'r i A SHORT HISTORY OF ENGLISH WITH A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF RECENT BOOKS ON THE SUBJECT, AND LISTS OF TEXTS AND EDITIONS By henry CECIL WYLD n AUTHOR or ' THE HISTORICAL STUDY OF THE MOTHER TONOUX ' 'LANCASHIRE PLACE NAMES.' ETC. ETC. ETC. LONDON JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET, W. 1914 yi'/-^y/ * <■ \ e, » * ^ • 'S c . MAX a/ PREFACE It may seem strange that in a work entitled a History of English, there should be no part dealing specifically with the Vocabulary. On the other hand, it has always seemed to me stranger still that in so many books published in this country, this is practically the only aspect dealt with. The present work was designed as a small book, and in a small book something has to be left out. After carefully thinking over the matter, I decided to leave out Vocabulary altogether, since this has been treated at great length, and very competently, in many other books — those of Dr. Henry Bradley, Professor Skeat, and Professor Jespersen, to mention no more. This left me more room for a treatment of Sounds and ^ Infl^ons. When I considered the text-books in use in England, it seemed that, excellent as many of these are, the phonology, or history of pronunciation, was in none of them dealt with as fully as this rather intricate subject demands. And it is just this aspect which is necessarily the backbone of all serious courses of study, whether in Universities, or among private students who wish to be more than amateurs. In no branch of philological research have such advances been made during the last forty years as in the investigation of the laws of sound change. On no side of the study does the untrained dabbler in Etymology show his incapacity so much, as on questions which demand an exact knowledge of the sound laws of the various dialects of Old and Middle English. But even those who have an elementary working knowledge of the sound changes of Old and Middle English, are often very much at sea when it comes to following the history of English sounds beyond the Middle English S34371 4 F*reface period. Nor is this not altogether to be wondered at. Many English Universities, until recently at any rate, so framed their courses of study as though English had stopped changing upon the death of Chaucer. Yet the problems connected with *he sound changes of the Modern period are, to put it mildly, no less perplexing than those of the earlier periods. During the last few years, in Germany, and in Scandinavia, a large literature has grown up around the history of English sounds from the fifteenth century onwards. Much of this is not easily accessible to the ordinary English student, and the text-books, as a rule, give no hint of its existence, and the young student and the amateur lack the energy or the training to ferret out the facts for themselves in the volumes of Ellis and of Sweet. Closely associated with the history of sounds during the Modern period, are the problems connected with the rise of Literary English, and of Received Standard Spoken English. These are among the most living questions which are now occupying the attention of students of English, and some attempt is made in the following pages to introduce the reader to the principal questions at issue, and to the special work, nearly all by foreigners, which has recently been pub- lished upon these subjects. It is hoped that when the reader of these pages passes to a deeper study of problems which are but indicated here, he may at least feel that he can approach them with some understanding, and with some knowledge of recent results. In the treatment here given of English inflexions, it will be seen that certain parts of speech are selected, and that they are dealt with at some length. Here again, it seemed better to give special treatment to points which are either omitted or slurred over in other books. It will be found, for instance, I believe, that many of the details here given with regard to the inflexions in the M.E. and Early Mod. periods are not brought together in any other single book. In examination papers for young persons, I have often noticed questions on such points as these, which could only be answered properly after a special investigation. Examiners, I note in passing, seem Preface 5 to have all sorts of knowledge up their sleeve which neither they nor any one else has ever given to the world at large. I hope this book may be useful to students of English in our Universities, though I trust it is far removed from being a cram-book. Perhaps the student may learn enough from these pages, on a great number of points, to realize that there is much more to learn concerning both them and other questions which are not dealt with here. The Biblio- graphy and the references in the body of the book, while they make no pretence at completeness, will yet furnish him with information as to where a fuller treatment can be found, and in these special works he will find yet more complete reference to authorities. The idea of confining a young student to one, or for the matter of that, to a dozen text-books, is fatal to sound education after the school stage is passed. The young student ought to feel that in the higher reaches of learning nothing is finally settled once and for all, but that knowledge is for ever progressing. Hence it is essential that he should follow, if but to a slight extent, some of the scientific controversies which, at any given moment, engage the minds of those who are making real contributions to knowledge. He must get away from text- books as soon as possible, or use them but as servants and guides. If he reads some of the journals devoted to his special subject, and this from an early stage in his career, he is brought face to face with the clash of opinions, and feels that he is to some extent in real touch with the making of knowledge, often painfully beaten out, amid strife and dispute. The classified lists of books and monographs in the Bibliography will serve as a guide for the reader, at once to the special researches upon which our present knowledge is based, and to other text-books which deal with aspects of the subject omitted here. No one will expect to find in each of the three chapters devoted respectively to Old, Middle, and Modern English Phonology the degree of minuteness which would belong, properly, to special grammars of these phases of our language. The student who is particularly interested in any of these will 6 Preface naturally turn to the pages of Sievers and Biilbring, to Morsbach's Mittclcnglische Gramntatik, still unfortunately incomplete, to the works of Horn and Jespersen, all of which are first-hand and first-rate books. In the pages of these masters he will find, still in condensed form, but exhaustively treated, fuller information than can be given in such a work as the present, and there too, as well as from the lectures of his own teacher, he will learn where to go for the minute discussion of each problem. A few words are necessary as to my indebtedness to other writers. I have been helped more in the phonological chapters, and that which deals with the rise of Literary English, than in the rather long chapter on inflexions. Help on general and specific points has, I hope, generally been acknowledged in the text, but there are some names which I must record here with special gratitude. Of these, I am bound to put first that of my revered master Henry Sweet. Apart from his various editions of texts which are indispensable to every one, every student of English turns again and again to his History of English Sounds. This book is nearly thirty years old and an enormous amount of work has been done since then. Yet we still feel its wonderful freshness and suggestive- ness, the soundness of its plan, the permanence of its con- tribution to knowledge. Coming to more recent works, I must express my special obligation to Sievers and Biilbring in Old English, to Morsbach, Kluge, ten Brink, and Frieshammer in Middle English, to Luick, Horn, Jespersen, Victor, and Zachrisson in the Modern period. I must pay a grateful tribute to the fine monograph of Price on the Ablaut in strong verbs in the period from Caxton to Shakespeare. I owe a great deal to the group of young scholars who during the last few years have supplemented Morsbach's work on the London Dialect, notably Frieshammer, already men- tioned, Lekebusch, DoUe, and to the very instructive mono- graph of Dibelius on John Capgrave, which is really an important treatise on fifteenth-century English. The republication of a considerable number of the early Grammarians in late years, has made possible a first-hand Preface 7 reference to many authorities on English Pronunciation which before were chiefly accessible in the monumental work of Ellis. The great Historische Granimatik of Luick, to which every student of English has been looking forward, has just shown in its first part, how brilliant and thorough a treatment we may expect. This part came into my hands when all of my book was written except the last chapter, that on Modern English Sounds, and part of that on Inflexions. It was a source of satisfaction to see that this eminent scholar takes j the view which I have always taught, with regard to the • fracture of West Germanic a in O.E. \ I ought to say perhaps, in justice to myself, and to those who may use this book, that it is not a mere piecing together of materials gathered from older text-books. It may seem ridiculous that such a statement should be necessary, but un- fortunately, works on English are not wanting, whose authors have simply decocted the essence of a few of the chief books, including sometimes in a single paragraph of their extract three or four accounts of the same thing given by different writers, without seeing that some of the statements con- tradicted the others, so that the first half of the pemmican paragraph is at variance with the rest. It is u"nnecessary to say more than that unless an authority is specifically [ quoted, the statements in this book are really the result of I a personal examination of sources. * Had I had access from the start to a full collection of special investigations on Middle and Early Modern English texts, I should have been spared much labour in hunting through these to discover whether this or that form did or did not occur, and no doubt my statements would in many cases have been more complete. Unfortunately I could not obtain some of the monographs which I required until the work was far advanced ; others I have not been able to see at all. The Bibliography is fullest in the sections devoted to Middle English and the Modern period, because it seemed that here guidance was most necessary. In the Old English sections, practically no special monographs are recorded, except those on the texts representing the various 8 Preface Old English dialects. The reason for this is that the special problems connected with Old English are rather remote from a book of this kind, while full bibliographies are easily accessible to advanced students in the grammars of Sievers and Biilbring, though not, unfortunately, in any Old English grammar written in this country. In giving select lists of Old and Middle English texts, it seemed desirable to indicate the editions, as it is not always easy for a young student to discover this information. HENRY CECIL WYLD. Liverpool, 1914. CONTENTS PAGE Preface i-8 Bibliography ii CHAPTER I Introductory. Scope of the Inquiry. General Con- siderations 23 CHAPTER II Position of English among Languages. Dialectal and Chronological Divisions 39 CHAPTER III The Sounds ok Speech -35 CHAPTER IV General Principles of the History of Language . -51 CHAPTER V History of English Sounds. I. The Old English Period 61 CHAPTER VI History of English Sounds. II. The Middle English Period 88 CHAPTER VII History of English Sounds. III. The Modern Period . 124 CHAPTER VIII Historical Sketch of English Inflexions . . . .161 CHAPTER IX Origin and Development of the English Literary Language 224 Index 238 BIBLIOGRAPHY I. A. Historical Grammars and Histories of the English Language. Bradley, H. The Making of English. London, 1904. Emerson, O. The History of the English Language. London. 1894. Jespersen, O. Growth and Structure of the English Language. Kaluza, M. Historische Grammatik der englischen Sprache. L (Introd., Phonetics, Phonology, and Accidence of O.E.), 1900. IL (Phenol. and Accidence of M.E. and Mod. Engl.), 1901. Kluge, E. Geschichte der englischen Sprache. Strassburg, 1899 (in Paul's Grundr.^, pp. 926, &c. Also published separately). Lindelbf, U. Grundziige der Geschichte der englischen Sprache. Teubner, 1912. Luick, K. Historische Grammatik der englischen Sprache. (Only the first part of Vol. I has appeared (Dec. 1913). Contains valuable biblio- graphical information relating to texts and monographs.) Leipzig. The first 2 Vols, are to contain 10 parts ; the first part has pp. 144. [Pt. 2 to p. 320 appeared March, 1914.] Morris, R. Historical Outlines of English Accidence (Revised Kellner and Bradley), 1897. Sweet, H. A New English Grammar, Logical and Historical. Part I. (Introd., Phonol., and Accidence). Oxford, 1892. Part I L (Syntax), 1899. History of English Sounds. Oxford, 1888. Wyld, H. C. The Historical Study of the Mother Tongue. An Intro- duction to Philological Method. John Murray, 1906, &c. Works dealing chiefly with Development of Vocabulary. Greenough, J. B., and Kittredge, G. L. Words and their Ways in English Speech. London, Macmillan, 1902. Skeat, W. W. Principles of English Etymology. Oxford. 2 Vols. Pearsall Smith, L. The English Language. Williams & Norgate. To this category also belong the works of Bradley and Jespersen cited above. The New English Dictionary. Ed. Sir J. Murray, Henry Bradley, William Craigie. Oxford. 1 2 Bibliography B. The Old English Period. {For List of O.E. Texts and Editions see Chapter V on O.E. Sounds.) I. Dictionaries and Glossaries. (See also under IV below,) Bosworth-ToHer. An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary. Oxford, 1882-9S. Supplement, 1908. Napier, A. S. Old English Glosses. Oxford, 1900. Sweet, H. A Student's Dictionary of Anglo-Saxon. Oxford, 1897. II. Grammars. Biilbring, K. Altenglisches Elementarbuch. I. (Lautlehre). Heidelberg, 1902. Dieter, F. Altenglisch. In Dieter's Laut- und Formenlehre d. altgerm. Dialekte : Lautlehre, Pt. I, Chaps. 4 and 10 ; Formenlehre, Pt. II, Chaps. 16 and 22. Leipzig, 1898-1900. Sievers, E. Angelsachsische Grammatik, (3rd Edition.) Halle, 1898. Sweet, H. Grammatical Introduction to Anglo-Saxon Reader. Oxford. (Though merely a sketch, this is an original and reliable work.) Wright, J. and E. M. An Old English Grammar. Oxford, 190S. III. Grammars and Monographs of the Various O.E. Dialects. I. West Saxon. Early VV.S. Cosijn, P. J. Altwestsachsische Grammatik. 's Graven Haag, 1888. (Deals with the language of Alfred's Cura Pastoralis and of the Parker Chron.) Late WtSt^ Briill, H. Die altenglische Latein-Grammatik des yElfric, Berlin, 1 904. Dunkhase, H. Die Sprache der Wulfstanschen Homilies. Jena, 1906. Fischer, F. The Stressed Vowels of yElfric's Homilies. (Pub!, of Mod. Lang. Assoc, of America, Vol. I.) Baltimore, 1889. Schiiller, O. Lautlehre von ^Ifric's ' Lives of Saints '. 1908. Trilsbach, G. Die Lautlehre der spatwestsachsischen Evangelicn. Bonn, 1905. Wilkes, J. Lautlehre zu JEAinc's Heptateuch und Buch Hiob. Bonner Beitr. xxi. Bonn, 1905. 2. Saxon ' Patois '. Boll, P. Die Spr. d. altenglischen Glossen in MS. Harley 3376. Bonn, 1904. Hardy, A. K. Die Sprache der Blickling-Homilien. Leipzig, 1S99. The Old English Period 13 3. Kentish. Williams, Irene. Grammatical Investigation of the Old Kentish Glosses. (M.S. Vespas. D. VI.) Bonner Beitr. xix. Bonn, 1906. Wolf, R. Untersuchung der Laute in den kentischen Urkunden* Heidelberg, 1893. 4. Mercian. Brown, E. M. Sprache der Rushworth Glossen (Rushw.'). 1891-1892, Gdttingen. Chadwick, H. M. Studies in Old English. (Deals with the old Glos- saries.) Cambridge, 1899. Dieter, F. Ober Sprache und Mundart d. altesten englischen Denk- maler. Gottingen, 18S5. Zeuner, R. Die Sprache d. kentischen Psalters. (Vespas. A. I.) Halle, 1 88 1. (Now recognized as Mercian, long known as the * so-called Kentish Ps. ' !) 5. Northumbrian. Carpenter, H. C. A. Die Deklination in der nordhumbrischen Evange- lieniibersetzung d. Lindesfarner Hs. Bonn, 1910. Fuchsel, H. Die Spr. d. nordhumbrischen Interlinearversion z. Johannes- Evangelium. (Lindisfarne.) Anglia, xxiv. Kellum, M. D. Language of the Nthmbr. Gloss to St. Luke. Yale Studies, 1906. Kolbe, Th. Die Konjugation der LindisfarnerEvangelien, Bonn, 1912. Lea, E. M. The Language of the Northumb. Gloss to the Gospel of St. Mark, (Lindisfarne MS.) Anglia, xvi. Lindelof, U. (i) Die Spr. d. Rituals von Durham. Helsingfors, 1890. (2) Die siidnordhumbrische Mundart. (Spr. d. Glosse Rushw.*) Bonn, 1901. Miiller, R. Ober die Namen des nordhumbrischen Liber Vitae. Stolz, W. Der Vokalismus . . . d. Lindisfarn. Evangelien. Bonn, 1908. Williams, O. T. The Dialect of the Text of the Northumbr. Genealo- gies. M. L. R., iv. 1908-9. 6. Poetical Texts. Thomas, P. G. Dialect in Beowulf. Mod. Lang. Review I. 1905-6. Weightman, Jane. The Language and Dialect of the later O.E. Poetry. University Press, Liverpool, 1907. (See references in this work.) IV. Glossaries of Individual Texts. . West Saxon. Harris, M. A. Glossary of the West Saxon Gospels. Boston, 1899. 14 Bibliography Merc. Grimm, C. Glossar z. Vesp, Psalter und Hymnen. Heidelberg, 1906. Thomas, P. G., and H. C. Wyld. A Glossary of the Mercian Hymns in Vespas. A. I. Otia Merseiana IV. Liverpool, 1904. NORTHUMBR. Lindelbf, U. (1) WSrterbuch zur Interlinearglosse d. Rituale Eccl. Dunelm. (Durham Ritual.) Bonn, 1901. (2) Glossar z. altnorthumbr. Glosse Rushw.' Helsingfors, 1897 Cook, A. S. AGlossary of the Old Northumbrian (Lindisfarne) Gospels. 1894. Saxon 'Patois'. Forster, Max. Lexikalisches z. Vercelli-Codex CXVH. (in Festgruss an Morsbach, pp. 148, &c.). Halle, 1913. Morris, R. Glossary to Blickling Homilies, in Edition of these (Pt. HI.), E.E.T.S., 1880. Poetical. Simons, R. Cynewulfs VVortschatz. Bonner Beitr. z. Anglistik, iii. Bonn, 1899. General. Very important are A. S. Napier's Contributions to O.E. Lexicography. (Trans, Phil. Soc. 1906, pp. 265-358.) Alaborious discussion of the Vocabulary of Dialects is found in R.Jordan's Eigentiimlichkeit des anglischen Wortschatzes. Heidelberg, 1906 (Anglistische Forschungen, 17). V. Foreign Loan-words in O.E. MacGillivray, H. S. The Influence of Christianity on the Vocabulary of O.E. Pt. I. Halle, 1902. Pogatscher, A. Zur Lautlehre der griechischen, lateinischen, und romanischen Lehnworter im Altenglischen. Strassburg, 1888 (Q. und F. 64). VI. O.E. Writing and Runes. Keller, W. Angelsachsische Palaeographie (II Parts). Pt. II has fac- similes and transcriptions. 1906 (Palaestra XLIII. i and 2). Victor, W. Die northumbrischen Runensteine. Marburg, 1905. C. Middle English Period. (See also under London Dialect.) {For List of M.E. Texts and Editions, see Chap. VI on M.E. Sounds.) I. Dictionaries. (a) Mayhew, A. L., and Skeat, W. Vv''. A Concise M.E. Dictionary. Oxford, 1888. The Middle English Period 15 Stratmann, F. H., ed. H. Bradley. A Middle English Dictionary. Oxford, l8gi. (Most English Editions of M.E. Texts, in E.E.T.S., and those published by Clarendon Press, are furnished with fairly exhaustive Glossaries.) (b) Dictionaries and Glossaries compiled during M.E. Period. Catholicon Anglicum. An Eng.-Lat. Wordbook, dated 1483 (Yorks.). Ed S. J. H. Herrtage. Camden Soc, 1882. Vocabularies and Nominales (eleventh, thirteenth, fifteenth centuries) in Anglo-Saxon and Old English Vocabularies. Thomas Wright, re- edited by R. P. Wijlcker. London, Triibner, 1884. 2 Vols. Promptorium Parvulorum. The First Eng.-Lat. Dictionary, 1440 (Norfolk). Ed. A. L. Mayhew. E.E.T.S., Oxford, 1908. IL General M.E. Grammar. Morsbach, L. Mittelenglische Grammatik. Halle, 1896. (First Pt. only, pp. viii + 192. Deals with Sources ; Grouping and Character- istics of chief M.E. Dialect Types; Quantity, and Qualitative treat- ment of O.E. short vowels and part of O.E. a.) Jordan, R. Die mittelenglischen Mundarten. Germ. -Rom. Monatschrift, ii, pp. 125-134. in. Investigations of Special Texts and Dialects. (Useful bibliographical information in J. M. Booker's Dates, Dialects, and Sources, twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth century Monuments and MSS. Heidelberg, Winter, 1912.) (a) Kentish. Danker, O. Laut- und Flexionslehre der mittelkentischen Denkmaler (Diss.). Strassburg, 1879. D6lle, R. Graphische und lautliche Untersuchung von . . . Ayenbite of Inwyt. Bonn, 1912. Heuser, W. Zum kentischen Dialekt im Mittelenglischen. Anglia, xvii, pp. 73-90. Jensen, H. Die Verbalflexion in Ayenbite (Diss.). Kiel, 1908. Konrath, M. Zur Laut- und Flexionslehre d. Mittelkentischen. Archiv, 88 and 89. Morris, R. Introduction to Edition of Ayenbite. E.E.T.S., 1866. (Study of Kentish in general and of Ayenbite in particular.) Philippsen, H. Deklination in den Vices und Virtues. Erlangen, 191 1. 1 6 Bibliography (b) South WesL Breier, W. Eule und Nachtiga!!. Halle, 1910, Heuser, W. Zur Sprache d. Legenden St. Editha und St. Etheldreda. 18S7. Lucht, P. Lautlehre d. alteren Lajamonhandschrift. Palaestra, 49, 1905. Mohr, F. Sprachliche Untersuchungen z. den Legenden aus Gloucester- shire. 18S8. Napier, A. S. Introduction to Holy Rood Tree. E.E.T.S., 1894. Ostermann, H. Lautlehre d. germ. Wortschatzes d. Ancren Riwle. Bonner Beitr. 19. i. 1905. Pabst, F. Die Sprache d. mittelenglischen Reimchronik d. Robert v. Gloucester. Berlin, 1889; also Anglia, 13.202, 245. Pfefifer, R. Die Sprache d. Polychronicons John Trevisas (Diss. Bonn). Diiren, 1912. (c) East Midland. Boerner, O. (i) Die Sprache Robert Mannyngs of Brunne. Halle, 1904. (2} Reimuntersuchung iiber die Qualitat der betonten langen ^-Vokale bei Robert of Brunne, in Festgruss fiir Morsbach, pp. 298-351. Halle, 1913. Hallbeck, E. S. Language of the M.E. Bestiary. Christianstad, 1905, Lambertz, P. Die Sprache d. Ormulum. Marburg, 1904. Meyer, H. Zur Sprache d. jiingeren Teile d. Chronik von Peterborough. 1889. Morris, R. Introduction to his Edition of Genesis and Exodus. E.E.T.S. Revised, 1873. Schultz, E. Die Sprache d. English Guilds aus d. Jahre 1389. Hildes- heim, 1 891. (d) West Midland. Hirst, T. O. Phonology of the London MS. of the Earliest Complete English Prose Psalter. Bonn, 1907, Morris, R. Preface >to his Ed. of Early English Alliterative Poems. E.E.T.S. (2nd Ed. Revised), 1869. Miihe, Th. Ober den Text MS. Cotton Titus D. XVIII. der Ancren Riwle. 1901. Rasmussen, J. K. Die Sprache John Audelay's. (Laut- und Flexions- lehre.) Bonn, 1914. Schliitter, A. Uber die Spr. und Metrik der Lieder d. MS. Harleian 3253. Archiv, 71, pp. 153, &c., and 357, &c. Schiiddekopf, A. Sprache und Dialekt d. me. Gedichtes Will, of Paleme. Erlangen, 1886. Monographs on Middle English 17 (These are the lyrics contained in Boeddeker's AltengHsche Dich- tungen.) Stodte, H. Spr. und Heimat der Katherine-Gruppe (Diss.). Gottin- gen, 1896. Williams, Irene. The Cleopatra MS. of Ancren Riwle. Anglia, 28, p. 300, &c. (e) Northern. Baumann, J. Die Spr, d. Urkunden aus Yorkshire. Anglist. Forsch., II, 1902. Heuser, W. Die altesten Denkmiiler und die Dialekte d. Nordenglischen. Anglia, 31. 276, &c. Morris, R. Introduction to Prick of Conscience. E.E.T.S. Perrin, L. P. Thomas von Castleford's Chronik. 1890. Ullmann, J. Studien z. R. Rolle von Hampole. Engl. Studien, 7. 415. Wetzlar, A. Die Sprache . . . d. nordenglischen Homiliensammlung. 1907. (f) ScoicJi. Curtis, F. J. The Middle Scotch Romance of Clariodus. Anglia, 17, pp. 1-68 ; 125-160. Murray, J. A. H. The Dialect of the Southern Counties of Scotland. Trans. Phil. Soc, 1873. (Deals with the early language as well as with Mod. Dialect.) Ostermann, L. Untersuchungen z. Ratis Raving. Bonner Beitr. 12, pp. 41, &c. 1902. Smith, Gregory. Introduction to Specimens of Middle Scots. Black- wood, 1902. (g) Irish English. Heuser, W. Introduction to Die Kildare-Gedichte. (Fourteenth-cen- tury poems written in Ireland.) Bonner Beitr. Bonn, 1904. IV. Detailed Monographs, etc., on Special Problems OF Middle English. Bjorkman, E. Orms Doppelkonsonanten. Anglia, xxxvii, pp. 350- 81, and 494-6, 191 3-14. Bijlbring, K. D. Geschichte d. Ablauts der st. Zeitworter innerhalb d. Siidenglischen. O. imd F. 63. Strassburg, 1889. Ober die Erhaltung d. ae. kurzcn und langen ^-Lautes im Mittel- englischen. Bonner Beitr. z. Anglistik, 15, pp. loi, &c. Bonn, 1904. Die Schreibung eo im Ormulum. Bonner Beitr. 17, pp. 51, &c. Bonn, 1905. Cornelius, H. Altenglische Diphthongierung durch Palatale im Mittel- englischen. Studien z. engl. Phil. 30. Halle, 1907. B 1 8 Bibliography Eilers, F. Dehnung vor dehnenden Consonanten. Stud. z. engl. Phil. 26. Halle, 1907. Ekwall, E. Ortsnamenforschung ein Hilfsmittel fiir das engl. Sprach- geschichte-Studium. (Deals with O.E. a and y in Lanes, in M.E.) Germ. -Rom. Monatschrift, v, Nov. 191 3, pp. 592-608. Haussen, H. Die Geschichte der starken Zeitwdrter im Nordenglischen (Diss). Kiel, 1906. Hemken. Das Aussterben alter Substantiva im Verlaufe d. engl. Sprach- geschichte. Kiel, 1906. Hackmann, G. Kurzung langer Tonvokale in einsilbigen Wortern im Mittel- und Neuenglischen. Stud. z. engl. Phil. 10. Halle, 1908. Heuser, W. Festlandische Einfliisse im Mittelenglischen. Bonner Eeitr. 12. Bonn, 1902. Horn, W. Beitrage z. Geschichte d. engl. Gutturallaute. Berlin, 1901. KnopfF, P. Darstellung d. Ablautverhaltnisse in der schottischen Schriftspr. (Diss.). Bern, 1904. Luick, K. {Le7igthening of f and u in open Syllables.) (1) Untersuchungen z. engl. Lautgeschichte, 1896, pp. 229, &c. (2) Studien z. engl. Lautgeschichte. 1903. {Shoj-tening of long voivels in -words of three Syllables, &c.) Quantitatsveranderungen im Laufe d. englisch. Sprachentwicklung. (Beitr. z. engl. Gr. IIL) Anglia, xx, pp. 335, &c. 1898. Der Uisprung d. neuenglischen rt/-fl«-Diphthonge. E. St. 27, pp. 89- 100. 1900. Marik, Josef. i^-Schwundim Mittel- und Friihneuenglischen. Vienna and Leipzig, 1910. Mettig. Die franzozischen Elemente im Alt- und Mittelenglischen (800- 1258). E. Studien, 41, pp. 177, &c. OberdorfFer. Aussterben altengl. Adjectiva und ihr Ersatz im Verlaufe der englisclien Sprachgesch. (Kiel. Diss.). 1908. Offe. Aussterben alter Verba und ihr Ersatz, &c. (Kiel. Diss.). - 1908. Teichert, F. tJber das Aussterben alter Worter im Verlaufe d. engl. Sprachgesch. (Kiel. Diss.), Erlangen, 1912. Wackerzapp, A. Geschichte d. Ablaute d. starken Zeitwdrter inner- halb d. Nordenglischen (Diss.). Miinster, 1890. Weick, Fr. Das Aussterben d. Prafixes^if- im Englischen. Darmstadt, 1911. Wyld, H. C. Contributions to the Hist, of the Guttural Sounds in Engl. Trans. Phil. Soc, 1899-19CO. History of Initial 3- in Middle and Modern Engl. Dialects. Otia Merseiana, II, 1901. Treatment of O.E. 7 in the Dialects of the Midi, and S.E. Counties in M.E. E. St. 47, pp 1-58. 1913. (Deals with PI. Ns. of 27 Counties, and with West Midi. Texts.) O.E.^ in the Dialects ot the South and S.W. Counties in M.E. E. St. 47, pp. 146-66. 1914. (Deals with PJ. Ns. of 9 Sthn. Counties.) The London Dialect 19 Zachrisson, R. E. (i) Contribution to the Study of Anglo-Norman Influence on English Place Names. Lund, 1909. (2) Two insta,nces of Fr. Influence on Engl. PI. Ns. Utg. af nyfilo- logiska Sallskapet i Stockholm. Upsala, 1914. D. The London Dialect and Rise of the Literary Language. Brugger. Zur lautlichen Entwickelung d. englischen Schriftsprache im Anfang d. 16, Jahrh. Anglia, xv, pp. 261-344. Dibelius, W. John Capgrave und die englische Schriftsprache. Anglia, vols, xxiii and xxiv. (A minute investigation of fifteenth-century English.) Dolle, E. Zur Sprache Londons vor Chaucer. Halle, 1913. Delcourt, Joseph. Essai sur la langue de Sir Thomas More d'apr&s ses ceuvres anglaises. Paris, Didier, 1914. Frieshanimer, J. Die sprachliche Form der Chaucerschen Prosa. Halle, 1910. Fuhr, K. Lautuntersuchungen zu Stephen Hawes Pastime of Pleasure, Marburg, 1S91. Hoelper, F. Die englische Schriftsprache in Tottel's Miscellany. Strassburg, 1894. Hoffmann, A. Laut- und Formenlehre in Reginald Pecock's Repressor (Diss.). Greifsvvald, 1900. Lekebusch, J. Die Londoner Urkundensprache von 1430 -1500. Halle, 1906. Morsbach, L. Ober den Ursprung der neuenglischen Schriftsprache. Heilbronn, 1888. Neumann, G. Die Orthographie der Paston Letters von 1422-1461. Studien z. engl. Philologie, vii. Marburg, 1904. Romstedt, H. Die englische Schriftsprache bei Caxton. Gottingen, 1891. Rudolf, E. Die englische Orthographie von Caxton bis Shakespeare (Diss.). Marburg, 1904. Sv^rearingen, G. F. Die englische Schriftsprache bei Coverdale (Berlin. Diss.). Weimar, 1904. Schmidt, F. Studies in the Language of Pecock (Diss.). Upsala, 1900. Siissbier, K. Die Sprache der Cely-Papers (Berlin, Diss.). 1905. ten. Brink, B. Chaucers Sprache und Verskunst. (2nd Ed., F. Kluge.) Leipzig, 1899. Wille, J. Die Orthographie in Roger Ascham's Toxophilus und Schole- master (Diss,). Marburg, 1889. 1 4 20 Bibliography E. English of the Modern Period. (See also under London Dialect, &c.) I. Special Monographs and Articles. Diehl, L. Englische Schreibung und Aussprache im Zeitalter Shake- speares (Diss.). Giessen, 1906, and Anglia, xxix. Ellis, A. J. Early English Pronunciation. Pts. I-IV. Horn, W. (i) Historische neuenglische Grammatik. (Ft. I, Lautlehre.) Strassburg, 1908. (2) Untersuchungcn zur neuenglischen Lautgeschichte. Strassburg, 1905 (Q. und F 98). Jespersen, O. (i) John Hart's Pronunciation of English (1569 and 1570). Heidelberg, 1907. (2) A Modern English Grammar on Historical Principles. Pt. I, Phonology. Heidelberg, 1909 ; II, Syntax, 1914. Luick, K. (i) Untersuchungen zur englischen Lautgeschichte. Strass- burg, 1896. (2) Studien zur englischen Lautgeschichte. Vienna and Leipzig, 1903. (3) Beitrage zur englischen Grammatik :— Anglia, xiv, 1892, pp. 268- 302; xvi, 1894, pp. 451-5" ; XX (1898), pp. 335-62; XXX (1907), pp. 1-55. Miiller, E. Englische Lautlehre nach James Elphinston (1765, 1787, 1796). Heidelberg, 1914. Price, H. T. History of Ablaut in the Strong Verbs from Caxton to the end of the Elizabethan Period. Bonn, 1910. Spira, T. Die englische Lautentwickelung nach franzosischen Gramma- tiker-Zeugnissen. Giessen, 1908. Victor, W. (i) Shakespeare's Pronunciation. I. Phonology and Rhyme Index, 1906 ; II. Shakespeare Reader, 1907. Marburg. (2) Die Aussprache d. Englischen nach den deutsch-englischen Grammatiken vor 1740. Marburg, 1S86. Wyld, H. C. Class Dialect and Standard English, in A Miscellany pre- sented to John Macdonald Mackay, pp. 283-291. University Press, Liverpool, 1 91 4. Zachrisson, R. E. (i) Pronunciation of English Vowels, 1400- 1700. Goteborg, 1913. (2) Shakespeares Uttal (Studier i modern Sprakvetenskap). Utg. af nyfilologiska Sallskapet i Stockholm v. 2. Upsala, 1914. (See also the introductions to reprints of the early Grammarians.) II. Dictionaries and Glossaries. Onions, C. T. A Shakespeare Glossary. Oxford, 19x1. Skeat, W. W. A Glossary of Tudor and Stuart Words. Edited, with Additions, by A. L. Mayhew. Oxford, 19 14. 21 III. SELECTED LIST OF WORKS ON ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION Of sixteenth and seventeenth-century books, this hst includes only those of which reprints exist. Many of the following have been published in a bcries entitled Neudrucke friihncueitglischcr Graininatiken, under the general editorship of Rudolf Brotanek, by Niemeyer, Halle. Those pub- lished in this series have an asterisk in front of the author's name. 1530. Palsgrave, J. Lesclarcissement de la langue frangoise. (Re- printed Y. Genin, Paris, 1852.) 1532. Du Wes, G. An Introductorie. (Reprinted in Genin's Ed. of Palsgrave.) 1547. Salesbury, W. Account of English Pronunciation, (See Ellis's E. E. Pronunciation, 768-87.) 1567. Salesbury, W. Account of Welsh Pronunciation. (Ellis's E. E. P. 743-68.) 1568. *Smith, Sir Thomas. De Recta et Emendata Linguae Anglicae Scriptione Dialogus. Ed. Deibel, Halle, I9I3. 1580. *Bellot, J. Le Maistre d'Escole Anglois. Ed. Theo. Spira, Halle, 1912. (See also Zachrisson, English Pronunciation, 1400- 1700, pp. 9-16.) 15S0. BuUokar, W. Booke at large for the amendment of Orthogra- phie for English Speech. Ed. M. Plessow, in Fabeldichtung'in England. Palaestra, 52, pp. 237, &c. Berlin, 1906. 1621. Gill, A. Logonomia Anglica. Ed. J. Jiriczek, O. und F. go, 1903. 1622 and 1633. *Mason, George. Grammaire Angloise. Ed. Brotanek, 1905. 1634. * Butler, Charles. English Grammar. Ed. A. Eichler, 1910. 1640. *Daines, Simon. Orthoepia Anglicana. Ed. Rossler and Brotanek, 190S. 16S5. *Cooper, C. Grammatica Linguae Anglicanae. Ed. J. D. Jones, 1912. 1701. *Jones, John. Practical Phonography. Ed. E. Ekwall, 1907. 1725. Lediard. Grammatica Anglicana Critica. (Full account in Ellis, pp. 1040, iSic.) 1753. Bertram, Carl. The Royal Enghsh-Danish Grammar. Copen- hagen, 1753. 1801. Walker, John. Rhetorical Grammar. (2nd Ed.) iSoi. 1809. Bachelor, T. Orthoepical Analysis of the Engl. Language. CHAPTER I INTRODUCTORY. SCOPE OF THE INQUIRY GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS § I, The earliest documentary knowledge of English which we possess consists in a few rather scrappy Charters of the last years of the seventh century and the first few years of the eighth. These Charters are in Latin, but contain English Place and Personal names. (See Sweet's O.E.T., pp. 426, etc., chs. i, ii, iv, and v.) From the end of the seventh century, then, we can trace the development of English, in various forms or dialects, by means of documents which become increasingly numerous as years go on. § 2. During the 1200 odd years over which our knowledge of English extends, changes of very considerable extent have taken place. To begin with, tjie spelling of the words is very different in different ages, so much so, that at first sight it is hardly possible to recognize the identity of the present-day forms with those of their ancestors in bygone ages. We attribute these changes in the spelling, on the whole, to an attempt, more or less successful, to adapt this to the changing pronunciation of the different periods. Again, we find that the vocabulary changes. While many words remain and retain their old meaning, others, which in one age were in common use, disappear altogether, or they alter their meaning ; new words come into use and take the place of those which have dropped out of use. We observe that this process of loss and gain and of change of meaning is for ever going on in the English vocabulary. Nor do grammatical forms or inflexions enjoy immunity from change. Many are lost altogether and their places taken by others which had originally a different function and now have extra work thrown upon them. Other inflexions are simply lost without anything being put in their place, and 24 Introductory [chap, i without any loss in intelligibility or dcfiniteness of expression. But the ravages made in the inflexional system of English often involve a new form of sentence, a new construction, a new Syntax. § 3. All these changes, in Pronunciation, in Vocabulary, in Accidence and Syntax would have to be considered and described in a complete account. The description of these phenomena constitutes the History of English. But the changes referred to do not take place all over the country precisely at the same time, nor in the same way. From the beginning of its career in these islands, English was not a uniform language, but existed in several different forms, or Dialects. As time went on this diversity increased, so that in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries the speech of no two counties was exactly alike, and more or less different forms of English were spoken in different parts of the same county. Some of these differences find utterance in the written language. § 4. A complete history of English would take into account all the facts in the development of every form of English from the earliest period till the present day. It is obvious that such a multitude of facts could not be compressed into the compass of one small volume, but would fill a respectable library of large books. § 5. Fortunately, at the present time, the great majority of the English Dialects are of very little importance as representa- tives of English speech,and for our present purpose we can afford to let them go, except in so far as they throw light upon the growth of those forms of our language which are the main objects of our solicitude, namely, the language of Literature and Received Standard Spoken English. We shall have a good deal to say later concerning both Literary and Standard Spoken English. It is enough here to say that they are very closely related ; that the origin of both is the same ; that the starting-point was in the language of London as spoken by the Court and the upper ranks of Society, and in the transaction of official business from the fifteenth century. The problem of the history of this form of English is made complex and difficult by the fact that while its features are now, in the main, those of the East Midland type of English, all the other great dialect types have contributed in some degree to its existence. To understand the rise of Literary and Standard Spoken English, therefore, it is necessary to know something at lea.st §§ 2-8] Limitations of the Inquiry 25 of the early dialects whose elements can be traced, at the present time, in the language of Literature and of polite ) society. We narrow down our inquiry, therefore, to the problem of the origin and development of that form of English which is now spoken by educated and well-bred people, and, what is to all intents and purposes the same thing, of that form which is the vehicle of literature, and which for the last four or five_ centuries has also been that used in the composition of private ' or public documents, no matter what the native form of speech i of the writers might be. § 6. ^ After the end of the fourteenth century, the othec, ciialects, excepting always those of Lowland Scotch, gradually cease to be the vehicle of literary expression, and are no longer of importance to us as independent forms of English v We cannot afford, however, to let them altogether out of our sight, because the dialectal composition of the Standard Lan- guage varies slightly ; it adopts or discards this or that element or feature from time to time for reasons, no doubt mainly social, which we cannot determine with exactitude •^ 7. In this book, therefore, the modern developments of the provincial English dialects are not considered unless they can throw light on the history of Standard English. And while we concentrate mainly upon the history of the dominant form of English, and limit our efforts to an attempt to describe the growth of this, we must further, within this field, make a careful choice of material. While we are bound to take cognizance of many particular and general facts of development in the dialects of Old and Middle English, we must of necessity leave unchronicled many details which are of great interest and importance for the special student of these early periods. We cannot attempt a complete account of Old or Middle English, but must confine ourselves, in the main, to such facts as are of significance for our chief theme, the origin and subsequent development of the dominant dialect which emerges towards the end of the M.E. period. ^8. We have already enumerated the various aspects of ^ This depended, however, largely upon the education of the writer. Thus the Life of S. Editha (Wilts., circa 1420) is written in a very rustic form of English, while the Letters of John Shillingford, a native of Devonshire and Mayor of Exeter, about thirty years later, betray but few typically Southern deviations from London English. (See these Letters, Ed. More, Camden Soc, 1871.) 