial kn-, gn- in know, however,

Note also the disappearance of / in alms,' folk, etc., and of r in hard, court, etc.; the final consonant groups have also been simplified in comb and the other words in -mb (whereas b has been retained in timber) and in the exactly parallel group -ng, for instance in strong, where now only one consonant is heard after the vowel, a consonant partaking of the nature of n and of g, but identical with neither of them; formerly it was followed by a real g, which has been retained in gnaw,

etc.

stronger. 6.

In the

first

ten stanzas of Tennyson's "Locksley

Hall", three hundred syllables,

words ending

we have only

thirty-three

two consonants, and two ending in three, certainly no excessive number, especially if we take into account the nature of the groups, which are nearly

all

of the easiest kind

(-dz:

comrades, Pleiads;

Endings.

comes; -nz: robin's,

-mz: gleams,

science;

distance, -kts:

tracts,

overlooks;

-ks:

-ts:

-zd: reposed,

cataracts;

turns;

man's,

-ns:

thoughts;

gets,

closed;

-st:

rest,

West, breast, crest; -Jt: burnish'd; -nd: sound, around, moorland, behind, land; -nt: want, casem*nt, went, present; -Id: old, world; It: result; -If: himself; -pt: Thus,

dipt).

we may perhaps

characterize

English,

phonetically speaking, as possessing male energy, but not brutal force. The accentual system points in the

—

be seen below (26 28). 7. The Italians have a pointed proverb: "Le parole son femmine e i fatti son maschi." If briefness, conciseness and terseness are characteristic of the style of men, while women as a rule are not such economizers of speech, English is more masculine than most languages. We see this in a great many ways. In grammar it has

same

direction, as will

got rid of a great

many

superfluities

found

in earlier

English as well as in most cognate languages, reducing endings, etc., to the shortest forms possible and often

doing away with endings altogether. has,

for instance,

alle

Where German

diejenigen wilden Here,

die dort

expressed in each word separately (apart, of course, from the adverb), English has all the wild animals that live there, where all, the article, the adjective, and the relative pronoun are alike leben, so

that the plural idea

incapable of receiving any

mark

of the plural

number;

expressed with the greatest clearness imagiunstressed endings -e and -en, nable, and all the which make most German sentences so drawling, are the sense

avoided. 8.

Rimes based on correspondence

lable only of

each

line

(as

bet,

set;

the last syl-

laid,

shade) are

termed male rimes, as opposed to feminine rimes, where each line has two corresponding syllables, one strong and one weak (as better, setter; lady, shady). It is true

Preliminary' Sketch.

that these names, which originated in France, were not

meant

any parallelism with the characteristics of the two sexes, but arose merely from the grammatical fact that the weak -e was the ending of But the designathe feminine gender (grande, etc.). at

first

to express

tions are not entirely devoid of symbolic significance;

abrupt force in a word that ends with a strongly stressed syllable, than in a word where there

really

maximum

the

of force

followed

by a weak ending.

than the two-syllabled 'thank you'. English has undoubtedly gained in force, what it has possibly lost in elegance, by reducing If it so many words of two syllables to monosyllables. had not been for the great number of long foreign, especially Latin, words, English would have approached the 'Thanks'

harsher and

less

polite

state of such monosyllabic languages as Chinese,

one of the best Chinese scholars, G.

Now

Gabelentz,

condensed power of the monosyllabism found in old Chinese may be gathered from Luther's advice to a preacher 'Geh rasch 'nauf, tu's maul auf, hor bald auf.' He might with equal justice

somewhere remarks that an idea

have reminded us

come

first

served'

of the

many English sentences. 'First much more vigorous than the French

'premier venu, premier moulu' or gr^ne',

the

German

'le

premier venu en-

kommt mahlt zuerst' Danish 'den der kommer forst

'wer zuerst

and especially than the

Compare also 'no cure, no pay', 'haste makes waste, and waste makes want', 'live and learn,* 'Love no man: trust no man: speak ill of no man to his face; nor well of any man behind his back' (Ben Jonson), 'to meet, to know, to love, and

til

melle, far farst malet'.

then

party;

man

part'

Then

help'd

(Coleridge) all

were

the poor.

great' (Macaulay).

for

And

'Then none were for the the state; the

poor

Then the great

man

loved the

Monosyllabism.

—

and the quotations be noticed, however, that itMs not just given serve to exemplify this, too every collocation of words of one syllable that produces 9. It will

I anmost

many

words frequently employed are not stressed at all and

effect of strength, for a great

therefore impress the ear in nearly the fixes

—

and

suffixes do.

There

of the short

same way

as pre-

nothing particularly vigor-

ous in the following passage from a modern novel: 'It was as if one had met part of one's self one had lost for a long time', and in fact most people hearing it read aloud would fail to notice that it consisted of nothing

Such sentences are not at all and even in poetry they are found

but one-syllable words. rare in colloquial prose,

oftener than in most languages, for instance:

—

bode and if a man Could touch or see it, he was heal'd at once,

And By

there a while

faith, of all his

;

ills.

(Tennyson, The Holy Grail:)

But then, the weakness resulting from many small connecting words is to some extent compensated in English by the absence of the definite article in a good many cases where other languages think it indispensable, e. g. •Merry Old England', 'Heaven and Earth'"; 'life is short'; 'dinner is ready'; 'school is over'; 'I saw him at church', and this peculiarity delivers the language from a number of those short 'empty words', which when accumulated cannot fail to make the style somewhat weak and prolix.

10. Business-like shortness

also seen in such con-

venient abbreviations of sentences as abound in English, for instance, 'While fighting in Germany he was taken 'He would not prisoner' (= while he was fighting).

answer when spoken to.' 'To be left till called for.' 'Once at home, he forgot his fears.' 'We had no idea what to do.' 'Did they run.> Yes, I made them' (= made them

Preliminary Sketch.

you play tennis to-day.? Yes, we are going I should like to, but I can't.' to. 'Dinner over, he left the house.' Such expressions remind one of the abbreviarun).

'Shall

tions used in telegrams; they are syntactical correspond-

morphological shortenings that are also

encies to the

of such frequent occurrence in English: cab for cabriolet,

bus for omnibus, photo for photograph, phone for telephone,

and innumerable others. 11. This cannot be separated from a certain sobriety

As an Englishman does not like to use more words or more syllables than are strictly necessary, so he does not like to say more than he can stand to. in expression.

dislikes strong or hyperbolical expressions of appro-

val or admiration; 'that isn't half bad' or 'she

rather

draw out of him, and they not seldom express the same warmth of feeling that makes a Frenchman ejacul*te his 'charmant' or 'ravissante' or 'adorable'. German kolossal or pyramidal can often be correctly rendered by English great or biggish, and where a Frenchman uses his adverbs good-looking' are often the highest praises you can

extremement or infiniment, an Englishman says only very or rather or pretty. 'Quelle horreur I' is 'That's rather a

de vous voir* is 'Glad to see you', etc. An Englishman does not like to commit himself by being too enthusiastic or too distressed, and his language accordingly grows sober, too sober perhaps, and even barren when the object is to express emotions. There is in this trait a curious mixture of something praiseworthy, the desire to be strictly true without exaggerating anything or promising more than you can perform, and on the other hand of something blameworthy, the nuisance'.

idea that

'Je suis ravi

it is

affected, or childish

and effeminate, to give

vent to one's feelings, and the fear of appearing ridiculous by showing strong emotions. But this trait is certainly found

more frequently

men than

women.

Sobriety.

may

be allowed to add this feature of the English language to the signs of masculinity I have collected. 12. Those who use many strong words to express their

likes or dislikes will generally also

make an

extensive

use of another linguistic appliance, namely violent changes in intonation.

Their voices will

now suddenly

rise to a

very high pitch and then as suddenly fall to low tones. An excessive use of this emotional tonic accent is charac-

many

teristic of

much more

savage nations; in Europe

in Italy

than

in the

North.

found

In each nation

seems as if it were more employed by women than by men. Now, it has often been observed that the English speak in a more monotonous way than most other nations, so that an extremely slight lising or lowering of the tone indicates what in other languages would require a much it

greater interval.

'Les Anglais parlent

extr^mement

bas',

'Une soci^t^ suis fourvoy^ par hasard, m'6tais habitue k ce ton

says H. Taine [Notes sur V Angleterre, p. 66).

dans laquelle je me m'a positivement etourdi; je mod^re des voix anglaises.' Even English ladies are in this respect more restramed than many men belonging italienne,

to other nations:

'She had the low voice of your English dames, Unused it seems to need rise half a note ,

catch attention' (Mrs. Browning,

13.

we turn

Aurora Leigh

p. 91).*

to other provinces of the language

our impression strengthened and deepened. worth observing, for instance, how few diminu-

find

shall

It is

tives the

language has and

how

sparingly

uses them.

English in this respect forms a strong contrast to Italian with its -ino (ragazzino, fratellino, originally a double I

Cf.

p. 588.

Lehrbuch der Phonetik,

226; Fonetik (Dan. ed.)

diminutive),

-ina

Preliminary Sketch.

(donnina),

(giovinetto),

-etto

-etta

and other endings, German with its -chen und -lein, especially South German with its eternal -le, Dutch with its -;>, Russian, Magyar, and Basque with their various endings. The continual recurrence of these endings without any apparent necessity cannot but produce the impression that the speakers are innocent, childish, genial beings with no great business capacities or seriousness in life. But in English there are very few of these fondling-endings; •let is in the first place a comparatively modern ending, very few of the words in which it is used go back more than a hundred years; and then its extensive use in modern times is chiefly due to the naturalists who want it to express in a short and precise manner certain small organs [budlet Darwin hladelet Todd conelet Dana bulblet Gray; leaflet, fruitlet, jeatherlet, etc.) an employment of the diminutive which is as far removed as possible from the terms of endearment found in other languages. The endings -kin and -ling (princekin, princeling) are not very frequently used and generally express contempt or derision. Then, of course, there is -y, -ie (Billy, Dicky, auntie, birdie, etc.) which corresponds (oretta), -ello, -ella (asinello, storiella)

;

—

exactly to the fondling-suffixes of other languages; but its

application in English

it is

restricted to the nursery

and

hardly ever used by grown-up people except in speak-

ending is more Scotch than English, and the Scotch with all their deadly earing

children.

Besides,

this

nestness, especially in religious matters, are, perhaps, in

some respects more childlike than the English. 14. The business-like, virile qualities of the English such things as wordEnglish do not play at hide-and-seek,

language also manifest themselves order.

Words

as they often do in Latin, for instance, or in

German,

where ideas that by right belong together are widely

Word

order.

obedience to caprice or, more often, to a rigorous grammatical rule. In English an auxiliary verb does not stand far from its main verb, and a negative

sundered

will

be found

word

the immediate neighbourhood of the

negatives, generally the verb

adjective nearly always stands before really

important exception

when

(auxiliary).

its

noun; the only

there are qualifications

added to it which draw it after the noun so that the whole complex serves the purpose of a relative clause: *a man every way prosperous and talented' (Tennyson), *an interruption too brief and isolated to attract more And the same regularity is found notice' (Stevenson). in

modern English word-order few years ago

made my

in other respects as well.

pupils calculate statistically

various points in regard to word-order in different languages.

give here only the percentage in

some modern

authors of sentences in which the subject preceded the verb and the latter in its turn preceded its object (as

saw him' as against 'Him 'Whom did you see.?'):

in 'I

—

saw, but not her' or

Shelley, prose 89, poetry 85.

Byron, prose 93, poetry Macaulay, prose 82. Carlyle, prose 87.

Tennyson, poetry

81.

• .

88.

Dickens, prose 91, Swinburne, poetry 83. Pinero, prose 97.

For the sake of comparison I mention that one Danish prose-writer (J. P. Jacobsen) had 82, a Danish poet

Goethe (poetry) 30, a modern German prose-writer (Tovote) 31, Anatole France 66, Gabriele d'Annunzio 49 per cent of the same word-order. That

(Drachmann)

61,

English has not always had the same regularity, is shown by the figure for Beowulf being 16, and for King Alfred's

Preliminary Sketch.

Even

prose 40.

embrace a

concede that our statistics did not

sufficient

reliable results,

number

still it is

more regularity and

of extracts to

give fully

indisputable that English shows

less caprice in this

respect than most

without however, attaining the rigidity found in Chinese, where the percentage in question would be lOO (or very near it). English has not deprived itself of the expedient of inverting probably

all

cognate languages,

members of a sentence when but it makes a more sparing use

the ordinary order of the

emphasis requires it, of it than German and the Scandinavian languages, and in most cases it will be found that these languages emphasize without any real necessity, especially in a great many every-day phrases: 'daer har jeg ikke vaeret', 'dort bin ich nicht gewesen', 'I haven't been there'; 'det kan jeg ikke', *das kann ich nicht', 'I can't do that'. How superfluous the emphasis is, is best shown by the usual phrase, 'det veed jeg ikke', 'das weiss ich nicht',

where the Englishman does not even

find

necessary

Note also that in English the subject precedes the verb after most introductory adverbs: 'now he comes'; 'there he goes', while German and Danish have, and English had till a few to state the object at all:

don't know.'

kommt

centuries ago, the inverted order: 'jetzt

geht

sie'

;

'nu

kommer han',

'there goes she'. ^ the

modern stage

15.

'daer

gar hun'

;

er',

'da

'now comes

he',

Thus order and consistency

signalize

of the English language.

No language

logical in every respect,

and we

must not expect usage to be guided always by strictly logical principles. It was a frequent error with the oldergrammarians that whenever the actual grammar of a language did not seem conformable to the rules of abstract logic they blamed the language and wanted to correct it. Without falling into that error we may, nevertheless, compare different languages and judge them by

Logic.

the standard of logic, and here again I think that, apart from Chinese, which has been described as pure applied

perhaps no language in the civilized world that stands so high as English. Look at the use of the

logic, there is

between the past he saw and the composite perfect he has seen is maintained with great consistency as compared with the similarly formed tenses in Danish, not to speak of German, so that one of the most constant faults committed by English-speaking Germans is the wrong use of these forms ('Were you in Berlin?' for 'Have you been in (or to) Berlin?', 'In 181 Napoleon has been defeated at Waterloo' for 'was deAnd then the comparatively recent developfeated'). ment of the extended (or 'progressive') tenses has furnished the language with the wonderfully precise and logically valuable distinction between 'I write' and 'I am French has writing', 'I wrote' and 'I was writing'. something similar in the distinction between le pass6 defini (j'ecrivis) and I'imparfait (j'6crivais), but on the one hand the former tends to disappear, or rather has already disappeared in the spoken language, at any rate tenses; the difference

in Paris

fai 'I

and

in the

takes

ecrit

wrote' and

its

northern part of the country, so that place and

have written'

the distinction between

abandoned; on the other

hand the distinction applies only English

to the past while in

Furthermore,

carried through all tenses.

the distinction as

made

English

superior to the

similar one found in the Slavonic languages, in that

it is

made uniformly in all verbs and in all tenses by means of the same device [am -ing), while the Slavonic languages employ a much more complicated system of prepositions and derivative endings, which has almost to be learned separately for each new verb or group of verbs. 16. In praising the logic of the English language

must not

lose sight of the fact that in

most cases where,

I A

Preliminary Sketch.

so to speak, the logic of facts or of the exterior world

war with the logic of grammar, English is free from the narrow-minded pedantry which in most languages sacrifices the former to the latter or makes people shy of saying or writing things which are not 'strictly grammatical'. This is particularly clear with regard to number. Family and clergy are, grammatically speaking, of the singular number; but in reality they indicate a plurality. Most languages can treat such words only as singulars, but inr English one is free to add a verb in the singular if the idea of unity is essential, and then to refer to this unit as it, or else to put the verb in the plural and use the pronoun they, if the idea of plurality is predominant. It is

clear that this liberty of choice

Thus we find sentences are not what they ought

often greatly advan-

tageous.

like these, 'As the clergy

are or

to be, so are the rest of

whole race of man (sing.) proclaim it lawful to drink wine' (De Quincey), or 'the club all know that he is a disappointed man' (the same). In 'there are no end of people here that I don't know' (George Eliot) no end takes the verb in the plural because it is equivalent to 'many', and when Shelley

the nation'

(Miss Austen),

'the

writes in one of his letters 'the Quarterly are going to

thinking of the Quarterly (Review) as a whole staff of writers. Inversely, there is in English a freedom paralleled nowhere else of expressing grammati-

review me' he

cally a unity consisting of several parts, of saying, for

instance,

do not think

ever spent a more delightful

three weeks' (Ch. Darwin), 'for a quiet twenty minutes',

'another United States',

cf.

also 'a fortnight' (originally

but short' (Shakespeare), 'sixpence was offered him' (Ch. Darwin), 'ten minutes is heaps of time' (E. F. Benson), etc. etc.

a fourteen-night)

;

'three years

phenomena in English show the same freedom from pedantry, as when passive con17.

great

many

other

Freedom from Pedantry.

I e

was taken no notice of are allowed, or prepositional complexes may be

structions such as 'he or

when adverbs

used attributively as in 'his then residence/ 'an almost reconciliation' (Thackeray), 'men invite their out-College friends' (Steadman), (Co.

Doyle),

his

'in

'smoking his before-breakfast pipe' threadbare, out-at-elbow shooting-

du Maurier), or when even whole phrases or

jacket' (G.

may

be turned into a kind of adjective, as in 'with a quite at home kind of air' (Smedley), 'in the pretty diamond-cut-diamond scene between Pallas and

sentences

Ulysses' (Ruskin),

'a little

man

-or-FU-contradict-you

to-me-,

with a puffy Say-nothing sort

countenance'

(Dickens), 'With an I-turn-the-crank-of-the-Universe air' (Lowell), 'Rose

simply

self-willed; a 'she will' or 'she

Although such combinations as the last-mentioned are only found in more or less jocular style, they show the possibilities of the language, and some expressions of a similar order belong permanently to the language, for instance, 'a wouldbe artist', 'a stay-at-home man', 'a turn-up collar'. Such

won't' sort of httie person' (Meredith).

—

— and

are inthey might be easily miultiplied conceivable in such a language as French where everynot conform to a that does thing is condemned down by grammarians. laid of rules definite set

things

The French language is like the stiff French garden^ of Louis XIV, while the English is like an English park, which is laid out seemingly without any definite which you are allowed to walk plan, in and everywhere according to your own fancy without having to fear a stern keeper enforcing rigorous regulations. The English language would not have been what it is

the

English had

respecters

the

not

liberties

everybody had not been for himself.

been for centuries great of each individual and if

free to strike out

new paths

I-

5 18. This

Preliminary Sketch.

seen, too, in the vocabulary.

In spite of

the efforts of several authors of high standing, the English have never suffered an Acaden^y to be instituted among

French or Italian Academies, which had as one of their chief tasks the regulation of the vocabulary so that every word not found in their Dictionaries was blamed as unworthy of literary use or distinction. In England every writer is, and has always been, free to take his words where he chooses, whether from the ordinary stock of everyday words, from native dialects, from old authors, or from other languages, dead or living. The consequence has been that English dictionaries comprise a larger number of words than those of any other nation, and that they present a variegated picture of terms from the four quarters of the globe. Now, it seems to be characteristic of the two sexes in their relation to language that women move in narrower circles of the vocabulary, in which they attain to perfect mastery so that the flow of words is always natural and, above all, never needs to stop, while men know more words and always want to be more precise in choosing the exact word with which to render their idea, the consequence being often less fluency and more hesitation. It has been statistically shown that a comparatively greater number of stammerers and stutterers are found among men (boys) than among women (girls). Teachers of foreign languages have many occasions to admire the ease with which female students express themselves in another language after so short a time of study that most men would be able to say only few words hesitatingly and falteringly, but if they are put to the test of translating a difficult piece either from or into the foreign language, the men will generally prove superior to the women. With regard to their native language the same difference is found, though it is perhaps not so easy to observe. At any rate

them

like the

Vocabulary.

our assertion is corroborated by the fact observed^^by every student of languages that novels written by ladies are much easier to read and contain much fewer difficult

words than those written by men. All this seems to justify us in setting down the enormous richness of the English vocabulary to the same masculinity of the English nation which we have now encountered in so many various fields.

To sum up: The English language

a methodical,

and sober language, that does not care much for finery and elegance, but does care for logical consistency and is opposed to any attempt to narrow-in life by police regulations and strict rules either of grammar or of lexicon. As the language is, so also is business-like

energetic,

the nation,

For words,

And

Jbspersbn

Nature, half reveal half conceal the Soul within. (Tennyson.)

English,

and

ed.

Chapter II.

The 20.

The

Beginnings.

existence of the English language as a separ-

idiom began when Germanic tribes had occupied all the lowlands of Great Britain and when accordingly the invasions from the continent were discontinued, so that the settlers in their ^ew homes were cut off from ate

that steady intercourse with their continental relations

an imperative condition of linguistic unity. The historical records of English do not go so far back as this, for the oldest written texts in the English language (in 'Anglo-Saxon') date from about 700 and are thus removed by about three centuries from the beginwhich always

nings of the language. able to

tell

And

yet comparative philology

us something about the

ancestors of these settlers spoke

manner

which the

centuries before that

and to sketch the prehistoric development of what was to become the language of King Alfred, of Chaucer and of Shakespeare. 21. The dialects spoken by the settlers in England belonged to the great Germanic (or Teutonic) branch of the most important of all linguistic families, termed by many philologists the Indo-European (or Indo-Germanic) and by others, and to my mind more appropriately, period,

The Arian family comprises a great languages, including, besides some languages of

Arian (Aryan). variety of less

importance, Sanskrit with Prakrit and

many

living

Primitive Arian.

languages of India; Iranian with Modern Persian; Greek; Latin with the modern Romance languages (Italian, Spanish, French, etc.); Celtic, two divisions of which still survive, one in Welsh and Armorican or Breton, the other

connected Irish and Scotch-Gaelic, besides the nearly extinct Manx; Baltic (Lithuanian and Lettic) in the closely

and Slavonic (Russian, Czech, Polish, etc.). Among the extinct Germanic languages Ulfila's Gothic was the most important; the living are High German, Dutch, Low, German, Frisian, English, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, and Icelandic. The first five are generally grouped to-' gether as

West-Germa jjijc^ ^h^s the four last-mentioned

Scandinavian languages^onstitute with Gothic the East-Germanic group, a grouping which does not, how-

account for the really much more complex tionship between these languages.

ever,

22.

The Arian language, which was

in course of

differentiated into all these languages, ,

fact

or as the

rela-

time

same

generally expressed in a metaphor of dubious value,

was the parent-language from which all these languages have descended, must by no means be imagined as a language characterized by a simple and regular structure. On the contrary it must have been, grammatically and lexically, extremely complicated and full of irreggrammar was highly inflexional, the ularities. Its relations between the ideas being expressed by means of endings more intimately fused with the chief element of the word than is the case in such agglutinative languages as Hungarian (Magyar). Nouns and verbs were kept distinct, and where the same sense-modifications were expressed in both, such as plurality, it was by means of totally different endings.

In fact, the indication of

— the threefold division into plural — was inseparable from the

number

singular,

and

case-endings in

dual,

the nouns and frorn the person-endings as well as signs 2*

20 of

II-

mood and

The Beginnings.

tense in the verbs: one cannot point to

distinct parts of such a Latin

form

as est (cantat) or sunt

(cantant) or fuissem (cantavissem) and say, this element

means singular

(or

plural),

this

one means indicative

and that one indicates what tense the whole form belongs to. There were eight cases, but they (or subjunctive)

did not, for the greater part, indicate such clear, con-

outward relations as the Finnic (local) cases do; the consequence was a comparatively great number of clashings and overlappings, in form as well as in function. Each noun belonged to one of three genders, masculine, feminine, and neuter; but this division by no means crete,

corresponded with logical consistency to the natural

-j

one sex, (2) living beings of the other sex, and (3) everything else. Nor did the moods and tenses of the verb agree very closely with

division into

any

(l)

living beings of

definite logical categories,

the idea of time being,

moreover, mixed up with that of 'tense-aspect'

man

'aktionsart'),

distinctions according as

(in

Ger-

an action

was viewed as momentary or protracted or iterated, etc. In the nominal as well as in the verbal inflexions the endings varied with the character of the stem they were added to, and very often the accent was shifted from one syllable

another according to seemingly arbitrary

modern Russian. In a great many cases, too, one form was taken from one word and another from a totally different one, a phenomenon (called by Osthoff 'suppletivwesen') which we have in a few instances in modern English (good, better; go, went, etc.). rules, just as in

An idea of the phonetic system of the old Arian language may best be gathered from Greek, which has preserved the old system with great fidelity on the whole, especially the vowels.

But

no one of the historically transmitted languages, not even one of the oldest, can give more than an approximate idea of the common Arian of course,

Germanic,

language distant from us by so

now

many thousand

years,

and

more prudence than was shown when Schleicher was bold enough to print a fable in what scholars have

learnt

he believed to be a fairly accurate representation of primitive Arian. 23. In historical times

find

variety of languages, each with

Arian

its

own

split

into a

peculiarities, in

sounds, in grammar, and in vocabulary. So different were

Greeks had no idea of any similarity or relationship between their own tongue and that of their Persian enemies; nor did the Romans susthese languages that the

Germans they fought spoke lanthe same stock as their own. Whenever the

pect that the Gauls and

guages of

Germanic languages are alluded pressions like these,

Roman

always in extongue can hardly proto,

nounce such names' or (after giving the names of some Germanic tribes) 'the names sound like a noisy wartrumpet, and the ferocity of these barbarians adds horror even to the words themselves'. Julian the Apostate compares the singing of Germanic popular ballads to the croaking and shrill screeching of birds. ^ Much of this, of course, must be put down to the ordinary Greek and Roman contempt for foreigners generally; nor can it be wondered at that they did not recognize in these languages congeners of their own, for the similarities had been considerably blurred by a great many important changes in sound and in structure, so that it is only the patient research of the nineteenth century that has enabled us to identify words in separate languages which are

now

as in

than

so dissimilar as not to strike the casual observer

any way

anything

strange, were

related. else

What to

contributed, perhaps, more

make Germanic words look

two great phonetic changes affecting large

Kluge, Paul's Grundriss

354.

II-

The Beginnings.

parts of the vocabulary,

the consonant- skift^ and the

stress- shift.

The consonant-shift must not be imagined as having taken place at one moment; on the contrary it must have taken centuries, and modern research has begun to point out the various stages in this develop24.

ment. This is not the proper place to deal with detailed explanations of this important change, as we must hurry on to more modern times; suffice it then to give a few examples to show how it affected the whole look of the language. Any p was changed to /, thus we have

—

father corresponding to pater

and similar forms

in the

was made into th [{)], as in as three, compare Latin tres\ any k became h, cornu = horn.^ And as any ^ or ^ or g, any bh, dh, gh was similarly shifted, you will understand that there were comparatively few words that were not altered past cognate languages; any

—

recognition; I

still

such there were, for instance mus,

now

In English books this change ('die erste lautverschiebung

Grimm's law, because the 2nd edition of the first volume of Jacob Grimm's Deutsche grammatik (1822) made it generally known. But in his first edition (18 19) Grimm did not yet know the law; between the two editions he had read the Danish scholar Rasmus Rask's Unders^gelse om det gamle nordiske spi'ogs oprindelse (written 18 14, printed 18 18), where the sound -correspondences are clearly set forth on p. 169. Grimm saw the enormous importance of the discovery and formulated the law in a more abstract manner than Rask. As part of the law had been seen more or less clearly by a few earlier philologists, and as Grimm's manner of stating it has been considerably modified by recent investigations the law should not be named after any one man. At any rate it is perfectly absurd to extend the name of 'Grimm's law' to any similar phonetic change, as is sometimes done ('Grimm's Law in South -Africa'). L 2 Latin words are here chosen for convenience only as re-

often called

presenting these old consonants with great fidelity; but of course it must not be supposed that the English words named come from the Latin.

Sound Changes.

2 ^

mouse, which contained none of the consonants susceptible of the shifting in question.

The second change affected the general character Where preof the language even more thoroughly. viously the stress was sometimes on the first syllable of 25.

the word, sometimes on the second, or on the third,

etc.,

without any seeming reason and without any regard to the intrinsic importance of that syllable, a complete revolution simplified matters so that the stress rules

stated in a couple of lines: nearly

all

may

words were stressed

on the first syllable; the chief exceptions occurred only where the word was a verb beginning with one out of a definite number of prefixes, such as those we have in

modern English has shown that

beget, forget, overthrow, abide, etc.

this shifting of the

place of the accent

took place later than the Germanic consonant

and we

shall

now

Verner -

shift,

inquire into the relative importance of

the two. 26.

The consonant-shift

philologist, in so far as

it is

important to the modern

him the

clearest

and

least

Germanic languages: a word with a shifted consonant is Germanic, and a word with an unshifted consonant in any of the Germanic languages must be a loan-word; whereas the shifted stress is no such certain criterion, chiefly because many words had always had the stress on the first syllable. But if we ask about the intrinsic importance of the two changes, that is, if we try to look at matters from the point of view of the language itself, or rather the speakers, we shall see that the second change is really the more important one. It does not matter much whether a certain number of words begin with a p or with a /, but it does matter, or at any rate it may matter, very much whether the language has a rational system of accentuation or not; and I have no hesitation in saying that the old ambiguous

criterion of the

II.

The Beginnings.

V"' stress-shift has left its indelible of the language

and has influenced

The

other phonetic change.^ shift will,

more than any

significance of the stress

perhaps, appear most clearly

we compare

sets of

groups as Hove, Hover,

Hoving,

Hovingly,

liness, Hoveless, Hovelessness, or ^king,

^kingly, ^kingless, etc. <

the structure

words in modern English. The original Arian stress system is still found in numerous words taken in recent times from the classical languages, thus ^family, fa^miliar, famiWarity or ^photograph, phohographer, photo^graphic,^ The shifted Germanic system is shown in such

two

mark on

it is

Hovely,

Hove-

^kingdom, ^kingship,

characteristic of all Arian

languages that suffixes play a

much

greater role than

word-formation being generally by endings, it follows that where the Germanic stress system has come into force, the syllable that is most important has also prefixes,

the strongest stress, and that the relatively insignificant modifications of the chief idea which are indicated ^

formative syllables are also accentually subordinate. This accordingly, a perfectly logical system, correspond-

is,

ing to the piincipal rule observed in sentence stress, viz.

that the stressed words are generally the most important

want

everywhere to obscure vowel-sounds, languages with moveable accent are exposed to the danger that related words, or different forms of the same word, are made more different than they would else have been, and their connexion is more obscured than is strictly necessary; compare, for instance, the two sounds in the first syllable of family [seP ones.

As, moreover,

of stress tends

Except perhaps the disappearance of so many weak^'s

about 1400. 2

indicate stress

by means of a short

vertical stroke

mediately before the beginning of the strong syllable. 3 A list of the phonetic symbols used in this book found on the last page.

will

im-

Accent.

and familiar

(9),

or the different treatment of the vowels

The pho-

and photographic.

in photograph, photographer

netic clearness inherent in the consistent stress

system

and the obscuration of the connexion between related words is generally to be considered a drawback. The language of our forefathers seems therefore to have gained considerably by replacing the movable stress by a fixed one. 27. The question naturally arises: why was the accent shifted in this way.? Two possible answers present themThe change may have been either a purely selves. mechanical process, by which the first syllable was is

certainly a linguistic advantage,

stressed without

may have been root syllable

any regard

to signification,

a psychological process,

became

stressed because

important part of the word. cases the root syllable

the

by which the was the most

in the vast

first,

or else

majority of

the question must

be decided from those cases where the two things are Kluge^ infers from the treatment of renot identical. duplicated forms of the perfect corresponding to Latin cecidi, peperci, etc.

cal process; for

that the shifting was a purely mechani-

was hot the most important

syllable

that was stressed in Gothic haihait 'called', rairo^ 'reflected', lailot 'let' (read ai as short e), while in the Old

English forms of these words heht, reord, leort the vowel But it may be of the root syllable actually disappears. objected to this view that the reduplicated syllable was in some measure the bearer of the root signification, as of it had enough left of the root to remind the hearer it,

and

pronouncing

the speaker had before,him part

at least of the significant elements.

must

a reduplicated perfect

greater

The

first

syllable of

him have been

of a far

importance than one of those prefixes which

Paul's Grundriss

389.

II-

The Beginnings.

served only to modify to a small extent the principal

expressed in

idea

the

root

The

syllable.

fact

that

the reduplicated syllable attracted the accent therefore

speaks

strongly

less

favour of the mechanical ex-

planation than does the want of stress on the verbal prefixes

the

opposite

direction,

that

the

case

/seems to me strongest for the psychological theory. In other words, we have here a case of value- stressing;'^ that part of the word which is of greatest value to the speaker and which therefore he especially wants the hearer to notice, is pronounced with the strongest stress.

28.

find

same

the

principle

value-stressing

everywhere, even in those languages whose traditional stress rests or

—

word

this

may is

rest

here

on other syllables than the root

used not in the sense of the ety-

mologically original part of the word, but in the sense of

what

cally

to the actual instinct of the speaker intrinsi-

the most significant element

guages

— but

in these lan-

only plays the part of causing a deviation from

now and then whereas

Germanic it became habitual to stress the root syllable^, and this led to other consequences of some interest. In those languages where the stress syllable is not always the most significant one, the difference between stressed and unstressed syllables is generally less than in the Germanic languages; there is a nicer and subtler play of accent, which we may observe in French, perhaps, better than the traditional stress

In nous chantons the last syllable

elsewhere.

but chan-

stronger than for- in Eng. we

psychological value

its

greater.

See

Where

2 Fonetik, p. 554;

Lehrbuch der Phonetik,

forget,

Fonetik, Copenh. 1899, p. 557 and def Phonetik, Leipz. 1904, p. 209 ff. 1

stressed,

because

a contrast

5(^0;

p. 270.

Lehrbuch

Accent.

2 7

most often be associated with one of the traditionally unstressed syllables, and the result is that the contrast is brought vividly before the mind with much less force than is necessary in English; in nous chantons, et nous ne dansons pas you need not even make chan and dan stronger, at any rate not much stronger than the endings, while in English we sing, hut we don't dance, the syllables sing and dance must be spoken with an enormous force, because they are in themselves strongly stressed even when no contrast is to be pointed A still better example is French c'est un acteur et out. non pas un auteur and English he is an actor, and not an to be expressed

will

Frenchman produces the intended effect by a slight tap, so to speak, on the two initial syllables of the contrasted words, while an Englishman hammers author; the

or knocks the corresponding syllables into the

head of

The French system is more elegant, more the Germanic system is heavier or more clumsy,

the hearer. artistic;

perhaps, in such cases as those just mentioned, but on

more rational, more logical, as an exact correspondence between the inner and the outer world is established, if the most significant the whole

must be

said to be

element receives the strongest phonetic expression. This Germanic stress-principle has been instrumental in bringing about important changes in other respects than those considered here.

But what has been

said here

seems to me to indicate a certain connexion between language and national character; for has it not always been considered characteristic of the Germanic peoples (English, Scandinavians, Germans) that they say their say bluntly without

much

considering the artistic effect,

and that they emphasize what is essential without always having due regard to nuances or accessory notions.? and does not the stress system we have been considering present the very

same

aspect."*

The Beginnings.

do not know in what century the stress was shifted^ but the shifting certainly took place centuries before the immigration of the English into Great Britain. 29.

a similar remote period

we must

great changes affecting equally

One

guages.

of the

all

most important

refer several other

the is

Germanic

lan-

the simplification

system in the verb, no Germanic language having more than two tenses, a present and a past. As many of the old endings gradually wore off, they were

of the tense

not in themselves a sufficiently clear indication of the differences of tense, and the gradation (ablaut) of the

been only an incidental condifferences of accentuation, was felt more

root vowel, which had at

sequence of

and more

first

as the real indicator of tense.

But neither

gradation nor the remaining endings were fit to make patterns for the formation of tenses in new verbs; consequently, we see very few additions to the old stock

and a new type of verbs, 'weak verbs', constantly gaining ground. Whatever may have been

of 'strong' verbs, is

the origin of the dental ending used in the past tense of these verbs, it is very extensively used in all Germanic indeed, one of the characteristic fea-

languages and

is,

tures of their

inflexional

'regular'

mode

living

has become the

forming the preterite, that

resorted to whenever 30.

system.

new verbs

is,

the one

are called into existence.

this early period, while the English

were

still

on the Continent with their Germanic brethren,

Nothing can be concluded from the existence at the time "t)f Tacitus of such series of alliterating names for members of the same family as Segestes Segimerus Segimundus, etc. (Kluge, Paul's Grundriss ^357, 388) for alliteration does not necessarily imply that the syllable has the chief stress of the word; cf. the French formulas 7nesse et matines, Florient et Floretie Basans et Basilie, monts et merveilles, quivivraverra, d tortetd travers (Nyrop, Grammaire his tongue I *448). I

Loan-words.

No language is belong the first class of loan-words. entirely pure; we meet with no nation that has not adopted some loan-words, so we must suppose that the forefathers of the old Germanic tribes adopted words from a great many other nations with whom they came into contact; and scholars have attempted to point out

words borrowed very early from various sources. Some of these, however, are doubtful, and none of them are important enough to arrest our attention before we arrive at the period when Latin influence began to be felt in the Germanic world, that is, about the beginning of our Christian era. But before we look at these borrowings in detail, let us first consider for a

lesson that

may

moment

the general

be derived from the study of words

taken over from one language into another. 31. Loan-words have been called the milestones of philology, because in a great many instances they per-

approximatively the dates of linguistic changes. But they might with just as much right be termed some of the milestones of general history, because they mit us to

fix

show us the course of civilization and the wanderings of inventions and institutions, and in many cases give us valuable information as to the inner

when dry annals

tell

life

of nations

us nothing but the dates of the

When in two languages deaths of kings and bishops. we find no trace of the exchange of loan-words one way or the other we are safe to infer that the two nations have had nothing to do with each other. But if they have been in contact, thef number of the loan-words and still

more the quality

of the loan-words,

rightly inter-

preted, will inform us of their reciprocal relations, they

show us which of them has been the more fertile ideas and on what domains of human activity each

will

has been superior to the other. If all other sources of information were closed to us except such loan-words

!!•

our

The Beginnings.

modern North- European languages

soprano, opera,

libretto,

tempo, adagio,

etc.,

piano^

we should

still

have no hesitation in drawing the conclusion that Italian music has played a great role all over Europe. Similar instances might easily be multiplied, and in many ways the study of language brings home to us the fact that when a nation produces something that its neighbours think worthy of imitation these will take over not only the thing but also the name. This will be the general rule, though exceptions may occur, especially when a language possesses a native word that will lend itself without any special effort to the new thing imported from abroad. But if a native word is not ready to hand it is easier to adopt the ready-made word used in the other country, nay this foreign word is very often imported even in cases where it would seem to offer no great difficulty to coin an adequate expression by means of native word-material. As, on the other hand, there is generally nothing to induce one to use words from foreign languages for things one has just as well at home, loan-words are nearly always technical words belonging to one special branch of knowledge or industry, and may be grouped so as to show what each nation has learnt from each of the others. It will be my object to go through the different strata of loans in English with special regard

their significance

relation

the

history of civilization.

What, then, were the principal words that the barbarians learnt from Rome in this period which may be called the pagan or pre-Christian period.?^ One of the earliest, no doubt, was wine (Lat. vinum), and a few 32.

See especially Kluge Paul's Gnnidriss p. 327 ff.; Pogatscher, J^autlehre der griech., lat. it. roman. leluiworte im altenglischen (Strassb. 1888). I give the words in their modern English forms, wherever possible. I

Latin Words.

other words connected with the cultivation of the vine and the drinking of wine such as Lat. calicem, OE. calic

(Germ, kelch) chief type of

worth noting, too, that the merchants that the Germanic people

cup'.

Roman

It is

dealt with, were the caupones 'wine-dealers, keepers of

wine-shops or taverns'; for the word

German

kaufen,

OE. ceapian 'to buy' is derived from it,^as is also cheap, the old meaning of which was 'bargain, price'. (Cf. Cheapside). Another word of commercial significance is monger (fishmonger, ironmonger, costermonger), OE. mangere from an extinct verb mangian, derived from Lat. mango 'retailer'. Lat. moneta, pondo, and uncia were also adopted as commercial terms: OE. mynet 'coin, coinage', now mint; OE. pund, now pound; OE. ynce,

now

inch; the sound-changes point to very early borrow-

Other words from the Latin connected with commerce and travel are: mile, anchor, punt (OE. punt from

ing.

Lat. ponto)

;

many names

a great

of various kinds;

take some from Pogatscher's

add the modern forms (chest),

(amber),

hinn disc

for vessels or receptacles

(bin),

(dish),

the word

byden, scutel,

(mortar), earc (ark), etc.

bytt,

cylle,

ore,

cytel

still

and

living:

cist

omber or amber (kettle),

mortere

This makes us suspect a com-

plete revolution in the art of cooking food,

which

list^

an impression

strengthened by such Latin loan-words as cook

(OE. coc from coquus), kitchen (OE. cycene from coquina)

and mill (OE. mylen from molina), as well as names for a great many plants and fruits which had not previously been cultivated in the north of Europe, such as pear, OE. cirs 'cherry', persoc 'peach' (the modern forms are later adoptions from the French), plum (OE. plume, from prunus), pea (OE. pise from pisum), cole {caul, kale, Scotch kail, from Lat. caulis), OE. ncep, found in the I

122.

Cf. also

Kluge,

p. 331.

II-

The Beginnings.

second syllable of mod. turnip, from napus,

beet (root),

As military words, though not wanting, were not taken over in such great numbers as one might expect, we have now gone through the principal categories of early loans from the Latin language, from which mint, pepper, etc.

conclusions as to the state of civilization In comparing

source

not

are

Roman

may

be drawn.

them with later loan-words from the same struck by their concrete character. It was

philosophy or the higher mental culture that

impressed our Germanic forefathers; they were not yet ripe for that influence, but in their barbaric simplicity

they needed and adopted a great many purely practical and material things, especially such as might sweeten everyday life. It is hardly necessary to say that the words for such things were learnt in a purely oral manner, as is

shown

many

cases

their forms;

and

this,

too,

a distinctive feature of the oldest Latin loans as op-

posed to later strata of loan-words. They were also short words, mostly of one or two syllables, so that it would

seem that the Germanic tongues and minds could not yet manage such big words as form the bulk of later loans. These early words were easy to pronounce and to remember, being of the same general type as most of the indigenous words, and therefore they very soon came to be regarded as part and parcel of the native language,

indispensable as the things themselves which

they symbolized.

Chapter III.

Old English.

We now

33.

come

the

first

those important

which have materially influenced the Enghsh language, namely the settlement of Britain by Germanic tribes. The other events of paramount importance, which we shall have to deal with in succes-

historical events

are the Scand^inavian invasion, the

sion,

Npxman

con-

and the revival of learning. A future historian will certainly add the spreading of the English language But none of in America, Australia, and South Africa. these can compare in significance with the first conquest of England by the EngHsh, an event which was, quest,

perhaps, fraught with greater consequences for the future

than anything else in history. The more is the pity that we know so very little either of the people who came over or of the state of things they found in the country they invaded. We do not know exactly when the invasion began; the date usually given is 449, but Bede, on whose authority this date rests, wrote about three hundred years later, and much may have been forgotten in so long a period. Many considerof the

ations earlier

world

seem

in general

make

more advisable to give a rather date;^ however, as we must imagine that the to

R. Thurneysen,

gekommen?

Wann

sind die Germane n nach England

Eng. Studien 22,

Jespersen: English. 2nd ed.

163. 7

ni.

invaders did not come

all

Old English. at once, but that the settlement

took up a comparatively long period during which new hordes were continually arriving, the question of date is

no great consequence, and we are probably on the safe side if we say that after a long series of Germanic invasions the country was practically in their power in the latter of

half of the fifth century.

Who were

34.

from? This,

too,

the invaders, and where did they

come

has been a point of controversy. Accord-

Bede, the invaders belonged to the three tribes

ing to

of Angles, Saxons,

and Jutes; and

orates his statement dialects, or

in so

linguistic history corrob-

far as

we have

really three

groups of dialects: the Anglian dialects in the

North with two subdivisions, Northumbrian and Mercian, the Saxon dialects in tlie grea'ter part of the South, the most important of which was the dialect of Wessex (West-Saxon), and the Kentish dialect, Kent having been,

according to

tradition,

But when Bede points out Angel (German Angeln) in

settled

the

by the

Jutes.

now

called

district

South Jutland (Slesvig) as the home of the Anglians, and identifies the Jutes with the inhabitants of Jutland, his views have oi late years been much contested.^ It is not necessary here to enter on this debatable ground; suffice it to say that neither the language of the Anglians nor that of the Kentish people is Danish or ^hows any signs

Danish than West - Saxon, so that if the settlers came from Angel and other parts of Jutland, these districts cannot then have been inhabited by the same Danish population that has lived there as of closer relationship with

See especially A. Erdmann, i/der die heiviat unci den namen der Angel?i. Upsala 1890. H. Moller, Anzeiger fiir deutsches I

—

altertum XXII, lagff.

— G. Schiitte,

S0nderjydske aarbeger 1900. I

ff.

—

Var Angleme

O. Bremer,

where other references

will

in Paul's

be found.

Tyskere, in

Grundriss

The far

back

invaders.

as ascertained history reaches.

The continental

language that shows the greatest similarity to English, is Frisian, and it is interesting to note that Frisian has

some points in common with Kentish and some with Anglian, some even with the northernmost division of the Anglian dialect, points in which these OE. dialects differ from literary West-Saxon. Kentish resembles more particularly West Frisian, and Anglian East Frisian^ facts which justify us in looking upon the Frisians as the neighbours and relatives of the English before their emigration from the continent. We may therefore speak of Tan Anglo-Frisian language, forming in some respects a J connecting link between German Saxon (Low German) on the one hand and Scandmavian, especially Danish, on

[

V^the other. 35.

What

language or what languages did the sett-

on their arrival in Britain.? The original population was Celtic; but what about the Roman conquest.'* The Romans had been masters of the country for centuries; had they not succeeded in making the native population learn Latin as they had succeeded in Spain and Gaul? Some years ago Pogatscher^ took up the view that they had succeeded, and that the Angles and lers find

Saxons found a Brito-Roman dialect in full vigour. Pogatscher endorsed Wright's view that 'if the Angles and Saxons had never come, we should have been now a closely resempeople talking a Neo-Latin tongue bling French.' But this view was very strongly attacked by Loth^, and Pogatscher, in a subsequent ,

Heuser, Altfriesisches lesebuch 1903 p. i germanische forschungen, Anzeiger XIV 29. lehnworte ifn 2 Zur lautlehre der 1

— 5,

and Indo-

Altenglischen

1888. 3

Les

mots

latins

aans

les

langues

brittoniques

1892. ->*

Paris

III.

36 article^

had

Old English.

withdraw

his

previous theory,

not

completely, yet to a great extent, so that he no longer

maintains that Latin ever was the national language of Britain, though he does not go the length of saying

with Loth that the Latin language disappeared from The Britain when the Roman troops were withdrawn. possibility is left that while people in the country spoke Celtic,

some

the inhabitants of the towns spoke Latin or that

them did. However

this

may be,

the fact remains

that the English found on their arrival a population

speaking a different language from their own. Did that, then, affect their to

what

own

language, and in what

manner and

extent.?

36. In his 'Student's History of England' p. 31 Gardiner

says *So far as British words have entered into the Eng-

they have been words such as gown or curd, which are likely to have been used by women, or words such as cart or pony^ which are likely to have been used by agricultural labourers, and the evidence of language may therefore be adduced in favour of the view lish

that

language at

all,

many women and many

spared by the conquerors.'

agricultural labourers were

Here, then,

we seem

have

a Celtic influence from which an important historical inference can be drawn.

Unfortunately, however, not a

word of those adduced can prove anything of the kind. For gown is not an old Celtic word, but was taken over from French in the 14th century (mediaeval Latin gunna); curd, too, dates only from the 14 th century, whereas if it had been introduced from Celtic in the old period we should certainly find it in older texts; 'it is not certain what relation (if any) the Celtic words hold to

single

—

Angelsachsen u?id Rommieji. Engl. Studien XIX 329 352 (1894). See also MacGillivray, The Influence of Christimtity on the Vocabulary of Old Eftglish p. XI. I

Celtic words.

the English' (N. E. D.).

Cart

an Old Norse word;

it is

found in Celtic languages, but is there 'palpably a foreign word' (N. E. D.) introduced from English; and pony'^, finally, is Lowland Scotch powney from Old French poulenet 'a little colt', a diminutive of poulain 'a colt'. Simi-

of the other words of alleged Celtic origin are

most either Germanic or French words which the Celts have borrowed from English, or else they have not been used in England more than a century or two; in neither of these cases do they teach us anything with regard to the relations between the two nationalities fifteen hundred years ago.^ The net result of modern investigation seems to be that not more than half a dozen words did pass over into English from the Celtic aborigines [bannock, brock, larly,

crock, dun,

dry 'magician', slough).

How may we

account

very small number of loans? Sweet^ says the reason was that 'the Britons themselves were to a great extent Romanized', a theory which we seem bound to abandon now (see above). Are we to account for it, as Lindelof does* from the unscrupulous character of the

for this

Skeat, Notes on English Etymology 224. 2 Curse, OE. cursian, is often referred to Ir. cursagaim, but 'no word of similar form and sense is known in Celtic' (N. E. D.) 1

OE. cradol, seems to be a diminutive word meaning 'basket' (O. H. G. chratto). See Cradle,

of an old

Germanic

also hog in N. E. D.

Windisch, in the article quoted below, p. 38, thinks that the Germanic tun in English took over the meaning of Celtic dunum (Latin 'arx') on account of the numerous old Celtic names of places in -dunum; but in OE. tu?i had more frequently the meaning enclosed land round a dwellof enclosure, yard' (cf. Dutch tuin) ing', 'a single dwelling house or farm' (cf. Old Norse tun\ still in Devonshire and Scotland); it was only gradually that the word acquired its modern meaning of village or town long after the Sloga?t, pibroch, influenze of the Celts must have disappeared. are modern loans from Celtic. clan, etc 3 New English Gra?nmar § 607. 4 Grunddragen a/ Engelska sfirakets historiska Ijud- ochforrnan excellent little book. Idra (Helsingfors 1895 p. 47) '

—

•

HI.

Old English.

conquest, the English having killed did not run

away

into the

all

those Britons

mountainous

supposition of wholesale slaughter

who

districts?