26 Introductory [chap, i English which have to be considered in a complete treatment — its sounds, its vocabulary, its inflexions, and its syntax. Of these, it is perhaps most important to give as clear an a?;count as possible of the development of the sounds and inflexions. The reason of this is, first, that pronunciation and accidence arc the most characteristic features of a dialect, and, secondly, that the history of sounds is especially capable of treatment in terms of general laws or tendencies of change. A couple of examples will serve to make clear the impor- tance of the history of pronunciation in determining the dialectal character. In Standard English we use the form^/r [ff^z/a]. This is from a M.'E. ftr and an O.l^.fyr. The modern form can only be of either Northern or N, East Midland origin. It can only be derived from the M.E./fr. But other types of this word existed in M.E. — -fuir [fyr], the type in use in the West and Central Midlands and in the South and S.West, and/t'r, the Kentish and South-eastern type. Had these types survived into Mod. Engl., the former would have become ^-focye and the latter ^fere [fia]. Again, take the word knell. This goes back to M.E. knellen and to O.E. cnellau. The type shown in these three forms is S. Eastern or Kentish, The West and Central Midland and Southern type was in O.E. cnyllan, M.E. kmdlen, which would develop in Mod. Eng. into ^knull. The corresponding N. East Midland type would result in a Modern ^knill, M.E. knillen. These two illustrations are enough to show the importance of pronunciation as a charac- |teristic feature of dialect. " Furthermore, the principles, of which these two words are isolated examples, can be formu- lated in terms of regular laws, which apply to all words containing the same original sounds. The history of sound changes within the various dialects of O. and M.E., therefore, and the development of the sounds through the Modern period, is bound to form an important section in a book dealing with I the history of the English Language. § 9. The history of English Accidence is partly the history of the treatment of sounds in unstressed syllables, partly also the history of the substitution of one form for another through the influence of the principle known as Analo gy (see § 70 below). § 10. The changes in English Syntax are due partly to the loss of inflexional syllables and the subsequent recasting of the sentence, partly to the influence of Latin and French sentence structure and idiom. §§8-Ti] The Study of Vocabulary 27 § II. Lastly, there is the question of Ycicabulary. This is a side of the history of English which requires very judicious handling. Although, for reasons explained in the Preface, this aspect of the history of English is not dealt with here, a few words may be said upon it. It cannot be supposed that in a small book a detailed account of the introduction, origin, and development of meaning of every individual word should be attempted. This would involve, not a statement of general principles, but a series of isolated and disconnected articles. Such work is the business of the lexicographer pure and simple. It seems better to avoid all treatment of individual words as such, in a history of a language, and in tracing in outline the history of the vocabulary to subordinate everything, as far as possible, to principles, citing words merely as illustrations of these. Thus it would be quite out of place to give lists of words borrowed from Malay, Chinese, Hungarian, Polish, etc., with any attempt at completeness, because it is far more important to understand how words get from one language into another, and what happens to them, as regards their form, when they do get there, than to have a mechanical knowledge that a particular word was borrowed from some language of which we are entirely ignorant. Any one who knows, say, Greek or Chinese, will have no difficulty in distinguishing the words in English which have been adopted from those languages. Again, it would be improper to take a (&\v hundred native words, haphazard, and describe with minuteness the changes in meaning, perhaps very considerable, which they have undergone, unless the principles of change in meaning, so far as these can be brought under a generalized statement, are first explained, and the particular words cited, merely to illustrate the principle. The same view applies to the method of dealing with loan- words in a short history of a language. '"It is important and necessary to state what are the principal languages which have contributed to the English vocabulary,vhow and when the speakers of these languages came in contact with the English, ywhat classes of words we acquired from the various sources, vand the history of the external form of the words when once they had become part and parcel of English speech. Armed with these general points, each of which should have been sufficiently illustrated by specific examples, the student will be in a position to discover for himself the sources of many of the principal foreign loan-words, and if he is in doubt, as indeed 28 Introductory [chap, i any one may be, on such a point, there are the Etymological Dictionaries to settle the point for him. § 12. It cannot be too strongly emphasized that the study of the history of English in such a book as this, or in a hundred others, many of which may be larger and better, is a barren and lifeless pursuit if divorced from the study Jof the language itself as it exists in the actual documents jof the different periods. If we would feel and realize the drama of linguistic evolution, we must penetrate by patient study into the spirit and life of the language at each period — a long and slow process — and then, when we can ' look before and after', we shall gradually gain a sense of growth and development. No statistical and descriptive account can give this vital knowledge, no amount of laws, and tables, and paradigms. All that the best history of English ever written can do for the student is to act as a guide to the path which he must tread anew for himself. There is a real danger at the present time for the student of English in the very multiplicity which exists of grammars, histories of the language, monographs on minute points of phonology and syntax, and * aids to study ' of all kinds, a danger that the weary pilgrim will never reach his goal — namely, a first-hand knowledge of the language itself as it exists in the literature. It is to be feared that the formidable and ever-increasing array of books and articles about English make it, in some ways, more and more difficult to get to the reality. The only means of salvation lies in a constant refer- ence, on the one hand, to the actual texts, and, on the other, to the living spoken English of to-day, in which the great impulses of change are ever at work, and where we can observe history being made under our very eyes. For we must never forget that while, from the nature of the case, the past history of a language must necessarily be traced by means of written records, these are to be regarded as afford- ing us merely an indication of what was actually taking place in the spoken language itself. Change in language implies a change in the mental and physical habits of the living human beings who speak the language. The drama of linguistic history is enacted, not in manuscripts nor inscriptions, but in the mouths and minds of men. CHAPTER II POSITION OF ENGLISH AMONG LANGUAGES. DIALECTAL AND CHRONOLOGICAL DIVISIONS § 13. English was introduced into these islands in the .fifth i century by Germanic tribes who came, in the first instance,' " under colour of helping Vortigern, the British king, against ' the Picts. But soon, seeing the ' nothingness of the Britons, and the excellence of the land ', the Jutes, who were the first comers, sent for their kinsmen, who, coming in large numbers, murdered and pillaged their way to the possession of the best part of the country, causing the Britons to flee before them ' like fire ' into the mountains of the west. In about a century, the various tribes had settled down, and the thoroughness of their grip on the country may be gauged from the purely English character of most names of places in the South and Midlands, except of course those on the borders of Wales and in Cornwall. The principal tribes were the Jutes, the Angles, and Saxons, who came respectively from Jutland, SchJeswig, and Holstein. The Jutes settled Kent, perhaps part of Surrey, part of Hampshire, and the Isle of Wight. The various tribes of Saxons took possession of the rest of the South and West, between the Thames and the Humber. The Angles settled in the North and Midlands. § 14. But if the Germanic invaders of Britain were in many/ - respects savages, they were also noble savages, and in their \ character lay the seeds of much that was worthy and | admirable. In the oldest fragments of heathen poetry, side by side with the fierceness and cruelty which we expect, there are also dis- played the excellent qualities of high courage, loyalty to a leader or a cause, a tenderness and a love of nature which spring from what ten Brink calls the 'pious soul of English heathendom '. The pirate who in the fifth century put forth ' through the mists of ocean ' to seek his fortune in an unknown 30 Position of English among Languages [chap, i land, and to face, undaunted, risks and dangers, first among the stormy waves, and then amid strange peoples, far from * his home where he was reared \ may have been bloodthirsty and unscrupulous, but he was certainly neither ignoble in spirit nor contemptible as a man. His descendants, turned farmers, country gentlcmen,j'devotees of the chase^ peaceful rulers in their district, protectors of their households, faithful servants of their chief or king, had time and opportunity to cultivate the gentler virtues. But their swords, meanwhile, were not allowed to rust ; there was plenty of fighting during the first few centuries of the English settlement. The introduction of Christianity, while it gave a sanction to the innate qualities of altruism, faithfulness unto death, and deep-rooted tender- ness which reside in the Germanic peoples, did not destroy, but merely disciplined, and gave a nobler and better controlled direction to the sterner elements in the national character. In Beowulf, the ideal king and warrior of Germanic heathen chivalry, we find essentially the same character and virtues as in Alfred, the Christian monarch and soldier, than whom no nobler figure is to be found in the annals of any nation. § 15. Throughout Old English history and literature there appears the expression of a national character, in which what are often regarded as chiefly heathen elements are inextricably blended with the gentler and sweeter qualities that find their natural incentive in Christianity. Thus it is a very superficial criticism which would divide our old poetry into the National (meaning thereby purely heathen) and the Christian, for there is no fundamental difference of spirit between them — both are equally ' national '. Different aspects of the national genius are indeed emphasized in the poetry of heathen and Christian periods, but all the elements and spirit of each are found in both ; there is no sudden break, no new departure. As we turn over the pages of the History of the Church in England, we are struck with something like amazement that such an engaging personality as that of St. Bede, with his serene and lofty outlook upon the world, his tenderness and pathos, his sound historical method, his captivating gift of narrative, his profound piety, could emerge from a people separated by but three generations from heathenism, and by less than three centuries from the ruthless followers of Hengest. From these rude ancestors were to spring, in the course of a few centuries, a long ahd splendid line of kings, rulers, warriors, and legislators ; of poets, mystics, and scholars ; of bishops, saints, and martyrs, whom no Englishman of to-day can look back §§ I4-I6] The Dialects of Old English 31 upon without a glow of pride at the thought that he belongs to the same race. § 16. The Dialects of Old English. The language of the Germanic invaders, which in the earliest times can have been but slightly differentiated, had become split up, in the age of the earliest documents, into four still very similar, but nevertheless quite definitely marked dialects. We distinguish the ^ Saxon dialects, the Kentish dialect (that of the Jutes), and the Anglian dialects. Anglian is divided into Northumbrian^ the speech of the Angles North of the Humber, and Mercian, that of the Angles of the Midlands. Mercian and Northumbrian, while having several features in common which distinguish them from the Saxon and Kentish dialects, are also characterized severally by dis- tinctive marks. Thus while we can often speak of a charac- teristic simply as Anglian, we have also to observe carefully the points in which Mercian and Northumbrian differ. We unfortunately know nothing of the early form of the East Anglian dialect. Of the Saxon dialects, the most important by far is that of Wessex, which we refer to as West Saxon. This form of English is much more fully represented in literature than any other of the early dialects. In fact West Saxon was the nearest approach to a standard literary dialect which ^ existed in Old English. Its prestige gave it currency beyond the bounds of a single province. This is the dialect which is studied first by students of the old language, and indeed there is little to read, and nothing worthy the name of literature^ in prose, in any other form of Old English, except some interesting homilies in a dialect which it is now the fashion to refer to as a Saxon Patois. Kentish, Mercian, and Northumbrian are mainly known to us in Charters, Glossaries, in Glosses, or in paraphrases of the Gospels and the Psalms. A very curious and interesting form of Old English is the Saxon Patois of the Blickling Homilies, and of what are known as the Harleian Glosses, which will be referred to more particularly later on. The view now held is that these are indeed in a Saxon dialect, which has many features in common with the We.st Saxon literary language of Alfred and iElfric, while it also shows well-marked deviations that rather resemble Mercian in some respects. It is believed that this dialect developed within the Saxon area, and that it is not due to actual contamination from without. Unfortu- 32 Dialectal and Chronological Divisions [chap, h nately we do not know precisely in what part of the Saxon area this Patois was spoken. § 17. The Name of the People and their Language. The country as a whole is called by our ancestors Englalond , ' land of the Angles ' ; the people, unless some specific tribe is designated, are called Angel cytin, ' Angle kin ', and the language is known as Englisc. Bede uses the expression Angli sivc Saxones, implying that both terms mean the same thing, but he generally calls the people Angli, and their language Scrmo Anglicns, as a generic term, even when referring to the language of the Jutes. The great and good Alfred, King of the West Saxons, the founder of West Saxon prose, calls his own language Englisc, and Ethelbert of Kent, the first English Christian King, applies the \yord Angli to himself and his people. Much later, the Abbot .^Ifric, who wrote pure West Saxon, speaks of turning his Homilies of Ledemim gereorde to Engliscre sprxce, ' from the Latin language into English speech '. Lingua Saxonica, Saxonice are but rarely used, unless in specific reference to the Saxon dialects. The expression Anglo-Saxon seems to have been coined in the eighteenth century, and is now less and less used among scholars. It is better to follow ancient precedent in this matter, and to call the language of the oldest periods Old English. We speak of this or that dialect of Old English, and also of Old Kentish, Old Mercian, etc. § 18. Relation of the O.E. Dialects to other Languages. I Old English belongs to the West Germanic branch of Germanic speech. Parent, or Primitive Germanic, was divided into three great branches : North Germanic, represented by the Scandinavian languages ; East Germanic, represented chiefly by Gothic ; and West Germanic. The principal divisions of the latter are Old Saxon, Old Frisian, Old English, and the Old High German dialects. Of these, Old Saxon and Old Frisian are most nearly related to English, the latter indeed having so many characteristics in common with O.E. that many scholars are inclined to assume an original unity which they call Anglo-Frisian, and suppose to have differentiated subsequently into Old English on one hand, and Old Frisian on the other. This assumption, however, is open to many criticisms into which we need not now enter. The Old High German dialects underwent in the sixth §§ 16-19] Sfages of Developmeyit century certain considerable changes in the original conso- nantal sounds, changes which we now find reflected in Modern German. On the other hand, Old High German adheres far more closely to the ancestral system of vowel sounds than any other West Germanic dialect, and also retains the original inflexions with remarkable fidelity. By the help of Old Saxon and Old High German, both of which are in many respects nearer to the primitive West Germanic type than O.E., at the time of the oldest docu- ments, we are able to form a very fair idea of a form of O.E. earlier than any which we find recorded, and also to reconstruct West Germanic itself. If we find a feature preserved only in O-H.G. among W. Gmc. dialects, but occur- ring also in Gothic, and perhaps in Nth. Gmc. as well, we are pretty safe in assuming that it was not only a West Germanic feature, but had survived from Primitive Gmc. itself. Such a feature is, for example, the survival of the old diphthong ai in O.H.G. (written ai, ei) as in stein ' stone ', which in Goth, is stains, and in Old Norse steinn. We have no doubt that this was a West Gmc. sound, though O.E., O.Sax., and O.Fris. have all lost it. § 19. The Chronological Divisions of English. If we bear in mind that language changes gradually, and that it is perpetually changing, it will be evident that it is impossible to define with precision the exact date at which a language passes out of one stage and enters upon a new era of its existence. The process is a continuous one, and one period passes by insensible gradations into another. At any given moment there exist side by side with young speakers, whose language represents the 'latest thing ' in speech develop- ment, an old generation who still represent an order of things which has passed away except in the speech of themselves and their exact contemporaries, and also an intermediate generation whose speech shows some characteristics both of the new and the old. It is nevertheless the case, that round about a particular period of time, we can observe certain tendencies arising, and gaining ground as time goes on. We are thus able to mark off the course of any language whose records cover a con- siderable extent of time into more or less rough chronological divisions, each of which has definite features which distinguish it from what is before and after. From this point of view, and for the sake of convenience, 34 Dialectal and Chronological Divisions [chap, h we make the following more or less rough and approximate chronological divisions of English : /Earliest O.E. End of seventh century. f^ji-n /• / Early O.E. Eighth and ninth centuries. uia tinglisli- L^^^ Q g^ Pj.qj^ beginning of tenth century . to about 1050. Early Transition English. From 1050-1150. [Early M.E. 1 150-1250. Middle EnglishX Central M.E. 1 250-1 370. (Late M.E. 1370-1450. Transition Period. 1400 or 1450- 1500. First Modern. 1500-1600. Second Modern. Seventeenth century. Third Modern. Eighteenth century. Present-day. From 1800- Such divisions as these are necessarily arbitrary, and will largely depend upon what features are selected as distinguish- ing tests. Some will prefer to consider the Modern period as beginning about 1450, and will apply the term Early Modern to English as it existed between this date and the middle of the following century. A Moderji English %.,;. CHAPTER III THE SOUNDS OF SPEECH § 20. It is not proposed to give here an elaborate treatise on Phonetics, but as Sounds are the realities of Speech, and as much confusion of thought often prevails concerning the nature and mode of formation of these, it seems desirable to include a few remarks concerning them. In the first place it is important to use a clear terminology, and to use it consistently. A good phonetic terminology is one which expresses briefly, and unambiguously, the facts of utterance. As experience has convinced the present writer that Sweet's method of classifying and describing sounds is the most exact and adequate, it will be employed throughout this chapter, and generally in this book. Note. Symbols placed in brackets, as [\>], are phonetic symbols", which will be used in this work when necessary. § 21. Voice and Breath. A very important organ of speech is the Glottis, which contains two membranes capable of vibration, and known as the vocal chords. When the vocal chords are drawn across the Glottis, so as to close it, the air when driven from the lungs passes in a series of puffs through the chords, and makes them vibrate. This vibration causes a buzzing sound, which is known as Voice. Sounds which are accompanied by this vibration are known as Voiced Sounds. If, on the other hand, the vocal chords are not drawn tight, but lie folded back against the walls of the Glottis, the air passes through the throat without any hindrance, there is no vibration of the chords, no Voice. Sounds produced under these conditions, and without any vibration of the Chords, are called Voiceless, Un-voiced, or Breath sounds. Examples of Voiced Sounds are the consonants z as in buzs, V as in vice, and the th [^] in this. Vowels, as their name implies, are usually voiced in nearly all languages. C Q, 36 The Sounds of Speech [chap, m Examples of Voiceless, or Breath Sounds, are s in sit,f\\\ fat, and the th [}>] in t/wik. § 22. Consonants and Vowels. The fundamental difference between Consonants and Vowels depends upon the degree of opening of the Motith Passage. Thus in a Consonant the mouth passage is either completely stopped for a moment, as in [p, t, k], or sufficiently closed or narrowed to produce a perceptible friction, as in [f], sh [J] in sJiip, or tJi [)'] in thin. In forming vowel sounds, on the other hand, the passage is never narrow enough to cause friction when the air-stream passes through. This can be realized at once if we compare the consonant [v] with the first vowel m father \a\. Consonants formed by a momentary closing or stopping of the air-passage, as in [p, t, k], are called Stops, or Stop- consonants ; those formed by merely narrowing the passage and causing friction [f, \, J] are called Open Consonants, or by some writers Continuants. § 23. Classification of Consonants. There are three points to be observed in describing a Con- sonant sound : Where is it made? How is it made? Is it voiced or not ? § 24. The Question * Where ? ' Consonantal articulation, that is, the production either of Stops, or Open Consonants, may take place in the Throat, or in the Mouth Passage. Throat open consonants occur in Arabic, and a Throat Stop (Glottal Stop) occurs in Danish, and, in a milder form, in German, and in several forms of Scots, but as a rule the consonants of the European languages are formed in the mouth. This being so, it is better to discard altogether the misleading term Guttural in dealing with the sounds of English and other European languages. The majority of the Consonants formed in the mouth are made by different parts of the tongue ; some are made by the lips, and some by the combined activities of tongue and lips. In addition to these organs, the soft palate or Velum, and the Uvula also function, the former functioning together with the tongue in forming back consonants: stops, open, nasals, etc., the latter vibrating against the tongue in the back trills. § 25. Consonants made with the Tongue. It is possible to form consonants with every part of the upper surface of the Tongue, along its whole length from §§ 31-7] Areas of the Tongue 37 the Root to the Point or tip. It is important to map out roughly the chief characteristic areas of the tongue, since each of these forms a typical kind of consonant sound. Start- ing at the Back and working forward, we have the following areas : Back ; Front (or Middle of the tongue) ; Blade (the area just behind the Point) ; the Point itself. As a rule, a consonant is formed between the tongue and that part of the roof of the mouth immediately above the tongue area which is being used. § 26. Back Consonants. Typical sounds of this class are [k, g], back voiceless, and back voiced stops respectively. This is the class often un- fortunately called Gutturals, a misleading and meaningless term in this connexion, because they are not formed in the Throat at all, but between the Back of the tongue and the Soft Palate. Note that Back Consonafits may be made with the Root (Root Cons.) ; by the part just in front of the Root (Full Back) ; or slightly further for- ward (Back Advanced). The Back area is, however, perfectly definite in extent, and if we try to form [k] or [g] first with the Root, and then further and further forward, we shall find there is a limit which we cannot pass without the resulting sound ceasing to be a typical Back [k] or [g] stop, and becoming something quite different. The Full Back stop is heard in the English carl, cup ; the Back Advanced in keep, kit. The reason for this difference will be apparent later, when we deal with the articulation of vowel sounds. § 27. Front Consonants. This class of sounds, made with the Middle or Front of the tongue, is exceedingly important in the History of English, and unfortunately its character is often misunderstood. Much of the confusion of mind which prevails concerning Front consonants arises from the misleading and vague term Palatal which is often applied to them. The word ought to be banished from the vocabulary of scientific students of language because it has no meaning. If Palatal means ' formed with the roof of the mouth ', then it may be said that all consonants made by the tongue are formed between this and some part of the roof of the mouth ; if it be argued that the term refers only to the Hard Palate, then the reply is that in that case it would apply also to a totally different class, the Blade consonants. The important thing is to know zv hat part of the tongue is being used in forming a given consonant. We there- fore shall do well to get rid for ever of this unmeaning term. We have only one Front Consonant in Modern English, 3^ The Sounds of Speech [chap, m namely the Front Open Voiced which we write y, as in you, yacht. The symbol generally used for this is [j]. In German not only this sound exists, as in JuJig, Jahr, but also the voiceless form of it, as in ich [ij]. The student should make a point of realizing, by practice, when he is using the Front area of the tongue, and should then proceed to form a Stop Consonant, both Breath and Voiced, with the same part of the tongue. The Front Stops undoubtedly existed for a time in Old English. The effect on the ear of a voiceless front stop is that of a peculiar kind of [t], that of the voiced front stop, of a peculiar kind of [dj. For this reason we denote these sounds by the symbols ['t] and [d] respectively. It should be noted that when we pronounce a Front Con- sonant^ the tongue is drawn up so that the Middle is brought into play, and the Point is curled round and down, so that it lies in the cavity below and behind the lower front teeth. If the Point is in any other position than this we may be sure that we are not pronouncing a Front Consonant at all. Unless the theory and practice of this class of sounds be well under- stood, a great deal that is written about ' Palatalization ' is entirely devoid of meaning. Students must take the trouble to learn this, to most Englishmen and Germans, entirely new class of Stops. Front Stops occur in Russ. mm [d«'d«] and in Swedish kenna \\.ixv!\ci\ ; Front Divided in Italian voglio [vD'lo] ; Front Nasal in French montagnc [mSt^n], Ital. vergogna [vergJii^:]. § 28. Blade Consonants. To this class belong [s] and [z]. These are really the only members of the group which concern us much, though in Modern English it is probable that some speakers use Blade Stops instead of the ordinary Point Stops, especially before [J, z] in the combinations [tj] and [dz] in hitch, bridge respectively. § 29. Blade Point Consonants. The typical Blade Point Consonants are sh [J], as in ship, schdn,cher, and the initial consonant in Yrench. jamais [z], the final in rouge, the medial consonant in pleasure plszs]. While we have both the Voiced and Voiceless Blade Point Open consonants in English and PVench, in German only the voiceless [J] exists, [z] being often very difficult for German speakers to acquire. In articulating this class of sounds, the Blade is raised, the §§ 27-34] Point and Lip Consonants 39 tongue is slightly retracted, and the Point is turned upwards and backwards. The air-stream has to pass over both Blade and Point. § 30. Point Consonants. These are often loosely called ' Dentals ', a term which is not applicable to English [d] and [t], in which the Point does not touch the teeth, but forms a stop against the upper gums or A Ivcolars ]\xsthQh.md the teeth. Thus the English Point Consonants [t] and [d] may be called Point Alveolars if it is desired to be very exact. As a matter of fact the difference between point-teeth [t] and point-alveolar [t] is hardly per- ceptible to the ear. In German and French [t] and [d] are genuine Point-TeetJi consonants, or ''Dentals'. § 31. Point-Teeth Consonants. The only Point Consonants which are articulated against the upper teeth in English are the Point-Teeth Open con- sonants, [■S] as in this, and []?] as in think. The difficulty which foreigners sometimes find in pronouncing these sounds is largely imaginary. The way to obtain them is to pronounce the P.-T. Stops, and then relax the pressure against the teeth, so that the air-stream can pass through with the characteristic hiss or buzz of this class of sounds. In English, some speakers form [j?, ■§] merely by putting the point of the tongue lightly against the upper teeth, other speakers allow the point to protrude slightly between the upper and lower teeth. § 32. Lip Consonants. These are made by the activity of both lips. The Stops [b] and [p] are typical examples of this class, and need no comment. § 33. Lip-Teeth Consonants. These are made by bringing the lower lip against the upper teeth, and allowing the air-stream to pass between the narrow passage thus formed. The Open consonants of this group, [f] and [v], exist in most European languages. § 34. Lip-Back Consonants. The Lip-Back Open are the sounds which concern us. These are the English [w], and [\y] or Voiceless [w] written wh, as in which. These sounds are made by bringing the lips fairly close together, so that a slight consonantal friction is caused when the air-stream passes, and at the same time 40 The Sounds of Speech [chap, m raising the Back of the tongue. English [w] is a very important sound, not merely because of its occurrence in Modern English, but because it is one of the oldest sounds in the language. It has remained unchanged, apparently, not merely since the West Germanic and Primitive Germanic periods, but even from the Primitive Aryan mother-tongue. Voiceless [\v], or [\y] occurs invariably in those words which are written with initial zvh (except who, whole, and one or two more), in the pronunciation of Scotch and Irish speakers. Many English people, even in the South, now use this sound, but it is certainly not natural in English speech from the Midlands downwards, and has been introduced comparatively recently — within the last thirty or forty years — apparently through Scotch and Irish influence, backed up by the spelling. Many excellent speakers of Standard English never use the sound at all. § 35. Lip-Front Consonants. These are formed, as regards their consonantal element, entirely with the lips, but with the activity of the latter is combined the raising of the Front of the tongue. The Voiced Lip Front Open [/i] occurs in French Jiuit [/Jit], etc., and the voiceless [(/)] in the same language, when ni is written, after a voiceless consonant, especially an Open voiceless, as in fuite [f(/)it]. § 36. The Question ' How ? * Consonants are formed. Besides knowing the area in the mouth at which consonants are formed, it is necessary to know also how the active part is being used. We distinguish five modes of forming consonantal sounds : Stops, and Open Consonants — already described, Divided articulation, Nasalization, and Trilling. |;^Some areas of the tongue, e.g. the Back and the Point, can be used in all these ways. Note. A trill is made either w'th the point of the tongue, or against the back of the tongue, with the uvula. § 37. Divided Consonants. These are what are popularly called ' 1 '-sounds. They are made by forming a complete contact between some part of the tongue and the corresponding area of the palate or the teeth, while at the same time the edges or sides of the tongue are allowed to sink slightly, so that the air-stream can pass on either side of the point of contact. Thus the English and German [1] sounds are made with the Poijit of the tongue. §§ 34-9] Nasals and Trills 41 There is a complete stoppage at one place, but on either side of this there is an opening through which the air-stream passes. Thus the Divided Consonants have something in common both with Stops and Open Consonants, since there is complete contact at one point, but also there is an open passage so that the sound can be prolonged. The same mode is practicable with the back of the tongue. The Back Divided [t] is heard in Russian, e. g. in Gbitb, In English, [1 is unvoiced after a voiceless consonant, as m fling, where [1 begins unvoiced, and is then voiced. In French souffle [sQfl the [1] is unvoiced altogether. § 38. Nasal Consonants. Nasalization is produced by opening the passage which leads from the throat to the Nose, so that the air-stream passes through the latter. Any consonant may be nasalized, that is, the nose passage may be open, no matter what activities are going on in the mouth passage. At the same time, in most civilized European languages, the nasalization of consonants is confined to stops. The chief characteristic nasals are [n] Point-nasal; [13] Back- nasal, as in sing [sir)] ; Lip-nasal [mj, limb [lim]. We might say with perfect accuracy that [nj was a nasalized [d]; [13] a nasalized [g] ; and [ml a nasalized [b]. The student may practise passing from [gjto [r)], [d] to [n], etc., by the simple process of opening the nose passage, without releasing the stop. In some languages, voiceless nasals occur, but they are not very common. Thus in French rhumatisvie is often pro- nounced [rom^tisip] but also [r0m^tizm(a)]. § 39. Trills. These sounds are popularly known as the ' r '-sounds. The two chief, if not the only Trills, are the Point-Trill [r], and the Back-Trill [a]. The former, which is heard among Scotch speakers, and probably occurred in Old and Middle English generally, is made by the rapid vibration of the Point of the tongue just behind the upper teeth. The latter, often heard in French, is produced by retracting the tongue, raising the Back of this organ, and allowing the Uvula to vibrate upon the raised surface. Modern English [r] is not really a Trill at all, but merely a very weak Point Open consonant. The ^--sounds, both in French and English, are unvoiced after voiceless consonants. 42 The Sounds of Speech [chap, in § 40. The meaning of the third point to be considered in describing consonants, whether they are voiced or not, has already been explained (§ 21). § 41. If we combine the three points just discussed, we get the following table of consonant sounds : Back. Front. Blade. Blade- point. Point. Lip. Lip- teeth Lip- back. Lip- front. B. V. B. V. B. V. B. V. B. V. B. V. B. V. B V. B. V. Open X s J j s z J z )> =s P b f V w w n Stop k g ■t a t d P b Divided I \ •1 •1 1 1 Nasal Trill H h fi n n m m r r Note. The Blade and Blade-point stops, Divideds, and Nasals are omitted from this Table because they occur as a rule only in combina- tion with [J, z, s, z]. Some speakers no doubt tend to assimilate [t] to [J] iri [tj], but it is unnecessary for our present purposes to distinguish these sounds by special symbols. § 42. General Remarks npon the Consonants. In order to realize the precise nature of each consonant, and the organic relation of one group to another, as well as of the individual sounds in each group, it is desirable to practise various exercises. The student should practise in the first place the art of Voicing and Unvoicing, that is of alternately closing and opening the vocal chords without altering the position of the organs of the mouth. The Open Consonants, Divided, and Nasals are the best for this purpose, as they can be prolonged : [s — z, ]> — ^, J — z, j — ^j], etc. Another exercise is nasalizing and de-nasalizing. Thus the process of opening and closing the nose passage should be practised by passing from [g] to [r)] and vice versa, and the same exercise should be tried with [b — m, d — n]. It is well to practise the consonants in organically related groups; all \he. point, all the back, all ihe front consonants in order. While it is highly desirable to learn to isolate sounds, and to pronounce consonants by themselves, it is useful also to add the vowel \a\ in pronouncing a consonant, thus — \jSa, da, r\d, \d, xa\, and so on with the consonants of each group. §§ 40-4] Vozvel Formation 43 It is particularly instructive to pass from Stop to Open, from Open to Stop of each group, gradually opening the Stop until the Open is fully formed. Besides practising the sounds in this vertical order, it is also an excellent thing to start with a back consonant, and shift the place of articulation gradually forward, until the point of the tongue is reached : [g^, g«, d«, da\ and so on. Practise this also with the Open, Divided, Nasal, and Trill, both Voiced and tm- Voiced. These exercises are all of them important for the student of the history of a language, because they illustrate the various possible changes in articulation which occur from time to time during the life of a language. A thorough mastery of these processes makes the history of a language more of a reality, and enables the student to get away from graphic formulae. Thus in stating Verner's Law [see Note % following § 346] it is essential to think in terms of sounds rather than of symbols, and to be able to say that under such and such conditions the Germanic Voiceless Open Consonants, derived from the corresponding Aryan or Indo-Germanic Voiceless Stops, were voiced, rather than to think of the process in terms of a graphic formula and to say that /, t, k which had become /, /, x, under the conditions stated by Verner then became d, d, g. \ 43. The Classification of Vowel Sounds. There are four points which must be considered in describing and classifying a Vowel Sound: the Height of tJie Tongue; the Part of the Tongtce used ; the Condition of the Tongue ; the Participation or non-Participation of the Lips. § 44. The Height of the Tongue. The Tongue can be raised or lowered in the mouth, and these movements correspond to the movements of the lower jaw. We distinguish three degrees of Height: High, Mid, and Low. In the High position the tongue is usually raised as high as is consistent with the absence of friction. Thus in [i] as in beat, vicl, si, the tongue is practically as high as is possible without passing into a consonantal sound. If the tongue be raised but very little from the position which it occupies in [i] it soon ceases to be a vowel, and becomes [j]. The Mid position is that which the tongue occupies when it is in the middle of the mouth. The Lotv position involves a still greater lowering of the tongue and sinking of the lower jaw, so that the mouth is, comparatively speaking, fairly wide open. The three degrees of height are illustrated in the 44 The Sounds of Speech [chap, m three English words [b/t, bet, baet] which in the Standard pronunciation arc High, Mid, and Loiv, respectively. It is important to learn to realize the upward and downward movements of the tongue, and the student may learn a great deal at the beginning by merely deliberately moving the tongue up and down silently and without attempting to utter any particular sound. § 45. The Part of the Tongue Used. The tongue may be drawn back in the mouth, so that the back part comes into play ; it may be advanced, so that \he front comes into play; or it may lie practically j'fi^/ in the mouth, so that its whole upper surface is used. Vowels made with the Back of the tongue are called back vowels ; those made with the Frottt are front voivels ; those with the whole surface are known z.^fiat vowels. Note. Sweet, whose classification is here used, describes the last class as Mixed Vowels. The term Flat is used in this book, as less likely to lead to confusion, and as being more descriptive of the facts. Examples of back vowels arc \a\ as in father, Bahn, etc. ; [d] as in English saiv. Front vowels are heard in the English words bet, bat, French si, dd, and in German Vieh, lehnen, etc. Flat vowels do not occur in French, but a typical English sound occurring in heard, worm, curl [hAd, wAm, kAl] belongs to this group, as does the common unstressed vowel [9], as in butter [bata], Wordsworth [wAdzwa]?]