The

not, however, neces-

sary, for a thorough consideration of the general con-

ditions under which borrowings from one language

another take place will give us a clue to the mystery.^ And as the whole history of the English language may be described from one point of view as one chain of borrowings, it will be as well at the outset to give a little thought to this general question.

The whole theory of Windisch about mixed languages turns upon this formula: it is not the foreign language a nation learns which is made into a mixed language, but its own native language becomes mixed under the influence of the foreign language. When we try to learn and talk a foreign language we do not intermix it with words taken from our own language; our endeavour will 37.

always be to speak the other language as purely as possible, generally we are painfully conscious of every native

word that we use in the middle of phrases framed in the other tongue. But what we thus avoid in speaking a foreign language we very often do in our own. One of Windisch's illustrations is taken from Germany in the eighteenth It was then the height of fashion to imitate century. everything French, and Frederick the Great prided himself on speaking and writing good French. In his French writings one finds not a single German word, but whenever he wrote German, French words and phrases in the middle of German sentences abounded, for French was considered more refined, more distingue. Similarly, in the last reI

See especially Windisch,

Zur

theorie der mischsprachen

Berichte iiber die verhdl. d. sachs. gesellsch. G. Hempl, Languaged. wissensch. XLIX. 1897 p. 101 ff. Rivalry' and Speech- Differentiation in the Case of Race -Mixture. Trans, of the Amer. Philol. Association XXIX. 1898 p. 3off.

unci lehnworter.

—

Mixed Languages.

mains of Cornish, the extinct Celtic language of Cornwall, numerous English loan-words occur, but the English did not mix any Cornish words with their own language, and the inhabitants of Cornwall themselves,

whose native

language was Cornish, would naturally avoid Cornish

words when talking English, because in the first place English was considered the superior tongue, the language of culture and civilization, and second, the English would not understand Cornish words. Similarly in the Brittany of to-day, people will interlard their Breton talk with French words, while their French is pure, without any Breton words. We now see why so few Celtic words were taken over into English.^ There was nothing to induce the ruling classes to learn the language of the inferior natives; it could never be fashionable for them to show an acquaintance with that despised tongue by using now and then a Celtic word. On the other hand the Celt would have to learn the language of his masters, and learn it well; he could not think of addressing his superiors in his own unintelligible gibberish, and the

first

generation

did

not learn

good

English,

would, while the influence they themselves exercised on English would be infinitesimal. There can be no doubt that this theory of Windisch's is in the main correct, though we shall, perhaps, later on see instances where it holds good only with some qualification. At any rate we need look for no other explanation of the fewness of Celtic words in the second

third

—

English.

About 600 A. D. England was christianized, and the conversion had far-reaching linguistic consequences. 38.

have no literary remains of the pre-Christian period, j

And

so few Gallic words into French.

ni.

40 \

Old English.

but in the great epic of Beowulf we see a strange niixture of pagan and Christian elements. It took a long time thoroughly to assimilate the new doctrine, and, in fact,

much

heathendom survives to this day in the numerous superstitions. On the other hand we

of the old

shape of must not suppose that people were wholly unacquainted with Christianity before they were actually converted, and linguistic evidence points to their knowing, and having had names for, the most striking Christian pheno-

mena centuries before they became Christians One of the earliest loan-words belonging to church,

OE.

cirice

kuriakSn '(house) of ,

cyrice

the

ultimately

Lord* or

themselves. this

sphere

from

Greek

the

plural

rather

remarked that *it is by no means necessary that there should have been a single kirika in Germany itself; from 313 onwards. sacred vessels and Christian churches with their ornaments were well known objects of pillage to if the first the German invaders of the Empire: with which these made acquaintance, wherever situated, were called kuriakd, it would be quite sufficient kuriakd.

has

been well

to account for their familiarity with the word.'^

knew

this

word

so well that

when they became

They

Christians

they did not adopt the word universally used in the Latin church and in the Romance languages {ecclesia, eglise,

and the English even extended the signification of the word church from the building to the conMinster, OE. gregation, the whole body of Christians. mynster from monasterium, belongs also to the preOther words of very early adoption Christian period. were devil from diaholus, Greek didbolos, and angel, OE. chiesa,

etc.),

See the full and able article church in the N. E. D. We need not suppose, as is often done, that the word passed through Gothic, where the word is not found in the literature that has I

come down

to us.

Christianity,

engel^

from angelus, Greek

dggelos.

But the great bulk

terms did not enter the language

specifically Christian

of till

after the conversion.

The number of new with Christianity was very 39.

esting to note in their

how

and things introduced considerable, and it is interideas

the English

language. ^ In the

first

managed

to express

them

place they adopted a great

Such words are apostle OE. apostol, disciple OE. discipul, which has been more of an ecclesiastical word in English than in other languages, where it has the wider Latin sense of 'pupir or 'scholar', while in English it is more or less

many

foreign words together with the ideas.

limited to the twelve Disciples of Jesus or to similar applications. Further, the names of the whole scale of dignitaries

the church, from the

Pope,

OE. papa,

downwards through archbishop OE. ercebiscop, bishop OE. biscop, to priest OE. preost; so also monk OE. munuc, nun OE. nunna with provost OE. prafost (praepositus) and profost (propositus), abbot OE. abbod (d from the Romance form) and the feminine OE. abbudisse. Here belong also such obsolete words as sacerd 'priest', canonic 'canon', decan 'dean', ancor or ancra 'hermit' (Latin anachoreta). To these names of persons must be added not a few names of things, such as shrine OE. serin (scrinium), cowl

OE.

cugele (cuculla), pall

OE.

pcell or pell (pallium); regol

or reogol '(monastic) rule', capitul 'chapter', mcssse 'mass', and offrian, in Old English used only in the sense of 'sacrificing,

bringing an offering'; the modern usage in

See below,

86,

on the^ relation between the OE. and the

modern forms. The Influeitce of Christianity on the Vocabulary of Old English (Halle 1902). material from other points of view and must I arrange his often pass the limits of his book, of which only one half has 2

See

appeared.

especially

MacGillivray

III.

Old English.

*he offered his friend a seat

and a

cigar'

later

and from

the French.

worth noting that most of these loans were short words that tallied perfectly well with the native words and were easily inflected and treated in every re40. It

spect like these; the composition of the longest of them, ercebiscop, was felt quite naturally as a native one. Such

long words as discipul or capitul, or as exorcista and acolitus, which are also found, never became popular words;

and anachoreta only became popular when

had been

shortened to the convenient ancor. chapter of linguistic history does not, however, to my mind concern those words that were adopted, but those that were not. It is not astonishing that the English should have learned 41.

The

chief

interest

this

some Latin words connected with the new faith, but it is astonishing, especially in the light of what later generations did, that they should have utilized the resources of their own language to so great an extent as was actually the case.

new

by forming by means of

This was done in three ways

from the foreign loans native affixes, by modifying the sense of existing English words, and finally by framing new words from words

native stems.

At that period the English were not shy of affixing native endings to foreign words; thus we have a great many words in -had (mod. -hood): preosthad 'priesthood', clerichad, sacerdhad, hiscophad 'episcopate*, etc.; also

such

compounds as hiscopsedl 'episcopal see', hiscopscir 'diocese', and with the same ending profostscir 'provostship' and the interesting scriftscir 'parish, confessor's district' from scrift 'confession', a derivative of scrifan (shrive) which is the Latin scrihere with its signification curiously changed. Note also such words as cristendom 'Christendom, Christianity' (also cristnes), and cristnian 'christen'

Native Words.

or rather 'prepare a candidate for baptism'^ and biscopian 'confirm' with the noun biscepung 'confirmation'. 42. Existing native

words were largely turned to

ac-

count to express Christian ideas, the sense only being more or less modified. Foremost among these must be

mentioned the word God. Other wdrds belonging to the same class and surviving to this day are sin OE synn, tithe

the old ordinal for 'tenth'; easier

teoba,

name

an old pagan spring festival, Most of the called after Austro, a goddess of spring. ^ native words adapted to Christian usage have since been superseded by terms taken from Latin or French. Where eastron was^,the

from the French, the old word was halig (mod. holy), preserved in All-hallows- day and Allhallowe'en] the Latin sand was very rarely used. Scaru, from the verb scieran 'shear, cut' has been supplanted by tonsure, had by order, hadian by consecrate and ordain, gesomnung by congregation, ]>egnung by service, witega by prophet, 'prowere (irom J>rowian 'to suffer') by martyr, J>rowerhad or prowung by martyrdom, niwcumen mann ('new-

we now say

saint

come man') by

novice,

hrycg-hrcegel (from hrycg 'back'

and hrcegel 'dress') by dossal, and ealdor by prior. Compounds of the last-mentioned Old English word were also applied to things connected with the

new

teobing- ealdor 'dean' (chief of ten monks).

religion,

thus

Ealdormann,

the native term for a sort of viceroy or lord-lieutenant, was used to denote the Jewish High-Priests as well as the Pharisees.

husl,

mod. housel

'the Eucharist'^,

was an

^Cristnian signifies primarily the 'prima signatio' of the catechumens as distinguished irom the baptism proper.' Mac 1

Gillivray p. 2i.

2 Connected with Sanscrit usra and Latin aurora fore, originally a 3 Still

used

an archaism.

and

there-

dawn- goddess.

in the nineteenth century

by Tennyson

old is

Old English.

ni.

44 pagan word

for sacrifice or offering;

The

seen in Gothic hunsl.

word

an older form

for 'altar', weofod,

an interesting heathen survival, for it goes back to a compound wigheod 'idol-table*, and it was probably only because phonetic development had obscured its connexion with wig 'idol' that it was allowed to remain in use is

as a Christian technical term. 43. This second class

not always easily distinguished

words that had not previously existed but were now framed out of existing native speech-material to express ideas foreign to the pagan world. Word-composition and other formative processes were resorted to, and in some instances the new terms were simply fitted together from translations of the component parts of the Greek or Latin word they were intended to render, as when Greek euaggelion was render-

from the

third, or those

ed god-spell (good-spell, afterwards with shortening of the

vowel godspell, which was often taken to be the or message of God), mod. gospel; thence godspellere

first

'speir

where now the foreign word evangelist

OE.

used.

Heathen,

hceben, according to the generally accepted theory,

derived from

hcel>

paganus from pagus

'heath'

country

imitation of Latin

district'.

Of. also

^rynnes

or prines ('three-ness') for trinity.

most cases we have no such literal rendering a foreign term, but excellent words devised exactly as the framers of them had never heard of any foreign

44. of if

But

expression for the same conception

—

as,

perhaps, in-

some instances they had not. Some of these display not a little ingenuity. The scribes and Pharisees of the New Testament were called hoceras (from boc book) and sunder- halgan {irom sundor 'apart, asunder, separate'); deed, in

in the

of the

north the latter were also called celarwas 'teachers

Law' or

heahfceder

celdo

'elders'.

'high-father'

patriarch was called

eald- feeder

'old-father';

the

New

Terms.

three Magi were called tungol-witegan from tungol

For 'chaplain' we have handpreost

'wise man'.

and witega

'star',

or hiredpreost ('family-priest')

;

for 'acolyte' different

word

expressive of his several functions: husl^egn ('Eucharist-

taporherend

servant'),

('wax-bearer')

;

and

were used.

and

westensetla

we some-

For 'hermit'

ealdorbiscop.

'desert-settler')

('sole-settler',

'Magic art' was called scincrceft ('phantom-

'magician' scincrceftiga or scinlceca, scinnere, 'phan-

art');

For the disciples of Christ beside discipul mentioned above, no less than ten

tom' or 'superstition',

wcexberend

instead of ercebiscop 'archbishop'

times find heahhiscop ansetla

and

('taper-bearer')

find,

scinlac.

different English renderings (cniht, folgere, gingra, hiere-

mon,

Iceringman,

leornere,

leorning- cniht,

leormngman,

To 'baptize' was expressed by German taufen, Dan. debe) or more often

underpeodda, ^egn).^

dyppan 'dip' (cf. by fulwian (from ful-wihan 'to consecrate completely'); 'baptism' by fulwiht or, the last syllable being phonetically obscured, fulluht, and John the Baptist was called Johannes 45.

se fulluhtere.

The power and boldness

of these

tive formations can, perhaps, best

go through the principal

nement made sacred*, 'pious',

godcundnes godgield

sacred

godgimm

of God: godbot 'ato-

godcund

'divinity,

'idol',

be appreciated

compounds

to the church',

numerous na-

'divine, religious, office',

'divine

gem',

godferht

godhad

'divine nature', godmcegen 'divinity', godscyld 'impiety',

godscyldig

'impious',

'sponsorial

obligations',

godsibb godspell

'sponsor', (cf.,

godsibbrceden

however,

43),

godspelbodung 'gospel-preaching', godspellere 'evangelist', godspellian 'preach the gospel', godspellisc 'evangelical', godspeltraht 'gospel-commentary', godsprcece 'oracle', god-

sunu 'godson', god]>rymm 'divine majesty', godwrcec I

MacGillivray

p. 44.'

'im-

ni.

Old English.

pious', godwrcecnes 'impiety'.

Such a

list

as this, with the

shows the gulf between the old system of nomenclature, where everything was native and, therefore, easily understood by even the most uneducated, and the modern system, where with few exceptions classical roots serve to express even simple ideas; observe that although gospel has been retained, the easy secondary words derived from it have given way to learned formations. Nor was it only religious terms that were devised in this way; for Christianity brought with

modern

translations,

some acquaintance with the higher intellectual achievements in other domains, and we find such scientiit

fic

also

terms as

Icece-crceft

astronomy, efnniht for equinox, sun-stede

('star-law') for

and sungihte

for

solstice,

heliotrope, tid 'tide' ,

ieech-craft' for medicine, tungol-ce

sunfolgend

(sunfollower)

and gemet 'measure'

for tense

for

and

mood in grammar, foresetnes for preposition etc., in short a number of scientific expressions of native origin, such as is equalled among the Germanic languages in Icelandic only. 46.

now we

ask,

why did

not the Anglo-Saxons adopt

ready-made Latin or Greek words, it is easy toseethattheconditions here are quite different from those mentioned above when we asked a similar question with regard to Celtic. There we had a real race-mixture, where people speaking two different languages were living in actual contact in the same country. Here we have no

of the

Latin-speaking nation or community in actual intercourse with the English; and though

we must suppose

that there was a certain mouth-to-mouth influence from missionaries which might familiarize part of the English

nation with some of the specifically Christian words, these were certainly at

ber through the

first

medium

introduced in far greater

of writing, exactly as

with Latin and Greek importations

num-

the case

in recent times.

Why,

Why then, do

not Foreign

Words?

see such a difference

between the practice

remote period and our own time? One of the reasons seems obviously to be that people then did not know so much Latin as they learnt later, so that these learned words, if introduced, would not have been understood. We have it on King Alfred's authority that in the time immediately preceding his own reign 'there were of that

very few on

this side of the

stand their

(Latin)

rituals

Humber who in

English,

could undertranslate

from Latin into English, and I believe that there were not many beyond the Humber. There were so few of them that I cannot remember a single one south of letter

the

Thames when

came

and there God's servants, but they

to the throne

was also a great multitude of had very Httle knowledge of the books, for they could not understand anything of them, because they were not written in their language.'^ And even in the previous period which Alfred regrets, when 'the sacred orders were zealous in teaching and learning', and when, as we

know from Bede and other

sources,

Latin and Greek

studies were pursued successfully in England,

be sure that the percentage of those

we may

who would have

understood the learned words, had they been adopted

was not

There was, therefore, good reason for devising as many popular words as possible. However, the manner in which our question was put was not, perhaps, quite fair, for we seemed to presuppose that it would be natural for a nation to adopt as many foreign terms as its linguistic digestion would admit, and that it would be matter for surprise if a language had fewer into English,

Care.

large.

King Alfred's West -Saxon Version of Gregory's Pastoral Preface (Sweet's translation).

See T. N. Toller, Outlines of the History of the English Language. Cambridge 1900, p. 68fif. 2

in.

48 foreign

elements than Modern

contrary, utilize

Old English.

it is

guages.

But on the

rather the natural thing for a language to

own

its

English.

resources before drawing on other lan-

The Anglo-Saxon

principle of adopting only

such words as were easily assimilated with the native vocabulary, for the most part names of concrete things, and of turning to the greatest possible account native

words and principle

roots,

may

especially for abstract notions,

be taken as a

symptom

— that

of a healthful con-

and a nation; witness Greek, where we have the most flourishing and vigorous growth of abstract and other scientifically serviceable terms on a native basis that the world has ever seen, and where the highest development of intellectual and artistic activity went hand in hand with the most extensive creation of indigenous words and an extremely limited It is not, then, importation of words from abroad. the Old English system of utilizing the vernacular stock of words, but the modern system of neglecting the native and borrowing from a foreign vocabulary that 'has to be accounted for as something out of the natural dition of a language

state of things. this better

particular case in point will illustrate

than long explanations.

book that is always ready at hand, the Greeks had devised the word egkheiridion from en 'in', kheir 'hand' and the suffix -idion denoting smallness; the Romans sirhilarly employed their 47.

To express the

idea of a small

adjective manualis 'pertaining to manus, the hand' with liber

'book' understood.

What

could be more natural

then, than for the Anglo-Saxons to frame according to

the genius of their

own language

the

compound handboc?

This naturally would be especially applied to the one

kind of handy books that the clergy were in particular need of, the book containing the occasional and minor public offices of the

Roman

church.

Similar

compounds

Handbook.

were used, and are used, as a matter of course, in the German handbuch, Danish other cognate languages, handbog, etc. But in the Middle English period, handboc

—

was disused, the French (Latin) manual taking its place, and in the sixteenth century the Greek word [enchiridion) too was introduced into the English language. And so accustomed had the nation grown to preferring strange and exotic words that when in the nineteenth century handbook made its re-appearance it was treated as an unwelcome intruder. The oldest example of the new use in the NED. is from 1814, when an anony-

mous book was published with the

wax

title

Handbook

1833 Nicolas in the preface to a historical work wrote 'What the Germans would term and which, if our language admitted

modelling

for

the

of for

expression

'The

it,

flowers.'

would have been the

Handbook

of History'

fittest

— but

title

he dared

Three years later Murray publisher ventured to call his guide-book 'A the Hand - Book for Travellers on the Continent', but

not use that

title

himself.

1843 apologized for copying this 1838 Rogers speaks of the word

reviewers as late as

word.

coined a

innovation,

tasteless

and Trench

his

'Eng-

and Present' (1854; 3rd ed. 1856 p. 71) says, 'we might have been satisfied with 'manual', and not put together that very ugly and very unnecessary word 'handbook', which is scarcely, I should suppose, ten or fifteen years old.' Of late years, the word seems to have found more favour, but I cannot help thinking that state of language a very unnatural one where such a very simple, intelligible, and expressive word has to lish

Past

fight its

way

instead of being at once admitted to the

very best society. 48.

was rich in possispeakers were fortunate enough to possess

The Old English language,

bihties,

and

Jespersbn

its

English. 2nd ed.

then,

HI.

Old English.

a language that might with very

part be

made

little

exertion on their

to express everything that

human

speech

can be called upon to express. There can be no doubt that if the language had been left to itself, it would

have remedied the defects that it certainly had, for its resources were abundantly sufficient to provide natural and expressive terms even for such a new world of concrete things and abstract ideas as Christianity meant to the Anglo-Saxons. It is true that we often find Old English prose clumsy and unwieldy, but that is more the fault of the literature than of the language itself. A good prose style is everywhere a late acquirement, and the work of whole generations of good authors is needed to bring about the easy flow of written prose. Neither, perhaps, were the subjects treated of in the extant Old English prose literature those most suitable for the development of the highest literary qualities. But if we look at such a closely connected language as Old Norse, we find in that language a rapid progress to a narrative prose style which is even now justly admired in its numerous sagas; and I do not see so great a difference between the two languages as would justify a scepticism with regard to the perfectibility of Old English in the same direction. And, indeed we have positive proof in a few passages that the language had no mean power as a literary easily

medium; I am thinking of Alfred's report of the two Scandinavian travellers Ohthere and Wulfstan, who visited him the Fridtjof Nansen and Sven Hedin of those days of a few passages in the Saxon Chronicle, and especially of some pages of the homilies of Wulfstan, where we find an impassioned prose of

— —

real merit.

49.

Old English prose

undeveloped, we have a

very rich and characteristic poetic literature, ranging

;

Prose and Poetry.

from powerful pictures

of battles

and

fights

with

mythical monsters to rehgious poems, idyllic descriptions of an ideal country and sad ones of moods of menot here the place to dwell upon the literary merit of these poems, as we are only concerned with the language. But to anyone who has taken the lancholy.

— and

trouble

with that poetry, language

modern

there

poetic

style.

clothed in,

—

a trouble

familiarize himself

singular

charm

the

from slow and

so strangely different

The

movement

measure of the verse does not invite us but to linger deliberately on to hurry on rapidly, each line and pause before we go on to the next. Nor are the poet's thoughts too light-footed; he likes Where to tell us the same thing two or three times. a single he would suffice he prefers to give a couple of such descriptions as 'the brave prince, the bright hero, noble in war, eager and spirited' etc., descriptions which add no new trait to the mental picture, but which nevertheless impress us artistically and work very much like repetitions and upon our emotions variations in music. These effects are chiefly produced by heaping synonym on synonym and the wealth of synonymous terms found in Old English poetry is really astonishing, especially in certain domains, which had for centuries been the stock subjects of poetry. For 'hero' or 'prince' we find in Beowulf alone at least thirtyseven words (cedeling. cescwiga. aglceca. headorinc. heagleisurely;

the

gyfa. healdor.

beorn. brego. brytta. byrnwiga. ceorl. cniht.

cyning. dryhten. ealdor. eorl. ebelweard. jengel. frea. freca.

fruma. rinc.

hceleb. hlaford. hyse. lead.

scota.

'battle'

secg. 'fight'

^egn. jengel. peoden. wer. wiga).

we have

Beowulf at

synonyms (beadu. gub. hea^o. rcBs.

mecg. nid. oretta. rceswa.

least

For

twelve

hild. lindplega. nid. orleg.

sacu. geslyht. gewinn. wig).

Beowulf has seventeen 4*

in.

52 expressions for the

holmwylm.

holm,

'sea'

Old English. (brim.

hronrad.

flod. garsecg. hcef.

lagu.

seglrad. stream, weed. wceg. yp), to

mere,

hea^u?

merestrcet.

see.

which should be add-

ed thirteen more from other poems (flodweg. flodwielm. fiot. flotweg. holmweg. hronmere. mereflod. merestream. sceflod.

sceholm. scestream. sceweg. y]>mere).

For

'ship' or

Beowulf eleven words

(bat.

brenting.

we have

'boat'

naca. scebat. scegenga. scewudu. scip. sund-

ceol. jeer, flota.

wudu) and

poems

in other

(brimhengest.

at least sixteen

more words

brim^isa. brimwudu. cnearr. flodwudu.

flot-

holmmcern. holmmcegen. merebat. merehengest. mere-

scip. ])yssa.

y]>hof.

sceflota.

yplid.

scehengest.

scemearh.

ypbord.

yphengest.

yMida).

How are we to account for nyms? We may subtract, if we

this

wealth of syno-

like,

such compound

50.

words as are only variations of the same comparison, as when a ship is called a sea-horse, and then different words for sea (see, mere, y]>) are combined with the words hengest 'stallion' and mearh 'mare'; but even if not counted, the number of synonyms is A language great enough to call for an explanation. has always many terms for those things that interest the

this

class

speakers in their daily doings; thus Sweet says:

'if

ness',

all

words'.^ Chile)

'to feel

a camel's

hump

to ascertain its fat-

these being not only simple words, but root-

And when we

read that the Araucanians

(in

distinguished nicely in their languages between

shades of hunger, our compassion is excited, as Gabelentz remarks.^ In the case of the Anglo-

a great

many

Sweet, The Practical Study of Language, 2 Gabelentz, Sprachwissenschaft 189, 463. 1

1899, p. 163.

open an Arabic dictionary at random, we may expect to find something about a camel: 'a young camel', 'an old camel', 'a strong camel', 'to feed a camel on the fifth day',

Synonyms.

however,

Saxons,

conclusion

the

are justified in

drawing from their possessing such a great number of words connected with the sea is not perhaps that they were a seafaring nation, but rather, as these words are chiefly poetical and not used in prose that the nation had been seafaring, but had given up that life while reminiscences of it were still Hngering in their ,

imagination. In

51.

many

cases

now unable

are

any

see

between two or more words, but in the majority of these instances we may assume that even if, perhaps, the Anglo-Saxons in historical times felt no difference, their ancestors did not use difference in signification

them

indiscriminately.

characteristic of primitive

so peoples that their languages are highly speciahzed that where we are contented with one generic word ,

The aborigines of Tasmania had a name for each variety of gum-tree and wattle -tree, etc., but they had no equivalent for the expression 'a tree'. The Mohicans have words

they have

terms.

several specific

for cutting various objects,

simply.

but none to convey cutting

The Zulus have such words

'red

cow',

'brown cow', etc., but none for 'cow' In Cherokee, instead of one word for generally. 'washing' we find different words, according to what the head my head, is washed, 'I wash myself, 'white cow',

somebody

else,

— my

else,

— my

hands or

face,

feet,

— — the

— my

— somebody face —a —

clothes,

dishes,

child, etc.^

52.

Very

the exact shades of I

have I

Cf.

p. 250.

Httle

been done hitherto to investigate meaning in Old English words, but

Httle has

doubt that when we now render a number

Jespersen,

Progress

Language,

London

1894

in.

Old English.

words indiscriminately by 'sword', they meant originally distinct kinds of swords, and so in other cases as well. With regard to washing, we find something corresponding, though in a lesser degree, to the exuberance of Cherokee, for we have two words, wacsan (wascan) and iwean, and if we go through all the examples given in Bosworth and Toller's Dictionary, we find that the latter word is always applied to the washing of persons (hands, feet, etc.), never to inanimate objects, while wascan is used especially of the washing of clothes, but of

also

sheep

inwards'

'the

the

(of

victim,

Observe also that wascan was 9 and 13^). originally only used in the present tense (as Kluge infers

Leviticus

from

-sk-)

—a

clear

the use of words which of the language, but

instance is

of that

common

restriction in

in the old stages

which so often appears unnatural

to us. 53.

The

great

old poetic language on the whole

many

divergences from everyday prose,

choice of words, in the

word forms, and

struction of the sentences.

showed in

the

also in the con-

This should not surprise us,

same thing everywhere, and the difference between the dictions of poetry and of prose is perhaps greater in old or more primitive languages than in those most highly developed. In English, certainly, the distance between poetical and prose language was

for

much since.

find the

greater in this

The

first

period than

has ever been

poetical language seems to have been to a

In a late text (R. Ben. 59, 7) we find the contrast agtier ge fata Jjwean, ge wcBterclacias wascan, which does not I

agree exactly

with the distinction

made

above,

—

Curiously

enough, in Old Norse, vaska is in the Sagas used only of washing the head with some kind of soap. In Danish, as well as in English, vaske, wash, is now the only word in actual use.

Language of Poetry.

certain extent identical all over England, regardless of dialect differences

shown

in prose writings.

King

Alfred's

always distinctly West Saxon, but when he breaks out occasionally into poetry, he uses such forms as the preterite heht, instead of het, the only form found prose

have such more or less artificial poetic dialects, which agree with no one of the actually spoken dialects, in Homeric Greek and elsewhere, for example in the Old Saxon Heliand according to H. CoUitz.^ The, hypothesis of a poetical language of this kind, absorbing forms and words from the different parts of the country where poetry was composed at all, seems to me to offer a better explanation of the facts than the current theory, according to which the bulk of Old English poetry was written at first in Northumbrian dialect and later in his prose.

translated

Anglian

into

forms

some of the old and translated inadvertently

West-Saxon with kept

—

an extent that no trace of the originals should have been preserved. The very few and short pieces extant in old Northumbrian dialect are easily accounted for, even if we accept the theory of a such

language prevailing in the time when Old English poetry flourished. But the whole question should be taken up by a more competent hand poetical

koine or standard

than mine.

The external form of Old English poetry was in the main the same as that of Old Norse, Old Saxon, and Old High German poetry; besides definite rules of stress and quantity, which were more regular than might 54.

but which were not so strict as those of poetry, the chief words of each line were tied

at first appear, classical

TAe Home of the Heliand; Publications of the Modern Language Association of America, Vol. XVI, p. I23fr. See also Bauer's I

Waldeckisches Worterbuch, 1901,

p. 91*

ff.

Old English.

ni.

together by alliteration,

same sound,

or,

that

they began with the

is,

in the case of sp,

st,

sc,

sound group. The effect is peculiar, and ciated in such a passage as this:

Him

with the same

may

be appre-

andswarode,

pa ellenrof

wlanc Wedera leod,

word

heard under helme:

'We

aefter spraec,

synt Higelaces

Beowulf is min nama. a-secgan suna Halfdenes,

beod-geneatas, Wille

maerum peodne

min

aerende,

he us geunnan wile, gretan mot on.' ]73et we hine swa godne Wulfgar ma]7elode, Ipaet waes Wendla leod, waes his mod-sefa manegum gecy^ed, wig ond wisdom. 'Ic ]7ses wine Deniga, aldre ]7inum

gif

frean Scildinga,

beaga bryttan, ]7eoden maerne 55.

Very

sort of

frinan wille,

swa

ymb

]7u

bena

]7inne sid.^

combined with

rarely,

rime or assonance.

period of Old English the

eart,

same

alliteration

fird a

the prose of the last

artistic

means were often

Wulfstan's homilies such passages as the following where all tricks of phonetic harmony are brought into play: 'in mordre and on mane, in susle and on sare, in wean resorted to to heighten the effect, and

find in

and on wyrmslitum betweonan deadum and deoflum, in bryne and on biternesse, in bealewe and on bradum ligge, in yrm]?um and on earfe^um, on swyltcwale and sarum sorgum, in fyrenum bryne and on fulnesse, in to^a gristbitum and in tintegrum' or again ece ece and J^aer is sorgung and sargung, is *)>aer and a singal heof ^aer is benda bite and dynta dyne, )?aer is wyrma slite and ealra wsedla gripe, ]>xr is wanung ;

Beowult 340

fif.

Alliteration.

and granung,

yrm^a gehwylc and

J?aer

ealra deofla

gearing'.

word-combinations ever left the language; we find it very often in n^odern poetry, where however it is always subordinate to end it can rime, and we find it in such stock phrases as neither make nor war me, as ^usy as ^ees (Chaucer,

Nor has

56.

this love of alliterative

—

and

2422), /?art

play

(sometimes:

brakes

Merry Men

277),

Magistrate

5),

Reynard

what

and

feeble,

dick-duck-drake;

chucks

and

Stevenson,

mourned (Pinero, and /ranke (Caxton,

ain't missed ain't

as ^old as ^rass, free

41), Barnes are

Messings (Shakesp., All's

cucumber, as

as ^ool as a

parcel, /aint

5^ill

(a)

I. 3.

28),

(Chaucer,

stone

any stoon E 171, he stode stone style, Malory over stile and stone (Chaucer B 1988), from top to

121, as

145),

^06 (from the

top to toe, Shakesp.

3 III.

155), 7;nght

and main, fuss and /ume, manners makyth man, rare billed a rat, rack and ruin, nature and nurture (Shakesp. Tp. IV. I. 189; English Men of Science, their Nature and Nurture, the title of a book by Galton), etc. etc., even to Thackeray's 'faint fashionable fiddle-faddle and Alliteration sometimes modifies feeble court slipslop'. the meaning of a word, as when we apply chick to human foffspring in 'no chick or child', or of love',

which foe,

when we say

labour

without giving to labour the shade of meaning* generally has as different from work. The word'

too,

which

prose only,

of aUitcration

generally used in poetry or archaic

often used in ordinary prose for the sake in

an irMeredith, Egoist 439; 'The

connexion with /riend ('Was

ruption of a friend or a

foe.?'

changed from foes to friends', Indeed alHteration comes so Green, Short Hist. 107).

Danes

Ireland had

Wulfstan, Homilies, ed. by Napier, p. 187, 209. It is worthy of note that these poetical flights occur in descriptions I

of hell.

III.

58 natural to

'when

Old English.

English people,

spout

lines first,

that Tennyson

says

they come out so

that

allitera-

have sometimes no end of trouble to get of the alliteration'.^ I take up the thread of my narra-

tively that rid

tive after this short digression.

by his Son, Tauchn. ed. II. 285. Cf. R. L. Stevenson, The Art of Writing 31, and what the Danish poet and metricist E. V. d. Recke says to the same effect, Principernefor den danske verskunst 1881, p. 112; see also the amusing note by De Quincey, Opium Eater p. 95 (Macmillan's Library of Eng. Classics): 'Some people are irritated, or even fancy themselves insulted, by overt On their acts of alliteration, as many people are by puns. I

Life,

say, that, although there are here eight separate f's in less than half a sentence, this is to be held as pure accident. In fact, at one time there were nine fs in the original cast of the sentence, until I, in pity of the affronted people, substituted

account

let

agent for female friend.' The reader need not be reminded of the excessive use of alliteration in Euphuism and of Shakespeare's satire in Love's Labour's Lost and Midsufmner Night's Dream.

fe?na/e

Chapter IV.

The 57.

Scandinavians.

essentially self-sufficing; its

we have

was foreign elements were few

The Old English language,

seen,

and did not modify the character of the language as a whole. But we shall now consider three very important factors in the development of the language, three superstructures, as it were, that came to be erected on the Anglo-Saxon foundation, each of them modifying the character of the language, and each preparing the ground A Scandinavian element, a French for its successor. element, and a Latin element now enter largely into the texture of the English language, and as each element is characteristically different from the others, we shall First, then, the Scandinavian treat them separately. element.^

most of them treating nearly exclusively phonetic questions, are: Erik Bjorkman, Scandinavian Loa7i-Wo7'ds in Middle English (Halle I 1900, II 1902), an excellent book; Erik Brate, No7dische Lehnworter im Orrmulum (Beitrage zur Gesch. d. deutschen Sprache X, Halle 1884); Arnold Wall, A Contribution towards the Study I

The

chief works on these loan-words,

of the Scandinavia?i Ele??ieJit in the English Dialects (Anglia XX, Halle 1 8 98); G. T Flom, Scandinavian Influence on Southern Lowland Scotch (New York, 1900). The dialectal material of the two last -mentioned treatises is necessarily to a great extent of a doubtful character. See also Kluge in Paul's GrunariSs d.

germ.

Philol.

2nd

ed. p. 931

ff.

(Strassburg 1899J, Skeat, Principles

IV.

5o 58.

The Scandinavians.

The EngHsh had

resided for about four' centuries

country called after them, and during that time they had had no enemies from abroad. The only wars they had been engaged in were internal struggles between kingdoms belonging to, but not yet feeling themin the

and the same nation. ^The Danes were to them not deadly enemies but a brave nation from over the sea, that they felt to be of a kindred race with themThe peaceful relations between the two nations selves. may have been more intimate than is now generally supposed. Fresh light seems to be thrown on the subject by the theory that an interesting, but hitherto mysterious Old English poem which is generally ascribed selves as one

the eighth century

dinavian

poem

a translation of a lost Scan-

dealing with an incident in what was

become the Volsunga Saga.^ This would establish a literary intercourse between England and Scandinavia previous to the Viking ages, and therefor^ would accord later to

with

the

fact

that

the

old

Danish

legends

about

'King Hrothgar and his beautiful hall Heorot'^were preserved in England, even more faithfully than by the Danes themselves. Had the poet of Beowulf been able to

countrymen werfi-deatiiied to suffer atJJifiJiands of the Danes, he would have chosen another subject for his great epic, and we should have missed the earliest noble outcome of the sympathy so often displayed by Englishmen for the fortunes of Denmark.

foresee all that his

(Oxford 1887), and some other of English Etymology p. 453 works mentioned below. I have excluded doubtful material; but a few of the words I give as Scandinavian, have been considered as native by other writers. In most cases I have been convinced by the reasons given by Bjorkman. 1 W. W. Lawrence, The First Riddle ofCyneiuulf; W. H. Scho(Publications of the Modem Language field, Signy's Lament. Association of America, vol, XVII. Baltimore 1902.) fif.

Vikings.

Beowulf no coming events cast their before, and the English nation seems to have been taken entirely by surprise when about 790 the I long series of inroads began, in which 'Danes' and 'heaV^thens' became synonyms for murderers and plunderers.

But as shadow

the strangers

first

is,

came

peared as soon as they had

in small troops filled their

and disap-

boats with gold

and other valuables; but from the middle of the ninth ( century, 'the character of the attack wholly changed. The petty squadrons which had till now harassed the coast of Britain made way for larger hosts than had as yet fallen on any country in the west; while raid and foray were replaced by the regular campaign of armies who marched to conquer, and whose aim was to settle on the land they won'.^ Battles were fought with various success, but on the whole the Scandinavians proved the stronger race and made good their footing in their new country. In the peace of Wedmore (878), King Alfred, the noblest and staunchest defender of his native soil, was fain to leave them about two-thirds of what we now call England; all Northumbria, all East Anglia and one half of Central England made out the district called the Danelaw. 59.

Still,

the relations between the two races were

not altogether hostile.

King Alfred not only

the repulse of the Danes; he also gave us the

effected first

geo-

graphical description of the countries that the fierce in-

vaders came from,

the passage already referred to

Under the year 959, one of the chroniclers says of the Northumbrian king that he was widely revered on account of his piety, but in one respect he was blamed 'he loved foreign vices too much and gave heathen (§ 48).

R. Green,

ed. p. 87.

Short History of the Engl. People,

Illustr.

IV.

The

Scandinavians.

customs a firm footing in this country, alluring mischievous foreigners to come to this land.' And in the only extant private letter in Old English^ the unknown correspondent tells his brother Edward e.

(i.

Danish)

shame

you to give up the English customs of your fathers and to prefer the customs of heathen men, who grudge you your very life; you show thereby that you despise your race and your forefathers with these bad habits, when you dress shamefully in Danish wise with bared neck and blinded eyes' (with that

'it

for all of

hair falling over the eyes.?).

see,

then, that the

English were ready to learn from, as well as to fight wnth the Danes. glorious

battle of

a small, but significant fact that in the

It is

war-poem written shortly after the Maldon (993) which it celebrates, we find for

patriotic

time one of the most important Scandinavian loan-words, to call] this shuais-iiaw: early the linguistic the

first

influenc e of the

60.

great

Danes began

number

to be felt.

Scandinavian families settled

England never to return, especially in Norfolk, Suffolk and Lincolnshire, but also in Yorkshire, Northumberland, Cumberland, Westmoreland, etc. Numerous names in

of places, etc.,

ending in-^y, -thorp (-torp),

-beck, -dale, -thwaite,

bear witness to the preponderance of the invaders

England, as do also many names of persons found in English from about 1000 a. d.^ But these in great parts of

foreigners were not felt

by the

natives to be foreigners

same manner as the English themselves had been looked upon as foreigners by the Celts. As Green has it, 'when the wild burst of the storm was over, land, people, government reappeared unchanged. England still rein the

Edited by Kluge, Engl. Studien VIII, 62. 2 Bjorkman, Nordische Personennamen in England (Halle 1

19 10).

Danish Settlements.

mained Eng land; the conquerors sank quietly into the mass of those around them; and Woden yielded without The secret of this difference bea struggle tQ^C hrist. tween the two invasions was that the battle was no longer between men of different races. It was no longer a fight between Briton and German, between Englishman and Welshman. The life of these northern folk was Their in the main the life of the earlier Englishmen. customs, their religion, their social order were the same; they were in fact kinsmen bringing back to an England that had forgotten its origins the barbaric England of Nowhere over Europe was the its pirate forefathers. fight so fierce, because nowhere else were the combatants men of one blood and one speech. But just for this reason ^the fusion of the northmen with their foes was nowhere "^t should be rememso peaceful and so complete.'^ that it was a Dane, Kin g Knut bered too who achieved what every English ruler had failed to achieve, the union of the whole of England into one peaceful '

—

realm.

)

King Knut was a Dane, and

61.

invaders were

Saxon ChronDanes, but from

in the

always called other sources we know that there were Norwegians too among the settlers. Attempts have been made to decide by linguistic tests which of the two nations had the greater influence in England^, a question beset with icle

the

R. Green,

Short History of the E. People,

Illustr. ed.

p. 84.

Brate thought the loan-words exclusively Danish; Kluge, Wall, and Bjorkman consider some of them Danish, others 2

Norwegian, though in details they arrive at different results. See Bjorkman, Zur dialektischen provenienz der nordischen lehnwdrter im handlingar 1898 p. 281

ff.

forEnglischen, Sprakvetensk. sallskapets Upsala, and his Scand. Loan -Words 1901

—

The

IV.

Scandinavians.

considerable difficulties and which need not detain to say that

some words, such

here. Suffice

Mod. bound

'ready' (to go to), busk,

boon,

ME.

us'

boun,

point

addle,

rather to a Norwegian origin, while others, such as -by

place-names,

die

(>),

booth,

agree better with Danish forms. of cases, however, the

ME. sum

drown,

'as',

In the great majority

Danish and Norwegian forms were

at that time either completely or nearly identical,

that no decision as to the special homeland of the English loans

warranted.

In the present

work

there-

quoting Danish or ON Old Icelandic) forms according (Old Norse, practically as it is most convenient in each case, meaning simply fore

leave the

question open,

Scandinavian.^ 62. In order rightly to estimate the

Scandinavian

in-

very important to remember how great the To Simij ari ty w?^s hp ^w^^^ ^^^'^ ^^iglj^l^ ?^^ ^'^^ ^(^rfiP those who know only modern English and modern Danish, this resemblance is greatly obscured, first on account of the dissimilarities^ that are unavoidable when two nations live for nearly one thousand years with very fluence

it is

intercommunication, and when there is, accordingly, nothing to counterbalance the natural tendency towards little

and secondly on account of a powerful foreign influence to which each nation has in the meantime been subjected, English from French, and Danish from Low German. But even now we can see the essential conformity between the two languages, which in those times was so much greater as each stood so much nearer to the common source. An enormous number

differentiation,

'These facts would seem to point to the conclusion that a considerable number of Danes were found everywhere in the Scandinavian settlements, while the existence in great numbers of Norwegians was confined to I

Bjorkman's

final

words

certain definite districts.'

are:

Similarities.

words were then identical in the two languages, so that we should now have been utterly unable to tell which language they had come from, if we had had no English literature before the invasion; nouns such as

man,

wife, father,

mother,

folk,

house, thing,

life,

sor-

row, winter, summer, verbs like will, can, meet, come, bring, hear, see, think, smile, ride, stand, still, sit, set,

and adverbs Hke full, wise, well, better, best, mine and thine, over and under, etc. etc. The consequence was that an Englishman would have no great difficulty in understanding a viking, nay we have positive evidence that Norse people looked upon the EngIn many cases, lish language as one with their own. however, the words were already so dissimilar that it adjectives

no difficulty to distinguish them, for instance, when they contained an original ai, which in OE. had ON. sveinn), or au, which become long a (OE. swan ON. lauss, louss), in OE. had become ea (OE. leas or sk, which in English became sh (OE. scyrte, now shirt offers

ON. 63.

skyrta).

But there

are,

of course,

many words

which

no such reliable criteria apply, and the difficulty in deciding the origin of words is further complicated by the fact that the

E nglish wo uld-oftf^n modify

word,

when

adoptingj t, acco rdi ng to so mejiiore or less^ vague feeling of the English sound that corresponded generally to Just as the name of this or that Scandinavian sound. the English king ^delred Eadgares sunu is mentioned in the Norse saga of Gunnlaugr Ormstunga, as A^alra^r Jatgeirsson, in the same manner shift is an Anglicized form of Norse skipta^; ON. brudlaup 'wedding' was modified into hrydlop (cf. OE. bryd 'bride'; a consistent AngHcizing would be hrydhleap) tidende is unchanged in Orrms ;

ME.

forms with sk are also found; Bjorkman

Jespersen: English, and ed.

p. 126.

The

IV.

Scandinavians.

but was generally changed into tiding (s), cf. OE. tid and the common Eng. ending -ing; ON. ijdnusta ON. 'service' appears as ])eonest, Jjenest, and J)egnest; words with the negative prefix u are made into English wn-, e. g. untime 'unseasonableness', unbain (ON. ubeinn)

ti^ennde,

unrad or unrcsd 'bad counsel'^; below, and others.

'not ready', getcBc ]

cf.

also wcepna-

Sometimes the Scandinavians gave a fresh lease of life to obsolescent or obsolete native words. The prepngifinn j^ for instance, is found only once or twice in OE. texts belonging to the pre-Scandinavian period, 64.

but after that time it begins to be exceedingly common in the North, from whence it spreads southward; it was used as in Danish with regard both to time and space and it is still so used in Scotch. Similarly ^<2^^ (OE. dcel) 'appears to have been reinforced from Norse (dal), for it is in the North that the word is a living and barn, Scotch bairn geographical name' (NED.) (OE. beam) would probably have disappeared in the North, as it did in the South, if it had not been The verb strengthened by the Scandinavian word. ,

blend

seems to owe its vitality (as well as its Old Norse for blandan was very rare in Old

too,

vowel) to

English. 65.

think,

England a phenomenon, which, I paralleled nowhere else to such an extent,

also see in

namely the

existence

side

for a long time,

sometimes for centuries, of two slightly differing forms for the same word, one the original English form and the other

form

Scandinavian. native one,

the

following

the

first

the form after the dash the

imported one. I

Though

the Scand. form

oulist 'listless',

also

oumautin 'swoon'.

found

in a

few instances

Parallel

some

66.

Forms.

cases both forms

survive in standard

speech, though, as a rule, they have developed slightly

—

meanings: whole (formerly hool) hale] both were united in the old phrase 'hail and hool' no nay\ the latter is now used only to add an amplifying remark different

—

enough, nay too much'), but formerly

('it is

was used

answer a question, though it was not so strong a negative as no ('Is it true? Nay/ 'Is it not true? No') raise from rear fro, now used only in 'to and fro' to

shirt

— —

— ^gg

skirt

vb.

shot

— —

scot

egg on,

(to

only in the suffix

'to

screak, screech

OE.

incite').

—

nowt kist^

— dag

mouth

form survives

'dew, thin rain; vb. to drizzle'

trigg 'faithful, neat, tidy'

'cattle'

leas survives

while the other belongs to the literary

only,

language: dew true

edge

an independent word.

67. In other cases, the Scandinavian dialects

(nameless, etc.), while the Scand.

-less

has entirely supplanted

loose

—

shriek

church

— mun

leap

— kirk^ yard — garth \

— loup churn — kirn^ |

neat — —

chest

small piece of en-

All these dialectal forms belong to Scot-

closed ground'.

land or the North of England.

As a rule, however, one of the forms has in course of time been completely crowded out by the other. The surviving form is often the native form, as in the 68.

— gayte grey —

— heythen, — haithen gro few — — ash(es) — ask naked — naken yarn — gam — bench — bennk Similworse —

following \

instances

loath

laith

fish

goat \

heathen

gra,

fisk

fa,

arly the Scand.

star

sterne

werre.

hwethen are generally supposed to have been discarded in favour of the native thethen,

hethen,

OE. ^anon, heonan, hwanon,

which was added an adverbial s: thence, hence, whence-, but in reality these modern forms seem to be due to the Scandinavian ones,

forms,

These >&-words are, however, subject

some doubt. 5*

IV.

The

Scandinavians.

whose vowels they keep; for the loss ^sithence (sithens, OE. si])j)an + s)^ ,

69. This then leads us

of th cf. since

on to those instances

from

which

the intruder succeeded in ousting the legitimate heir. Caxton in a well-known passage gives us a graphic description of the struggle

Scandinavian

And

between the native ey and the

egg:

now used varyeth ferre from that whiche was used and spoken whan I was borne. For we englysshe men ben borne under the domynacyon of the mone, whiche is never stedfaste, certaynly our langage

but ever waverynge, wexynge one season, and waneth & dyscreaseth another season. And that comyn englysshe that is spoken in one shyre varyeth from a nother. In so moche that in my dayes happened that certayn marchauntes were in a shippe in tamyse, for to have sayled over the see into zelande. And for lacke of wynde, thei taryed atte forlond, and wente to lande for to refreshe them.

named

sheffelde,^ a mercer,

cam

And one in-to

theym an hows and of

axed for mete; and specyally he axyd after eggys. And the goode wyf answerde, that she coude speke no frenshe. And the marchaunt was angry, for he also coude speke no frenshe, but wolde have hadde egges, and she understode hym not. And thenne at laste a nother sayd that he wolde have eyren. Then the good wyf sayd that she understod hym wel. Loo, what sholde a man in thyse dayes now wryte, egges or eyren. Certaynly it is harde to playse every man, by cause of dyversite & chaunge of langage.*

Very soon forms 1

ey,

after

was written, the old English went out of use.

this

eyren finally

Probably a north. country man.

2 Caxton's Efieydos, p. 2

—

(E. E. T, S.

Extra Series

57.

Words

Native

Among

70.

Discarded.

ME.

awe

now

theigh, thah,

'for

tho

(cf.

— though — — — on \

(boatswain,

etc.)

— Thursday swuster — sister

(both were found

ay and 00') theh and other forms

Mnresdcei

aloft

— ay

'ever'

together in the frequent phrase

— they swon — swain

may be

other word-pairs similarly fated

mentioned: OE. those)

in (on)

tbirde

chetel

—

hirth

I>e lijte

kettle;

eie

lofte,

and

finally

not a few words with English y over against Scand. g: goni(e), dialectal gaum yeme 'care, heed' get yete

—

yive or yeve

word

yelde

wit, tact'

'sense,

gift,

—

give

not only

— guild —

yift is

'fraternity, association'

gift.

In this last- mentioned

the initial sound due to Scandi-

modern meaning, for the Old English word meant 'the price paid by a suitor in consideration of receiving a woman to wife' and in the plural

navian, but also the

'marriage, wedding'.

subtler linguistic influence can

be imagined than this, where a word has been modified both with regard to pronunciation and meaning, and curiously enough has by that process been brought nearer to the verb from which

was

originally derived

(give).

71. In

some words the

old native

form has survived,

but has adopted the signification attached in Scandinavian to the corresponding word; thus dream in OE. meant 'joy', but in ME. the modern meaning of 'dream'

was taken over from ON. draumr, Dan. drom; analogous cases are bread (OE. bread 'fragment'), bloom (OE. bloma

same process of senseshifting has historical significance; the OE. eorl meant vaguely a 'nobleman' or more loosely 'a brave warrior' or 'man' generally; but under Knut it took over the mean'mass of metal').

ing

the

In one word, this

Norse

jarl

'an under-king' or governor of

one of the great divisions of the realm, thus paving the way for the present signification of earl as one of the grades in the (French) scale of rank.