. A flat vowel is also heard in German in the unstressed syllables of Vater, Knabe, etc. Note. In back vowels the tongue slopes down from back io front', in fro7it vowels, ixanx front to back. These two classes are sometimes called sloped vowels. In the fat vowels there is no slope, hence the name. § 46. The Condition of the Tongue. The condition referred to is the muscular condition, which may be one of Tenseness, in which the tongue is braced and hard, or, on the other hand, one of Slackness, in which the tongue is relatively soft and slack. Vowels uttered with the tongue tense have a clearer, shriller sound, and a higher pitch, than those uttered with the tongue slack. We call the former tense vowels, the latter, slack vowels. Note. Sweet uses the term Narrow for tense vowels, and JVlde for slack. Tense and Slack are used here, after the example of many phone- ticians, as being more definitely descriptive of the facts, and less likely to give rise to misapprehensions. §§ 44-7] Tenseness and Height in Vowels 45 The essential and characteristic difference between iense and slack vowels may be heard by contrasting the mid-front- tense [e], as in French dc, or German WeJi, with the mid- front-slack vowel [e], as in English head, pen, or German fett, helly etc. The student should also attempt to distinguish between the different muscular sensations felt in pronouncing alternately [e] and [e]. § 47. It is rather important to warn students against confusing Tenseness with Height, as is done by the ambiguous terminology too frequently used. Thus when a writer talks of an 'Open Vowel', and a ' Close Vowel', it is never quite clear what he means. For some writers call [s] ' open e ' (German 'offenes e'), as distinct from [e] which they call 'close e\ Here the real distinction \s purely one of Tenseness^ and not oi Height at all. But the same writers also refer to [5], as in English saw, as ' open o ', as distinct from [o] in French beau or German Lohn. Here the distinction is definitely one of Height ; [o] being mid-back-te7ise, and [o] low-back-tense. There is no necessary connexion between Height and Tenseness. There are two distinct series of vowels, one made with a tense tongue, the other with a slack, but differing in no other particular. Thus, if we take the Front vowels, we can pronounce High, Mid, and Lozv Tense, and also vowels in the same three positions Slack. It is a mistake to suppose, as some writers appear to suggest, that in passing from the High Tense to the Lotv Tense, it is necessary to pass through several slack stages. If, for instance, the tongue be slightly lowered from the High Tense, we do not get a Slack vowel, but merely a lowered Tense vowel, unless, of course, the tongue be deliberately slackened, which is not at all necessary. A i)iid-te?ise vowel is not higher than a mid-slack in the sense that the whole tongue is raised. It is true, however, that when the tongue is made taut, the upper surface, or part of it, stands up rather more than when the tongue is slack and soft. In the same way we can raise our arm to a certain position, and while neither raising it nor lowering it, we can either make the muscles stand out in lumps, or allow them to lie soft and unstrained. But unless we deliberately choose to do so, we do not raise the arm when we stiffen the muscles. All this, like any other fact in phonetics, the student must bring to the test of his own experience. 46 The Sounds of Speech [chap, m § 48. The Activity of the Lips. In pronouncing a vowel sound the lips may either be passive, or, in some cases, drawn right back from the teeth (spreading), or they may be slightly protruded, so that they take part in . the articulation, and modify the sound uttered. Vowels in whose formation the lips take part are cBXlcd Roitiided vov^&ls; those in whose formation the lips take no part are called Un- rojmded. In describing a vowel of the latter sort, the term Unrounded need not be used, as it is assumed that if no mention is made of Rounding this is absent. Examples of Ronnded vowels are : [y] as in French bnt [byt], which is high- froni-tense-ronnd\ [ej as in German schdn — niid-front-tense- round; [u] as in English boot [but] — high-back-tense-round \ [o] as in German BoJme [bone] or French bemi [bo] — mid- back-tense-round, and so on. It should be realized that as the movements of the lips are quite independent of those of the tongue. Rounding may be combined with any Position, or Height, or Condition of the tongue. The student should therefore practise combining Rounding with every possible tongue position, and also, starting with familiar Roiind vowels, he should learn to unround these, without altering the tongue position. § 49. Degrees of Rounding : Different Kinds of Rounding. Some vowels have more Rounding than others. Normally, this depends upon the Height of the tongue ; the higher the tongue, the greater the degree of Rounding. Some languages have abnormally rounded vowels, that is, vowels with greater or less rounding than normally belongs to that degree of height with which they are uttered. Vowels which have more than normal roundhig are known as over- rounded, those which have less, as tmder-rounded. Over- rounding occurs in the German il in BiiJine, where a mid- front-tense has the degree of rounding which belongs to a Jiigh vowel, so that the il here is really [e] with increased rounding. Again, the Swedish god 'good ' is a mid-back-tense with over- rotinding. The effect upon the ear of an over-rounded vowel is that of the next higher round vowel, so that the vowel in Buhne suggests [y] and that in Sw.god [u]. In Back-round vozvels the shape of the lip-opening is roughly o, in Front-round voivels, roughly 0. §§ 48-52] Vowel Pitch 47 § 50. Table of Vowel Sounds. Utirotmded Voivels. Front. High Mid Low Tense. I i he^ Sie r e de, sehr Slack. Jl / Fisch I £ bell, Germ. B^'tt "[ as hat (Engl.) Ba Tense. 1 ck. Slack. 1 ] a \)Ut (Engl.) [j a fother, Mann japre J Flat. Tense. I i Russ. cbipt 1^ e gut^ I A b/rd Slack. I i bit (Engl.) |3fath£'r, a Rounded Vowels. Front. High Mid Low 1 ense. f y lune {id\e, G^^the Slack. f t^tto (Finn.) I :j o beurre, Gotter Back. Tense. \ u wh«?, shi^ft; rz/h } o beau : h«ll Slack. 3" tf Germ. Gott J^ hot (Engl.) Flat. Tense. I Slack. Jii Swed. ;T fru \ '^ bt;nne § 51. Pitch of Vowels. Every vowel sound has an inherent musical pitch, or note, which depends upon the shape of the mouth passage, the condition of the tongue, and the position of the lips. This inherent pitch is drowned in ordinary speech by the powerful vibration of the vocal chords, and is best heard by Whispering the vowel. By Whisper phoneticians mean a definite contraction of the Glottis, which causes a slight friction of the air-stream against the walls of this organ. The factors which determine pitch have been briefly mentioned, but it may make it clearer if it be said th2it front vowels are higher in pitch than back vowels ; high are vowels higher in pitch than mid, mid higher in pitch than low ; tense vowels have a higher pitch than slack \ tmroiindcd vowels are higher than rounded vowels. ^ 52. Quantity or Vowel Length. The length or duration of a vowel sound is relative to other vowels in the language. In English our so-called short 48 The Sounds of Speech [chap, m vowels are often of considerable length, as long as, or even longer, than what are considered long in other languages. Although there is no necessary connexion between Length and Tenseness, many languages tend to make most of their long vowels tense and their sJiort ones slack. In English and German long [i] and [u] arc always te^ise, the same sounds when sJiort always slack. This same is not true of French, however, where [i] and [u] are always tense, and generally short, except before r. § 53. Nasal Vowels. All vowel sounds may be pronounced with the nose passage open, and vowels so uttered are called nasal or nasalized vowels. Such vowels, though frequent in French and in Polish, are unknown in Standard English and in German. They certainly existed, however, in prehistoric O.E., as well as in West Germanic and Primitive Germanic. We express them by placing [~] over the ordinary vowel symbol, thus [b3] = French bon. § 54. Intermediate Degrees of Height. Although we only distinguish three characteristic degrees of Height, intermediate degrees occur in many languages and dialects. Thus in many forms of Provincial English a pure mid-front- slack is unknown, the sound being replaced by a mid vowel so much lowered in the direction of the low-front [se] that to unaccustomed ears it is barely distinguishable from that sound. In Modern Dutch the high-front-slack seems to be lowered to the mid-front^ while in words where this must once have existed the sound is lowered to the lozv- front. Thus /zV ' lamp-wick' sounds like [pet], and veldt like [vaelt]. In Danish [e] is raised almost to [i]. These facts are instructive in tracing the history of pronunciation in a language. For instance, when we find that in English an earlier [hed] 'heed' has become [hid], there can be little doubt that we have here the result of a process of gradual raising, and that at one time our ancestors must have pronounced a raised form of [e], not yet [i] but gradually tending towards it. § 55. Diphthongs. A diphthong is a combination of two distinct vowel sounds, one of which only is stressed or accentuated. Only the stressed element in a true diphthong is syllabic, the other element being too much lacking in sonority, compared with the strong element, to function as a separate syllable. §§ 52-8] Nature of Syllable 49 § 56. The Syllable. The simplest account of what constitutes a syllable is to say that anything which maintains a unity of utterance produces the impression of a single syllable ; anything which tends to break up or destroy that unity produces the im- pression of more than one syllable. The syllable is the unit of utterance, and may consist of a single vowel \a, a\\ of a single consonant [1, v, b, p], etc. ; of a vowel + consonant \aX^ a\\ ; of two vowels dominated by one stress [«V, id\ etc. ; of a group of consonants uttered with a single impulse of stress [pst]. The factors which break up the unity of an utterance are differences of Stress and differences of Sonority. § 57. Stress. If \a\ be uttered with gradually diminishing Stress or Loudness, the sense of unity remains, and the same is true of a long vowel uttered with equal loudness throughout its whole duration. If, on the other hand, a long vowel be uttered with strong or loud beginning, then sudden diminution of stress, then sudden increase, and again a diminution, the result is not one long, but a series of short syllables \dadada\. This series would consist of six syllables, three strong and three weak. § 58. Sonority. Such combinations as [«!, «d, a\, at] consist of a sonorous element followed by one less sonorous. The reduction in sonority is gradual, and does not break the sense of unity. On the other hand, if the sonority be reduced and then increased again, the effect is at once that of two syllables. Thus [a\a, a\>a, aia\ cannot be other than two syllables. Here the sonority is reduced by [1, ]?, t] respectively. [a\ being a vowel is more sonorous than [1, ]?] ; much more so than the latter, which is not only a consonant, but voiceless. \d\ is more sonorous than [z'J because, although the latter is a vowel, it is a high-vowel, and therefore has a narrower air- passage than the former, which is a mid-vowel. Sonority then may be reduced in various ways : (i) by a pause, as in [«]/[^] ; (2) by a Stop placed between vowels, which interrupts the sound altogether for a moment, if voiceless, and almost so, if voiced — [aha, «p«] ; (3) by an open consonant, which requires a narrower air-passage, and is therefore less sonorous than the highest vowel uttered with equal force [rtf«, a\a, asa, aza], etc. ; (4) by a less sonorous D 50 The Sounds of Speech [chap, m (higher) vowel, between two more sonorous (lower) vowels \a7ia, aia\. In combinations such as [aepl] we have the requisite conditions for the existence of two syllables — Sonorous sound + complete momentary cessation of sound in [p], followed by great increase of sonority in [1]. The last sound here becomes syllabic by contrast with the un-sonorous [p]. In [pkit] there is only one syllable, because there is a gradual increase of sonority from the beginning of the word until the first element of the diphthong, and then a gradual reduction. [1] here is not syllabic because its sonority is drowned by the greater sonority of the vowel which follows. § 59. Limits of the Syllable. The question, at what point one syllable ends and the next begins, is largely one of the incidence of fresh stress or impulse of breath. The point of lowest stress constitutes the close of the syllable, and the next begins at the moment at which the new impulse is given. In anigh [a/naz], the nasal consonant begins with the breath impulse, and it therefore belongs to the second syllable. In an eye, in careful speech [an ai\ the reduction goes on until the end of [n], and the new impulse begins with \ai\ ; in this case, therefore, [n] belongs to the first syllable. In rapid, unstudied speech, the syllable-division in a7i eye tends to be precisely the same as in anigh, namely [a/nrtz]. CHAPTER IV GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF THE HISTORY OF LANGUAGE § 60. It has already been pointed out, in the Introductory- Chapter, that the drama of the development of Language takes place, so to speak, upon the lips and in the minds of living human beings, and not in books or written documents. In other words, language changes by being spoken. We are therefore concerned to understand, so far as may be, how the activities of the speakers are related to the changes which these make in their language. ~^^ We must consider that if a nation gradually alters its language it is the individual speakers who are each and all responsible for what is happening. What is true of the individuals will be true also for the community as a whole, for this consists of a number of individuals. § 61. We can, then, begin by considering the behaviour of the individual as a speaker, that is, as a channel and transmitter of language. Why should he change his speech ? Having learnt to speak, as his fathers have taught him, why should he not preserve his language unaltered and hand it on in his turn, unaltered, to the younger generations? § 62. The answer to this may be briefly summarized by saying that language is the expression of the thoughts and emotions of the human mind, by means of sounds, produced by certain movements of human bodily organs — the organs of speech. This being so, there is a prima facie probability that language will not remain unchanged as it passes from genera- tion to generation, for it is clear that the thoughts and feelings of humanity, even of such a portion of it as we call a single race, tribe, nation, are not at all times the same, but are capable of enrichment, expansion, and modification in a hundred ways, with the advance of civilization or the fortunes of its history. More than this, what can be more subject to alteration than D 2 52 General Historical Principles [chap, iv the way in which a series of bodily movements are performed by human beings ? If we remember that a slight change in the way of moving the organs of speech may cause a very con- siderable alteration in the sound which results, it does not surprise us that pronunciation should change. § 63. Now the individual, having acquired the sounds of his mother tongue, having, that is to say, mastered the various series of movements of the vocal organs necessary to the production of the different sounds, does not carry out these movements always in precisely the same way. He varies slightly, sometimes in one direction, sometimes in another. According to his personal habits he will tend to vary more commonly in one particular way, and thus he forms a new habit. From this new habit of using his organs of speech, the individual necessarily produces a slightly different sound from that with which he started. It must be noted that both the new way of using the speech organs, and the sound which results from this, deviate so slightly from the old that the speaker is quite unaware of the fact that anything is being changed. If he were by chance to diverge to an appreciable and recognizable extent from the pictures of sound and movement which exist in his mind he would at once feel that he had made a 'slip of the tongue ', for his muscular sensations and his ear would tell him that he was ' wrong ', and he would 'correct' himself. Thus no new habit could be started by a sudden, considerable, and appreciable divergence from the sound at which the speaker is unconsciously aiming. New departures in pronunciation, therefore, are necessarily uncon- scious, and sound cha^ige is gradual. The tendency to variation is continuous, so that when the individual has formed a new habit he does not stick to it, but proceeds to diverge again from this fresh starting-point. § 64. But what is true of a single speaker is true also of all his companion speakers, of all the members of the community. They all tend to change their pronunciation, and they agree, on the whole, in the particular direction in which their tendency runs. This agreement in the direction of change is brought about by social intercourse, whereby speakers tend to assimi- late their speech to that of the other persons among whom they live and with whom they consort most frequently and intimately. The closer the bond of union between the members of a group of speakers, the more closely the speech of all will agree. But no two individuals, however much they may resemble each other, are precisely alike in all respects. §§62-5] Isolative and Combinative Changes 53 It is therefore inconceivable that all the members of a large community should agree exactly in their tendencies. We have to distinguish {a) tendencies which are shared by the whole community, and {b) tendencies which are not common to the whole but belong only to a comparatively few individuals. The groups of tendencies which come under {b) are got rid of, and eliminated by the wear and tear of social intercourse, while the groups {a) pervade the whole community and become the universal tendency of the community. Thus it is possible to state as a general principle, that at a given time, in a particular community, a given sound will tend to be pronounced in the same way, and also, what is pretty much the same thing, will tend to change in the same direction. This remains true of all the words in which the sound occurs tinder the same conditions. § 65. The last expression needs some explanation. We distinguish two kinds of sound change, Isolative and Combina- tive. By Isolative sound change is meant change which occurs in a sound without any influence being exerted upon it by other sounds in the word or sentence. By Combinative sound "^"ange is meant a change in pronunciation brought about by "the influence of other sounds in the same word or sentence. "Thus the change of Primitive O.E. x \.o e \xi the Anglian and Kentish Dialects is an Isolative change. Whenever this sound % occurs it is raised to e: ivxron becomes wrr^?;/, r^<^ becomes red, scxp becomes seep, and so on. On the other hand, the change of original c [k] to c [t] in O.E. is purely a Combina- tive change, since it only occurs before Primitive O.E. front vowels, or, when final, after front vowels : teas ' chose ', earlier ^kxtcs, cin ' chin ', earlier ^kin, cetel ' kettle ', earlier ^kxtil, and so on. Thus we must qualify the statement that the same sound always changes in the same way, by the addition of the words — jmder the same conditions. It sometimes happens that it takes a long time to discover the precise conditions which determine a sound change. Thus it took forty years after Grimm had formulated his Law of the changes of Indo- Germanic p, t, k in Germanic, before the conditions were discovered which determined the changes, apparently excep- tional, of these sounds which appeared in certain words. Then, In 1877, Verner was able to supplement the original statement by supplying the conditions under which, instead of appearing in the Germanic Languages as the corresponding Voiceless Open consonants, the above sounds were voiced. 54 General Historical Principles [chap, iv This time it turned out that the ' exceptional ' voicing which had puzzled Grimm, his contemporaries, and immediate successors, was due to the place of the Accent. (See § 346.) We proceed, then, with our investigations into the history of a language on the assumption of the principle that Sound Laivs admit of no exceptions i subject to the limitations of time, dialect, and phonetic conditions just referred to. If apparent exceptions appear, they may be capable of explanation : {a) by the discovery of the Combinative Factors at work ; {b) by the 'exceptional' form being borrowed from another dialect where the sound changes followed different lines ; {c) by the principle of Analogy, which will be discussed later on. § 66. The Rise of Dialects. We have so far considered sound change only as occurring regularly and uniformly throughout a single speech com- munity. Outside the narrow limits of our community the same original sound may be treated in very different ways. This brings us to the question of the. rise of Dialects, or varieties of speech, from what was once a uniform, homogeneous language. The very conception of a Family of Languages, with a common ancestor, from which all the related languages have sprung, implies this Differentiation of Dialect ^z.?, we call it. The existence of differences in speech, whether in modern England or ancient Germany, means that we have not a single community but many, not one Dialect but many. § 67. If we define Speech Coinimmity as a group of human beings between whom social intercourse is so intimate that their speech is practically homogeneous, then whenever we find appreciable speech differences we must assume as many communities, and it will follow that there will be as many Dialects as communities. Thus, any factors that split up one community into two or more are also factors of differentiation of dialect. The main factors which divide one group of human beings from another are: (i) Geographical and Physical — seas, rivers, mountain ranges, distance, any features of the country which actually separate communities by inter- posing barriers between them ; (2) Occupational — differences of employment, which lead, in modern society, to distinctions of Class ; (3) Political, or divisions which depend not on physical boundaries but on arbitrary lines of demarcation, drawn for purposes of government — e.g. county, or even parish boundaries, or frontiers between countries. §§65-9] Causes of Dialect Variety 55 The ideal condition of a community with a ring-fence round it, shutting it ofif from all other communities and their influence, is only realizable in districts remote from large centres of population, and where high mountains, deep valleys, broad rivers, moors, or deserts form natural means of isolation. Similarly, a community in the ideal sense, one in which there are no factors that divide the people up into more or less distinct groups, so that every individual has free and frequent social intercourse with every other, is hardly a conceivable phenomenon except under the most primitive conditions and when the population is small. § 68. What result does the division of one community into several exert upon the language ? Why should it give rise to dialectal variety ? Because when one part of a community is isolated from the rest, the balance of tendencies and of checks is altered. Individual tendencies, which under the old conditions were shared only by a small minority and therefore eliminated, exist in a different proportion under the new conditions, and survive unchecked by social intercourse as it now exists. In a word, different tendencies to variation flourish in the various parts of what was originally a single, undivided community. The result is that the speech changes in different directions, and on different lines, in each of the newly-formed communities. Such is the beginning of Dia- lectal divergence, which if it continues for a long period of time produces differences of the kind and extent that we can witness in comparing the various Germanic languages with each other, and further, the far greater distinctions that are seen in com- paring Germanic speech with Italic, or Celtic, and so on. § 69. The difference between a Dialect and a Language is one of degree and not of kind. If one form of speech is a mere variant of another, and shows but a slight divergence from it, one which only affects certain features, and these, perhaps, to a comparatively slight extent, so that the speakers of the two varieties are mutually intelligible, we should apply to such differences the term Dialect. When, however, the differences become so considerable, after a long independent development, that one set of speakers must acquire deliberately the mode of speech of the other before communication between them is possible, then we should say that here we have two separate languages. But even this terminology is rather popular than scientific, and philologists often employ the word Dialect where in popular phraseology Language would be used. 56 General Historical Principles [chap, iv § 70. Analogy. By the side of sound change the other great factor in the development of language i.s Analogy. This principle has long been recognized among students of language, but a distinction was formerly made by Grammarians between ' true ' and * false ' Analogy. The former was supposed to be a legitimate and natural process, the latter a corrupt and erroneous one. This distinction can no longer be maintained, and what- ever the results may be, whether conservative and in accordance with past habits in the language, or whether, on the other hand, they lead to new departures, and, historically speaking, ' incorrect ' forms, the process of Analogy is now recognized as being a perfectly natural one, of the same essential nature in all cases, and one which at every period of every language is necessarily in operation. Briefly, analogy is the process whereby, in the first instance, words are associated in the mind in groups, whether it be according to meaning^ graimnatical function, resemblance of sound, to a combination of two of these, or even of all three. When once words have become associated together in the mind there is a tendency to connect them still more intimately and treat them as far as possible in the same way. It is by virtue of the process of Analogy that we are able to conjugate the verbs, decline the nouns, form adverbs from adjectives, and so on, in any language which we know. As a rule, especially if the language be our native tongue, we arrive at the same results as the majority of speakers of our age and class. This means that, on the whole, our association- groups are the same as theirs. Thus we associate the PI. of cat with thousands of other Pis. and unhesitatingly form [kaets] from the Sing, [kaet] ; we do not find any difKiculty in forming the adverb cunningly, etc., from cunning, etc., even if it should happen that we do not remember to have heard the particular adverb before. We have plenty of analogous forms to serve as a pattern. Similarly, we should not hesitate to form the Pret. jeered [dziad] from the Vb. jeer, on the analogy of cleared^ etc. All these happen to be in accordance with the habits of Standard English at the present time, and therefore the results are what the older school would call ' true ' Analogy. But supposing that on the Analogy of to clear, to fear, to jeer ^ we formed the Pret. of to hear ' heared^ [hiad]. This would be a perfectly natural process, and, indeed, identical with that whereby in the other cases we had arrived at ' correct ' results, but the form in this case would not be in accordance with the habits of educated speech. It so happens f § vo] Ejffects of Analogy 57 that in Standard English hear, as regards its Pret., is an isolated word which has to be learnt specially. If we have never noticed the form [hAd] and do not know it, we cannot invent it ; the ordinary Analogies do not work here. The old school would call this ' false ' Analogy. It is as if in German, on the Analogy of tragen, Pret. trug [trux], we made a Pret. sug [sux] for sagcn. As a matter of fact, the Vx^\..frug instead of fragte irom fragen is often used, and it is clearly due to ' false ' Analogy. It would be perfectly natural to use sug if we use y>';/^, especially as sagen ^x\6.fi'agen are associated in meaning as well as by sound. That this kind of thing continually happens in the history of a language, no one who has studied the subject doubts, and such ' false ' Analogies constantly become the received and ' correct ' forms. This simply means that from age to age the association- groups of a community change their content. As it is, we find at the present day different association-groups among persons of different education and social class. This is well illustrated if we compare the standard language with the various popular dialects. It often happens that in the declension of a noun, or the conjugation of a verbal tense, two quite distinct types or forms of the base or root arise, and that in the course of time the differences between the two forms becomes extreme, so that it is difficult to associate them together as merely Sing, and PI. of the same noun or whatever it may be. Thus the OE. Sing, type of dxg ' day ' in M.E. is dei, or dai, whereas the PI., which in O.E. is dagas^ daga, dagum, becomes in M.E. ddwes, &c. In Present-day English this difference would result in Sing, [dei], PI. [d5z]. As a matter of fact, already in M.E. one or other type is usually eliminated in such a case as this, and the dialect settles down either upon the day-ty^Q. or the ^fliw-type, and uses this for both numbers. No doubt, had there been a fair number of common words, sufficient to form an association-group of -ei or -ai as a Sing, form, and -aiv as a PI. form, the distinction might have been preserved longer, but as it is there was nothing to support a vowel change of this nature, combined with the addition of the PI. suffix, so the PI. type of the root disappeared. Those words which we call mutation-plurals — teeth, geese, men, etc., had in O.E. the mutated vowel in the Dat. Sing, as well as in the Nom. and Ace. PI., whereas the un-mutated vowel occurred also in the Gen. and Dat. PI. What happened was that in those few words which preserved mutation, the whole Sing, was formed on the type of the Nom. and Ace. Sing. 58 General Historical Principles [chap, iv without mutation, and the whole PI. on the type of the Nom. and Ace. PI. with mutation. The case-sense, as we may call it, did not survive long in M.li. and, apart from the Possessive or Gen. case, a word was felt merely to be in the Nom. or case of the Subject, or else in the Ace. or case of the Object — the Dat. case relation being no longer felt. Enough has been said to enable the student to understand what is meant by Analogy, and to guard him against surprise when he finds the far-reaching effects of the process in ' making new departures from the historically ' correct ' usage. § 71. Foreign Contact. When two communities, speaking different languages, or even different forms or dialects of the same language, come into close social contact, it generally happens that the speech of each is influenced by the other. If the members of the two communities become so inti- mately intermingled that they intermarry, and gradually fuse into a single community, there is generally a period of bilingualism, during which all members of the community speak both tongues. Then one or other of the two languages gradually ceases to be spoken and the other survives as the sole language. Such conditions as these inevitably result in modification of the pronunciation of one or both languages, and in mutual exchanges in vocabulary. This actual physical contact between two groups of speakers brings about what we call Direct influence of one language upon the other. The result of this intimate association upon pronunciation is that one language is spoken with a ' foreign accent ',so that many or all the characteristic sounds of a language are given up in favour of those in the other which most closely resemble them. In many districts of Wales, where English has been spoken for generations alongside of Welsh, the English pro- nunciation is as foreign as that of a German or a Frenchman, and although there is extraordinary fluency and volubility, and even considerable ' correctness ' in Grammar and Syntax, the sentence stress, the intonation, and all the sounds are purely Welsh and un-English. I Some such fate as this probably overtook Norman French ' as spoken in this country, some time before it died out. The effect of bilingualism upon vocabulary is that speakers to whom two languages are equally familiar frequently intro- duce words from one language into their discourse when they are speaking the other. i §§ 70-3] Foreign Influence on Vocabulary 59 The first words thus introduced will naturally be such as denote objects or ideas which are new to the people into whose language they are introduced, for which therefore there are no corresponding terms. But the process is soon extended to words for which native terms do exist. Thus the familiar words skin, sky, they, their were introduced from Scandinavian into English, as it might be said, without any adequate reason. Again, if the two languages thus brought into contact are closely related to start with, many words, though differing slightly in form in each tongue, are perfectly intelligible to all, in either form. This was the case for Old English and Old Norse, and there is no doubt that English speakers often used the English and Norse forms indiscriminately. This fact probably accounts for our present forms give and get, to mention no more, which certainly cannot be derived from the original pure English forms. When at last one language dies out, and the other becomes the only form of speech, the survivor will have acquired, in the way just described, a more or less considerable number of loaji- luords from the language which has perished, and many of these will remain as permanent elements, used, sometimes, instead of native words, which they have ousted, sometimes, by the side of these, to express an identical object or idea, or with a slight differentiation of meaning. Words borrowed in this direct way usually have the nearest approximate pronunciation to the original which the borrowers can manage. The subsequent history of the pronunciation of these words is identical with that which the sounds which they contain undergo in native words in the language into which they have passed. § 72. The chief foreign linguistic influences which have been exerted directly upon English are those of the language of the Scandinavian invaders and settlers of England, and of Norman! French. We must, however, include the early Latin loan- \yords acquired in Britain from Celtic speakers of Latin, and a great deal of the Latin which came in through the influence of the early Church, for many Latin terms used in connexion with religion, and learnt directly from public services, became familiar household words. § 73. "^Y Indirect influeace, we mean that exerted through literature. Words from ancient and modern languages are acquired by English writers from the authors they study, and are introduced by them into their own writings. Many of these remain purely literary words, or never gain currency at 6o General Historical Principles [chap, iv all ; others pass from literature into everyday speech. Modern scientific conceptions, new substances, and processes the result of scientific investigation, are commonly designated by Greek terms, often taken straight out of the dictionary. The distinction between popular and learned words is an important one, though not always easy to draw. The character of a word from this point of view depends not upon its origin, but its usage. Phonograph is made up of two Greek words, and is therefore of learned origin, but with the spread of the machine among the people, the name has passed into popular usage. On the other hand, such words as eftsoons, welkin, whilom, and many more of the same kind, are pure English in origin, yet are in no sense popular, but rather, so far as they can be said to exist at all, at the present day, belong exclusively to learned, or literary language. § 74. We must not omit to mention the influence of one dialect, or variety, of the same language upon another. This has been of great importance in the history of English. The existence of various dialectal elements in Standard English has been determined by political, economic, and social causes. These may take the shape of spreading a particular sound change far beyond its original regional limits, or they may produce the wholesale importation of a particular dialectal type of certain words into a Regional, or Class Dialect to which this was formerly quite alien. The most typical features of dialect, it should be remembered, are pronunciation, and grammatical forms. It is a far more difificult thing to localize vocabulary, and track it down to its original source. Most Standard English speakers use a certain number of ' Dialect ' words, sometimes deliberately, knowing them to be such, sometimes without realizing the fact. This is particularly the case with terms relating to agriculture and sport. No Standard English speaker, except as a joke, would say, ' us kep on tellin he not to hurt u?t ' [as kep on telin i not tu A^'t an], or talk about [r^in, b^il, baj", uk, kum, i] for [rein, boil, buj, huk, kam, hi] rain, boil, bush, hook, come, he. On the other hand, any one who turns over the pages of a Dialect Dictionary cannot fail to come across dozens of words with which he has been familiar all his life. This means, either that the reader is a ' Dialect speaker ' without knowing it, or that the dictionary-maker has been unable to distinguish between ' Dialect ' and Standard English. CHAPTER V HISTORY OF ENGLISH SOUNDS I. The Old English Period § 75. Sources of our Knowledge of O.E. From the point of view of the student of English Literature or Culture, everything which survives in the documents of the O.E. period is of more or less interest. In particular, the more imaginative poetical literature would claim our attention from these points of view ; the philosophical and religious treatises which exist in the form of Homilies ; the Laws, and the books on Medicine and the use of herbs, and charms, — all have their claims on our consideration for various reasons. Again, the Lexicographer, and the student of O.E. as a mode of expression, would cast their net as widely as possible, and, to them, the precise dialect in which the literature was written- would not be of prime concern. In the present instance, however, our aim is to get a clear idea of the phonological peculiarities of each of the O.E. dialects, and for this purpose, we must base our investigation upon those texts whose place, or area of origin is pretty definitely known. Our list of sources, then, is a comparatively narrow one, and we are guided in our selection of the texts, not by their literary merits, but simply by their fitness to illustrate, in a reliable manner, particular dialects at a parti- cular time. Apart from the texts mentioned below as definitely belonging to other dialects, most of the important O.E. documents which survive are written in a form in which the W.S. elements greatly predominate, but they often show a mixture of dialectal elements from other sources. This, as in the case of the poetry, is generally the result of the texts having been done into W. Saxon, from another dialect, in which process some of the original features have been allowed to remain unaltered. Poetical texts not infrequently bear traces of having passed through several dialects, all of which have left their mark, as in Beowulf, in the form we possess. 62 History of English Sounds [chap, v Pure examples of the various dialectal types are found in the following works : § 76. A. Northumbrian. 1, Earliest Texts. Fragments (poetical) in Sweet's Oldest English Texts (O.E.T.), pp. 149, etc. circa 737. Liber Vitx (Personal Names), O.E.T., pp. 153, etc. Northern Area. Genealogies. O.E.T., p. 167, etc. Place and Personal Navies in Moore MS. of Bede's Eccl. Hist., O.E.T., p. 131, etc. circa 737. Ruthwell Cross Inscription, O.E.T., pp. 135, 126. [There are no ninth-century Northumbrian Texts.] 2. Late Texts. Northern Area. Dnrham Rit?ial: Surtees Soc, vol. iv, 1H49 (collated by Skeat, Trans. Phil. Soc, 1879). Durham Book, also called Lindisfarne Gospels. Ed. Skeat, Gospels in Anglo-Saxon, 1871-1887. Southern Area. Interlinear version of the Gospels of SS. Mark, Luke^ John, in Rushworth MS., known as RnsJnvortJi^. Ed. Skeat in Gospels cited above. § 77. B. Mercian. 1. Earliest Texts. Epinal Glossary {zxxQ.^ 700) \ ^^^^ in O E T pp q6-io7 Corpus Glossary (circa 750) j ' *' ^^' ^ ' Eighth- Ceninry Charters [in Latin; containing O.E. words and names], O.E.T., pp. 429, etc. 2. Ninth-Century Texts. Vespasian Psalter and Hymns, O.E.T., pp. 183, etc. 3. Late Texts. Interlifiear Gloss to St. Matthetv (Rushworth^, second half of tenth century), Skeat's Gospels in Anglo- Saxon. Royal Glosses (fr. MS. Royal 2 A. 20). Ed. Zupitza, in Zeitschr. f. d. A., Bd. xxxiii, pp. 47, etc. circa 1000. §§ 75-9] Old English Texts 63 § 78. C. West Saxon. Earliest Texts. Charters: i. (69:^ or 693); a. (693-731); 3. (778). O.E.T., pp. 426-427. Works of King Alfred: Ninth-Century Texts. Cur a Pastor alts. Sweet, E.E.T.S. , 1871. Orosms, Sweet, E.E.T.S., 1880. Auglo-Saxou Chronicle: Parker MS. to 891, Plummer, Oxford. 2 vols. 1 892-1 900. Late Texts. j^lfrics Grammar and Glossary (circa 1000). Ed. Zupitza, 1880. j^lfric's Homilies. Editions by Thorpe, and Skeat. West SaxoJi Gospels (in C.C.C.C. MS.). Ed. Skeat, Gospels in Anglo-Saxon. D. Saxon Patois. Late O.E. Blickling Homilies (dated 979). Ed. Morris, E.E.T.S., 1880. Harleian Gloss (MS. Harl. 3376), printed in Wright- Wulker's Glossaries, vol. i. 192, etc. § 79. E. Kentish Texts. Earliest Texts. Charters (seventh and eighth centuries), O.E.T., pp. 427, etc. Ninth Century. Charters, in O.E.T., pp. 441, etc. ; three of these also in Sweet's A.-S. Reader^ pp. 189, etc. Bede Glosses (MS. Cotton C. II, circa 900), O.E.T., pp. 179, etc. Late Texts. KentisJi Glosses, Zupitza, in Zeitschr. f. d. A., xxi, pp. I, etc., and xxii, pp. 223, etc.; also in Wright- WUlker's Vocabularies, ^^, etc. Ketitish Hymn, in Kluge's Ags. Lesebuch, and Sweet's A.-S. Reader. Kentish Psalm (Ps. 1.), in Kluge's Lesebnch. 