OE. freond meant

IV.

yo only

'friend',

The

Scandinavians.

whereas ON.

'kinsman', but in

Dan. frcende means

frcendi,

Orrm and

ME.

other

texts the

word

sometimes has the Scand. meaning^ and so it has to this day in Scotch and American dialects (see many instances in J. Wright's Dialect Dictionary, e. g. 'We are near friends, but we don't speak'); the Scotch proverb 'Friends

corresponds to the Danish

agree best at a distance' 'Fraende er fraende vaerst'.

only

'to

OE. dwellan

or dwelian

meant

lead astray, lead into error, thwart' or intr.

'to

go astray'^; the intransitive meanings, 'to tarry, abide, remain in a place', which correspond with the Scandi-

navian meanings, are not found till the beginning of the 13th century. OE. ploh is found only with the meaning of 'a measure of land' (still in Scotch pleuch), but in ME. it came to mean the implement plough (OE. sulh) as in ON. pldgr. OE. holm meant 'ocean', but the modern word owes its signification of 'islet, flat ground by a river' to

Scandinavian holm.

72. These were cases of native

words conforming to

foreign speech habits; in other instances the Scandina-

vians were able to place words at the disposal of the

English which agreed so well with other native words as to be readily associated with them,

nay which were

be fitter expressions for the ideas than the Old English words and therefore survived. Death (dea]?) and dead are OE. words, but the corresponding verbs were steorfan and sweltan; now it is obvious that Danish deya felt to

was more easily associated with the noun and the adjective than the old verbs, and accordingly it was (now

d&)

Saxon Chron. 11 35, which is given stance of this meaning, appears to me 1

in the

NED.

as an in

be doubtful. 2 Divelode, in /Elfric, Homilies i. 384, is wrongly translated by Thorpe 'continued', so that Kluge is wrong as giving this passage as the earliest instance of the modern meaning; it means 'wandered, went astray'. to

Ready

Associations.

soon adopted (deyen, now die), while sweltan was discarded and the other verb acquired the more special signification of starving. Scete, Mod. E. seat, was adopted because it was at once associated with the verbs to sit and to set.

The most important importation

of this kind was!

that of the pronominal forms they, them and their, which entered readily into the system of English pronouns be-

ginning with the same sound (the, that, this) and were felt to be more distinct than the old native forms which

they supplanted. Indeed these were liable to constant confusion with some forms of the singular number (he, him, her) after the vowels had become obscured, so that he and hie, him and heom, her (hire) and heora could no

thus find the obscured form, which was written a (or 'a), in use for *he' till the beginning of the i6th century (compare the dialectal longer be kept easily apart.

Tennyson's 'But Parson a cooms an' and in use for 'she' and for 'they' till the end

use, for instance in

a goas'), of the

14 th century.

Such a state

of things

would

but although the th-iorms must consequently be reckoned a great advantage to the language, it took a long time

naturally cause a great

number

of ambiguities;

before the old forms were finally displaced,

dative

which

hem is

nay,

the

survives in the form 'em ('take 'em'), by people ignorant of the history of the

still

now

language taken to be a shortened them; her

'their' is

the

only form for the possessive of the plural found in Chaucer (who says they in the nominative) and there are two or three instances in Shakespeare.

One more Scandinavian

pronoun is same, which was speedily associated with the native adverb same [swa same 'similarly'). Other words similarly connected with the native stock are want (adj. which reminded the English of their own wan 'wanting', wana 'want' and wanian 'wane, lessen', and ill, which must have appeared like a stunted form of evil,

and

vb.),

IV.

>j2

Scotchman who had made

especially to a

into deil 73.

word

The Scandinavians.

and even into

now we

his

own

devil

ein.

try to find out

by means

of the loan-

what were the spheres of hu activity in which the Scandinavians

test (see above, § 31)

man knowledge

were able to teach the English, the first thing that strikes us is that the very earliest stratum of loan-words\ words which by the way were soon to disappear again from the language^, relate to war and more particularly to the navy: orrest 'battle', fylcian 'to collect, marshal', li^ •fleet',

harda, cnear, scegt> different sorts of warships, ha

This agrees perfectly well with what the Saxon Chronicle relates about the English being inferior to the heathen in ship-building, until King Alfred under'rowlock'.

took to construct a new kind of warships.^ 74.

Next,

find a great

many Scandinavian

law-

terms; they have been examined by Professor Steenstrup He has there in his well-known work on 'Danelag'.*

been

able,

an astonishing number

of cases, to

show

conclusively that the vikings modified the legal ideas of

the Anglo-Saxons,

and that numerous new law-terms

sprang up at the time of the Scandinavian settlements which had previously been utterly unknown. Most of them were simply the Danish or Norse words, others

were Anglicizings, as when ON. vapnatak was made into wcepnagetcBC (later wapentake) or when ON. heimsokn appears as hamsocn 'house-breaking or the fine for that offence', or saklauss as sacleas 'innocent'. The most im-

portant of these juridical imports

the word law

itself,

See Bjorkman, p. 5. 2 They were naturally supplanted py French words see below. 3 Therefore, I cannot believe that ON. bat is a loan from OE lai (boat), although it is difficult to account for the vowel by any other theory. 4 Copenhagen 1882 (— Normanneme IV). 1

Legal Terms.

England from the loth century in the form which must have been the exact Scandinavian form

known lagu,

it is

ON. form log, ODan. be a compound of the pre-

the direct fore-runner of the

By-law is now felt to position by and law, but originally by was the Danish by 'town, village' (found in Derby, Whitby, etc.), and the Danish genitive-ending is preserved in the other English form byrlaw. Other words belonging to this class are logh.'^

nicfing 'criminal, wretch', thriding 'third part', preserved in the

mutilated form riding^, carlman 'man' as opposed

woman, bonda

Mod.

^rcell,

thrall,,

bunda 'peasant', lysing 'freedman', mal 'suit, agreement', wi]>ermal

'counter-plea, defence', seht 'agreement', stefnan 'summon',

now

landcop or anglicized landceap and lahcop or lahceap (for the signification see Steenstrup crafian

crave,

ran 'robbery'; infangen]>eof later infangthief 'jurisdiction over a thief apprehended within the manor'. It will be seen that with the exception of law, bylaw, 192

thrall

ff.);

and crave

— the

least juridical of

them

all

— these

Danish law-terms have disappeared from the language as a simple consequence of the Norman conquerors taking into their own hands the courts of justice and legal affairs generally.

Steenstrup's research, which

based on linguistic facts,

Scandinavian

may

largely

be thus summarized.

The

settlers re-organized the administration of

the realm and based

on a uniform and equable division of the country; taxes were imposed and collected after the Scandinavian pattern; instead of the lenient criminal it

The OE. word was

or csw which meant 'marriage' as and was restricted to that sense in late OE,, until it was displaced by the French word. 2 North -thriding being heard as North-riding; in the case of the two other ridings of Yorkshire, East -thriding and Westthriding, the th-so\m.d was assimilated to the preceding /, the result in all three cases being the same misdivision of the word 1

well

metanalysis ').

IV.

y^.

The Scandinavians.

law of former times, a virile and powerful law was introduced which was better capable of intimidating fierce and violent natures. More stress was laid on personal honour, as when a sharp line was drawn between stealthy or clandestine crimes and open crimes attributable to ob-

stinacy or vindictiveness.

Commerce,

too,

was regulated

so as to secure trade.

would be very of words belonging difficult to point out any single to the same sphere from which a superiority of any description might be concluded. Window is borrowed from vindauga ('wind-eye'); but we dare not infer that the 75.

Apart from these

legal

words group

northern settlers taught the English anything in architecture, for the word stands quite alone; besides OE.

had another word

for 'window',

which

also

based on

wooden houses: eag^yrel 'eye-hole' (cf. nospyrel nostril.) ^ Nor does the borrowing of steak, ME. steyke from ON. steik prove any But it is superior cooking on the part of the vikings. the eye-shape of the windows in the old

(ME. knif from Scand. knif) were better than or at any rate different from those of other nations, for the word was introduced into French (canif) as well as into English. 76. If, then, we go through the lists of loan-words, looking out for words from which conclusions as to the state of culture of the two nations might be drawn, we shall be doomed to disappointment, for they all seem to denote objects and actions of the most commonplace de xription and certainly do not represent any new set possible that the Scandinavian knives

Danelag p. 391 ff 2 Most European languages use the \^2X. fenestra {G. fenster, Dutch venster, Welsh ^enester), which was also imported from 1

Steenstrup,

French

English as fenester in use from 1290 to 1548. Slavonic languages have okno, derived from oko 'eye'. On the eye -shape of old windows see R. Meringer, Indogerm. Forinto

schungen

XVI

1904, p. 125.

Commonplace Words, of ideas hitherto

find

unknown

to the people

adopting them.

such everday nouns as husband,

skull, skin,

wing, haven, root,

skill,

anger, gate^, etc.

the adjectives adopted from Scand. scant, loose, odd^, wrong,

produced perhaps by

ill,

ugly, rotten.

this list that

sky,

fellow,

Among

find meek, low,

The impression

only unpleasant ad-

from Scandinavia, is easily shown to be wrong, for happy and seemly too are derived from Danish roots, not to speak of stor, which was common in Middle English for 'great', and dialectal adjecjectives

came

into English

tives like glegg 'clear-sighted, clever',

heppen

'neat, tidy',

gain 'direct, handy', (Sc. and North E. the gainest way, ON. hinn gegnsta veg, Dan. den genneste vej). The

only thing

common

to the adjectives, then,

seen to be

extreme commonplaceness, and the same impression confirmed by the verbs, as for instance, thrive, die,

their is

cast, hit, take, call,

want, scare, scrape, scream, scrub, scowl,

skulk, bask, drown, ransack, gape, guess (doubtful), etc.

must be added numerous words preserved only in dialects (north country and Scotch) such as lathe 'barn' Dan. lade, hoast 'cough' Dan. hoste, flit 'move' Dan. flytte, gar 'make, do' Dan. gore, lait 'search for' Dan. lede, red up 'to tidy' Dan. rydde op, keek in 'peep in', ket 'carrion, these

horseflesh, tainted flesh, rubbish', originally 'flesh, meat'

Dan. kQd,

etc.,

all

them words belonging

to the

same familiar sphere, and having nothing about them that might be called technical 01 indicative of a higher culture.

The same

true of that large class of words

which have been mentioned above

(§ 65

—

72),

where the

Scandinavians did not properly bring the word 1

Gate 'way, road,

An the names of algate,

streets

anothergate{s)

street',

frequent in

itself,

some northern towns

frequent also in ME- adverbial phrases In (corrupted into anotherguess), etc. ,

the sense 'manner of going' it is now spelt gait. 2 Cf. North-Jutland dialect (Vendsyssel) oj 'odd (number)'.

IV.

The Scandinavians.

but modified either the form or the .ignification of a native word; among them we have seen such everyday

words as

get,

give,

sister,

loose,

birth,

awe, bread, dream,

most indispensable elements of^ the language that have undergone the strongest Scandinavian influence, and this is raised into certainty whenl etc.^

precisely the

It is

discover that a certain

number

of those grammatical]

words, the small coin of language, which Chinese gram-

marians term 'empty words', and which are nowhere else transferred from one language to another, have been taken over from Danish into English: pronouns like they, them, their, the same and probably both', a modal verb like Scotch maun, mun (ON. munu, Dan. mon, monne); comparatives like minne 'lesser', min 'less', helder •rather'; pronominal adverbs like hethen, thethen, whethen

samen 'together'; conjunctions like though, oc 'and', sum, which for a long time seemed likely to displace the native swa (so) after a comparison, until it was itself displaced by eallswa > as; prepositions like fro and till (see above § 64). 'hence, thence, whence',

77.

obvious that

all

these non-technical words

can show us nothing about mental or industrial superiority; they

do not bear witness to the currents of civilization; what was denoted by them cannot have been new to the English; we have here no new ideas, only new names. Does that mean, then, that the loan-word test which we are able to apply elsewhere, fails in this one case, and that linguistic facts can tell us nothing

It is

word heaven has been the figurative and religious accep-

noticeable, too, that the native

more and more

restricted to

while the Danish sky is used exclusively of the visible firmament; sky originally meant cloud. 2 Another preposition, umbe, was probably to a large extent due to Scandinavian, the native form being ymde, embe\ but tation,

perhaps

some

texts

u in umbe may represent the vowel

[y].

D Intimate Fusion.

about the reciprocal relations of the two races? No; on the contrary, the suggestiveness of these loans leaves nothing to be desired, they are historically significant enough. If the English loan-words in this period extend to spheres where other languages do not borrow, if the Scandinavian and the English languages were woven

more intimately together, the reason must be a more intimate fusion of the two nations than is seen anywhere else. They fought like brothers and afterwards settled down peaceably, like brothers, side by side. The numbers of the Danish and Norwegian settlers must have been considerable, else they would have disappeared without leaving such traces in the language.

might at the first blush seem reasonable to think that what was going on among Scandinavian settlers in England was parallel to what we see going on now in the United States. But there is really no great similarity between the two cases. The language of Scandinavian and other settlers in America is often a curious mixture, but it is very important to notice that it is anish or Norwegian, spr in kled wi th English words: 'han har fencet sin farm og venter en god krop' he has fenced his farm and expects a good crop; 'lad os krosse 78.

streeten' let us cross the street, 'tag det trae' take that

tray;

But

'hun suede

this

of the

ham

is toto ccbIo

middle ages.

courten for 25 000 daler' etc. different from the English language i

And

we do not take

into account

those districts where Scandinavians constitute the im-

mense majority

of the population

and keep up

their old

speech as pure as circ*mstances will permit, the children

any rate the children's children of the immigrants speak English, and very pure English too without any Danish admixture. The English language of America has no loan-words worth mentioning from the languages of the thousands and thousands of Germans, Scandinaor at

IV.

The

Scandinavians.

and others that have settled there. Nor are the reasons far to seek.^ The immigrants come in small groups and find their predecessors half, or more than half, Americanized; those belonging to the same

vians, French, Poles

country cannot, accordingly, maintain their nationality collectively; they come in order to gain a livelihood, generally in subordinate positions where it is important to each of them separately to be as little different as possible from his new surroundings, in garb, in manners,

and

in language.

The

faults each individual

in talking English, therefore,

of lasting importance,

can have no con&jquences

and at any rate

his children are

most respects situated like the children of the natives and learn the same language in essentially the same manner. In old times, of course, many a Dane in England would speak his mother-tongue with a large admixture of English, but that has no significance in linguistic history, for in course of time the descendants of the im-

migrants would no longer learn Scandinavian as their mother-tongue, but English. But that which is important, is the fact of the English themselves intermingling their own native speech with Scandinavian elements.

done shows us that the culture or civilization of the Scandinavian settlers cannot have been of a higher order than that of the English, for then we should have seen in the loan-words the manner in which this

special groups of technical terms indicative of this superi-

Neither can their state of culture have been much inferior to that of the English, for in that case they would have adopted the language of the natives without apority.

See G. Hempl's valuable paper on Language -Rivalry and Speech Differentiation in the case of Race Mixture. (TransI

the Amer. Philol. Association, XXIX, 1898, p. 35). Hempl's very short mention of the Scandinavians in England, perhaps the least satisfactory portion of his paper none of is act,

his classes apply to our case.

commits

Now

;

Speech Mixture.

what happened with the Goths in Spain, with the Franks in France and with the Danes in Normandy, in all of which cases the Gerpreciably influencing

it.

This

manic tongues were absorbed into the Romance languages.^ It is true that the Scandinavians were, for a short time at least, the rulers of England, and we have found in the juridical loan-words linguistic corroboration of this fact; but the great majority of the settlers did not belong to the ruling class. Their social standing must

have been, on the whole, slightly superior to the average of the English, but the difference cannot have been great, for the bulk of Scandinavian words are of a purely democratic character. This is clearly brought out by a comparison with the French words introduced in the following centuries, for here language confirms what history tells us, that the French represent the rich, the ruling, the refined, the aristocratic element in the English

nation.

How

different

the Scandinavian

also

shown by

the impression

loan-words.

pressions for things their character

and actions

They of

many

homely ex-

everyday importance;

utterly democratic.

are

made by

The

difference

the French words having

never penetrated into the speech of the people, so that I

instructive to contrast the old speech - mixture in

Eng-

land with what has been going on for the last two centuries in the Shetland Islands. Here the old Norwegian dialect (' Norn ') has perished as a consequence of the natives considering it

more genteel

speak English (Scotch).

now

All

common words

but they have retained a certain number of Norn words, all of them technical, denoting different species of fish, fishing implements, small parts of the boat or of the house and its primitive furniture, those signs in clouds, of their speech

are English

from which the weather was forecast at sea, technicalities of sheep rearing, nicknames for things which appear to them etc.,

ludicrous or ridiculous,

etc.

—

all

them

significant of the

language of a subjugated and poor population. (J. Jakobsen, Det norr^me sprog pa Shetland, Copenhagen 1897.)

IV.

The

Scandinavians.

they have been known and used only by the 'upper ten', while the Scandinavian ones are used by high and low alike; their shortness too agrees with the monosyllabic character of the native stock of words, conse-

quently they are far less felt as foreign elements than^ many French words; in fact, in many statistical calculations of the propoition of native to imported words in' English, Scandinavian words have been

more or

less in-

Just as advertently included in the native elements. it is impossible to speak or write in English about higher intellectual or emotional subjects or

about fashionable

upon the the same manner Scan-

mundane matters without drawing

largely

French (and Latin) elements, in dinavian words will crop up together with the AngloSaxon ones in any conversation on the thousand nothings of daily life or on the five or six things of paramount importance to high and low alike. An Englishman cannot thrive or be ill or die without Scandinavian words; they are to the language what bread and eggs are to the daily fare. To this element of his language an Englishman might apply what Wordsworth says of the daisy:

Thou unassuming common -place Of Nature, with

that

homely face

And yet with something of a grace Which Love makes for thee! —

The form

which the words were borrowed occasions very few remarks. Those nouns which in Scand. had the nominative ending -r, did not keep it, the kernel only of the word (= accus.) being taken over. In one 79.

instance the Norse genitive-ending appears in English;

the Norse phrase d ndttar ]>eli (pel

means 'power,

'in

strength')

the middle of the night'

was Anglicized

into

on ;

nighter tale (Cursor Mundi), or bi nighter tale *

Chaucer

etc.).

The

-t

(Havelock,

neuters of adjectives,

that

Grammar.

found in scani^, want and (a) thwart. Most Norse verbs have the weak inflexion in English, a3 might be expected {e. g. die, which in Old Scand. was a strong verb), but there is one noteworthy exception, take, that kept its Scand. strong inflection, ON. taka tdk taken. There are a few interesting words distinctive Scandinavian trait,

with the Scand. passive voice in -sk (from the reflexive pronoun sik): bask^ and busk^, but in English they are treated like active forms.

The shortness

of the ^^-forms

led to their being taken over as inseparable

may have

ON.

wholes, for

otlask and privask lost the reflexive end-

ing in English addle 'acquire, earn' and thrive.

As the Danes and the English could understand one another without much difficulty it was natural that 80.

many

niceties of

grammar should be

sacrificed,

the in-

tongue coming to depend mainly on its mere vocabulary.* So when we find that the wearing away and leveUing of grammatical forms in the

telligibility of either

Danes chiefly settled was a couple advance of the same process in the more

regions in which the of centuries in

southern parts of the country, the conclusion does not seem unwairantable that this is due to the settlers who did not care to learn EngHsh correctly in every minute particular

and who certainly needed no such accuracy

in order to

texts in

make themselves understood.

syntax our want of adequate early Scandinavia as well as in North England makes

With regard

Properly skammt, neuter of skammr 'short'; the derived verb skemta, Dan. skemte 'joke' is found in ME. skemten. ' 2 ON. bdba-sk 'bathe oneself rather than baka-sk 'bake oneself. 3 ON. bua-sk 'prepare oneself. 4 Jespersen, Progress iii Language, p. 173. Compare the explanation of the similar simplification of Dutch in South Africa given by H.Meyer, Die Sprache der Buren. (Gottingen 1901, p. 16.) I

Jespersen: English. 2nd ed.

g2 it

The

IV,

Scandinavians.

impossible for us to state anything very definite; but

the nature of those loans which

are able to verify,

warrants the conclusion that the intimate fusion of the two languages must certainly have influenced syntactical relations, and when we find in later times numerous

between English and Danish, seems probable that some at least of them date from

striking correspondences it

the viking settlements,

It is true, for instance,

that rela-

any pronoun are found in very rare cases in Old English; but they do not become common till the Middle English period, when they abound; the use of these clauses is subject to the same restrictions in both languages, so that in ninety out of a hundred instances where an Englishman leaves out the relative pronoun, a Dane would be able to do likewise, and vice versa. The rules for the omission or retention of the conjunction that are nearly identical. The use of will and shall in Middle English corresponds pietty nearly with Scandinavian; if in Old English an auxiliary was used to express futurity, it was generally sceal, just as in modern Dutch (sal) wile was rare. In Modern Enghsh

tive clauses without

;

many

the older rules have been greatly modified, but in

commentators on Shakespeare note divergences from modern usage, a Dane would have used the same verb as Shakespeare. Furness, in his

cases where English

note to the sentence 'Besides

should appear' (Merch.

275 Globe ed.) writes: 'It is not easy to define this 'should' .... The Elizabethan use of should III.

289

me always

difficult to analyse.

Compare Stephano's

question about Caliban: 'Where the devil should he learn

our

Now, a Dane would say 'det skulde, and 'Hvor fanden skulde han laere vort sprog?',»!

language

synes',

.f*'

Abbott (Shakeip. Grammar

§ 319) says 'There

culty in the expression 'perchance

constant recurrence,

would seem

I will';

but,

diffi-

from

its

to be a regular idiom';)

Syntax.

would say vil. And *He could have done it'

a Dane, in the three quotations given, similarly in other instances.

kunde have gjort det' as against 'er hatte es tun konnen' (and French *il aurait pu le faire'), and the Scotch idiom 'He wad na wrang'd the vera Deir (Burns), 'ye wad thought Sir Arthur had a pleasure in it' (Scott), where Caxton and the Elizabethans could also omit have, has an exact parallel in Danish 'vilde Other points in syntax might perhaps be gjort', etc. agrees with 'han

ascribed to Scandinavian influence, such as the universal position of the genitive case before

German placed

its

noun (where Old

very often after it), the use of a preposition governing a dependent clause (he talked of how people had injured him, found as early as Orrmulum; here German must say davon, wie, and Dutch er van hoe), etc.; but in these delicate matters it English like

not safe to assert too much, as in fact

many

may have been independently developed guages.

similarities

both

lan-

Chapter V.

The French. 81. If with regard to the Scandinavian invasion histo-

documents were so scarce that the linguistic evidence drawn from the number and character of the loanwords was a very important supplement to our historical knowledge of the circ*mstances, the same cannot be said of the Norman Conquest. Tlhe Normans^ m uch more ^an the Danes, were felt as an alip n rarp; i-Viair occupation of the country attracted much more notice and lasted much longer; they became the ruling^class and as_^iidi_Jvere much more spoken of in contemporary literature and in historical records than the comparatively obscure Scandinavian element; and finally, they represented a higher culture than the natives and had a literature of their own, in which numerous direct statements and indirect hints tell us about their doings and rical

No wonder, should have given much more

their relations with the native population.

therefore, that historians

attention to this fuller material and to

all

the interesting

problems connected with the Noiman conquest than to the race-mixture attending the Scandinavian immigraThis is true in respect not only of political andjj tions. social history, but also of the language, in which the Norman-French element is so conspicuous, and so easily accessible to the student that it has been discussed very!] often and from various points of view. And yet, there is II

The Rulers still

much work

of England.

for future investigators to do.

In accord-

ance with the geneial plan of my work, I shall in this chapter deal chiefly with what has been of permanent

importance to the future of the English language, and

endeavour to characterize the influence exercized by (French as contrasted with that exercized by other languages with which English has come into contact. 82. The. Normans hfrc^mp mac;<-pr<; nf_Fng1anH^ and they remained masters for a sufficiently long time to leave a deep impress on the language. The conquerors

were numerous and powerful, but the linguistic influence would have been far less if they had not continued for centuries in actual contact and constant intercourse with the French of France, of whom many were induced by

need only go through a list of French loan-words in English to be firmly convinced of the fact that the immigr ants formed the upper later kings to settle in

England.

classes of the English societyjifter the >of

conquestTso^any

the woxds,are_distinctly aristocratic^

they

left

It is

true that

the old words king and queen intact, but apart

words relating to government and to the highest administration are French; see, for instance, crown, state, government and to govern, reign^ realm (0. Fr. realme, Mod. Fr. royaume), sovereign^

from these nearly

all

country, power; minister, chancellor, council (and counsel), authority, parliament, exchequer.

People and nation, too,

were political words; the corresponding OE. Jjeod

[

not

found latei than the thirteenth century. Feudalism was imported from France, and with it were introduced a number of words, such as fief, feudal, vassal, liege, and the names of the various steps in the scale of rank: duke with duch*ess, marquis, viscount, baron^ perhaps, surprising that lord and lady should have

prince, peer, j

[

It is,

and that

earl should

have been

remained

retained,

count being chiefly used in speaking of for-

esteem,

86 eigners,

word

but the

earl's wife

and

countess,

The French.

court

was designated by the French is

French, as well as the ad-

such as courteous, noble, fine and refined. Honour and glory belong to the French, and so does heraldry, while nearly all English expressions relating to that difficult science are of French origin,

jectives relating to court

life,

them curiously distorted. 83. The upper classes, as a matter of course, took into their hands the management of military matters; and although in some cases it was a long time before the old some

native terms were finally displaced {here and instance, were used

till

the fifteenth century

fird,

for

when army

began to be common), we have a host of French military words, many of them of very early introduction. Such are war (ME. werre. Old North Fr. werre, Central French guerre) and peace, battle, arms, armour, buckler, hauberk, mail (chain-mail; lance,

dart,

Further

cutlass,

officer,

banner,

Fr. maille 'mesh of a net'), ensign,

assault,

colonel, chieftain {captain

siege,

later),

tenant, sergeant, soldier, troops, dragoon, vessel,

admiral

etc. lieu-

navy and

amiral in English as in French, ultimately

(orig.

an Arabic word).

Some words which

are

now used very

extensively outside the military sphere, were without

any doubt

first

purely military, such as challenge^

enemy, danger, escape (scape),

espy (spy), aid, prison^

hardy, gallant, march, force, company, guard, etc.

Another natural consequence of the power of the Norman upper classes is that most of the terms pertaining to the law are of French origin, such as justice, just, judge; jury, court (we have seen the word already in another sense), suit, sue, plaintiff and defendant, a plea, plead, to summon, cause, assize, session, attorney, fee, ac84.

cuse, crime, guile, felony, traitor,

damage, dower, heritage,

property, real estate, tenure, penalty, demesne, injury, ilege.

Some

of these are

now hardly

priv

to be called techi]

Military

and Legal Words.

and there are others which belong still more to the ordinary vocabulary of every-day life, but which were undoubtedly at first introduced by lawyers at the time when procedure was conducted entirely in nical juridical words,

French^; for instance, case, marry, marriage, oust, prove^ false (pel haps also fault), heir, probably also male and female, while defend and prison are common to the juriPetty (Fr. petit) was, I dical and the military worlds. suspect, introduced

by the

jurists in

such combinations

as petty jury, petty larceny, petty constable, petty sessions, petty averages, petty treason (still often spelt petit treason),

before

etc.,

was used commonly.

The French puis ne

remains puisne in English (in law it means 'younger or inferior in rank', but originally 'later born*), while in ordinary language it has adopted the spellin its legal sense

ing puny, as

the -y had been the usual adjective ending.

good many words that have never become common property, but have been known to jurists only, such as mainour (to be taken with the mainour, to be caught in the very act of steahng, from Fr. manoeuvre), jeofail ('an oversight', the acknowledge85. Besides, there are a

ment

an error

from

je faille), cestui

que

and other phrases equally shrouded mystery to the man in the street. Larceny has been

trust, cestui

in pleading,

(a) que vie

almost exclusively the property of lawyers, so that it has not ousted theft from general use; such words as thief and steal were of course too popular to be displanted

by French French

though burglar is probably worth observing how many

juridical terms,

origin.

It is also

the phrases in which the adjective

of of

invariably placed

established as the official language spoken in the courts of justice yet the curious mongrel language known as 'Law French' continued in use there for centuries; Cromwell tried to break its power, but it was not I

From

1362

English was

finally

abolished

till

an act of Parliament of i73i-

are law terms, taken over bodily from

after its noun,

the French,

The French.

heir male, issue male, fee simple, proof

demonstrative,

malice

aforethought)'^,

letters

prepense

(or,

Englished,

malice

patent (formerly also with the ad-

jective inflected, letters patents, Shakesp.

2 II

202),

attorney general (and other combinations of general, all of

which are

86.

official,

though some

them

ecclesiastical matters

were also chiefly under

the control of the higher classes,

French words connected with the

many

find a great

ch\irch,

such as

religion,

now

saviour, virgin, angel (O Fr. angele,

service, trinity,

Fr. ange; the

are not juridical).

OE. word engel was taken

see § 38), saint,

abbey, cloister, friar

relic,

from Latin, (ME. frere as

direct

in French), clergy, parish, baptism, sacrifice, orison, homily,

(ME.

miracle, preach, pray, prayer, sermon, psalter

altar,

sauter), feast ('religious anniversary'). lesson, save, tempt, blame, order, nature,

common

to the

of signification,

language and have very extensive ranges

were probably at

first

purely ecclesiasti-

As the clergy were, moreover, teachers

cal words.

morality

Words like rule, which now belong

well

of religion

they introduced the

whole gamut of words pertaining to moral ideas from virtue to vice: duty,

chaste

covet

meanings is and others. 87.

desire

conscience, ,

lechery,

grace,

charity,

cruel,

fool (one of the oldest

'sensual'), jealous, pity, discipline,

mercy,

these words, taken from different domains,

may

be added other words of more general meaning, which are highly significant as to the relations between the

the English, such as sir and

Normans and

and mistress with serve),

Cf.

politic.

further also

their contrast servant (and the verb to

command and

lords

madam, master

spiritual

obey, order, rent, rich

and lords

temporal',

the

and body

Masters and Servants.

poor with the nouns riches and poverty; money,

interest^

cash, rent, etc.

88. It

a remark that

was

made by John WaHis^

first

and that has been very often repeated, especially since Sir Walter Scott made it popular in 'Ivanhoe', that while the

English

names

(oXf

of seveial animals in their lifetime are

cow,

calf,

sheep,

swine,

boar,

deer)

they

appear on the table with French names (heef, veal, mutton, pork, bacon, brawn, venison). This is generally explained |

from the masters leaving the care of the living animals to the lower classes, while they did not leave much of the meat to be eaten by them. But it may with just as much right be contended that the use of the French words here is due to the superiority of the French cuisine, which is shown by a great many other words as well, such as sauce, sausage,

jelly,

boil,

fry,

roast,

toast,

pasty, pastry, soup,

dainty; while the humbler breakfast

Eng-

the more sumptuous meals, dinner and supper, as

lish,

well as feasts generally, are French.

on the whole that the masters knew how to enjoy life and secure the best things to themselves; note also such words as joy and pleasure, delight, ease' and comfort] flowers and fruits may be mentioned in the same category. And if we go through the different ob89.

jects

see

pastimes that

having plenty of leisure

make (this

life

enjoyable to people

word, too,

French) we

an exceedingly large number of French words. The chase^ of course was one of the favourite pastimes, and though the native hunt was never displaced, yet we find many French terms relating to the chase, such as brace and couple, leash, falcon, quarry, warren, scent, track. The general term sport, too, is of course a French shall find

Grammatica linguae Anglicanae

1653.

This is the Central French form of the word that was taken over in a North French dialectal form as catch (Latin captiare). 2

The French.

a shortened form of desport (disport). Cards and dice are French words, and so are a great many words relating to different games (partner, suit, trump),

word;

it is

some of the most interesting being the numerals used by card and dice players: ace, deuce, tray, cater, cinque, size; cf.

Chaucer's 'Sevene

chaunce, and thyn

cynk and treye' (C 653). 90. The French led the fashion in the middle ages, just as they do to some extent even now, so we expect to find a great

fact,

many French words

going through

relating to dress;

Chaucer's Prologue

the

Canterbury Tales, where in introducing his gallery of figures he seldom omits to mention their dress, one will -see that in nearly all cases where etymologists have been .able to trace the special names of particular garments And of course, such to their sources these are French. general terms as apparel, dress, costume, and garment are derived from the same language. 91. The French were the teachers of the English in

most things relating

to art; not only

such words as

art,

beauty, colour, image, design, figure, ornament, to paint, but also the greater

more special words of are French; from architecture may

number

technical significance

be mentioned, by way vault, porch,

column,

of the

of specimens: arch, tower, pillar,

aisle, choir, reredos, transept, chapel,

which belong here as well as to our § 86), not to mention palace, castle, manor, mansion, etc. If we go through the names of the various kinds of artisans, etc., we cannot fail to be struck with the difference between the more homely or more elementary occupations which have stuck to their old native names cloister (the last of

(such as baker, miller, smith, weaver, saddler, shoemaker,

and others), on the one hand, and on the other those which brought their practitioners into more immediate contact with the upper

wheelwright, -fisherman, shepherd,

Dress, Art, Phrases.

which fashion perhaps played a greater part; these latter have French names, for instance, tailor^ butcher, mason, painter, carpenter and joiner (note also

classes, or in

such words as furniture, chair, 92.

afraid

have

table etc.).

tired the reader a little

with

purpose was to give abundant linguistic evidence for the fact that the French

all

these long

lists

of words.

were the rich, the powerful, and the refined classes. It was quite natural that the lower classes should soon begin to imitate such of the expressions of the rich as they could catch the meaning of. They would adopt interjections

and exclamations

like alas,

certes,

sure,

adieu;

and perhaps verray (later very) was at first introduced Whole phrases were adopted: in as an exclamation. the Ancrene Riwle (about 1225) we find (p. 268) Deuleset (Dieu le sait) in two manuscripts while a third has Crist hit wat; and three hundred years later, we find 'As good is a becke (= a wink), as is a dewe vow garde* (Bale, Three Lawes I. 1470). As John of Salisbury (Johannes

Sarisberiensis)

says expressly in the twelfth century^,

was the fashion to interlard one's speech with French words; they were thought modish, and that will account for the fact that many non - technical it

words too were taken over, such as

ai>, flg^ (juridical.?),

arrive

(military.?),

beast,

change,

(juridical.?), feeble, large, letter,

cheer,

cover,

cry,

debt

manner, matter, nurse and

and a great many other everyday words of very extensive employment. 93. If, then, the English adopted so many French

nourish, place, point, price, reason, turn, use,

every respect to imitate their 'betters', we are allowed to connect this adoption of non-technical words with that trait of their character which in its exaggerated form has in modern

words because

was the fashion

times been termed snobbism or toadyism, and which 1

Quoted by D. Behrens, Paul's Grundriss 1-963-

The French.

has made certain sections of the English people more interested in the births, deaths and especially marriages of

dukes and marquises than

their

own

anything

else outside

small personal sphere.

But when we trace this feature of snobbishness back to the first few centuries after the Norman conquest, we must not forget that there were great differences, so that some people would affect many French words and others would stick as far as possible to the native stock We see this difference in the literary works of words. that have come down to us. In Layamon's 'Brut', written very early in the thirteenth century and amounting in all to more than 56,000 short lines, the number of words The *Orrof Anglo-French origin is only about 150.^ mulum', which was writter perhaps tw^enty years later, contains more than 20,000 lines, yet even Kluge, who criticizes the view that this very tedious work contains no French words, has not been able to find in it more than twenty odd words of French origin.^ But in the contemporary prose work 'Ancrene Riwle', we find on 200 pages about 500 French words. A couple of centuries later, it would be a much harder task to count the French words in any author, as so many words had already become part and parcel of the English language; but even then one author used many more than another. Chaucer undoubtedly employs a far greater number of French words than most other writers of his time. Nor would all these borrowings to what I it be fair to ascribe have mentioned as snobbism; the greater a writer's familiarity with French culture and literature, the 94.

Skeat, Principles of English Etymology IT (1891) p. 8; Morris, Historical Outl. of Engl. Accidence (1885) p. 338. 1

Kluge, Das franzosische element im Orrmulum, Englische Studien, XXII p. 179. 2

Date of Adoption. greater

would be

temptation to introduce French

his

above the commonplaces of daily life. 95. The following table shows the strength of the influx of French words at different periods; it comprises one thousand words (the first hundred French words in the New English Dictionary for each of the first nine letters and the first 50 for / and /) and gives the half-century to words

for everything

which the

earliest

quotation in that Dictionary belongs.^

Before 1050

— 100 iioi — 1150 1151 — 1200 1201 — 1250 1251 — 1300 1301 — 1350 1351 — 1400 1401 — 1450 145 — 1500 105 1

....

64 127

120 180

I50I— 1550 I55I— 1600

I60I

— 1650 1651 — 1700 1701 — 1750 1751 — 1800 1801 — 1850 1851 — 1900

34 24 16

23 2

1000 have followed the authority of the same Dictionary also in regard to the question of the origin of the words, reckoning thus as French some words which I should, perhaps, myself have called Latin. Derivative words that have certainly or probably arisen in English (e. g. daintily, damageable) have been excluded, as also those perfectly unimportant words for which the N. E. D. gives less than five quotations. Most of them cannot really be said to have ever belonged to the English language. Cf. also R. Mettig, Die I

franz.

elemente

alt-

und

mittelengl.

Engl.

St. 41.

i76fF.)

The

The French.

shows conclusively that the linguistic influence did not begin immediately after the conquest, and that it was strongest in the years 125 1 1400, to which nearly half of the borrowings belong (42.7 p. c). Further it will be seen that the common assumption that the age of Dryden was particularly apt to introduce new words from French is very far from being correct. list

—

Robert of Gloucester (ab. 1300) speaks about the relation of the two languages in England: 'Thus, he says, England came into Normandy's hand; and the Normans at that time iJ)o; it is important not to overlook this word) could speak only their own language, and spoke French just as they did at home, and had their children taught in the same manner, so that people of rank in this country who came of their blood all stick to the same language that they received of them, for if a man knows no French But the lower classes people will think little of him. I still^ stick to English and to their own language. imagine there are in all the world no countries that do not keep their own language except England alone. But it is well known that it is the best thing to know both languages, for the more a man knows the mpre is he worth.' This passage raises the question: How did common people manage to learn so many foreign words? and how far did they assimilate them? 97. In a few cases the process of assimilation was facilitated by the fact that a French word happened to resemble an old native one; this was sometimes the natural consequence of French having in some previous period borrowed the corresponding word from some Ger96.

In a well-known passage,

—

own

yute 'yet'; sometimes curiously mistranslated, hold to their £^ood speech.

How

was French learnt?

Thus no one can tell exactly how much modern rich owes to OE. rice 'powerful, rich' and how much to French riche; the noun (Fr. and ME.) richesse (now riches) supplanted the early ME. richedom. The old native verb choose was supplemented with the noun OE. hergian and OFr. herier^ choice from Fr. choix. harier, run together in Mod. E. harry; OE. hege and Fr. manic

dialect.

haie run together in hay 'hedge, fence'.

difficult

one of which is OE. mcegen 'strength, might' and the other OFr. maine (Latin magnus] the root of both words is ultimately the same), cf. main sea and main force. The modern gain (noun and separate two main's,

verb)

was borrowed

{gain, gaain;

in the fifteenth

gagner gaaignier,

cf.

century from French

It.

guadagnare, a Ger-

manic loan), but it curiously coincided with an earlier noun gain (also spelt gein, geyn, gayne, etc., oldest form ga^henn), which meant 'advantage, use, avail, benefit, remedy' and a verb gain (gayne, ge^^nenn) 'to be suitable or useful, avail, serve', both from Old Norse. When French remind

(now

isle

the

eventually

was adopted,

He)

English

their

old

could not

iegland.

fail

Hand and

corrupted the spelling of the latter into

is-

OE.

nefa^

meneye [menye, Fr. maisnie

'retinue, troop') recalled

many

(OE. menigeo), and

the old lacu 'stream, river. '^

Neveu (now spelled nephew)

land,

lake,

recalled

some confusion between Eng. rest (repose) and OF. rest (remainder). In grammar, too, there were a few correspondences, as when nouns had the voiceless and

There

the corresponding verbs the voiced consonants; French

—

user,

now

use sb. pronounced [ju's], vb. [j^'z] just

Eng. house sb. [haus], vb. [hauz]; French grief

—

Eng. grief grieve just as half also the formation of nouns in -er [baker,

griever,

This

still

the

meaning

of lake in

some

Note which is

halve.

etc.),

—

dialects.

The French.

hardly distinguishable from French formations in words

(ME. interpretour, Fr. -eur), etc. But on the whole such more or less accidental similarities between the two languages were few in number and could not materially assist the English population in learning the new words that were flooding their like carpenter (Fr. -ier), interpreter

language. 98.

may perhaps have been dewhich may have been common in con-

greater assistance

rived from a habit

versational speech, and which

common by

was at any

rate not un-

that of using a French word side

in writing,

side with its native

synonym, the

latter serving

or less openly as an interpretation of the former for the benefit of those refined

who were not Thus

expression.

1225): cherit6

)?et is

luve

yet familiar with the more

(p. 8)

the Ancrene |

Riwle

(ab.

in desperaunce, pet

is,

unhope & in unbileave forte beon iboruwen (p. 8) two kunne Understonde^ )?et two manere temptaciuns pacience, J^et is )?olemodbeo^ (p. 180) vondunges in

—

nesse (ibid.)

raunce, pet

lecherie,

pet

is,

golnesse (p.

unwisdom & unwitenesse

198)

(p. 278).

igno-

quote

from Behrens's

collection of similar collocations^ the follow-

ing instances

that prove conclusively that the native

word was then better known than the imported one: bigamie is unkinde [unnatural] J^ing, on engleis tale

Exod.

twelfe iferan, pe 449) Freinsce heo cleopeden dusze pers (Layamon I. I. 69)

twiewifing

(Genesis

]

J7at

craft:

called]

lokie in J?an lufte, pe

astronomic

different kind]

that in

all

is to

(ib. II. 2.

kunnes speche

598).

It is

[in

[is

a speech of a

well worth observing

these cases the French words are perfectly

familiar to a

in o]7er

craft his ihote

modern

reader, while he will probably re-

Franz. Studien V. 2 p, 8 Cf. also 'of whiche tribe, that seye, kynrede Jesu Crist was bom' (Maundeville 67).

Tautology.

quire an explanation of the native words that served then to interpret the others. In Chaucer we find similar

double expressions, but they are

now

introduced for a totally different purpose; the reader is evidently supposed to be equally familiar with both, and the writer uses

them

to heighten or strengthen the effect of the style^;

He coude

songes make and wel endyte (A 95) Therto he coude endyte and make a thing (A 325)

for instance:

and

(A 124 and 273) swinken with his handes and laboure (A 186) Of studie took he most cure and most hede (A 303) Poynaunt and sharp (A 352) At sessiouns ther was he lord and sire (A 355). ^ In Caxton this has become quite a mannerism, see, e. g. I shal so faire

fetisly

awreke and avenge this trespace (Reynard 56, cf. p. 116 advenge and wreke it) in honour and worship (ib. p. 56) 1

and auncyent doctours

olde

64)

(p.

shal here of the mirrour

and

(p, 86)

for dele (p.

fowle

in all cases

103).

feblest

and wekest

(p. 83)

the glas

and dishonestly

exception of the last side, so

toke a glasse or a mirrour

ne prof[yt

(p. 62)

Now

[P- 84) (p.

94)

good

prouffyt

be observed that with the word, the language has preserved It will

both the synonyms that Caxton uses side by

that

we may

consider this part of the English

vocabulary as settled towards the end of the fifteenth century. 99. state,

Many

French words, such as cry, claim, poor, change, and, indeed, most of the words enuof the

This use of two expressions for the same idea is extremely in the middle ages and the beginning of the modem period, and it is not confined to those cases where one was a native and the other an imported word; see Kellner, Engl. Studien XX p. iiff. (1895); Greenough and Kittredge, Words 1

f '

common

and their Ways, p. iisff.; so also in Danish, see ViHi. Andersen in Dania p. 86 ff. (1890) and Danske Studier 1893, p. jff. 2 Cf. also, Curteys he was, lowly, and servisable teys he was, and lowly of servyse (A 250). Jespersen: English. 2nd ed.

(A 7

99); Cur-

The French.

—

merated above, (§ 82 92), and one might say, nearly all the words taken over before 1350 and not a few of those of later importation, have become part and parcel of the English language, so that they appear to us all just as English as the pre-Conquest stock of native words. But a great many others have never become so popular. There are a great many gradations between words of everyday use and such as are not at all understood by the common people, and to the latter class may sometimes belong words which literary people would think familiar Hyde Clark relates an anecdote of a to everybody. clergyman who blamed a brother preacher for using the word felicity *I do not think all your hearers understood it; I should say happiness.' *I can hardly think,' said the other, 'that any one does not know what felicity means, and we will ask this ploughman near us. Come hither, my man you have been at church and heard the sermon; you heard me speak of felicity; do you know what it means?' *Ees, sir!' 'Well, what does felicity mean?' 'Summut in the inside of a pig, but I can't say altogether what.'^ Note also the way in which TouchJ

—

stone addresses the rustic in

As You Like

—

It (V.

52)

which is in the you Clowne, abandon, vulgar leave, which in the boorish is the societie companie, which in the common is of this female, woman; which together is, abandon the society of this 'Therefore,

—

Female,

or,

—

— —

Clowne, thou perishest;

01,

understanding, dyest.' 100.

From what

to understand

some

precedes

are

now

to thy better

in a position

at least of the differences that have

developed in course of time between two synonyms when both have survived, one of them native, the other French.

A Grammar of the

English Tongue. 4 th ed. London 1879.

61.

Synonyms.

The former

always nearer the nation's heart than the latter, it has the strongest associations with everything primitive, fundamental, popular, while the French word is

often more formal, more polite, more refined and has

a less strong hold on the emotional side of Hfe. is

finer

than a

hut,

and

fine

cottage

people often live in a cottage,

any rate in summer 'The word hill was too vulgar and famihar to be apphed to a hawk, which had only a heak (the French term, whereas bill is the A. S. bile), 'Ye shall say, this hauke has a large beke, or a short beke, and call it not bille' Book of St. Alban's, fol. a 6, back'.^ To dress means to adorn, deck, etc., and thus generally presupposes a finer garment than the old word to clothe^ the wider signification of which it seems, however, to be more and more appropriating to itself. Amity means at

—

'friendly relations, especially of a public

character be-

tween states or individuals', and thus lacks the warmth of friendship. The difference between help and aid is thus indicated in the Funk-Wagnalls Dictionary: 'Help expresses greater dependence and deeper need than aid. In extremity we say 'God help me!' rather than 'God aid me !' In time of danger we cry 'help! help!' rather than ^aid! aid!' To aid is to second another's own exertions. We can speak of helping the helpless, but not of aiding them. Help includes aid, but aid may fall short of the meaning of help.' All this amounts to the same thing as saying that help

the natural expression, be-

longing to the indispensable stock of words and there-

more copious and profounder associations than the more literary and accordingly colder word aid. Folk has to a great extent been superseded by people, chiefly, I suppose, on account of the political and social employment of the word; Shakespeare rarely uses folk fore possessing

Skeat,

The Works

of G. Chaucer, vol.

Ill

p. 261.

lOo

•

The French.

and folks (ten times), and the word is evidently a low-class word with him; it is rare in the Authorized Version, and Milton never uses it; but in recent usage folk seems to have been gaining ground, partly, perhaps, from antiquarian and dialectal causes. Hearty and cordial made their appearance in the language at the same time (the oldest quotations 1380 and 1386, NED.), but where they signify the same thing their force is not the same, for *a hearty welcome' is warmer than 'a cordial welcome', and hearty has many applications that cordial has not (heartfelt, sincere; vigorous: a hearty slap on the back; abundant: a hearty meal), etc. Saint smacks {4 times)

of the official recognition

much more

by the Catholic Church, while

Matin(s) is used only with reference to church service, while morning is the ordinary word. Compare also darling with favourite, deep with profound, lonely with solitary, indeed with in fact, to give or to hand with to present or to deliver, love with charity, etc. 101. In some cases the chief difference between the native word and the French synonym is that the former is more colloquial and the latter more literary, e. g. begin commence, hide conceal, feed nourish, hinder preholy refers

look

vent,

for

— — search

to the mind.

—

for,

inner and

outer

—

interior

and many others. In a few cases, however, the native word is more literary. Valley is the everyday word, and dale has only lately been introduced into the standard language from the dialects of the hilly northern

and

exterior,

counties.

Action has practically supplanted deed in ordi-

nary language, so that the

latter

can be reserved for

dignified speech.

102. In spite of the intimate contact between French

and English it sometimes happens that French words which have been introduced into other Germanic languages and belong to their everyday vocabulary are not

Colloquial and literary. '

in English or are there

found

intruders than in

German

much more

or Danish.

felt to

This

be foreign

true for

instance of friseur, manchette, replique, of gene and the verb gener (the NED. has no instances of it, but a few are found in the Stanford Diet.).

napkin.

Atelier

The Newcomes

word Italy and

not

common;

242,

Serviette

rarer than

occurs in Thackeray's

where immediately afterwards used: did EngHsh artists go

the familiar

studio

less to Paris to learn their craft

than

To the same class belong the following words, which, when found in English books, are generally indicated to be foreign by the last word italic letters: na'ive^ bizarre, and motif, their

Scandinavian and German confreres?

—

;

an interesting recent doublet of motive.

As the grammatical systems of the two languages were very different, a few remarks must be made here about the form in which French words were adopted. Substantives and adjectives^were nearly always taken over in the accusative case, which differed in most words from the nominative in having no s. The latter ending is, however, found in a few words, such as fitz (Fitzher103.

ll'

bert, etc.; in

French, too, the nominative

fils

has ousted

an Anglo-Norman spelling), fierce (0 Fr. nom. fiers, ace. fier), and James.^ In the plural, Old French had a nominative without any ending and an accusative in -s, and English popular instinct natur-

the old ace.

fil',

fitz is

by seint Jame (riming with name, D. 1443). A similar vacillation is found in the name Steven Stephen, where now the j-less form has prevailed, but where formerly I

But Chaucer

Yizs

—

nom. was also found (seynt stevyns, Malory 104). Where the French inflexion was irregular, owing to Latin stress shifting, etc., the accusative was adopted, in emperof (our, O Fr. nom. emperere), companion (O Fr. nom. compain), neveu, nephew (O Fr. nom. nies) and others, but the nom. is kept in stre (O Fr. ace. seigno?), mayor (O Fr. maire, ace. the Fr.

majeur).