64 History of English Sotmds [chap, v § 80. Mode of Writing Old English. The l^nglish, like all the Germanic tribes of Germany and Scandinavia, used at a very early period certain angular letters, which they graved upon horn, stone, wood, or metal. These letters, known as Runes, were chiefly used in charms, and inscriptions commemorating the dead or the illustrious upon monuments. Some of these inscriptions still exist in England, and upon the Continent, but they are, for the most part, of no very great antiquity, not older indeed than the earliest manuscripts. The ordinary mode of writing, which the English acquired after embracing Christianity, was a form of the Latin alphabet, which had come through an Irish source. Modern Irish is still written and printed in characters which closely resemble those of the O.E. MSS. In writing and printing O.E. at the present day we use the ordinary alphabet ; except that we borrow the signs 3e,p, and 3. The first had the value of the loiv-fro7it-slack vowel, which we also denote in this way in phonetic transcription ; the two others appear to have been used indifferently for the point- teeth-open, whether Voiced, or Ujtvoiced. Some editors also print p for w, and 5 or 5 for g, but this habit is very largely discarded now. p and j> were taken over from the Runic alphabet. Note. The names and forms of the various O.E. Runes are recorded in the Runic Poem, the text of which is given in Bibl. d. ags. Poesie (vol. containing Beowulf, etc.), 1883, p. 331, the text also by Bodkine, with a French translation, La Chansoii des Rtmes, Havre, 1879. B. does not give the runes themselves. A table of all the known Germanic Runes, and an account of these, is given by Sievers in the section Schriftkunde in Paul's Gnmdriss. See also Bibliography above, B. vi. § 81. Pronunciation of O.E. So far as we can discover, the following were the O.E. sounds: Simple Vowels. Un- Rounded. Rounded. High Mid Low Front. Back. Front. H. y,y Back, u, u e, e a, a M. oe, oe 0, 6 ce., -x. L. §§ So-3] Old English Vowel Sotmds 65 §82. Diphthongs. eo, eo io, To ea, ea ie, le The diphthongs were pronounced pretty much as written ; it should be noted, however, that whereas in eo, to, the first element was probably tense, and definitely mzd, and /itg/z respectwely, in ea the first element was probably s/ack, and loic. te occurs only in W. Saxon, and at an early period was apparently levelled under z in pronunciation, in part of the Saxon area. Elsewhere, in Late W.S. te was monophthongized and rounded to [y]. There were, in O.E., probably, both varieties of diphthongs —falling, and rising diphthongs, e.g. eo, eo, etc. In the latter, the first element was, originally, merely a glide-sound. This class of diphthongs are of later develop- ment than the other diphthongs which were developed in O.E. itself. § 83. Examples of the occurrence of O.E. Vowels. O.E. Symbol, OS 2i o 6 u y y Analysis of Sotctid. mid-back, as in Germ. Mann. mid-back long, as in Gerni. VVahti. mid-front, as in Fr. ete. mid-front, as in Engl. hen. mid-front long, as Germ, le/inen. high-front, as in Germ. Biss. ibid, long, as in Germ. Biene. low-front, as in Engl. hat, etc. ibid. long, mid-back round, as in Germ. Stock. mid-back- tense- round, as in Germ. Hohti. high-back-round, as in Engl. p2it. high-back-tense-round, Germ. Stnbe. high-front-round, Germ. kiissen. ibid, long, French pure. O.E. Words. assa ' ass ', dagas * days ', faran * to go'. ha7n ' home ', stan ' stone ', hldf •loaf. beran ' to bear ', {ge)seten * set ' (p.p.), helan ' hide '. menn ' men ', secgan ' to say ', sendan ' send '. fedan ' to feed ', ges ' geese ', metan ' to meet ', her ' here ', we ' we '. sittan * to sit ', scip ' ship '. sip ' journey, time ', 'writa7i * to write '. sded 'sated, weary', crdeft 'skill, trade '. s§ed ' seed ', grxdig ' greedy '. hopu ' hope ', horn ' horn ', brocen * broken '. bot ' help, remedy ', boc ' book, charter ', blod ' blood '. sunn * son ', pull ' full '. /a'ls ' house ', ri7n ' whisper, mystery '. cynn 'race', bycgan 'to buy', ivyrm ' worm '. fylan ' defile ', bryd ' bride ', hyp ' landing-place, harbour ' (Jiithe). E 66 History of English Sounds [chap, v § 84. Diphthongs. O.E. Symbol. O.E. Words. ea ea eo eo ie le ceaf^ chaff', hleahtor ' laughter '. ceas ' chose ', read ' red ', leas ' false '. eorpe ' earth ', heofoi ' heaven ', feohtan ' to fight '. cebsan ' to choose ', hleopor ' sound, melody '. hierde ' shepherd ', Scieppejid ' Creator '. hieran ' to hear ', cTesp ' he chooses '. § 85. The O.E. Consonants. Back. Front. Blade. Blde.-Pnt. Point. Lip. V. B. V. B. V. B. V. B. V. B. V. B. Open Stop Nasal Divided Trill — g h or eg H s s sc d n t hn b b m P cr to c c ng 1 r hi hr Lip-Back. Lip-Teeth. - V. B. V. B. Of >en. w hw f f Note. The symbols used in this table are not ' phonetic symbols ' in the strict sense, but are those usually employed in writing and printing O.E. As they are fairly consistently employed to express the same sounds, they are, in a sense, ' phonetic '. The e.xceptions vi^ill be dis- cussed directly. § 86. The chief inconsistencies in the use of O.E. graphic symbols are found in that of g and c. The former is used to express both a Front, and a Back Open consonant, and, probably by the tenth century, also a Back Stop. The com- bination eg nearly always expresses a Front Stop, g^ and eg nearly always express Voiced sounds. g, no matter what its origin, when it occurs initially^ in a word, or syllable, before front vowels was the symbol of a front-open-voiced consonant [j] — gedr^ giefajt, heriges, etc. In grammatical works it is usually printed g, to distinguish it from the back consonant. Initially, before back vowels, and medially, in the same circumstances, it was in the earliest O.E., unquestionably, a back-open-voiced consonant (5). §§ ''^4-9] . Old English Consonants 67 In this position, however, it probably became the present stop sovnid, during the O.E. period, though it is impossible to say- precisely when. Most authorities agree that, at any rate by the year 1000, god 'good', gdn 'to go', etc., were pronounced with a back stop. In the middle of words, between original back vowels, the sound certainly remained an open consonant during the whole O.E. period. Thus agan ' ov^n\ folgian (from ^fiilgojan) ' follow ', sagn ' saw, saying ', etc., must always be pronounced with a back-open-voiced consonant. Any other pronunciation is ridiculous in the light of the subsequent history of the sound in words. A back-stop-voiced was a very rare, and probably a late development, medially, in O.E. as it certainly was initially. The medial consonant in frocga ' frog ' is probably an example of this sound. § 87. There is the same ambiguity in the use of the symbol c in O.E. It expresses, always indeed, a voiceless stop sound, but sometimes a back^ and sometimes a front voiceless stop. Before original back vowels c stands for [k], as in cot ' dwelling ', catt ' cat ', col '' cool ', etc. In the later MSS. k is sometimes written for this sound, but it is never consistently used, and c is by far the most usual symbol. Before original O.E. front vowels, c, written c and c in grammatical works, is to be pronounced as a front stop — ciele ' chill ', clld^ ' child ', ceaf ' chaff'. The same rule applies- when c occurs medially before -i—rUe ' kingdom ', from ^rlki. Finally, dSx^x front vowels c was also a front consonant — lie ' form^ body ', psec ' roof '. The reason for the fronted c in secafi, pencan will appear in the discussion of the principal O.E. sound changes (§ 104). O.E. sc was probably [st], that is, s followed by a voiceless front stop. It may have become [j] before the end of the O.E. period. § 88. s and / were pronounced as voiceless consonants [s, f] when final : tvdes ' was ', xs ' food, meat ', ]ildf ' loaf, etc. ; initially, in the W. Saxon dialect, they were apparently voiced before vowels, as in Somersetshire and the South-West dialects at the present day {s was perhaps voiced initially in Kentish also) : singan, ' sing \fxt ' vessel, vat ', etc. ; medially, between vowels they were always voiced : Infn, ' love ', 7'tsan ' rise ', etc., except when s was doubled as in cyssan ' kiss ', etc. § 89. b was originally a pure lip-open-voiced consonant [b]. In early MSS. it is often written instead of the later/, between wo\y&\s—hebttc later hafoc, heafoc 'hawk'. Initially, it was E 3 68 History of English Sounds [chap, v probably pronounced as a stop in the historical period. The lip-stflp-voice does not occur medially in O.E. except when doubled — Jiebban ' lift up ', etc. [For the origin of this doubling cf. § 93-] § go. //, originally a back-open-voiceless consonant [x], was fronted later before and after front vowels, gesrht ' sight ', etc. Initially before vowels h was apparently a mere aspirate as at the present day, in the historical period. Medially, and finally before and after back vowels, h retained the pro- nunciation [x]. § 91. The combinations, hi, Jin, lir, hiv, are to be pro- nounced probably with voiceless /, n. and r respectively : hleaJilor ' laughter ' ; linxgan ' neigh ' ; firing ' ring ' ; h^vset ' what ', etc. § 92. d and / are. used for the point-teeth-open, both voice and breath, indiscriminately. Initially and finally the sound was probably voiceless everywhere at first ; medially between vowels/ and ^ were voiced, and should be so pronounced. § 93. Doubled consonants should be pronounced long, with a fresh impulse in the middle of the sound. The chief sources of double consonants in O.E. are : {a) lengthening before -j-, e. g. sittan, earlier ^sittjan, from ^setjan ; sibb ' relationship ' from ^sidjo ; reccan from ^rakjan ' narrate ', etc., etc. After a long vowel or a diphthong the double consonant is simplified, e. g. txcan ' teach ' from ^tdkjan, W. Gmc. ^taikjan, earlier ^taikkjan. {b) The combination -In- becomes -//- in Gmc, e.g. Idg. ^plno-, Gmc. /?///-, O.E. full; O.E. W7dle ' wool ', earlier ^ivulnd ; cp. Lat. Imia from ^zvlana. Note. As we always mark the vowel quantities, and indicate whether c and ^ are fronted or not, the spelling of O.E. as it occurs in books for students, is practically a phonetic transcription, apart from the slight inconsistencies just noted. It is not usually necessary to mark the fronted form of //, 'h = [j]. § 94. Accentuation or Stress. In O.E. as in other Germanic languages, the principal stress fell on the first, or ' root '-syllable of the word — goda ' good ', Mofon ' heaven ', iernendc ' running '. Prefixes, such as bi-, on-, ge-, are always unstressed. § 95. Plan of Treatment. It may make the following account of the history of the O.E. vowels clearer, if we give at once some hint of the plan and arrangement of the subject which is here attempted. §§ 89-97] Germanic Vowels in O.E. 69 It may be well to point out that in tracing the development of the W. Gmc. vowels in O.E. we are dealing with changes which for the most part took place in this country, and therefore, although many of them occurred in the period before written documents, they are, in fact, a part of the ' History of English '. Some knowledge of the origin of the O.E. sounds is necessary to the proper understanding of their subsequent development. The subject is divided as follows : (1) We first give an account of the principal sound changes, both Isolative and Combinative, which affected all the O.E. dialects. (2) We then pass to changes which are specifically W. Saxon to the exclusion of other dialects. (3) Peculiarities common to all dialects except W. Saxon. (4) Features shared by the Anglian Dialects, but not by W. Saxon or Kentish. (5) Features peculiar {a) to Mercian, {b) to Northumbrian. (6) Kentish characteristics. (7) Summary of points of agreement and disagreement between the various dialects. § 96. The O.E. Vowel Sounds compared with those of West Germanic. By comparing the forms of words in the other W. Gmc. languages, and in Gothic, we arrive at a view as to the original nature of Primitive O.E. sounds. The sounds, especially the vowels of the earliest historical period, are then seen to have undergone very considerable changes, both Isolative and Combinative (§ 6^). J.. J ,■ ■■ '.- f § 97. Isolative Vowel Changes. Changes common to all Dialects of O.E. (i) W. Gmc. a becomes O.E. x: daeg 'day', O.H.G. tag; fxder ' father ', O.H.G. fatar, O. Sax. fadar ; wxgn ' wagon ', O.H.G. waga7i. Note i. For subsequent treatment of de in Kt. and Mercian see§§ 129, 137. In W.S. 36 is written throughout the O.E. period, but the fact that the symbol de is used very frequently in ^Ifric to express the 6^-sound rather points to the raising of de to (f in L.W.S. Note 2. For retention ofW. Gmc. ci in O.E. before a back vowel in following syllable, see § 107, Note. 70 History of English Sounds [chap, v (2) W. Gmc. a becomes O.E. x: slxpaii, 'sleep', O. Sax. sldpan, O.H.G. sldfan. (3) W. Gmc. an becomes in O.E. *a?«, *^t7, ^sea, ed : edge *eye', O.H.G. oiiga^ Goth, mtgo \ edre 'ear', Goth, auso. Note. This ea was monophthongized to se in late O.E. Cp. for instance the occasional spellings : ddiid ' death ', geldefa ' faith ', aediga ' blessed ', for dea^, geleafa, eadig. (4) W. Gmc. ai becomes O.E. a : Jidl ' whole ' (adj.), Goth. Jiails^ O.H.G. heil\ dp ' oath ', Goth, aips, O.H.G. eid. (5) W. Gmc. en becomes O.E. ed \ pedd 'nation, people', Goth, piuda, O. Sax. tJiioda. Combinative Vowel Changes common to all O.E. Dialects. § 98. (i) W. Gmc. a becomes O.E. d. The nasalized a of Gmc. and W. Gmc. undergoes first a process of rounding — to o, and then a lengthened vowel is substituted for the short, nasalized vowel : brdhte ' brought ' from '^^hi-ayyja, *brd)(ta^ ^broyja ; fdn ' take, seize ' from ^'fayxan, '^fdxan^ ^fohan, etc. § 99. (2) (a) W. Gmc. d, which as stated in § 97 (2) is fronted to X in Pr. O.E. by an isolative change, does not undergo this fronting if followed by 71 or in, but is rounded, and appears in the earliest historical period as o : — vidua ' moon ' from W. Gmc. ^uidnau-, cp. O.H.G. mduo, Goth, mcna ; ndnion Pret. PI. of niinan ' to take ' from ^'ndvinm, cp. O.H.G. ndnmni, Goth. ncm?iin,e.\.c. (h) W. Gmc. d before zv, or g, followed by a back vowel, remains in O.E. : — sdzuon,/dgon,W.Gmc.^sd'wum, ^Idgwn. § 100. (3) Pr. O.E. a becomes o. W. Gmc. an- (or «;//-), when it stood before the voiceless open consonants, s,f^P, appears in the oldest English simply as o. The n first nasalized a to a, then this was rounded to o, and as in the preceding case, nasalization was replaced by length, giving o: 0.¥.. gos 'goose' from ^gos from ^gds from ^^gans, cp. Germ, and Dutch gans; O.E. top 'tooth' from original ^/anp, cp. O.H.G. £;and, O. Sax. tand\ O.E. softe 'soft', O.H.G. samfto. Note. This process, as regards the rounding, and substitution of length for nasalization, is identical with the preceding (§ 98 (l)), only whereas the nasal was lost before [x]. already in Pr. Gmc. and is thus absent in all Gmc. tongues, the loss of the consonant n, 111 before s,f,p, is an O.E. process. It is impossible to say at what period the various languages lost the nasalization of a. It will be seen later that n was always lost in O.E. before s, f, p, just as it is lost in Gmc. before x- The other vowels are merely lengthened after losin J- their nasalization, but undergo no qualitative change comparable to that from a- to 0, o (§ 113). §§9;-io3] Combinative Vowel Changes 71 § loi. (4) Original an becomes on. W. Gmc. a before nasal consonants which remain in O.E., is generally rounded to in the period of Alfred : lond, Jiond, monn instead of earlier laiid, hand, inann. In later O.E. land, hand, etc., again predominate. In no period are either the an or on forms used with perfect consistency in any of the texts. " n. y § I02. (5) Fracture of Vowels before certain consonant combinations. Fracture is the term applied to the diphthongization of front vowels before rr, and r+ another consonant; //, or /+ another consonant; h, hh, or /^ + another consonant. Ex- amples : Fracture of e : O.E. steorra, O.H.G. sterro ; eorpe 'earth', O.H.G. erda\ scolh 'seal', O.H.G. selaJi >^selh\ feoh ' money, property ', O. Sax. fehu ; feohtan ' to fight ', O.Yi.Qi. feJitan. Fracture of ae : earnt 'poor', Q.YiG. arin\ call 'air, O.H.G. all; eald 'old', O.H.G. alt\ eahta 'eight', O. Sax. O.H.G. ahto. Fracture of Pr. O.E. «: neah from ^nxh, Goth. ne/v. Note i. It is pretty certain that already in the late O.E. period, ea was monophthongized to de and perhaps also raised to [s]. Cp. § 97 Note, 120 Note. Such spellings as swaelt for swealt, swdertum for sweartion, andwderdttin for andweardiim, nidercode for inearcode, all in ^Ifric, taken in connexion with the M,E. development, seem to establish the monophthong in these cases. Note 2. The process of ^Fracture' consists in the development of a glide sound between the front vowel and the following h, II, rr, I, r, or h + consonant. The cause of the development of this glide, which was originally of the nature of [w] or [u], lies in the nature of the following consonant, h was a back open consonant, a sound which easily tends to be lip-modified. / when doubled, or followed by another consonant, must have been pronounced with the fore part of the tongue hollowed. This gives a dull, 'guttural' effect to the sound, as is heard in many English and Scotch dialects at the present day. r when doubled, or followed by another consonant, was probably ' inverted ', i. e. uttered with the point of the tongue turned upwards and backwards, without trilling. This sound is now pronounced in many Southern English dialects. Each of these articulations involves a considerable glide, after a front vowel. A very similar effect to Ft-actiire is heard in such Cockney pronunciations as [p becomes in the first instance ^Isegip 'lays'; ^sokja ' I seek ' becomes ^sdci ; ^bruggjo ' bridge ' becomes ^brucg, the phonetic values being [j, "t, 'd]. § 105. i- or /-mutation of 0. Primitive O.E. o, no matter what its origin, becomes first \e], written oe, which in all dialects except W. Sax. survives nearly to the end of the O.E. period. In W.S. oc {mid-frotit-round) is unrounded to c before the period of King Alfred, in whose works there are however some slight traces of the spelling oe : [§§103-9] Front-Mutation of Back Vozvels in O.E. 73 bcc Dat. Sing, and Nom. and Ace. PI. of bdc ' book ', from *bdki- ; sedan ' to seek ', O. Sax. sokian, Goth, sokjan ; cp. O.E. Pret. sohtc from ^sdk-da ; fedan ' to feed ' from "^fod-jan, cp. O.'E. foda 'food'; cwm 'queen', Pr. O.E. ^cwoni, W. Gmc. ^kwdni^ Gmc. "^kwxni (cp. § 99). §106. Pr. O.E. a (earlier ai) becomes x'. — dxlan from "^ddljan 'divide', cp. O.E. un-mutated <^^/ ' portion ', O.H.G. teil, Goth, dails. O.E. dxl ' part ' = "^ddli also exists, and is commoner than ddl. txcan ' teach ' from ^tdkjan^ cp. Pret. tdhte. Ixstaji 'follow, carry out' from ^Idstjan, cp. O.H.G. leistan, O. Sax. lestian, Goth, laistjan. O.E. has also the un-mutated noun Idst ' track ', etc. § 107. /-, /-Mutation of O.E. a and x : Pr. O.E. a becomes x: hxbban ' have ' from ^^Jiabbjan; slxgeii ' slain ' from '^slagin. Note. W. Gmc. a normally becomes as by an Isolative change in O.E. (§ 97 (i)), and on the Mutation of this see § 107 below; but a remains, or is restored, if a back vowel follows, hence dagas N. and A. PI. of dseg, slagen, one form of P.P. of slean fr. ^slagan. It happens some- times, though comparatively rarely, that an O.E. a which had originally a back vowel after it, is preserved as such till after the isolative tendency which changed Pr. a to as has passed away. If syllables containing such a sounds receive a suffix with i or j later on, but before the period of i- or -y- Mutation, the a undergoes fronting to de. This is the case with the forms haebban, sldegcn, above. Pr. O.E. .-^becomes e by i- or /-mutation : settan 'to place ', from ^sxttjau, cp. Goth, satjan; mete 'food', from '^nixti, cp. Goth, mats, O.H.G. mas, O. Sax. ineti (with mutation) ; here 'army' from "^hxri-, O.H.G. hari, Goth, harjis ; slegcn, P.P. of sledn, from ^slxgin. § 108. Pr. O.E. u becomes y : mys PI. of mus ' mouse ', from musi\ bryd 'bride', Goth, brilp-s, stem '^brupi-\ cypan ' make known', Goth, kunpjan, Pr. O.E. ^kupjan. § 109. Pr. O.E, u becomes y : fyllan ' to fill ' fr. ^fulljan, cp. O.E. full, Goth, and O.'R.G. fnlljan; pytt 'pit, hole', O.Yi.G. pftizzi, Early W. Gmc. loan-word from Latin piUeiis^ W. Gmc. form "^puitja, Pr. O.E. '^piittL Note. An original Gmc. u became o in W. Gmc. if ^d, rd\ flndau, lamb, singan (?), clld, word, all of which had, originally, short vowels. The lengthening which took place, probably, early in the ninth century is of importance for the later history of the language, for Mod. [f«md, tjaz'ld, koum], etc., can only be explained by assuming that the O.E. forms had long vowels. On the numerous cases such as end, friend, zvind, where the Mod. forms presuppose short forms, at any rate in M.E.,see § 175 (7), below. §§ III-I6] Characteristics of West Saxon 77 Sound Changes which occur only in West Saxon. § 115. (i) Diphthonging after initial Front Consonants. After the Front Consonmits c, g (whether earlier g, or /) and the combination sc the Pr. O.E. vowels se, se, e are diph- thongized, in the earliest period, to ea, ea, ie respectively. {a) After c : W. Saxon ceaste}' ' city ', etc. non-W. Sax. cxsUr ; c^^/ ' chaff ', non-W.S. csef\ ceace from '^cxce^ cp. Dutch kaak. There are no examples of ce-. {b) After g{=g) : gcat ' gate ', non-W.S. /^^ ; geaf, non-W.S. g3ef\ geafon ' gave ', Pret. PL, Pr. O.'K.gdefon ; gielp ' boast ', cp. O.H.G. gc/f, non-W.S. gelp ; forgieldan ' to pay for ', non-W.S. -geldan : g =j — gear ' year ', O.H.G. jar, Pr. O.E. gxr. (c) After sc: sceal ^ sh2ill' , earlier sca^l, Goth, skal; sceap * sheep ', earlier scxp, cp. O.H.G. scdf\ scieran ' cut ', cp. O.H.G. sceraii. Note i. In Late W.S. mis frequently monophthongized to 6^ after front cons,, so that we get cef, gef, ger, seep, etc. This does not take place before a following back vowel, so geara, geartini, etc., remain. Note 2. The W.S. form ceaster shows that the processes of fronting c before front vowels, and the subsequent diphthongization of this vowel after a front cons., were still in operation, if they did not actually begin after the English came to Britain, since ceaster is a Latin loan-word first acquired from Latin-speaking people in this country. Note 3. The above process of diphthongization is later than that caused by Fracture, as may be seen from O.E. ceoji ' churl ' from earlier cerl. The eo, which occurs in all the dialects, is the result of Fracture. Had *tV;7 remained unaltered until the period of diphthongization after front cons, this must have become *cierl in W.S. § 116. (a) i-, j-Mutation of the Pr. O.E. Diphthongs ea, io. In W.S. alone, of all the O.E. dialects, ea and to when followed by -i- or -j-, are mutated to z? : («) I. of ea from au : hieran ' hear ', from ^hedrjan, cp. Goth, hausjan ; gelTefan ' to believe', cp. O.E. geledfa 'faith', Goth, galaubjan; lede adv. ' easily', from ^'■eddi, cp. O.E. adj. eddc 'easy ' ; H. of ea from Ee (W.Gmc. a) after front consonant : — cuse ' cheese ' from '"^ceasi, from ^csesi, W.Gmc. ^kdsjo. Note. The W.S. form ctese shows that /-mutation was a later process than that of diphthonging after front cons. (§ 115). Had the former pro- cess taken place earlier than the latter, Pr. O.E. ^cxsi would have remained unchanged by it, since de suffers no i-mutation. caesi then would have become *ceasi in W.S. The short diphthong ie in cietel, etc., below (§ 117) tells the same story. {b) Mutation of w : — cies^ ' chooses ' 3rd Sing. Pres. of ceosan, from ciosip ; flies ' fleece ' from *flJnsz ; geU'uive ' faith- ful ', cp. O. Sax. gitriuwi. 78 History of English Sounds [chap, v § 117. (3) -i-Mutation of the Short Diphthongs. The short diphthongs, ea, w, no matter what their origin, become ie in W. Sax. through the influence of a following -i- or -J-. [a) Mutation of ea : I. of e"a, the result of Fracture (§ 102) : iervipn 'poverty, wretchedness', from '^earinipii,&z.x\\&x^'dennipii, cp. O.H.G. armida ; fiellan * cause to fall, cast down ', from ^fcalljan, cp. feallan ' to fall ' ; nieht ' night ', from ^jieahti, earlier '^nxhti, cp. Goth, nahts, stem ^nahti- ; II. of ea from ae after front consonants (§ 115) : cietel ' kettle', from '^ceatil, earlier ^csetil, cp. Goth, katils ; ciele ' cold, chill ', from ^ceali, from "^'cxli, cp. O.E. ceal-d ' cold ' ; giest ' stranger ', from ^geasti, earlier gsesti, cp. Goth, gasts, stem gasti- ; scicppan ' create ', from ^sccappjan^ cp. Goth, skapjaii ; sciell ' shell ', from ^sccallj-. § 118. {b) Mutation of To (iu), the result of Fracture : wierp * becomes ', from '^zviorpip 3rd Sing. Pres. of zveorpan ; hierde ' shepherd ', from ^hiurdi, ^^hiordi, earlier ^hirdi, O.H.G. hirii ; gesiehp ' sight ', from -^siohiptt from -^sihipo. § 119. Later treatment of W.S. le. Already in Alfred's time, / is often written for u, no matter what the origin of this : iiiht, cniht, sillan (earlier siellan, from sellaii), etc., and ie for original i, thus wietau, etc., for witan. This points to the conclusion that, at any rate in part of the W. Sax. area, i and ie had both been levelled under the one sound i. On the other hand, after and before r, i often appears as J, so that for instance ryJit ' right ' from rikt > rieht > reoht is the regular Early W. Sax. form of this word. In other parts of the W. Sax. area, on the other hand, fe is not levelled under I but kept distinct, until in Late W.S. it is rounded to y, which does not happen to original i. Thus in those Late W.S. texts which we possess, j is the typical spelling, on the whole, for the earlier u in all words of the classes illustrated in § 117. 3, above. Furthermore as in M.E. the [j/] sounds are still preserved in these words, in the Saxon area, we must assume that the change of zl to j was typical of this area generally, although Alfred's forms do not in all cases appear to be consistent with this assumption. In Alfred's dialect, apparently, there was a tendency, already noted, of levelling fe under t, which was not characteristic of the whole Saxon speech area. Note, le and le are typical E. W.S. sounds, and occur in no other §§117-22] Charactensttcs of West Saxon 79 dialect. Further, that y representing earlier te, or anything else than the z'-Mutation oiv, occurs in W.S. alone. § 120. Pr. O.E. se in W.Sax. With regard to this sound, it is perhaps desirable to record the negative fact that it undergoes no alteration in the Saxon area, during the whole O.E. period, and indeed remains as a characteristic Southern English (with the exclusion of Kentish) in the M.E. period (§§ i6i, 162). The other dialects have raised this % (in dxd 'deed', sxtori, pret. pi. of sitta?t, etc.) to e before the period of the earliest documents. This non-W. Sax. e was tense, cp. § 123. Note. It is probable, however, that while the sound remained slack, it was raised to the mid [s] in Late W. Sax. JEUxlc veiy often writes de for original c, dderia^ ' injures ', hdefe ' weight ', Sd&rgius for Sergius, etc. He even writes as for e occasionally, ^^roe/^, gecwde7nde, and I have noted gefret-cuodo7i for gcfrxtwodon. § 121. Late West Saxon Treatment of weo-. It IS typical of L.W.S. that the combination tveo-, whether the diphthong be the result of Fracture, or ti-Mtttation, becomes wti- : iviirpan fr. -weorpan, swtird fr. szveord, szuttstor fr. sweostor^ c{iv)iiat fr, civeocn. A few cases of wo- occur in Alfred. § 122. Unrounding of O.E. y (i-mutation of u) in Late W.^. In some L.W.S. texts, a tendency to unround O.E.^ to i before front consonants and n is observable. This is found more particularly in ^Ifric's Grammar and in the Old Testament, though in the latter the 2-forms are not quite universal. The unrounded forms are less numerous in the W.S. Gospels, and still less so in Wulfstan's Homilies. The Patois texts, Blickling Homilies and Harleian Gloss, generally preserve the rounded vowel before front consonants. The words cyning, cy7in, and drighten appear fairly consistently, however, as cinn^ cining, drihten. It is clear that the unrounding tendency did not obtain over the whole W.S. area in the Late O.E. period, and this is confirmed by the M.E. forms. In this period, brtigge, rttgge, etc., often appear in Sthn. texts, but the /-forms seem to be universal in drihten, king, cyiig, etc. Note, u in M.E. brttgge, etc., is a Norm.-Fr. symbol for the [y] sound (§§ 152, 158 [c], below). So History of English Sounds [chap, v Points in which all the non-W. Sax. dialects agree. § 123. (i) Raising of Pr. O.E. se to e. As just noted in § 120, Northumbrian, Mercian, and Kentish all raise x to e. Thus all have seton^ W. Sax. sxton, ' they sat ' ; ;r^ ' council ', W.S. rxd; seep, med, stret, etc., ger from gxr, W.S. gear (§ 1 15 {b)) ; ded ' deed ', W.S. dxd ; gredig ' greedy ', V^ .S. gi-xdig etc., etc. This change can be traced in Kentish at the end of the seventh century. § 124. (2) i-, j-Mutation of Pr. O.E. ea. Here again, all dialects except W.S. have e: heran 'hear', W.S. liieran ; gelefan, ' believe ', W.S. gelufan ; teman ' to teem, to bring forth', W.S. iuman., from '^teamjan, cp. O.E. team ' progeny '. Note. The process whereby we have e in non-W.S. instead of a diphthong is not clear. Was there a stage ie as in W.S., which was subsequently monophthongized ? Or is it possible that the original diph- thong when followed by -i- or -J- was monophthongized before the period of Mutation? § 125. (3) Frequency of Back-Mutation of e and i. (See §110 above.) All the non-W.S. dialects show a tendency to diphthongize i and e when followed by a back vowel, especially n, to an extent which is unknown in the literary dialect of Wessex. The results of the process are most fully developed in Kentish (see § 141), but the Anglian dialects also have them with great frequency, limited indeed only by smoothing (§ 127), which eliminates the second element of the diphthong. The non-W.S. dialects, unlike W.S., do not get rid of the diphthong- ized forms of words in favour of those without mutation, which may occur in particular cases of nouns, or parts of verbs. On the contrary, they tend rather to generalize the diphthongized forms as much as possible. W.S. eliminates such a form as geofu 'gift', which is perfectly normal, in favour of giefii formed on the analogy of giefe, whereas Kentish tends to have the diphthongized forms everywhere: e.g. begeotan, seondan, siondan 'are', agiaban 'to give', weada 'woods', sioddan 'after', jzV?^ (analogy of Dat. PI. seolfnm, etc.) 'self, etc., etc. All these are from Kentish Charters in the first half of the ninth century. The so-called Saxon Patois of the Blickling Homilies also has the diphthongized forms to a far greater extent than the Court dialect of Alfred. §§ 12 3-8] NortJmmbnan and Mercian 8i The Anglian Dialects, Features commcn to both Northumtrian and Mercian. § 126. (i) Abserce of Fracture of ae, which appears as a, before 11 and 1 + consonant. Anglian cdld'zo\d.\ W.S. ceald\ hdldau 'hold', W.S. healdan; ivall ' wall ', W.S. iveall\ bald ' bold ', W.S. beald, etc. [Fracture of as before the ;--combinations is not found so consistently in Anglian as in W.S. Before h, etc., Fracture takes place originally, but the diphthong is simplified again (see § 127 below). The /-, y-mutation of a before // or /+cons. in Anglian, is se — fdellan, W.S. .fiellan (§ 117). Nthmb. ivde7-ma 'to warm ' is probably to be regarded as = *warmjan, with mutation of ^^ to ae.] § 127. (2) Smoothing. This is the name given by Sweet to the monophthongization of all diphthongs, both long and short, which took place in Primitive Anglian before back, ?Lr\dfro7tt consonants, eu, m become I, i\ instead of ea, before back and front consonants, we get first x and later e. O.E. ea was developed out of earlier aiL (§ 97 (3)) through the stages seic, xo, xa,a.nd the short ea had a similar development. These diphthongs appear to have been overtaken by the Smoothing process while they were at the xo stage. The x which results from the smooth- ing of the long diphthong is still found as a rule in eighth- century texts, but is later raised to e. Thus the earliest (Moore) MS. of Bede has Ixck, whereas the later MSS. have Icck in the same passage ; the Epinal Glossary has forms like laec 'vegetable', W.S. /eac; aec' also', W.S. eac ; hercbaecon ' military standard ', W.S. bcdcen, while the ninth-century Leiden Riddle has JieJi- 'high', W.S. heah', svxdek 'however', W.S. -deah. In the late Mercian Psalter and Hymns, e is the commoner spelling — JieJi, gecc7iad ' increases *, bilec ' locked ', W.S. beleac, etc. The Lindisfarne Gospels have keh, becon, ecan, ec, etc., but the more archaic spelling xc for the last word is far commoner. The short x, smoothing from ca, is usually not raised to e, cp. dxgas, PI. fr. '^deagas by back-mutation from ^dxgas (§ lie), in the Mercian Hymns, and middilsxxwn in an eighth-century Merc. Charter. Pr. O.E. x remains in Nthumb. but becomes e in Merc. ; cp. § 137 below. § 128. (3) Retention of oe. The 2-mutation of d, originally oe in all dialects (§ 105, above) remains in the spelling, and probably in the pronunciation, of F 82 History of English Sounds [chap, v the Anglian dialects throughout the O.E. period — boec^ W.S. bee ' books ', soccan, W.S. secan ' to seek '. (On 06 in Kentish see § 144.) Features which distinguish Northumbrian from Mercian. § 129. (i) Retention of Pr. O.E. se as in W.S. (§ 97 above), whereas the Mercian dialect of Vespas. Ps. agrees with Kentish in raising this to e (§ 137 below). § 130. (2) Traces of late Diphthonging after front con- sonants. This is unknown in Mercian and Kentish, but char- acteristic of W.S. , where, however, it is a primitive process. The Northumbrian process has been discussed with some minute- ness by Bulbring, y4;/^/z(?, Beibl. ix, and ElevientarbiicJi, §§ 154, 155. 294-6, 302. In Rushvv.^ sceal 'shall', as in W.S., is found, and sclp 'sheep' which according to Bulbring, § 154, is from ^sciep with diph- thongization of the Angl. seep, Pr. O.E. scxp. Note. This is surely later than the W.S. process, since it is later than the Angl. rais'ing of de to e, though doubtless, as Bulbring says, much earlier than the Nthnib. diphthonging of back vowels after sc. The clearest cases of the diphthonging of back vowels in (Nthn.) Nthmb. are found after sc, and must be very late, indicating a rising diphthong, i. e. one stressed on second ele- ment, if we take them seriously as diphthongal forms — scedn ' shone ', earlier sean, pret. sing, of sehian, sceacea ' to shake ', seed/i * shoe ', etc. The e in all these forms may be merely a graphic device to indicate that se is front. § 131. (3) Absence of back-Mutation of ae (found in Mercian, § 132. (4) Distinction preserved between eo and 10. In W. Sax. the old diphthong to (Pr. O.E. m) which only arose in W. Gmc. when -/- or -j- followed, became te in the Mutation period unless there was a change of suffix (§ 118). In Anglian, no alteration was effected in the sound by the following -z- and the diphthong is preserved as to in O. Nthmb. and remains distinct from eo from Pr. eii, whereas in Mercian to is levelled under eo : Nthmb. dtostro ' darkness ', W.S. diestrn, O. Sax. tJimstri\ gestrwna ' gain, beget children ', W.S. gestrtenan. The same distinction is preserved in Nthmbr. between the short diphthongs to, eo : ivhirpit in Bede's Death Song, W.S. wierp from ^wiurpip from ^wiipip by Fracture ; hiorde ' shep- herd', W.S. hierde; iorre 'angry ',W.S. ierre\ giornede ' desired ', §§ 128-36] Northumbrian and Mercian 8 J W.S. giernde. (On the W.S. le^ later j/, in these forms, see §§ 118, 119, above.) § ^33- (5) Influence of initial w upon following vowels. The following changes are characteristic of late Nthmb. : {a) TC'^f?- (Fracture) becomes wo-: w^;-(^rt; 'become' from earlier tveordan, zvorpa ' throw ' from wcorpan, sivord * sword ' from szveord. {b) In Nthn. Nthmb. zveo-, the result of 0- or ?/-Mutation, also becomes tvo- : wortdd from iveoruld from zveriild ' world ', wosa 'to be ' from zveosan from wesan. [According to Biil- bring, § 267, in Sthn. Nthmb. ivosa is the only form with from eo as a result of ^-Mutation ; otherwise iveo- remains — zveontld, etc.] This change is quite unknown in Mercian and Kentish. In late W.S. a somewhat similar change, that of tvco- to zvit-, occurs (§ 121). {c) Initial ive- becomes ww- through rounding of the vowel : zvccg ' way ' from tve^-, czvada ' speak ' from czvedan (but civeodan becomes cwoda (cp. [b) above), was ' be ' Imperat. from xves. [Not quite unknown in Mercian, where such forms as czvoedap, zvoesteime ' solitudine ', occur sporadically.] {d) In Late Nthn. Nthmb. zve- (Anglian form of Pr. O.E. wx-) becomes zvaj- : wcepen ' weapon ', W.S. wxpen, wag ' wave ', W.S. ivxg. [This change is unknown in Mercian.] § 134. (6) In Southern Northumbrian, W. Gmc. an (W. Sax. ea) appears generally as eo, being apparently arrested at the xo stage: deop ' death', W.S. deap ; deof ' deaf, W.S. deaf\ kedftcd, W.S. heafod\ eore ' ear', W.S. eare, etc. Nthn. Nthmb. more commonly writes ea, as in all other dialects. § 135- (7) Northern Nthmb. writes ea more frequently for Fracture of ^ before rr and r + consonant than eo -. hearte ' heart ', W.S. Jieorte ; eardjc 'earth'. In the Sthn. Nthmb. texts, eo is more frequent. [Mercian also shows some traces oi ea, but eo is general.] § 136. (8) Southern Nthmb. of the later period, on the other hand, generally writes co instead of ea for the Fracture of x: eorm ' arm ', hiueo)-/' turned, wandered ', W.S. Jnvcarf. [In Mercian, as in Kentish, eo sometimes occurs for ea, but rarely.] F 3 84 History of English Sounds [chap, v Characteristic Mercian Features. y' §137- (i) Raising of ae to e. 1^' '^ In distinction to Northumbrian and W.S., which retain x throughout the O.E. period, but in agreement with Kentish, in part of the Mercian area this vowel is raised to e by an isolative change. This is most consistently shown in the ninth-century Vespasian Psalter and Hymns, and in the later Glosses in MS. Royal. The Mercian Matthew (Rushworth^), however, writes iv far more commonly. Examples (from Vesp. Ps. and Hymns) are: hwet 'what?', deges (Gen. Sing, of deg- 'day', degiun (Dat. PL on analogy of Sing.), efter ' after ', zvcter ' water ', ives ' was '. The forms dsegas, dxga, czvxcti7ig in Vesp. Hymns are examples of Anglian smoothing from "^deaga, etc. See § 138 below. §138. (2) Back-Mutation of Fr. O.E. ae. WF-tr.