V. The French.

IQ2 ally

associated

the'

'latter

English plural ending in

form with the common

-es.

In course of time those

words which had for a long time, in English as in French, formed their plural without any ending (e. -g. cas) were made to conform with the general rule French adjectives had the s (sg. case, pi. cases). ^ added to them just like French nouns, and we find a few adjectives with the plural 5, as in the goddes

—

celestials

group

(Chaucer);

till

the

letters

patents survived as a fixed

time of Shakespeare

(§

85).

But the

general rule was to treat French adjectives exactly like

English ones. 104.

to the verbs, the rule

that the stem of the

French present plural served as basis for the English form; thus (je survis), nous survivons, vous survivez, Us survivent

came came

became

survive,

(je resous), resolvons, etc., be-

nous disnons, etc., bedine; thus is explained the frequent ending -ish, in punish, finish, etc. English hound (to leap), accordingly, cannot be the French hondir, which would have yielded resolve,

Fr. (je desjeun),

but is an English formation from the noun I think that levy is bound, which is the French bond. similarly formed on the noun levy, which is Fr. levee; but in sally the y represents the i which made the Fr. // mouilU. Where the French infinitive was imported it was generally hondish,

in a substantival function, as in dinner, remainder, attainder,

rejoinder,

cf.

the

verbs

dine,

remain,

attain,

law terms merger, user, and misnomer. Still we have a few verbs in which the ending -er can hardly be anything else but the French infinitive ending: render (which is thereby kept distinct from rend), surrejoin; so also the

Note invoice, trace (part of a horse's harness), and quince, where the French plural ending now forms part of the English I

singular;

cf.

Fr. envoi, trait, coign.

Grammar.

103

render, tender (where the doublet tend also exists),

and

There is a curious parallel perhaps broider (embroider) to the Norse bask and busk (79) in saunter, where the French reflective pronoun has become fixed as an insep.

arable element of the word,

from

s'auntrer, another

form

adventure oneself. 105. French words have, as a matter of course, participated in all the sound changes that have taken place

for s'aventurer 'to

in English since their adoption.

sound have had

long

[i]

fine,

price, lion.

become spouse,

[au],

The long g.

pronounced

Mod. E. vowels

tower.

Thus words with the

diphthongized into [u],

[ai], e.

written ou, has similarly-

Fr. espouse (Mod. Fr. Spouse), [spu'za],

Compare

M. E.

now

pron. [spauz], Fr. tour,

also

the

treatment of the

in grace, change, beast (OFr. beste), ease (Fr. aise)^

Such changes of loan-words are seen everywhere: they are brought about gradually and insensibly. But there is another change which has often been supposed to have come about in a different manner. A great many words are now stressed on the first syllable which in French were stressed on the final syllable, and this is

etc.

often ascribed to the inability of the English to imitate

the French accentuation.

All English words,

said,

on the first syllable, and this habit was unconsciously extended to foreign words on their first had the

stress

adoption into the language. treating foreign

words

in Icelandic at

manner of the present day. But see

this

the explanation does not hold good in our case.

English

had a few words with unstressed first syllable [be-, for-, etc., see above, § 25), and as a matter of fact, French words in English were for centuries accented in the French manner, as shown conclusively by Middle English poetry. It was only gradually that more and more words had their accent shifted on to its present place. The causes of this shifting were the same as are else-

— where at work the

The French.

J04

first

in the

syllable

was

same

felt as

direction.^

many words

psychologically the most im-

portant one, as in punish, finish, matter, manner, royal, army and other words ending with meaningless or formative syllables. The initial syllable very often received In

the accent of contrast.

modern speech we

stress the

otherwise unstressed syllables to bring out a contrast clearly, as in 'not oppose but suppose' or 'If on the one hand speech gives ^;vpression to ideas, on the other hand

impressions from them' (Romanes, Mental Evolution in Man, p. 238), and in the same manner we must imagine that in the days when real, formal, object,

receives

and a hundred similar words were normally stressed on the last syllable, they were so often contrasted with each other that the modern accentuation became gradsubject

ually the habitual one.

This will explain the accent of

January, February, cavalry, infantry, primary, orient and other words. An equally powerful principle is rhythm, which tends to avoid two consecutive strong syllables; compare modern go down^stairs, but the ^downstairs Paul's church^yard, but the ^churchyard wall. Chaucer stresses many words in the French manner,

room,

St.

except when they precede a stressed syllable, in which case the accent is shifted, thus co^syn (cousin), but ^cosyn

^myn; in

felici'te par^flt,

but a ^verray

^parfit ^gentil ^knight;

but in hecre wyse, etc. An instructive illusfound in such a line as this (Cant. Tales

severe (secret),

tration

i486):

In 'divers 'art and in di'vers fi'gures.

These principles

—value-stressing,

contrast,

rhythm

most of the instances in which English has shifted the French stress; but it is evident that it took a very long time before the new forms of the will explain all or

mar

See the detailed exposition in my Modern English Gram(Heidelberg, Carl Winter) 1909 ch. V.

Accent; Hybrids.

105

words which arose at first only occasionally through their influence were powerful enough finally to supplant the older forms.

106.

Not long

after the intrusion of the first

French

words we begin to see the first traces of a phenomenon which was to attain very great proportions and which must now be termed one of the most prominent features

namely hybridism. Strictly speaking, we have a hybrid (a composite word formed of elements of the language,

from different languages) as soon as an English inflexional ending is added to a French word, as in the genitive the Duke's children or the superlative noblest, etc., and from such instances we rise by insensible gradations to From others, in which the fusion is more surprising. the very first we find verbal nouns in -ing or -ung formed from French verbs (indeed, they are found at a tim.e when they could not be formed from every native verb, §

200),

prechinge; riwlunge (Ancrene Riwle); scor-

nunge and

servinge

(Layamon)

;

spusinge (Owl

N.),

Other instances of English endings added to French words are faintness (from the end of the fourteenth century), closeness (half a century later), secretness (Chaucer secreenesse

773),

simpleness (Shakespeare and others),

materialness (Ruskin), ahnormalness (Benson)^ etc. ther, a great

many adjectives

Fur-

in -ly (courtly, princely, etc.)

and, of course, innumerable adverbs with the

same

en-

ding (faintly, easily, nobly); adjectives in -ful (beautiful, dutiful,

powerful, artful) and

-less

(artless,

nouns in -ship (courtship, companionship) (dukedom, martyrdom) and so forth.

colourless);

and -dom

accent is not shifted, of. machine, intrigue, where the retention of the French /-sound is another sign that the words are of comparatively modem I

recent

introduction.

borrowings

the

The French.

lo6

107. While hybrid words of this kind are found in comparatively great numbers in most languages, hybrids of the other kind,

composed of a native stem and most languages much rarer than

a foreign ending, are in

Before such hybrids could be formed, there must have been already in the language so great a number of foreign words with the same ending that the form-

in English.

be perfectly transparent. Here are to be mentioned the numerous hybrids in -ess (shepherdess, goddess; Wycliffe has dwelleresse; in a recent

ation would be

felt

have found 'seeress and prophetess'), in -ment (endearment and enlightenment are found from the 17th century, but bewilderment not before the 19th; wonderment, frequent in Thackeray; oddment, R. Kipling, hut-

volume

ment),

-age

(mileage,

leakage,

acreage,

shrinkage,

wrappage, breakage, cleavage, roughage, shortage, etc.); in -ance (hindrance, used in the fifteenth century in the

meaning 'injury'; in the signification now usual it is found as early as 1526, and perhaps we may infer from occurring neither in the Bible, nor in Shakespeare,

its

was Locke, Cowper, Wordsworth, Milton, and Pope, that

mit

it;

forbearance,

felt to

and Tennyson ad-

Shelley,

originally

ance); in -ous (murderous;

be a bastard, though

a legal term;

further-

thunderous; slumberous

used by Keats and Carlyle); in -ry (fishery, bakery, etc.; gossipry, Mrs. Browning; Irishry; forgettery jocularly formed after memory); in -ty (oddity, womanity nonce-

word

after

gify,

Ch,

humanity):

Lamb;

in -fy (fishify,

Torify, Ch.

Shakespeare; snug-

Darwin;

scarify, Fielding;

Thackeray; funkify; speechify^ with the corresponding nouns in -fication (uglification, Shelley).'^ tipsify,

Cf. also

'Daphne

— before she was happily

Fable for Critics. 2 See below on hybrids with (S

123).

Latin

and

treeified',

Greek

Lowell,

endings

Hybridism.

One

most fertile English derivative endings -able, which has been used in a great number of is words besides those French ones which were taken over ready made (such as agreeable^ variable, tolerable). In comparatively few cases it is added to substantives 108.

of the

companionable

(serviceable,

seasonable).

proper

Its

marriageable,

sphere

forming adjectives from verbs,

peaceable,

usefulness

an active that suits, unshrinkable), but generally sense [suitable in a passive sense {bearable that can or may be Thus we have now drinkable, eatable, steer able borne). rarely

(balloons)

weavable

unmistakable,

able,

unutterable

etc.,

answerable

and hundreds

that everybody has a feeling that he

new

adjective

necessity for,

kind as

this

object to forms like acting or

punish-

others, so

form a soon as there is any

convenience in,

adding old. And of course, no one jectives (or the corresponding they are hybrids or bastards,

no hesitation

feels

free to

using

-ing to

it,

just as he

any verb, new

ever objects to these ad-

nouns

in -ability)

because

any more than one would remembering on the same

score.

109. These adjectives have

now become

so indispen-

forming them from composite verbal expressions, such as get at. But though get-at-able and come-at-able are pretty frequently heard sable that the

want

in conversation,

ing

them.

even

felt of

most people shrink from writing or

Sterne

has

come- at- ability.

Smiles

printget-at-

Tennyson, too, writes in a jocular letter, 'thinking of you as no longer the comeatable runupableto, smokeablewith Note here the place of the preposition in J. S. of old.' the last two adjectives, and compare 'enough to make the house unliveable in for a month' (The Idler, May 1892, 366) and 'the husband being fairly good-natured ability,

and George

Eliot in a letter knock-upable.

Io8

The French.

It is and livable-with' (Bernard Shaw, Ibsenism 41). obvious that these adjectives are too clumsy to be ever But there is anextensively used in serious writing. other way out of the difficulty which is really much more conformable to the genius of the language, namely to leave out the preposition in all those cases where there can be no doubt of the preposition understood. Unac-

cannot be accounted for) has long been accepted by everybody; I have found it, for instance, in Congreve, Addison, Swift, Goldsmith, De Miss Austen, Dickens and Hawthorne. Quincey, countable

that

Indispensable has

been

—

well,

indispensable, for two

and a half. Laughable is used by ShakeDependable, speare, Dryden, Carlyle, Thackeray, etc. All this disposable and available are in general use.^ centuries

being granted,

difficult to see

why

reliable

should

most abused word of the English language. It is certainly formed in accordance with the fundamental laws of the language; it is short and unamThose biguous, and what more should be needed.? who measure a word by its age will be glad to hear that Miss Mabel Peaco*ck has found it in a letter, bearing the date of 1624, from the pen of the Rev. Richard Mountagu, who eventually became a bishop. And those who do not like using a word unless it has been accepted by great writers will find a formidable array of the best names in Fitzedward Hall's list^ of

be the

be work for five summers before the place is liveable (Mansf. Park 216) = the Cf. below gazee and others in above-mentioned liveable- in. 1

-ee

Miss Austen writes,

III)

(§

'he

Tvaite?

some 2

principle

waits

will

formation

on people',

calle?

the 'he

same

who

calls

one'.

reliable.

ject

The who

'There

English Adjectives in -able, with special reference to London 1877. Fitzedward Hall reverted to the sub-

on several other occasions.

Reliable.

authors

who have used

that the word which

the word.^

lOO It is

curious to note

always extolled at the expense of reliable as an older and nobler word, namely trustworthy, is really much younger: at any rate, I have not been able to trace it further back than the beginning of the nineteenth century;

besides,

any impartial judge

will find

sound less agreeable to the ear on account of the and the heavy second stw consonant group its

—

syllable.

110. Fitzedward

Hall in speaking about the recent

word aggressive^ says, 'It is not at all certain whether the French agressif suggested aggressive^ or was suggestThey may have appeared independently of ed by it. each other/ The same remark applies to a great many other formations on a French or Latin basis; even if the several components of a word are Romance, it by no means follows that the word was first used by a Frenchman. On the contrary, the greater facility and the greater boldness in forming new words and turns of expression which characterizes English generally in contradistinction to French, would in many cases speak in favour of the assumption that an innovation is due to an English mind. This I take to be true with regard to dalliance, which is so frequent in ME. [dalyaunce, etc.) while it has not been recorded in French at all. The wide chasm between the most typical Enghsh meaning of sensible (a sensible Coleridge, Sir Robert Peel, John Stuart Mill, Abp. Longley, Samuel Wilberforce Dickens, Charles Reade, Walter Bagehot, Anthony Trollope, R. A. Proctor, Harriet Martineau, Car1

Newman,

Gladstone, James Martineau, S. Baring-Gould, Sir G. O. Trevelyan, Sir Monier Williams, Sir Leslie Stephen, H. Maudsley, Saintsbury, Henry Sweet, Robinson Ellis, Thomas Arnold. In America, Washington Irving, Daniel Webster, Edw. dinal

Everett, G. P. Marsh; I leave out, rather arbitrarily teen of the names given by Fitzedward Hall. 2

Modem

English 314.

fear, six-

The French.

man, a sensible proposal) and those meanings which it shares with French sensible and Lat. sensibilis, probably shows that in the former meaning the word was an inDuration as used bydependent English formation. Chaucer may be a French word; it then went out of the

reappeared after the time of Shakespeare, it may just as well have been re-formed in England as borrowed; duratio does not seem to have existed in Latin. Intensitas is not a Latin word, and intensity is language, and

when

older than intensite.

111. In not a few cases, the English soil has proved

from which words were transplanted. In French, for instance, mutin has fewer derivatives than in English, where we have mutine

fertilizing

than the French

soil

mutine vb. (Shakespeare), mutinous, mutinously, mutinousness, mutiny sb., mutiny vb., mutineer sb., mutineer vb., mutinize, of which it is true that mutine and mutinize are now extinct. We see the same thing in such

sb.,

a recent borrowing as clique, which stands alone in French ^ while in English two centuries have provided us with cliquedom, cliqueless, cliquery, cliquomania, cliqiiomaniac, clique,

vb,, cliquish, cliquishness, cliquism, cliquy or

From due we have

cli-

which no French correspondent word has been found in France itself, although duete, duity, dewetS are found in Anglo-French writers; in English duty is found from the 13th century, and we have moreover duteous, dutiable, dutied, dutiful, dutifullyf dutifulness, dutiless, none of which appear to be older than the i6th century. Aim, the noun as well as the verb, is now among the most useful and indispensable words in the English vocabulary and it has some derivatives, such as aimer, aimful, and aimless, but in French the two verbs from which it originates, esmer < Lat. aestimare, and aasmer, < Lat. adaestimare, have totally disappeared. Note also the differentiations of the words

quey.

duty, to

English Formations.

ill

and estrange;'^ of entry (< Fr. entree^) and entrance^ while in French entrance has been given up; and the less perfect one of guaranty (action) and guarantee (person), The extent to not to speak of warrant and warranty. which foreign speech-material has been turned to account is really astonishing, as is seen, perhaps, most strange

clearly in the extensive use of the derivative ending -ee.

This was originally the French participial ending

-e

used

very few cases such as apele^ E. appellee as opposed to apelor, E. appellor, nominee, presentee, etc. and then gradually extended in legal use to words in which such in a

would be prohibited

a formation

well as syntactical reasons: vendee is

chose),

also referee,

cf.

the

man

whom

(I'homme ^ qui on a vendw quelque

something

sold

French by formal as

lessee,

trustee,

etc.

Now, these

formations are no longer restricted to juridical language, and in general literature there is some disposition to turn

ending to account as a convenient manner of forming passive nouns; Goldsmith and Richardson have lovee, the Sterne speaks of 'the mortgager and mortgagee the jester and jestee'; further the gazee (De Quincey) this

one gazed

at,

(Edgeworth),

staree

cursee

and laughee

(Carlyle), flirtee, floggee, wishee, bargainee, beatee, examineCf callee

(our callee

word as composite

the

trusteeship

character

man we

call on),

etc.

Such a

eminently characteristic of the of the language: Scandinavian

French ending used in a manner unparalleled French -|- an old English ending.

trust

112, French influence has not been restricted to one particular period (see § 95),

Compare

estate

and

interesting to

com-

and the ordinary

stray,

it is

also the juridical estray

state.

This word has recently been re -adopted: entree 'made -dish served between the chief courses'. 2

J I

V. The French.

pare the forms of old loan-words with those of recent ones, in which we can recognize traces of the changes

the French language has undergone since medieval times.

word

pronounced as in change, chaunt, etc. (with the sound-group tj), the loan is an old one; where it is sounded as in champagne Chief is thus (with simple p, we have a recent loan.

Where

shown chef

a ch in an originally French

to belong to the first period,

same way

while

its

doublet

much more modern. two petnames should now be spelled

chef de cuisine)

curious that

in the

although they are distinct in pronunciation: the masculine is derived from the old loan Charles and has, therefore, the sound [tJ], the feminine Charlie,

from the recent loan Charlotte with [fj. Similar^ g as in giant and / as in jaundice [pronounced d^] are indicative of old loans, while the pronunciation [^] is only found in modern adoptions, such as rouge. Sometimes, however, recent loans are made to conform to the old practice; jaunty, gentle and genteel represent three layers of borrowing from the same word, but they have all of them the same initial sound. Other instances of the same French word appearing in more than one shape according to its age in English are saloon and salon, suit and suite, liquor and liqueur, rout 'big party, retreat' and route (the diphthong in the former word is an English development of the long [u] § 105), quart, pronounced [kwo"t], and quart pronounced [ka"t] 'a sequence of four cards in piquet', is

of.

also quarte or carte in fencing.

113.

some

cases,

witness a curious re-shaping

an early French loan-word, by which it is made more like the form into which the French has meanwhile developed. This, of course, can only be explained by the uninterrupted contact between the two nations. Chaucer had viage just as Old French, but now the word is voyage; leal has given way to loyal; the noun flaute and the verb of

Early and Recent Loans. fioyten are ilarly

now made

into flute like

the signification of

douter

was

'to fear'

(cf.

ME.

mod.

1 1

Fr. fluted

Sim-

douten like that of OFr.

redoubt)^

but

now

guages this signification has disappeared.

both lanDanger was at in

adopted in the Old French sense of 'dominion, power', but the present meaning was developed in France before it came to England. The many parallelisms in the employment of cheer and Fr. chere could not very well have arisen independently in both languages at once. This continued contact constitutes a well-marked contrast between the French and the Scandinavian influence, which seems to have been broken off somewhat abruptly after first

Norman

the

Cf.

conquest.

below the Latinizing of many French words

i Jbsperskn: English. 2nd ed.

16.

Chapter

Latin and Greek. 114. Although Latin has been read and written in

England from the Old English period till our own days, so that there has been an uninterrupted possibility of Latin influence on the English language, yet we may with comparative ease separate the latest stratum of loans from the two strata^ that we have already considered. It embodies especially abstract or scientific words, adopted exclusively through the medium of writing and never attaining to the same degree of popularity as words belonging to the older strata. The words adopted are not all of Latin origin, there are perhaps more Greek than Latin elements in them, if we count the words in a big Still the more important words are Latin, dictionary. and most of the Greek words have entered into English through Latin, or have, at any rate, been Latinized m spelling and endings before being used in English, so that we have no occasion here to deal separately with the two stocks. The great historical event, without which thisd influence would never have assumed such gigantic diThrough Italy mensions, was the revival of learning. and France the Renaissance came to be felt in England as early as the fourteenth century, and since then the '

il|

invasion of classical terms has never stopped, although

the multitude of

new words introduced was

greater,

perhaps, in the fourteenth, the sixteenth and the nine-

The Renaissance.

I j c

teenth than in the intervening centuries. fluence

in-

European languages, but in has been stronger than in any other language,

conspicuous in

English

The same

all

French perhaps excepted. This fact cannot, I think, be principally due to any greater zeal for classical learning on the part of the English than of other nations. The reason seems rather to be, that the natural power of resistance possessed alien intruders

by a Germanic tongue against these

had been already broken

in the case of

by the wholesale importation

the English language

French words. They paved the way for the Latin words which resembled them in so many respects, and they had already created in English minds that predilection for

words which made them shrink from consciously coining new words out of native material. If French words were more distingues than English ones, Latin words were still more so, for did not the French themforeign

selves go to Latin to enrich their first

tion

own

vocabulary.?

The

thing noticeable about this cJass of Latin importatherefore, that

is,

cannot be definitely separated

from the French loans. 115.

great

many words may

ascribed to French

and

with equal right be

form users would

to Latin, since their English

would be the same in both cases and the first probably know both languages. This is especially the case with those words which in French are not popular survivals of spoken Latin words, but later borrowings from literary Latin, mots savants, as Brachet termed them in contradistinction to

mots populaires.

[words that \

shall

Hnfidel,

116.

may have

mention only

As examples

been taken from either language, grave,

gravity,

consolation,

solid,

infernal, position.

curious consequence of the Latin influence during

jand after the Renaissance was that quite a number of 'French words were remodelled into closer resemblance

5 VI. Latin

1 1

and Greek.

with their Latin originals. Chaucer uses descrive (riming with on lyve 'alive' H. 121; still in Scotch), but in the

6th century the form describe makes its appearance. Perfet and parfet (Fr. perfait, parfait) were the normal Milton writes perfeted English forms for centuries. (Areop. 10); but the c was introduced from the Latin, at first in spelling only, but afterwards in pronunciation 1

as well.^ Similarly verdit has given

way

to verdict.

Where

French (peinture), picture is now the established form. The Latin prefix ad is now seen in advice and adventure, while Middle English had avis [avys) and aventure. The latter form is still retained in the phrase at aventure, where however, a has been apprehended as the indefinite article (at a venture), and another remnant of the old form is disguised in saunter Avril (avrille) (Fr. s'aventurer *to adventure oneself). has been Latinized into April; and a modern reader doe s not easily recognize his February in ME. feouerele or v, cf. fivrier). In debt and doubt, which feou£rrere^ (u used to be dette and doute as in French, the spelling only has been affected; compare also victuals for vittles (Fr. Similarly bankerota [cf. vitailles, cf. battle from bataille). bankrout (Shakesp.) had to give Italian), banqueroute, way to bankrupt; the oldest example of the p-form in the NED. dates from 1533. The form langage was used for

Chaucer had peynture as

became language by a curious crossing French and Latin forms. Egal was for more than two

centuries, before of

centuries the

commoner form;

equal,

now

the only re-

cognized form, was apparently a more learned form and J

was used for instance in Chaucer's Astrolabe, while poems he writes egal; Shakespeare generally has Bacon

in his equal,

{New

Atlantis 15): all nations have enterknowledge one of another. In recent similar words inter- is always used. 1

writes

2 Juliana p.

79.

lill

Remodelling of French Words.

but egal

found a few times

of his plays.

Tennyson

tries to

some

117

of the old editions

re-introduce egality

by the

an ordinary word, however, but as applied to France specially (That cursed France with her egalities !' Aylmer's Field). French and Latin forms coexist, more or less differentiated, in complaisance and complacence (complacency), genie (rare) and genius, base and basis (Greek). Certainty (Fr.) and certitude (Lat.) are often used indiscriminately, but there is now a tendency to restrict the latter to merely subjective certainty, as in Cardinal Newman's 'my argument is: that certitude was a habit of mind, that certainty was a quality of propositions; that probabilities which did not reach to logical certainty, might suffice for a mental certitude', etc.^ Note also the curious difference made between critic with stress on the first syllable, adjective^ and nomen agentis (from Lat., or Greek direct.? or through French.?) and

side of equality, not as

—

critique

with stress on the second syllable,

nomen

actionis

borrowing from Fr.); Pope uses critick'd as a participle (stress on the first), while a verb critique with stress on the last syllable is found in recent use criticize, which since Milton has been the usual verb, is a pseudo-Greek (late

;

formation.

and Latin are sometimes shown in derivatives: colour is from French, as is evident from the vowel in the first syllable [a]; but in discoloration the second syllable is sometimes made [kol] as from Latin, and sometimes (kAl] as from French. Compare also example from French, exemplary from Latin. Machine with machinist and machinery are from the 117. Intricate relations between French

French, witness the pronunciation [me'ji'n]; but machinate

Apologia pro Vita sua.

New

p. 20.

With the by -form

criticaL

impression, London 1900

VI. Latin

1 1

and Greek.

and machination are taken direct from Latin and accordingly pronounced [maekineit, maeki'neijan]; so these two groups which ought by nature to belong together are kept apart, and no one knows whether the adjective machinal should go with one or the other group, some dictionaries pronouncing [m9'j'i'n9l] and others ['maekinal]

— a suggestive symptom

of the highly artificial state of

the language

would be idle to attempt to indicate the number of Latin and Greek words in the English language, as each new treatise on a scientific subject adds to their number. But it is interesting to see what proportion of 118.

the Latin vocabulary has passed into English. Professors J. B.

Greenough and G.

L. Kittredge

have counted the

words beginning with A in Harper's Latin Dictionary, excluding proper names, doublets, parts of verbs, and adverbs in -e and -ter. 'Of the three thousand words there catalogued, one hundred and fifty-four (or about one in twenty) have been adopted bodily into our language in some Latin form, and a little over five hundred have some English representative taken, or supposed to be taken, through the French. Thus we have in the English vocabulary about one in four or five of all the words found in the Latin lexicon under A. There is no reason to suppose that this proportion would not hold good approximately for the whole alphabet.'^ 119. It must not be imagined that all the Latin words as used in English conform exactly with the rules of Latin pronunciation or with the exact classical meanings. 'My instructor, says Fitzedward HalP, took me to task 1

Words mia

their

Ways, 1902,

p. 106.

Printed for the Author Fitzedward Hall, Two Trifles. I have changed his symbol for stress, indicating here 1895. as elsewhere the beginning of the strong syllable by a 2

prefixed

Deviations from Latin.

119

'Where an English word is from Latin or Greek, you should always remember the stress in the original, and the quantity of the vowels there.' for saying ^doctrinal.

replied:

'If

others, in their solicitude to pro^pagate re-

finement, choose to be irritated or ^excited, because of

genuine ignorance in oratory, they should at least be sure that their discomposure is Among words used in English with not gratuitous.' a different signification from the classical one, may be

what they take

to be

—

mentioned enormous (Latin enormis 'irregular', in English formerly also enorm and enormious), item (Latin item 'also', used to introduce each article in a list, except the first), ponder (Lat. ponderare 'to weigh, examine, judge', transipremises ('adjuncts of a building', originally things set forth or mentioned in the beginning), climax (Greek klimax 'a ladder or gradation'; in the popular sense of tive),

culminating point it is found in Emerson, Dean Stanley, John Morley, Miss Mitford and other writers of repute), bathos (Greek bathos 'depth'; in the sense of 'ludicrous

descent from the elevated to the commonplace'

it is

due

Pope; the adjective bathetic, wrongly formed on the It analogy of pathetic, was first used by Coleridge). should be remembered, however, that when once a certain pronunciation or signification has been firmly established in a language, the word fulfils its purpose in spite of ever to

many

might-have-beens, and that, at any rate, cor-

rectness in one language should not be

measured by the

yard of another language. Transpire is perfectly legitimate in the sense 'to be emitted through the pores of the skin'

and

in the

derived sense

'to

become known,

come public gradually' although there transpirare in either of these senses;

is if,

to be-

no Latin verb therefore,

the

modern journalistic use of the verb in the sense of 'happen' ('a terrible murder has again transpired in Whitechapel') is objectionable, it is not on account of any deviation

VI. Latin

I20

and Greek.

from Latin usage, but because

has arisen through a

vulgar misunderstanding of the English signification of

an EngHsh word.

Stuart Mill exaggerates the danger of

such innovations, when he writes: 'Vulgarisms, which creep in nobody knows how, are daily depriving the English language of valuable modes of expressing thought.

To take

a present instance: the verb transpire

Of late a practice has commenced of employing this word, for the sake of finery, as a mere synonym of to happen: 'the events which have transpired in the Crimea^ meaning the incidents of the war. This vile specimen

bad English is already seen in the despatches of noblemen and viceroys: and the time is apparently not far distant when nobody will understand the word if used in its proper sense The use of 'aggravating' for 'provoking', in my boyhood a vulgarism of the nursery^ has crept into almost all newspapers, and into many books; and when writers on criminal law speak of aggravating and extenuating circ*mstances, their meaning, it is probable, is already misunderstood.'^ Let me add two small notes to Mill's remarks. First, that aggravate of

in the sense of 'exasperate, provoke'

NED. from son (1748) nursery

—

exemplified in the

Cotgrave (i6ii), T. Herbert (1634), Richardthus some time before Mill heard it in his

—

and Thackeray (1848). And secondly, that the verb which Mill uses to explain it, provoke, is here used in a specifically English sense which is nearly as far removed from the classical signification as that of aggravate is. But we shall presently see that the English have taken even greater liberties with the classical languages. 120.

When

the influx of classical words began,

raison d'etre in the

its I

Stuart Mill,

P- 451.

new world

of old,

had

but forgotten

System of Logic, People's edition, 1886^

Ideas and Words. ideas,

then

first

revealed to medieval Europe.

2 i

Instead

narrow circle of everyday monotonousness, people began to suspect new vistas, in art as well as in science, and classical literature became a fruitful source of information and inspiration. No wonder then, that scores and hundreds of words should be adopted together with the ideas they stood for, and should seem to the their

adopters indispensable means of enriching a language

which

them appeared poor and

compared with the rich storehouses of Latin and Greek. But as times wore on, the ideas derived from classical authors to

infertile as

were no longer sufficient for the civilized world, and, just as it will happen with children outgrowing their garments,

modern mind outgrew classicism, without anybody noticing exactly when or how. New ideas and new habits of life developed and demanded linguistic expression, and now the curious thing happened that classical studies had the

so leavened the

minds

of the educated classes that

even when they passed the bounds of the ancient world they drew upon the Latin and Greek vocabulary in preference to their

own

181. This

modern

native stock of words.

seen very extensively in the nomenclature

which hundreds of chemical, botanical, biological and other terms have been framed from Latin and Greek roots, most of them compound words and some extremely long compounds. It is certainly superfluous here to give instances of such formations, as a glance at any page of a comprehensive dictionary will supply a sufficient number of them, and as one needs only a smattering of science to be acquainted with technical words from Latin and Greek that would have struck Demosthenes and Cicero as bold, many of them even as indefensible or incomprehensible of

science, in

innovations. a

number

It is not,

perhaps, so well

known

that quite

words that belong to the vocabulary of ord-

VI. Latin and Greek.

and that are generally supposed to have the best-ascertained classical pedigree, have really been coined in recent times more or less exactly on classical Some of them have arisen independently in analogies. several European countries. Such modern coinages are, inary

life

for instance, eventual with eventuality, immoral, fragmental

and fragmentary, primal, annexation, fixation and affixation, climatic. There are scores of modern formations in -ism^,

e. g.

absenteeism, alienism, classicism, colloquialism,

mannerism, realism, not to speak of those made from proper names, such as SwinAmong the innumerable words burnism, Zolaism, etc. favouritism,

individualism,

of recent formation in

economist, as in

florist,

jurist,

-ist

may

be mentioned

copyist (formerly copist

oculist,

some continental languages),

ventriloquist, terrorist,

dentist,

determinist, economist,

individualist, plagiarist, positivist, socialist,

For

tourist.

nihilist,

calculist the

only author

quoted in the NED. is Carlyle. Scientist has often been branded as an 'ignoble Americanism' or 'a cheap and vulgar product of trans-Atlantic slang', but Fitzedward Hall has pointed out that

was fabricated and advocated,

with physicist, by Dr. Whewell. Whoever objects to such words as scientist on the plea that they are not correct Latin formations, would have to blot out of his vocabulary such well-established words in 1840, together

suicide,

telegram,

tarian, facsimile

botany,

sociology,

tractarian,

vege-

and orthopedic; but then, happily, people

are not consistent. 122.

Authors

sometimes

coin

quasi-classic

words

without finding anybody to pass them on, as when Milton writes 'our inquisiturient Bishops' (Areop. 13). Coleridge speaks of 'logodcedaly or verbal legerdemain',

See Fitzedward Hall,

have also been

utilized in

Modem

English, p. 311. His the rest of this paragraph.

lists

Innovations.

Thackeray

of a lady's

i2;\

'viduous mansion'

(Newc. 794),

Dickens of 'vocular exclamations' (Oliver Twist) Tennyson writes in a letter (Life I. 254) 'you range no higher in my andrometer' Bulwer-Lytton says *a cat the most viparious ;

;

[meaning evidently 'tenacious of life'] is limited to nine lives'; and Mrs. Humphrey Ward 'his air of old-fashioned I have punctilium.'^ here on purpose mixed correct and incorrect forms, jocular and serious words, because my point was to illustrate the love found in most English writers of everything Latin or Greek, however unusual or fanciful. Sometimes jocular 'classicisms' survive and are adopted into everybody's language, such as omnium gatherum (whence Thackeray's bold heading of a chapter 'Snobbium Gatherum'), circumbendibus (Goldsmith, Coleridge) and tandem, which originated in a University pun on the two senses of English 'at length'.

which one

component part was French and the other native English, have been mentioned above (§ 106 f.). Here we shall give some examples of the corresponding phenomenon with Latin and Greek elements, some of which may, however, have been imported through French. The ending -ation is found in starvation, backwardation, and others; note also the American thiinderation ('It was an accident, sir.' 'Accident 123. Hybrids, in

of the

the thunderation', Opie Read, Toothpick Tales, Chicago 1892,

35).

Johnsoniana, Miltoniana,

etc.,

are quite

modern; the ending ana alone is now also used as a detached noun. In -ist we have the American walkist, which is interesting as denoting a professional walker and therefore distinguished by the more learned ending.

Compare

also

turfite

and the numerous words

-ite

Dictionaries recognize punctilio, a curious transformation of Spanish puntillo; there is a late Latin punctillum but not with the meaning of 'punctiliousness'. I

VI. Latin

124 derived from

proper

The same ending

and Greek.

names:

Irvingite,

Ruskinite,

etc.

frequently used in mineralogy and

chemistry, one of the latest additons to these formations

smokeless gunpowder.

Hybrids in -ism (cf. § 12 1) abound; heathenism has been used by Bacon, Milton, Addison, Freeman and others; witticism was first used by Dryden, who asks pardon for this new word hlock-headism is found in Ruskin further funnyism, free-lovism, etc.; the curious wegotism may be classed with the jocular drinkitite on the analogy of appetite. Girlicide, 2iiter suicide, is another jocular formation (Smedley, Frank Fairlegh I 190, not in NED.). To the same sphere belong Byron's weatherology and some words in -ocracy^ such as landocracy, shopocracy, barristerocracy, squattocracy and G. Meredith's snipocracy (Evan Harrington 174, from snip ai a nickname for a tailor). On the other hand squirearchy (with squirearchical) seems to have quite established itself in serious language. Among verbal formations must be mentioned those in -ize: he womanized his language (Meredith, Egoist 32), Londonizing (ibd. 80), soberize, etc. Adjectives are formed in -ative: talkative, babblative, scribblative, and soothative, of which only the first is recognized; in -aceous: gossipaceous (Darwin, Life and Letters I 375), in -arious: burglarious (Stevenson, Dynamiter 130), and -iacal: dandiacal (Carlyle, Sartor 188). Even if many of these words are 'nonce words', it cannot be denied that the process is genuinely English and perfectly legitimate within reasonable limits at any being fumelessite

;

—

rate.

124.

Some Latin and Greek

prepositions have in re-

cent times been extensively used to form Ex-, as in ex-king, ex-head-master,

have been used I

French, but

'A pair of ex -white

it is

etc.^,

new words.

seems

now common

satin shoes' (Thackeray).

first

most

Hybrids.

2 5

Germanic languages as well; in English this formation did not become popular till little more than a century ago. Anti-: the anti-taxation movement; an anti-

all

foreign party; 'Mr. Anti-slavery Clarkson' (De Quincey,

Opium- Eater

197); 'chairs unpleasant to sit in

—

anti-

they might be named' (H. Spencer, Facts and Comments 85). Co-: 'a friend of mine, co-godfather to Dickens's child with me' (Tennyson, Life II 114);

caller chairs

'Wallace,

the co-formulator of the

(Clodd, Pioneers of Evolution 68).

verbs in

-ize:

Darwinian theory' De-, especially with

de-anglicize, de-democratize, deprovincialize,

denationalize; less frequently as in de-tenant, de-miracle (Tennyson). Inter-: intermingle, intermix, intermarriage, interbreed,

inter-communicate,

International was coined

inter-dependence,

by Bentham

in 1780;

linguistically the first beginning of the era

when

etc.

marks

relations

between nations came to be considered like relations between citizens, capable of peaceful arrangement according A great to right rather than according to might. many other similar adjectives have since been formed: intercollegiate, interracial, interparliamentary, etc.

Where

no adjective existed, the substantive is used unchanged, but the combination is virtually an adjective: interstate affairs; ^.n inter-island sted^mev ; 'international, inter-club,

inter-team, inter-college or inter-school contests' (quoted Pre-: the pre-Darwinian explanations; prein NED.).

nuptial friendships (Pinero, Second Mrs. Tanqueray, p. 6, what are called on p. 8 'ante-nuptial acquaintances');

the pre-railroad, pre-telegraphic period' (G. Eliot); the pre-railway city; the pre-board school; a bunch of

'in

the pre-mechanical civilized state (all these are quotations from H. G. Wells) in Pro-: the pro-Boers; your pre-smoking days (Barrie). pre- Johannesburg Transvaals;

;

pro-foreign proclivities; a pro-Belgian, or rather pro-King Leopold speaker. As any number of such derivatives or

^I« Latin and Greek.

126

compounds can be formed with the utility

and convenience

greatest facihty, the

of these certainly not classical

expedients cannot be reasonably denied, though

be questioned whether utilize is

may

would not have been better to

English prepositions for the same purposes, as

done with

with

after-

(an after-dinner speech)

before- ('the before Alfred

Sweet; 'smoking

and sometimes

remains of our language',

his bef ore-breakfast pipe',

Conan Doyle).

few words must be added on re- which is used in a similar manner in any number of free compounds, such as rebirth, and especially verbs: re -organize, re-sterilize, Here rere-submit, re-pocket, re-leather, re-case etc. is always strongly stressed and pronounced with a long vowel [i*], and by that means these recent words are in the spoken language easily distinguished from the older set of r^-words, where re is either weakly stressed We have therefore or else pronounced with short [e]. to such pairs as recollect = to remember, and re-collect collect again; he recovered the lost umbrella and had it re-covered; reform and re-form (reformation and re-formation), recreate and re-create, remark and re-mark, resign and re-sign, resound and re-sound, resort and re-sort. In the written language the distinction is not always

observed. 125. Latin has influenced English not only in vocabulary,

but also

(as in

in style

and syntax. The absolute participle

'everything considered', or

was introduced

'this

being the case')

at a very early period in imitation of

comparatively rare in Old English, where it occurs chiefly in close translations from Latin. In the first period of Middle English it is equally the Latin construction.^

It is

Morgan Callaway, The Absolute Participle in Anglo-Saxon. Baltimore 1889. - Charles Hunter Ross The Absolute Participle in Middle and Modern English, Baltimore 1893. I

Syntax.

127

but in the second period it becomes a little more frequent. Chaucer seems to have used it chiefly in imitation of the Italian construction, but this Italian in-

rare,

fluence died out with him,

and French influence did very

frequency of the construction. In the beginning of the Modern English period the absolute participle, though occurring more often than formerly, to increase the

little

'had not self to

become thoroughly naturahzed.

limited

it-

certain favourite authors where the classical element

largely predominated,

authors whose style p. 38.)

But

and was used but sparingly by (Ross, was essentially English/

after 1660,

when English

prose style devel-

oped a new phase, which was saturated with classical elements, the construction rapidly gained ground and was finally fixed and naturalized in the language. There are

some other Latin idioms which authors

tried to imi-

but which have always been felt as unnatural, so that now they have been dropped, for instance who for he who or those who as in 'sleeping found by whom they dread' (Milton, P. L. I. 1333), further such interrogative and relative constructions as those found in the following

tate,

'To do

quotations. (Shakesp., lord,

not

2 IV.

what i.

176)

service

and

right noble

who had he not sacrificed his life now mist and bewayl'd a worthy

Areop.

sent for hither?'

and pious we had

patron' (Milton,

51).

126. Latin

those days,

grammar was the only grammar taught and the only grammar found worthy

'That highly discipHned syntax which Milton favoured from the first, and to which he tended more and more, was in fact, the classical syntax,

study and imitation.

more exact, an adaptation of the syntax of the Latin tongue,' says D. Masson^ and when he adds, to be

or,

Poetical

Works

of Milton, 1890, vol.

Ill,

74—5-

^^' Latin

*It

could hardly

fail to

and Greek.

Even now, questions

be so

syntax are often settled best practically, if a settlement is wanted, by a reference to Latin construction', he expresses a totally erroneous conception which has been, and is, unfortunately too common, although very little linguistic culture would seem to be needed to expose its fallacy. Nowhere, perhaps, has this misconception been more strongly expressed than in Dryden's preface to 'Troilus and Cressida', where he writes: 'How barbarously we yet write and speak your Lordship knows, and I am sufficiently sensible in my own English. For I am often put to a stand in considering whether what I write be the idiom of the tongue, or false grammar and nonsense couched beneath that specious name of Anglicism, and have no other way to clear my doubts but by translating my English into Latin, and thereby trying what sense the words will bear in a more stable language.' I am afraid that Dryden would never have become the famous writer he is, had he employed this But it practice as often as he would have us imagine. was certainly in deference to Latin syntax that in the later editions of his Essay on Dramatic Poesy he changed such phrases as 'I cannot think so contemptibly of the age I live in' to 'the age in which I live'; he speaks somewhere^ of the preposition at the end of the sentence as a common fault with Ben Jonson 'and which I have but lately observed in my own writings.' The construction Dryden here reprehends is not a 'fault' and is not confined to Ben Jonson, but is a genuine English idiom of long standing in the language and found very frequently in all writers of natural prose and verse. The omission of the relative pronoun, which Dr. Johnson terms 'a in English

quote this second-hand, see J. Earle, Efiglish Prose 267; Hales, Notes to Milton's Areopagitica p. 103. I

Syntax and Style.

and which

129

found only seven or eight times in all the writings of Milton, and (according to Thum) only twice in the whole of Macaulay's History, abounds in the writings of such authors as Shakespeare, Bunyan, Swift, Fielding, Goldsmith, Sterne, Byron, Shelley, Dickens, Thackeray, Tennyson, Ruskin, etc., etc. In Addison's well-known 'Humble Petition of Who and Which'^ these two pronouns complain of the injury colloquial barbarism'

done to them by the recent extension of the use of that. 'We are descended of ancient Families, and kept up our Dignity and Honour many Years till the Jacksprat that supplanted

us.'

Addison here turns

topsy-turvy, for that

much

all historical

older as a relative

truth

pronoun

than either who or which] but the real reason of his predilection for the latter two was certainly their conformance to Latin relative pronouns, and there can be no

doubt that

his article, assisted

by English grammars and

the teaching given in schoolrooms, has contributed very

much

to restricting the use of that as a relative

— in writing at least.

Addison himself, when editing the

Spectator in book-form, corrected

less

pronoun

many

a natural that to

natural who or which,

127. As to the

more general

effect of classical studies

very much inclined to think that Darwin and Huxley are right as against most school-

on English

style, I

Darwin had the strongest disbelief in the common idea that a classical scholar must write good English; indeed he thought that the contrary was the case. '2 Huxley wrote to the Times, Aug. 5, 1890:^ 'My masters.

'Ch.

impression has been that the Genius of the English language is widely different from that of Latin; and that

Spectator, no. 78, May 30, 1711. 2 Life and Letters of Ch. Darwin, 1887, I p. 155. 3 Quoted by J. Earle, English Prose, 487. 1

The

Jbspersen: English. 2Qd ed.

VI, Latin and Greek.

the worst and the most debased kinds of English style are those which ape Latinity. I know of no purer English

prose than that of John

Bunyan and Daniel Defoe;

the music of Keats's verse has ever been surpassed; it has not been my fortune to hear any orator who approached the powerful simplicity, the Hmpid sin-

doubt

speech of John Bright. Yet Latin Hterature and these masters of Enghsh had little to do with one another.' As 'in diesem bund der dritte' might be mencerity, of the

tioned Herbert Spencer, to the

128.

same

who

effect in his last

To return

expressed himself strongly

book.^

to the vocabulary.

sider the question:

We may now

con-

the Latin element on the whole

would it have been words from the classical

beneficial to the English tongue or

better

the free adoption of

languages had been kept within much narrower limits? A perfectly impartial decision is not easy, but it is hoped that the following may be considered a fair statement

most important pros and cons. The first advantage that strikes the observer is the enormous addition

of the

to the English vocabulary. their language

German

the English boast that

and that their greater number of words than

richer than

dictionaries contain a far

any

other,

and French ones, the chief reason

is,

of course,

and especially of French and Latjn words adopted. 'I trade,' says Dryden, 'both with the living and the dead for the enrichment of our

the greater

number

of foreign

native language.'

wealth of words has its seamy side too. The real psychological wealth is wealth of ideas, not of mere names. 'We have more words than notions, half a 129.

But

this

dozen words

LXXVI). I

Facts

for the

Words

same

thing', says Selden (Table Talk''

are not material things that can be

and Comments,

1902, p. 70.

[[

Wealth of Words.

131

heaped up like money or stores of food and clothes, from which you may at any time take what you want. A word to be yours must be learnt by you, and possessing Both the process of learning it means reproducing it. and that of reproducing it involve labour on your part. Some words are easy to handle, and others difficult. The number of words at your disposal in a given language therefore, not the only thing of importance; their is, quality, too,

to be considered,

and especially the ease

with which they can be associated with the ideas they are to symbolize

and with other words.

Now many

the Latin words are deficient in that respect, and this entails other

drawbacks

to speakers of English, as will

presently appear. ISO.

It will

ments t hat

be argued in favour of the classical

many

them

fill

up gaps

ele-

in the native st ock

they serve to express ideas which would have been nameless but for them. To this it may be objected that the resources of the original language

of words, so that

should not be underrated.

In most, perhaps in

all cases,

an adequate expression in the vernacular or to coin one. The tendency to such economy in Old English and the ease with which felicitous terms for new ideas were then framed by means of native speech-material, have been mentioned it

would have been possible to

above. But Httle

little

find

English speakers lost the habit

own language and utilizing it going abroad for new expressions.

of looking first to their

utmost before People who had had their whole education in Latin and had thought all their best thoughts in that language to an extent which is not easy for us moderns to realize, often found it easier to write on abstract or learned subjects in Latin than in their own vernacular, and when they tried to write on these things in English, Latin words would constantly come first to their minds. Mental to the

VI. Latin

laziness

and regard

them

therefore led it

to their

and Greek.

own momentary convehience

to retain the Latin

Little did

only an English termination.

the convenience of their readers, to be ignorant of the classics,

whom

generations,

word and give

they care

for

they should happen

or for that of

unborn

they forced by their disregard for

own language to carry on the burden of committing memory words and expressions which were really

their to

they have not actually dried up the natural sources of speech for these run on as yet they have accustomed their countryfresh as ever foreign to their idiom.

—

men

to cross the stream in search of water, to

borrow an

expressive Danish locution.

one class of words which seems to be rather sparingly represented in the native vocabulary, so that classical formations are extremely often resorted to, 131. There

namely the

many

adjectives.

we have

pairs

tives, e. g.

mouth:

mental; son:

filial;

in fact,

is,

surprising

how

nouns and foreign adjecnose: nasal] eye: ocular; mind:

of native

oral;

ox: bovine;

worm:

vermicular; house:

moon: town: urban; man: human,

domestic; the middle ages: medieval; book: literary; lunar; sun: solar; star: stellar; virile, etc., etc.

pairs as

In the

same category we may

money: monetary, pecuniary;

class

such

letter: epistolary;

school: scholastic, as the nouns, though originally foreign, are

now

native.

We may

for all practical purposes to be considered

note here English proper names and

their Latinized adjectives,

Dorset: Dorsetian; Ox-

Oxonian; Cambridge: Cantabrigian; Gladstone: Lancaster has even two adjectives, LanGladstonian.

ford:

castrian (in medieval history)

and Lancasterian

— 1838).

(schools,

cannot be pretended that all these adjectives are used on account of any real deficiency in the English language, as it has quite

Joseph Lancaster, 177 1

a number of endings by which to turn substantives into

Adjectives.

adjectives:

-en

(silken),

-y

(fatherly), -like (fishlike),

1^3

(flowery),

-ish

(girlish),

-some (burdensome),

-ly

-ful (sin-

and these might easily have been utilized still more than they actually have been. In point of fact, we possess not a few native adjectives by the side of more learned

ful),

ones,

e. g.

fatherly: paternal; motherly: maternal; brotherly:

fraternal (but only sisterly, as sororal left

out of account)

heavenly: timely:

so rare as to be

further watery: aquatic or aqueous; earthy,

earthly,

earthen:

terrestrial;

temporal; daily: diurnal; truthful: veracious; etc.

some

celestial;

;

cases the meanings of these have

become more

EngHsh words having often lost an abstract sense which they formerly had and which might have been retained with advantage. If the word

or less differentiated,

sanguinary

now

the

extensively used

meaning Kingly, royal, and

curious twisting of the (cf.

244).

different appHcations,

due to the

of bloody in vulgar

have now sHghtly

regal

but as royal

speech

in French,

kongelig

and koniglich in German cover them all, English might have been content with one word instead

Danish,

of three,

132. Besides, in a great

many

cases

really con-

trary to the genius of the language to use an adjective at

Where Romance and Slavonic languages very prefer a combination of a noun and an adjective the

all.

often

Germanic languages combine the two ideas into a compound noun. Birthday is much more English than natal day (which is used, for instance, in Wordsworth's 75th Sonnet), and eyeball than ocular globe, but physiologists think it more dignified to speak of the gustatory nerve than of the taste nerve and will even say mental nerve (Lat.

mentum

'chin')

instead of chin nerve in spite of

the unavoidable confusion with the familiar adjective mental. Mere position before another noun is really the

most English way

of turning a

noun

into

an adjective,

VI.

e. g.

Latin and Greek.

the London market, a Wessex man,

ding, a strong Edinburgh accent, a

Yorkshire pud-

Japan

table,

Venice

Chaucer Society, the Droeshout picture, a Gladstone bag, imitation Astrakhan, 'Every tiger madness muzzled, every serpent passion kill'd' (Tennyson).^ It is the

glasses,

worth noting that the English adjective corresponding to family is not familiar, v^hich. has been somewhat estranged from its kindred, but family: family reasons, family affairs, family questions, etc. The unnaturalness of forming Latin adjectives

is,

perhaps, also

shown by the

vacillation often

found between different endings, as in feudatary and feudatory, festal and festive. From labyrinth no less than six adjectives have been found: labyrinthal, labyrinthean, labyrinthian, labyrinthic, labyrinthical and labyrinthine. Many adjectives are quite superfluous; Shakespeare never used either autumnal, hibernal, vernal, or estival, Instead of and he probably never missed them. hodiernal and hesternal

Most

of us can

(birds), avuncular in the

'the

avuncular

great in the

eagle ib.)2

too.?

—

certainly do without gressorial

'the

quarrel',

line;

have

yesterday's

favourite with Thackeray:

gig';

(processes

osculatory is

luckily other expressions

post; the questions of the day;

(to-day's news).

we have

avuncular banking house'; all from The Newcomes),

kissing; ib.)

'Clive,

ib.)

lachrymatory (he

aquiline ('What!

aquiline

prentensions

am at

all',

and a great many similarly purposeless ad-

jectives.

133.

More than

anything

English language manifests

else the richness of

itself in its

great

number

the of

Shakespeare did not scruple to write 'the Carthage queen', 'Rome gates', 'Tiber banks', even through faire Verona streets'. Cf. below, § 210. 2 Thus used in a different manner from the familiar aqui1

line nose.

Synonyms.

synonyms, whether we take this word in its strict sense of words of exactly the same meaning or in the looser It is sense of words with nearly the same meaning. evident that the latter class must be the most valuable as

allows speakers to express subtle shades of thought.

Juvenile does not signify the

same thing

as youthful, pon-

derous as weighty, portion as share, miserable as wretched.

means 'that can be read', readable generally 'worth reading'. Sometimes the Latin word is used in a more Legible

limited, special or precise sense

by a comparison

seen

knowledge, sentence

than the English, as

of identical

and saying,

and same,

latent or occult

science

does not

larly edify,

now be called a synonym of spirit mean the breath', Tennyson), and

which

sense of

crete

still

and

and hidden.

Breath can hardly spirit

('The simi-

used by Spenser in the con-

'building up',

now used

with a spiritual signification, which

its

exclusively

former synonym

Homicide is the learned, abstract, colourless word, while murder denotes only one kind of manslaughter, and killing is the everyday word with a build can never have.

much vaguer mals); there in the

signification (being applicable also to aniis

NED.:

a very apposite quotation from Coleridge the act '(He) is acquitted of murder

—

was manslaughter only, or it was justifiable homicide*. The learned word magnitude is more specialized than greatness or size (which is now thoroughly English, but is a very recent development of assize in a curiously modified sense). The Latin masculine is more abstract than the English manly, which generally implies an emotional element of praise, the French male has not exactly the same import as either, and the Latin virile represents a fourth shade, while for the other sex we have feminine, womanly and womanish, the differences between which are

not parallel

synonyms.

those between the

first

series

^I- Latin and Greek.

134. These examples will suffice to illustrate the synonymic relations between classical and other words. It will

be seen that

it is

not always easy to draw a

line

meaning attached to each word; indeed, a comparison of the definitions given in various essays on synonyms and in dictionaries, and especially a comparison of these definitions with the use as actually found in various writers, will show that it is in many cases a hopeless task or to determine exactly the different shades of

to assign definite spheres of signification to these words.

Sometimes the only

real difference

that one term

preferred in certain collocations and another in others.

indubitable that very often the existence of a double or triple assortment of expressions will allow a writer to express his thoughts with the greatest preBut on the other hand, only those cision imaginable. Still,

whose thoughts are accurate and well disciplined attain to the highest degree of Hnguistic precision, and the use in speech and writing of the same set of words by loose and inexact thinkers will always tend to blur out any sharp lines of demarcation that may exist between such synonymous terms as do not belong to their every-day stock of language. 135. However, even where there

no real difference

value of two words or where the difference is momentarily disregarded, their existence may not be en-

in the

tirely worthless, as

vial repetition of the

sions

enables an author to avoid a

same word, and variety

tri-

of expres-

generally considered one of the felicities of style.

very often see English authors use a native and a

borrowed word side by side simply, it would seem, to amplify the expression, without modifying its meaning. Thus 'of blind forgetjulnesse and dark oblivion' (Shakespeare, in Buckingham's strongly rhetorical speech, R 3 III. 7. 129).

The

manifold multiform flower' (Swinburne,

;

Synonyms.

Songs

bef. Sunr.

three expressions

the sort of story

Hesiodic story

lo6). is

perfectly natural variation of

seen in: 'the

Bushman

story

just

from Bushmen, whereas the

expect

not at

I^y

all

the kind of tale

look for

from Greeks'. (A. Lang, Custom and Myth 54.) Further examples: 'I went upstairs with my candle directly. It appeared to my childish fancy, as I ascended to the bed'He asked me if it would suit my conroom venience to have the light put out; and on my answering '

'yes',

instantly extinguished

approached.

When

came near him, Scrooge bent down'

They

'they are exactly unlike. respects'

all

(all

'The phantom slowly

it'.

are utterly dissimilar in

these from Dickens).

of our land of freedom,

we who

'We who boast

live in the country of

could not repress a half smile as he said this; a similar demi-manifestation of feeling appeared at the same moment on Hunsden's lips.' This kind of variation liberty.'

evidently does not always lead to the highest excellence

quote from Minto^ Samuel Johnson's comparison between punch and conversation: 'The spirit, volatile and fiery, is the proper emblem of vivacity and wit; the acidity of the lemon will very aptly figure punof style.

gency of raillery and acrimony of censure; sugar

the

natural representative of luscious adulation and gentle

complaisance; and water

the proper hieroglyphic of

easy prattle, innocent and tasteless.'

This

not far

from Mr. Micawber's pihng up of words ('to the best to wit, of my knowledge, information, and belief in manner following, that is to say'), which gives Dickens the occasion for the following outburst: 'In the taking of legal oaths, for

seem

to enjoy themselves mightily

instance, deponents

when they come

several good words in succession, for the expression of

Manual

of English Prose Literature, 3rd ed. 1896, p. 418.

\1. Latin

138

one idea;

as,

and Greek.

that they utterly detest, abominate, and

and the old anathemas were made We talk about the relishing on the same principle. tyranny of words, but we like to tyrannize over them too; we are fond of having a large superfluous estabhshment of words to wait upon us on great occasions; we think it looks important, and sounds well. As we are not particular about the meanings of our liveries on state occasions, if they be but fine and numerous enough, so the meaning or necessity of our words is a secondary consideration if there be but a great parade of them. And as individuals get into trouble by making too great a show of liveries, or as slaves when they are too numerous rise against their masters, so I think I could mention a nation that has got into many great difficulties, and will get into many greater, from maintaining too large

abjure, or so forth;

a retinue of words.'

[David Copperfield,

No doubt many

p. 702.)^

J |

;^>j

synonymous terms introduced from Latin and Greek had best been let alone. No one would have missed pharos by the side of lighthouse, or nigritude by the side of blackness. The native words 136.

of the

cold, cool, chill, chilly, icy, frosty

might have seemed

suf-

without any necessity for importing frigid, gelid, and algid, which, as a matter of fact, are neither found in Shakespeare nor in the Authorized

ficient for all purposes,

Version of the Bible nor in the poetical works of Milton, Pope, Cowper, and Shelley. 137. Apart from the advantage of being able

make number

con-

stantly to

a choice between words possessing a

different

of syllables

and often

also presenting

a difference in the place of the accent, poets will often

Mr. Micawber also has the following delightful piece of bathos: 'It is not an avocation of a remunerative description in other words, it does ?tot pay.' I

—

Big Words. find the sonorous Latin

l^g

words better

for their purposes

In some kinds of prose than the short native ones. writing, too, they are felt to heighten the tone, and add dignity, even majesty, to the structure of the sentence.

The

seems to be that the long word takes up more time. Instead of hurrying the reader or listener on to the next idea, it allows his mind to dwell for a longer time upon the same idea; it gives time for his reflexion to be deeper and especially for his emotion to be stronger. This seems to me more important than the two other reasons given by H. Spencer (Essays, II, p. 14) that 'a voluminous, mouth-filling epithet is, by its very size, suggestive of largeness or strength' and that 'a

chief reason of this

word

of several syllables admits of

articulation of

emotion,

(.?);

and as emphatic articulation

quaint

passage

a sign

unusual impressiveness of the thing

the

named

more emphatic

implied

(not

it.'

Let

quote here also a

be taken too seriously) from

Howell (New English Grammar, 1662, p. 40): 'The Spanish abound and delight in words of many syllables, and where the English expresseth himself in one syllable, he doth in 5 or 6, as thoughts pensamientos, fray levantamiento &c, which is held a part of wisdom, for while they speak they take time to consider of the matter.'

138.

often said that the classical elements are

commendable on the

score of international intelligibility,

and

many of

it is

certain that

during the

last

them, even of those formed

century on more or

and Greek analogy, are used

less

many

exact Latin

other civilized

The utility of this is easy communication between the

countries as well as in England.

evident in our days of

nations; but on the whole

its utility

should not be valued

beyond measure. If the thing to be named is one of everyday importance, national convenience should cer-

VI- Latin and Greek.

j^o tainly be

considered before international ease;

there-

and a wire are preferable to telegraph and Scientific nomenclature is to a great extent

fore to wire telegram.'^

universal,

no reason

why

each nation should

own name for foraminifera or monocotyledones. But much of science is now becoming more and more the

have so

and there

its

property of everybody and influences daily life so deeply that the endeavour should rather be to have popular than learned names for whatever in science is not in-

tended exclusively for the specialist. Sleeplessness is a better name than insomnia, and foreigners who know English enough to read a medical treatise in it will be no more perplexed by the word than an Englishman reading German is by schlajlosigkeit. Foreign phoneticians

have had no difficulty in understanding Melville Bell's excellent nomenclature and have even to a great extent adopted the English terms of front, mixed, hack, etc. in preference to the more cumbersome palatal, gutturoand guttural. It is a pity that half-vowel (Googe 1577) and half-vowelish (Ben Jonson) should have been Among superseded by semi-vowel and semi-vowel-like. English words that have been in recent times adopted by many foreign languages may be mentioned cheque, palatal,

box

(in

a bank),

trust, film (in

photography),

sport, jockey,

sulky, gig, handicap, dock, waterproof, tender, co*ke (Ger-

koks or sometimes with Pseudo- English spelling coaks), so that even to obtain international currency a word need not have a learned appearance or be

man and Danish

Besides, many derived from Greek and Latin roots. of the latter class are not quite so international as might

be supposed, as their English significations are

on the continent (pathos,

And why

unknown

physic, concurrent, competition.

not use wireless as a verb too?

has wirelessed that a Russian man-of-war

'Admiral N.

in sight', etc.

Internationality.

actual, eventual, injury); is

different

dividual (Fr.

(chimie

individu,

chemie)

sometimes, also, the ending

principle

iai

(Fr.

principe

etc.)

German individuum),

botany (botanique)

in-

chemistry

fanaticism (fana-

tisme).

139. It

possible to point out a certain

number

inherent deficiencies which affect parts of the vocabulary

borrowed from the ready been made (§

Mention has al26) of the stress-shifting which is so contrary to the general spirit of Germanic tongues and which obscures the relation between connected words, especially in a language where unstressed syllables are generally pronounced with such indistinct vowel sounds as in English. Compare, for instance, solid and solidity, pathos and pathetic, pathology and pathologic, pacify and pacific (note that the first two syllables of pacification, where the strongest stress is on the fourth syllable, vacillate between the two corresponding pronunciations). The incongruity is especially disagreeable when native classical language.

names are distorted by means ending, as

when Milton has

of a learned derivative

the stress shifted on to the

second syllable and the vowel changed

ways)

Miltonic and

Dickensian,

Taylorian,

Miltonian; Spenserian,

cf.

(in

two

also

different

Baconian,

Canadian,

Dorset-

tan, etc.

140. Another drawback

shown

in the relation be-

tween emit and immit, emerge and immerge. While in Latin emitto and immitto, emergo and immergo were easily kept apart, because the vowels were distinct and double consonants were rigorously pronounced double and so kept apart from single ones, the natural English pronunciation will confound them, just as it confounds the first syllables of immediate and emotion. Now, as the meaning of e- is the exact opposite of in-, the two pairs do not go well together in the same language. The same

true of

^I- Latin

J 4.2

and Greek.

and elusion.'^ A still greater drawback arises from the two meanings of initial in, which is sometimes the negative prefix and sometimes the preposition. According to dictionaries investigahle means (i) that may be investigated, (2) incapable of being investigated, and 'infusible (i) that may be infused or poured in, (2) incapable of being fused or melted. Importable, which is now only used as derived from import (capable of being imported) had formerly also the meaning 'unbearable', and improvable similarly had the meaning of 'incapable of being proved' though it only retains that of 'capable illusion

of being improved'.

(Temp.

II.

What Shakespeare

one passage

37) expresses in accordance with

usage by the word uninhabitable he elsewhere

modern calls in-

(Even to the frozen ridges of the Alpes, Or any other ground inhabitable, R 2 I. i. 65), and the ambihabitable

now

guity of the latter word has

led to the curious re-

sult that the positive adjective corresponding to inhabit is

habitable

The first that it means

and the negative uninhabitable.

syllable of inebriety

the preposition in-, so

the same thing as the rare ebriety 'drunkenness', but Th. Hook mistook it for the negative prefix and so, subtracting

in-,

used in

mean Shakespeare's Cymb. made

ebriety

of lustrous, while elsewhere

'sobriety'. ^

Illustrious

109 as the negative has the exactly opposite

Fortunately this ambiguity is Hmited to a comparative small portion of the vocabulary.^

signification.

Illiterate spellers will often write illicit for elicit,

for innumerable, etc.

Many words have

had, and

enumerable

some

still

have,

two spellings, with e7i- (em-) from the French, and with in- (im-) from the Latin {enquire, inquire, etc.) 2 See quotation in Davies, Supplementary English Glossary

i88i. 3

invaluable

and some-

obviously different from the above,

'-i

means generally 'very

times 'valueless', the case

valuable'

Want

numerous loans from a variety

of languages, the prevailing

from Latin into English, of the Scandinavian and of the most important among the French loans, nay even of a Wine great many recent loans from exotic languages. and tea, bacon and eggs, orange and sugar, plunder and

—

all are not only indispensable, and judge But while most but harmonious elements of English. people are astonished on first hearing that such words have not always belonged to their language, no philological training is required to discover that phenomenon or

war, prison

diphtheriaor intellectual on latitudinarian3.rQ out of harmony with the real core or central part of the language. Every

father

one of unity, apart perhaps from some of The foreign elements the most recent Swedish words. have been so assimilated in sound and inflexion as to be recognizable as foreign only to the eye of a philologist. The same may be said of the pre-Conquest borrowings impression

one must

Harmony.

141. Loan-words do not necessarily n^ake a language In Finnish, for instance, in spite of inharmonious.

the incongruity of such sets of words as

feel

— paternal — parricide

or of the

abnormal plurals

which break the beautiful regularity of nearly all English substantives — phenomena, nuclei, larvce, chrysalides, indices^ etc. The occasional occurrence of such blundering plurals as animalcules and ignorami

an unconscious protest against

the prevalent pedantry of schoolmasters in this respect.^ I

He may

also see giraffes, lions or rhinoceros.

The mention

of a problem, which has tormented me all the time that I have been in East Africa, namely, what The conversational abbreviations, is the plural of rhinoceros? 'rhino', 'rhinos', seem beneath the dignity of literature, and

of this last

word reminds me

use the sporting idiom by which the singular for the plural is merely to avoid the difficulty. to

Scott

seem

'rhinoceroses'

authorize 'rhinocerotes' which is

not euphonious.'

Africa Protectorate (1905) P- 266.

always put

Liddell

and

pedantic, but

Sir Charles Eliot,

The East

jAA

VI. Latin

and Greek.

The unnatural state into which the language has been thrown by the wholesale adoption of learned words is further manifested by the fact that not a few of them 142.

have no fixed pronunciation; they are, in fact, eye-words that do not really exist in the language. Educated people freely write them and understand them when they see them written, but are more or less puzzled when they have to pronounce them. Dr. Murray relates how he was once present at a meeting of a learned society, where in the course of discussion he heard the word gaseous systematically pronounced in six different ways by as many eminent physicists. (NED., Preface.) Diatribist is by Murray and the Century Dictionary stressed on the first, by Webster on the second syllable, and the same hesitation is found with phonotypy, photochromy, and many similar words. This is, however, beaten by two so well-known words as hegemony and phthisis, for each of which dictionaries record no less than nine possible pronunciations without being able to tell us which of these is the prevalent or preferable one. I doubt very much whether analogous waverings can be found in any other language. 143.

The worst

thing,

however,

that

can be said

against the words that are occupying us here

their

and the undemocratic character which is a natural outcome of their difficulty. A great many of

difficulty

them

never be used or understood by anybody that

will

has not had a classical education^.

There are usually no associations of ideas between them and the ordinary stock of words, and no likenesses in root or in the formative elements to assist the memory. We have here I

Sometimes they are not even understood by the erudite

themselves,

Gestic in Goldsmiths 'skill'd in gestic lore' (Trav-

taken in all dictionaries as meaning 'legendary, historical' as \{ ixon\ gest OYx. geste 'sX.Qixy romance'; but the context shows conclusively that 'pertaining to bodily movement, esp. dancing' (NED.) must be the meaning; cf, Lat. gestus eller

253)

14c

Malapropisms. of those invisible threads that knit

words together in the human mind. Their great number in the language is therefore apt to form or rather to accentuate class divisions, so that a man's culture is largely judged of by the extent to which he is able correctly to handle certainly these hard words in speech and in writing none

—

not the highest imaginable standard of a man's worth. No literature in the world abounds as English does in characters made ridiculous to the reader by the manner

which they misapply or distort 'big' words. Shakespeare's Dogberry and Mrs. Quickly, Fielding's Mrs. Slipin

slop,

Smollet's Winifred Jenkins, Sheridan's Mrs. Mala-

prop, Dickens's Weller senior, Shillaber's Mrs. Parting-

and footmen and labourers innumerable made fun in novels and comedies might all of them appear in

ton, of

court as witnesses for the plaintiff in a law-suit brought against the educated classes of England for wilfully

making the language more complicated than necessary and thereby hindering the spread of education

among

all

classes of the population.

144. Different authors vary very greatly with regard

which they make use of such 'choice words, and measured phrase above the reach of ordinary men'. So much is said on this head in easily accessible textbooks on literature that I need not repeat it here. to the extent to

Unfortunately the statistical calculations given there of the percentage of native and of foreign words in different writers are not quite to the point, for while they generally

include Scandinavian loans

among

native words,

they

reckon together all words of classical origin, although such popular words as cry or crown have evidently quite Arista? chy has been wrongly interpreted in most dictionaries as 'a body of good men in power', while it is derived from the proper name Aristarch and means 'a body of severe critics'. (Fitzedward Hall, Modern English 143.) 'gesture'.

Jbspersen: English. 2nd ed.

VI. Latin and Greek.

146

a different standing in the language from learned words like auditory or hymenoptera. The culmination with regard to the use of learned

words

ordinary literary style was

reached in the time of Dr. Samuel Johnson. I can find no better example to illustrate the effect of extreme

—

'Johnsonese' than the following: 'The proverbial oracles of our parsimonious ancestors

have informed

us, that the fatal

waste of our fortune

sums too little singly to alarm our caution, and which we never suffer ourselves to consider together. Of the same kind is the J prodigahty of life; he that hopes to look back hereafter with satisfaction upon past years, must learn to know the present value of single minutes, and endeavour to

by small expenses, by the profusion

let

no particle of time

fall useless to

the ground.'^

Essay on Madame D'Arblay Macaulay gives some delightful samples of this style as developed by that ardent admirer of Dr. Johnson. Sheridan refused to permit his lovely wife to sing in public, and was 145.

his

warmly praised on of men,' says

this

Madame

account by Johnson. 'The last D'Arblay, 'was Doctor Johnson

have abetted squandering the delicacy

nullifying the labours of talent.'

death Isaac

'to

Newton

of integrity

To be starved

sink from inanition into nonentity.' is

to Sir

'the developer of the skies in their em.-

bodied movements', and Mrs. Thrale, when a party of clever people sat silent, is said to have been 'provoked by the dulness of a taciturnity that, in the midst of such

renowned interloculors, produced as narcotic a torpor could have been caused by a death the most barren

as of

Minto {Manual of Engl. Prose Lit 422) translates this as follows: 'Take care of the pennies', says the thrifty old proverb, and the pounds will take care of themselves.' In like manner we might say, 'Take care of the minutes, and the years will I

•

take care of themselves.'

;

jaj

Johnsonese,

human

all

faculties/

(Macaulay, Essays, Tauchn. ed. V.

p. 65.)

146. In the nineteenth century a

most happy reaction

words and natural expressions and it is highly significant that Tennyson, for instance, prides himself on having in the 'Idylls of the King' used Latin words more sparingly than any other poet. But set in in favor of 'Saxon'

the malady lingers on, especially with the half-edu-

still

quote from a newspaper the following story: The young lady home from school was explaining. 'Take an egg', she said, 'and make a perforation in the base and a corresponding one in the apex. Then apply the cated.

to the aperture,

lips

the shell

lady

and by forcibly inhaling the breath

entirely discharged of

who was

contents.'

'It

beats

listening exclaimed:

do things nowadays.

When

An old how folks

its

was a

—

all

gal they

made

and sucked.' To a different class belongs that master of Saxon English, Charles Lamb, who begins his 'Chapter on Ears' in the following way: Mistake me not, reader, *I have no ear. nor imagine that I am by nature destitute of those exterior twin appendages, hanging ornaments, and (architecturally speaking) handsome volutes to the human capital. Better my mother had never borne me. I am, I think, rather delicately than copiously provided with those conduits; and I feel no disposition to envy the mule for his plenty, or the mole for her exactness in those latjiyrinhole in each end

—

thine 0.

inlets

—

those indispensable side

W. Holmes,

in his 'Our

and writes instead

intelligencers.'

Hundred Days

avoids the simple expression 'beard',

Europe'

shaving machine' and

reaping machine which

gathered the capillary harvest of the past twenty - four lours ,:uline •lis

in short,

lawn-mower

for

the

mas-

growth of which the proprietor wishes to

countenance.' 10*

rid

VI. Latin

148 -

and Greek.

147. Of course, the authors of these two'sample) aim

them

at a certain

humorous

and very often

effect,

circumlocutions are consciously resorted to in conversation to obtain a ludicrous effect, as 'he ampu-

similar

mahogany' (cut his stick, went off), 'to agitate the communicator' (ring the bell), 'are your corporeal tated his

functions in a condition of

solubility.?*',

sanguinary

New

Cut,

a street in London), 'the Grove of the Evangehst'

(St.

nasal protuberance', 'the Recent Incision' (the

John's

Wood

London),

etc.

When

Mr. Bob Sawyer

where do you hang out.?' Mr. Pick wick replied that he was at present suspended at the George and Vulture. (Dickens, Pickw. II 13.) Punch somewhere gives the following paraphrases of well-known proverbs: 'Iniquitous intercourses contaminate proper habits. In the absence of the feline race, the mice give themselves up to various pastimes. Casualties w411 take place in the most excellently conducted family circles. More confectioners than are absolutely necessary are apt to ruin the potage.' (Quoted in Fitzgerald's Miscellanies^ Similarly *A rolling stone gathers no moss' is p. 166). paraphrased 'Cryptogamous concretion never grows On mineral fragments that decline repose'. Some Latin and Greek words will scarcely ever be used except in jocular or ironical speech, such as sapient (wise), histrion (actor),j a virgin aunt (maiden aunt), hylactism (barking), edacious^ asked

say, old boy,

hom*o (mankind), etc. But how many words are there not which

(greedy), the genus

148.

same

but are used

belong

dead earnest by people who know that many big words are found in the best authors and who want to show off their education by avoiding plain everyday expressions and by couching their thoughts in a would-be refined style.I* When Canning wrote the inscription graven on Pitt's monument in the London Guildhall, an Alderman felt much disgust at virtually to the

class,

Journalese.

and wished

the grand phrase, 'he died poor',

expired in indigent circ*mstances'.

'he

who

Oliphant,

relates

remarks,

justly

scholarlike

James

the

which

writing,

samples

—

great crowd

Lowell his

old I

Introduction

the

Biglow Papers, has a

and

new

the

styles

The

came

fire.

fire

New to see.

what newspaper

list

spread.

fell.

Sent for the doctor

few

Style.

concourse

vast

was

as-

to witness.

Disastrous conflagration.

The conflagration extended its

Man

the

find so characteristic that I select a

sembled Great

Kington

English II 232), difference between the

Old Style.

Mr.

New

(The

the

to substitute

and the vulgar be more happily marked .>'

Russell

calls

this

'Could

Second Series of he

149

devastating career.

Individual was precipitated. Called

into

requisition

the

services of the family physician.

Began

his answer.

died.

Commenced his rejoinder. He deceased, he passed out of

existence,

quitted

its

his

spirit

earthly habit-

winged its way to eternity, shook off its buration,

den, etc.

do not deny that somewhat parallel instances of stilted language might be culled from the daily press of most other nations, but nowhere else are they found in such plenty as in English, and no other language lends itself by its very structure to such vile stylistic tricks as English does. Wordsworth writes: 'And sitting on the grass partook The fragrant beverage drawn from 149.

VI. Latin

and Creek.

which Tennyson remarked 'Why could he not have said 'And sitting on the grass had tea?'^ Gissing in one of his novels says of a clergyman: 'One might have suspected that he had made a list of uncommon words wherewith to adorn his discourse, for certain China's herb',

of these frequently recurred. 'Nullifidian', 'morbific',

're-

Once or twice he spoke of 'psychogenesis', with an emphatic enunciation which seemed to invite respectful wonder'. ^ And did not little Thomas Babington Macaulay, when four years old, reply to a lady who took pity on him after he had spilt some hot coffee over his legs, 'Thank you, madam, the agony is abated'? And does not a language which possesses, besides the natural expression for each thing, two or three sonorous equivalents, tempt a writer into what nascent', were

among

his favourites.

Lecky hits off so well when he says of Gladstone: 'He seemed sometimes to be labouring to show with how

many words

a simple thought could be expressed or

obscured'.?*

adopted since the Renaissance have enriched the English language very greatly and have especially increased its number of synBut it is not every 'enrichment' that is an onyms. 150.

To sum up:

the classical words

advantage, and this one comprises much that is really superfluous, or worse than superfluous, and has, moreover, stunted the growth of native formations. The international currency of sation for their

want

many words of

not a

harmony with

full

compen-

the core of the

language and for the undemocratic character they give to the vocabulary. While the composite character of the language gives variety and to some extent precision to the

and Letters III. 60. Born in Exile 380. Democracy and Libtrty I.

Life

XXI.

Summing-up.

i^i

on the other hand it encourages an inflated turgidity of style. Without siding completely with Milton's teacher Alexander Gill, who says that classical studies have done the English language more harm than ever the cruelties of the Danes or the devastations of the Normans^, we shall probably be near the truth if we recognize in the latest influence from the classical languages 'something between a hindrance and style of the greatest masters,

a help/

Latina venio. Et si uspiam querelas locus, hie est; quod otium, quod literae, maiorem cladem sermoni Anglico I

quam uUa Danorum ssevitia, uUa Normannorum unquam inflixerit. Logonomia Anglica 162 (Jiriczek's

intulerint

vastitas

reprint, Strassburg 1903, p. 43.)

Chapter VII.

Various Sources. 151. Although

Enghsh has borrowed a great many

words from other languages than those mentioned in the preceding chapters, these borrowings need not occupy us long here. For only Scandinavian, French, and Latin have left a mark on English deep enough to modify its character and to change its structure, and numerous as are the words it has borrowed from Dutch, Italian, Spanish, German, etc., the English language would remain the same in every essential respect even were they all to disappear to-morrow. Many of the words taken over from other languages are indeed extremely interesting from many points of view, and the student who should go through the lists given by Skeat' with a view to arranging them in groups according to their signification would be able to draw^many important inferences with regard to England's commercial and other relations with many nations. Attention has already been called to the

musical terms derived from Italian list

of terms

of architecture

from the same language dor,

grotto,

niche,

(e.

parapet,

fresco; improvisatore, motto)

and g.

art

and a similar general taken

colonnade, cornice, corri-

pilaster,

profile;

could be

made

In his Etymological Dictionary

Etymology.

(§ 31),

miniature,

the basis of

and Principles of English

Foreign Words.

an interesting chapter

A or

alarum,

European civilization, military words (e. g. alarm

in a history of

number

considerable

cartridge,

corporal,

cuirass,

pistol,

sentinel)

carry us back to wars between Italy and France; and still other lessons in military history might be learnt from the existence in

Enghsh

two synonyms, plunder, a

German word introduced in the middle of the seventeenth century by soldiers who had served under Gustavus Adolphus, and loot, a Hindi word learnt by English soldiers

India about a hundred years ago.

would lead us too

far

we were

to give

many

But such

in-

stances.

152. There

is,

of course,

nothing peculiarly English

the adoption of such words as maccaroni and lava from Italian, steppe and verst from Russian, caravan and in

from Persian, hussar and shako from Hungarian, hey and caftan from Turkish, harem and mufti from Arabic, bamboo and orang-outang from Malay, taboo from Polynesian, chocolate and tomato from Mexican, moccassin, tomahawk, and totem from other American languages. As a matter of fact, all these words now belong to the

dervish

whole of the civilized world; like such classical or pseudoclassical words as nationality, telegram, and civilization they bear witness to the sameness of modern culture everywhere the same products and to a great extent the :

same ideas are now known all over the globe and many of them have in many languages identical names. 153. And yet, English differs from most other languages in that it is more inclined than they are to swallow foreign words raw, so to speak, instead of preferring to translate the foreign expression into some native equivalent. Thus English has taken over the German word kindergarten unchanged, while for the same institution Danish has the literal translation bornehave and Norwegian barnehave.

VII. Various Sources.

ICA

154.

interesting contrast

behaviour

may

in this respect of the

be seen between the

Dutch and the English

South Africa. The former, finding there a great manynatural objets which were new to them, designated them either by means of existing Dutch words whose meanings were, accordingly, more or less modified, or else by Thus shot coining new words, generally compounds. 'ditch' was applied to the peculiar dry rivers of that country, veld 'field' to the open pasturages, and kopje 'a little head or cup' to the hills, etc.; different kinds of animals were called roodehok ('red-buck'), steenbok ('stonein

springbok ('hop-buck'),

buck'),

springhaas ('hop-hare'),

hartebeest ('hart-beast'); a certain bird vreter

('serpent-eater'),

The

was

called slang-

certain large shrub spekboom

on the other hand, instead of imitating this principle, have simply taken over all these names into their own language, where they now figure^ together with some other South African Dutch words, among which may be mentioned trek and ('bacon-tree'),

etc.

English,

spoor, in the special significations of 'colonial migration'

and

'track of wild animal', while the

much

less

specialized

[trekken

'to

Dutch words

draw,

pull,

are

travel,

These examples of move'; spoor 'trace, track, rail'). borrowings might easily be multiplied from other domains, and we may say of the English what Moth says of Holofernes

and

Sir

Nathaniel that 'they have been at

a great feast of languages, and stolne the scraps' (Love's L. L. V.

39).

It will

therefore be natural to inquire into

the cause of this linguistic omnivorousness.

would, of course, be irrational to ascribe the phenomenon to a greater natural gift for learning lan155.

Roodebok often spelt in accordance with the actual Dutch

pronunciation rooibok, rooyebok.

Dutch

spelling sluit.

Shot

often appears in the un-

South Africa. guages, for in the

first place,

155

the English are not usually

and secondly the best linguists are generally inclined to keep their own language pure rather than adulterate it with scraps of other languages. Consequently, we should be nearer the truth if we were credited with such a

gift,

to give as a reason the linguistic incapacity of the average

Englishman.

As a

traveller

and a

colonizer, however,

thrown into contact with people of a great many different nations and thus cannot help seeing numerous things and institutions unknown in England. R.L.Stevenson says somewhere about the typical John Bull, that 'his is a domineering nature, steady in fight, imperious to command, but neither curious nor quick about the he

of others'.^

life

And perhaps

the loan-words

are con-

but the most superficial curiosof other nations and would not have

sidering, testify to nothing

about the life been adopted if John Bull had really in his heart cared any more than this for the foreigners he meets. He is content to pick up a few scattered fragments of their just enough to impart a certain local colouring speech to his narratives and political discussions, but he goes no ity

—

further.

rather different attitude towards foreign words seems to have been taken in former times. On the one 156.

hand, some foreign place-names of obvious etymology were translated; the Black Forest is one of these translations which has been retained, while now the Siehen-

and the Riesengehirge are terms more commonly used than the Seven Mountains and the Giant Mountains. On the other hand, the title signior was in the times of Shakespeare used very frequently in speaking about

gehirge

others than Italians, while

now such

titles

to natives of the country the titles are

Memories and

Portraits, p.

are only applied

borrowed from.

VII. Various Sources.

ic6 It is,

indeed, a characteristic feature that foreigners are

mentioned

England

Signor

Schultze, Fraulein Adler,

who

etc.,

Herr France would be

Manfredini, in

simply Monsieur or Mademoiselle So-and-so.

This

may

be interpreted as a sign of a great respect for or deference

and perhaps that

to foreigners,

true in the case of

foreign musicians or teachers of languages, but in other

may

cases, the use of foreign titles

be an outcome of a

certain unwillingness to recognize foreigners as entitled

same standing as natives, and a consequent inclination to mark them off as un-English. 157. The tendency to adopt words from other languages

to the

due, then, probably to a variety of causes.

among laziness

these

think

mentioned

Foremost

right to place the linguistic

130 and fostered especially by

the preference for words from the classical languages.

That the borrowing

not occasioned by an inherent

deficiency in the language

itself,

shown by the ease framed whenever the by uneducated people

new terms actually are need of them is really felt, especially who are not tempted to go outside with which

to express their thoughts.

natural

inventiveness

may

E. Morris's 'Austral English,

words, phrases and usages'.

their

own language

Interesting examples of this

be found in Mr.

Edward

A dictionary of Australasian As Mr. Morris says

in his

preface, 'Those who, speaking the tongue of Shakespeare,

came to various parts of Australasia, found a Flora and a Fauna waiting to be named in English. New birds, beasts and fishes, new trees, bushes and flowers, had to receive names for of Milton,

and

general use.

of Dr. Johnson,

It is

much to say that history when so many

probably not too

was an instance in new names were needed, and that there never there never

will

such an occasion again, for never did settlers come, nor can they ever again come, upon Flora and Fauna so com-

Australia.

from anything seen by them before'. The gaps were filled partly by adopting words from the

pletely different

aboriginal languages,

kangaroo, wombat, partly

applying English words to objects bearing a real or fancied resemblance to the objects denoted by them in Engmagpie, oak, beech, but partly also by new EngAccordingly, in turning over the leaves lish formations. of Mr. Morris's Dictionary we come across numerous land,

e. g.

names

of birds

friar-bird,

honey- eater,

frogsmouth,

ground-lark, forty-spot^, of fishes like long-fin, trumpeter, of plants like sugar-grass, hedge-laurel, ironheart, thousand-

must have Whip-bird, or Coach-whip, from had an imagination. the sound of the note, Lyre-bird from the appearance jacket.

Most

of these

of the outspread It

tail,

show that the

settler

are admirable names.'

(Morris,

certainly seems a pity that book-learned people

c.)

when

wanting to enrich their mother tongue have not, as a rule, drawn from the same source or shown the same talent for picturesque and 'telling' designations. 158.

great

many words

tradespeople to designate

Very

little

regard

are

new

nowadays coined by

articles

generally paid

formation, the only essential being a for advertizing purposes.

of merchandise.

correctness

name

that

good

Sometimes a mere arbitrary

collection of sounds or letters

chosen, as in the case of

and sometimes the inventor contents himself with some vague resemblance to some other word, which may kodak,

One

story of a

curious change of

meaning must be

re-

The settler heard a bird laugh counted in Mr. Morris's words in what he thought an extremely ridiculous manner its opening he called it the 'laughing notes suggesting a donkey's bray His descendants have dropped the adjective, and it jackass'. has come to pass that the word 'jackass' denotes to an Australian something quite different from its meaning to other speakers :

—

of our English tongue'.

VII. Various Sources,

buyer to remember the name. In one single number of one of the illustrated magazines I find the following trade names. I add the probable source of any name for which I have been able to imagine one: Larola, luxette [luxe], koko, Diano [makes women beautiassist the

—

ful:

Diana], melodeon [a musical instrument: melody],

bath-eucryl [soap, one of the ingredients oktis, trilene [tablets to

tricolour.?

cure fat people,

lean],

^M^-alyptus],

try.?

vapo-cresolene

or Latin tri

[cresolene

va-

porized], harlene [hair], stenotyper [sort of typewriter for

eczema], mene, vive [a antexema [anti photographic camera, cf. vivid], kals [underclothing, cf. calegon], nonalton [a tonic, which may be indicated by

stenography],

the ending], onomosto, haydal, wincarnis [a tonic: wine, caro.?], vinolia

[vinum, oleum], bovril [bos,

Lytton's novel The Coming RaceY.

fluid in

dates from January 1900, a great

probably be extinct before

may

Others

many

my book

an electric As the list

of the sees

names the

will

light.

and even pass into common use outside which they were originally invented; this

live

the sphere for is

vril,

the case with kodak. 159.

once occurred to Mr. Leon

Mead

to ask a great

known American authors and men of science what words, if any, they had ever coined. The answers he received are very curious^. A great many of number

of the best

correspondents distinctly repudiated the idea of having

his

ever done such a thing as coining a word, some explicitly

upon the coining

words as a crime to be classed with the coining of false money, others saying simply that they had always found the declaring that they looked

Sometimes these trade names

spellings,

need a 2

well

by fancy Unceda cigar [= you

are half-disguised

the Phiteesi boot, Stickphast,

England, Uneeda biscuit in America. Leon Mead, IVord-Coiftage. New York, Thomas Y. Cro-

cigar] in

Co. 1902.

Coined Words.

I^g

— —

or some other great author language of Shakespeare sufficient to express all their they chose to mention thoughts. On the other hand, some persons seemed to

be proud of their coinages and sent Mr. Mead lists of them When or regretted not being able to remember them. we examine these coined words, we find that by far the greater

number

them

are framed on classical lines, for

instance lyronym, metropoliarchy, cynophiles, feminology, societology, monopolian, hippopcean, to hermetize oneself,

and deanthropomorphization; I leave out a great many that seem still more ugly and unnecessary. Only rarely do we come across some word formed by a specifically English process, such as densen ('As the spring comes on and the densening outHnes of the elm give daily a new design for a Grecian urn', Th. W. Higginson), viewpoint and watchpoint (Fawcett), which are, however, only translations

from German.

Professor

Van Dyke

says that there was

once a httle river that could not be described by any other adjective than waterfally, and a bird whose song seemed to him wild-flowery. The proof-reader objected to

both of these words, but Dr. Van Dyke withstood him.

This latter remark

highly characteristic of the attitude

taken by most professional champions of correctness of language towards anything a little out of the common, however justifiable the innovation may be. Very few people have the courage to say, as Mr. Edgar Fawcett says

think every writer ought to have on his conscience the coining of at least five good [monosyllables] each year.' It may be doubted indeed if the result would (p.

82):

always be 'good' words,

authors sat

down

consciously

duty here prescribed to them, for the secret of the thing is that most new words which have come to be approved were framed without their originators being aware at the moment that they were creating anything. There is an interesting passage on p. 80 of the

to fulfil the

^^^« Various Sources.

j5o

book mentioned: 'He [A. T. Mahan] used once by chance 'dull, weary, eventless month'. the word eventless The word slipped without premeditation off his pen. He immediately thought it without authority and found

—

Nevertheless he stuck to

not in Worcester.

briefer,

stronger and

much more

significant

it'

than the

Now, if people better realized the necessary shortcomings and deficiencies of dictionaries, they would not go to them as authorities with regard A word may have been used to such questions^. scores of times without finding its way into any and a word may be an excellent one even dictionary, if it has never been used before by any human being. 'stupid' uneventful.

—

its

first

appearance

had been

should the

constant

occurrence

first

just

use

for

intelligible

centuries,

why

be more faulty than the

three-thousandth.? 160. As already hinted,

the chief enrichment of the

language has taken place through those regular processes,

which are so familiar that any new word formed by| means of them seems at once an old acquaintance. Thai whole history of English word-formation may be summed that some formative adjuncts have been up thus gradually discarded, especially those that presented some difficulty of application, while others have been continually gaining ground, because they have admitted of being added to all or nearly all words without occasioning any change in the kernel of the word. Among the former I shall mention -en to denote female beings (cf. German -in). In Old English this had already become very impracticable because sound changes had occurred which ob-

—

N.E.D. quotes Mad. DArblay(i8is), Morris (1868), Stanley (1878) and Sherer (1880) for eventless, Post (1888) for eventlessly and Howells (1872) for I

As a matter

of fact,

Bradley

in the

eventlessness.

;

Word -Formation.

l6r

scured the connection between related words. Corresponding to the masculine j)^gn 'retainer', jj^ow 'slave', wealh scealc 'servant',

'foreigner',

fox,

find the

feminine

seems clear that new generations would find some difficulties in forming new feminines on such indistinct analogies, so we cannot wonder that the ending ceased to be proOf the words mentioned, fyxen is the only ductive. one surviving, and every trace of its connexion with fox is now lost, both the form vixen (with its v from

Jngnen, ])iewen, wielen, scielcen, fyxen.

Southern dialects) and the meaning being

now

too far

from the origin.

A much

was reserved for the Old English ending -isc. At first it was added only to nouns indicating nations, whose vowel it changed by mutation; thus Englisc, now English, from Angle, etc. In some adjectives, however, no mutation was possible, e. g. Irish, and by analogy the vowel of the primitive word was soon introduced into some of the adjectives, Danish (earlier Denisc). e. g. Scottish (earlier Scyttisc), The ending was extended first to words whose meaning 161.

brilliant destiny

was cognate to these national names, heathenish, O.E. folcisc or peodisc 'national' (from folc or peod 'people') then gradually

came

childish, churlish, etc.

Each century

and feverish, for instance, dating from the fourteenth, and boyish and girlish from ^he sixteenth century, until now -ish can be added idded

new

extensions, foolish

nearly any noun and

adjective

biggish,

nay even

greenish,

etc.),

bookish,

(swinish, to

whole phrases,

nonce - formations recorded in the M.E.D. may be mentioned 'an I - dont - know howishless', 'a clean - cravatish formahty of manners', 'Miss '^mong

recent

Vlartineauish'.

162.

shall see in a later section (§ 200) that the

ending -ing has

still

Jespbrsen: English.

more noticeably broken the bounds

2ud ed.

^11- Various Sources.

of its originally

case in point

narrow sphere

Another

of application.

the verbal suffix -en.

It is

now

possible to

form a verb from any adjective fulfilling certain phonetic conditions by adding -en (harden, weaken, sweeten, sharpen, lessen). But this suffix was not used very much before 1500, indeed most of the verbs formed in -en belong to the last three centuries. Another extensively used ending is -er. Old English had various methods of forming nouns to denote agents; from the verb huntan 'hunt' it had the noun himta 'hunter'; from beodan 'announce', boda 'messenger, herald'; from wealdan 'rule', wealda; from beran 'bear', bora; from sce])}an 'injure'^ scea}a; from weorcan 'work', wyrhta 'wright' (in wheelwright, etc.), though some of these were used in compounds only; some nouns were formed in -end: rcedenc 'ruler', scieppend 'creator', and others in -ere: blawen 'one who blows', blotere 'sacrificer', etc. But it seems aj if there were many verbs from which it was impossibh to form any agent-noun at all, and the reader will hav( noticed that even the formation in a presented somt difficulties, as the vowel was modified according to com plicated rules. When the want of new nouns was felt it was, therefore, more and more the ending -ere that wa: resorted to. But the curious thing is that the functioi of this ending was at first to make nouns, not from verbs but from other nouns, thus O.E. bocere 'scribe' from bo^ 'book', compare modern hatter, tinner, Londoner, Nei Englander, first-nighter. As, however, such a word a; fisher, O.E. fiscere, which is derived from the noun a fish O.E. fisc, might just as well be analyzed as derived fron the corresponding verb to

usual to form

and

some

(O.E. hunta,

fish,

O.E. fiscian,

new agent-denoting nouns cases

now

make new words

these supplanted

hunter). in er

Now we

in -er

became

from verbs

older formation

do not hesitate

from any verb,

a snorer,

;

Suffixes.

163

Combinations with an adverb (a diner-out, a looker-on) go back to Chaucer (A somnour is a renner up and down With inandements for fornicacioun, D 1284), but do not seem Note to be very frequent before the Ehzabethan period. also the extensive use of the suffix to denote instruments a telephoner, a total abstainer, etc.

fitter,

and

things,

sleeper

typewriter,

rubber,

slipper,

Other much-used suffixes sleeping car). [American truthfulness), -dom -ness (goodness, nouns are cor Christendom, boredom, 'Swelldom', Thackeray), -ship ownership, companionship, horsemanship), for adjec:

cowardly), -y

:ives: -ly (lordly,

(powerless,

less

dauntless),

(fiery,

ful

churchy, creepy),

(powerful,

fanciful),

renowned conceited, hke the level browed 'broad breasted; alented; thighed and shouldered Hke the billows; Horizon; —footed hke their steahng foam', Ruskin). Prefixes wide apphcation are mis-, un-, be-, and others. i)f By means of these formatives the Enghsh vocabbeen and is being constantly enriched jlary has useful new of thousands and thousands jvith ind

ed (blue-eyed

goodnatured

—

jjvords.

one manner of forming verbs from nouns md vice versa which is specifically English and which is )f the greatest value on account of the ease with which 163. There

managed, namely that of making them exactly like one another. In Old English there were a certain number l)f verbs and nouns of the same 'root', but distinguished 3y the endings. Thus 'I love' through the three persons t is

lingular ran lufie lufast lufa}, iwas lufian,

the subjunctive

plural lufiap; the infinitive

lufie,

pi.

lufien,

was lufa, pi. lufia}. The noun 'love' was lufu, in the other cases lufe, plural

iaerative

laand

iufum, lufena or lufa. pres. slcepe slcspest

Similarly

sleep (e)},

'to

slcBpaJi,

sleep'

and the imon the other lufa or lufe,

was

slcepan,

subjunctive II

slcEpe,

VII. Various Sources.

164 slcBpen,

forms

imperative

sleep, slcepe,

sleep, slcepaj),

and

while the noun had the'

slcepes in the singular,

slcepum, slcepa in the plural.

we were

and

slcepas,

to give the cor-

responding forms used in the subsequent centuries, we should witness a gradual simplification which had as a further consequence the mutual approximation of the verbal and nominal forms. all

the vowels of the

weak

The -m

changed into

-n,

syllables are levelled to one

uniform e, the plural forms of the verbs in -j) give way to forms in -n, and all the final n's eventually disappear, while in the nouns s is gradually extended so that it be-comes the only genitive and almost the only plural ending. The second person singular of the verbs retains its distinctive -st, but towards the end of the Middle English period thou already begins to be less used, and the polite ye, you,

which becomes more and more universal,

no distinctive ending

in the verb.

claims'

In the fifteenth cen-

which had hitherto been pro-; be sounded, and somewhat later

tury, the e of the endings

nounced, ceased to became the ordinary ending of the third person singulai instead of th. These changes brought about the moderr

scheme:

—

noun:

love loves

verb: love loves

— —

sleep sleeps,

where we have perfect identity of the two parts of speech only with the curious cross-relation between them that plural in the nouns and of the is the ending of the the verbs an accident in singular (third person) which might almost be taken as a device for getting an s into all indicative sentences containing no pro noun (the lover love5; the lovers love) and for showing by the place of the 5 which of the two numbers .'

—

intended,

As a great many native nouns and verbs thus come to be identical in form (e. g. blossom, 164.

]

hat care

Nouns and Verbs.

and

deal, drink, ebb, end, fathom, fight, fish, fire),

as the

same thing happened with numerous originally French words (e. g. accord,' O.Fr. acord and acorder, account, prm, blame, cause, change, charge, charm, claim, combat, comfort, copy, cost, couch),

speech-instinct should take

was quite natural that the as a matter of course that

whenever the need of a verb arose, the corresponding noun might be used unchanged, and vice versa. Among the innumerable nouns from which verbs have been formed in this manner, we may mention a few: ape, awe, Nearly every word cook, husband, silence, time, worship.

body has given rise to a tiomonym verb, though it is true that some of them are rarely used: eye, nose (you shall nose him as you go up for

the different parts of the

the staires, Hamlet), lip

brain (such stuffe as

madmen {=

Shakesp. Cymbeline), jaw

(American

live ear to), chin

arm

one's

round),

shoulder

through the crowd), hand,

etc.),

to chatter),

arm {= put

elbow

(arms),

fist (fisting

ear (rare,

way

(one's

each others throat,

oppose), body (forth),

stomach, limb (they limb themselves, Milton), knee

kneel, Shakesp.), foot.

ivay

tongue and braine not; scold,

Shakesp.), finger, thumb, breast ikin,

Shakesp.), beard, tongue,

kiss,

would be possible

go through a great

many

in a similar

other categories of

everywhere we should see the same facility of "orming new verbs from nouns. 165. The process is also very often resorted to for nonce-words' in speaking and in writing. Thus, a com-

KTords;

non form ;ations

of retort

Trinkets

exemplified

by the following quo-

a bauble for Lydia

he history of his trinkets!