*^- ^ 7 ^o- gedeafeiiad ' befits ', ic fearii 'I go ', feaditr ' father ' (Gen. Sing.), gehleadap ' they load ', steadelas ' foundations '. This mutation took place, in the dialect of the Vesp. Ps., also when g, or c was the intervening consonant, but such forms as ^deagas, ^ctueacitng ' shaking ' were smoothed to dsegas, etc. This smoothing of ea is the chief source of x in this text. § 139' (3) Levelling of iu, later w, under eo. Vesp. Ps. has xvcotap (Imperat. PI.) ' know ye ' from zviutap, cweopap ' they speak ', cleophi ' I call ' from ^clipdpi, whence *cli7tp5jn, ceosep ' chooses ' from ^'closip. The same levelling occurs in the case of to the result of Fracture oii: corsian 'become angry', eorre'' angry', Jieorde, W.S. hierde ' shepherd '. Note. Such forms as 7vreocende, sfireocende in Vesp. (Back-mutation Qii e), where we should expect Smoothing, must be due to the analogy of other verbs in the same class, where the diphthong normally remained un- smoothed, e.g. beoran 'bear', etc. Stebgun 'climbed', from stigun (Pret. PI.), may be explained on the analogy of ivreotun 'they wrote' ; but see also § 140 (2) below. Typical Kentish Features. § 140. (i) £6, the i-Mutation of Pr. O.E. a raised to e. Kentish is the only O.E. dialect which does not preserve this X (in clxne, etc.) unaltered during the whole O.E. period. Already in the Kentish Charters of the ninth century, we get forms such as clenra, ejiig, mist, gememim (Dat. PI.) §§137-42] Typical Kentish Features 85 ' common ', cp. Goth, gamabii-, and in the Surrey Charter of 871-89 gcdclc, W.S. gedxlan ' divide', Goth, gadailjan ; lestcn 'perform ', Go\\\. galaistjau ; Jnvetc-, W.S. hivxte- 'wheat', from ^/nvaiti-, Pr. O.E. *hivdti. This change can be shown to be distinctly later than the raising of Pr. O.E. x (§ 123 above) to e which is common to all non-W.S. dialects. The later Kentish Psalm and Hymn write x for both sounds, but owing to the early disappearance of the sounds {x} in Kentish, the symbols X and c are used indifferently for the mid-front sound. That X is indeed used for a mid-front vowel is shown by the spelling hxr for her ' here' in a Kt. Ch. of 831. In this word no one supposes that any old dialect ever had other than a mid-front vowel. The same confusion is shown in the spelling szvxstar for sivestoy ' sister ', where the short mid-front is certain. [On preservation of this e in M.E. see § 161 below.] § 141. (2) Typical Kentish Back-Mutation. We may consider such forms as reogolzveard ' guardian of a (religious) rule ', and foj-espreoca ' advocate ', brcogo ' prince ', as typically Kentish, since W.S. does not admit of this muta- tion before a back consonant, and, although it no doubt occurred under these conditions in early Anglian, it would be reduced by smoothing in the Anglian dialects (§ 127 above). Kentish influence may partly explain the forms in Vesp, Ps. discussed in § 138, note, above. § 142. (3) O.E. y (i-Mutation of u), unrounded, and lowered to e. In the Late Kentish Psalm, we find sennum ' sins ' (Dat. PI.), W.S. syfuiuni ; gelta ' guilt ', W.S.gylt ; graimnlicgdig ' cruel ', W.S. -hygdig; snetera 'wise', W.S. snytcr, etc. In Early Kentish such spellings do not occur in stressed syllables, though the proper name Heregcp^ W.S. -gyp is found, but the change, even in stressed syllables, is assured for the early period by the spelling yfter 'after' in a Ch. of 831, to represent Kt. efter^ W.S. xfter. This spelling would be im- possible unless Kt. scribes had already pronounced O.E. y as e in words where they still adhered to the traditional spelling {y). If they pronounced e whenever they saw or wrote j', of course y might come to be regarded as a symbol for the ^-sound. I, for original y\ continues to be one of the chief marks of Kentish dialect, or Kentish influence during the M.E. period (§158 {b)), and we have in Standard English to-day, words like S6 History of English Sounds [chap, v knell, O.E. cnyllan^ outside the Kentish dialect, which we know must be of Kentish or S. Eastern origin (§ 253, Note 3 below). Note. This feature of Kentish extends in M.E. beyond the old Kentish area, and is found, in varying degrees, in Essex, Suffolk, and Sussex. § 143. (4) The group wiu. In Kentish, the otherwise usual change to ivil does not occur, so that we get tveada^ ivcoUim, instead of witdu, zvutinn. Wtidnni is found, however, in Bd. Gl. The diphthongs fu, co are not clearly and consistently dis- tinguished in Kt. to is commoner in this dialect than eo for earlier en. For short eb and lo we find often m, io by the side of CO '. thus seondan, sioiuion, zvcadtt, gezvnota, sioddan, nio- iiianiie ; hiabanlic, begeoian, agiabaji, -geeweodii, etc. § 144. Treatment of oe (i-mutation of 5) in Kentish. The ninth-century Charters consistently write oe for the 2-mutation of o of every origin — -foe ' take ', bdec, doed, goes ' geese ', soecende, gerocfa ' reeve ', etc. The only exception seems to be blcdsiing. Surrey Charter (879-89) has oe once, but usually writci' eo — -fed, gcfcoriivi * companions ' (W.S. gefenim), seolest ' best ', relitmcodrencynn. In later Kentish e is the usual spelling — geniete, gebctie, seceude, etc. (Psalm). The spelling seocau, however, occurs once in this text. The Late Kt. Glosses always write c. The spelling eo, occurring already in the latter half of the ninth century, seems to show that the traditional spelling oe was no longer felt as satisfactory, and may imply that the vowel was already but slightly rounded. It is curious that eo should crop up again in Late Kt. We can hardly take it to represent a rounded vowel, in the face of the far more numerous ^-spellings. The spelling boem ' both ' Dat. PI., which occurs in a Ch. of 831, compared with bxin in 805, shows clearly that even at this date oe could represent an unrounded vowel, and the spelling hxr for her ' here ' shows that x could represent the mid-front vowel. It seems pro- bable that by the year 831, the old vowel oe had already been unrounded in Kt. A form with slight rounding may have survived longer in Surrey. § 145. Summary of Chief Dialectal Characteristics in O.E. It will be convenient to summarize briefly the principal features which distinguish the O.E. dialects. The following list includes only those which are of importance for the §§ 142-5] Chief Dialectal Characteristics in O.E. 87 subsequent history of the language. A few examples are added to make the statement concrete. (i) Diphthonging after front consonants : sceal, giefan, cief^geat, etc. (§ 115). In L.VV.S. the ea are monopthongized to e : see/, ccf, etc. [This process of diphthonging is confined to W. Saxon.] (2) i- or j-Mutation of Diphthongs ea, eo to le [only in W.S.] : ieriHpti, hierde ' heard ' ; ciesp ' chooses ', wierp ' be- comes'. In late W.S. these fe hQcome y : yrmpu, hyrde,e\.c. (§§ 116-19). (3) Survival of Primitive O.E. ee (W.Gmc. a) [survives only in W.S.]: sxton, strxt, dxd, etc., etc. (§ lao). (4) Survival of Primitive O.E. se [W.S. and Northumbrian, and part of Mercian area] : glaed, daeg, zvxs, etc., etc. (§§ 97, 1^9, 137). (5) Change of y (i-Mutation of u) to e [Kentish only] : sewi, W.S. synn ; fer 'fire', W.S./y7% etc., etc. (§ 142). (6) Absence of Fracture of ae (a) before 11 or 1 + another consonant [typically Anglian]: alt, W.S. eatt; did 'old', W.S. eald\ cdld 'cold', W.S. ceald, etc., etc. (§ 136). (7) Smoothing of all Diphthongs before c, c, g, g, h [typically Anglian] : Jixh, W.S. Jiedh ; leht 'light', W.S. leoht (§ 127). (8) Diphthonging of O.E. se to ea, by u-Mutation [Mercian only] : feadiir, stcaoelas from ^'stadulas (§ 138). (9) Raising of Primitive se (W.Gmc. a) to e [all dialects except W.S.] : scion, strct, dcd (§ 123). (10) Raising of se (i-Mutation of Pr. O.E. a) to e [found only in Kentish] : detail, W.S. dxtaii (§ 140). CHAPTER VI HISTORY OF ENGLISH SOUNDS II. The Middle English Period § 146. The number of literary works composed and written down during the M.E. period, that is, between, roughly, 1100 and 1450, is extremely large, and many of the individual works are of great length. M.E. literature is of the most varied character. Every kind of composition, in prose and verse, is represented ; the religious treatise, the legal docu- ment^ the lyric, the romance, history, serious narrative, satire, comedy, the sublime, the ridiculous, the grave, the gay ; every note in the lyre of human passion is struck^ every phase of human experience is portrayed. Almost every area, from Aberdeen to Sussex, except perhaps the Central Midlands, is represented by one or more works written in the local form of English. Materials therefore are not lacking for the adequate study of our language, in all its forms, during the 350 years which begin within half a century of the Norman Conquest, and end fifty years after the death of Chaucer. § 147. The Norman Conquest. This great event, while it undoubtedly marks a new departure in many ways in our social and political history, is by no means such a revolutionary factor in the history of our language as some writers would lead one to believe. Its main effects are seen in our vocabulary. While the M.E. period is characterized by far-reaching sound changes, which we think of as beginning soon after the Norman Conquest, there is every reason for believing that the germ of the tendencies which first find graphic expression at this time existed already long before, and that the linguistic phenomena which become noticeable in the texts of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries are the natural heritage of the past. In fact, there is no ground for assuming that the history of English sounds would have been other than we know it, had the Norman Conquest §§ 14^-8] Loss of O.E. Literary Tradition 89 never taken place. The external form and the internal structure of English have undergone continuous, but gradual change, from the earliest times to the present day. The Norman Conquest did not sever the continuity and begin a new era. We are to consider the changes in sounds and inflexions which we associate with the M.E. period, not as due in any way to the great historical cataclysm which befell in 1066, but as the natural outcome of forces that were at work long before Duke William was born, which can be traced to some extent in the texts of the late O.E. period. § 148. Apparent increased rate of change in Early Transi- tion English. If we examine the language of the latter parts of the Peterborough Chronicle which were written down about seventy to ninety years after the coming of the Normans, and compare it with that of the Charters written in the reign of Edward the Confessor (1043-66) or of William's English Charters, we are struck by certain obvious differences. The Charters are, to all intents and purposes, good Old English, showing to a superficial view but little difference from the language of Alfred, still less from that of ^Elfric. The language of the Chronicle, during the last eighty or ninety years of the record, is something very different. Not only has the conventional O.E. spelling been largely given up in favour of what appear tentative efforts to express quite a different pronunciation, but the inflexions are greatly impaired ; for instance, we get the indeclinable definite article, in such con- structions as of pe king^ we find a new personal pronoun scde, the ancestor of the modern she, instead of heo, and the structure of the sentence is often very different from the old usage. As we note all the dift'erences, we might be inclined to ask whether these considerable changes in the language, which have come about with such apparent suddenness, must not be attributed to some great event such as the Norman Conquest, which has upset society from top to bottom, and reacted upon the language. Why, it might reasonably be asked, has English suddenly changed more, in less than a hundred years, than it did during the three hundred and fifty years before 1066 ? The answer is not far to seek. The Norman Conquest did , not, indeed, produce a sudden change in the language itself,, but it did cause the death, or nearly so, of literary tradition.l The spoken language, we must suppose, had outgrown and gone beyond the written forms that we find in iElfric and in 90 History of English Sounds: II. M.E. [chap, vi the late charters. But the scribes were strongly conservative, and adhered to the old methods of spelling which represented approximately the facts of the language as pronounced, perhaps, a hundred years earlier, but had long ceased to give a true picture of contemporary speech. In the same way, the style and structure of the sentence, in literary works, was based upon the older models found in writings, and not upon that of the colloquial language. We may assume, perhaps, that in the latter respect, the same kind of difference, only on a more extensive scale, existed between the style of the written and spoken language, in late O.E., as is seen at the present time, when we write is it not, will I not^ ivere it not for that, the Misses Smith, whereas in ordinary colloquial speech we say [z'znt it, wount a\, if it w:?znt fa baet, ^3 mis smips] and so on. But soon after the Conquest, English learning sank to a very low ebb. The great prelates, the Bishops and Abbots, were Normans ; the language and literature of the English, regarded as belonging to a rude and boorish race, were no longer objects of solicitude for the learned. The art of writing, no doubt, was hardly practised by Englishmen, or only by the more aristocratic who had the opportunity of acquiring the language of the dominant race. Documents were but rarely written in English. The continuity of literary English prose style was broken. When Englishmen again took up the pen, after more than half a century of neglect, and attempted to set down their thoughts on parchment, they had to create afresh an English prose style. What models had they ? The docu- ments of the age which was gone, of the time when English letters still flourished, were now hopelessly antiquated in style, and too far removed from actual facts to serve as models. The old traditional spelling, much behind the time even in the days of ^Ifric, was still less adapted to the requirements of twelfth-century English. The only thing to do was to put the thoughts, as far as possible, into the form of sentence used in the ordinary spoken language, and to adapt, in some way or other, what remained of a traditional mode of rendering sounds to the changed conditions of pronunciation. Such considerations as these enable us to understand that the apparent gulf between pre-Conquest English, and that of the period immediately following that event, is not a reality, but that the appearance is a natural result of the conditions inseparable from the graphic representation in the latter period of a language whose literary cultivation had long been neglected. It is perhaps worth while to point out here that the documents of the Early Transition period probably §§ 148-50] Variety of Dialectal Types in M.E. 91 present a far more faithful picture of the spoken language of the time, than do the writings of an age of highly developed literary activity, based on a powerful tradition. § 149. Variety of Dialectal Types in M.E. It is constantly pointed out, and indeed it strikes at once every student who makes the most superficial survey of M.E. documents, that compared with the four or five well- marked types of English which appear in the pre-Conquest sources, there is an extraordinary richness of dialect types preserved in M.E. It would be very wrong to draw the i nference from this fact, that the process of dialectal differen- tiation was more active after, than before the Conquest, and» that a host of new varieties of English came into being in the later periods. The comparative uniformity of O.E. as we know it in the written documents must be explained by the strength of W. Saxon scribal tradition, which levelled many slightly differing forms of speech under a single type for literary purposes. No such check existed, for a long time, in the M.E. period. Every writer was largely a law unto himself, and while he no doubt owed something to the gradually hardening tradition of spelling, he felt free to try experiments of his own. The spelling of Orm (fi. 1200) is an example of highly developed individualism, for which the whole of Old and Middle English offers no parallel. The M.E. scribes do full justice to the variety of regional dialects which undoubtedly existed, and they also, by the individualism of their methods, probably suggest a variety greater than really existed. We do not often find complete consistency in the spelling of a single text, therefore when we compare that of several writers of the same period, we may mistake for variety of dialect what is really an experimental groping after the best way of writino- the same sound. 't> § 150. Difficulties in the Investigation of M.E. Texts. It is highly important for the study of M.E. to be sure of the precise or approximate date of the text we are dealing with, and also of the dialect which it represents. There are two possibilities which may occur to give a wrong impression of the language of a given time, or of a particular area, (i) A MS. may be a copy of another and much earlier text. In this case, the scribe sometimes follows his model with exactitude, and reproduces accurately the forms of a bygone age, but he sometimes also forgets to do this, and writes 92 History of English Sounds : II. M.E. [chap, vi down the forms of his own day. Or such a text may be written mainly according to the usage of the scribe's own time with only an occasional lapse into the archaism of the text which he is copying. It is clearly necessary to decide, in such cases, which forms really belong to the period of the MS. itself, and which to that of the original. (2) A text may be copied by a scribe whose native or habitual dialect is different from that in which the text is written. In this case, the scribe sometimes follows his text, and sometimes introduces his own, perhaps quite different forms. The result is a mixture of dialect forms which may be quite incongruous. It is quite possible for modern students to be misled, in such cases, into taking for an example of a genuine dialect with a mixture of elements, what is in reality a mixture produced under the conditions just described. In forming our view of what the speech of a particular area was like, at a particular period, it is desirable, in the first instance, to eschew texts of these two classes as much as possible, and to confine our inquiries to such texts whose date and place of origin are definitely known. Only with the experience gained in this way, shall we be in a position to distinguish chronological and regional discrepancies in documents. § 151. M.E. Spelling and M.E. Sounds. It is essential to consider separately the actual sounds of M.E. and the various methods of expressing these graphically. A change in spelling does not necessarily imply a change in pro- nunciation, though of course it often does, and the retention of an older spelling unaltered does not necessarily prove that the sound remains the same. The history of English spelling is one thing, and the history of English pronunciation is quite another. From the point of view of the former it is of importance to record that O.E. u in such words as hus, luus, etc., is written in M.E., owing to the habits of French scribes, on. But this fact is of no importance for the history of the sound, since this remained the same [u] for centuries after the new spelling was introduced; and when, in the fifteenth century, this sound was diphthongized, no further change was made in the mode of representing it. On the other hand, in tracing the history of sounds it is vital to state that the O.E. diphthong ea in words like deap, heap ' crowd ', etc., became [S] before the end of the O.E. period (§ 97. 3, Note), although the spelling was often retained in the Early Transition and later periods. f §§ 150-3] Consonantal Spellings in M.E. 93 Charges in Spelling which are purely Graphic. § 152. A. Vowels. O.E. y. The O.E. high-front-tense-round, so far as it survived in M.E. (cp. § 158 {c)), is never written y after the twelfth century, e.g. H. Rd. Tree, but with the French symbol 11. When long, it is frequently expressed by id: e.g. S7{nn, 'sin', O.E. syjin ; mucJiel 'great', O.E. myccl; hniren vb. ' hear ', Late O.E. Jiyran ; ////;- ' fire ', O.'E.fyr. O.E. ??. In order to distinguish this from old y, now often spelt II, it is written habitually on by French scribes, and later, by every one: e.g. /loiis, O.E. /ins; hour 'dwelling', O.E. bur. O.E, H. In the neighbourhood of v, ?/, w, 71, m, this sound, which remained unchanged, is often written o, purely for the sake of distinctness to the eye, e.g. sone, 'son', O.^. siniii \ comen P.P. 'come', O.E. cumen. In N.Fr. old -on had become [un] in pronunciation. § 153. B. The Consonants. O.E. c — back voiceless stop, generally preserved initially, before back vowels : cot, comen 'come', but written k before front vowels : king, kepen ' keep '. Doomsday Book, entirely the work of foreign scribes, constantly writes cJi for initial c (k) in English names, e.g. Clienulueslei, O.E. Cenwulfesledh ' Knowsley '. ' ch in D.B. always stands for the back voiceless stop. Medially, and finally, this sound is written k, ck, c. The O.E. combination civ is written with the French symbol q-'t-n, hence queen, O.E. czvcn, etc. ku, cu, etc., are also written. O.E. c. As early as the twelfth century, some Sthn. texts write ch for this sound, in all positions — chald 'cold' ; sechen ' seek ', O.E. sedan ; ich ' I ', O.E. id. The earliest Transition texts still write c. In later M.E. cch and tch are written medially — wrctche, lacchen * catch '. O.E. 3 or J. These are the only forms of the letter used in O.E., but the latter part of the Peterborough Chronicle, written in the twelfth century, uses what is known as the Con- tinental form of the letter, which is approximately that of our g. The Chronicle, and some other early Transition texts, e. g. Genesis and Exodus, use this symbol g exclusively for O.E. J whether it expresses a back or front consonant, stop or open — so that we get even gwig for O.Y.. geong. Later on, the more careful scribes use g and a modified 94 History of English Sounds : II. M.E. [chap, vi form of O.E. j, 5, and distinguish systematically between back and front sounds. The following are the typical M.E. ways of expressing the various sounds expressed by O.E. j, and eg: (i) Back-open-voiced consonant (O.E. ?) is written gh, and ^h : biirg/i, O.Y.. burg ; lagJic ' law ', O.E. /apt, etc. [This symbol (gA), as well as h, M, is used also for the voiceless sound.] (2) Back Stop (O.E. j) is written g : god, god * good ', ' God ', etc. Orm, whowas a mediaeval spelling reformer, invented a special symbol rj for the stop, and uses it in words such as the above. (3) Front Stop (O.E. eg). This only occurred medially and finally in O.E. words. In M.E. it is written gg by Orm and most other scribes, though sometimes g alone is written : scggen 'say ', O.E. sccgaii ; riigg^ O.E. hrycg'' back '. In French words the sound occurred initially in such words as jiige 'judge', and in these words the spelling/ is generally retained, though g is occasionally written. When the sound occurs medially it was, in late M.E., not infrequently written dg as at the present day : bridge, etc. (4) Front-open-voiced consonant (O.E. j). The modified form 3 of the O.E. symbol is used in a large number of texts quite systematically for this sound: ^er, O.E. ger 'year'; ^eiien^ O.E. gefaii 'give', etc. Later M.E. texts use y — yc7'e, etc. O.E. f written v or u. This, as a systematic habit, was an innovation of the French scribes, though there are traces in some O.E. texts of it to express a voiced sound between vowels. In the Southern area of M.E. the O.E. /was voiced initially, and we consequently find such spellings as vox, iiox ' fox ', vjiir ' fire ', O.E. fyj-, with fair consistency. Medially, between vowels, the sound was voiced in all dialects, and we find therefore uvel, ivel, etc., O.E. yfel ' evil' ; oner, O.E. ofer ' over ', etc. Since the forms of 11 and v were often confused, we constantly find such spellings as vuel'&vW = [yvel] instead of 7wel. O.E. s written c. This is habitual in French words, and the usage is applied also to English words: seldeene, O.E. seldsene ' rare ' ; alee, O.E. alsiva. O.E. voiced s written z. Spelling with initial z is typical of Kentish texts, in which dialect O.E. s must have been voiced in this position : .-^ayP ' says ', O.E. seg{e)p ; zope ' true ', O.E. sop, etc. §§ 153-4] M.E. Northern Texts 95 O.E. sc is written sch, ss, sh : schal, schenchen ' grant \ ssolde ' should ', issote ' shot ', shxivcitn, etc. The subject of M.E. spelling will be further dealt with later on in dealing specifically with the sounds themselves and their changes. § 154. Illustrative Middle English Texts. The following select list of M.E. texts will be found fairly- representative of the various dialects and periods. Most of them are referred to in the account given below of the develop- ment of Sounds and Accidence in M.E. A useful illustrative selection of texts, dating from 1150 to 1390, is contained in Morris and Skeat's Specimens of Early English, Parts I and II, and others in MacLean's Old and Middle English Reader, Macmillan, 1893. Scotch texts, though mainly of the Early Modern Period, are well illustrated in Gregory Smith's Speci- mens of Middle Scots, Blackwood, 1902. Valuable examples of Late M.E. and early Mod. texts (1384-1579) are to be found in Skeat's Specimens of English Liter aUire. Most of the texts enumerated below are published by the Early English Text Society ; when this is not the case, it will be indicated. When selections occur in any of the above collections, this is also indicated. Several very important Early M.E. texts are contained in An Old English Miscellany, ed. R. Morris, E.E.T.S., 1873 ; and the chief groups of Early M.E. Homilies are to be found in two vols, known as Old English Homilies, ist and and Series, E.E.T.S., 1868 and 1873 respectively, by the same editor. The presence of a text in either of these collections is indicated by the words O.E. Homs., or O.E. Misc. placed after the name in the list. A. M.E. Northern Texts. Northern Legends. 1275. Ed. Horstmann, 1881. Nthn. Metrical Psalter. Before 1300. Surtees Society, 1843-47. Extracts in Specimens. Cursor Mundi. 1300. Extracts in Specimens, and Mac- Lean's Reader. Nthn. Metrical Homilies. 1330. Ed. Small, Edinburgh, 1862. Extracts in Specimens. Richd. Rolle de Hampoles Pricke of Conscience. Before 1349. Ed. R. Morris, 1 863. Extracts in Specimens. Maetz- ner's ae. Sprachproben. Minot's Songs. 1339-52. Ed. SchoUe, Quellen und 96 History of English Sounds : II. M.E. [chap, vi Forschungen, Hi, 1884, and Hall, Oxford. Extracts in Specimens. B. Scotch Texts. Barbour s Bruce. 1375. Ed. Skeat, E.E.T.S., 1870. Ex- tracts in Specimens, and MacLean. (The oldest MS., G. 23, St. John's Coll., Cambridge, was not written till 1487.) Ratis Raving. First half of fifteenth century. Ed. Lumby, E.E.T.S., 1870. T/ie Taill of Raitf Coilyear. T456-81, Ed. S. J. H. Herr- tage, E.E.T.S., 1882. C. East Midland Texts. Peterboro2igh Chronicle. 11 21-54. (Laud MS.) Plummer, Two A.-S. Chronicles. Extracts in Specimens. Ormulum. 1200. Ed. White, 1852, 2 vols., and Holt, 1878, 2 vols. Extracts in Specimens. Bestiary. Circa 1250. In O.E. Misc. Extracts in Speci- mens. Genesis and Exodus. Circa 1250. Ed. Morris, E.E.T.S. Revised 1873. Extracts in Specimens. Harrowing of Hell. Circa 1280- 1300. Ed. E. Mall, Bres- lau, 1871. Robt. of Bnmne^ s Handlyng Synne. 1300-30. Ed. Furnivall, Roxburghe Club, 1862. Re-edited, Pt. I, 1901, Ft. H, 1903. Extracts in Specimens. Havelok the Dane. 1300. Ed. Holthausen, Heidelberg, 1901 ; Skeat, Oxford, 1902. Extracts in Specimens. Norfolk Guilds. 1839. In English Guilds, ed. Lucy Toul- min Smith, E.E.T.S., 1870. Osbern Bokenam's Lives of Saints. Fl. 1370-1450. Ed. Horstmann, Heilbronn, 1883. D. London Dialect. Charter of London^ by the King William the Conqueror (1066). In Liebermann, Gesetze d. Angelsachsen, i. 486. Proclamation of Henry III. 1258. In Ellis' Early Engl. Pronunciation, Pt. II, pp. 501, etc. Adam Davie s Five Dreams. Circa 1307-27. Ed. Furni- vall, E.E.T.S., 1878. Londoii Charters and Documents (i). From T384-(circa § 154] M.E. Scotch and Midland Texts 97 1450). See account given in Morsbach, EngHsche Schrift- sprache, 188S. Lo7idon Charters and Dociiiiicnis {%). From 1430- 1500. See account in Lekebusch, Londoner Urkunden-Sprache, 1906. E. Literary English. Chaucer s Works. Cowers Confessio Ainantis. Ed. Macaulay, in Complete Works, Oxford ; and Selections from C. A., Oxford, 1903. Sir John Mandeville's Voiage and Travaile, 1356. Ed. Haliwell, 1839. Extracts in Specimens. Hoccleve. 1400. Minor Poems, ed. F. Furnivall, E.E.T.S., 1893 ; Regent of Princes, Furnivall, E.E.T.S., 1899. Short Extracts in Skeat's Specimens of Engl. Lit. Lydgate, Circa 1430. Troy Book, ed. Bergen, E.E.T.S., I and II, 1906; 111,1908 ; IV, V, 1910; Temple of Glass, ed. J. Schick, E.E.T.S., 1891 ; London Lyckpenny, and Extracts from Storie of Thebes in Skeat's Specimens. JoJin Capgraves Chronicle. Ed. F. C. Hingeston, Rolls Series, 1858. Caxion, Historyes of Troye. Extracts in Skeat's Specimens. F. West Midland Texts. Earliest Complete Engl. Prose Psalter. I350- Ed. Bul- bring, E.E.T.S., 1891. Catherine Group. (Legends of St. Juliana, ed. Cockayne, E.E.T.S., 1872 ; St. Margaret, ed. Cockayne, E.E.T.S., 1866 ; and St. Catherine, ed. E. Einenkel, E.E.T.S., 1884.) First half of thirteenth century. Alliterative Poems. 1350. Ed. Morris (and ed.), 1869. William of Palerme. 1355-61. Ed. Skeat, E.E.T.S., 1867. Joseph of Arimathea. 1350. Ed. Skeat, E.E.T.S., 1871. John Audelays Poems. 1436. Percy Society, vol. xiv, J 844. Myrcs Instructions for Parish Priests. Circa i45o. Ed. Peacock, E.E.T.S. (Revised), 1903. Note. The dialect of Ancrett Rhvle in MS. Nero A. xiv, printed by Morton, Camden Soc, 1853, is practically identical with that of the Catherine Group, now widely held to be South W. Midland. A. R. was long considered as Sthrn., chiefly, probably, on account of u for O.E. y (u-i). This feature is now known to be also West and Central Midland. Cp. § 1 58 {c) below. G 98 History of English Sounds: II. M.E. [chap, vi G. Southern Texts. History of Holy Rood Tree. 1170. Ed. Napier, E.E.T.S., 1894. Lambeth Homilies. Before 1200. Old English Homilies, I. 1-182. Ed. Morris, E.E.T.S., 1868. Extracts in Speci- mens I. Trinity (Cambridge) Homilies. Before 1200. O.E. Homs. II. Ed. Morris, E.E.T.S., 1873. Extracts in Specimens i. Moral Ode or Poema Morale. Before 1200 (Trinity MS.) ; 1250 (Jesus MS.). Both these in O.E. Misc. and Specimens. The Egerton MS., c. 1200, printed in MacLean, and O.E. Homs. I. Critical Text by Lewin, Halle, 1881. Wooijig of our Lord. 1210. O.E. Homs. I. Extracts in Specimens. God Ureisitn. 1210. O.E. Homs. I. Extracts in Specimens. Soides Ward. 1210. O.E. Homs. I. Owl and Nightingale. 1246-50. O.E. Misc. Extracts in Specimens. Proverbs of Alfred. 1250. O.E. Misc., 102-38. Extracts in Specimens. Robert of Gloucester. (Metrical Chronicle.) 1298. Ed. Wright, Rolls Series, 1887. 2 Vols. Extracts in Specimens. St. Jtdiana. (Metrical.) 1300. Ed. Cockayne, E.E.T.S. 51, 1872. Trevisa. (Translation of Higden's Polychronicon) 1387. Ed. Babington (vols, i and ii), and Lumby (vols, iii-ix). Rolls Series, 1865-86. Extracts in Specimens. St. EditJia. 1420. Wiltshire Dialect. Ed. Horstmann, Heilbronn, 1883. H. Kentish Texts. Kentish Gospels. 11 50. In Skeat's Gospels in Anglo- Saxon. Kentish Homilies. 1150. (MS. Vespasian A. 22.) O.E. Homs. I. 217-43. Extracts in Specimens. Kentish Sermons. Before 1250, (MS. Laud 471.) O.E. Misc. 20-36. William of Shorehains Poems. 1307. Ed. Conrath, E.E.T.S., 1902. Extracts in Specimens. A^enbi/e of Inwyt. 1340. Ed. Morris, E.E.T.S., 1866. Extracts in Specimens. §§ 154-6] Rounding of O.E. a 99 § 155. The Treatment of O.E. Sounds in M.E. The changes which befell the old vowel sounds in M.E. fall under the two main heads — Qtiantitative, and Qtialitative. The former class of changes involves the lengthening of original short vowels, and the shortening of vowels originally long, under conditions which it will be our business to describe. The latter category of changes involves an alteration of the actual nature and quality of the vowel sound without any change of quantity. The Qjiantitative changes are far more numerous than the Qualitative, and their results for the subsequent history of English are far-reaching. Our ideas concerning the nature and quality of M.E. sounds are based (i) upon the spelling in the various texts; (2) upon comparison {a) with O.E., {b) with Mod. Engl., {c) with other forms of Germanic speech ; (3) upon the character of Rhymes in M.E. ; (4) upon the contemporary descriptions of the >, pronunciation of English in the sixteenth century, when many M.E. sounds still remained unaltered. The spelling adopted by Orm throws great light on M.E. quantity. Orm syste- matically writes a consonant single after a long vowel, and doubles it after a ^oxt—cJiild, chilldrc^ etc. He also sometimes marks short vowels— ^^' ^-forms are more frequent : eppel, gled, gles, ssel * shall ', wcter, - etc., but occasional a in smak, uader. W. of Shoreham (1307) seems to have only c. I04 History of English Sounds: ll.M.E. [chap.vi The Midland and Northern ], etc. This [je] was again retracted to \a\ giving the present-day [tj^f, gr^s, p«|']. The early Grammarians appear to differ in their pronunciation of these groups of words, just as we differ to some extent nowa- days. The lengthening is certainly late seventeenth or early eighteenth century, and the retraction, among some speakers, took place before the close of the latter. On the other hand [gr^s], etc. appear to have existed already in the third quarter of the seventeenth century, according to some Grammarians, but [se] is unmistakably described still by late eighteenth- century writers. Almost all stages \a, je, £e, a\ exist to-day in different Regional and Class Dialects. In spite of Zachrisson's disbelief in variant developments, I cannot escape the conviction that they are recorded by the early Gram- marians in the above as in other classes of words, and I attribute them largely to Class Dialect. Note i. Jespersen, Mod. E. G., i, pp. 304-310, rejects the ordinary view of the development of [a] in present-day English, and believes that it is of L.M.E. or Early Mod. origin, and has been retained unaltered. The difificulty of believing in the application of his complicated theory of * preservative analogy ' here appears very great. Note 2. Present-day [h£e|), hrest] instead of [hrt|>,hrtst] are due to the analogy of [h^v], q. v., § 225, Note. § 220. The words father, rather fall under the above state- ment. They are developed out of the M.E. short forms father., rather (cp. § 176, Note), the series being [f«"Ser< fae'S3r< fae"S3r, b^kli, d^bi], in spite of the spelling, are derived from a M.E. dark, Bdrks{chire), Ddrbi, Bdrklei, etc. Concerning the history of M.E. -er, the type represented by the spelling in above forms, see § 238. Note. The \ar\ type of original ^r-words was very usual in eighteenth- century Received Standard. Lady Wentworth regularly writes sarve, sarvents, Jarniaiiy, sartainly, hard ' hea.rd \ parson 'person ', etc., etc. Cp. Wentw. Papers, passim. Vardy ' verdict, opinion ', occurs in Swift's Polite Conversatio7is. § 223. M.E. wa-, qua-. These combinations appear in present-day English with a rounded vowel : wash, wan, szvallow, swan, watch, wasp, quality, quantity, sqnash, etc. [w:'/, w:'n, sw:?lo", sw.?n, w:?tj, kw.?ntztz, w:7sp, kw.?h'tz, skw.?J], etc. The early Grammarians do not describe a rounded vowel here until 1685, but the evidence of occasional spellings shows that the rounding had taken place more than a century earlier. Thus Diehl, p. 14, cites wosse 'wash' (1560), and Zachrisson, p. 62, gives rezvord, VVolsyng- liain, Volnntyne, wos, etc. = ' rezvard, Walsingham, Valentine, %vas ', from the Paston Letters. The form szvolwe-bridde occurs already in the Earliest Engl. Prose Psalter (circa 1350), Psalmus Ezeech., verse 7, p. 180. There seem to have been two periods of this rounding in different speech communities, one before, and one after the fronting of old a. Thus the above early spellings seem to show that L. M.E. zva became zvo direct. On the other hand, the Grammarians give forms like [wsez, swaen, kwseliti], which show that w did not hinder the fronting, and that [w^] did become [wae]. In this case, the series must have been [svV(^n, swaen, sw^n, sw^n], etc. In the dialect of some classes, the rounding did not involve all words, for [kwaeliti, kwaentiti] were well-used eighteenth- century forms, and have been heard in the last century by old people still living. 134 History of English Sounds: III. Modern [chap.vh The form szvain [swa^m] instead of [sw<7m] may be explained from the analogy of ran, began, etc. Before back consonants the rounding did not as a rule take place among standard speakers ; cp. wag, quack, wax, etc. On the other hand, [kw<7g] instead of [kwaeg] in quagmire may be occasionally heard. § 224. When r follows, whether as a final sound, or suc- ceeded by another consonant, the rounded vowel just described is lengthened, and appears now as [5], thus war, warm, warp, warn, szvarm, etc. = [w5, w5m, w5p, w5n, sw5m]. The history of dr, § 222 above, shows that this lengthening is due to the r itself, and not to the modern loss of this sound. The lengthening did not take place when the r was followed by a vowel — warrior, warren, quarrel = [wmia, w^rin, kwc^ral]. It may be noted that certain groups of young speakers at the present time show a tendency to lose intervocalic -r-, and in this case, the preceding vowel does appear to be lengthened ; either [w^ja, kw^al], etc., or [w5J3, kwoal]. M.E. a. § 225. Independent Development. d fronted to [se] which is raised to [§] and then made tense: [e]. In spite of the fact that Gill (1621) asserts that he pro- nounced the old sound {a\ in name and capon, and ridicules the pronunciation [nem, kepn], no one now takes him quite seriously. He at least recognizes the existence of a fronted pronunciation while he condemns it. His own pronunciation may have been [se] (cp. Zachrisson, p. 190). As a matter of fact, a front vowel in the place of M.E. a is recognized by French writers as early as 1528, and occasional spellings from written documents, such as tekc ^td\fie\fcder, 'M.'E, fader (Paston Letters), ceme ' came' (Cely Papers), etc., etc., show that the fronting (probably to [se]) was as early as the fifteenth century (Zachrisson, p. 56). Probably the [i] stage was reached early in the sixteenth century, and [e] by the end of that century. There must have been some individual speakers, or perhaps social classes, who were somewhat behind the latest developments, as Gill's remarks show. See also Luick, Anglia, xiv, p. 271. The fronting of a was considerably ahead of that of a, according to the testimony of the Grammarians. See § 217. Examples are : ale, dame, cape, flake, gate, lane, behave, etc., etc. §§2 23-8] Fronting of M.E. [a\ 135 The words danger^ grange, safe (§§171 (9), Note, 184, Note, 196), in so far as they go back to M.E.^ and not to ai, belong to this group. The present-day diphthong [ez] in [ne/m], etc., is nineteenth century. Note. The provincial [re/¥3r, fez'^ar] are from M.E. rd^er, fader. This type is probably indicated by Lady Went worth's speUing rether (1708). Cf. Wejitiv. Papers, p. 64. Have [haev], as distinct from [bzhezv], goes back to M.E. hdv with shortening, or absence of lengthening, in an unstressed position (§ 177). For [haest, hae|>], see § 219, Note 2. M.E. a + r. § 226. In the combination dr, M.E. a developed, according to § 235, to [ae, i] and remained at this stage. Then a parasitic [9] developed between the vowel and the -r, and the latter was lost, in Standard English, early in nineteenth century. Thus M.E. hare ' hare ' had the following series of changes : [h^r and M.E. air, eir (§ 269). M.E. e. § 227. Independent Treatment. M.E. e remains as [s] : set, read (Pret. M.E. redde), men, tell, well (adv.), kept, get, help, etc., etc. The vowel in fledge, left (hand), knell is M.E. and O.E. e from earlier y, according to the ' Kentish' type. See §§ 142, 158 {b). M.E. er-. § 228. Combinative Treatment. In so far as this combination did not become ar in M.E., it remained till the Early Mod. period, and was then apparently made into a flat vowel [9]. With the weakening of the [r], this vowel was lengthened, and lowered, and made tense, becoming present-day [a]. Examples : earth, earn, churl, heard (Late M.E. herde),fern, learn, servant, etc. The vowel in kernel is the ' Kentish ' form of O.E. y, W.S., etc., cyrnel (§ 142). Herd, in shep//^r^, hcrds^ax'ssi, etc., is from the O.E. Merc. heorde, M.E. heorde, herde, W.S. hierde (§§ 117, 119, 139). In sixteenth-century literary English the ty\)e yearth ' earth ' is much used, e.g. in Edw. VI's First Prayer Book. This is probably from the M.E. Kentish type ycrpe as found in Ajenbite (§ 168). Clerk, Berks., etc., whose spelling shows that they represent 136 History of English Sounds : I I I. Modern [chap.vh M.E. cr, are yet pronounced according to the M.E. «r-type (§ 22a). For other sources of [a] see §§ 238, 252, 255. Note. When a vowel follows -er- [e] remains : verity, etc. M.E. e^ (tense ; see sources under § 201). § 229. Independent Development [e < 1]. Old tense c was raised to [l] at least by the end of the first third of the sixteenth century. This is proved by the state- ments of the Grammarians. There is no conclusive evidence for this earlier, either from occasional spellings or otherwise. Caxton's hyj'c ' hear ' may be an exception to this, but cp. § 211. This [1] has so far remained in Standard English. Examples of the various groups are : seek, siJlfeet, feet, green ; {jbeliciie, steel, steeple', he, we, me ; shield, whld, field '^_da^d, seed \ifreeze, bee, deep, see ,Cbectle, evil, zveevil. Norman-French wofds : \beef, chief, grief, pieee. Note i. Evil, O.E. {y\[.S.) yfel, was formerly explained as a Kentish form, but as Luick has pointed out {Untersiichtatgen, p. 281), M.E. e lengthened from c in an open syllable was slack, whereas the tenseness of e in the ancestor of evil is proved by the sixteenth-century Grammarians recording this word with [1]. It must therefore be explained together with beetle and weevil, according to § 1 74. Note 2. The fact that deed is recorded as containing [1] already in the sixteenth century, as well as the spelling of this word, and of seed, shows that these forms are derived from the non-W.S. ded, etc., which of course had [e] in M.E. Chaucer often uses the Anglian forms of these words in his rhymes, but has a preponderance of rhymes with undoubted M.E. [§](§§ 162, 371). ..x^\ § 230. M.E. e^ before -r. Before -r a parasitic vowel developed after M.E. e, Mod. [l]: Jiere, hear, dear, etc. = [hz'o, dzb]. The diphthong [zaj is heard at4,he present time, both when final r is lost as in the above words, and when it has been retained before a vowel as in [h/ar/r)], etc. Note. Hear from Anglian herim, § 124 ; fear from Anglian y?r, § 124 ; andj^rtr from Anglian ^t'r, § 123 (but cp. § 115, Note), are all normal in having [ia]. For the [sa] in the?-e, were, hair, cp. § 233. § 231. Shortening of Mod. [l] from M.E. e\ Shortening, comparable to that of [s] (§ 235), has taken place in breeches [brztj/zj, {\\2iy)riek — [rik] survives in the dialects — riddle, O.E. (Anglian) redels ; sick, silly, etc. §§228-33] Raising of M.E. Tense [^] to \l\ 137 M.E. e^ (slack [e], § 201, p. 116). § 232. Independent Treatment. This sound was kept quite distinct from M.E. [e] far into the Modern period. On the spelling ea, see § 3i2. All our evidence points to the original sound being retained at least as a mid vowel throughout the sixteenth century. It may, however, have become [e] in some circles before the end. Gill (1621) mentions with contempt the pronunciations [mit, llv] which might imply either a tense and raised pronunciation of [e], verging on [l], or this actual sound itself A man who said [met] and who did not use [e] at all, might possibly mistake the latter for a high vowel. Towards the end of the century, the statements of the Grammarians point, in some cases, to [1] in weak, sea, meat, etc., but this pronunciation was not general, nor indeed did it become universal till late in the eighteenth century, as is shown both by Grammarians' state- ments and poets' rhymes. Among the words included under [l] by some authorities in the eighteenth century are break, great, steak, where we still have the [e] type. (For our present forms of these see note below.) It seems pretty certain that it is not a question, after the middle of the seventeenth century, of a new sound change from [e] to [l] but merely of a particular type of pro- nunciation (Class Dialect) becoming general. The mid vowel is retained to-day in most of the old [s] words in Irish English, and in some words also in the dialects of the S.W. of England. Examples of words containing M.E. [s] are : beam, dream, beat, east, leap ; clean, deal (vb. and n.), heat, heath, teach ; breathe, eat, speak, steal ; French words : beast, feast, veal. Note. Present-day [grezt], M.E. grete, may be due to a doublet in M.E. form on the analogy of the Comp. grettre, which survived in Caxton's English. If this survived after [grgt] had become [gret], a form [gret], whence later [gret], might arise again with the vowel quality of the Comp., but the quantity of the Positive. See Jespersen, p. 338, who, however, explains the form rather differently by his principle of ' preservative analogy '. Steak and break may owe their vowel to a S.W. dialect type, and this explanation would of course account lor great also. M.E. [er]. § 233. It appears that in Standard English the vowel in this group did not normally undergo raising to [l] as in the independent position, and as the group M.E. [er] did (§ 230). Examples are : bear v b., and the name of the animal, swear, wear, ere. Thex£, where, were, hair must contain M.E. 138 History of English Sounds: III. Modern [chap.vh [e] from O.E. (Saxon) type x. Cp., on the other hand, fear, § 230, Note. § 234. There is, however, another group of words which have [/a] at the present day, and where the pronunciation [ir] is recorded in Early Mod. : ear, spear, rear (vb.), beard, shear, smear, tear (from the eye). Ear may possibly owe its vowel to association with hear, but the others must come from a dialect where the change to [ir] was normal. It is to be noted that nearly all words of both groups occur both with [er] and with [ir] in the Grammarians. Note. Beard =\bi^^'\ presupposes earlier [bird], but another pro- nunciation [bsrd], which develops into [bArd], is also recorded. Walker states that this persisted on the stage in late eighteenth century, and it may still be heard in Ireland. § 235. Shortening of M.E. [e] in Modern Period. In a number of words [i] was shortened, apparently during the seventeenth century, before it was raised to [l], perhaps before it had become tense. The conditions of this shortening are not satisfactorily explained (Jespersen, pp. 234 and '243). Examples are : bread, breath, dead, death, head, lest, pleasure, re{a)d, sweat, etc. Both long and short forms of these are to be found among the eighteenth-century writers on pronuncia- tion. Do these short forms represent the habits of a Class Dialect ? Cf. the long forms bead, knead, etc. In the dialects long forms are often found where Standard has short and vice versa. Any one who has lived in Ireland knows that there we speak of a horse being able to [Isp] well = 'jump '. With the shortening of [s] compare that of [e], § 231. M.E. 6^ (tense). — Independent Treatment. § 236. M.E. 5^ (tense) becomes [ia]. All careful poets in M.E. distinguish in their rhymes between tense and slack 0. The former, as we have seen (§ 263, Note), probably became [u] as early as the fourteenth century in the dialects of the S.W. of England. We have no means of knowing exactly how early this change took place in Standard English, but the earliest sixteenth-century Grammarians all describe an [G] sound in words which had tense in M.E., and such spellings as umst (about 1400, Lond. Records, Horn, p. 89) ; gnd (1419, Morsbach, Schriftspr., p. 48), gtid, gowde (frequently) ; tuk (Cely Papers, Siissbier, p. 43), etc., leave no doubt that the [ii] was established at least by the beginning of the fifteenth century. The spellings giid, goude, §§233-7] M.E. Tense 139 siotid, etc., occur also in the Paston Letters (Zachrisson, p. 77), which show that the sound was pretty general. The process consisted in the gradual raising and over-rounding of o, till the high position of the tongue, and full rounding were attained. Caxton occasionally uses the symbol oti for old o, and even in Edward VI's First Prayer Book such spellings as stotid, Jlotid occur. This L. M.E. [u] has three possible developments in Stan- dard English, which are seen in different groups of words. (i) [u] remains down to the present time : [mun, spun, rud, sun, tu]?, stul, fud, gus, huf], etc., etc. ; moon, spoon, rood, soon, tooth, stool, food, goose, hoof. (a) [u] remains down to late eighteenth or early nineteenth century, and is then shortened and made slack : [g/?d, h«d, s//t, iiiX., k/zk, r?^k, \uV, st?M], etc., etc. ; good, hood, soot, foot, cook, rook, look, stood. (si \y^ *s shortened early in the sixteenth century, or perhaps before. The new [u] is levelled under M.E. short ii and is unrounded in the late sixteenth century ; see § 250. The sound resulting from this unrounding has produced present- day [a]. Words of this group are : [blad, flad, glav, dan, man)?, mast, ma'Sa], etc., etc. ; blood, flood, glove, done, month, must (vb.), mother. § 237. The distribution of these three types is quite fixed now in Received Standard, but varies considerably among the various Modified Standards, and in the Regional Dialects, [sat] ' soot ' is now a vulgarism. In the Regional Dialects and the Modified Standard of the North Midlands [u] is still heard in all words before k, [tuk, luk], etc. The differences among the sixteenth-century Gram- marians in the distribution of [ul and [u], and among the seventeenth-century ones, in that of [u] and [u, a], may be partly due to differences of age, the pronunciation being further developed in some than in others, but it must also be due to influences of Class and Regional character, just as at the present day. Note i. If we accept Luick's interpretation of M.E. wode 'wood', above, love, § 174, we must assume Late M.E. [wud, abuv, luvl, and they will fall under § 236, group (2) with hood, etc., or under (3) with blood. Note 2. M.E. gold, with lengthening before Id (§ 114), normally became [guld], and this was the fashionable Received Standard form well into the nineteenth century. By the side of M.E. gold, however, £old also existed, due probably to the analogy of the a.d}. g-oldene, g^oldne (§f I7S 140 History of English Sounds: I I I. Modern [chap.vh (7), 176), and this later became [gold] long after the old long form had become [guld]. (See § 242 for ^V + cons.) This late form has completely ousted the old [guldj, which survives, however, in the family name Gould by the side of Gold. § 238. Combinative Treatment of M.E. 5^ + r. In M.'E.Jidr, swor, mdr,pdre, hore ' floor ', ' swore ', ' moor ', ' poor ', ' whore ' ; in M.E. dort^ ' door ' (§ 174) ; in dord ' board ', hard {^ 114), etc., d was not raised to [u], but seems to have become [5] in part of Early Standard. Some early writers, however, have [miir, pur, bijrd], etc. At the present time both types survive among different speakers, in some words. Thus [puo, p5, mu3, m5]. As a rule, in Received Standard, apart from poo7', inoor^ boor, only [5] obtains in words contain- ing M.E. dr. In the dialects, however, we may hear [busrd, fluor, huor], etc. (Cp. Luick, Aiiglia, xvi, p. 461, who assumes the series [5r, Or, 5r, 5r].) Mutschmann, Bcibl. z. Aiiglia, June, 1908, suggests the in- fluence of the preceding lip-consonants to account for [puo, muo, buo, mu9n]. § 239. Word, worthy, which now have [a], may have had 0^ in M.E. In this case, they had [u] in Early Mod., a view supported by such spellings as zvoord, woortJiie in Ediv. VI First P. B. The development from Early Mod. would be [wurd, wurd, ward, wlrd, wAd], etc. M.E. 52 (slack). § 240. Independent Development. M.E. Note. The disappearance of the u in Imigh depends upon the develop- ment of the old [x^] into [f]. In dialects where \-x\ remained, the diph- thong also remained and became [5] ; cp. [I5hl in Scotch. Luick rightly says, p. 496, that there were two different developments in M.E., which led, one to [f], the other to \x\. The starting-point is a back open cons. [;^] with lip-modification. In one type of speech the lip element is increased and the back weakened, and this ultimately results in [f] as in [lafta]. In the other, the lip element is weak and the back element strong, and no [f] arises, but [x] remains, and is subsequently lost as in [slota]. The weak point in Luick's scheme, it seems to me, is the assumption of the form \\.aui\ at all. There is, so far as I know, no evidence that it ever existed, [li^m;^], which gave [I5x], vve are certain of. It seems much simpler to assume that the type which developed [f] was never diphthongized at all, but passed from [l^X^] to [Lif] in E. Modern. Cp. the 1563 spelling A?^ cit. § 221. If we take the two words slaughter and laughter we can compare and contrast the development [slaxter< €iau-x\.&x<. slo«xter< slf/^t3r< sbz^t3r< sl5t9r ; Ia;^"'t3r- The chronological usage may be summed up as follows : sixteenth century : [oi, and ui] ; seventeenth century : [ui, ai] and already [^i] was restored ; eighteenth century : [ai, a\\ and a greater use of restored [ei, heo thai pey A. hem hefii, hom hem ) , j j hem D. hein hem, hom hem, heom ) ' ' ^ hem The London official dialect of the thirteenth century, as shown in Henry Ill's Proclamation (1258), has only hco for Nom. PL, and heom in Ace. and Dat. ; Davie (1327) has still only hij in N. PL AH the London official documents of the fourteenth century \i2iVQpei,pey, they, etc., in the Nom. In the earliest Lond. Ch., for the other cases, Jiem alone is found, and even in the later documents where payin, thaim, pain, etc., appear, Jiein pre- ponderates largely (Morsbach, Schriftspr., pp. 122, 123). The language of Mandeville, Chaucer, Gower, and Wycliffe agrees in this respect with the fourteenth-century London documents; these writers all have tJici^pei, they., etc., in the Nom., but the Scand. forms are unknown in the other cases : Ace. Dat. hem. Hoccleve and Lydgate (1420) have pei, they in Nom. but Jiein in the oblique cases; Malory (1469) has they in Nom., theyin, them in Ace, hem in Dat. ; Caxton {Troyc, 1471) they, but hem more usually in Dat. Ace, though I note also hem in Ace. Nut-brown Maid (1500) and Skelton (1522) have the th-iovms throughout. I have noted the form ^hem as late as 1605, several times in Marston's Easttvard Hoc. All the Present-day dialects have they or some variant of it ; the old hi, etc., has completely vanished. In the oblique cases, however, [am], the descendant of hem, survives to this day in the dialects and even in Standard English. This is the form written 'em, as though it were reduced from them. Down to and during the eighteenth century, this form was 174 Historical Sketch of English Inflexions [chap.vih a recognized form even in serious, if somewhat colloquial writing. In good colloquial Spoken English [am] is frequent, though perhaps becoming obsolescent among some classes of society. The loss of the initial Jl parallel to that in it, and the reduction of the vowel, are of course due to the unstressed position, in which alone [om] can be used. We may summarize the results of the above account of the Pers. Pronouns in M.E. in the following table : First Person. Second Person. N. ic, ice, ich, I,y pil, thou, pou Ace. Dat. me pe, thee, pee Third Person. Masc. Fern. Neuter. N. he, ha, a heo,hi,htie,ho,ie,}he,)ho, N.A.h/t,tt,a scde,, schee, sche, she, sclio, etc. A. hine, hyne, hin, him, hi, here, her, hire, hir, er hy»i D. him, hyin hire, here, etc., hurre him Plural. N. hie, hi, hij, heo,pei, pai, /?ejj, they, thai, etc. A. hi, heoifi, hem, ham, hise, his, paim, peim, pern, thaim, them, theytn, etc. D. heom, hem, hemm, ham, hom, paim, peim, etc. Possessive Pronouns § 302. The O.E. Genitives, viJn, pin, his, etc., were used both as real Genitives, and as purely possessive adjectives. In the former case they were often used after verbs and adjectives which in O.E. govern the Gen., e.g. id eom his gepafa 'I con- sent to it (his) ' ; or God helpe mln ' God help me ', etc. In the second case, some of these words {inin,pin, eoiver, lire) were declined in full like ordinary adjectives, agreeing in Number, Gender, and Case with the nouns before which they stood — mid miimvi edgiim (Dat. PI.) ' with my eyes '. In M.E. the purely Genitive force is very early lost, though there are some examples of a survival of this in early texts : e.g.Pe Jmile he niei his wealden ' so long as he has power over it', where his is the Gen. of the Neuter hit, governed by •wealden ' rule, have power over, etc' {Oivl ajtd Nightingale, Egerton MS., 1. ^^) ; further, ffog ic is Jiaiie drogen in wo, Gen. and Ex. 2403, ' though I have borne it (is) in misery '. §§301-5] Possessive Pronouns 175 A^enbite has God his aiwckep, p. 70, ' God will punish it ' ; bote he his ne knawc, ' unless he know it not ', ibid. The Genitives of the Pers. Prons., then, become mere Possessives, and are usually uninflected, though occasionally ■^ey take a suffix -e, probably on the analogy of Jiire^ Jiere ' her', 'their', which preserved the e from O.E. ^, and a. The typical M.E. forms of the possessives are as follows, though it seems unnecessary to give an exhaustive list of every possible variant : 3rd 2nd M. ^ _ 1st F. ~~N. niin bin his hire, here his mi Pi hise his, her ure jttre here 07ire yonre oure, etc. heore hare hor, hure, etc. Sing. PI. § 303. The First Person. M.E. texts often — one might say generally — distinguish between vtln used before words beginning with vowels, and ml before those beginning with consonants. In the Sth., God Ureisim, Soides Warde, Ozvl and Nightin- gale, and in the Kt. Homilies, Vesp. A. 22, the form mire occurs, probably formed from mi- on the analogy of hi-i'-e (Fem.). § 304. The Second Person. The same distinction between /Jw and// is made as between viln and ml. Ozvl and Nightingale and God Ur. have a form ptrc (also Dat. Fem.) which may be explained on the same analogy as imre, § 303 above. Or the analogy may be the PI. ^ou-re, ou-re. Note. Parallel to mire, plre. Owl and Nightingale and Moral Ode have ore Dat. Sing. Fem. of 5 'one'. The O.E. forms are an, dnre. Ore is probably a new formation from M.E. Nom. o (before cons.), which was often used by Chaucer as a kind of emphatic Indef. Art., ' a single The Possessive Pronoun of 3rd Person Feminine. § 305. The O.E. form Jiire survives in M.E. as hire, hyre, in nearly all texts, and is far the commonest form. We find here but rarely in early texts. St. Editha, however, favours herre, but also has htirre and Imr. The forms with c probably owe this vowel to the analogy of such a Nom. Fem. as lie. 1 76 Historical Sketch of English Inflexions [chap, vm Hnrre probably represents an older heore, where the diphthong may be due either to the Norn, heo, or to the diphthongized forms of the PI. : heovi, heora, etc. Of course M.E. forms with u may also represent an O.E. hyre. The use of her{e) is of interest, since it is the ancestor of the Standard English form. In the West Midi. Wil. of PaL here occurs, though Jiire is the commonest form, and Jmre occurs once according to Skeat (Glossary of W. of Pal.). Allit. P. seems generally to have her as Possess., though hyr otherwise ; Myrc has hyrc. Turning to the London and Literary Dialect, the London Records have hcr{e) far more frequently than hir (Morsbach, p. 136); Gower and Chaucer have only hir{e) ; Capgrave (1394- 1 460), hire, here being rare (Dibelius, Anglia, xxiv. 220) ; Lydgate (1420), usually her as Possess., hir in the other cases; Pecock (1449), her; the rather illiterate Cely Papers which give a good picture of Middle Class speech (1475-88) have here, hyr, and occasionally har (Sussbier, p. ']']) ; Caxton has both hej'e and hir ; Coverdale generally has hir, but her occasionally (Swearingen, p. 37) ; Skelton (1522) only ^ler; Edw. V/'s 1st P.B. (1547) her ov\y ; TotteVs Misc. (1557) still has hir as usual form, with occasional her (Hoelper, p. 48), and I have noted the former in Eiiphiies (i5«i)- It appears, then, that the introduction oiher was very gradual, and its exclusive use comparatively late. In the later period, it may have developed from Jiir by a lowering of i in unstressed positions. It is not easy to ascribe the form to any particular dialect area, since it appears in various districts sporadically ; quite early in Kent ( Wil. of Shoreham), in the S. West, in W. Midi., and in the non-dialectal Pecock who is supposed to represent the Oxford type of literary English. It may be noted that liir was a useful distinctive form for the P'em. Sing., so long as her was in use as the Possess. PI. With the introduction and general use of tJieir, etc., however, her could be used in the Sing, without ambiguity. The Possessive Plural of the Third Person. § 306. The displacement of the English forms here, etc., by the Scandinavian /(?i>, etc., was like that of the O.E. Dat. hem, etc., of the Pers. Pron., a slow process in the Midlands and South. The earliest M.E. Northern texts, on the other hand, know only the /-, ^/^-forms of the Possessive PL In E. Midi., however, Onnulum is the only early M.E. text which has the /-forms, though it still preserves the English forms as §§ 305-6] TJic Possessives Here and Their 177 well. None of the Sthn. or Kentish texts, none of the W. Midi., and none of the great fourteenth-century writers, Chaucer, WycHffe, Mandeville or Gower, have any trace of peir, Pair, etc. The London Proclamation of Hen. Ill (1258) has a Gen. /ler, and this is also Davie's form. The London documents of the fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries utilized by Morsbach are the first texts, other than the Northern, and Orimihim, which make any considerable use of the //^-forms, and they preserve here, etc., as well. The fifteenth-century Hoccleve and Lydgate use her, but Malory and Caxton have ther, their ; the latter also her, Mr a few times (Romstedt, p. 41). The later fifteenth-century London Charters have here comparatively rarely ; their, etc., is the predominating form, and becomes more and more so with every decade (Lekebusch, p. no). Henceforth these forms seem practically the only ones, but Nat-brown Maid (c. 1500) has her as well. As late as i557) TotteVs Misc. has her a few times. The following are the chief forms of the 3rd Pers. Possess. PI. in the principal dialectal texts : God Ur. Southern. ^ Lambeth Moral Ancr. Horns. Ode. Riw. Jiore hare,heore heora, hore, heore hare Owl& Robt.of Tre- Night. Glos. visa. eore hor, here here St. Ed. hure'^ htcrre Kentish. Vesp. A. 22. hare E. MiDL. Laud Chron. Orm. heore. Kt. Sermons. here, hire Shoreham. hare A5enbite. hare, hire heore, here, hire pejjre Gen. «& Ex. Havelok. here, her, here hure Robt. of Brunne. here Bokenam. hyr, here, ther W. MiDL. E. Engl. Pr. Ps. Jos. of Ar. Allit. P. W. of Pal. Myrc. Audelay. her heore, here her, hor, here here here Northern. ends. Cursor. N. Psalter. Metr. Homs. Minot. Bruce. pair bar pair thair paire thair It seems evident from these statistics that their comes into Literary English through East Midland, from the North. M I yS Historical Sketch of English Inflexions [chap, vm Declension of Nouns. § 307. Gender. English makes no distinctions of gram- matical gender in nouns, but only recognizes the natural dis- tinctions of sex. The confusion of genders which is observable in Early Transition texts (see account, §§ 284-7 above, of forms of article) was partly due to the working of analogy which levelled out distinctions in declensional types, partly to the weakening of vowels in unstressed syllables to -e which took place during the last quarter of the eleventh and the first quarter of the twelfth century, thus wiping out formal distinctions to a very great extent. § 308. Case. In Modern English the only case, in Nouns, distinguishable from the Nom., is the Genitive or Possessive. Of this case, only one type, that with the suffix -s, survives, and is used both in Sing, and PI. This suffix is written -s: dog's tail, kings crozvn, etc. It should be noticed that although the spelling is fixed, the actual form of the suffix, as pronounced, varies according to the character of the final sound of the Noun. After voiceless consonants the suffix is [-s] as in [ksets, Jz'psl, etc. After voiced consonants, and vowels, the suffix is [-z] as in [dogz te/1, le/dz'z fez's], etc. After the open consonants [z, J, z, s] the suffix is [-iz] in Standard English, but often [-9z] in Provincial and Vulgar English, as in [h5sz'z hed, f/Jzz fzn, brz'dzzz end], etc. The origin of this suffix is the O.E. -es, a typical Genitive Singular suffix for Masc. and Neuter Nouns: fixs cyninges stum, sweordes ccg ' the King's son, sword's edge '. This suffix in O.E. and Early M.E. was confined to Masc. and Neuter Nouns of the Strong Declensions. It was very early extended to all Genders, and to original Weak Nouns as well : pxre corpan sceat ' the bosom of the earth ', becoming first */^r erpen schet and then/^- erpes bdsme\ Mod. Engl, earth's, etc. In O.E. there were other types of strong declension, both Masc. and Fem. Thus a fairly large class are the so-called o-stems like giefu ' gift ' (fem.), which in the Sing, is declined as follows : at ■ • /• N. gtefu A. giefe G. D. giefe Another is that of ?/-stems which include words of all genders. The following is an example : S. N. SU91U * son ' A. sitnti, -a G. suna, etc. §§ 307-10] Possessive Case of Nouns 179 Note. We should expect the Possess, of wife, caIf\.o be [w^/vz, kavz] instead of the actual [wi^/Zfs, krtfs], which are new formations on analogy of Nom. We still say [kf^Fvzhed] however, and \\vaivz\ survived in seventeenth century, cp. spelling luives in Marston's Eastward Hoe. The Possessive Singular in M.E. § 309. These types, whose cases are not very clearly distinguished, even in O.E., suffer in M.E. the further levelling of their suffixes to -e, so that there is nothing to distinguish one type from another. They are, however, distinguishable from the commonest type, in that they have -e in the Gen. Sing, instead of -es. Sporadic examples of words with -e in the Gen. Sing, occur throughout the M.E. period. The Sth. and Kt. texts have such forms of Gen. Sing, as sune, his wide detk, in the Masc. and in the Fem. hiierte loue * heart's love ', soiile fode ' soul's food ', senne slepe ' sleep of sin ', ihovene month ' the oven's mouth ', oiire leuedi soster ' our Lady's sister ', etc. In the E. Midi., Gen. and Ex. has helle nigt ' the night of hell ', steore name * star's name ', but as a rule the -es suffix is used for Fem. nouns as well as Masc. St. Katherine (W. Midi.) uses -es [-is) in Gen. S. for nouns of all genders — lefdis ' lady's ', etc. Allit.P. generally has -es in Fem. as well as Masc, but writes honde iny^t once. In fourteenth-century London documents, Morsbach finds a few cases in which the suffix -es is omitted, or replaced by -e in Fem. words : sotde hele ' soul's welfare ', seint Katerine day ' St. Katherine's day ', onre lady chapell * our Lady's Chapel', etc. The last is the origin of the Modern Lady Chapel. Chaucer generally has -es for all genders, but omits s occasionally in old Fem. words: herte (also hertes), widive, cherche, lady, and once in the old Masc. ?^-stem snne. Caxton has a few survivals like oure lady matins, atte brydge foote, etc. He also often omits -s after words ending in -s — Kinge Mene- laus ^vyf, sir Patryse dethe, etc. This practice is followed also by Coverdale — Moses wife, righteous sake, and is found later in the Authorized Version. For the adverbial use of the Gen., see below under Adverbs, §325(3). The Plural of Nouns. § 310. In Mod. Engl, the only question we need ask con- cerning the declension of a Noun is, * How does it form its Plural?' M a i8o Historical Sketch of English Inflexions [chap, vm Apart from foreign words like seraph — seraphim, stigma — stigmata, rhiiioccrus — rhifwceri, etc., which take Hebrew, Greek, and Latin PKirals respectively, whose use must be con- fined to the learned, the types of Plural formation in English are very few. They are the following : A. -s-Plurals : cat— cats, etc. ; B. Weak Plurals : ox — oxen ; C. Mutation Pis. : tooth — teeth, etc. ; D. Invariables : sheep, deer ; E. Irregular, Double Pis. : children, etc. § 311. A. -s-Plurals. These include nearly all Nouns in the language; indeed the number of each of the other types is so small that, although they include some very important words, many grammarians who deal only with English as it is consider them as ' irregular '. The -j-'Sufifix varies in pronunciation according to the same conditions which determine the form of the Possessive (§ 308, above) : [kiets, dogz, leidiz, h5s/z, hridziz], etc., etc. There is also a class of words ending in f in the Nom. Sing., which take the suffix [z] and voice the [f] to [v] ; e. g. toaf — loaves [lo7/f — lo?/vz, kaf- — k«vz], etc. The explanation of this is that in O.K./, though voiceless finally, was voiced between vowels, so that the forms were hlaf — hlafas,/ in the PI. being pronounced [v]. In M.E. the PI. was loves, and later, when the vowel of the suffix was lost, the combination [vs] naturally became [vz]. Thus the 2^-spelling in Mod. English indicates a phonetic change which took place in O.E. The O.E. forms of the Masc. type are : Sing. PI. N. A. Mm ' home ' JidDias G. hdmes hama D. hd7ne hdinum § 312. B. Weak Plurals. The only surviving word of this type in common use in Standard English is ox, PI. oxen. {Brethren and children will be considered under E, below.) A few others survive in the Dialects, and a few such as shoon, een, are occasionally found in rather artificial literary usage. The Weak Class was originally a very large one. In O.E. it included Masculine, Fem., and Neuter words. Examples are : Masc. — giima ' man ', hana ' cock ', ne/a ' nephew ', steorra ' star ', hnnta ' hunter ', nama ' name ', mona ' moon ', etc., etc. ; Fem. — eorde,folde 'earth', heorte 'heart', sjinne 'sun', swealwe §§310-12] Extension of Weak Declension in M.E. i8i ' swallow ', bed ' bee ', id ' toe ', clife ' cliff', pise * pea ', cwhie ' woman ' ; Neuter — eage ' eye ', edre ' ear '. The O.E. Weak Declensions run as follows : Masc. Fem. Neuter. S. PI. S. PI. S. PI. N. mona monan heorte heortan eage eagan A. Dionan mojian heortan heortan eagen eagan G. monan indne7ia heortan heortefia eagan eagena D. monan inoniim heortan heoriuin eagan lagum In M.E. this form of declension is largely extended in the Sthn. and Kentish texts, so that many originally strong words are included, and we find Pis. like applen, bischopen, sustren, bruggen 'bridges', dazven 'days', deden 'deeds', Jieveden ' heads ', honden ' hands ', wingen ' wings ', etc. Original Wk. nouns preserve their ending : chiirchcn, Jmnten ' hunters ', peseii ' peas(e) ', herteji ' hearts ', ton ' toes ', eyen ' eyes ', etc. Many Latin and N. Fr. Loan-words also take -en in PL : develen, diaknen ' deacons ', mylen ' miles ', chambren ' cham- bers \joyen ' joys ', etc. The texts of the Sthn. and Kent, are very fond of a Wk. Gen. PI. in -ejie, O.E. -ena, which is used even with words originally strong, and which the Sthn. texts themselves other- wise regard as such. Thus king. Gen. S. kirtges, D. kinge, N. Ace. PI. kinges, Dat. kingen (O.E. cyn{in)guvi), but Gen. hingene. The apparent spread of the Wk. type in the Sth. may have been due to the analogy of the Dat. PI., O.E. -rtni, M.E. -en. The latter would be indistinguishable from the M.E. repre- sentative of the O.E. wk. suffix -a7i. The Gen. PI. ending -ena was also common in O.E. in the so-called e holy man tellep vs and seys ]?at |7e lofe made euen peys. The W. Midi., owing no doubt to Nthn. influence, frequently has -s in 2nd and 3rd. In the Nth. -s is universal in 2nd and 3rd Sing. Note. Wil. of Pal. has -es, -us and -ep, -up in 3rd S. about equally (Schiiddekopf, p. 74). The late Audelay has -is, -ys, -s most frequently, but also a fair number of examples of -eth, -yth, -uth (Rasmussen, p. 82). In the London Dialect, and Literary English the -s type gained ground but slowly. The earliest London documents to first quarter of fourteenth century have only -ep (Dolle, p. 72) ; the later fourteenth-century documents have only -ip, -ith, -ep, -eth, except for one Nth. -s form (Morsbach, Schriftspr., pp. 134, 136, 137); Chaucer with one exception in rhyme, telles — elles, has only -eth, -ith, in Verse and in Prose (ten Brink, § 185 ; Frieshammer, p. 95) ; the fifteenth- century London Charters, etc., have an enormous preponder- ance of -////-forms, but about three examples of -es (Leke- N 194 Historical Sketch of English Inflexions [chap, vm busch, pp. 121 and 123); Caxton has only -eih^ or -ith (Romstedt, p. 45). The Oxford writers, Wycliffe and Pccock, employ only -///, but Lydgate has frequent -es forms, while Capgrave has only one (Dibelius, Angiia, xxiv, p. 247). In the sixteenth century the -^j-forms become gradually more common, especially in poetry. Down to 1580 or so, -th is almost exclusively used in Prose, and the -es forms seem to have come into the literary language, largely through the poets, who use them for the convenience of rhyme, and to have passed thence into prose (Hoelpcr, pp. 54-7). These Nthn. forms probably came into literary English from E. Midi. They are fairly frequent in the Paston Letters, and as we have seen, in Lydgate (Dibelius, loc. cit.). In W. Midi., how- ever, they are common much earlier, and occurred also, occasionally, early in fourteenth century in E. Midi. The Present Indicative. B. The Plural. The Sthn. dialects preserve the O.E. -ap, in the weakened form -ep. While the typical Midland ending is -e7i, from the Subj., later weakened to -c, W. Midi, texts, by the side of this ending, and the typical -lai, very frequently use the Nthn. -s {-es, us). Nthn. dialects have regularly -s, which as we saw in § 328, Note 2, is found already in O. Northumb. It is interesting to observe the encroachment of the Midi, type in the London dialect, and the gradual elimination of the Sthn. -ep form. The earliest Charters have -ap, -ep, but Henry Ill's Procl. (1258), while still retaining -ep in hahbep, beop, shows already a preponderance of the Midi, -en forms : willen^ Jioateji, senden, beon (twice). Davie (1327) has only one example of -ep. In Morsbach's fourteenth-century documents, Sthn. -eih still lingers occasionally, but Midi, -en, or -e are very much commoner {Schriftspr.,"^^. 134,136,137) ; Chaucer's Prose has -eji oftener than -e. In rhymes, -e is nearly universal, -en rare. Frieshammer (p. 96) mentions only four examples of -th Pis. Pecock and Caxton have -en. The late London Charters, etc., have most often -en, or, after a vowel, -;/ ; by the side of this, but considerably less often, -e ; -etk is found rather more than twenty times, and once -ith ; -es occurs twice. A certain number of forms without any ending are used, but these are not very frequent (Lekebusch, p. 124). Shakespeare has ' and wax^;^ in their mirth ' (cit. Morris's Hist. Outlines, ed. Kellner-Bradley, p. 257), where the suffix is obviously used for the sake of the metre. Ben Jonson, writing 1640, says that the suffix -en was used in the PI, §§329-31] Personal Endings of Preterite 195 'till about the reign of Henry VIII', but adds that 'now it hath quite grown out of use' (cit. Kellner-Bradley, p. 257, footnote). Professor H. R. Case has been good enough to supply me with fairly numerous examples of the Northern -s Plurals in the literature of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. These seem to be more frequent, though of course scattered, in the seventeenth than in the preceding century, and must be due to the Scottish influence of the Court. Professor Case gave instances of these forms both from Prose and Poetry, in the works of Churchill, Marston, Davenant, and other writers. § 330. The Preterite. In O.E., whereas the 2nd Person Sing, of Weak Verbs had the sufhx -est, like the Present, Strong Vbs., on the other hand, had only -e in this Pers. The vowel of the base is different from that of the ist and 3rd Pers. in O.E. and M.E. So long as this distinction was preserved by the Strong Vbs. the ending remains unchanged, but later, when the vowel of the 2nd Pers. is levelled under that of the other Sing, forms, this Pers. takes -est on the analogy of the Present. Chaucer preserves the old distinction of vowel in the 2nd Sing. Pret. only in verbs of the si)ig,find-ty^Qy and not always here. He often has such forms as thoji founde. He also has forms without -est in vbs. whose vowel in 2nd Pret. has been levelled under that of ist and 2nd Pers. — tho7i drank. On the other hand, forms like begonnest are also found (ten Brink, § 193)- Caxton habitually inflects the 2nd Pret. Sing, with -est, -tst, both in Wk. and Strong Vbs., but exceptionally has thott took, had, fond, gate, saive, knewe (Romstedt, p. 37 ; Price, p. 188). In Wyclifife, Bokenam, Pecock, and Capgrave, the -est forms greatly predominate, though the old forms are also found (Dibelius, Anglia, xxiv, p. l^d). Price, p. 188, gives examples of the uninflected forms from Shakespeare and Hey wood. § 331. The Present Participle in M.E. and afterwards. In a general way, the form of the Pres. Part, is a useful indication of dialect in M.E., but it must not be relied upon absolutely, without considering the other dialectal features of a text. The Sthn. and Kentish texts have -ifide, the Midland generally -ende, and the Nthn. always -and. The more Northerly portions of E. Midi, dialect, however, e.g. as seen in R. of Brimne (Lincolnshire), have -and after the Nthn. use, N 2 196 Historical Sketch of English Inflexions [chap, vm and the Sthn. Midi, has -vide according to the Sthn. dialect. The West Midi, texts have very commonly -ajid., except Jos. of Ar., which has habitually -hide. By the side of these forms, a new type of Pres. Part, comes into use, first in the Sth. during the M.E. period, one in -inge. The origin of this is uncertain. It is first used in the Sth., and is the ancestor of the Present-day form. Kellner-Bradley, p. l6'>^^ mention ridhige in La^amoji, used in the same sentence with the older and more usual goinde. Handlyng Synne has already a fair number of forms in -yng, but otherwise the Nthn. type -a7idy especially in rhymes. The Sthn. Trevisa, according to Morris, Introd. to A^enbite^ p. Ixiv, has always -inge, -ing, never -inde. The Kentish A^enbite has only -indc, -ynde. In W. Midi., Earliest Engl. Pr. Ps. has generally -and, but also iji keping hem ; Jos. of Ar. several forms in -inge, by the side of -inde\ A Hit. P. -atide ; Wil. of Pal. -and thirteen times, Midi, -end twelve, and -ing ten times (Schliddekopf, p. 75) ; Andelay has almost exclusively -ing, twice -a7id in rhyme, and once -a7id in the middle of a line (Rasmussen, p. 83). The earliest London documents have -inde in Procl., but Davie only -ing (Dolle, p. 73) ; Chaucer's Prose -i7ig{e), rarely -e7ige (Frieshammer, p. 97) ; Morsbach's Charters, etc., only -y7ig{e) {ScJiriftspr., pp. 175, etc.); the later Charters have only -y7ig, -i7ig, or -e7ig (Lekebusch, pp. 122, 123, 125). It is worth noting that Chaucer's contemporary Gower very rarely uses the -i7ig{e) form, but almost invariably -ende, with the accent upon this suffix (Macaulay's Introd. to the small ed. Conf. Amant.^ p. xliv). The Weak Verbs § 332. It should be noted that the distinguishing feature of a weak verb is that it has the ending -ed, -t in the Past Tense. Some weak verbs show a change of vowel, as teach — taught, O.K. txca7i — tdhte, where one form has z'-mutation, and the other has not (§ 106) ; others show a change of vowel due to gradation, bri7tg — brought. Classes of Weak Verbs. There are originally three classes of Weak Verbs : (i) Those in ~^jan which have z-mutation whenever the original vowel is a back. {a) When the original vowel of the base is short, the following consonant, other than r, is doubled in the Inf., ir\ §§33^-2] Weak Verbs 197 all forms of the Present except the and and 3rd Pers. Sing, and the 2nd Imperat. Examples : Inf. Pret. P.P. nerian ' save ' iemman ' tame ' cnyssan ' strike ' settan ' set ' nerede temede cnyssede sette (ge)-nered {ge)-temed {ge)-cnyssed \ge)-seted from ^nazjan, etc from *tammjan from *knussjan from *sattjan {b) When the vowel, or syllable of the base is long, no doubling of the consonant takes place. The Pret. ending is usually -de, earlier -ida, the -i- having been syncopated, except after -r, and often /. Examples : Inf. Pret. P.P. deman ' )\xdg&* demde {ge)-demed y>-^ra« * comfort ' frefrede {ge)-/refred ddelan ' divide ' dxlde {ge)-ddeled (W.S.) /iJeran 'hear' hJerde {ge)-htered from *ddmjati from *fro/rJan from *daljan from *hedrjan (2) -dJanW&rhs. This suffix appears in O.E. as -/««, having passed through -cjan, tjan, and then being shortened to -ian. The bases of these verbs have no mutation. The Pres. Indie. Sing, normally runs lodge, locast, locap. The Pret. ends in -ode, and the P.P. in -od. Examples : Inf. locian hdlgian pancian ' thank ' "wilnian ' desire ' Pret. locode halgode pancode wilnode P.P. {ge)-ldcod ( ge)-halgod {ge)-pancod ( ge)-iuilnod from *ldkdjan from *hdl{a)gdjan from *pankdjan from *'wilndjan (3) So-called -e- Verbs. These verbs, whose formation offers some difficulties, are those in which the suffix -ja- interchanges with Gmc. -ai-, or -X- in the various forms. The Inf. and Pres. Indie, ist Pers. Sing., and the Pres. Indie. PI. have doubling of the consonant, and y-mutation of preceding vowel in these forms ; the suffix of the Pret. is added to the base directly, without any intervening vowel. lqS Historical Sketch of English Inflexions [chap, vm Examples : Inf. hdebban ' have ' hdebbe hafast hdefsf hiifiij) haefp habbap libba7i [lifiati) libbc {lifige) Icofast (liofcisf) leofaj) {liofap) libbaii {leofap, lio/ap) secgan ' tell, say ' saga si [sdegst W.S.) sagaj? {sdcgp W.S.) secg{e)ap Pret. hae/de P.P. {ge)-hxfd lifde (also leaf ode like -djan vb.) gelifd sdegde {ge)-sdegd) I St 2nd 3rd PI. 1st 2nd 3rd PI. 1st 2nd 3rd PI. Note i. The difference between ietnman from *ia)>imjan and iemede from *ta7nida is due to the interchange of -ja- and -i- in the suffix. Before -_;■- a consonant is doubled, but not before -/-. Note 2. In dxlan from *ddljan the double consonant has been simplified after a long vowel. Note 3. The bb in hdebban is from *-tj-. The se in this form and in hdebbe is the^-mutation oi a. * Hatjan<* hdebbjan, which would become *hebban. Hdebban is a new formation *habbjajt, on the analogy of *ha5-as, *hatap 2nd and 3rd Pers. Sing. Cp. also | 107 Note. Irregular Weak Verbs. § 333' There is a certain number of verbs which have -ja- in the Inf. and Pres. (all except bringan), but which have often lost the -i- of the stem, before the suffix -de in the Pret. and P.P. Many of these survive to the present time. The com- bination of the Pret. suffix with the final consonant of the base often brings about considerable changes in the latter. Inf. sellan ' give, sell ' tellan ' tell, count' settan ' set, place ' lecg{e)an ' lay ' bycgan ' buy ' recc{e)an ' narrate ' strecc{e)an ' stretch ' pecc{e)an ' cover ' ldec{e)an ' seize ' raec{e)an ' reach ' txc{e)an * teach ' Pret. scalde (Angl, tealde (Angl, sette legde bo/ite reahie streahte peahte Idehte rxhte rahte tdehte idhte P.P. salde) geseald (Angl. said) tdlde) geteald (Angl. tdld) geset{t) gelegd geboht gereaht gestreaht gepeaht geldeht gefdeht getxht, getdht §§332-4] Irregular Weak Verbs 199 p.p. Infin. Pret. recc{e)an * reck ' rohte sec{e)an ' seek ' sohtc penc[e)an ' think' pohte J>ync{e)an ' seem ' piihtc •u>yrc[e)an ' work ' worhtc brinf^an brohte gesoht gepoht gepuJit geivorht gebroht Notes i. sdlan, tellan have mutation of ae (§ 107), but Fracture of as in Pret. (§ 102). The Sthn. and Kt. representative of i'^rti/^/^ in M.E. is selde. solde and Mod. sold are from Anglian sdlde (§§ 126, 164, 165). 2. sette is from '■satda, *satta, and owes its e to the Pres. ; legde is also an analogous form. 3. bycgan is from *bug-jan (§ 109) ; bohte from *bux-ia, with change of u to before a in next syllable. 4. reccan — reahte and all the verbs which have cc or c in Inf. and Pres. and -ht- in Pret. illustrate the Gmc. and O.E. change of kt to Jit : *rdkjaft ieltan mealt juulton molten So also sweltan ' die ', delfan ' delve, dig ', swelgan ' swallow ', etc. brdegd bderst brugdon burston brogden borsten frdegn spearn friigno7i spurnon frugnen spornen 20 2 Historical Sketch of English Inflexions [chap, vm Group {c). Verbs whose base ends in r, or h + consonant : Inf. Pret. S. Pret. PI. P.P. lueorpan ' hurl ' ivearp wurpon worpen ceorfan ' carve ' cear/ curfon corf en Also wcorpan ' become ', Jnvcorfan ' turn, go ', steorfan * starve ', in sense of ' die ', bcorgmt ' protect ', beorcan ' bark '. feohtan ' fight ' feaht fuhton fohteti Group {d). The following verbs either show the vowel series unchanged, or slightly modified by Fracture, or early change of iito 0: bregdan * draw, brandish ' a sword berstan 'burst' frignan ' ask, find out ' spurnan Note. Spurnan owes its vowel perhaps to the Pret. PI. Frignan may owe its i to the analogy oifrtcg{e)a?i * ask ', from same base = frigjan. § 341. Class IV. Inf. Pret. S. Pret. PI. P.P. bera7i ' bear ' b3er bderon boren brecatt ' break ' brSec brxcon brocen stelan * steal ' stxl staelon stolen Also cwelan ' kill ', /ictan ' conceal '. Note i. JVtman * take ', nom, nomon, numen, and aanan, c{w)dm, c{7i>)dmon, cumen are only irregular in appearance. Nivi- instead of *ftem- is due to the influence of in. Ciint-, man- in P.P. are also due to change of to ti before m. The type aim- of ist Pers. Pres. Indie, and Inf. is from earlier ^cwuntan from *c'weoinan from civvnan. Cp. Goth. giman, and §110 and Note. Nd?n, c{ui)dni, instead of nam, etc., are due to the analogy of the PI. where d is regular before a nasal (§ 99). We also get PI. ndmon and Sing, nam (W.S. and Kt.). Note 2. In non-W.S. these vbs. have of course e in Pret. PI. (§ 123). § 342. Class V. Inf. Pret. S. Pret. PI. P.P. cwepan * speak, say ' cwdep cwdedon civeden sprecan sprdec spraecon sprecen (Late O.E. spec-, etc.) tredan trded traedoft treden W.S. giefan * give ', on-, be-, -gietan ' perceive, obtain ', etc., have the forms : giefan £^^f S^f^^^ giefen gietatt geat geaion gieten The non-W.S. dialects have no diphthongization, and there- §§ 340-4] Reduplicating Verbs hi O.E. 203 fore gcfan, gxf, gefon, gefen, etc. (§§ 115, lao, 123). The following belong to this class : Inf. Pret. S. Pret. PI. P.P. seon ' see ' sea/t sdwon sewen and sdwen gefeon ' rejoice ' gefeah gefxgon — seon from ^schwan (§§ 102, 112), scah from ^sxh, sdivofi from ^sxwttm (cp. § 99 {b) ; sdivcn formed on the analogy of Pret. PI. bidden ' pray ', sittaii ' sit ', licgean ' lie down ', are peculiar as forming the Inf. and 1st Pers. Pres. Indie, with a -ja- stem. This is responsible for i instead of c (W. Gmc. change) and also for the double consonants and eg: biddan from '^bcddjan, sittan from ^settjan, licgan from ^legjan. Gothic has bidjan where i for ^ is a characteristic isolative change. In other respects these verbs are quite regular : sittan^ sxt, sxlon, seten. § 343. Class VI. faran ' go ' for foroji faren bacati ' bake ' boc bdco7i bacen So also luascan ' wash ', galan ' sing ', hladan ' lade ', wadan ' go, pierce ', etc., etc. jj^rt^<2« ' shake ' sc{e)dc sc{e)ocon sceacen owes its diphthong to a late tendency which affected back vowels. standan stod stodoft standen j/^«* strike' slog slogan slagen, slegen{cp.