I'll

... So

this

was

bauble him!' (Sheridan,

was explaining the Golden Bull to his T'll Golden Bull you, you rascal!' Royal Highness.'

Rivals V. 2).

roared the Majesty of Russia lEss.).

(Macaulay, Biographical

'Such a savage as that, as has just come

home

VII. Various Sources.

from South

Diamonds indeed

Africa.

(Trollope, Old

manner: 'My gracious

Romeo

III.

'Nay, but

me no

buts

—

Antiq. ch. XI).

(Scott,

hini'

different

tut,

me no

143).

diamond

— and a somewhat Grace Uncle. — Tut,

Man's Love)

Grace, nor Uncle

I'd

Uncle' (Shakesp., heartily wish

me no cf.

also

could, but

—

have set my heart upon it' 'Advance and take thy prize,

The diamond; but he answered. Diamond me No diamonds For God'i love, a little air Prize me no prizes, for my prize is death' (Tennyson, Lancelot and Elaine). 166. A still more characteristic peculiarity of the !

English language

the corresponding freedom with which

a form which was originally a verb

This was not possible

as a noun.

till

used unchanged

the disappearance

which was found in most verbal forms, and accordingly we see an ever increasing number of I shall give some these formations from about 1500. examples in chronological order, adding the date of the earliest quotation for the noun in the N.E.D.: glance of the fxnal -e

hearsay 1532, blemish 1535, gaze 1542, reach 1542, drain 1552, gathei

bend

1503,

1529,

cut

1530,

fetch

1530,

burn 1563, lend 1575, dislike 1577, frown 1581, dissent 1585, fawn (a servile cringe) 1590, dismay 1 590, embrace 1592, hatch 1597, dip 1599, dress (persona! 1555,

attire)

1606, flutter 1641, divide

1642, build

1667 (but

by Pepyj go 1727 (many ol

before the nineteenth century apparently used only), harass 1667, haul 1670, dive 1700,

the most frequent applications date from the nineteentl century),

hobble

1727,

lean

(the

act

condition

hang 1797, dig 1819, find 182J that which is found, 1847), crave 1830

leaning) 1776, bid 1788, (in kill

the sense of

(the act of killing)

1852, (a killed animal) 1878.

very fertih in these nouns, which is only a natural consequence 0: the phonological reason given above. As, however, som(

will

be seen that the sixteenth century

Verbs and Nouns. of the

verb-nouns found

modern times disappeared

[67

Elizabethan authors have in

become

some grammarians have inferred that we have here a phenomenon pecuHar to that period and due to the general exuberance of the Renaissance which made people more free with ;

their language

our :

list will

rare,

than they have since been.

show that

this

glance at

wrong view; indeed, we

many

formations of this kind which were unknown to Shakespeare; he had only the noun a visituse a great

where we say a our kicks, and moves, ation,

some

visit,

etc.,

nor did he

know our

worries,

etc.

noun

manner in spite of there being already another noun derived from the same verb thus a move has nearly the same meaning 167. In

cases a

formed

in this

;

movement or motion (from which latter a new verb to motion is formed) a resolve and resolution, a laugh and laughter are nearly the same thing (though an exhibit is only one of the things found at an exhibition). Hence we get a lively competition started between these nouns and the nouns in -ing: w^^^ (especially in the sporting world) and meeting, shoot and shooting, read (in the afternoon I like a rest and a read) and reading^, row (let us go out for a row) and rowing (he goes in for rowing), smoke and smoking, mend and mending, feel (there was a soft feel of autumn in the air. Hall Caine) and feeling. The build of a house and the make of a machine are different from the building of the house and the making of the machine. The sit of a coat may sometimes be spoilt at one sitting, and we speak of dressing, not of dress, in connexion with a salad, etc. The enormous development as removal,

;

Darwin says

one of his letters: 'I have just finished, after several reads, your paper'; this implies that he did not read it from beginning to end at one sitting if he had written 'after several readings' he would have implied that he had read it through several times. I

;

VII. Various Sources.

of these convenient differentiations belongs to the

Compared with the

recent period of the language.

synonyms mentioned above borrowed from Latin, etc.) this of

most sets

one of the words of synonyms shows

(§ 133:

class

a decided superiority, because here small differences in sense are expressed

because

all

by small

and

differences in sound,

these words are formed in the most regular

and easy manner; consequently there is the least possible strain put on the memory. 168. In early English a noun and the verb corresponding to it] were often similar, although not exactly alike, some historical reason causing a difference in either the vowel or the final consonant or both. In such pairs of words as the following the old relation is kept unchanged a

life,

to live] a calf, to calve

grief,

to grieve-, a cloth,

to clothe', a house, to house; a use, to use

—

in all these

noun has the voiceless and the verb the voiced conThe same alternation has been imitated in a sonant. few words which had originally the same consonant in the noun as in the verb; thus belief, proof, and excuse (with voiceless s) have supplanted the older nouns in -ve and voiced -se, and inversely the verb grease has now voiced 5 [z] where it had formerly a voiceless s. But in a far greater number of words the tendency to have nouns and verbs of exactly the same sound has prevailed, so that we have to knife, to scarf (Shakesp.), to elf (id.), to roof, and with voiceless s to loose, to race, to ice, the

to promise, prieve,

verbs.

owe

while the nouns repose, cruise (at sea),

their voiced consonants to the corresponding

In this

Besides the old recent verb to the

noun

re-

bathe

way we

some interesting doublets. noun bath and verb bathe we have the bath (will you bath baby to-day.?) and (I walked into the sea by myself and get

had a very decent bathe, Tennyson). (noun) and glaze (verb) we have now

Besides

glass

also glass as a

Consonants

different.

verb and glaze as a noun; so also in the case of grass and graze, price and prize (where praise verb and

noun should be mentioned

as etymologically the

same

word). 169.

The same

forces are at

work

in the smaller class

which the distinction between the noun and the verb is made by the alternation of ch and k, as

of words,

in speech

— speak.

Side

side with the old hatch

have a new noun a bake, besides the noun stitch and the verb stick we have now also a verb to stitch (a book, etc.)

and the rare noun a

stick (the act of sticking); besides

noun stench we have a new one from the verb The modern word ache (in toothache, etc.) is a stink. curious cross of the old noun, whose spelling has been kept, and the old verb, whose pronunciation (with k) the old

Baret (1573) says expressly, 'Ake is the verb of this substantive ache, ch being turned into k' In the Shakespeare foho of 1623 the noun is always spelt with ch and the verb with k; the verb rimes with brake has prevailed.

The noun was thus sounded like the name of the letter h; and Hart (An Orthographic, 1569, p. 35) says expressly, 'We abuse the name of h, calling it ache, and

sake.

which sounde serveth very well to expresse a headache, Indeed, the identity in sound of or some bone ache.' the noun and the name of the letter gave rise to one of the stock puns of the time; see for instance Shakespeare (Ado III. 4. 56): 'by my troth I am exceeding ill, hey For the ho. For a hauke, a horse, or a husband.? letter that begins them all, H,' and a poem by Heywood: 'It is worst among letters in the crosse row. For if thou

—

him other [= either] in thine elbow. In thine arme, Where ever you find ache, thou shalt not leg

finde

like him.'

170.

Numerous nouns and verbs have the same con-

sonants, but a difference in the vowels, due either to

VII. Various Sources.

lyo

But

mutation.

gradation or

may

powers of language

here,

the

too,

be observed.

creative

Where

in old

times there was only a noun bit and a verb to bite, we have now in addition not only a verb to bit (a horse, to

put the

mouth)

bit into its

as in Carlyle's 'the accursed

hag 'dyspepsia' had got me bitted and bridled' and in Coleridge's witty remark (quoted in the N.E.D.): 'It is not women and Frenchmen only that would rather have but also a noun their tongues bitten than bitted',

—

various meanings,

bite in

in 'his bite

dangerous

as the cobra's' (Kipling) and 'she took a bite out of the

From new verb

apple' (Ant. Hope). § 72)

we have

the

while the verb to (cf.

§ 167).

sit

the

noun

seat (see above,

to seat (to place

on a

seat),

has given birth to the noun

sit

longer content with the old sale as the

noun corresponding to sell, in slang we have the new noun a (fearful) sell (an imposition); cf. also the American substantive tell (according to their tell, see Farmer and Henley). As knot (n.) was to knit (v.), so was coss to kiss, but while of the former pair both forms have

survived and have given a

new noun

rise to

new verb

to knot

and

a knit (he has a permanent knit of the brow,

N.E.D.), from the latter the ^-form has disappeared, the

noun being now formed from the verb: a kiss. We have the old brood (n.) and breed (v.), and the new brood (v.) and breed (n.); a new verb to blood exists by the side of the old to bleed, and a new noun feed by the side of the old food.

enriched

but

It is

obvious that the language has been

by acquiring

all

these newly formed words;

should also be admitted that there has been a

positive gain in ease

and simplicity

in all those

cases

where there was no occasion for turning the existing phonetic difference to account by creating new verbs or nouns in new significations, and where, accordingly, one of the phonetic forms has simply disappeared, as when

;

Vowels

different

the old verbs sniwan, scry dan, swierman have given way to the new snow, shroud, swarm, which are like the nouns, or when the noun swat, swot (he swette blodes

Ancrene Riwle) has been discarded in favour So of sweat, which has the san^e vowel as the verb. far from the older school of philologists being right when they maintained that the formal distinction between verbs and nouns was characteristic of the highest stage of linguistic development,^ we see that the steadily continued approximation of the two classes of

swot,

English

has been in

words

great

aid

linguistic

progress.

171.

Among

the other points of interest presented

the formations occupying us here^ I may mention the curious oscillation found in some instances between noun

Smoke

and verb.

first

chimney), then a verb (the

new noun

a pipe); then a last sense (let us

noun (the smoke from the chimney smokes, he smokes formed from the verb in the

have a smoke). Similarly gossip

(a)

noun:

godfather, intimate friend, idle talker, (b) verb: to talk idly, (c) new noun: idle talk; dart (a) a weapon, (b) to

throw

(a dart), to

(c)

rapidly (Hke a dart),

(c)

(a)

sudden

(a)

sail (a) a piece of canvas, (b) to sail, (c) a sailing

wire

an instrument, (b) to use that instruthe action of using it: your hat wants a brush;

motion; brush ment,

move

a metallic thread,

(b)

to telegraph,

excursion (c)

a tele-

gram; so also cable; in vulgar language a verb is formed to jaw and from that a second noun a jaw ('what speech do you mean?' 'Why that grand jaw that you sputtered forth just now about reputation,' F. C. Philips). Sometimes 1

the

starting

a verb,

See especially Aug. Schleicher,

nomen und vefbum, 2

point

etc. see

frame

(a)

Die unterscheidung von

1865.

the accent in conduct, to conduct; an object, to object,

my Mod.

Engl. Grammar, ch. V.

^I'- Various Sources,

jy2

form, (b) noun: a fabric, a border for a picture, etc., to set in a frame; and sometimes an ad(c) verb: jective,

fainting

fit.

172.

weak,

faint (a)

To those who might

(b) to

become weak,

(c)

see in the obhteration of

the old distinctive marks of the different parts of speech a danger of ambiguity, I would answer that this danger

more imaginary than real. I open at random a modern novel (The Christian, by Hall Caine) and count on one page (173) 34 nouns which can be used as infinitives without any change, and 38 verbs the infinitives of which are used unchanged as nouns\ while only 22 nouns and 9 verbs cannot be thus used. As some of the ambiguous nouns and verbs occur more than once, and as the same page contains adverbs, prepositions, and conjunctions^ which can be used as nouns (adjectives) or verbs, or both, the theoretical possibiHties of mistakes arising from confusion of parts of speech would seem to be very And yet no one reading that page would numerous.

about understanding every word correctly, as either the ending or the context shows at once whether a verb is meant or not. Even such an extreme case as this line, which is actually found in a

feel the slightest hesitation

watch them still' is not obscure, although her might be both accusative and possessive, eyes both noun and verb, like adjective, con-

modern song, 'Her eyes

like angels

Answer, brother, reply, father, room, key, haste, gate, time, head, pavement, man, waste, truth, thunder, clap, storey, bed book night face point shame while eye top hook, whisper, wait, finger, bell, land, lamp, taper, shelf, church, return, go, keep, call, look, leave, reproach, do, pass, come, cry, open, sing, fall, hurry, reach, snatch, He, regard, creep, lend, say, try, steal, hold, swell, wonder, interest, see, choke, shake, place, escape, ring, take, light, (I have not counted 1

—

auxiliary verbs.) 2

Back, down,

still,

out,

home, except,

like, while, straight.

Parts of Speech.

iy3

and verb, watch noun and verb, and still adjecA modern Englishman, realizing the tive and adverb. great advantage his language possesses in its power of making words serve in new functions, might make Shake-

junction,

speare's lines his

own

in a different sense:

dressing old words new, ^' Spending againe what is already spent *So

all

best

Having thus considered the modes of forming new words by adding something to existing words and by adding to them nothing at all, we shall end this chapter by some remarks on the formation of new words by subtracting something from old ones.^ Such 'backformations', as they are very conveniently termed by Dr. Murray, owe their origin to one part of a word being mistaken for some derivative suffix (or, more rarely, The adverbs sideling, groveling and darkling prefix). were originally formed by means of the adverbial ending 173.

but in such phrases as he walks sideling, he lies groveling, etc., they looked exactly like participles in -ing, and the consequence was that the new verbs to sidle, to grovel, and to darkle were derived from them by the subtraction of -ing. The Banting cure was named after one Mr. Banting; the occasional verb to hant is, The ending -y is often accordingly, a back-formation. subtracted; from greedy is thus formed the noun greed (about 1600), from lazy and cosy the two verbs laze and -ling,

and from jeopardy (French jeu

cose (Kingsley),

verb jeopard.

was

culty

French, but about 1600 the adjecthe noun minus y) makes its appearance.

Sonnet

76.

2 Otto Jespersen,

eg engelsk,

On 5

old adjective corresponding to diffi-

difficile as in

tive difficult 1

The

subtraktionsdannelser, saerligt pa dansk

Thomsen. Copenhagen 1894. were a plural sign, see below,

in Festskrift til Vilh.

the subtraction oi s

188.

parti) the

if it

q-,

jjA

VII. Various Sources.

Puppy from French poupee was thought to be formed by means of the petting suffix y, and thus pup was created; similarly cad

may

be from caddy, caddie

youngster) and pet from petty in

meaning from

'little'

Fr. cadet (a

Fr. petit, the transition

to 'favourite' being easily account-

Several verbs originate from nouns in -er (-ar, -or)^ which were not originally 'agent nouns'; butcher is the French boucher, derived from bouc 'a buck, goat' with

for.

no corresponding verb, but in English it has given rise to the rare verb to butch and to the noun a butch-knife. Similarly harbinger, rover, pedlar,

probably beggar,

call into

burglar,

hawker, and

existence the verbs to harbinge

(Whitman), rove, peddle, burgle, hawk, and beg\ and the Latin words editor, donator, vivisector, produce the un-Latin verbs to

edit,

donate (American), vivisect (Meredith), etc.

they came from Latin participles.^ Some of these back-formations have been more successful than others in being generally recognized in Standard

which look

English.

not usual in Germanic languages to form compounds with a verb as the second, and an object, an adverb, etc. as the first, part. Hence, when we find such verbs as to housekeep (Mrs. Humphrey Ward, Kip174.

ling,

Merriman), the explanation must be that

-er

has

been subtracted from the perfectly legitimate noun a The oldest housekeeper (or -ing from housekeeping). examples I know of this formation are to backbite, to partake (parttake) and to conycatch (Shakesp.); others are to hutkeep, common in Australia, book-keep (Shaw),

(Why

don't they thoughtread each other? H. G. Wells), to typewrite (I could typewrite if I had a machine, id., also in B. Shaw's Candida), to to soothsay, to thoughtread

merrymake (you merrymake together, Du Maurier). I

Cf.

however,

paper quoted above,

173.

Back -Formations. will

be seen that most of these are nonce-words.

The

verbs to henpeck and to sunburn are back-formations

from the participles henpecked and sunburnt] and Brown(Pippa Passes) for 'let ing even says 'moonstrike him him be moonstruck.' 175. We have seen (§ 7 ff.) that monosyllabism is one of the most characteristic features of modern English, and this chapter has shown us some of the morphological processes by which the original stock of monosyllables has been in course of time considerably increased. It !'

may

not, therefore, be out of place here briefly to give

an account of some of the other modes by which such short words have been developed. Some are simply longer words which have been shortened by regular phonetic development (cf. love § 163); e. g. eight 0. E. eahta, dear 0. E. deore, fowl O. E. fugol,

hawk 0.

E. hafoc^

and nought O. E. nawiht, pence O.E. penigas, ant O. E. cemette, etc. Miss before the names of unmarried ladies is a somewhat irregular shortening of 'missis' (mistress); though found here and there in the seventeenth century. Miss was not yet recognized in the lord O. E. hlaford, not

middle of the eighteenth century Bridgit, Mrs.

Honour,

(cf.

Fielding's

Mrs.

etc.).

numerous popular clippings of long foreign words, of which rarely the middle (as in Tench 'the House of Detention' and teck 'detective') or the 176. This leads us to the

end

bus 'omnibus', baccer, baccy 'tobacco', phone

(as in

'telephone'),

Some

but more often the beginning only subsists.

of the short

forms have never passed beyond slang,

such as sov 'sovereign', pub 'public-house', confab 'confabulation', geon',

Jap

pop 'popular

concert',

'Japanese', guv 'Governor',

vet

'veterinary sur-

Mods

'Moderations',

an Oxford examination, matric 'matriculation', prep 'preparation' and impot or impo 'imposition' in schoolboy's slang, sup 'supernumerary', props 'properties' in theatri-

VII. Various Sources.

176 s\a.ng,^ perks

cal

'perquisites',

'capital letters', etc., etc.

Some

comp 'compositor', caps are perhaps

now

in a fair

become recognized in ordinary speech, such as exam 'examination', and bike 'bicycle'; and some words have become so firmly established as to make the

way

full

words

(cabriolet),

pass

fad

completely (fadaise)

into

oblivion,

navvy (navigator)

and

cab

mob

(mobile vulgus).

group of English monosyllables comprises a certain number of words the etymology of which has hitherto baffled all the endeavours of philologists. At a certain moment such a word suddenly comes into the 177.

last

language, nobody knowing from where, so that we must I feel really inclined to think of a creation ex nihilo.

not particularly thinking of words denoting sounds or movements in a more or less onomatopoetic way, for their origin is psychologically easy to account for, but of such words as the following, some of which belong

now big^,

the most indispensable speech material: bad}-, lad and lass, all appearing towards the end of the

thirteenth century;

/i^

adjective and

/i/

substantive, prob-

two mutually independent words, the adjective dating from 1440, the substantive in the now current sense from 1547; dad 'father', jump, crease 'fold, wrinkle', gloat, and bet from the sixteenth century; job, fun (and pun?), blight, chum and hump from the seventeenth century; fuss, jam verb and substantive, and hoax from the eighteenth, and slum perhaps from the nineteenth century. Anyone who has watched small children carefully must have noticed that they sometimes create some such ably

See Zupitza's attempt at an explanation in the NED., which does not account for the origin of bceddel. 2 The best explanation is Bjorkman's, see Scand. LoanWords p. 157 and 259; but even he does not claim to have 1

solved the mystery completely.

Words

of Uncertain Origin.

word without any apparent reason; sometimes they stick to it only for a day or two as the name of some plaything, etc., and then forget it; but sometimes a funny sound takes lastingly their fancy and may even be adopted by their playmates or parents as a real word. Without pretending that such is the origin of all the words just mentioned I yet venture to throw out the suggestion that some of them may be due to children's playful inventiveness.

Jespkrshn: Ehiglish. 2ad ed.

Chapter VIII.

Grammar. The preceding chapter has already brought

near to our present province or rather has crossed

its

178.

boundary, for word-formation of the

main

a survey of

rightly considered one

grammar. In the other divisions the historical development shows us the same divisions of

general tendency as word-formation does (§ i6o), the tendency, as we might call it, from chaos towards cosmos.

Where the old language had a great many endings, most of them with very vague meanings and applications, Modern English has but few, and their sphere of signification is more definite. The number of irregularities and anomahes, so considerable in Old English, has been greatly reduced so that now the vast majority of w^ords are inflected regularly. It has been objected that most of the old strong verbs are still strong, and that this means irregularity in the formation of the tenses: shake shook shaken is just as irregular as Old English scacan scoc scacen. But it must be remembered, first, that there is a complete disappearance of a great many of those details of inflexion, which made every Old English paradigm much more complicated than its modern successor, such as distinctions of persons and numbers, and nearly all differences between the infinitive, the imperative, the indicative, and the conjunctive, secondly that the number of distinct vowels has been reduced in many

—

Simplification.

verbs; bear

compare thus beran

bears

bore

born,

lyg

birep beer bceron boren with

feohtan

(fieht)

feaht

juhton

fohten with fight (fights) fought fought fought, bindan

band

bunden with bind bound bound, berstan bcerst burston and thirdly that the borsten with burst burst burst burst, consonant change found in many verbs (ceas curon, snaj) snidon, teah tugon) has been abolished altogether except The greatest change toin the single case of was were.

—

wards simplicity and regularity is seen in the adjectives, where one form now represents the eleven different forms used by the contemporaries of Alfred.

would take up too much space here to expound in detail the whole process of grammatical development and simplification. It has taken place not suddenly and from one cause, but gradually and from a 179.

variety of causes. that tive

Even such a seemingly small

step as

by which the inflexion with nominative ye, accusaand dative you has given way to the modern use of

been the result of the activity of many moving forces.^ Nor must it be imagined that the development has in every minute particular made for

you

in all cases, has

progress; nothing has been gained, for instance,

by the

modern creation of mine and thine as absolute possessive pronouns by the side of my and thy.^ Sometimes the ways by which new grammatical expressions are won are rather round-about, and it is only when we compare the entire linguistic structure of some remote period with the structure in modern times that we observe that the gain I in clearness and simplicity has really been enormous. shall select a few points of grammar, which seem to me and (as the progressive tendency I

illustrative of the processes of

regards

some

them) of

change

Progress in Language, chapter VII.

lb. p. 68.

in general,

12*

Grammar.

VIII.

have mentioned. The first point is the development of the 5-ending in nouns (where it is now the usual mark of the genitive case and of the plural number) and in verbs (where

indicates the third person singular of

the present tense); as the latter ending has prevailed in

competition with the th-end'mg, the history of

formation of ordinal numerals

will

Then the wonderful enrichment

th in the

next be considered.

of the

language due to

the extended use of the zwg-ending will be considered,

and

finally

some other points

will

be treated with the

nouns):

In Old English the

greatest briefness possible.

180.

The 5-ending was formed in

(I.

genitive

es in

most masculines and neu-

but beside this a variety of other endings were in use with the different stems, in -e, in -re, in -an; some words had no separate ending in the genitive, and some formed a mutation-genitive [boc 'book', gen. bee). Besides, the genitive of the plural never ended in -s, but ters,

in -a or -ra or

-na {-ena, -ana).

the genitive case

filled

With regard

to syntax,

a variety of functions, possessive,

subjective, objective, partitive, definitive, descriptive, etc.

was used not only to connect two substantives, but also after a great number of verbs and adjectives (reIt

joice at,

deprive

fear, of,

long

etc.)

;

remember, fill, empty, weary, sometimes stood before and some-

for,

times after the governing word.

In short, the rules for

employment of that a very high degree. But grad-

the formation as well as for the case were complicated to

ually a greater regularity and simplicity prevailed

accidence as well as in syntax; the 5-genitive was extended

more and more nouns and to the plural as well as the singular number, and now it is the only genitive ending used in the language, though in the plural it is

in the great s

majority of cases hidden

away behind

used to denote the plural number (kings'^

cf.

the

men's).

The

The position

Genitive.

now

of the genitive

and

before the governing word,

always immediately

connexion with the regularity of the formation of the case has been instrumental in bringing about the modern group-genitive, where the s is tacked on to the end of a word-group with this in

no regard to the logic of the older grammar: the King of England's power (formerly 'the kinges power of England'), the bride

and bridegroom' s

return, etc.^

181. As for the use* of the genitive,

various ways encroached First,

of.

stricted

its

use

has been in

upon by the combination with

now

ordinary prose almost

personal beings, and even such phrases as

'society's hard-drilled soldiery' (Meredith), is

personified, are felt as poetical;

'thou

knowst not golds

life's

journey'

the genitive

re-

society

so, of

course,

still

effect' (Sh.) or 'setting

(Stevenson). still

where

But

established,

some

in g.

out upon

set

phrases

out of harm's way;

at his wits' (or wit's) end; so also in the stock quo-

tation

from Hamlet,

mind's eye,

etc.

Then

to in-

dicate measure, etc.: at a boat's length from the ship,

and especially time: an hour's walk, a good night's rest, yesterday's post; and this is even extended to such prepositional combinations as to-day's adventures, to-morrow's papers. 182. Secondly,

now

the genitive (of

chiefly used possessively,

names

though

of persons)

this

word must

be taken in a very wide sense, including such cases as 'Shelley's works,' 'Gainsborough's pictures,' 'Tom's enemy', 'Tom's death,' etc.

The subjective

genitive, too,

great vigour, for instance in 'the King's arrival,' 'the Duke's invitation,' 'the Duke's inviting him,' 'Mrs. Poyser's repulse of

the squire' (G. Eliot).

Still

there

is,

See the detailed historical account of the group -genitive.

Progress in

Language

279—318.

VIII.

jg2

Grammar.

quite recent times, a tendency towards expressing the

by means

subject

of the preposition by, just as in the

passive voice, for instance in 'the accidental discovery by Miss Knag of some correspondence' (Dickens) 'the appro;

priation side of

a settled

—

of lands

on the other

massacre of Christians by 'Forster's Life of Dickens' is the same thing

an ocean'

Chinese.'

community

(Seeley), 'the

by Forster'. The objective genitive was formerly much more common than now, the ambi-

'Dickens's Life,

guity of the genitive being probably the reason of its dechne. Still, we find, for instance, 'his expulsion from

power by the Tories' (Thackeray), 'What was thy 'England's

(Byron).

recompense.?'

wrongs'

pity's

generally

England; thus also 'my cosens wrongs' in Shakespeare's R 2 IL 3. 141, but 'your foule wrongs' (in the same play. III. i. 15) means the wrongs committed by you. In 'my sceptre's awe' (ib. I. i. 118) we have an objective, but in 'they free awe pays hom-

means the wrongs done

age to us' (Hamlet IV. 3. 63) a subjective genitive. But on the whole such obscurity will occur less frequently in English than in other languages, where the genitive is

freely used.

has so far prevailed that there are very few cases where a genitive cannot be replaced by it, and 183.

Now,

supplant a possessive pronoun in such stock phrases as 'not for the death of me' (cf. Chaucer's 'the blood of me,' LGW. 848). Of is required in a great many cases, such as 'I come here at the instance of your it is

even used

H. J. Henry Jekyll' (Stevenson), and it is often employed to avoid tacking on the s to too long a series of words, as in 'Will Wimble's is the case of many a colleague. Dr.

younger brother of a great family' (Addison) or 'the wife of a clergyman of the Church of England' (Thackeray), where most Englishmen will resent the iteration of of's less than they do the repeated 5' as in Mrs. Brown-

(y- Phrases.

ing's

'all

Even

the hoofs Of King Saul's father's asses'.

long strings of prepositions are tolerated, as in 'on the occasion of the coming of age of one of the youngest

member

sons of a wealthy

of Parliament',

'Swift's

707 had for its object the obtaining for the Irish Church of the surrender by the Crown of the First-Fruits and Twentieths' (Aitken) or 'that sub-

London

visit to

lime conception of the Holy Father of a spiritual kingdom on earth under the sovereignty of the Vicar of

suppose that very few readers of the original books have found anything heavy or cumbersome in these passages, even if they Jesus Christ himself' (Hall Caine).

may

drawn

here,

where

their attention

gram-

to the

matical construction. 184. Speaking of the genitive,

we ought

also to

men-

tion the curious use in phrases like *a friend of

bro-

This began in the fourteenth century with such instances as 'an officere of the prefectes' (Chaucer G 368), ther's'.

where

officers is readily

officers)

(= one

of the prefect's

that any neighebor of mine

'if

Wol

neighbours)

nat in chirche to

(= any

my wyf

enclyne'

3091); compare also 'ne no-thing of hise thinges out of my power' (id. I 879). In the course of a few

(id. is

and

supplied

centuries, the construction

quent, so that

has

now

of the English language.

became more and more

fre-

long been one of the fixtures

The

partitive sense

is still

con-

ceivable in such phrases as 'an olde religious unckle of

mine' (Sh., As III. it

will

be seen that

equal to 'one of

362)

it is

one of

uncles,

impossible to analyze

old religious uncles'.

The

as being

feeling of

the partitive origin of the construction must,

indeed,

and the construction was employed avoid the juxtaposition of two pronouns, 'this

soon have been chiefly to

though

lost,

hat of mine, that ring of yours' being preferred to 'this my hat, that your ring', or of a pronoun and a genitive,

as in

Grammar.

VIII.

i84

'any ring of Jane's', where 'any Jane's ring' or

would be impossible; compare also 'I make it a rule of mine', 'this is no fault of Frank's', etc. In all such cases the construction was found so convenient that it is no wonder that it should soon be extended 'Jane's

any

ring'

analogically where no partitive sense as in 'nor shall [we] ever see

(Shakespeare,

Lear

logically possible,

That face

267),

'that

of hers againe'

flattering

tongue

'Time hath not yet so dried this bloud of mine' (Ado IV. i. 195), 'If I had such a of yours' (As

IV.

tyre, this face of

188),

mine Were

full as

lovely as

this of

uneasy heart of ours' (Wordsworth), 'that poor old mother of his', etc. When we now say, 'he has a house of his own', no one ever thinks of this as meaning 'he has one of his own houses', so that the meaning of the idiom has changed comhers'

IV.

(Gent.

pletely

—a

190),

phenomenon

the history of 185.

all

'this

very frequent occurrence

languages.

In the nominative plural the

clensions present the

Old EngHsh de-

same motley spectacle

as the geni-

Most masculines have the ending as, but some have e (Engle, etc.), some a (suna, etc.) and a great many an (guman, etc.); some nouns have no ending at all, and most of these change the vowel of the kernel (fet, etc.), while a few have the plural exactly like the singular (hettend). Feminine words formed their plural in a (giefa), in e (bene), in an (tungan) or without any ending (sweostor; with mutation bee). Neuters had either no ending (word) or else u (hofu) or an (eagan). From tive singular.

the oldest period the ending as (later

continually gaining ground,

first

among

es,

has been

those masculines

that belonged to other declensional classes, later on also

The aw-ending, which was common to a very great number of substantives from the very beginning, also showed great powers of expansion and at in the other genders.

Plural.

185

one time seemed as likely as (e)s to become the universal plural ending. But finally (e)s carried the day, probably

was the most distinctive ending.^ In the beginning of the modern period eyen, shoon, and hosen, because

but they were doomed to destruction, and now oxen is the only real plural in n surviving, for children as well as the biblical kine and brethren are too irregular to count as plurals made by the addition of n. The mutation plural has survived in housen, peasen

existed,

still

some words whose signification causes the plural to occur more frequently than, or at least as frequently as, the singular: geese^ teeth, feet, mice, lice, men and women. In all other words the analogy of the plurals in s was too strong for the old form to be preserved. 186. Instead of the ending -ses

some

cases

may

this

often find a single

be the continued use of the

French plural form without any ending

[cas sg.

and

pi.),

as in sense (their sense are shut, Sh.), corpse (pi. Sh.) etc.

In Coriolanus III.

them

118 voyce and voyces occur, both of

'Why

to be read as one syllable:

shall the people

—

He give my One that speakes thus, their voyce They know reasons. More worthier than their voyces. the corne.' But when Shakespeare uses princesse, balance, give

or merchandize as plurals (Tp.

173; Merch. IV.

255; Ant. 11. 5. 104), the forms admit of no other explanation \than that of haplology (pronouncing the same sound

Thus

bnce instead of twice). 'his

mistresse eye-brow'

ness' pleasure', full

form

Now

etc.

mistress's,

The

haplologized

also in the genitive case: II.

149),

more usual

'your

High-

to give the

yet in Pears' soap the juxtaavoided by means of the apostro-

etc.,

position of three s'ts

phized form.

(As

genitive of the plural

'the Poets' Corner',

Progress in Lmiguage

p. 178

now always

except in some dialects:

ff.

I *

VIII.

Grammar.

'other folks's children' (George Eliot), 'the bairns's clease'

Wallis

(Murray, Dial, of Scotl. 164).

(1653)

expressly

House (by him written Lord's) stands instead of the Lords' s House (duo s in unum coincidunt). A phenomenon of the same order is the omission of the genitive sign before a word

states that the gen.

beginning with sake,

now

the

Lords'

chiefly before sake: for fashion

etc.

belonging to the stem of the taken by the popular instinct to be a plural

Sometimes an

187.

word

pi.

Thus in alms (ME. almesse, elmesse, pi. alit is signimesses; OE. celmesse from Gr. eleemosune) ficant that the word is very often found in connexions where it is impossible from the context to discover

ending.

;

whether a singular or a plural is intended (ask alms, In the Authorized Version the word give alms, etc.). occurs eleven times, but eight of these are ambiguous, two are clearly singular (asked an almes, gave much almes) and one is probably plural (Thy praiers and thine almes are come up). Nowadays the association between the 5 of the alms and the plural ending has become so firm that an alms is said and written very rarely indeed,

Tennyson's Enoch Arden. Riches is another case in point; Chaucer still lays the stress on the second syllable [richesse as in French) and uses the

though

found

plural richesses; but as subsequently the final e disappeared, and as the word occurred very often in such a

way

that the context does not

show

its

number ('Thou

bearst thy heavie riches but a journie', Sh. Meas. III. I. 27; thus in fourteen out of the 24 places where Shake-

no wonder that the form was generconceived as a plural, thus 'riches are a power'

speare uses ally

III. 4,

it is

The singular use

(Ruskin).

come on

it),

shore, Sh. 0th.

60)

now wholly

II.

(the riches of the ship i.

83, too

obsolete.

much

riches,

Back -Formations.

taken in those words that lose the s originally belonging to their stem, because it is mistakenly apprehended as the sign of plural. ^ Latin 188.

further step

pisum became (1633)

still

OE.

peck of

;

pise, in

gives peas as sg.

ME.

pese, pi. pesen; Butler

and peasen as

pi.,

but he

most used for the plural: as peas; though the Londoners seem to make

adds, 'the singular

regular plural, calling a peas a pea*. In compounds like peaseblossom, peaseporridge and pease- soup (Swift, Ch.

Lamb) the oldCfroru; was preserved long after pea had become the recognized singular. Similarly a cherry was

evolved from a form in 5 (French cerise), a riddle from riddles; an eaves (OE. efes, cf. Got. ubizwa, ON. ups) is often made an eave, and vulgarly a pony shay is said for

chaise;

compare

also Bret Harte's 'heathen Chinee'

and

the parallel forms a Portuguee, a Maltee. An interesting case in point is Yankee, according to the highly probable

explanation recently set forth by H. Logeman. The term was originally applied to the inhabitants of the Dutch

North America (New Amsterdam, now New York, etc.). Now Jan Kees is a nickname still applied Jan of in Flanders to people from Holland proper. course is the common Dutch name corresponding to

colonies in

English John, and Kees of the

name

may

Cornelis, another Christian

name

typical of

the Dutch, or else a dialectal variation of kaas 'cheese' what is in allusion to that typically Dutch product, or

—

—a

combination of both. Jankees in English became Yankees, where the s was taken as the plural ending and eventually disappeared, and Yankee became the designation of any inhabitant of New England and even sometimes of the whole of the United

most probable

States.

back-formations mentioned above S i73- Other instances will be found in the paper there quoted. I

Cf. the other

]

be either the usual pet-form

VIII.

jgg

Grammar.

have a different class of back-formations in those cases in which the s that is subtracted is really the 189.

plural ending,

which

while one part of the word

retained

logically consistent with the plural idea only.

conceivable that most people ignorant of the

It is easily

fact that the first syllable of cinque-ports

means

'five',

have no hesitation in speaking of Hastings as a cinqueport; but it is more difficult to see how the signification of the numeral in ninepins should be forgotten, and yet sometimes each of the 'pins' used in that play is called a ninepin, and Gosse writes 'the author sets up his four ninepins',

some words the

190. In

s of

the plural has

become

belonged to the singular, thus in means. As is shown by the pun in Shakespeare's Romeo 'no sudden meane of death, though nere so meane' the old fixed,

form was still understood in hi! time, but the modern form too is used by him {by that meanes, Merch. a means, Wint.). Similarly: too much pains, an honourable amends, a ;

shambles, an innings, etc., sonietimes a scissors, a tweezers, a barracks, a golf links, etc., where the logical idea of a single

action or

proved stronger than the

grammar.

original

191.

thing has

not,

however,

till

new

plural has been

formed on such a form that the transformation from plural to singular has been completed. This phenomenon^ which might be termed plural raised to the second power, occur with greater facility when the original not in use or when the manner of forming the

will naturally

singular

no longer perspicuous. Thus OE. broc formed plural brec {cf. gos ges goose geese), but broc became

plural its

and brec, breech was free to become a singular and to form a new plural breeches. Similarly invoices, quinces, bodices and a few others have a double plural ending; but then the unusual sound of the first ending obsolete,

Double (voiceless

where the ordinary ending

joys, sins) facilitated

of bodies.

i8q is

voiced, as in

the forgetting of the original function

of the s (written -ce).

form

Plurals.

The

Bodice

really nothing but a by-

old pronunciation of bellows

and

which helps to explain the vulgar plurals bellowses and gallowses. But in the occasional plural mewses (from a mews, orig. a mue) the new ending has been added in spite of the first 5 being voiced. These plurals raised to the second power, to which must gallows

had

also a voiceless

added sixpences,

threepences,

etc.,

are

particularly

where the want something which is in

interesting because there really are cases is

expressing the plural of

felt of

itself plural,

either formally or logically;

of) scissors.

cf.

many

Generally one plural ending only

(pairs used^,

but occasionally the logically correct double ending

among

uneducated persons,* Thackeray makes hii flunkey write: 'there was 8 sets of ^hamberses" (Yellowplush Papers, p. 39), and a London schoolboy^ once wrote: 'cats have clawses' (one cat has <:laws !) and again 'cats have 9 liveses' (each cat has nine lives !). Dr. Murray^ mentions a double plural sometimes resorted

to,

especially

Scotch dialect from luch words as schuin (one person's shoes), feit 'feet' and kye *cow?5', schuins meaning more than one pair of shoes, and he ingeniously suggests

formed

may

such plurals as children, brethren, kine; the original plurals were childer, brether, ky (still preserved in the northern dialect), which may have that this

illustrate

'come to be used collectively for the offspring or members of a single family, the herd of a single owner, so that a

•can 2

'Then ensued one of the most lively ten minutes that I remember' (Conan Doyle), plural of 'one ten minutes'. Very Original English, ed. by Barker (London 1889),

P-7I3 3>.

Dialect of the Southetn Counties of Scotland (London 1873),

161.

VIII.

Grammar.

second plural inflection became necessary to express the

and children of many families, the ky-en of many owners ... In modern English we restrict brothers, which rebrethren

places brether, to those of one family, using brethren for those

who

call

each other

brother,

though of different

192. Most of the words that

make

families.'

their plural like the

singular are old neuters, the 5-ending belonging originally

mascuHnes only and having only gradually been extended to the other two genders; thus swine, deer, sheep. But as the unchanged plurals were used chiefly in a collective sense, a difference sprang up between a collective plural (unchanged) and an individual plural (in -5), as seen most clearly in Shakespeare's 'Shee hath more haire then wit, and more faults then hairs' (Gent. III. I. 362) and Milton's 'which thou from Heaven Feigndst at thy birth was giv'n thee in thy hair, Where strength can least abide, though all thy hairs Were bristles' (Sams. Ag. 1 136). This difference was transferred to some old masculines, like fish, fowl; and a great m.any names of' particular fishes and birds, especially those generally hunted and used for food, are now often unchanged in' the plural {snipe, plover, trout, salmon, etc.), though

with a great deal of vacillation.

noticeable that

and much coal = many coals. When we say 'four hundred men', but 'hundreds of men', 'two dozen collars', but 'dozens of collars' and similarly with couple, pair, score and some other words, we have an approach to the rule prevailing in many languages, e. g. Magyar, where the plural ending is not added after

much

fruit

It is also

many

fruits

a numeral, because that suffices in plural

show that

intended.

193. (II)

now

itself to

proceed to that verbal ending which

identical in

form with the ordinary genitival and

Third Singular. plural ending in the nouns,

In Old-English -th

(]?)

namely

was used

person singular and in

all

in the

for instance

Infinitive

sprecan

bindan

etc.).

ending of the third

persons in the plural of the

present indicative, but the vowel before

we have

(he loves,

—

'^rd sg.

varied, so that

pi.

VIII.

192 (I

come

first; it is I

Grammar.

come first; we go there; we two they come and take them; the birds

that

sometimes go there; come and pick them).

In the other parts of the country the development

In the Midland dialect the -en of the sub-

junctive and of the past tense was transferred to the

was

different.

present of the indicative, so that

forms in the standard language:

we have

—

16 th

14 th century I

the following

falle

cent.

fall

he falleth

he fall(e)th

This

fallen (falle)

fall.

the only dialect in which the third person sin-

kept clearly distinct from the other persons. In the South of England, finally, the th was preserved

gular

in the plural,

singular.

and was even extended

Old people

to the first person

in the hilly parts of

Somersetshire

and Devonshire still say not only [i wo'k)?] 'he walks', but also [^ei ze)?, ai ze)?] 'they say, I say'. In most cases, however, do is used, which is made [da] without any th through the whole singular as well as plural. 194. But the northern s'ts wandered southward. A solitary precursor is found in Chaucer, who writes oncej instead of the usual

telles

(:elles,

duch*esse

/^-ending [eth,

ith,

the usual practice

was

first

far the

commoner

the sake of the rimej

century later Caxton used thei

yth) exclusively, and this remained; till

late in the

introduced by the poets.

Elworthy,

p. 191

73).^

telleth for

i6th century, when In Marlowe s

ending, except after hissing consonants

Grammar

of the Dialect of West

Sonierset,{

ff.

2 In

the Reves Tale the j- forms are used

to characterizei

the North of England dialect of the two students [gas for Chaucer's

ordinary gooth,

etc.)

Th and

1^3

opposeth,

(passeth,

1622).

1415,

laine 68, 845,

pitcheth,

presageth,

Spenser prefers

In the first four cantos of the Faerie Queene

}i94 5'es

Tambur-

etc.,

5 in poetry.

have counted

as against 24 th's (besides 8 has, 18 hath, 15 does,

and 31 doth). But in his prose th predominates even much more than 5 does in his poetry. In the introductory letter to Sir W. Raleigh there is only one s (it needs), but many

and

th's\

in his

book on

'the Present State of Ireland' all

the third persons singular end in

th,

except a small num-

ber of phrases [me seems, several times, but

lithe rest of

ito

seemeth;

and perhaps a few more) that be characteristic of a more colloquial tone than

what hoots

seem

it;

how comes

Shakespeare's practice

the book.

ascertain.

it,

In a great

many

not easy

passages the folio of 1623

where the earlier quartos have 5. In the prose parts of his dramas s prevails^ and the rule may be laid ['down that th belongs more to the solemn or dignified speeches than to everyday talk, although this is by no means carried through everywhere. In Macbeth I. 7. 29 ff. ijLady Macbeth is more matter-of-fact than her husband Macb.: Hath he ask'd j}(Lady: He has almost supt .. th

fjhas i

Lady:

me.?

[;for

Know you

not he ha's.

Macb

but when his more solemn jmood seizes her, she too puts on the buskin (Was the Hath it [hope drunke, Wherein you drest your selfe.? honour'd

of late ....),

[slept since.?).

—

Where Mercutio mocks Romeo's

\]hath

isickness (II.

15),

he has the Hne:

love-

heareth not, he

he moveth not, but in his famous description bf Queen Mab (I. 4. 53 ff.) he has 18 verbs in 5 and only •two in th, hath and driveth, of which the latter is used for

\stirreth not,

ithe

sake of the metre.

ed. p. 151: In Much Ado (Q 1600) th is not found at all in the prose parts and only :wice in the poetical parts; the Merry Wives, which is chiefly

Franz, Shakespeare- Granunatik,

prose

has only one

th.

2nd

VIII.

Grammar.

Contemporary prose has nearly exclusively th] the 5-ending is not at all found in the Authorized Version 195.

of i6ii, nor in Bacon's Atlantis (though in his Essays]

there

are

some

The conclusion with regard

s'es).

to!

Elizabethan usage as a whole seems to be that the form; in ^ was a colloquialism and as such was allowed in poetry

and especially

in the

drama.

This

must, however, be

considered a poetical licence wherever

occurs in that

But in the first half of the seventeenth century 5 must have been the ending universally used in ordinary conversation, and we have evidence that it was even usual to read s where the book had th, for Richard Hodges (1643) gives in his list of words pronounced alike though period.

spelt differently

among

others boughs boweih howze; clause

claweth claws; courses courseth corpses; choose cheweth^,

and

leadeth

1649 it,

note's

it,

^^^

says 'howsoever wee write

them

thus,

maketh it, noteth it, we say lead's it, make's The only exceptions seem to have been it!'

hath and doth, where the frequency of occurrence protected the old forms from being modified analogically^ so that

about the middle of th Milton, with the exceptions just

they were prevalent

eighteenth century.

till

mentioned, always writes 5 in his prose as well as in his No difference was then felt poetry, and so does Pope.

be necessary between even the most elevated poetry But it is and ordinary conversation in that respect. well worth noting that Swift, in the Introduction tO; his 'Polite Conversation', where he affects a quasi-

and doth, while in the conversations themselves has and does are the forms

scientific

tone,

writes

hath

constantly used.^ See Ellis, Early English Pronu?iciatiofi IV, ioi8. 2 This applies, partially at least, to saith as well. 3 In the Journal to Stella all verbs have s, except hath, which is, however, less common than has. 1

Th and

195

At church, however, people went on hearing the //i-forms, although even there the 5'es began to creep in.^ And it must certainly be ascribed to influence from bibhcal language that the ^A-forms began again to be 196.

used by poets towards the end of the eighteenth century; at first apparently this was done rather sparingly, but

nineteenth century poets employ th to a greater^extent. This revival of the old form affords the advantage from the poet's point of view of adding at discretion a syllable, as in

Wordsworth's

For His own or

God Who

feeds our hearts loveth us (Prelude 13.276) service; knoweth

In gratitude to

Byron's

Whate'er she loveth, so she Imjes thee not, What can it profit thee? (Heaven and Earth

sc. 2)

Sometimes the ih-ioxm comes more handy for the rime (as when saith rimes with death), and sometimes the following sound

may have

or the other ending,

And

induced a poet to prefer one

as in

Coleridge hath the sway, Wordsworth has supporters, two or three,

but in a great many cases individual fancy only decides which form is chosen. In prose, too, the th-ioxm. begins to make its re-appearance in the nineteenth century, not only in biblical quotations,

etc.,

but often with the sole

view of imparting a more solemn tone to the style, as in Thackeray's 'Not always doth the writer know whither \

See the Spectator, no. 147 (Morley's ed.

p. 217)

'a set of

readers [of prayers at church] who affect, forsooth, a certain gentleman -like familiarity of tone, and mend the language as they go on, crying instead of pardoneth and absolveth, pardons

and 2

absolves.'

Do7i

Juan

XI, 69.

13*

Grammar.

VIII.

196 the divine

Muse

him.'

leadeth

affect this archaic trick usque

Some

recent novelists

ad nauseam.

The nineteenth century has even gone so far as to create a double-form in one verb, making a distinction between doth [pronounced dA)?] as an auxiliary verb and doeth [pronounced du'i)?] as an independent one. The early printers used the two forms indiscriminately, or rather preferred doth where doeth would make the line appear too closely packed, and doeth where there was room enough. Thus in the Authorized Version of 161 we find 'a henne doeth gather her brood under her wings' (Luke XIII. 34) and 'he that doth the will of my father' (Matth. VII. 21), where recent use would have reverseH 197.

the order of the forms, but in 'whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them' (Matth. VII. 24) the old printer happens to be in accordance with the rule of our

own

days.

When

the ^^-form was really

livinp^,

was certainly always pronounced in one syllable (thus in Shakespeare). I give a few exam.ples of the modern differentiation.^ J. R. Lowell writes (My Love, Poems 1849, I 129 = Poetical Works in one volume p. 6) 'She Her life doth rightly harmonize doeth little kindnesses And yet doth ever flow aright.' Rider Haggard has both forms in the same sentence (She 199) 'Man doeth this and doeth that, but he knows not to what ends his sense doth prompt him'; cf. also Tennyson's The Captain: 'He that only rules by terror, Doeth grievous wrong.' doeth

198.

To sum

up.

the s of the third person singular

comes from the North,

this

true of the outer form

only; the 'inner form', to use the expression of

German I

philologists,

Which has not been

the Midland one, that

some

to say.

noticed in Murray's Dictionary, though

he mentions the corresponding difference between dost and doest as 'in late use'.

Doeth.

Numerals.

igy

used in those cases only where the Midland dialects had th, and is not extended according to the northern In vulgar English of the last two centuries s has rules. s

person singular: / wishes; says /, The oldest instance I have noted is from the Rehear-

been used etc.

sal (1671) p. 53).

in the first

But

makes 'em both speak

will

be seen that this

northern usage where the side of the personal pronoun.^ to the

fresh' (Arber's reprint, is

s is

in direct opposition

never found by the

The ending th in ordinals). While the cardinal numerals show very little change during the whole life of the language except what is a consequence of ordinary 199. (HI.

phonetic development^,

more changed so that

the

ordinals

their formation

have been much is

now completely

regular, with the exception of the first three.

First has

ousted the old forma (corresponding to Latin primus), .nd the French second has been called in to relieve other of one of its significations, so that a useful distinction has

been created between the definite and the indefinite As for the numbers from 4 upwards, the numeral. regularization has affected both the stem and the ending of the numeral.