^ 107 on p.p. oislean) pwean ' wash ' p%vdg pivogon These verbs have Fracture, loss of h and contraction in Inf. (§112). A certain number of verbs of this class form Inf. and Pres. with -j-: sceppan 'injure' from ^shappjan, swerian 'swear', steppan 'proceed ', hliehhan 'laugh ', etc. These have mutated vowels and double consonants in the forms mentioned, but are otherwise normal : steppan stop stopon stapen, etc. Reduplicating Verbs § 344. A few verbs in O.E. retain signs of reduplication in Pret. The reduplicated forms are chiefly used in poetry, though heht occurs by the side of hct in prose. hiitan ' order ' heht cp. Goth, haihdit rxdan ' advise ' reord „ rairop Idcan * play ' leolc „ lalldik Ixtan ' let ' leort „ lailot 204 Historical Sketch of English Inflexions [chap, vm § 345, The following verbs have assimilated the redupli- cated syllables : Inf. Pret. S. Pret. PI. P.P. /on ' catch, take ' /^"S^ fengon fangen hon ' hang ' hcm^ hcngon hangen feallafi ' fall ' febll feollon feallen hleapan ' leaf JWebp ]i[edpon hleapen Note. For explanation oi hd?t,fdn, axidijehp, etc., cp. §§ 98, 112, 105, 346. Mutation of 2nd and 3rd Pers. Sing, in Strong Verbs. § 346. As the usual suffixes of these Pers. are -is{t), -ip, the preceding vowel if back, or a diphthong, is fronted : ceose — ctesp, cHinc — cymp, fo—feJip ; \{ e \X. is raised to i : cwcpe — civip^ helpe — Jiilp{e)p, giefc—gifP, etc. Notes on Points connected with the Verb in O.E. (i) The prefix ge- (unstressed), generally used in the P.P. in O.E., without modification of meaning, is found in Gothic in the form ga- and in O.H.G. as gi-. It becomes je- and simply i- in Transition and Early Middle English. It dis- appears altogether in the Nth. in M.E., and to a great extent in Midland, but survives longer in the South. The survival of i- in the fourteenth-century dialect of London (Davie and Chaucer) must be regarded as one of the Southern features of that dialect. The prefix gc- is also used in O.E. with all parts of Verbs with the function of making intransitive verbs transitive, e.g. sittan 'sit', but gesittan 'occupy, take possession of, etc.; gdn 'go, walk', h\xt gegdn, 'overrun, take' (a country, etc.). Verner's La^v. (2) An interchange between h and^,/ and d, often appears in O.E. Strong Verbs. This has primarily nothing to do with verbs as such, but is merely an illustration of a general principle of Sound Change which was active in Primitive Germanic, and it may appear in any class of words where the necessary conditions are present. It should be remembered that g and d stand for sounds which were originally voiced open consonants [3, S] and not stops. The change therefore of h to g, p to d is simply one of voicing to start with, the original sounds being [x, Y\. These represent Aryan k, /, which by the so-called Second Sound Shift are merely opened in Gmc. In positions other than initially (where Xj \y §§ 345-9] Simplificatwii of Strong Verbs in M.E. 205 always remain), these sounds are voiced in Gmc. tvhen the accent in Aryan and Early Gmc. fell on any other syllable than that immediately preceding the x or /. Thus O.E. tveorpan from *we}'J!>an from Aryan ^iv^rt-, but O.E. ivurdon, Gmc. ^ivnrdum, KxydiXK ^wrtihn. Similarly O.^.fxder, Gmc. ^fad\ai,oti,t\ giving the Present-day [r^z'd — xondi. — rz'dn]. Again, CI. IV, which in O.E. had short vowels in all forms except the Pret. PI.: brccan — brxc-, brxcon — ^r^<:^«, developed in M.E. — apart from other changes — long vowels in all forms except the Pret. Sing., through the M.E. process of lengthening which affected the short vowels of open syllables, thus giving breken — brak (also brdk) — breken (also brdken) — broken. Levelling of Pret. PI. under type of Singular (Northern Preterite). § 349. This mode of levelling is an early characteristic of the Northern dialects, and in the Nthn. Homilies, and Cursor Mu?idi, etc., we find Pret. Pis. such as faajid, dranc, bigan^ rade (O.E^. rad), sagh (O.E. sxh 'saw'), etc. This type of 2o6 Historical Sketch of English Inflexions [chap.viii Prct. spread later to the London literary dialect, and to it we owe our forms sa>ig, drank, forbade — [-ba^d], etc. In M.E. this mode of reduction is an important sign of Northern origin, or at least Nthn. influence, when found in a doubtful text. It is referred to by German writers as ndrdlicJicr Ausglcich, and we may call such Frets. Northern Preterites. Levelling of Preterite under type of Past Participle (Western Preterite). § 350. While the dialects of the Sth. and Midlands pre- serve, on the whole, the distinction between the Singular and Plural of the Pret., where this existed in O.E., with fair completeness during the whole M.E. and into the Modern Period, a tendency exists, especially among writers of the South-West, and the Southerly West Midlands, to use the P.P. type in the Pret. as well. Gtm, bygtm^ flow, f ought, bounde, which occur severally in La^amoji, S. Marharete, Rob. of Glos., Trevisa, and Wycliffe, as Pret. Sing., cannot be derived from O.E. -gaii, fleow, feaht, band, which normally produce M.E. -gan, flciv,faii]it, bond. The vowels in the form mentioned, or their ancestors, do however occur both in the Pret. PI. and the P.P. (except in the case oi fongJit) — O.E. giinnon, gnn- 7ien ; floivon, flowen ; fihton ; biindon, biindcn. The new M.E. forms might therefore at first sight be derived from the Pret. PI. type, and some writers explain them in this way, but as Bulbring points out {Abl.d. starken Zettzv., pp. 116-17), the Pret. PL type is the least permanent of the various forms of the Strong Verbs, and never survives in Mod. Engl, unless it be the type also of the Past Participle. While therefore the PI. may have helped to fix its type in the Pret. Sing., it seems probable that the main influence was exerted by the P.P. The form fought in M.E. is ambiguous. While it cannot represent the old Pret. Sing., it may represent either fuht with oil, for u, in which case it might be derived from the Pret. PL, or the oti may stand for a diphthong, in which case it would represent the type of the old V.Y.fohten. The Mod. form [f5t] cannot be descended from fiiht which would give [f«z/t], but can perfectly well represent the old P.P. type, just as O.E. dohtcr, M.E. douhter {oit = diphthong) has become [dota]. The spelling of the Present-day form points to the P.P. and not to the Pret. Sing, type fauht, which though it would also become [Bt] would be spth fanght. This mode of levelling is known as the Western type (German, we§tlicher /iusgkich). §§ 349-52] Strong Vei'bs in M.E. and Mod. Period 207 Transference of Verbs from one Class to another. § 351. The verb speken^ O.E. sprecan, belonged originally to Class V, and ran sprccan, spraec, sprsecon, sprccen^ but in M.E. a P.P. spoken^ from which, of course, our form is derived, is found. It is clear that this form with o is on the analogy of the P.P. of CI. IV, e.g. broken. This class differs from V only in having in the P.P. Other verbs in M.E. undergo the same transference, such z.?, ^eucn 'give', for which a P.P. gotten is often found, though this form can also be explained by assuming Scandinavian influence (see Price, p. 100, and references there given), and the Preterites slew, drew (O.E. slog, drag) which show the influence of the reduplicating verbs groivan, greoiv, M.E. Pret. S.greza. The contact must have arisen from the existence of a form (Inf.) slo, which would be parallel to grow-, blow, etc. Slo actually occurs in Shake- speare, and may be from Scand. sld, or slew, drew may both be explained as loan -forms from the Nth., where ^sld{weit)^ ^drd{zve?i) would be parallel to bldtven — blew, prdwen — Prctv, etc. Note. Owing to the very large number of questions, many of them of great interest, which arise in the history of the English Strong Vbs., it is utterly impossible, within the limits of a small book, to attempt to deal with the subject in any but the most superficial manner. A full treatment would mean to a great extent the discussion of each individual verb, the enumeration of all its forms at every period, and an account of how each form arose, in so far as it was not the normal representative of the O.E. form. Most of the vagaries fall, as a matter of fact, under one or other of the principles mentioned above. It is the details of the application of Analogy between one class and another which cause most difficulty. We can only deal here with a few outstanding verbs under each class. For a thorough treatment of the problems, and an enumeration of the chief facts, the student must refer to the works of Biilbring, Dibelius, and above all to the illuminating book of Price, with its copious collection of the forms of each verb found among writers from Caxton to Elizabeth. The following account is chiefly based on Price's work. 1 have had to resist the temptation to enter into many an alluring discussion, and have necessarily restricted the treatment mainly to the elucidation of the forms of Present-day Literary and Standard English. The Classes of Strong Verbs in M.E. and Mod. English. § 352. Class I (O.E. I — a — i — i). Type : write, wrote^ writ te 71. This class preserved its integrity to a great extent in M.E., and added the French estriver, M.E. strive, stroof, striveti. The ^-forms in P.P., wreien, smeten, etc., found in M.E. and down to the seventeenth century, may be explained according to Luick's principle (§ 1 74) or fron) the non-W.S. wreoten, etc. 2 o8 Historical Sketch of English Inflexions [c h a p. vi 1 1 Bite preserves the old Pret. bote as late as 1557. The form is found in Caxton and Coverdale. Chide, originally a Weak Verb (O.E. Pret. cldde), passed into this class in fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Coverdale and Authorized Version of the Bible have chode, and P.P. cliid and chidden appear in Shakespeare. Slide retains slode in Caxton, and Ben Jonson allows it. Present-day slid may be explained from the P.P., but also may be due to hide, hid. Note. Hide, an old weak verb, like chide, has been drawn partly into this class, the Pret. M.E. /iidde suggesting the Pret. PI. and P.P. type of CI. I. The suffix -en in the P.P. shows that it is felt as a Strong Verb. When once hidden had arisen, comparable to slidden, it was natural for the latter verb to develop a Pret. Sing. slid. Strike in M.E. had the normal Pret. strok, O.E. strdc. This became Early Mod. stroke. In early seventeenth century stj'ook, struck began to take its place. By the side of M.E. strok there existed also a form strake, and a P.P. strokefi, on analogy of brake, broken, helped by sate, sitten, parallel to strake, stricken. Struck may be due to analogy of stuck. Stick, earlier steken, had forms stake, s token parallel to strake, strdken, and it seems possible the latter may also have had an Inf. strick, when the analogy would be complete. Stuck itself may owe its vowel to the sting, stung Class. The regular Verbs of this class in Present-day Engl, are write, ride, stride (P.P. doubtful), smite, rise^ drive. Bide, abide, shine retain the old Pret. but have lost the P.P., the latter being either Weak, or having the vowel of the Pret. Shone is now pronounced both as [Jon] and [Joun]. § 353« Class II (O.E. eo — ed — n — 0). Types : freeze, froze, frozen; choose, chose, chosen. In this class the interchange of s — r, d — d, etc., has been eliminated. Freeze. In O.E. -freosan, -freds, -frnron, -froren. The Present-day Inf. is normally derived from the O.E. form. The Old Pret. Sing, and PI. have disappeared, and their place has been taken by the P.P. type, with z from the Inf. Caxton still has a Pret. frore with no alteration of the medial con- sonant. Frore is found in 1494, and froze first in Shakespeare. Milton's ' parching air burns JV^r^ ' is the old P.P. Flee, fly. The O.E. v txhs fieon 2i\\dfledgan differed only in the Inf. The former meant flee, the latter fly. Flee is descended (vom fleon, M..E.flee{n); fly from the type seen in §§352-3] Strong Verbs: Fly, Choose 209 and and 3rd Pers. Sing. Pres. O.E. Jlichst, flicJip, which produce a new M.E. li\^.JlTe?i,JIyc{n), the latter being found in Chaucer, etc. Chaucer uses the Pret. S\r\g.JIeih,Jiey (O.E. fii'h from fleah) indifferently in the senses ' flew ' and ' fled ', and indeed the Infinitives are also confused during the whole M.E. and well into the Mod. Period. The new Pret. Jieii is found in Rob. of Glos., and is the ancestor of our Jlew. It is due to the analogy of the Reduplicating Verbs bldwan, bleozv, M.E. bleu, etc., and was encouraged by the form of the P.P. flowen (O.E. flogcn) parallel to blowcn, etc. Our P.P. flown is of course descended from the O.E. and M.E. forms. It is possible that a further association with O.Y..flediv from flowan 'flow' may have existed. Chaucer has also a Pret. S\r\g.flo7tgh 'didst fly', and a Pret. Y\. flowen in the sense of ' fled '. The former is from the old P.P. type flog-, M.E. flonJi-; the latter is probably also from this type. In Early Mod. the new weak Pret. {ox flee comes in, and Tyndale has ^(f^^ which may simply be a new formation from flee-\-d, or, if ee represents a short vowel, it may be derived, as has been suggested, from O.'E.fleelan ' flow' {c^. fldd),Yx€i. fledde, M.E. fledde. This would be the ancestor oi our fled. Choose. The O.E. ceosan — ceas — cnron — coren is normally represented in Chaucer, so far as the Inf. and Pret. Sing, types are concerned, by cheesen [e], and chees [s]. The Pret. PI. and P.P. are both chosen, which show the O.E. P.P. type as regards the vowel, the s [z] introduced from Inf. as in frozen, and ch generalized from the Inf. Pres. and Pret. Sing. The chese (Pret.) type is last found in the second quarter of the sixteenth century. Chose occurs in Pecock, and in Caxton, but the latter also has Chaucer's form, and a form chase, the explanation of which is doubtful. It is of course the 'Western' penetration of the P.P. type into the Pret. It remains to explain the form choose [tjuz]. This may be derived from O.E. ceosan by a shifting of stress, giving M.E. chosefi instead of chesen from O.E. ceosan. This type of Infin. is found before 1530. As early as 1300 chiise occurs in 6". Marharete (W. Midi.), and in 15 10 the spelling cheivse is found, and this rhymes with refuse. This type, spelt chuse, continues side by side with choose, etc., during the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries. It is not infrequent in first quarter of the nineteenth century. The cJnise-\.y^Q., as seems to emerge from the rhyme, had the sound of [y], and this would point to an origin from O.E. eo, which was written 71 in M.E. in the Sth.-West, and W. Midi. We may derive O 2IO Historical Sketch of English Inflexions [chap, vm this type, then, from a Western form of O.E. cedsan. Chiise [tjyz] and choose [tjuz] would later be levelled under the latter pronunciation. See § 265 on Early Mod. [y]. Lose. O.E. leosan — leas — Itu'on — loj'eii. This has now been merged in the Wk. Verb. It owes its spelt form to O.E. losian, and its vowel sound possibly to association with loose, or as suggested in the case of choose, by a stress-shifting in O.E., that is, a form leosan, M.E. Idsc7i. The normal descendant of the O.E. Inf. is M.E. lescfi, which occurs as late as Shakespeare, and the Authorized Version. In Sth. M.E., Pret. Sing. -Ics, PI. -biren are found. Early Mod. has the Wk. lost. The old P.P. lorn, and forlorn are often used in sixteenth century, and a case is recorded as late as the eighteenth. The Adj. forlorn with an independent meaning is now quite dissociated from its original connexions. It is used as an Adj. as early as the middle of the twelfth century. § 354. Class III (O.I^. /;/ — an — nn — nn). Types : sing, sang, sung ; find, fonnd, found ; {el — {c)al — nl — ol) : swell, sivollen. Most of the old verbs with nasals have preserved the original forms. In find, etc., the lengthening of the vowels before -nd has produced the interchange \ai — aii\. Cling, sing, spin, begin, spring, ring, swim, drink, stink, sink preserve the three types of the old Inf. and Pres., the Pret. Sing., and the P.P. Swing, win, slitik, sting, sling, fling, on the other hand, have levelled the Pret. under the P.P. type. Wa7i, spati are still found in sixteenth century, clang in fifteenth, wrajig in Shakespeare, wroong, wrong in Spenser, flang in Ascham,^^?/^ in Kyd. Of the verbs with e — Jielp, delve, melt, sivell, and yield — the form swollen is still used, but more as an adj. than a P.P., the ordinary form of which would be sivelled, while the Pret. is always weak ; molten is purely adjectival, ^r/z'^ is practically obsolete except in mannered speech or writing, and is always weak ; holpen survives in the public mind simply on account of its occurrence in the Magnificat. Yield is now a Wk. Verb. The old Pret. yold{c) from O.E. geald, or perhaps from the O.E. P.P. type golden, is found in Caxton, and in Spenser. P.P. yolden is found as late as Gascoigne (died 1577). Turning to the yz/^rt'-group — Late O .^. findan, fdnd, fnndon, funden — we find this preserved in Chaucer as finden, fond, foiindcn,fotmdcn, and the/iw^-type in Pret. survives in Caxton and his contemporaries, and into the sixteenth century. But Caxton and other fifteenth-century writers also use the P.P. §§353-5] Run, Bear, Break 211 ty^Q fonnde, and this is the exclusive form in the principal sixteenth-century writers. The verbs bind, grind, ivind have very much the same history ?isfind. Run demands a few words to itself. The O.E, forms were : iriian, iernan, yrnan, cor nan (Merc), am, nrnon ; rinnan^ rann, rnnjion, riinncn. The M.E. Inf. and Pres. type is usually rcnn- which is probably Scandinavian. The earliest example of run as Pres. type is about 1325 [Metr. Horn.), and this form in a Northern dialect is difficult to explain. It is hardly the ancestor of our form, unless indeed it be a borrow- ing from the Sth. or Midlands. The old 'ixkm. yrnan would become M.E. iirnen, which with metathesis would give riinnen and Mod. rnn. On the other hand, this might be derived from Merc, eornan, which would also hecomQ urne?i in W.Midi, (j from a:). § 355. Class IV (O.E. e — a^ — x — 0). Types : dear, bare {bore), born ; break, brake {broke), broken. Bear. In non-W.S. the Pret. PI. was beron, etc., in O.E., and in Kentish, and part of the Merc, area, the Pret. Sing, was ber. In M.E. we find ber — beren in the Sth. The lengthening may be a natural process in syllables ending in a single consonant (though this is doubtful), but it may also be explained from the analogy of the other forms of the verb, which all had long vowel — bcren, here, boren, with lengthening in open sylls., in Pres., Inf., and P.P., and bere7i with an original long vowel in Pret. PI. Those dialects which retained O.E. de, retracted this to a in M.E., and here we get a Pret. Sing, bar and bdr{e), where the lengthening may be explained like that in ber. This M.E. bar was the ancestor of bare, so common in fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries. In Gen. and Ex. we already find a Pret. Sing, bore which need not be due entirely to the P.P. type of the same verb, but partly also to the analogy of sivor. The two verbs would then run szveren — szvor — szvoren; beren — bor — boren. In this case the in the Pret. would be tense, that in the P.P. bd7'en slack, unless the two verbs were completely levelled under one type, probably that of szueren, with tense in Pret. and P.P. The only form changed then would be bd7'en. Modern bore in Literary and Standard Engl, is clearly the P.P. type. This Pret. begins to come into use in the sixteenth century. O 2 2 12 Historical Sketch of English Inflexions [chap, vm Break, shear, tear, wear, steal. The M.\l. forms of these verbs are parallel to those of beran. Both bnlk and brdk{c) existed in Pret. Sing., as is seen from the rhymes. The latter gave the Biblical and general sixteenth and seventeenth- century brake. Broke of course comes from the P.P., and the same is true of sJiore, tore^ wore, stole. The Pret. stale, as well as brake, tare, tvare, all occur in the Authorized Version, the first and last being much less common than the others. Come. O.K. cnmaji, cwom, com, cwomon, comon, C7imen. This verb is quite irregular already in O.E., the normal vowel sequence being seen in the verb niinan, nam, nomon, numeti (cp. Gothic qiman — qam — qemum — gtcmans). The Present- day Inf. may be the normal descendant of M.E. cumen (written come7i), or, as Luick believes, it may be from M.E. comen, with lengthening and lowering of n to o in cu-ine. Our Pret. came presupposes a M.E. cam, which certainly existed by the side of cam. This latter may be either a survival of a normal O.E. cam or cwain unrecorded, or it may be a M.E. formation on the analogy of Jtei7n, a comparatively common word in M.E. It is clear that no other verbs of this Class could have influenced the forms of come, as they are quite differentiated from it by various combinative changes. The a in cam can be accounted for by the influence of the quantity of the Pret. PI. comen. Caxton and the Latest London Charters (Lekebusch) have came, but other sixteenth-century writers still use the old come, written sometimes coome, and (in Cely Papers) cwn = [kiam]. Chaucer has catn — cdmen, and coomen in the Pret. § 356. Class V (O.E. e—x — x — e). None of the verbs of this class are in all respects the absolute representatives of the O.E. forms. Speak has passed completely into Class IV; bid from O.E. biddan has become blended with O.E. beodan ; sit has abandoned its P.P. type altogether ; fret has become quite isolated from eat, and is weak ; eat itself alone among these verbs preserves the old P.P. type, but has lost its old Pret. Give and get have undergone changes of various kinds not only in the vowels of all the types, but also in the initial consonants. It will be seen that most verbs of this class developed, at one time or another, P.P.'s in o, which vowel penetrated to the Pret. as well. Mod. Engl, has in some cases got rid of the ^-forms. Speak needs no particular comment. Its history is very similar to that of break. Spoken is found in Pret. PI. in E. M.E., and it must have got there presumably from the §§ 355-6] Tread, Bid, Eat, Get 2 1 3 P.P., which had been formed from broken by the complete association of the two verbs in their other forms. The usual M.E. form in the Pret., however, is spak, and Chaucer has a Pret. PI. spake n [§]. Spoke does not become the usual Pret. form till after i6co. Tread. Parallel to spake, etc., Caxton has Pret. trad, trade. Sixteenth-century writers have also Pret. troad, P.P. troaden. Other writers in this and the following century have both trod, trode, trodden, iroden. Bid, forbid. O.E. biddan, bxd, bxdon, beden ' pray'. P'rom this we can explain our Pres. and Inf. type, and the Pret. forms [bsed] and [beid] from M.E. type bade. The P.P. bidden, found already in M.E. and common in the Elizabethan period, is less easy to explain. It is difficult to establish an associa- tion between this verb and the ridden group of P.P.'s except through the Pret. bode which may have existed in the six- teenth century. The spelling is often found, but Price finds it difficult to settle the length of the vowel. If long it could be explained from a P.P. bdden, and this in the same way as troden, spoken. Having formed a Pret. bode like rdde, it would be easy and natural to form a new P.P. bidden like ridden. On the other hand, it seems certain that short forms bod, bdden also existed, and these can be explained as due to M.E. bod{e)n, a by- form of bo-den. The short bod in the Pret. may be due to this type of P.P. By the side of bid in the Pres. and Inf., M.E. and Early Mod. (Chaucer and Caxton) have bede, and also beden in the P.P. The latter is the normal descendant of the O.E. form. The former may be explained from confusion with O.E. beodan, M.E. beden 'to command'. The P.P. of this verb would be bdden or boden (from bod{c)n), and the short type would account for a Pret. bod. Eat has now usually the Pret. [st], though in Ireland people often say [It] from the P.P. type. The short type of Pret. is found already in the fourteenth century, and is probably due to the analogy of the weak Prets. led, M.E. ledde from lead, E. Mod. and M.E. bet from beat, etc. The archaic Pret. ate, presei'ved to some extent in the spelling, but rarely in speech, presupposes a M.E. ate, dindfrate from O.E. fretan is found. The explanation of these forms is the same as that of bade, spake, etc. The P.P. eaten is quite normal, and the Scotch [etn] is due to M.E. etn. Get, beget, forget. O.E. -gietan (non-W.S. £e tan, -geotan), -geat (non-W.S. -gxt, -get), -geaton (non-VV.S. geton), -geten, is 2 14 Historical Sketch of English Inflexions [chap, vm always compounded with on-, bi-, for-. The use of uncom- pounded gct^ the short vowel, and its initial consonant are alike due to Scandinavian influence (O.N. gcta). The M.E. native forms of the Inf. and Pres. 2ire ^etcn,yctC7i, yuten, etc. The M.E. Pret. Sino-. was ^at, yat from gset, and jf^ from get. The Pret. PI. was either ydtcn, etc., by the side of Sing, ydt, ydt, or the normal yeicji from the non-W.S. gcton. By the side of these, forms with initial g- are also found, and Chaucer has gctc, gat, gctcn. The existence of gate (Pret. Sing.) is also established by rhymes for M.E. and Pearly Mod. Caxton has Tret, gat, gatte, and gate, and usually -yeten, -yete in P.P. He has, however, the o-(orms /o7'- and be-gotcn, and these arc common in the Latest London Ch. (Lekebusch). The ^-forms, according to Price, are not established till near the end of the sixteenth century. While forgotten has re- mained in Standard English, the uncompounded gotten was rarer than got after 1600, except in the Authorized Version and two other writers cited by Price. As might have been expected, long forms such as gdtc (rhyming with ivrote) occur in sixteenth-century English. Price sums up this question by saying, ' It looks as if at the beginning of the period (E. Mod.) there were in the Inf. alternative forms with long and short e, in the P.P. with long and short o^ in the Pret. two sets, with long and short a and with long and short o ; that the long forms in Inf. and with o were already obsolescent, while the long a lasted through the whole period '. Give. O.E. (W.S.) gicfan, geaf, gedfon, giefcn ; non-W.S. gcfan, geofan — gxf, gcf — gefoji, gefen, geofen. It may be said at once that the two chief problems are the initial consonant and the vowel, in Mod. give. It is quite certain that O.E. g- could not become [g-] and we may put this down to Scandinavian influence. As regards the vowel in give, this has been variously explained as due to the analogy of the 2nd and 3rd Pers. Pres. gifst, gifp (from ^gedis-, gedif), or from a W.S. form gifan, P.P. gifen (hom gief-). Another possibility is the analogy of begin through gan parallel to gaf yaf. The normal M.E. forms from non-W.S. axe yenen, yeif,ydnc {yef), yduen, yenen. By the side of these, giue, gaf geven, given, etc, are also found in M.E., which are a blend between the O.N. and the English types. Again, a Pret. yone, gone also occurs. The latter may be either pure Scand. (O.N. ggfoin Pret. PI.) or derived from the W.S. Pi. geaf on with a shifting of stress to the second element of the diphthong. The form dfen from Land Chron. may conceivably be the ancestor of § 356] Give and Geve ; See 2 1 5 youc, etc., but this is very doubtful. Since P.P. forms yoitcn, govyn are found in the fifteenth century, these may be due to the same analogy as the other o P.P.'s in this class, and the type then extended to the Pret. The jY7/r-forms in Inf., etc., are very usual in the London dialect of fifteenth century, though Caxton besides this form has also gciic^ but more often gyiic In the London Charters (Lekebusch) yeiie is most frequent, but gciic is also common, and giuc, gync, etc., are much rarer. During the sixteenth century jjrtr practically dies out, but gcuc still predominates over gytic, gyi'c, give, etc. There is reason for thinking that the spelling ^zw, etc., often stands for the pronunciation [giv], so that the geve-ty^o. is really commoner than appears at first sight. It may be noted that the final consonant appears both as V (or n) and/. The latter is due to generalizing the final sound of the Pret. Sing., the former to the other inflected forms. The^m'-forms are fixed by seventeenth century. In the Pret. the y- dies out during the sixteenth century. Sir T. Smith refers to yaf and ya%!e as antiquated. Hence- forth the struggle is between the short gdf and the long gave, and the latter becomes the only form in most of the principal writers before the end of the century. In the P.P. the y- forms die out by the end of the fifteenth century, but the two forms geven, given (in various spellings) remain during the whole sixteenth century, geven becoming gradually less and less frequent, until, after the first quarter of the seventeenth century, it apparently disappears from Literature altogether. At least two examples oi geven [givan] occur, however, in the Wentworth Papers in 1706. See. O.E. seon — scah, saeh — sdwon (also, poetical), sxgon — seiuen, sawen. The adj., W.S. gesTene 'visible', non-W.S. gesene, is also used as a P.P. already in O.E. in Anglian. This form spreads, and becomes the usual one in M.E., e.g. Chaucer, etc., yseene. Present-day seen. The M.E. forms of the Pret. are : sank, whence sangh and saiv, from Angl. sseli through saJi ; seiJi which may represent a Sth. sell, with diphthonging before a fronted Jl\ sy =■ si, also sih from the O.E. PI. type sxgon, sxk, seh, slh (cp. i ' eye ' from eJi). The Jrtw-type appears to be Anglian in origin ; it does not occur early in the South. The -iv is presumably due to the influence of the PI. It is possible that sei, etc., may sometimes be due to the PI. sx^en, M.E. se)en, seyen. In Early Mod. the London dialect seems generally to have 2 1 6 Historical Sketch of English Inflexions [chap, vm used the ancestors of our present forms, though such P.P. forms as sayn^ scync, etc., still survive, from earlier -se^en. Sit. O.K. sitian — sxt — sxton (non-W.S. scion) — setcn. The only noteworthy point about this verb in Present-day English is the disappearance of the old P.P., which has been replaced by the Pret. type. In Early Mod. set was often used, generally with the auxiliary be — ' I am, was set' etc., which may be either a survival of the old P.P. or that of the wk. settaii. In Early Mod. a P.P. sittcti is sometimes used, and also sat and sate. Bequeath, quoth. The former of these two is now always weak and seems to have been so during the whole Mod. period. The uncompounded verb appears only in Pret. during Mod. period, sometimes as qnod^ sometimes as quoth. The £?-forms are found both in the Pret. and P.P. during E. M.E. — quod,quoden, etc., as well as the normal quap, qtidden, qiieden. Various explanations have been suggested to account for quoth, but since it is found in the P.P. as well as in the Pret., it is difficult to see why it should not be due, like the ^-forms of so many verbs in this class, to the analogy of the P.P. of Class IV. We know that spoke — spoken existed, and the association in meaning between spoke and quoth or qtiod is surely close enough. In the now antiquated, and half jocular expression quotha, we have qtcoth + a, the Sthn. form of the Pers. Pron. which we saw already in Trevisa (§ 300). Against the above explanation of quoth, it must be recorded that this form occurs in early texts where spdk, etc., are the usual Pret. forms. It may, as Bulbring suggests, be due to the influence of w, and that perhaps chiefly in unstressed positions? In this case it is from qudp and is short. Lie. O^.licgan — Iseg — Ixgon — legen. The direct descendant of the old Inf. and Pres. is M.E. liggen (lidzsn). As with so many verbs of this type, a new Inf. and ist Pers. Pres. are formed from the analogy of the and and 3rd Pers., O.E. lig{e)st, lig{e)p, which give in M.K. lijest, liyep, whence the new forms, ich /z^r, or lye, Inf. lyen, etc. N.E.D. records ligge (probably = [lig] a Nthn. type) as late as 1590. The Mod. forms lay, lain are normal descendants of the O.E. forms. After 1400 a type of P.P. lyen^ on the analogy of Inf. lye, is common. This form still remains in the Prayer Bk. version of the Psalms — tliougJi yc have lien among the pots. Weave is like speak in having c- forms in Pret. wore, and P.P. ivoven. §§ 356-7] Verbs of the ' Shake ' Class 2 1 7 § 357* Class VI (O.E. a — 0—0 — a ; also, with /-mutation in Inf. type, c — o — o — a). This class has had a varied fate. Some verbs have pre- served the old forms, or their Mod. equivalents, like shake; others have passed into the group of Reduplicating Verbs like slay, but more have become wholly weak, or preserve a strong form, constantly, or occasionally. Shake, take (of Scand. origin), forsake, awake, wake, all have now the gradation [ei, u, ei — (an)], though ivakc and aivakc have also weak forms. Stand (understand) has lost its old P.P. standcu and uses the Pret. type, just as sit does. This form of P.P. was intro- duced in the fifteenth century and gradually won, though standc, stonde are also in use during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. By the side of these a weak -standed is common in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, in the P.P., but not, apparently, in the Pret. Swear has [5] in the Pret. before r, instead of [u] (§ 238). The P.P. sivorc occurs already in the fourteenth century. It may easily be accounted for on the analogy of bdrc{n). The Biblical Pret. sware also shows the influence of CI. IV. Draw, slay, with their Prets. from the Reduplicating group, have already been discussed above, § 351. Gnaw also shows some instances of a Pret. gneiv in sixteenth century. The P.P. gnaivcii is less rare, in fact it may be heard to-day. Already in the fourteenth century the weak Pret. was in use, and this is found in Auth. Vers, and other sixteenth and seventeenth century texts. The verb is often spelt knaw from fifteenth to eighteenth century. Bake has long been a weak verb. O.E. hoc was replaced by a weak Pret. in the fifteenth century, but the P.P. baken is found in the sixteenth century. Wash already in E. M.E. formed a Pret. wceshc, iveoshe after the model of the Reduplicating Verbs. This is still in use in Caxton's works, but the wk. Pret. is found in Coverdale. The strong P.P. still survives in the adj. umvashcn. Wax. Tottel and Spenser still have the old Pret. wox, but a commoner form, in Caxton and later, is zvcx, the ancestor of which is found already in O.E. iveox. Here we have the influence of the Reduplicating Verbs. The P.P. ivaxcn is still found in Shakespeare, and the Auth. Vers. Shape. The Pret. sJiopc is still found in Surrey, Coverdale, and Spenser. The strong P.P. is found in Caxton, and in 2 1 8 Historical Sketch of English Inflexions [chap, vm Coverdalc. The compounds with mis-, 7in-, ill-, which are of course Adjectives from the old P.P., still survive. Shave has now only shaven, and this is an Adjective, but this was used as a P.P. during the whole Elizabethan period. The old strong Pret. shove occurs in Caxton and Coverdale. Heave is now usually weak throughout, but the strong Pret. Jiovc is still in colloquial use. Laugh. The Pret. lougJi, normally descended from O.E. hloJi, was frequent down to the end of the fifteenth century, but is not found often after 1500. See § 260 and Note on relation of our [l^f] to the form recorded by the spelling. § 358. Reduplicating Verbs A. Beat. This is the only survivor of the class. But for the P.p. in -eu we should probably feel this verb as weak. The O.E. forms were beatan — bedt — beoton — beaten. Though now levelled, the Inf. and Pret. must in Late M.E. have been [bit — bet] respectively. The Early Mod. forms collected by Price do not show any distinction made in the spelling. B. BloAv-Class. Blow, blezv, blown represent O.E. bldivan, bleoiv, bledzvon, blazven. To this class belong also crow (also weak), knozv, mow (also weak), throw. Sow still retains strong P.P. but has weak Pret. and often a weak P.P. FloAv is now only weak, though its old strong P.P. may have helped to fvyijloivn as P.P. oijly. Hew, now generally weak, has also a strong P.P., especially in passive — Jieivn down, Adj. rongh-hezvn, iinhczvn, etc. Snow has long lost its old Pret. snew and P.P. snow{e)n^ but these survived in literary English in the sixteenth century, and the grammarian Charles Butler (1632) still recognizes them. C. Fall-Class. O.E. feallau — jedll—feollon — -feallen. Our fell and fallen are normal representatives of the old forms. The common M.E. fill (Chaucer) has not been satisfactorily explained. Hold is from the Angl. Jidldan. The Sthn. and Kt, Jicldcn ^ still survives, though rarely in Chaucer (§ 166). A {q.\n cases of Jield as an Inf. are found in M.E. Nthn. texts. Here they must be either loan-forms from Sth. or new formations from Pret. A few scattered forms are found in the sixteenth- century Acts of Parliament, and Price explains these from the §§357-9] O. and M.E. Forms of Be, etc. 219 Pret. This is certainly right, for seeing how rare the non- Angh'an forms are in M.E. these can hardly be survivals of the old Sthn. form. The old P.P. Jioldcn survives still in official language— '^^ a meeting /widen on such and such a day '. The compound beholden, now rather archaic, is still used. Price's /lolden-forms seem to occur mostly in official sources. The Pret. /leld is shortened from M.E. /leld. Irregular Verbs § 359- To be. O.E. Pres. Indie. * am '-type. W.S. Pres. Subj. Merc. Nthmb. Sinjr. PI. sindofi sint earn eard is earun sind stndon am ard is aron sint sinden W.S. & Merc. sTe, Si sJen Nthmb. S. and PI. ste, se * be '-type. Pres. Indie. Pres. Subj. W.S. Merc. Nthmb. W.S. & Nthmb. Merc. ( bed bib in bioni Sing, \bist bis{i) bist bib \ but \biS bicf bf^ bed \ bie bciw biod biodiin belm biod biad btbn PI Inf. beon., beon. Part. Pres. bebnde Imperat. bed, PI. beop Preterite Indie. PI. I wxron (non-W.S. iveron) Pret. Subj. S. wxre ; PI. wxren Itnperat. wes ; PI. ivesd^ Sing. ic,pe wdes pu wd&re he wd&s Inf. wcsnn Part. Pres. wesende M.E. J St Pcrs. S. All dialects agree in having am {xm, ham), as the usual form ; bed is also found in E. Midi. 2nd Pers. S. Nth. has e$ ; E. and W. Midi, art ; Southern and Kt. bep, art. •^rd Pers. S. Nth. es ; Midi, is, ys, W. Midi, also bedp and blip ; Sthn. beop, hep, is ; Kt. bibp, biep, byep. PL {all Pers.). Nth. ar, are, er, ere, bes {ben) ; W. Midi. ben, am, beop, bZp {P. Plowm.) ; E. Midi, aren, ben {Orm. has also sinndenn) ; Sthn. beop, be) ; Kt. biop, bup. 220 Historical Sketch of English Inflexions :ciiap. vm The London sources before Chaucer have is ; PI. beop, beon, ben ; bco, be Subj. Pres. ; Prct. wxs^ tvcs, ivas ; PL zvcrcn, were ; Inf. beon, be (Dolle, p. 76). Chaucer has ani^ art, is, PI. been, bee^ rarely am (ten Brink, § 197). The fourteenth-century London documents agree on the whole with this, but occasionally have the Sth. PI. bep (Morsbach, Sehriftspr., p. 149). Caxton's usage agrees with that of to-day in Sing. In PI. he has ar, but also ben, be (Romstedt, p. 50). The later London Documents show some variety in the PI. : London C\\3^v\.&r& been, ben; State Records ^rr ; Parliamentary Records usually been, ben, occasionally byn, bnth twice ; ar, arne, am not infrequently (Lekebusch, pp. 136, 127, 13H). The other parts of this verb in M.E. are : Inf. been, be, Kt. bi\ Imperat. Nth. be\ Midi, be, PI. bep; Sth. be, bep; Subj. Pres. bed, PI. beon, etc., beop. Pret. was, wes (zvast 2nd Sing. L. M.E. -/ on analogy of ar-t), zveren, tverc; Subj. Pret were. Pres. Part. (Chaucer) being; Past Part. {i)-ben, {i)-be. Be in the Pres. Indie, survives in many Regional Dialects, used both as S. and PI. In Standard and Literary it is extinct, except as a poetical archaism in the PI. and in the Subj. Are, originally Nth. and Nth. Midland, penetrated early into the London Dialect, probably from E. Midi., but was not exclusively used even in the literary language till the seventeenth century. Preterite Present and other Anomalous Verbs § 360. Pret.