In Old English the

seofo^a, nigo^a

from

and

n had disappeared

teotia (feowerteo^a, etc.),

but now

been analogically reintroduced: seventh, ninth, tenth (fourteenth, etc.), the only survival of the older forms being tithe, which is now a substantive differentiated it

has

from the numeral, as seen particularly clearly

in the

phrase

leave out of consideration the occasional Shakespearian s in the plural of the verb as too dubious to be treated in a work of this character. 2 Note that in Old and Middle English the cardinals had an -e when used absolutely (y^men; they were Jive], and that 1

form that has prevailed. If the old conjoint form had survived, ^ve, and Hvelve would have ended in/ and seven, nine, ten and eleven would have had no -n. It

this

VIII.

iq8

Grammar.

tenth part of the tithe' (Auth. Version,

In twelfth and

fifth

we have the

(which in the former

Num.

i8. 26).

anomaly of / often mute) instead of v, and the insignificant

consonant-group in the latter has shortened the vowel, but elsewhere there is complete correspondence between each cardinal and

its

ordinal.

for the ending,

according to a well-known phonetic rule to be

used

-ta (later

open consonants, thus fifta fift, sixta sixt, twelfta twelft; and these are still the only forms in Shakespeare (Henry the Fift, etc.)^ and Milton. The regular forms in th evidently were used in writing before they became prevalent in speaking, for Schade in 1765 laid down the rule that th was to be pronounced t in Eighth, which would be more adetwelfth and fifth. 'te,

after voiceless

modern form; the Shakespeare have eight. The formation in

quately written editions of

which

now

eightth,

also a

-th,

beautifully regular, has also been extended

recent times to a few substantives:

old

the hundredth,

thousandth, millionth, and dozenth.

200. (IV)

The

history of the forms in ing

certainly

one of the most interesting examples of the growth from a very small beginning of something very important in the economy of the language. The 'ing', as I shall for shortness call the form with that ending, began as a pure

noun^, restricted as to the

number

words from which

might be formed and restricted as to its syntactical functions. It seems to have been originally possible tc form it only from nouns, cf. modern words like schooling shirting, stabling; as some of the nouns from which ings it

Twelfth Night

and similarly we have

in the folio of 1623 called Tivelfe

twelfe day ,

NighA

where the middle consonantl

of a difficult group has been discarded, just as in the thousand! part (As IV. i. 46).

The Old English ending was

ting as well as ing.

]

Numerals.

ign

Ing.

were derived, had corresponding weak verbs, the ings came to be looked upon as derived from these verbs, i

and new ings were made from other weak verbs, (Also from French verbs, cf. above § io6). But it was a long time before ings were made from strong verbs; a few occur in the very last decades of the Old English period,

but most of them did not creep into existence till the twelfth or thirteenth century or even later, and it is not, perhaps,

the beginning of the fifteenth century that

till

the formation had taken such a firm root in the language

that an ing could be formed unhesitatingly from any

verb whatever (apart from the auxiliaries can^ may, need,

etc.,

which have no

shall,

ings).

With regard to its syntactical use the old ing was a noun and was restricted to the functions it shared with 201.

all

other nouns. While keeping

ities,

substantival qual-

has since gradually acquired most of the functions

belonging to a verb.

now

all its

was, and

is,

inflected like a

noun;

and scarcely occurs outside of such phrases as 'reading for reading's sake'; but the plural is common: his comings and goings; feelings, drawings, leavings, weddings, etc. Like any other noun it can have the definite or indefinite article and an adjective before it: a beginning, the beginning, a good beIt can ginning, etc., so also a genitive: Tom's savings. enter into a compound noun either as the first or as the the genitive case

rare

The ing can occupied by an

second part: a walking-stick; sight-seeing. be used in a sentence in every position ordinary noun.

nominative

the subject and the predicative

'complimenting

lying',

the object in

governed by an adjective in 'worth knowing', and governed by a preposition in 'before an-

hate lying';

swering', etc.

But we

shall

now

see

how

several of the

peculiar functions of verbs are extended to the ing.

coalescence in form of the verbal

noun and

The

of the present

VIII, (jrammar.

200 participle

is,

of course,

one of the chief factors of

this

development.

When

202.

action

ways:

the ing was a pure noun the object of the

indicated could be expressed in one of three

might be put

in the genitive case

)7ara sceapa', the feeding of the sheep, Alfred), or

form the

first

compound

part of a

feding

('sio it

might

(blood-letting) or

the usual construction in Middle English

—

might be

added after of (in magnifying of his name, Chaucer). The first of these constructions has died out; the last is in our days especially frequent after the article (since the telling of those little fibs, Thackeray). But from the fourteenth century we find a growing tendency to treat the ing like a form of the verb and, accordingly, to put the object in the accusative case. Chaucer's words 'in getinge of your richesses and in usinge hem' (B 2813) show both constructions in juxtaposition; so also 'Thou art so fat-witted with drinking of olde sacke, and unbuttoning thee after supper' (Henry IV, A. I. 2. 2.) Chaucer's 'In lif tinge up his hevy dronken cors' (H 67)

shows a double deviation from the old substantival construction, for an ordinary noun cannot in this way be followed by an adverb, and in the old language the adverb was joined to the ing in a different way (uplifting,

in-coming,

down

-going).

time

any kind of adman shal not wyth ones [once]

became more and more usual verb to the ing,

In course

to join

over redyng fynde the ryght understandyng' (Caxton),

proposed

'he

gether'

from

our

(Fielding),

inferior

immediately 'nothing

men more than

drinking

bottle

to-

men

distinguishes

great

their always,

whether

knowing the ways things are going' (Ruskin). 203. A noun does not admit of any indication of time; his movement may correspond in meaning to 'he moves Hfe or in art

(is

moving)', 'he

moved (was

moving)', or 'he will move.'

Ing.

201

Similarly the ing had originally, and to a great extent has, no reference to time: 'on account of his coming'

still

be equal to 'because he comes' or 'because he came' or 'he will come', according to the connexion in which it 'I intend seeing the king' refers to the future, occurs.

may

king' to the past, or rather the

remember seeing the

ing as such implies neither of these tenses. But since the end of the sixteenth century the ing has still further

approximated

to the character of a verb

Shakespeare,

a composite perfect.

tense in a few places,

Gent.

e. g.

time no more at home;

his

I. 3.

to his age,

his youth')

does not always use

great im-

knowne no travaile in where it would be used

servants that they take

at all of our being absent hence' being corresponds

No note in

In having

for in 'Give orders to

who uses the new 16 (To let him spend

Which would be

peachment now;

by developing

meaning

having been, as shown by the context

(Merch. of Ven. V. 120).

— Like other nouns the ing was

also at first incapable of expressing the verbal distinction

between is

still

and

the active

often neutral in this respect,

nexions assumes

much

mending', 'the story lost

extremely frequent after his desart,

(Wiv.

in the teUing'.

in old authors,

e. g.

'it

wants This

'Use everie

man

and who should scape whipping' (Ham-

let II. 2. 554). 'Shall

water?'

meaning,

passive

The simple ing and in some con-

the passive voice.

III. 3.

206

excuse his throwing into the

his being, or

having been,

thrown), 'An instrument of this your calling backe' (0th.

But about 1600 a new form came into existence, as the old one would often appear ambiguous, and it was felt convenient to be able to distinguish between 'foxes enjoy hunting' and 'foxes enjoy being hunted'. The new passive is rare in Shakespeare ('I spoke ... of being taken by the insolent foe', 0th. I. 3. 136), but has IV.

2. 45).

now for a

long time been firmly established in the language.

Grammar.

VIII.

20 2

development of a form at first purely substantival into one partly substantival and partly verbal in function was taken about two hundred years ago. The subject of the ing, like that of any 204.

The

last step in this long

noun

verbal

(for

imitations of Horace), genitive case

noun

for the

most part put

— nearly always when saying

(in spite of his

Pope's

conquests,

Ccesar's

instance

it is

in the

a personal pro-

and generally when it John's saying so). But a

so),

indicates a person (in spite of

variety of circ*mstances led to the adoption in instances of a

new

construction, which

many

wrongly taken

as containing the present participle

by most grammarians and not the 'gerund'.

for not accepting that

shall give elsewhere

reasons

view and here content myself with

quoting a few instances of the new construction out of several hundreds which of this

person'

man

or that

(Thackeray),

have collected: 'When we talk

woman

being no longer the same 'besides the fact of those three

being there, the drawbridge is kept up' (Anth. Hope), 'When I think of this being the last time of seeing you' (Miss Austen), 'the possibility of such an effect being

wrought by such a cause' (Dickens), the

Chamber carrying out

the least objection in

his policy' (Lecky), 'I

to a rogue being hung' (Thacke-

life

ray; here evidently no participle), 'no

opium leading

upon have not

'he insisted

man

ever heard of

into delirium tremens' (De Quincey), 'the

from people not understanding this truism' (Ruskin). These examples will show that the construction is especially useful in those cases where

suffering arises simply

for

some reason

other

genitive case, but that

reason could be adduced.

—

impossible to use the

found where no such Let me sum up by saying that

also

some probability of the place having never been inspected by the police', he deviates in four points from the constructions of the

when an Englishman now

says, 'There

Ing.

Gender.

203

would have been possible to one of his ancestors six hundred years ago place is in the crude form, not in the genitive; the adverb; the perfect; and the passive. Thanks to these extensions the ing has clearly become a most valuable means of expressing tersely and neatly relations that must else have been indicated by clumsy ing that

dependent

clauses.

205. (V. Disappearance of the old word-gender).

Old English, as in all the old cognate languages, each substantive, no matter whether it referred to animate beings or things or abstract notions, belonged to one or

Thus he was used in a great many things that had nothing mas-

other of the three gender-classes.

speaking of

culine in their actual nature 'ebb', dceg 'day')

many which

(e.

horn^ ende 'end', ehba

and the feminine pronoun in their nature

[heo) in

regard

were not feminine

(e.

plume 'plum', pipe). Anyone acquainted with the intricacies of the same system (or want of system) in German will feel how much English has gained in clearness and simplicity by giving up these distinctions and applying he only to male, and she only to female, living beings. The distinction between animate and inanimate now is much more accentuated than it used to be, and this has led to some other changes, of which the two most important are the creation (about 1600) of the form its (before that time his was neuter as well as masculine) and the restriction of the relative pronoun which to things its old use alike for persons and sorh 'sorrow', glof 'glove',

things

seen in 'Our father which art in Heaven'.

206. (VI)

A notable feature

of the history of the English

the building up of a rich system of tenses on the basis of the few possessed by Old English, where the present was also a sort of vague future, and where the

language

Grammar.

VIII.

204

simple past was often employed as a kind of pluperfect,

The use of have and had as an auxiliary for the perfect and pluperfect began in the Old English period, but it was then only found with transitive verbs, and the real perfectsignification had scarcely yet been completely evolved from the original meaning of the connexion: ic hcebbe l>one fisc gefangenne meant at first 'I have the fish (as) especially

when supported by

cer 'ere,

before'.

caught' (note the accusative ending in the participle).

had mended the table' and 'I had the table mended', 'he had left In Middle English nothing' and 'he had nothing left'. have came to be used in the perfect of intransitive verbs as well as transitive; / have been does not seem to occur earlier than 1200. With such verbs as go and comey I am was used in the perfect for several centuries, and / have gone and / have come are recent formations. The use of will and shall as signs of the future gradually developed from the original meaning of 'will' and 'obligation'. The periphrastic tenses / am reading, I was reading, I have

By and by

a distinction was

been reading,

oped even extent due

made between

were not fully develthey are to a great Shakespeare's time the old construction / am a-reading, where

I shall be reading,

;

a (which afterwards disappeared) represents the prepo-

and the form in ing is not the participle, but the noun. The passive construction (the house is being built) is an innovation dating from the end of the eigh-

sition on

According to Fitzedward Hall the oldest example known is found in a letter from Southey [1795). Before that time the phrase was the house is building, i. e. is a-building 'is in construction', and the new phrase had teenth century.

to fight

its

way

against

much

nineteenth century before as

good English.

increased, the

violent opposition in the

was universally recognized

— While the number of tenses has been

number

moods has tended

to diminish,

Innovations.

Tenses.

now very

the subjunctive having

205 vital

little

power

left.

forms have become indistinguishable from but the loss is not a serious those of the indicative one, for the thought is just as clearly expressed in he died', where died may be either indicative or 'if subjunctive, as in 'if he were dead', where the verb has a distinctively subjunctive form. The verbal system has undergone one more important change by the

Most

of its

extensive

use

auxiliary,

especially

negative and interrogative sentences. This use was not regularized in the modern way till the eighteenth century.

The

207. (VII)

been very useful

has

§ 14)

regularization of the

word order

bringing about

(cf.

clear-

and has at the same time facihtated many of the simplifications which have taken place in the form system and which would otherwise have been attended by numerous ambiguities. sentence

ness in

construction,

The pronominal system has been reinWho forced by some new applications of old material. and which, originally interrogative pronouns only, are 208.

(VIII)

now used

compounds plural,

Self has entered into the

also as relatives.

myself,

ourselves,

himself,

themselves,

and has developed a which was new in the beetc.,

With regard to the ginning of the sixteenth century. use of these self-iorms it may be remarked that their frequency

first

increased and then in certain cases de-

creased again: he dressed him,

became

he dressed himself

One has come to serve several purposes; as an indefinite pronoun (in 'one never can tell') it dates from the fifteenth century, and

this

and

as a

Cf.

now

giving

prop-word

way

('a

to he dressed.

little

Progress in Language

one',

ff.

'the little ones') the

Grammar.

VIII.

2o6

modern usage goes no further back than

full

to the six-

teenth century.

New

209. (IX)

conjunctions have come into existence

such as supposing (supposing he comes, what am I to do?), provided (I have no objection, provided the benefit is mutual), in case (have it ready, in case she should send for

Swift), for jear (they

it,

for fear

fast,

were obliged to drive very

they should be too

late,

(Grant that one has good food ...

that

Dickens), grant is

that

all

the

pay one ought to have for one's work.? Ruskin), like (through which they put their heads, like the Guachos do through their cloaks, Darwin), directly (Oh yes, yes, said Kate, directly the whole figure of the singular visitor appeared, Dickens), once (once that decision was taken his imagination became riotous, H. G. Wells; once you !

are

married,

suicide, 34).

there

nothing

left

for

you,

not even

but to be good, R. L. Stevenson, Virg. Puerisque

It is

evident that

all

these

new conjunctions

serve to

vary the modes of joining sentences together and express nuances that the old if, when, etc., cannot render in so vivid a way; but I am bound to admit that a great many Englishmen object to some of them, especially like and once. 210. (X) built

The manner

up has been modified.

which compound nouns are In

compounds

type the close combination of both nouns

of the old

shown by

the accentual subordination of the second element,

cf.

and very often one or both, may be phonetically changed, sometimes

goldsmith, godson, footstep, leapyear; part,

postman, waistcoat, husband, But in recent times a new type has

even past recognition, hussy

housewife).

cf.

sprung up in which the second part is not thus accentually subordinated to the first, but is stressed at least nearly as much as, and sometimes even more than the first

Innovations.

207

component. Examples are gold coin, coat

tail,

village green,

Each part thus is more independent of the other than in the old type, and as an adjective is now just as uninflected as a noun forming the first part of a compound, the combinations adjective + noun and noun + noun are felt to be nearly equivalent. This has in recent times led to some curious consequences, some examples of which may be here given. We see coordination with a true adjective in 'the sepulcher Hath op'd his ponderous and marble jawes' (Hamlet), 'with thin and rainbow wings' (Tennyson), and still more in 'home and foreign affairs', 'on some Cumberland or other affair' (Carlyle), and in 'a school Latin dictionary', 'an evening radical paper'. The use of the prop- word one is lead pencil, headmaster.'^

interesting: 'This umbrella, said Mr. L., producing a fat

green cotton one' (Dickens), 'most of the mountain flowers

being lovelier than the lowland ones' (Ruskin). So is the use of a qualifying adverb in 'from a too exclusively

London standpoint', 'in purely Government work' (Lecky), Thus nouns 'the most everyday occurrences' (Dobson). in composition are assuming more and more of the properties of the adjectives, and some, as a matter of fact, have already become adjectives so completely that they are recognized as such by all grammarians bridal (originally brid-ealu 'bride -ale') and dainty (Old French daintie 'a delicacy', from Latin dignitatem), both assisted by their see:

mingly adjectival endings, further cheap,

211.

(XI) There are

chief, choice, etc.

some important innovations

the syntax of the infinitive.

In such a sentence as

'it

in is

good for a man not to touch a woman', the noun with for was originally in the closest connexion with the adjective: I

Cf.

Modem

on the unstable equilibrium of such compounds

Eng. Grammar

p. i54ff.

Mil. Grammar.

2o8

'What is good for a man?' 'Not by a natural shifting this came

touch a woman'.

But

apprehended as 'it for a man not to touch a woman', so that for is good a man was felt to be the subject of the infinitive, and this to be

manner of indicating the subject gradually came to be employed where the original construction is excluded. Thus in the beginning of a sentence: 'For us to levy power Proportionate to th'enemy, is all impossible' (Shakespeare), and after than: 'I don't know, what is worse than for such wicked strumpets to lay their sins at honest men's doors' (Fielding); further 'What I like best, And what is for a nobleman to marry a miller's daughter. I

next best,

for a poor fellow to

rich girl' (Thackeray),

'it is

run away with a

of great use to healthy

women

Another recent innovation is the use of to as what might be called a pro-infinitive instead of the clumsy to do so: 'Will you play?' 'Yes, I intend to'. 'I am going to'. This is one among several indications that

them

for

to cycle'. ^

the linguistic instinct

now

takes

to to

belong to the pre-

ceding verb rather than to the infinitive, a fact which, together with other circ*mstances, serves to explain the

phenomenon usually mistermed 'the split This name is bad because we have many without to, as 'I made him go'. To therefore

infinitive'.

infinitives is

no more

an essential part of an infinitive than the definite article is an essential part of a nominative, and no one would think of calling 'the good man' a split nominative. Although examples of an adverb between to and the infinitive occur as early as the fourteenth century, they do not become very frequent teenth century.

some

till

the latter half of the nine-

cases they decidedly contribute

to the clearness of the sentence

word

See

qualified

by showing

at once

by the adverb. Thackeray's and

what

Seeley's

article in Festschrift Vii'tor (Marburg- 1910), p. 85ff.

4 Inhnitive.

sentences

'she

209

only wanted a pipe in her mouth con-

siderably to resemble the late Field

Marshal' and 'the

poverty of the nation did not allow them successfully to compete with the other nations' are not very happily built up, for the reader at the first glance is inclined to connect

what precedes. The sentences would have been clearer if the authors had ventured to place to before the adverb, as Burns does in 'Who dar'd to nobly stem tyrannic pride', and Carlyle in 'new Emissaries are the adverb with

trained,

with new

tactics,

to,

possible,

entrap him,

and hoodwink and handcuff him'.

213. This rapid sketch of grammatical changes, though necessarily giving only a fraction of the material on which it is

based, has yet,

hope, been sufficiently

full to

show

that such changes are continually going on and that

would be a gross error

suppose that any deviation from

grammar is necessarily a corrupwho know least of the age, origin,

the established rules of

Those teachers and development of the rules they follow, are generally the most apt to think that whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil, while he who has patiently studied the history of the past and trained himself to hear the linguistic grass grow in the present age will generally be more inclined to see in the processes of human speech a wise natural selection, through which while nearly all tion.

innovations of questionable value disappear pretty soon, the fittest survive and make human speech ever more varied and flexible and yet ever more easy and convenient to the speakers. There is no reason to suppose that this

development has come nineteenth century:

to a stop

let us

with the close of the

hope that

in the future the

more and more almighty schoolmaster may not nip too

many

beneficial changes in the bud.

Jespersen: English.

2n(i ed.

Chapter IX.

Shakespeare and the Language of Poetry. endeavour to characterize the greatest master of English poetry

213. In this chapter

the language of

shall

and make some observations in regard to his influence on the English language as well as in regard to poetic and archaic language generally. But it must be distinctly understood that I shall concern myself with language and It is true that the two things not with literary style. cannot be completely kept apart, but as far as possible 1 shall deal only with what are really philological as opposed

to literary problems.

214. Shakespeare's vocabulary

the richest ever employed

by any

often stated to be

single

man.

has been

calculated to comprise 2i,000 words ('rough calculation,

found

in Mrs. Clarke's

inflected

Concordance

without counting

forms as distinct words', Craik),

to others, 24,000 or 15,000.

that means

we must look

or,

according

In order to appreciate

little

what

at the various statements

number

words used by other authors and by ordinary beings, educated and Unfortunately these statements are in not educated.

have been

that

given

the

many

cases given and repeated without

of the

manner

any indication

which they have been arrived

at.^

Mil-

IVissenschaft der Sprache I 360 and Lectures on the Science of Language 6th ed. I 309. Elze, William Shakespeare, Halle 1876, 449, Wundt, Volkerpsychologie, Sprache II, I

Max

Miiller,

Vocabulary.

ton's

vocabulary

said to comprise 7000 or 8000 words,

and Odyssey taken together 9000, that of the Old Testament 5642 and that of the New Testament 4800. that of the Iliad

215.

Max

Miiller says that a farm-labourer uses only

300 words, and Wood that 'the average man uses about five hundred words' (adding 'it is appalling to think how pitiably we have degenerated from the copiousness of

But both figures are obviously wrong. One two-year-old girl had 489 and another 1121 words (see Wundt), while Mrs. Winfield S. Hall's boy used in his 17th month 232 different words and, when six years at least, for it is probable that the old, 2688 words mother and her assistants who noted down every word

our ancestors').

—

they heard

only one-

seventh of that of a six-year-old boy! Any one going through the lists given by Mrs. Hall will feel quite certain that no labourer contents himself with so scanty a vocabulary. Schoolbooks for teaching foreign languages often

some 700 words in the first year's course; yet on how few subjects of everyday occurrence are our pupils include

Leipz. 1900, 308.

Wood, Journal of Germanic

Philology

294.

Craik, Engl. Language and Literature 264. Emerson, History of the Engl. Language, 1894, 114. Le Maitre Phonetique 1888, Smedberg ^S'2/^«J/^« landsmalen Xi 9 (S7) 1896. Marius 47. ,

Kristensen, Aarbog for dansk kulturhistorie 1897. Babbitt, Common Sense in Teachiftg Modern Languages, New York 1895, Weise, Utisere II. Svi&ti, History of Language, 1900, iZ9Muttersprache 1897, 205, Dewischeit, Shakespeare -fahrbuch XXXIV (1898) 190. Mrs. Winfield S. Hall Child Study Monthly, March 1897 2ind Journal of Childhood and Adolescence, January ,

1902.

14*

Language of Poetry.

IX. Shakespeare and the

able to converse after one year's teaching.

Sweet

contradicts the statement about 300 words, saying

find a missionary in Tierra del

also

'When

Fuego compiling

—

Yaagan language we cannot give any that is, a hundred times as many credence to this statement, especially if we consider the number of names of different parts of a waggon or a

dictionary of 30,000 words in

the

—

connexion even with a single agricultural operation, together with names Smedberg, of birds, plants, and other natural objects'. plough, and

all

the words required in

who has investigated the vocabulary of Swedish peasants and who emphasizes its richness in technical teims, arrives at the result that 26,000 figure,

and the Danish

a reference to

prised 33,456 words.

And

Kristensen com-

Professor E. S. Holden tested all

and found that

Dictionary,

probably too small a

dialectologist

pletely endorses this view.

himself

the words in Webster's

his

own vocabulary com-

E. H. Babbitt writes:

tried

vocabulary of adults and made experiments, chiefly with my students, to see how many English words

to get at the

each knew

My plan was

number random, count the number

to take a considerable

from the dictionary at of words on those pages which the subject of the experiment could define without any context, and work out a proportion to get an approximation of the entire number of words in the dictionary known. The results were surprising for two reasons. In the size of the vocabulary of such students the outside vaiiations were les-^. than 20 per cent., and their vocabulary was much larger than I had expected to find. The majority reported a little below 60,000 words'. 216. These statements are easily reconciled with the ascription of 20,000 words to Shakespeare. For it must be remembered that in the case of each of us there is a great difference between the words known (especially of pages

Vocabulary.

213

those of which he has a reading knowledge) and the words actually used in conversation.

always be a great

And

then,

many words which

there

man

must

will use

readily in conversation, but which will never occur in his writings,

simply because the subjects on which a

addresses the public are generally

much

those he has to talk about every day.^

less

man

varied than

How many authors

have occasion to use in their books even the most familiar names of garden tools or common dishes or kitchen implements? When Milton as a poet uses only 8,000 against Shakespeare's

20,000 words,

this

natural

consequence of the narrower range of his subjects, and it is easy to prove that his vocabulary really contained many more than the 8,000 words found in We have only a Concordance to his poetical works.

any page of his prose writings, and we meet with a great many words not in the Con-

take

shall

cordance.^

The greatness of Shakespeare's mind is therefore not shown by the fact that he was acquainted with 20,000 words, but by the fact that he wrote about so great a variety of subjects and touched upon so many human facts and relations that he needed this number of words 217.

authors will use some (learned or abstract) words in writing which they do not use in conversation; their 1

Inversely,

many

number, however, is rarely great. 2 Thus, on p. 30 of Areopagitica I find the following 21 words, which are not in Bradshaw's Concordance: churchman, competency, utterly, mercenary, pretender, ingenuous, eviseism, ferular, fescu, imprimatur, grammar, pedagogue, cursory, temporize, extemporize, licencer, commonwealth, foreiner. And p. 50 adds 18 more words to commons, valorous, rarify, enfranchise, writing, the list: founder, formall, slavish, oppressive, reinforce, abrogate, mercilesse, noble (n.), Danegelt, immunity, newnes, unsutdently,

tutor,

examiner,

ablenes, customary.

IX. Shakespeare and the Language of Poetry.

His remarkable familiarity with technical expressions in many different spheres has often been noticed, but there are other facts with regard to his use in his writings.^

words that have not been remarked, or not sufHis reticence about religious matficiently remarked. has given rise to the most divergent ters, which of

theories

his

rehgious behef,

that such words as

the fact

Trinity do not occur at (Jesu)

Christ

shown strikingly in Bible, Holy Ghost, and

all in his

writings,

and Christmas are found only

while Jesus in

some

Saviour occurs only once (in Hamlet), and Creator only in two of the dubious plays (H 6 C and

his earliest plays;

Troilus).^

218. Of far greater importance

his use of

to individualize the characters in his plays.

language

In this he

and subtler art than some modern novelists, who make the same person continually use the same stock phrase or phrases. Even where he resorts to

shows a much

finer

the same tricks as other authors he varies

them more;

Mrs. Quickly and Dogberry do not misapply words from

the classical languages in the same way.

speech of the artisans in is

comic

in a different

A Midsummer

manner from the

The everyday Night's

Dream

diction they use

comedy, which serves Shakespeare to ridicule some linguistic artifices employed in good faith by many Shakeof his contemporaries (alliteration, bombast). speare is not entirely exempt from the fashionable affecin their

have amused myself with making up the following sentences of words not used by Shakespeare though found in the language of that time: In Shakespeare we find no blunders, although decency and delicacy have disappeared; energy and enthusiasm are not in existence and we see no elegant expressions nor any gleams oi genius etc. 2 The act against profane language on the stage (see below, 1

244)

not sufficient to explain this reticence.

Individual Characters,

tation of his days

known

noticed that he

superior to

215

Euphuism^, but

must be worst aberrations and

its

he satirizes them, not only in Love's Labour's Lost, but Euphuistic expressions are also in many other places.

mouth

some subordinate character who has nothing to do except to announce some trifling incident, relate a little of the circ*mstances that lead up

generally put in the

to the action of the play, deliver a etc.

message from a king,

not improbable that the

some actor who knew how

make

company

possessed

small parts funny by

and we can imagine that it was he who acted Osric in Hamlet, and by his vocabulary and appearance exposed himself to the scoffs of the Danish prince, the Captain in Twelfth Night I, sc. 2, the Second Gentleman in Othello II, sc. i, the first Lord in As You Like It II, sc. 2 (They found the bed unBut the messenger from treasur'd of their mistris'). imitating fashionable affectation,

Antony

Julius CcBsar

different strain

and gives us a

And how

eloquence.

(III.

sort of foretaste of Antony's

different

here of subordinate parts only

Richard

the

Second

(III, sc.

122) speaks in a totally

again

— are

—

the

speaking

gardeners

with their characteristic

application of botanical similes to politics and vice versa.

thus one might go on, for no author has shown

And

greater skill in adapting language to character. 219. of the

modern

reader, however,

nuances that were

contemporaries.

great

sure to miss

many

by the

poet's

felt instinctively

many words have now

value than they had then; in some cases

another only a

slightly different colouring, but in others the diversity greater,

and only a

study of Elizabethan usage can

various kinds of affected court style have been carefully distinguished by M. Basse, Stijlaffectatie bij Shakespeare, voorall uit het oogpunt van het Euphuisme (University de Gand I

The

1895).

IX. Shakespeare

and the Language of Poetry.

bring out the exact value of each word.

bonnet then

meant a man's cap or hat; Lear walks unbonneted. To charm always implied magic power, to make invulnerable by witchcraft, to call forth by spells etc.; 'charming words' were magic words and not simply delightful words Notorious might be used in a good sense

as in our days.

was a colourless word ('And your name is great In mouthes of wisest censure' 0th. II, The same is true of succeed and success, which 3. 193). now imply what Shakespeare several times calls 'good success', whereas he also knows 'bad success'; cf. 'the as 'well-known'; censure^ too,

effects

he writes of succeede unhappily' Lear

157.

Companion was often used in a bad sense, lik-e fellow now, and inversely sheer, which is now used with such words as 'folly, nonsense', had kept the original meaning of 'pure', as in 'thou sheere, immaculate, and silver fountaine' (R 2 V. 3. 61). Politician seems always to imply intriguing or scheming, and remorse generally means pity or sympathy. Accommodate evidently did not belong to ordinary language, but was considered affected; occupy and activity were at least half-vulgar, while on the other hand wag (vb.) was then free from its present trivial or ludicrous associations ('Untill

Hamlet V.

eielids will

no longer

Dowden's note on this passage). Assassination (only Macbeth I. 7. 2) would then call up the memory of the 'Assasines, a company of most desperat and dangerous men among the Mahometans' (Knolles, Hist. Turks 1603) or 'That bloudy sect of wag',

290, see

Sarazens, called Assassini, who, without feare of torments,

undertake

the murther of any eminent Prince, im-

pugning their irreligion' (Speed, 161 1, quoted N. E. D.) 220. Even adverbs might then have another colouring from their present signification. Now-a-days was a vulgar word; it is used by no one in Shakespeare except Bottom, the grave-digger in Hamlet, and a fisherman in Pericles.

Value of Words,

Bacon.

217

The adverb eke, in the nineteenth century a poetic word, seems to have been a comic expression; it occurs onlythree times in Shakespeare (twice in the Merry Wives, used by Pistol and the Host, once by Flute in Mids. N. Dr.); Milton and Pope avoid the word. The synonym also is worth noticing. Shakespeare uses it only 22 times, and nearly always puts it in the mouth of vulgar or affected persons (Dogberry twice in Ado, the Clown once in Wint., the Second Lord in As II. sc. 2, the Second Lord in Tim. III. sc. 6, the affected Captain in Tw. I. sc. 2; the knight in Lear

may

belong here too

;

further

4 B II. 4. 171 and V. 3. 145, and two of Shakespeare's Welshmen, Evans three times, and Fluellen twice). It is used twice

Pistol twice in grandiloquent speeches,

where Canter6. 10), and it is, therehighly characteristic that Falstaff uses the word

solemn and official speeches (H 5 bury expounds lex Salica, and IV. in

fore,

I. 2.

yy,

twice in his Euphuistic impersonation of the king (H 4 A II. 4. 440 and 459) and twice in similar speeches in the

Merry Wives

(V.

24 and V.

7).^

above are Gent. III. 2. 25, where the metre is wrong, Hamlet V. 2. 402, where the Shakefolios have always instead of also, and Caes. II. i. 329. speare's sparing use of also would in itself suffice to disprove the Baconian theory if any proof were needed beyond the evidence of history and of psychology. For in Bacon, alsds abound, and I have counted on four successive small pages of Moore I

The only passages not accounted

for

—

Smith's edition of the New Atlantis 22 instances, exactly as many as are found in the whole of Shakespeare. Might and ^nought seem to be nearly equally frequent in Bacon, but mought in the third part of Henry is found only once in Shakespeare VI, a play which many competent judges are inclined not to ,

At any rate, this one instance in one of his earliest works weighs nothing as against the thousands of times might is found. Shakespeare uses among and sa amoitgst indiscriminately. Bacon nearly always uses amongst. aeon frequently employs the conjunction whereas, which is not found at all in the undoubtedly genuine Shakespearian ascribe to Shakespeare at

all.

\ |

IX. Shakespeare and the

Language of Poetry.

one of Shakespeare's most interesting creations, even from the point of view of language. Although Sidney Lee has shown that there were Jews in 221. Shylock

and that, consequently, Shakespeare need not have gone outside his own country in order to see models for Shylock, the number of Jews cannot have been sufficient for his hearers to be very familiar with the Jewish type, and no Anglo-Jewish dialect or mode of speech had developed which Shakespeare

England

in those times

could put into Shylock's

mouth and

recognizable for what he was.

have

make him

at once

not, indeed,

been

able to discover a single trait in Shylock's language that

can be called distinctly Jewish. And yet Shakespeare has succeeded in creating for Shylock a language different from that of anybody else. Shylock has his Old Testament at his fingers' ends, he defends his own way of

making money breed by a reference

to Jacob's thrift in

breeding parti-coloured lambs, he swears by Jacob's staff and by our holy sabbath, and he calls Lancelot 'that

Hagars off-spring'.^ We have an interesting bit of Jewish figurative language in 'my houses eares, I meane my casem*nts' (II. 5. 34). Shylock uses some biblical words which do not occur elsewhere in Shakespeare: pilled (The skilful shepheard pil'd me certain wands, cf. Genesis XXX. 37), synagogue, Nazarite, and publican. But more often Shylock is characterized by being made to use words or constructions a little different from the accepted use of Shakespeare's time.^ He dis-

foole of

—

Since this was written, the whole subject has been investigated by N, Begholm {Bacon og Shakespeare, Copenhagen 1906), who has succeeded in pointing out an astonishing number of discrepancies between the two authors. Contrast with this trait the fondness for classical allusions 1 found in Marlowe's Barrabas. 2 He says Abra?n, but Abraham is the only form found in the rest of Shakespeare's works.

plays,

etc.

Shylock.

likes

the word interest and prefers calling

or thrift

(my well-worne

which he

thrift,

[

advantage

cals interrest,

and instead of usury he says usance. Furness quotes Wylson On Usurye 1572, p. 32 'usurie and double usurie, the merchants termyng it usance and double this word thus ranks usance, by a more clenlie name' in the same category as dashed or d-d for damned: instead of pronouncing an objectionable word in full one begins as if one were about to pronounce it and then shunts off on another track (see other examples below, § 244). Shylock uses the plural moneys, which is very rare in Shakespeare, he says an equal pound for 'exact', rheum I.

52),

—

(rume) for

'saliva',

estimable for 'valuable', fulsome for

'rank' (the only instance of that signification discovered

he alone uses the words eaneling and misbeliever and the rare verb to bane. His syntax is peculiar: we trifle time; rend out, where Shake-

by the

editors of the N. E. D.)

;

have no mind of feasting forth to-night (always mind to); and so following, where and so forth is the regular Shakespearian phrase. I have counted some forty such deviations from Shakespeare's ordinary language and cannot dismiss the thought that Shakespeare made Shylock's language peculiar on purspeare has elsewhere only rend;

makes Caliban, and the witches in Macbeth, use certain words and expressions used by none other of his characters in order to stamp them as beings out pose, just as he

of the

common

sort.

same in have counted between two and

222. Shakespeare's vocabulary was not the all

periods of his

life.

three hundred words which he used in his youth, but not later, while the number of words peculiar to his last period is

much

his first

Sarrazin^ mentions as characteristic of period a predilection for picturesque adjectives

smaller.

Shakespeare- Jahrbuch XXXIII, 122.

1^- Shakespeare and the Language of Poetry.

that appeal immediately to the outward senses (bright, brittle, fragrant, pitchy, snow-white), while his later plays

more adjectives of psychological importance. But even apart from the fact that some of the adjectives instanced are really found in later plays {bright in Caes., Ant., 0th., Cymb., Wint. T., etc.), this statement would account for only a small part of the divergencies. Probably no single explanation can account for them all, not even that of the natural buoyancy of youth and the comparative austerity of a later age. It is noteworthy that in some instances he ridicules in later plays words used quite seriously in earlier ones. Thus beautify, which found in Lucrece, Henry VI B, Titus Andr., Two is Gentlemen, and Romeo, is severely criticized by Polonius when he hears it in Hamlet's letter 'That's an ill phrase, are said to contain

a vilde phrase, beautified

Similarly

a vilde phrase'.

cranny, which Shakespeare used in Lucrece (twice) and

Comedy of Errors, is not found in any play written later than Mids N. D., where Shakespeare takes leave of the word by turning it to ridicule in the mouth of Bottom and in the artisans' comedy. The fate of foeman, aggraPerhaps some of vate, and homicide is nearly the same. in the

were provinciahsms (thus possibly pebblestone, shore in the sense of 'bank of a river', wood 'mad', forefather 'ancestor', the pronunciation of

the words avoided in later

life

marriage and of Henry in three syllables).

In the

first

period Shakespeare used perverse with the unusual signification 'cold, unfriendly, averse to love', later

the

word

altogether.

been criticized by

how

his

In such instances he

contemporaries (we

he avoids

may have

know from

the

Ben Jonson was in these matters), and that may have made him avoid the objectionable Poetaster

severe

words altogether. 223.

One

speare's

of the

use

most characteristic features

the

English language

his

of Shake-

boldness.

Different Periods.

Boldness.

2 2

ha s often been pointed out in books of literary criticism, and the boldness of his sent ence structure especially in his last period, is so obvious He does not that no instances need be adduced here. always care for grammatical parallelism, witness such a sentence as 'A thought which, quarter'd, hath but one part wisedom And ever three parts coward' (Haml. IV. He does not always place the words where they 4. 42). His boldji^s,?

<^^

mftf:aphor

would seem properly to belong, as in 'we send. To know what willing ransome he will give' for 'what ransom he will willingly give' (H 5 HI. 5. 63), 'dismist me Thus with his speechlesse hand' (Cor. V. I. 68), 'the whole eare of Denmarke Is by a forged processe of my death Rankly abus'd' (the ear of all Denmark, Haml. I. 5. 36), 'lovers absent howres' (the hours when lovers are absent, 0th. III. 4, 174) etc. He is not afraid of writing 'wanted lesse impudence' for 'had less impudence' or 'wanted impu-

dence more' (Wint. III. 2. 57) and 'a begger without lesse quality' (Cymb. I. 4. 23), nor of mixing his negatives as Al. Schmidt, who he does in many other passages.^ collects

many

instances of such negligence, rightly re-

marks: 'Had he taken the pains of revising and preparing his plays for the press, he would perhaps have corrected all the quoted passages. But he did not write them to be read and dwelt on by the eye, but to be heard by a symAnd much that would blemish the pathetic audience. language of a logician, may well become a dramatic poet or an orator'. ^ There is an excellent paper by C. Alphonso Smith in the Englische Studien, vol. XXX, on 'The Chief Difference between the First and Second Folios of Shakespeare', in

which he shows that

'the

supreme syntactic

value of Shakespeare's work as represented in the First Besides using such double negatives as were regular in the older periods of the language {nor never, etc.) 2 Shakespeare -Lexicon, p. 1420. 1

all

Language

of Poetry.

shows us the English language unfettered by bookish impositions. Shakespeare's syntax was that Folio

IX. Shakespeare and the

22 is

that

of the speaker, not that of the essayist; for the

drama

\ represents the unstudied utterance of people under all and degrees of emotion, ennui, pain, and passion. |! kinds Its syntax, to be truly representative, must be familiar, I

and formal.' But 'the Second Folio is of unique service and significance in its attempts to render more 'correct' and bookish the unfettered syntax of the First. The First Folio is to the Second as spoken language is to written language'. The spontaneous;

(^conversational,

not studied

'bad grammar' of the First Folio (1623)

may

not always

be due to Shakespeare himself, but at any rate we have in that edition more of his own language than in the 'cor^

rectness' of the

Second Folio (1632).

224. Shakespeare's boldness with regard to language

conspicuous, though no

less

shall

New

now

mention.

less real, in

the instances

In turning over the pages of the

English Dictionary, where every pains has been

taken to ascertain the earliest occurrence of each word and of each signification, one is struck by the frequency with which Shakespeare's name is found affixed to the earliest quotation for words or meanings. In many cases this is no doubt due to the fact that Shakespeare's vocabulary has been registered with greater care in Concordances

and

Al.

Schmidt's

invaluable

Shakespeare-

Lexicon than that of any other author, so that his w'ords cannot escape notice, while the same words may occur unnoticed in the pages of many an earlier author. But even if future research may somewhat reduce the number of these words, the fact will remain that Shakespeare was in no way afraid of adopting into his immortal pages a great

many words which were new

in his times,

whether absolutely new or new only to the written language, while living colloquially on the lips of the people.

New Words.

includes the following words: aslant as a pre-

list

assassination (see above), barefaced,

position,

two

22T,

of the significations

now most

beguile in

current (win the at-

by wiling means, and charm away), the plural brothers (found also in Layamon's Brut, but seemingly not between that and Shakespeare's Titus Andron. and Marlowe's T amburlaine) call 'to pay a short visit', courttention

dwindle, enthrone (earlier enthronize), eventful, ex-

ship,

cellent

'spring',

fretful,

come' (only hint,

current

the

hurry,

get

sense

'extremely

intransitive with

'get clear'),

latest,

fount

an adjective,

/ have got for

indistinguishable,

good',

'be-

have', gust,

laughable,

leap-frog,

loggerhead and loggerheaded, lonely (but Sidney has lone-

some years before Shakespeare began

liness

lower verb, perusal, primy.

write),

Further the following verbs

(formed from nouns that are found before Shakespeare's time) bound, hand, jade, and nouns (formed from already :

existing verbs)

Among

control,

dawn,

dress, hatch, import, indent.

other words which were certainly or probably

new when Shakespeare used them, may be mentioned and summit. I shall give below (§ 228) a list of words and expressions the existence of which in the English language is due to Shakespeare. The words here given would probably have found their way mto the language even had Shakespeare never written a line, though he may have accelerated the date But at any rate they show that he of their acceptance. was exempt from that narrowness which often makes authors shy of using new or colloquial words in the higher literary style. Let me add another remark apropos of a list of hard words needing an explanation which is found Dr. Murray writes^: in co*ckeram's Dictionarie (1623). *We are surprised to find among these hard words abandon, acceptance, gull 'dupe', rely, scarcely,

The Evolutio7i of English Lexicography. Oxford and London 1900, p. 29. I

Romanes

Lecture,

^^' Shakespeare and the

Language

of Poetry,

and

abhorre, abrupt, absurd, action, activitie,

plained as

woman

all

doer', for the stage actress

Now, with the exception

yet appeared'.

actresse,

ex-

had not

of the last one,

these words are found in Shakespeare's plays.

225. Closely connected with this trait in Shakespeare's language is the proximity of his poetical diction to his

ordinary prose.

uses very few 'poetical' words or

does not rely for his highest flights on the use of words and grammatical forms not used elsewhere, but knows how to achieve the finest effects of imagination

forms.

without stepping outside his ordinary vocabulary and grammar. It must be remembered that when he uses thou and

thee, 'tis, e'en, ne'er, howe'er,

mine

eyes, etc., or

and interrogative verbs without do, all these things which are now parts of the conventional language of poetry, were everyday collo-

when he

construes

negative

quialisms in the Elizabethan period.

It is

true that there

and forms which he never uses except in poetry, but their number is extremely small. I do not know""^of any besides host 'army', vale, sire, and morn. As

are certain words

for the

synonym morrow, apart from

its

use in the sense

morrow, which was then colloquial, it occurs only four'^times, and only in rime. There are some verb forms which only occur in rime, but the number of occasions on which Shakespeare of 'next day'

was thus led

and

in the salutation good

to deviate

from

his usual

small: begun (past tense) 8 times,

present

is fly),

flee

grammar

very

once (the usual

gat once (in the probably spurious Pericles),

sain once, sang once, shore participle once, strown once (the usual

form

strewed), swore participle

once

—

fifteen

which must be added eleven instances of the plural eyen. Rhythmical reasons seem to make do more frequent in Shakespeare's verse than in his prose\ instances in

all,

W.Franz, Shakespeare-Grammatik, 2nd ed.478. His might be more comprehensive. I

statistics

Poetical

Diction.

225

and rhythm and rime sometimes make him place a pre-

noun [e. rare enough

position after instead of before the All these things are

among.^)

go the fools

to justify the

statement that a peculiar poetical diction is practically non-existent in Shakespeare. 226. In the Old English period the language of poetry differed,

we have seen

(cf.

very considerably

53),

from the language of ordinary prose. The old poetical language was completely forgotten a few centuries after the Norman Conquest, and a new one did not develop in the Middle English period, though there were certain conventional tricks used by many poets, such as those ridiculed in Chaucer's Sir Thopas. Chaucer himself had not two distinct forms of language, one for verse and the other for prose, apart from those unavoidable smaller changes which rhythm and rime are always apt to bring about. We have now seen that the same is true of Shakespeare; but in the nineteenth century

many words and forms used outside of poetry.

find a great

words which are scarcely ever

This, then,

not a survival of

an old state of things, but a comparatively recent phenomAt enon, whose causes are well worth investigating. first it might be thought that the regard for sonority and beauty of sound would be the chief, or one of the chief agents in the creation of a special poetical dialect.

But very often poetical forms are, on the contrary, less euphonious than everyday forms; compare for example break' st thou with do you break. Those who imagine that gat sounds better than got will scarcely admit that spat sounds better than spot or not: non-phonetic associations are often more powerful than the mere sounds. or gnat

227.

More frequently

it is

the desire to leave the beaten

track that leads to the preference of certain words in

Franz,

p. 427.

Jespbrsbn: English, and ed.

IX. Shakespeare

Words that

poetry.

and the Language of Poetry.

are too well

known and

too often

used do not call up such vivid images as words less familiar. This is one of the reasons which impel poets to use archaic words; they are 'new' just on account of their being old, and yet they are not so utterly unknown as Besides they will often call up the to be unintelligible.

some old or venerable work in which the reader has met with them before, and thus they at once If, then, the poetical secure the reader's sympathy.

memory

language of the

nineteenth

century contains a great

many

archaisms, the question naturally presents itself, from what author or authors do most of them proceed? And many people who know the preeminent position of

Shakespeare in EngHsh literature will probably be surprised to hear that his is not the greatest influence on English poetic diction.

Among words and phrases due to reminiscences Shakespeare may be mentioned the following: antre

228. of

(Keats, Meredith), atomy in the sense 'atom, tiny being', beetle (the

his

dreadfull

base into the charactery

blown, (coign

summit

sea),

(Keats,

of the

cliffe.

That

beetles o'er

beggars all description, broad-

Browning),

another spelling of coin

coign

'corner'),

vantage

cudgel one's

brain(s), daff the world aside, eager 'cold' (a nipping and an eager ayre), eld (superstitious eld), nine farrow, fitful (Lifes fitfull fever), forcible feeble,

a foregone conclusion,

uncertain formation and meaning. Commonly taken as a derivation of forge v., and hence used by writers of the 19th c. for: apt at forging, in-

forgetive (Falstaff;

'of

ventive, creative' N. E. D.), a forthright (rare), gaingiving

head and front ('A Shakesperian phrase, orig. app. denoting 'summit, height, highest extent or pitch'; sometimes used by (Coleridge),

modern his own

gouts of blood,

gravelblind,

writers in other senses'.

N. E. D.), hoist with

petard, lush (in the sense 'luxuriant in growth'),

Words from Shakespeare. in

only

mind's

eye,

the pink (of perfection, in Shakespeare

the very pinck of curtesie'; George Eliot has

'Her kitchen always looked the pink of cleanliness', and

Stevenson

'he

had been the pink

silken dalliance, single blessedness,

('Too kind

good behaviour'), that way madness lies of

Insipidity lay that way', Mrs.

Humphrey

The last word is interesting; originally it is a noun and means 'destiny, fate'; the three weird sisters means the fate sisters or Norns. Shakespeare found this expression in Holinshed and used it in speaking of the witches in Macbeth, and only there. From that play Ward), weird.

entered into the ordinary language, but without being properly understood. It is now used as an adjective and it

generally taken to

Another word that

mean is

'mystic, mysterious, unearthly'.

often misunderstood

bourne from

Hamlet (The undiscovered countrey, from whose borne No traveller returnes); it means 'limit', but Keats and domain' (In water, fiery realm, and airy bourne; quoted N. E. D.). There are two things worth noting in this list. First, that it includes so many words of vague or indefinite meaning, which were not perhaps even clearly understood by the author himThis explains the fact that some of them have self. others use

in the sense 'realm,

apparently been used in modern times in a different sense from that intended by Shakespeare. Second, that the re-employment of these words nearly always dates from the nineteenth century and that the present currency of

some

them

due just as much to

or Keats as to the original author.

Sir

Walter Scott

cudgel one's brains

than when Shakespeare put it in the mouth of the gravedigger (Hamlet V. I. 63), evidently meaning it to be a rude or vulgar expression. Inversely, single blessedness is now generally used with is

now more

of a literary phrase

humorous

ironical or

Shakespeare (Mids.

tinge which i.

certainly

78).

15*

had not

IX. Shakespeare and the

must be noted

Language of Poetry,

none

words thus traceable to Shakespeare belong now to what might be called the technical language of poetry. Modern archaizing poetry owes its vocabulary more to Edmund Spenser than to any other poet. Pope and his contemporaries made a very sparing use of archaisms, but when poets in the middle of the eighteenth century turned from his rationalistic and matter-of-fact poetry and were eager to take their romantic flight away from everyday realities, Spenser became the poet of their heart, and they adopted a great many of his words which had long been forgotten. Their success was so great that many words which they had to explain to their readers are now perfectly familiar to every educated man and woman. Gilbert West, in his work 'On the Abuse of Travelling, in imitation of Spenser' (1739) had to explain in footnotes such words as sooth, 229.

also that

of the

guise, hardiment, Elfin, prowess, wend, hight, dight, para-

mours, behests,

caitiffs'^.