-Pres. Verbs have, with the function of a Present Tense, one which is a strong Pret. in form. They form new Pret. forms with the weak sufifix -de, -te. Can. O.E. Inf. ciinnan ' to be able, to know '. Past Part, cup ' known ', cp. nn-cup ' unknown ', formally identical with ujieonth. Pres. Indie. S. can, canst, can (also con, etc.) ; PI. cnnnon. Pret. S. cupe ' knew, could', cupest, cnpe; PI. cupon. (O.E. ciipe, Goth, kicnpa have never been satisfactorily explained.) Pres. Subj. S. ctinne ; PI. citnnon. Pret. Subj. S. cupe ; PI. cupon. M.E. (Chaucer's forms), cp. ten Brink, § 198. Inf. connen ; P.P. kouth. §§359-62] Dare, May, Shall 221 Pres. Ind. S. ca7i, canst^ can ; PI. conne{ii) [kiinen]. Pret. hoiithe, koiidc. The London Documents preserve distinction between S. can, PI. connc in 1425, and in Pret. condc, konde (Morsbach, pp. 148, 150, 151) ; Pecock (1449) has Pres. PL kiinncn, and coupist in Pret. Caxton still appears to distinguish the PI. coime from Sing. can occasionally (Romstedt, p. 48). Coverdale (1535) has Pret. cojide, and also the new spelling collide, on analogy of tuould, should (Swearingen, p. 43). § 361. Dare. O.E. Pres. Ind. S. dca]'{r), dearst, dcar{r) ; PI. dnrron. Pret. dorste ; PI. dors ion. Subj. dyrrc, dm-rc. M.E. (Chaucer). Pres. S. dar, darst, dar; PI. dor. Pret. dorste. In Mod. Engl, there is a tendency to inflect dare like an ordinary Pres. — he dares not do it, by the side of the more historical daren't. Similarly a new Pret. dared has been formed, used both intransitively and transitively — / dared him to do it. Durst is now felt to be old-fashioned, and is becoming- obsolete. 'fc. § 362. May. O.E. Inf. viagan ; Part. Pres. magende. Pres. Ind. S. mseg, meaht (and miht), mxg', PI. mdgon (and tnxgofi). Pret. meahte, mehte (Late W.S. mihte). Subj. vixge (L. W.S. mage); PI. mxgen (L. W.S. magoii). Latest O.E. viuge. M.E. (Early). Sth. S. mei, Kt. mai; Midi, ma^^ (Orm), may, mayst ; PI. Sth. maheit, mo^e, muwe?i ; Kt. mit^e, viozve ; E. Midi. vi7()heim {Orm). Inf. (W. Midi.) mow. Pret. Kt., E, Midi, mihte, inichte, mipe, mighte ; Sth. mahte. Pi. E. Midi, mihten. mithteii. Chaucer has S. may, might {mayest) may ; PL motven, mowe, mow, may ; Pret. mighte. The London Documents and Caxton agree with Chaucer, except that Caxton has, as in Present-day English, may in the PL instead of the older moive (Romstedt, p. 49). 22 2 Historical Sketch of EngRsh Inflexions [chap, vm § 363. Shall. O.E. Inf. sculan, sccolaji. Pres. Indie. S. sccal (non-W.S. scxl, seal); Late W.S. seel, sccalt, scxlt, sccal, scxl, etc.; PI. sciilon, sceolon, Late W.S. scylon. Pret. Indie. S. sccold, scoldc ; PI. sccoldojt. Subj. (W.S.) sciclc, scylc, scilc. M.E. Pres. Indie. S., Sthn. seal, sc/ial\ V\. scJmloi, s sullen \ Kt. seel, sceol, sscl, ssclt, ssalt ; PI. scidc, ssollcn ; E. Midi. shall, schal, sal, salt, schalt, shall ; PI. scJmllcn, sJmlenn, snlett, seJnillc, sJnd; W.Midi. seJial, shall, schalt; Y\. scJiul, scJnilte ; Allit. P. has also the curious forms schin, scJiyn ' shall ', once each in Cleanness ; Nth. sal S. and PI. {salle). Pret., Sth. sceolde ; PI. sccoldcn, seholde, seJiulde ; Kt. sceoldc, sccoldcn, ssoldc {A^enb. has and S. ssoldcst) ; E. Midi, schollde, shollde, sJioldcn, siilde, siddcn, seholde, shuld ; W. Midi, sehnlde ; Nth. suld. London Dialect. Earliest London sources shal ; Pr. schidlen, shnllen; Pret. sholde, shiUd (Dolle, p. 76). Chaucer: sJial, shalt, shal ; PI. sJinllen, sJml (shold) ; Pret. sholde. Later Official Lond. Documents: shall] PI. shnllen, shid, shallc, shal; Pret. sholde, shold, shulde, sJiuld. Pecock distinguishes between the S. and PI. types, schol, sehullcji. Caxton still sometimes distinguishes PI. shtd, sJmlle from Sing. shal{l), but more usually levels both under the type of the Sing. (Rom- stedt, 48). § 364- Ought. This word is the descendant of the old Pret. dhte of O.E. dga7i ' possess, own ', a Pret. Pres. verb. In its present force expressing moral obligation, it occurs in Pres. as well as Pret. as early as the middle of the twelfth and beginning of the thirteenth century. Thus, bename him al det he ahte to hanen ' deprived him of all that he ought to have ', Land CJir. Ann. 1140 ; We a)cn pcne sunncdei sivipelichc we I to tvierpieji ' we ought to honour Sunday exceedingly', Lambeth Horns., Morris and Skeat, I, p. 30. § 365- Owe is the normal descendant of dgan 'possess*. M.E. owen * possess obligations, to be bound, obliged '. In M.E. therefore not isolated in meaning from the Pret. d^te, oughte. Rob. of Glos. has pe treupe ich on to pe, and Wycliffe ^eld pat pou ozvist (Kellner-Bradley, p. 272). The word gradually loses §§363-7] Wtll—Wol 223 the sense of possess and means ' owe an obligation ', and finally * owe money ', etc. § 366. Own is from O.E. dgtiian 'own, possess', and has entirely taken the place of the O.E. dgan in meaning. § 367- Will. O.E. Inf. willan ; Pres. Part, ivillandc. Pres. Indie. S. %vilc, wilty wile ; PI. willap. Pret. ivolde ; PI. %voldcn. Ne willc, etc., becomes nylle, the w first rounding / and then being lost. M.E. The forms are wile, wille, wulle, zviile, wol{e). Of these the zc////t'-type is from wille, with rounding of the vowel after w. VVol, on the other hand, is a new formation, derived by Analogy from the Pret. wol-de. The following shows the distribution of the types : Wille ] Kt. Vesp. A. 23, Shoreh., Ajeu5., Trin. Horns. ^ Wile \0. and N., P.M., Orjn., Gen. and Ex., Havelok, Horn, Bokenam. -.y J \ Lambeth Horns., La^., A.R., Horn. Wol{e) P.M., La^., Robt. of Glos., Hendyng, Havelok, Horn, Wil. of Pal. (only form). Wol appears to become more common after the beginning of the fourteenth century ; it is found both in the E. and W. Midi., chiefly in the latter, and to some extent in Sthn. It appears to be absent from Kt. texts, and does not occur in Morris's Glossary to A^cnbite. It does not occur in the earliest London sources (Dolle, p. 76). In Gower it is very common, and is in fact the only form in Macaulay's Glossary to Selections. Chaucer has wil, but more often %vol, especially in his prose. In the London Documents wil, zville (S. and PI.) appears to occur in Morsbach's references about fifteen times, as against wol about thirty-five times {ScJwiftspr., pp. 149, 151, 152). Caxton, according to Romstedt (p. 49), has only ivil{le) in ist and 3rd Sing,, but zvolt as well as ivilt, and ivoll as well as ivil{le) in PI. The later London Documents have both will, and zuol; in the Lond. Ch. will predominates; in State Records and Parliamentary Records both forms seem equally frequent (Lekebusch, pp. 126, 127, 128). Coverdale has only %oil, zvyl (Swearingen, p. 42), and the same is true of Edward VI's First P. B. (1549). The wol-iy^Q survives in woiit, from wol not. CHAPTER IX ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE ENGLISH LITERARY LANGUAGE § 368. Recent research has confirmed more and more the view ah'eady expressed by Morsbach {Neucnglischc ScJirift- sprachc), that London is the home of the Enghsh Literary Dialect. The investigations of Dolle {Zur Sprache Lo7idons vor CJiauccr) have also abundantly established Morsbach's assertion that London speech was originally chiefly Southern in type, but that in the course of time the purely Southern peculiarities of the dialect retreat before the advance of more characteristically Midland elements, and, more particularly, of East Midland elements. Thus the earliest documents written in the London dialect, which begij> in the time of the Conqueror, in the shape of Charters and Proclamations, and extend to beyond the middle of the thirteenth century, are un- mistakably Southern in character, and are indeed written in a language that represents very fairly the normal develop- ments of West Saxon. It is what we should expect Late W. Saxon to turn into during this period, but a distinct influence from the S. East (Kent, etc.) is visible. At the beginning of the fourteenth century we have the poems of Adam Davie, which are still largely Southern in character, but contain a more definite trace of non-Saxon elements. The Anglian element gains in intensity throughout the fourteenth century, until in the later Charters and documents examined by Morsbach in his famous monograph, and in the language of Chaucer, the purely Southern or Saxon elements have been reduced to a very much smaller proportion. Passing on three- quarters of a century to the fifteenth-century Lond. Charters and Caxton, we find the Southern features still further reduced, and there remains only slightly more of these than in Present-day Literary, and Received Standard English. It is hardly necessary here to labour the point, so often made, that it is natural that the language of the capital should have obtained this pre-eminent position among the various §368] The Literary Dialect of Wessex 225 dialects of English, London being the seat and centre of Government, of the Royal Court, of the Law, of Commerce. The question we have briefly to discuss is, what were the dialectal elements of London speech, and why were they what they were ? The original Southern or Saxon character, with a definite admixture of S.E. or Kentish features, was determined partly by historical and political factors, partly also by geographical situation. If we consider the facts of the O.K. period, we shall note that almost everything we possess in the language before the Norman period, everything at any rate deserving the name of Literature, practically everything that is not a mere gloss or a Charter has come down to us either in W. Saxon pure and simple, or in a dialect of this. In some cases we have what Bulbring calls the ' Saxon Patois ', a definite type it is true, but one which is closer to W. Saxon than to any other form of English. If we think of the great bulk of O.E. poetry, while in most cases non-W.S. forms occur with more or less fre- quency, the prevailing type on the whole is W. Saxon, and the other elements either singly or collectively are relatively unimportant. It is open to question in some cases whether the mixed dialect exhibited by the texts is to be put down chiefly to the scribes mingling their own dialect with that which they copied, or whether in some areas a mixed dialect was not actually spoken, or at least used for literary purposes (see on this point Max Forster, Festschrift fiir Morsbach, pp. 33-5). The point of all this is that from the time of Alfred, throughout the O.E. period, owing to the political supremacy of Wessex, a type of English which is virtually West Saxon was used, in documents, far and wide in the South and Midlands, East and West. Alfred, while he ex- tended his political sway over England, gave the country also a new culture which had its centre and starting-point in his own kingdom. It was natural that the good king's own dialect should be the vehicle of that culture which his own writings promoted. Thus there really was an O.E. literary Koivt] or general form of English, and this form was used in London, no less than in Winchester. It is impossible in the present state of our knowledge to say how wide was the territory over which this dialect was actually spoken, but we cannot doubt that it included London which Alfred himself subdued. After the Conquest, the literary tradition was lost, and therefore the dialects reappear once more in literature. It is P 2 26 Origin and Grozvth of Literary English [chap, ix probably safe to conclude that if, in the Transition, and Early M.E. period, we find a written form of English which is approximately a continuation of the W.S. type, then this form was also actually spoken in the area from which the work which exhibits it emanates. There is a striking con- tinuity in the dialectal type of the series of documents written in London, which extends over a period of 300 years, from the Conqueror's Charters to Davie's Poems, and it is hardly possible to avoid the conclusion that all these documents really represent the spoken language of the capital. To show the Southern, or as we are inclined to say, West Saxon character of the London dialect down to the first quarter of the fourteenth century, we may enumerate a few characteristics shown by the sources in question. The reader should refer in each case to the sections in this book dealing with the various M.E. peculiarities enumerated. (See also the summary given by Dolle, pp. 8a-8, from which the following table is taken.) § 369. Purely Southern Features in Early London Docu- ments. (i) {a) O.E. X preserved, first as x then as e: pxt, fxder^ ives, hebbe. {a after middle of fourteenth century.) {b) W.S. x>d preserved: wxran, mxges, rxderman\ Davie rhymes x with O.E. ea, showing [e] sound. (3) O.E. ^«//-, !?«/+ consonant : ealle^gehealde, bihelde. (3) O.E. diphthongs ea, ie, after front consonant : ageafy forgifan,gitin\ shilde (W.S. scield) occurs as late as Davy. (4) O.E. ed-i (W.S. Te, y) : yr/-, gyrde ; alysednesse. (5) O.E. iu-i (W.S. te,y) : wurde {wierde)\ scytt {>scTett). (6) Pres. Part, in -inde : ilestinde. (7) Pres. PI. in -ep : habbep, willap, willep, beop. (The Midi, -en predominates from 1250 onwards.) The facts establish the survival of the original Southern character of the London dialect, down to the middle of the fourteenth century, beyond controversy. Of the features in the Pre-Chaucerian London Dialect which are departures from Sthn., or at least from S.W. usage, some are clearly S.E. or Kentish elements ; others might be either Anglian or Kentish, and some can only be considered definitely Midland or Anglian. § 370. Specifically S.E. or Kentish Features. (i) I for O.E. _y: berig\ kepe. §§368-73] The Early London Dialect 227 (a) ~xn- for -en- : xjiglisc ; frsencisc. (3) -ia, ie, -io for ed\ piofcs; tkiafes; bton, buji (Davie). § 371. Features which may be either Kentish or Midland. (i) c for W.S. x^. The M.E. representative of this sound [e] is written x in the earliest sources, and as late as the Proclamation (1358). After this c is written, which in itself leaves the sound uncertain. Davie's rhymes generally point to the W.S. [sj-type, but in one case he appears to rhyme drede with mede ' meed, mood ' (Dolle, p. 30). This is the beginning of the introduction, on a large scale, of the non-W.S. [e]-type. Chaucer has both types in a large number of words, as is shown by the rhymes ; in many others only [s], and in a few only [e]. (2) e as z'-mutation of O.E. ed (W.S. Te, I, y) : this is found first in fourteenth-century here * hear ', stel ' steel ' ; both in Davie. (3) Absence of diphthonging after front consonant : W.S. giefan, gieldan appear in M.E. 2,s ^iuen, etc. ; non-W.S. gefan, geldan as ^eiien, ^elden. For examples of former see above, §369, no. (3). The latter type is found as early as twelfth century and also in Davie. These forms might be either Kentish, or from the famous ' Saxon Patois ' ; they are there- fore not necessarily Anglian. § 372. Specifically Midland Features. (i) a for O.E. se (see § 159). Apart from habbe which occurs already in O.E., we find ^ or ^ down to the beginning of fourteenth century, when a comes in pat, after, was, what, etc. (s) instead oi ea or e before -Id, etc. Dolle gives no examples of this even from Davie, but in the next generation, Morsbach's Charters, etc., and Chaucer, did, hdlden, O.E. (Angl.) did, hdldan, etc., are the only forms in Chaucer, except welden ' to wield ' (W.S. wedldan), a form which we still retain, helden 'hold' (twice), and to behelde 'behold'. These three forms only occur in the poetry (cp. Frieshammer, p. 34). (3) Ending -en in Pres. Indie. PI. By the side of Sthn. -ep, -en predominates from the middle of thirteenth century. § 373- The Early London Sources compared with Chaucer and with Later London Charters. These differences and agreements are briefly but clearly summarized by Dolle, ch. v. We may note the following points showing progressive Midland or other non-Sthn. influence : P 3 228 Origin and Growth of LUei'aiy English [chap, ix (i) Tense [e] for O.E. x, W.Gmc. a, far commoner in Chaucer than in the early sources. (2) O.E. did (Angl.) type practically universal in Chaucer (cp. § 166), and entirely so in Morsbach's documents. (3) O.E. hie ' they ' preserved in all the Early Lond. texts ; Chaucer only they. The oblique case always heo77i in the Early texts, hem in Chaucer ; in the later Records hem by the side of frequent them, etc. (§ 301). (4) Pres. Indie. PI. -cp, preserved by the side of Midi, -en, -c in the early and late London Ch. and Records. Chaucer generally has -e7i {-e) both in prose and verse, but occasionally -eth. This ending is, however, rare (Frieshammer, p. 96). § 374. There are certain differences between the language of Chaucer's Poetry and that of his Prose. The former is rather more archaic, and shows more Kentish and purely Southern elements (Frieshammer, pp. 126-7). The Prose of Chaucer is closer to the language of the later London Records (Morsbach). These are rather later than Chaucer, and most of the differences may be put down to this fact. It may be noted that O.E. y (n-t) is almost exclusively i or y in Chaucer's Prose, whereas in the Records ^ and 7i are comparatively frequent (Frieshammer, pp. 127-8). We may take it that Chaucer spoke and wrote the best type of London English of his time, that spoken at Court, and that this form of speech is best represented in his prose. In his poetry he uses a more archaic type, which is therefore richer in purely Southern and Kentish elements. These elements were also useful to fall back upon for the purposes of his rhymes. § 375- The Spread of the London Type in the Fifteenth Century. As we have seen in the Chapter on M.E. sounds, and in that on Inflexions, there was throughout the M.E. period, a greet diversitee In English and in wryting of onr tonge. In the written documents of the fifteenth century, however, especially in private and public official documents, this ' diversitee ' becomes gradually less apparent. It must not be supposed that this implies that the language was becoming more uniform. Not a whit. The diversity persisted in common Speech, but more and more the London type came into use over an ever increasing area. We have it on Caxton's own §§ 373-6] Caxton*s Dilemma 229 authority, that in his day a common standard of Spoken EngHsh did not exist, and that people still spoke their own dialects (see Morsbach, ScJwiftspr., pp. 169, 170). He tells us that he was puzzled what form to adopt in his translations. He received conflicting suggestions as to what he ought to do. ' And som honest and grete clerkes haue ben wyth me, and desired me to wryte the most curyous termes that I coude fynde.' Again, there were 'some gentylmen whiche late blamed me, sayeng y* in my translacyons I had ouer curyous termes, which coud not be understonde of comyn peple, and desired me to use olde and homely termes in my translacyons '. By ' olde and homely termes ' Caxton apparently means the forms of some rustic dialect, which was foreign to him. ' That comyn englysshe that is spoken in one shyre varyeth from a nother.' Thus it was of no use to employ a Regional Dialect which would be strange to all living outside the area where it was spoken. It is not quite clear what is meant by ' ouer curyous termes ', unless he refers to learned words which were not current anywhere in colloquial speech. He goes on to say — 'and thus betwene playne, and rude and curyous termes, I stand abasshed ; but in my Judgemente, the comyn termes that be dayli vesd ben lyghter to be vnderstonde than the olde an auncyent englysshe '. This Morsbach takes to mean, and the explanation is evidently right, that Caxton avoided deliberately words and forms peculiar to any given Regional Dialect, or rather, he chose the only dialect which was at least known in its written form over a wide area, that of London, a form of English which, as he says, ' had already become the common property of many '. Caxton makes the interesting statement : ' And certeynly the langage now vsed varyeth ferre from that whiche was vsed and spoken whan I was borne '. These words may record more than a change come about in the ordinary course of evolution in language ; they may refer to the shifting of the type in London speech, away from Southern towards the Midland form — the elimina- tion more and more of the former, and adoption proportionally of elements from the latter. It is certain that the Standard was very far from fixed in Caxton's time, and we can observe an ebb and flow in the dialect of literary works for more than a hundred years after his time. § 376. Dialect Constituents of Caxton's English. Specially Kentish or S.E. Of these there appear to be none apart from the forms in e 230 Origin and Growth of Literary English [chap, ix and r representing O.E. j {71 — i). There is a certain number of these, which is not surprising as Caxton was a Kentishman ; there are fewer than in Chaucer's Poetry, though more than in his Prose, where i is almost universal (cp. Romstedt, pp. 13, 14, 20; Frieshammer, pp. 30, 31; ten Brink, pp. 12, 18). Caxton has only kenc ' cows ', representing the long e of this origin, but a not inconsiderable list of words with e, some of which have now [i] in Standard Engl. : kechyn, besy, pelow. Enyl ' evil ' is to be differently explained according to Luick (§ 229, Note). Southern features in Caxton. This element is on the wane in Caxton (Romstedt, p. 52). A few cases of Pres. Indie, and Imperat. PI. in -eth still survive. The prefix y- still used occasionally. Midland features. (i) The old distinction between S. and PI. in the Pret. of Strong Verbs of Classes i, 3, 4, 5 survived longer in the Sth. than in the Nth. In the latter, the vowel of the Sing, is used also in the PI. The originally Nth. habit invades the Midi, also and is found commonly in Caxton. (2) The use of their, them {theiin), more commonly than the old native forms her, hem. (3) The Pres. PI. Indie, has most commonly the Midi, ending -en {-e), rather than the rarer Sthn. -eth. (4) Ar commoner than ben in Pres. Indie. PI. of Substantive Verb. Chaucer has usually been in Prose and Verse, and very rarely ar{e)n. § 377« The Literary Language in the Fifteenth Century. In considering the development and fixing of a particular type of English as the single vehicle of literature, two aspects of the question have to be borne in mind. On the one hand there is the actual development of the London Dialect itself, in its literary form. We have seen that this contains various dialectal elements, and that the relative proportion of these is not constant. The tendency during the fifteenth century is towards unification. The double forms of the same word, belonging now to this dialectal type, now to that, so character- istic of the earlier London documents, of Davie, and of Chaucer, are less frequent in the fifteenth-century Charters and in Caxton. The language is slowly settling down to a definite type, more or less fixed so far as the nature of its dialectal constituents is concerned. §§376-7] The 'Oxford Type' 231 On the other hand, we must remember the spread of the London Dialect beyond the original area. In Bokenam, Lydgate, Hoccleve, Capgrave, we find a more definitely E. Midi, character than in the language of Chaucer — Bokenam indeed clearly states that he writes in the Suffolk dialect. Again, in Wycliffe, and more than half a century later, in Pecock, a slightly different type still is exhibited. The question arises whether this, the 'Oxford type', has not in its turn influenced the literary language of London as found in Caxton. This was answered in the affirmative by Dibelius, Ajiglia, xxiv, pp. 302-7 and elsewhere, who claims to have found marked traces of Oxford influence in Caxton, and certain features in the Standard English of to-day (e. g. [z'z] etc. in unstressed syllables — [hauzzz], etc. ; fought, foimd {VxoX.) with vowel of P.P.), which cannot be explained except by assuming this influence. This view has, however, been rejected by sub- sequent investigators of the origin of Literary English — Lekebusch, Frieshammer, and quite recently by Luick, Hist. Gr., p. S3- The so-called ' Oxford ' features are shown to belong to London English as found in the Prose of Chaucer and in the later London Charters, and this type has therefore not con- tributed to the development of Literary English. Lekebusch (p. 144) asks with some point how exactly Caxton underwent Oxford influence, since he never set foot in that city. It can hardly be supposed that he procured Oxford MSS. and used them as models. In spite of the varieties which undoubtedly do exist in the language displayed by the English writers of the fifteenth, and even, to some extent, throughout the sixteenth century, it is fair to say that on the whole there is a definite attempt at conformity with a single type ; the differences are, for the most part, in scattered forms, and do not involve whole classes of words, or grammatical categories. The differences that we remark between the English of to-day and that of Hoccleve and Lydgate, of Pecock and Caxton, of Skelton and Lord Berners, of Tyndale and Sir Thomas More, of Surrey, Wyatt, and Elyot, of Udall, Sackville, Ascham, Latimer, Lyly, and their contemporaries, are very largely differences of structure and phrase, quaintnesses and archaisms of word and expression rather than vital disparities of dialect. The language of Caxton and his immediate followers is, to all intents and purposes, the ancestor of our present English, apart from the scattered and isolated differences to which reference has been made. 232 Origin and Groivth of Literary English [chap.ix § 378. Occasional Dialectal Lapses in Sixteenth- Century English. It may be worth while to illustrate these from a few of the better known writers. It may be noted that in some cases the writer hesitates between two forms, using sometimes that which is the ancestor of our Present-day type, sometimes another form ; in other cases the type systematically used is different from that which subsequently became fixed. I begin with Lord Berners's Froissart (1523). We may read whole pages of this remarkable work without feeling more than a slight archaism of expression. It is essentially Modern English, simple, dignified, stately, and yet effective and expressive. We find : than, zvhan ' then, when ', cam ' came ', jiat ' not ', remciied ' removed ', tog^iydcr ' together ', lese ' lose ', strake ' struck ', themselfe (from -selfen), thyder 'thither', wolle 'will', eyen 'eyes', yerthe 'earth', tno adv. ' more ', thenglysshmcn. This list shows the most noteworthy divergences from present-day usage in about 9^ pp. given by Skeat, Specimens, vol. iii. Tyndale (1528), from the Obedience of a Christian Man, Skeat, iii, pp. 167-79. Redles 'riddles' (cp, § 231, on vowel of riddle), steke ' stick ', childerne ; geve ' give ' inf., geven p.p., vto, vnderstonde {0 instead of a), awnc ' own ' adj., tJien ' than ', sherch ' search ', deades ' deeds ' (apparently Saxon x- type, and not the Kt. or Anglian^, §§ 161 and 162), fettethe 'fetches', O.'R. fetian; anctor 'author', enches 'inches', all maner doctonrs, instead of ' all manner of, zvhome ' home ' adv. (cp. § 240, Note 2, on wone for one [wan]), Devinite 'divinity', also dyvinite. Apart from these few exceptions, the whole passage reads like present-day English. Sir Thomas Mere's Dialogue concerning Hereseyes (1528), Skeat's Specimens, iii, pp. 181-93. Foimden p.p., euery (used as noun) ' oute of euery of those tonges ', lyen ' lain ' p.p., whan ^ -when', fnrth 'forth', thaji ' then', for doden ' (or- bidden ', degonne ' begun ', sprongen p.p., expotvned^ expounded ', forbare 'forbore' pret., hablc 'able', christen 'Christian', prent ' print ' noun, geue ' give ' inf., hole and zvhole ' whole ' (two distinct types, as in Tyndale's whome compared with our home, cp. § 240, Note 2), forgene, ' forgive ', pistle ' epistle '. — From Sir T. More's Confutacion of Tyndale s ajtswer (1532). The tone, the tot her, giue, but sc&geiie above. More distinguishes between nay and 7io, the former being used in answer to a question framed in the affirmative, the latter to one in the nega- tive. He makes a similar distinction between jr(«) and_;'^j-. § 378] Unsettled State of Early Modern From Sir Thomas Elyot's Goticrnour (153 1), Skeat's Specimens, iii, pp. 195-204. Wrastlyng 'wrestling', strenger ' stronger', Iciigcr ' longer' (cp. § 331), moitght ' might ', warke ' work ' noun, rennc ' run ' inf., rcnnyng participle, rcnncr ' run- ner ', fcrre ' far, distant ', tlie ryiier of Tyber, afcrdc ' afraid ', adv. whan^faiigJitc pret. 'fought' (from O.^.fxht, M.E.fa/ii, fajiht, not the ancestor of our fought which is from p.p. type, O.K. foht-cn, M.E. foicht), luarse ' worse ', domagc ' damage ', harborowe vb. * harbour ', gyue inf., gyiien p.p. (cp. getie above and below, in contemporary writings), sens ' since ', disporte of hanking ' sport . . .', kepcth Pres. Indie. PI. Edward VI's First Prayer Book (1549). We should expect, in such a work, to find the purest, and most authoritative form of English, but even here, in spite of the great beauties of the style, there are a certain number of words which exhibit dialectal types that have quite disappeared from the language of literature. This book, so important and interesting in a dozen ways, has not yet received the attention it deserves from the linguistic point of view. I can only give here a few of the most marked peculiarities in which it differs from the English of to-day. Gene, forgeue, geue?i (very frequent, the only forms; ntver gine, etc.), yer ' ere \ year tk 'earth' (ten examples counted, apparently the only form), weomen PL of woman (this form shows the change in first syll. which we make in speech, but do not express in spelling), brejit sacrifice, sprong pret. of spring (also sprang), oner coined p.p., wines, Possess. Sing., Present-day [\va\is\,childers chiidren ' children's children '. Bp. Latimer's Sermons (1549). I follow Arber's Reprint of all the Sermons. Gene inf., genen p.p. (very frequent, gi^ce less frequently) ; the 3rd Sing. Pres. Indie, generally ends in -cth, also in -es ; sometimes both forms occur in the same sentence, e.g. 'he roves and goth about ' ; furder ' further ' ; ' great reformations is to be had'; 'they that kepr//^' (Sthn. PI.), mo adv., sence ' since ', whomlye ' homely ', also ^vone ' one ', then ' than ', stack vb., pret. of stick, thether ' thither ', ye diuel ' the devil ', whirry ' wherry ', fetteth ' fetches ', byles noun ' boils ', ' what- soever ye shall axe in my name '. These discourses make no pretensions to high literary polish. They are colloquial in style, vigorous and racy, and perhaps, even by some of those who heard them, were felt to be too homely and lacking in dignity of style for the discourses of a bishop who was addressing his king. Latimer may not be responsible for all 234 Origin and Growth of Literary English [chap, ix the curiosities of phrase and form in the version which has come down to us. Such expressions as knockes hym on the head, cocke sure, vpskippes ' upstarts ', the diuel and at, tost from post to piller, and many others of the same kind are clearly taken from the familiar speech of everyday life. Turning to Lily's Euphues (15H1) we come to a very different style. The effort throughout is evidently to produce some- thing of very high quality. Every phrase is carefully wrought, polished, and balanced ; there is a painful striving for what later writers would call the mot juste, though the choice is perhaps often determined more by the exigencies of allitera- tion than by any very nice and fastidious feeling for shades of meaning. The book strikes us now as rather intolerable by reason of its sententiousness, and artificiality of style, but it was thought a model of elegance and wisdom in its day ; it set a fashion and founded a school. We may therefore be sure that there is no negligence on the part of the writer, and that where double forms are found, or forms which belong to a dialectal type now discarded, these arise from the still unsettled state of Literary English at the time. I follow Arber's Reprint, and the following list represents most of the chief points of the kind we are considering throughout both parts of the work. To striek ' strike ', elder as comp. of old, anyes (Possessive case, used as a noun), scrich ' shriek', / writ pret., doth as PI. — ' pleasaunt sirroppes doth chiefliest infecte a delicate taste ' ; retchles ' reckless ', dronken (Note artificial learned spellings such as accompted, co7itcmpned) ; watt pret. Sing. ' won ', hether ' hither ', chekin ' chicken ' ; ' the Rauen cherisheth hir byrdes\ where the last word is used in old sense of O.E. briddas ' young birds '; Pres. PL in -en — loaden ; stroken p.p. of strike, here equivalent to 'stricken', dinells, leese 'lose', /^«r<^ ' heard ' pret., hoate (unshortened form, cp. § 243 above) ' hot '. These examples from some of the great sixteenth-century writers are enough to illustrate the point from which we started, that even in the most impressive and solemn form of literature authors could still hesitate and vary their use in the choice of forms. The work of unification was not complete ; the Regional, or Class Dialect of the individual still found occa- sional utterance in his literary style, just as it does at the present day in the Spoken Language. As spelling was not yet so rigidly fixed as at present, the sixteenth-century writer might even betray a dialect pronunciation that was a com- paratively slight variant, by his orthography. Of this, §§ 378-9] Influence of Regional Dialects 235 Tyndale's deades is probably an example. At the present time, many persons whose style is unimpeachable, and who naturally follow the received spelling, may nevertheless habitually exhibit in their speech all the stigmata of a Scotch, Yorkshire, or Lancashire accent, or the worst features of Cockneyism, and yet never betray themselves in their writings. But apart from the temptation of the sixteenth-century writer to lapse into provincialisms, and to express these in his spelling, there was the fact that he had less than a century of printing behind him. The eyes of reader and writer alike were still ac- customed to a certain variety, even in the printed book, and men were not yet trained to think of words as of unvarying groups of letters. Thus any type of form which could be heard among educated persons in conversation might also be represented in the written word. The common sixteenth-century spelling geue merely expresses what was still the more habitual form. Give was coming in, and no doubt would call forth no com- ment, hut gezr, to judge by the writers of this period, was the usual form. The Orthoepists of the sixteenth century indicate the pronunciation [giv]. § 379* Later Dialectal Influence upon Standard English. This problem belongs rather to the history of the Spoken Language than that of the Literary form. Reference has been already made to this in the chapter on English Pro- nunciation in the Modern Period. There is an inconsiderable number of words in Present- day English, whose pronunciation presents certain difficulties, judged from the standpoint of the usual sound changes of Received Standard. Luick {Unters. z. engl. Lajitgesch.^ pp. 312, etc.) enumerates the forms of this kind which have come in since the middle of the seventeenth century. They do not amount to very much when all is said and done. Broad, bought, bro7ight are supposed to owe their vowel [5] to the dialects of the South-West. The forms of one, once [wan, wans] are supposed to come from the same area. (See § 242, Note 2, on the slow introduction of these forms into polite English.) Key with [l] appears in the second half of the seventeenth century, and comes, it is said, from W. Midi, area. The vowel in break, steak, yea, [e] instead of [l], came into Received Standard in the first half of the eighteenth century, from the South-West. Coming down to our own times, various changes in isolated words have come in during the last century— one type has been given up, and another adopted as the Received form. 236 Origin and Grozvth of Literary English [chap, ix A few examples of these must suffice, [kwael/tz, kwaent/t/, guld, A'"b] etc., have been replaced by [kvv:'lztz, kw^ritzt/, gould, hAb], and there are many other instances of the same kind of thing. The termination -ing is now very commonly pro- nounced \ixi\ instead of the old-fashioned [m]. Other more recent examples still of an alteration in pro- nunciation, not due to ordinary Sound Change, but to substitu- tion of one type for another, are given in my article, ' Class Dialect and Standard English,' Mackay Misc., pp. 283-91, and it is there suggested that we have here the result of social con- ditions, which have brought into prominence and importance sections of the population who at an earlier period were unable to affect Standard English. It is suggested further, that many alterations in English during the last hundred years show the influence, not of Regional or Local Dialect, but of Class Dialect, that is, the influence of Modified Standard upon Received Standard. This whole question has hardly been discussed at present, but it is not too much to say that the variants of Standard English which now exist, and have long existed among different social divisions, must, with the changing social conditions of the present day, profoundly affect the future of Received Standard. It is further urged that the same thing has happened in the past, and that possibly some of the seventeenth and eighteenth century varieties, mentioned by the writers on pronunciation of that time, may be accounted for by assuming that the variants represented the forms used in various Class Dialects, rather than in Regional Dialects. The terms Received Standard for the ' best ' type of Spoken English, usually known hitherto as Standard English, and Modified Standard for the various vulgar forms of this heard among the inferior ranks of the population, were proposed by me in ' Standard English and its Varieties,' Mod. Lang. Teaching, Dec, 191 3, pp. 1-16. It seems probable that the influence of Modified Standard, that is, of forms of English differentiated out of Received Standard by factors of social isolation, will have to be admitted and studied in the future, more than has hitherto been the case, if we are to understand the tendencies which arise in Spoken English, at different periods, affecting now whole classes of words, now only individual words. These alterations in speech habit appear to be often of the nature of fashion, but they have deeper causes which spring from the complex and stereoscopic conditions of modern society. The problem of the rise of the Literary Dialect, and of §379] Future Investigations — Conclusion 237 Received Standard Spoken English, is one which now bulks large in the minds of students. Much yet remains to be done. We want a more minute knowledge than we at present possess of the dialectal conditions in M.E., and one which perhaps will hardly be attained primarily from the texts of that period, whose place of origin is often largely conjectural. New light will probably come from the systematic study of the phono- logy of the M.E. forms of Place Names. Next we want a far minuter and more exhaustive knowledge of the language of all the fifteenth and sixteenth-century non-dialectal writers. This work has been splendidly begun by Dibelius, in particular, and by other writers mentioned in the course of this book. Then we want many monographs upon Present-day Spoken English ; on the one hand of the rapidly disappearing Regional Dialects, and on the other of the ever increasing number of types of Modified Standard, or Class Dialects. The latter study is hardly begun. It should be carried out both in respect of certain well-marked social boundaries, and also within these, with a view to geographical diffusion, and possible new differentiation. As regards the study of Regional Dialects, the real foundations have yet to be laid. At present we can hardly connect any features of these forms of English with their predecessors in the M.E. period. We often do not know the historical relation, if such exists, between apparently identical developments in widely separated dialects. Many of these apparent connexions are illusory, but we know so little of the past of the living dialects, that we are unable in many cases to identify the genuine Regional elements from other features which may have come, at no very remote date, from some form of Standard English. The field of investigation for the future student of English is a vast and fruitful one. Much of it is still absolutely un- broken. It must be said, in common fairness, that German and Scandinavian scholars have hitherto done most of the work. A glance at the Bibliography at the beginning of this book shows how much we owe in the way of special investiga- tions to our foreign friends. It may sound paradoxical, but it is true that the first and most necessary preparation for the modern study of the history of the English Language is a know- ledge of German. As a fitting close to this little text-book, I venture to express the modest hope that in the near future a larger number of Englishmen may be willing to add some- thing to our knowledge of the history of the English Language, INDEX ( The numbers refer to the §§ unless it is otherwise stated^ Adjectives, 317-24. Adverbs, 325, 326. Analogy, 70. Anglian Dialects, characteristics of, 126-39. See also under Mer- cian and Northumbrian. Article, Definite, 283, etc. Cases of Nouns, 308-9. Caxton, adheres on the whole to M.E. spelling, 211; unstressed syllables in, 274 ; his difficulty in choice of type of English to be used in his works, 375 ; dialectal features of his language, 376. Cely Papers, value of as indicating sound changes, 208, 218, 225, 236, 254, etc. Chaucer's language, compared with earliest and later London docu- ments, 373 ; differences between language of his Prose and Poetry, 374. Class Dialect, 210, 379. See Re- ceived and Modified Standard. Comparative of Adjectives with and without y^