William Thompson,

May' (1740?) explains

erst

in his

certes surely, certainly,

'Hymn ne nor,

formerly, long ago, undaz'd undazzled, sheen biight-

ness, shining, been are, dispredden spread,

recks nor

concerned,

affray

affright,

meed

prize, ne

featly

nimbly,

glenne a country borough, eld old age, lusty-

defftly finely,

head vigour, algate ever, harrow destroy, carl clown, perdie

an old word

for asserting anything,

livelood liveliness,

albe altho', scant scarcely, bedight adorned.

230. In later times, Coleridge, Scott, Keats, Tennyson,

William Morris, and Swinburne must be mentioned as those poets who have contributed most to the revival of old words.

Coleridge in the

first

edition of the Ancient

Mariner used so many archaisms in spelling, etc., that he had afterwards to reduce the number in order to make his poem more palatable to the reading public. SomeI

L. Phelps,

Beginnings of the Romantic Movement,

p. 63.

Archaisms.

229

times pseudo-2intique formations have been introduced; anigh, for instance, which is frequent in Morris, is not an

and

old word,

mate old

idlesse

a false formation after the

and humblesse

noblesse

(O. Fr,

noblesse,

legiti-

hum-

But on the whole, many good words have been and some of them will recovered from oblivion, blesse).

doubtless find their regions

other hand of Shelley,

for

continue

their

life

On the poetry and eloquence. pages in the works of Shakespeare,

higher

many

and

poet

into the language of ordinary

while others will

conversation, the

way

Tennyson show us that

reach

highest

the

many

poetry without resorting to

flights

it is

possible

of eloquent

of the conventionally

poetical terms.

231. As for the technical

grammar

modern poetry,

not very strong, in fact not so strong as that of the Authorized Version of the Bible. The revival of th in the third person singular was due to the Bible, as we have seen above (§ 196)^. Gat is a frequent form in the Bible, while Shakespeare's ordinary the influence of Shakespeare

past of the verb to get

got; the solitary instance of gat

only serves to confirm the rule^. The past tense of cleave 'to sever' in Shakespeare is clove or cleft; clave does not occur in his writings at all, but is the only (see

§ 225)

biblical past of this verb.

Brake

the only preterite of

clergymen in reading the Bible pronounce laved, danced, etc., they are reproducing a language about two hundred years earlier than the Authorized Version. 2 Gai is the only form of this verb admitted by some modern poets, who avoid get and got altogether. Shakespeare uses the verb hundreds of times. Milton makes a very sparing use of the verb (which he inflects get got got, never gat in the past or gotten in the participle); all the forms of the verb only occur instance, give occurs 1 9 times in his poetical works, while, for 168 times and receive 73 times. The verb is rare in Pope too. Why is this verb tabooed in this way? 1

When modern

IX. Shakespeare

230

and the Language of Poetry.

break found in the Bible; in Shakespeare brake

rarer

than broke; Milton and Pope have only broke; Tennyson, Morris, and Swinburne prefer brake. 232. But on the whole, modern poets do not take their grammar from any one old author or book, but are apt to use any deviation from the ordinary grammar they can lay hold of anywhere. And thus it has come to pass in the nineteenth century that while the languages of other civilized nations have the same grammar for poetry as for prose, although retaining here and there a few archaic forms of verbs, etc., in English a wide gulf separates the grammar of poetry from that of ordinary life. The pronoun for the second person is in prose you for both cases in both numbers, while in many works of poetry^it is thou

and

thee for the singular, ye for the plural (with here

there a rare you)] the poetical possessives thy

never occur in everyday speech.

The usual

and

thine

distinction

between my and mine does not always obtain in poetry, where it is thought refined to write mine ears, etc. For they sat down the poetical form is they sate them down; for it's poets write 'tis, and for whatever either whatso or whatsoever (or whate'er), for does not

mends

mend they

often

Sometimes they gain the advantage of having at will one syllable more or less than common people taketh for takes, thou takest for you take, movkd for moved, o'er for over, etc.; compare also morn for morning. But in other cases the only thing gained is the impression, produced by uncommon forms, that we are in a sphere As a different from or raised above ordinary realities. matter of course, this impression is weakened in proportion as the deviations become the common property of any rimer, when a reaction will probably set in in favour of more natural forms. The history of some of the write

not, etc.

poetical forms

rather curious howe'er, :

e'er, o'er,

e'en

at first vulgar or familiar forms, used in daily talk.

were

Then

Grammar

of Poetry.

began to spell these words in the abbreviated fashion whenever they wanted their readers to pronounce them in that way, while prose writers, unconcerned about poets

the pronunciation given to their words, retained the full

forms in spelling. The next step was that the short forms were branded as vulgar by schoolmasters with so great a success

that

they disappeared from ordinary conver-

sation while they were

still

retained in poetry.

And now

they are distinctly poetic and as such above the reach of

common mortals. 233. Among the

elements of ordinary language, some

can be traced back to individual authors. Besides those Surround already mentioned I shall cite only a few. originally

meant

to overflow (Fr. sur-onder, Lat. super-

undare); but according to Skeat, both the modern

sig-

which implies an erroneous reference to round, and the currency of the word are due to Milton. The soft impeachment is one of Mrs. Malapropos expressions (in Sheridans's Rivals, act V, sc. 3). Henchman was made generally known by Scott, and to croon by Burns. Burke originated the expression 'the Great Unwashed.' A certain number of proper names in works of literature have been popular enough to pass into ordinary language as appelatives^, as for instance pander or pandar from Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde, Abigail 'a servant-girl' from Beaumont and Fletcher's Scornful Lady, Mrs. Grundy as a personification of middle-class ideas of propriety from Morton's Speed the Plough, Paul Pry 'a meddlesome busybody' from Poole's comedy of that name, Sarah Gamp 'sick nurse of the old-fashioned type' and 'big umbrella' from Dickens's Martin Chuzzlewit, Pecksniff 'hypocrite' nification,

Aronstein, Englische Studien XXV, p. 245 ff., Josef Reinius On Transferred Appellations of Human Beings, Goteborg

1903, p. 44ff

and the Language of Poetry.

IX. Shakespeare

232

from the same novel, Sherlock Holmes 'acute detective' from Conan Doyle's stories.

makes use of the same instruments as poetry. Above (§ 56) we have seen a number of alliterative formulas; here I shall give some instances of riming locutions highways and byways, town and gown, it will neither make nor break me (cf. the alliterative make mar), fairly and squarely, toiling and moiling, as snug as a bug in a rug (Kipling), rough snatch or catch' and gruff, 'I mean to take that girl Compare also such (Meredith), moans and groans^. popular words as handy-dandy, hanky-panky, namby234. Ordinary language sometimes

—

pamby,

hurly-burly, hoity

pocus,

toity

hugger-mugger,

hurdy-gurdy,

hocus

higgledy-piggledy or

highly tighty,

Hotchpot (from French

higglety-pigglety, hickery- pickery.

made

hocher 'shake together' and pot) was

hotchpotch for

the sake of the rime; then the final tch was changed into dge

(cf.

knowledge from knowleche)

*hotchpodge, and the

rime was re-established: hodgepodge.

Rhythm undoubtedly

235.

'inary language, apart ficial)

this;

prose.

but

may

plays a great part in ord-

from poetry and

artistic (or arti-

not always be easy to demonstrate

combinations of a monosyllable and a

di-

by means of and the usual practice is to place the short word first, because the rhythm then becomes

syllabic

the regular 'aa 'aa instead of 'aaa

('before the a denotes

Thus we say 'bread and butter', not 'butter and bread'; further: bread and water, milk und water, cup and saucer, wind and weather, head and shoulders, by fits and snatches, from top to bottom, the strongly stressed syllable).

have derived

OE. granian.

its

modem

verb may vowel from the frequent collocation with groan,

As Old English has mcenan 'moan', the Square may owe one of

collocation with fair.

its

significations to the

Rime and Rhythm.

233

rough and ready, rough and tumble, free and easy, dark and dreary, high and mighty, up and doing^. It is probable that rhythm has also played a great part in determining the order of words in other fixed groups of greater complexity. 2 books as Songs and Poems, Men and Women, Past and Present, French and English, Night and Morning. In some instances, rhythm is obviously not the only reason for the order, but in all I think it has been at 1

Compare

also

such

titles

least a concurrent cause. 2 P. Fijn

van Draat, Rhythm

English Prose (Heidelberg

has many interesting observations on the influence of rhythm, though I would not subscribe to all his conclusions. 1

9 10)

Chapter X.

Conclusion. 236. In the preceding chapters

we have considered the

EngUsh language, the various foreign influences brought from time to time to bear on its inner growth, lexical and grammatical, and the it, early vicissitudes of the

linguistic tendencies of its poets.

now remains

to look

few things which have contributed towards shaping the language, but which could find no convenient place in any of the preceding chapters, and then to say something about the spread and probable future of the lanat a

guage. 237. Aristocratic and democratic tendencies in a nation often

show themselves

in its speech;

indeed,

we have

already regarded the adoption of French and Latin words from that point of view. It is often said, on the Continent at least, that the typical Englishman's self-assertion

shown by the fact that his is the only language in which the pronoun of the first person is written with a capital letter, while in some other languages it is the second person that is honoured by this distinction, especially the pronoun of courtesy (Germain Sie, often also Du,

Danish De and in former times Du, Italian Ella^ Lei, Spanish V. or Vd., Finnish Te). Weise goes so far as to say that 'the Englishman, who as the ruler of the seas looks down in contempt on the rest of Europe, writes in his language nothing but the beloved / with a big

Aristocratic?

235

But this is little short of calumny. If selfassertion had been the real cause, why should not me also be written Me} The reason for writing / is a much more innocent one, namely the orthographic habit in the letter'.^

middle ages of using a 'long

(that

is,

I),

whenever

the letter was isolated or formed the last letter of a group; the numeral one was written just as

much

as the pronoun.

ference can be

238.

drawn from

(and three,

Thus no

iij,

etc.)

sociological in-

this peculiarity.

the other hand, the habit of addressing a single

person by means of a plural pronoun was decidedly in

its

an outcome of an aristocratic tendency towards class-distinction. The habit originated with the Roman Emperors, who desired to be addressed as beings worth more than a single ordinary man; and French courtesy in origin

the middle ages propagated

throughout Europe. In England as elsewhere this plural pronoun (you, ye) was it

long confined to respectful address.

Superior persons or

strangers were addressed as you; thou thus becoming the

mark

spoken to, or of familiarity or even intimacy or affection between the two interlocutors. English is the only language that has got rid of this useless distinction. The Quakers (the either of the inferiority of the person

Society of Friends) the equality of

all

objected to the habit as obscuring

human

beings; they therefore thou'd

But the same democratic levelling that they wanted to effect in this way, was achieved a century and a half later in society at large, though in a roundabout manner, when the pronoun you was gradually extended to lower classes and thus lost more and more of its previous character of deference. Thou then for some time was reserved for religious and (or rather thee'd)

everybody.

literary use as well as for foul abuse,

Charakteristik der lateinischen Sprache.

until finally the

1899,

p. 21.

X- Conclusion.

236 latter use

was discontinued

also

and you became the

only-

form used in ordinary conversation. 239. Apart from the not very significant survival

thou,

English has thus attained the only manner of ad-

dress

worthy

of a nation that respects the elementary

rights of each individual.

People

who

express regret at

not having a pronoun of endearment and

who

insist

how

when, for instance, two lovers pass from vous to the more familiar tu, should consider that no foreign language has really a pronoun exclusively for the most intimate relations. Where the two forms of address do survive, thou is very often, most often perhaps, used without real affection, nay very frequently Besides, it is often painful in contempt or frank abuse. to have to choose between the two forms, as people may be offended, sometimes by the too familiar, and sometimes by the too distant mode. Some of the unpleasant feeling of Helmer towards Krogstad in Ibsen's Dukkehjem ('A Doll's House' or 'Nora') must be lost to an English audience because occasioned by the latter using an old schoolfellow's privilege of thou-ing Helmer. In some languages the pronoun of respect often is a cause of ambiguity, in German and Danish by the identity in form of Sie (De) with the plural of the third person, in Italian and Portuguese by the identity with the singular pretty

in other languages

(feminine) of the third person. of the

modes

into account

When

all

the artificialities

of address in different nations are taken

— the

Lei, Ella, voi

and tu

of the Italians,

the vossa merce ('your grace', to shopkeepers) and voce (shortened form of the same, to people of a lower grade) of the

Portuguese (who

addressing equals or superiors

use the third person singular of the verb without any

pronoun or noun), the gij, jij, je and U of the Dutch, not to mention the eternal use of titles as pronouns in German and, still more, in Swedish ('What does Mr.

You.

Doctor want?' €tc,)

The

Bible.

'The gracious Miss

— the English may

237

probably aware', be justly proud of having avoidis

ed all such mannerisms and ridiculous extravagances, though the simple Old English way of using thou in addressing one person and ye in addressing more than one would have been still better. 240. Religion has had no small influence on the

Enghsh

The Bible has been studied and quoted in England more than in any other Christian country, and

language.

many

Bibhcal phrases have passed into the ordinary language as household words. The style of the a

great

Authorized Version has been greatly admired by many of the best judges of English style, who with some exaggeration recommend an early familiarity with and a constant study of the English bible (and of that

—

great imitator of Biblical simplicity and earnestness,

John

Bunyan) as the best training in the English language.^ Tennyson found that parts of The Book of the Revelation were finer in English than in Greek, and he said that See the long series of quotations given in Albert S. Cook's little book 'The Bible and English Prose Style' (Boston, 1892). On the other hand, Fitzedward Hall says, 'To Dr. Newman, and to the myriads who think as he does about our English Bible, one would be allowed to whisper, that the poor 'Turks' of the Prayer Book talk exactly in their own fashion, and for reasons strictly analogous to theirs, about the purity of diction, and what not, of 'the Blessed Koran' .... Ever since the Reformation, the ruling language of English religion has been, with rare exception, an affair either of studied antiquarianism or of nauseous pedantry. Simphcity, and little more, was aimed at, originally; and it sufficed for times of real earnestBut the very quaintness of phrase which King James ness. countersigned has attained to be canonized, till a hath, or I

a thou, delivered with conventional unction now well nigh inspires a sensation of solemnity in its hearer, and a per{Modern English suasion of the sanctanimity of its utterer'. ,

16—17.)

X. Conclusion.

238

ought to be read, were it only for the sake of the grand English in which it is written, an education in itself.'^ The rhythmical character of the Authorized 'the Bible

Version

well-known passage (Job III. 17) 'There the wicked cease from troubling: and there the wearie be at rest', which Tennyson was able to use as the last line of his 'May Queen' with scarcely any alteration: 'And the wicked cease from troubling, and the weary are at rest'. is

seen, for instance, in the

number of scriptural Modern English^, such as

241. C. Stoffel has collected quite a

phrases and allusions used in 'Tell

not in Gath', 'the powers that

be', 'olive

branches'

(children), 'strain at [or out) a gnat', 'to spoil the

Egyp-

may

run that readeth it', 'take up his parable', 'wash one's hands of something, 'a still small voice', 'thy speech bewrayeth thee'. Some which Stoffel does

tians', 'he

not mention

may

a helpmate

a corruption of the two words in Gen.

make him an

will

find their place here.

the slang word a rib is

The modern word II,

18:

helpe meet for him' [meet 'suitable'); 'a

wife'

from Genesis,

too,

and so

the expression 'the lesser lights'. 'A howling wilderness'

from Deuteron. XXXII. 10. 'My heart was still hot within me; then spake I with my tongue' (used, for inis

stance, in Charlotte Bronte's 'The Professor', p.

XXXIX.

from Psalms

Ecclesiastes VII. 29.

mentioned

'to

the earth,

'of

saints

what

kill

161)

and 'many inventions' from From the New Testament may be 3,

the fatted

earthy',

and

the breadth

calf'^,

'whited sepulchres',

comprehend with all and length and depth and 'to

height'. Life and Letters, II. 41 and 71. 2 Studies in English, Written and Spoken,

text

While the phrase prodigal son of

the

(Luke XV).

Bible,

occurs

in the

not

1894,

found

heading of the

125.

the

chapter

Scriptural

Words.

2^0

The scriptural 'holy of holies', which contains a Hebrew manner of expressing the superlative^ has given 242.

rise to a

'in

many

great

similar phrases in English, such as

heart of hearts'

Wordsw. Prelude XIV.

Hamlet,

(Shakesp.

(Miss Austen, Mansf. P. 71),

place of

'the

281), 'I

HI. all

78;

places'

rememberj'you a buck

bucks' (Thackeray, Newc. lOO), 'every lad has a friend of friends, a crony of cronies, whom he cherishes in his heart of hearts' politics' (Lecky,

(ib.

148), 'the evil of evils in

Democr. and Lib.

a horror of horrors' (H. James,

21),

Two

our present

'the

Magics

woman 60),

'that

mystery of mysteries, the beginning of things' (Sully, Study of Childh. 71), 'she is a modern of the moderns' (Mrs. H. Ward, Eleanor 265), 'love like yours is the pearl of pearls, and he who wins it is prince of princes' (Hall Caine, Christian 443), 'chemistry had been the study of studies for T. Sandys' (Barrie, Tommy and Grizel 6).

Compare

also

sorrowful to

tail's tail'

(Kipling,

Sec. Jungle B. 160).

Some

243.

used as appellatives, such as driver

names have often been Jezebel and Rahab; when a

scriptural proper

called a jehu in slang, the allusion

IX. 20, where Jehu's furious driving is

an American slang expression

meaning,

'to

Farmer and Henley).

rod mentioned in Isa.

II.

may

Cf.

give a person Jessie'

Timothy

VI. 15

'the

be found in Bartlett

(There 'a

come

shall

The N.

King

not explained

not in allusion to the

Is it

rod out of the stem of Jesse.') spelling Jesse with the meaning 1

'to

to 2 Kings

mentioned^. There

beat him soundly', which

in the Dictionaries (quotations

and

forth a

E. D. has the

genealogical tree reof kings,

and Lord of

lords'. 2

Y or joram

jorum 'drinking bowl' 2lT\A jerry see N.E. D., Sam. VIII. 10, and Stoffel, Studies in Engl. 138, where or

where 2 I King XIV. 10

quoted.

X. Conclusion.

2AO

presenting the genealogy of Christ ... a decoration for a

window, vestment, branched candlestick'. wall,

The

244.

influence

form

or in the

etc.,

Puritans,

of a large

though not strong Christmas, for which

enough to proscribe such words as they wanted to substitute Christtide in order to avoid the Catholic mass, was yet strong enough to modify the custom of swearing. In Catholic times all sorts of fanwere fashionable:

tastic oaths

Hir othes been so grate and so dampnable,

That

Our

grisly for to here

hem

swere;

body they to-tere; thoughte Jewes rente him noght ynough.

blissed lordes

Hem

This practice was continued after the Reformation, and all sorts of

made

alterations were

order to soften

down

in the

name

God

the oaths: gog, co*cke, gosse, gom,

Similarly instead of (the) Lord people

Gough, Gad, etc.

would say something like Law, Lawks, Losh, etc. Sometimes only the first sound was left out (Odd's lifelings, Shakesp. Tw. V. 187), more often only the genitive ending 'Sblood

survived:

(God's

The

'zounds (God's wounds). tive

drat

kept in

'drot it

blood), final

(God rot

it),

'snails,

it).

Many

these disguised oaths were extremely popular, and

survive to this day.

grammatical analysis, compromises between the the fear of swearing;

and

troth,

mee, and by (As IV. I

some

one

among

inclination

numerous swear and

note also Rosalind's words:

'By

good earnest, and so God mend

pretty oathes that are not dangerous'.

192.)

Chaucer

Chaucer's

all

Goodness gracious me, which defies

all

'slid,

sound of the nominawhich was later made

with a playful corruption rabbit

(or

'sHght,

C. T., C.

Works V

472

fi.,

p. 275.

also see Skeat's note to this passage,

Profane Language.

241

The Puritans caused a law to be enacted in 1606 by which profane language was prohibited on the stage (3 James I. chap. 21), and consequently words like 245.

'zounds were changed or omitted in Shakespearian plays,

from a comparison of the folio of 1623 and the earlier quartos; Heaven or Jove was substituted for God, and 'fore me (afore me) or trust me for (a) fore God; 'God give thee the spirit of persuasion' (H 4 A I. 2. 170) was changed into 'Maist thou have the spirit of perswasion', etc. But in ordinary life people went on swearing, and from

see

the comedies of the Restoration

may be little,

reaped af

all sorts of

however, the Puritan

period

curious oaths. spirit

rich harvest

and

little

conquered, and

now

doubt that the English swear less than other European nations and that when they do swear the expressions are more innocent than elsewhere. Even the 'profane language' and 'exusual terms for oaths,

there can be

pletives'

little

— point

a French or

—

to a greater purity in this respect.

German

or Scandinavian lady

Where

will express

by exclaiming (My) God an Englishwoman will say Dear me! or Oh my! or Good Note also euphemisms Hke 'deuce' for devil gracious!

surprise or a

little

fright

very uncomfortable place' for hell^. Among tabooed words in English one finds a great number which in other countries would be con-

and

'the

other place' or

sidered quite innocent, and the English have

shown

really astonishing inventiveness in 'apologies' for strong

words of every kind. Damn is now considered extremely objectionable, and even such a mild substitute for it as confound is scarcely allowed in polite society^. In Bernard Shaw's Candida Morell is provoked into exclaiming 'Confound your impudence !', whereupon his vulgar father1

Compare

also

will see

you further'. has often to be accompanied by

In the original sense it togethef to avoid misunderstanding. 2

Jespbrskn: English, and ed.

^- Conclusion.

2j^2

in-law retorts,

that becomin language for a clorgy-

'Is

man?' and Morell

'No,

replies,

sir,

not becoming

should have said damn your impudence: thats what St. Paul or any honest priest would have said to you'. Other substitutes for damned are hanged, somethinged (much rarer) ^ and a few that

language for a clergyman.

originate in the

manner

which the objectionable word

being put instead — not printed dashed — or blanked (from the same manner), deed (from the printed D). abbreviation d — d; sometimes the verb

'dash'

it),

Darned must be explained as a purely phonetical development of damned, which is not without analogies, while danged, which occurs in Tennyson, is a curious blending of damned and hanged^. Thus we have here a whole family of words with an initial d, allowing the speaker to begin as if he were going to say the prohibited word, and then to turn off into more innocent channels. The same is the Blessed by a process which is case with the ^/-words. found in other similar cases^ came to mean the opposite of the original meaning and became a synonym of cursed; Instead of these blamed had the same signification^ strong expressions people began to use other adjectives, shunting off after pronouncing bl- into some innocent word like bloody, which soon became a great favourite with the vulgar and therefore a horror to ears polite, or blooming, which had the same unhappy fate in the latter half of the nineteenth century. Few authors would use of something in 'Where the something (Pett Ridge, Lost Property 167.) are you coming to?' 1

Cf, the similar

'I'm

doomed!'

Corp muttered

pronouncing and Grizel, p. 122.) This to

himself,

another way. (Barrie, Tommy shows another way of disguising the word in print.

Cf.

There

silly.,

French benet,

exists

also

and damned (darned).

etc.

word blamed

blending of blamed

Objectionable Words,

now venture as

term

243

their heroines 'blooming

George Eliot does repeatedly

young

in 'Middlemarch'.

arly Shakespeare's expression 'the bloody

book

girls'

Similof law'

completely spoilt to modern readers, and lexicographers now have to render Old English blodig and the correspondis

words

ing

foreign

languages by 'bleeding',

stained',

'sanguinary' or

guinary

often

made

'blood-

'ensanguined'; but even san-

a substitute for 'bloody' in report-

ing vulgar speech.

246. This

the usual destiny of euphemisms; in order

to avoid the real

name

what

thought indecent or

improper people use some innocent word. But when that becomes habitual in this sense it becomes just as objectionable as the word it has ousted and now is rejected Privy is the regular English development of in its turn.

French prive; but when it came to be used as a noun for *a privy place' and in the phrase 'the privy parts', it had to be supplanted in the original sense by private, except in 'Privy Council', 'Privy Seal' and 'Privy Purse', where The plural parts was its official dignity kept it alive. ordinary expression

until

the use of the word

mental ability', veiled language made it

'talents,

for in

impossible.^

do not know whether American and especially Boston ladies are really as prudish as they are reported to be, speaking of the limhs of a piano and of their own 247.

benders instead of

legs,

or saying waist instead of hody^.

—

A male fowl. A product from America 'He -biddy. of prudery and squeamishness'. Farmer, Americanisms -^.'z^l1

Cf.

Storm, Engl. Philologie p. 887 (roosterswain). quoted by Hoppe, Supple2 See Thackeray, Virginians mentlexicon, s. v. leg; Bartlett's and Farmer's Dictionaries of Americanisms etc. Cf. also Opie Read A Kentucky Colofiel, said p. II 'He was so delicate of expression that he always

Cf. also

limb

when he meant

leg'.

16*

^' Conclusion.

244

But when

to alter

said in the Southern States instead

and when ox

commonly used

America for bull (jocosely even gentleman cow!)'^, the same tendency may be observed on this side the Atlantic too. At least Mr. F. T. Elworthy, who knows the ways of Somerset of to geld,

peasants better than anybody

'It

names

says that the plain

else,

male animals are going out of has, perhaps, been taught or implied that such

old English

use:

delicate; at

names

Stalhon,

Bull,

any

spade, but there

for the

rate, is

Boar,

we must no

co*ck,

Ram

are

in-

longer call a spade a

a very distinct tendency to fine

them

down, by a weakening process, so that at last the generic word for the animal has commonly got to be used to express the entire male' (Elworthy, Fresh Words and Phrases in the Somersetshire Dialect,

p. 6^).

afraid

here alighted on a trait which does not bear out description (in the introductory chapter) of English

we have

as a masculine language.

However,

tendency here mentioned

may

that

common

sense will

it is

possible that the

be a passing one only and as it has prevailed in prevail

—

the case of trousers, which word

now

certainly less

Perhaps the very absurdity of the taboo, which made people invent no end of comic names (inexpressibles, inexplicables, indescribables, ineffables, unmentionables, unwhisperables, proscribed than

was

fifty

years ago.

mustn't-mention-em, sit-upons, sine qua nons, etc.) has been the reason of the re-instatement of the good old word. Prudery is an exaggeration, but purity is a virtue, and there can be no doubt that the speech of the average 'One sometimes sees a 'lady -dog' offered for sale in England, but 'male -sheep', 'male -hogs', 'gentlemen -turkeys', and 'gentlemen -game -chickens' belong to the natural history T. Baron Russell, Current Ameriof refined Boston only.' 1

canisms 1 6. 2 Transactions of the Philological Society, 1898.

Prudery.

245

Englishman is less tainted with indecencies kinds than that of the average continental.

volume has

of various

—

been one-sided as it has dealt chiefly with Standard English and has left out of account nearly everything that is not generally accepted as such, apart from here and there a nonce-formation or a bold expression which is not recognized as good English though interesting as showing the possibilities of the language and perhaps in some cases deserving 248. This

in so far

popularity just as well as fault with.

The question

many things that nobody finds how one form of English came

taken as standard in preference to dialects, has been deliberately omitted as well as all the problems connected to be

with that pseudo-historical and anti-educational abomWhat I have to say ination, the English speUing.^

on these subjects and on provincialisms, co*ckneyisms and vulgarisms, cant, slang, American and Colonial English, Pidgin- English and Negro- English, etc., must be left for the future; at present I shall conclude with a'few remarks on what might be called the Expansion of English. 249. Only two or three centuries ago, English was spoken by so few people that no one could dream of its ever becoming a world language. In 1582 Richard Mulcaster wrote. The English tongue is of small reach, stretching no further than this island of ours, nay not there over air. 'In one of Florio's Anglo- Italian dialogues, an England, asked to give his opinion of the language, replied that it was worthless beyond Dover. Ancillon regretted that the English authors chose to Italian in

write in English as no one abroad could read them.

Even

such as learned English by necessity speedily forgot I

historical

account

of the

it.

sound -system and Modem English Gram-

English

English spelling may be found in my mar I (Heidelberg, Carl Winter, 1909).

6 2

^- Conclusion.

late as 1718,

Le Clerc deplored the small number of

scholars on the Continent able to read English'.^

what Portia bridge,

the

replies to Nerissa's question

young baron

Compare

about Faucon-

England (Merch.

2. 72)

'You know I say nothing to him, for hee understands not me, nor I him: he hath neither Latine, French, nor Italian, and you will come into the Court and sweare that I have Hee is a proper a poore pennie-worth in the English. mans picture, but alas, who can converse with a dumbe show?' In 17 14 Veneroni published an Imperial Dictionary of the four chief languages of Europe, that is, Italian, French, German and Latin^. Now, no one would overlook English in making even the shortest possible the

chief

literary

languages,

importance

because

it is

its

political,

social,

second to none and because

the mother-tongue of a greater

than any of

list

number

human

and it is

beings

competitors.

sometimes done, that the cause of the enormous propagation of the English language is to be sought in its intrinsic merits. When two languages compete, the victory does not fall to the most perfect language as such. Nor is it always the nation whose culture is superior that makes the nation of inferior culture adopt its language: in some parts of Switzerland German is gaining ground at the expense of French, and in others French is supplanting 250.

would be unreasonable

to suppose, as

German, yet no one can suppose that the superiority of the two nations is reversed in two adjacent districts. It sometimes happens in a district of mixed nationalities 1

Ch. Bastide,

Huguenot Thought

England.

Journal of

Comparative Literature I (1903) p. 45. 2 Das kayserliche Spruch- und Worterbuch, darinnen die als nemlicti: das Italianische, 4 europaischen Hauptsprachen das Frantzosische, das Teutsche und das Lateinische erklart warden. ,

Expansion of English. that the population which

their

247

intellectually superior give

own language because they can

learn

their

tongue while these are too dull to learn anything but their own: this is said by some to be the reason why in Posen and adjacent districts Polish is gaining ground over German, a fact which others ascribe neighbours'

to the greater fertility of the Poles.

great

many

social

problems are involved in the general question of rivalry of languages^, and it would be an interesting, but difficult task to examine in detail all the different reasons that have in so

many

of English

regions of the world determined the victory

over other languages

European and nonEuropean. Political ascendancy would probably be found in most cases to have been the most powerful influence. ,

However that may be, the fact remains that no other European language has spread over such vast regions during the last few centuries, as shown by the following figures, which represent the number of millions 251.

of people

speaking each of the languages enumerated^:

Year English German Russian French Spanish 1500

Italian

X. Conclusion.

248

.Whatever a remote future may have in store, one need not be a great prophet to predict that in the near future the number of Enghsh-speaking people will increase considerably. The curse of Babel is beginning to

must be a source of mankind that the tongue spoken by two

lose its sting,

and

powers of the world

gratification to of the greatest

so noble, so rich, so pliant, so ex-

and so interesting as the language whose growth and structure I have been here endeavouring to characpressive,

terize.

Phonetic Symbols. (Alphabet of the Association Phonitique Internationale.) '

•

stands before the stressed syllable. indicates lenght of the preceding vowel.

[a-]

as in alms.

[a]

as in h«t.

[ai]

as in /ce.

[u-]

as in French dpowse.

[au]

as in h.oust.

[uw] as in who; practically

[ae]

as in

[ei]

as in h<2te.

[y]

as in French vu.

[9]

as in about, colour.

[]?]

as in

[i-]

as in

[d]

as in th\s.

[ij]

as in h£aX\ practically

[s]

as in jeal.

[z]

as in zedX.

h.aX..

French

d/se.

[i •].

[u-].

thiii.

[ou]

as in

s^.

[f]

as in shin\

[o]

as in

h<9t.

[3]

as in vij/on;

[o]

as in hall.

See

my Modern

English Gra?nmar

[tj]

as in ch\n.

[dsjasin^n.

(1909).

Abbreviations. O. E.

M.E. Mod. E. O. Fr. O. N. O. H. G. N. E. D.

= Old English ('Anglo-Saxon'). = Middle English. = Modem English. = Old French. = Old Norse. = Old High German. = A New English Dictionary, and

The

by Murray, Bradley,

Craigie.

of Shakespeare's plays Al. Schmidt's Shakespeare- Lexicon, thus titles

are abbreviated as in

= Much Ado about Nothing, Gent. = The two Gentlemen of Verona, H4A = First Part of Henry the Fourth, Hml. = Ha?nlet, R2 = Richard the Second, Tp. = Tempest, Tw. = Twelfth Night, Wiv. = The Merry Wives of Wi?tdso? the Globe edition.

etc.

Acts

Ado

scenes

and

lines as in

Index References are

to the

number

of the sections.

Only the more important words used as examples are included.

a pronoun

alliteration 54, 56. alms 187. also in Shakespeare

72.

abbreviations 10, 176.

Abigail 233.

and Bacon

-able,

108, 109. absolute participle 125.

220. am (reading) 206.

abstract terms 114 if.

ambiguity 140, 172. America, speech-mixture prudery 247.

academies

18.

accent, see stress

and tone.

78,

accidence 178 ff.

ana, 123,

-aceous 123. ache 169.

anchor 32. Ancrene Riwle, French words

accommodate 219. action, deed,

in,

activity 219.

Addison, on

who and which

126. adjectives, place 85,

and English

—

i3iff.,

-ish

17.

advice 116.

Dutch and English

agent-nouns 162. aggravate 119. aggressive no. aid, help 100.

III,

Alfred 46, 48, 53, 58, 59.

54.

Scandinavian

63.

Anglo-Saxon, see Old English. anti-

April

adventure 116. adverbs turned into adjectives

aim

Anglicizing

words Latin

161.

Africa,

94.

angel 38, 86. Angles 34.

loi.

124. 116.

aquiline 132.

archaisms 229. Arian family of languages 21, character of primitive Arian 22.

-arious 123.

Aristarchy 143 note, aristocratic tendencies

82ft".,

93, 130, 237. art, words relating to, qi. article, definite 9.

Index.

251

Aryan, see Arian.

^rwj-A 171.

assassination 219.

^w^'/^

ation 123.

(5«r^/tf

-ative 123.

^«/^^ 173.

Australasia 157. authors, expressions due to

-fty

in-

61.

173.

60, 61, 74.

by-law 74.

dividual authors 233.

avunculaf 132.

^fl^

awe

^a^' 173.

70.

176.

z'"

call 59,

ay 70.

^(xr/"

36.

back-formations 173, 188, 189. Baconian theory 220 (p. 217). bairn 64,

Caxton

bankrupt 116. Banting 173.

censuj'e 219.

bath, bathe 168.

ch 112.

bathos 119.

^^(?a/ 32, 210.

beet 32.

Charlie 112.

beg 173. Bell's phonetic

charm

certainty, certitude 116.

nomenclature

138. 49,

54.

Bible, influence 196, 231, 240

170.

98, 226.

94,

112.

chick 56. children 191.

words

children's

birth 70, bite

ff.

219.

Chaucer <;^
Beowulf

bit,

69, 98. Celts 21, in England 35, Celtic words in English 36 ff.

177.

choose, choice 97.

blend 64.

Christianity, influence

blessed 245. bloody 131, 245.

language church 38.

bloom -ji. blooming 245. bonnet 219.

classical studies, effect

^
bound

61,

104.

bourne 228. bread 71.

38fif.

127; see also

on style Latin and Greek.

cleave 231.

climax

61.

119.

clippings

long

words

10,

176 (173). clothe, dress

100.

breeches 191.

CO-

^r^
coined words I58f.

brethren 191. bridal 210.

synonyms 136. colour and derivatives 117. companion 219. compounds, instead of adject-

Britons, see Celts.

brood ijo. brother 191, 224.

124.

cold,

ives 132, verbs 174,

nouns

210.

Index.

252 conciseness lo.

diminutives 13.

confound 245.

disciple 39.

conjunctions 209,

dish 32.

consonants shift

24,

26,

groups 5, 6, in nouns and

197.

verbs 168 f. continuous forms 206.

^^z/(J/ 112,

cook 32.

dream

cordial, hearty

drat

100.

cottage,

cowl

116.

24^.

dress,

71.

words relating

to, 90.

dress, dressing 167.

cose 173.

hut

drown

100,

51.

French

Dryden,

39.

critic, critique,

116.

criticize

words

95,

syntax 126. duration no.

crave 74. croon 233.

Dutch

cuisine 88.

duty III. dwell 71.

curse 36. ,

do 206, 225, 226; doeth, doth

South Africa

154.

Cynewulf's First Riddle 58. e-

and

in-

(im-) confounded 140.

dainty 210.

earl 71.

dale 64, loi. dalliance no.

Easte? 42. ecclesiastical terms, Latin 38

and substitutes Danes, Danelaw 58, ^(2w;^

French

245. 61,

cf.

112.

suffix 162.

edify 133.

D'Arblay, Madame 145. dafkle 173. dart 171. Darwin, on classical studies 127. de-

86.

edge 66.

Scandinavians.

danger

-ed,

124.

^^^/ 116.

III.

-i?^

egg

66, 69.

tf>^^

220.

'em

72.

-f«

nouns

162,

in,

plural

160,

verbs

of nouns

describe 116.

of verbs 193. endings, worn off,

devil 38.

English, masculinity of

democratic tendencies 237.

dialects,

ff.,

differences

verbal

inflection 193.

in 185,

7. 2ff.,

world language 2486. enormous 119.

Dickens on a large retinue of words 135.

equal 116.

die 61, 72.

etymology oipup, cad, pet i^ it unknown, of many short words 176.

differentiations

66,

84,

III, 112, 116, 167, 179. difficult 173.

lOO,

•er 97,

162.

euphemisms 244 ff.

Index. g, pronunciation 112.

«uphony 3!?., 226. Euphuism 218. .£X-

253

gain

76, 97.

gait 76.

124.

expansion of English 249 ff.

games, terms gate 76. gender 205.

•eye-words 142.

genitive case, Scandinavian 80,

example^ exemplary 117. exhibit, exhibition 167.

position

/ alternating Jad 176.

endings

81,

Romance

feel, feeling 167.

gestic 143 note.

felicity 99.

get 70,

feminine nouns, formation

of,

231,

feudalism

get clea?

224,

have got 224, gat 231.

gift 70.

82.

Gill,

fierce 103.

on Latin influence

Jltz 103. flute 112.

give 70. glass, glaze 168.

/^^

God

56.

42,

compounds

170.

gown

iFrench 81 ff., rulers of England 82, spheres of signification 82 if., number of words in early authors 94, date of

160,

163, I78ff.

greed 173. Greek 114'ff. Grimm's Law

-Ji^

group-genitive 180.

not 97 f., understood 99, popularly synonyms 100, forms 103, sounds 105, hybrids 106 ff., independant formations on

grovel 173. Grundy, Mrs. 233.

native

French

words

soil iioff,

old and

recent loans 112, and Latin ii4ff

French

English

^.friend 71.

from

66.

future 8 1, 206.

simplification of 80,

and

95,

45,

36.

grammar,

171.

adoption

150.

oaths 245. gospel 43, 45. gossip 171.

people 100.

^^ with an infinitive 211. foreign titles 156.

fro,

ing.

get-at-able 109.

160.

frame

ff.,

countries 78.

gerund 200 ff., see

170.

y27(?<ar

iSoflf.

23, invasion [of England 33

family, familiar 132.

/^,

89.

Germanic, pre-historic 20 ff., how considered by Romans

with v 168.

faint 171.

Jeed

of,

OA.

hale 66.

hallow 42. handbook 47. haplology 186. harbinge 173. harmony of language harTy 97. have auxiliary 206.

141,

Index.

254

hawk

words

international

173.

138.

intonation 12.

heathen 43. heaven 76 note.

inverted word-order 14.

hegemony

invoice 103 note.

142.

verbs 104, in adjectives

-ish, in

helpmate 241.

161.

hence 68.

henchman

island, isle 97.

233.

henpeck 174.

-ism, -ist 122

^d?r 72,

Italian loan

heraldry 82.

-He 123.

hodgepodge 234.

item 119.

/^
71.

its

i-^/w/ 100.

-ize

^^/j/,

words

31,

205. 123.

homiciae 133. housekeep 174. housel 42.

jackass in Australia

humorous ed words 122, 147. Huxley on the genius lish and Latin 127.

jaw

171.

jehu

243.

application of learnof

Eng-

hybridity 41, 106, 107, 123. hyperbohcal expressions 11.

151.

James

103.

jaunty

112.

157 note.

Jesse 243.

Jezebel 243. jocular classicisms 122, 147. Johnson, Dr. Samuel 126, 135, 144.

the pronoun 237.

Jutes 34.

-iacal 123. -ie

-kin 13.

13-

ifnpeachment 233. in-, causes ambiguity 140. inch 32. indispensable 109. Indo-European, see Arian.

in/angthief 74.

French

infinitives,

104, syntax

211.

ing 106, 200 ff., as a noun 201, with an object 202, with adverbs 20 tense and voice 1

203, with a subject 204.

kindergarten 153. kine 191. kingly, royal, regal 131. kirk 67.

170.

kitchen 32. ^«z/^ 75.

Knut kodak

60, 61. 158.

labour 56. labyrinth, adjectives from 132.

lake 97.

inhabitable 140.

language 116,

insomnia, sleeplessness 138.

Latin,

intensity inter-

no.

124.

international 124.

earliest

loan-words

32,

spoken in England 35, influence in modern times ii4flf., French and Latin 115 ff.,

Index.

number

words 118, deviations from Latin usage iigff., hybrids 123, style and syntax 125 ff,, benefits and of

disadvantages 128 laugh, laughter 167. laughable 109.

law

11,

style

12,

18.

135.

mile 32. words,

French

214, 216,

French words in 94. learned words I2i, 131, 132, 144, plurals 141.

words Scandinavian French 84 f.

legal

74,

Scandinavian

83, others

surround

mine 179. mint 32. Miss 175. mixed languages

mob

151.

233.

37, 78.

176.

monosyllabism, force of 8, 9. from various monosyllables

-less 66. -let 13.

sources 175 ff.

levy 104. like 209.

-ling 173.

loan-words in general 30

f.,

37,

i54ff., technical 31, 32,

38 ff., 82ff, 121, I5iff., non-

technical 76 ff., 92 logic in

Micawber's

linguistically

mill 32. Milton, syntax 126, vocabulary

laze 173.

73fif.,

different, 7,

73,

74.

138,

men and women,

military

ff.

K Layamon,

255

grammar

ff.,

128

ff.

15.

monger

32.

mortar

32.

move, movement, motion 1O7. murder 133, musical terms, Italian 31. mutation, plurals 186, verbs mutin, derivatives iii.

70.

long words, psychological effect National character

of 137-

1*^)

loose 66.

II, 12, 13, 14, 16, 17, 18, 28,

loot 151.

50, 73, 92, 93. 148, 155, 237 ff,

Lowell, on newspaper writing

240 f., 244 ff. native words as contrasted with

148.

loan-words 41

machine and derivatives 117. mag-nitude 133.

P main

97.

Malapropisms 143. male animals 247. manly and synonyms manslaughter 133.

many

ff.

navy 176. nay 66. nephew 97. neuter, Scandinavian 79, English

133.

97.

matin, momi?tg 100.

Shakespearian meaning of words 219 f. means 188.

new

205.

words

from

unknown

sources 177.

66.

nominative. Old French 103. Norman, see French. Norse, see Scandinavian. Nurwegians6i, cf.Scandinavian.

Index.

256 notoriotis 219.

pear

nouns

PecksnifJ^ 233.

162, and verbs from verbs 166, 163 ff., becoming adjectives 210. in

-ef

now-a-days 220. number, concord

16,

formation

of plural 141, 185 ff. number of words I28ff.,

32.

pedantry, absence

peadle peppe?

of,

16,

17.

i']'^.

32.

perfect 116. perfect 206. ,

individual vocabularies 2 1 4 ff.

numerals 199.

periphrastic tenses 15, 206.

pet 173. petty 84.

phrases used

French

attributively 17,

oaths 244! obscuration of vowels 26, 139. occupy 219.

phthisis 142. picture 116.

-ocracy 123.

place-names, Scandinavian 60,

odd

translated 156.

76.

of 181, 183, oj his of holies 242.

holy

184,

plough 71. plunder 151. plural, learned formations 141,

offer 39.

Old

92.

English

ordinary

(Anglo-Saxon), relations to other Germanic

second power 191, unchanged

languages 34, dialects 34, 53,

192, of verbs 193.

loans from Celtic 36, influence of Christianity 38 ff., loans

from Latin and Greek native

formations

literary capacities 48,

poetry.

185

ff.,

Old English

raised to a

49, its

form

38ff.,

language of poetry distinct from prose language 53,

225

ff.,

poetry

49 ff., synonyms 49, seafaring terms 49, 50, prose 48, 55.

54,

ff.

words, French 82.

political

politician 21 g.

ponder

119.

-ology 123.

pony

once 209. one 208.

pre- 124.

36.

premises 119.

Orrmulum, French words

94.

prepositions, Latin

and Greek

124, place 126. participle, absolute 125,

cf.

ing

privy 246.

and passive. pander 233.

pro- 124, profane language, Act against

parts 246. passive, English 17, Scandinavian 79, of ing 203, is being

245 progress

built 206.

Paul Pry

233. pea, pease 32, 188.

60, in

word-formation

grammar

178 ff.

progressive tenses 15, 206.

pronouns, Scandinavian 72, 76, English 126, 205, 208, 237 ff.

Index.

pronunciation of learned words 142.

Old English

48,

55,

cf.

poetry.

for

186;

ses

185

ff.,

verbs

salon, saloon 112.

puny

sa7ne 72.

Gamp

Sarah

Saxons 34. Scandinavian

84.

173.

57fif.,

similarity

122.

quince 103 note. raise 66.

spheres

72,

rear 66. reduplicated perfects 27. relative pronoun, omission 81, 126, who, which, that 126,

which 205.

ff.,

meaning 71, Scandinavian words readily associated with native words of signification

legal terms 74,

words U.

73,

commonplace

Scandinavian in 78, forms of loan-words

79,

words

military

73ff.,

124.

influence

words 121,

forms

parallel

63,

gua?'i 112. quasi-classical

233.

with English 62, Anglicizing

Puritanism 244 fF,

76,

influence

on grammar

80, 81.

nomenclature

scientific

reliable 109.

remodelling of French words 113,

genitives

plurals

sail 171.

pseudo-antique formations 230, punctilium 122,

re-

168,

fF.,

voiced

193 ff.

provoke 119. prudery 245 ff.

puisne,

nouns,

verbs

180

131, 139.

pup

French nominatives 103,

voiceless

proper names, adjectives from, prose,

257

121,

114,

138.

scie7itist 121.

116.

scriptural phrases 241.

remorse 219. Renaissance 114. resolution, resolve 167.

seat 71, 170. self 208.

retort 165.

sell 170.

rhinoceros 141.

sensible

rhythm

sentences, abbreviated 10, used

235.

attributively 17.

rich 97. riches 187.

richness of the English language I28ff.

riding 74.

and female

rimes, male

riming locutions 234. Robert of Gloucester 96. rove 173. :

English.

sex and language 7, 11, 12, 18. Shakespeare 213 ff., range of vocabulary 214 ff., religious views 217, individual characters

218,

meanings

modern

Euphuism different

2nd ed.

218,

from

Shylock 221, Shakespeare's fife

219,

periods in provincialisms 222,

rout, route 112.

Jesphrsen

no.

222,

Index.

258 of language

boldness

223,

the First and Second Folios 223, use of new words 224, diction

poetic

225,

words

and phrases due to him 228.

subjunctive 20b. succeed, success 219. suffixes i6off.

surround

233.

syllable construction

synonyms

shall 81, 206.

Old English 49

ff,

sheer 219. Sherlock Holmes 233. Shetland 78 (note p. 79). Shylock's language 221.

heaven, sky 76 note, collocated 98, 135, French and native 100, Latin and native

sidle 173.

feeling, etc.

grammar

simplification of 160, 163, siste?

133 80,

lySff.

70.

sit 170.

size 133.

sky 76 note. slang 176, 243, 244 ff.

smoke

move,

ff.,

motion, feel,

167.

syntax 14, 15, 16, 17, Scandinavian 80a, Latin 125!, genitive 180 ff., plural 187, i9of., ing 200 ff., verbs 206, 211, pronouns 208, conjunctions 209, compounds 210, ShyShakespeare's lock's 221, 223.

171.

sobriety 11.

sounds 3,26,1 39, sound-changes in French words 105, 112.

take 79. telegraphic style 10.

specializing in primitive vocab-

Tennyson, prefers Saxon words

ularies 51

146.

Spencer, Herbert, on classical studies 127, on long words

tense-system

15,

29,

206.

th voiceless in nouns, voiced in verbs 168, in third singular

137.

Spenser,

influence

on poetic

193

ff.,

in ordinals 199.

omission

that,

style 229.

pronoun

split infinitive 211.

thetiee 68.

stick, stitch

thou 232, 237 f. thoughtread 174.

contrasted

words Greek

and

28,

105,

English

French Latin and

Germanic 25

— 28.

strong verbs 29, 178.

Old

EngHsh

48,

Johnsonese 144

journalese 148.

tithe 42,

199.

70.

Thursday

70.

till 64.

49,

Latin 127, use of synonyms 98, 135,

thrall 74.

though

139,

stress-shift,

relative

they, them, their 70, 72.

169.

French

stress,

81,

126.

sport 89. squirearchy 123.

style,

22,

ff.,

tidings 63. to as

a pro-infinitive 211.

tone 12.

town

36.

Indese.

vowel -sounds

trace 103 note, trades,

names

of,

259

voyage

transpire 119.

wag

219.

trousers 247.

want

72.

1 1

12.

wapentake

74.

trustworthy 109. typewrite 174.

wash 52. weak verbs

unaccountable 109. undemocratic character of clas-

weird 228. whence 68. which 126, 205, 208.

sical

words 143.

tuho

uninhabitable 140.

wi?tdow

noun 200 ff., see

ing.

strong 29, 178, weak 29, form of French 104, in

verbs,

163

ff.

relation

nouns

75.

wi?ie 32. w^y^, wireless 138, 171.

women,

language

of,

11,

18.

12,

word-formation I58ff., regular processes i6off. word-order 14, 207, adjectives

verdict 116. victuals ii6.

vocabulary,

who 125, who and

Petition of

will 81, 206.

venture 116.

162,

which 126. whole 66.

value-stressing 26 ff., 105.

-en

29.

for

208,

Humble

usance 221.

verbal

26,

139.

91.

tradespeople's coinages 158.

trusteeship

obscured

fulness

of,

18,

I28ff, individual 214 ff.

voiced and voiceless consonants in verbs and nouns 97, 168. vowel-differences between

nouns and verbs

170.

nouns Wulfstan 48, after

85. 55.

13.

Yankee 188.

you

179, 232,

237f.

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