Un jur fu Karléun al Seint-Denis muster,Reout prise sa corune, en croiz seignat sun chef,E ad ceinte sa espée: li pons fud d'or mer.Dux i out e demeines e baruns e chevalers.Li emperères reguardet la reine sa muillers.Ele fut ben corunée al plus bel e as meuz.Il la prist par le poin desuz un oliver,De sa pleine parole la prist à reisuner:"Dame, véistes unkes humc nul de desuz ceilTant ben séist espée ne la corone el chef?Uncore cunquerrei-jo citez ot mun espeez."Cele ne fud pas sage, folement respondeit:"Emperere," dist-ele, trop vus poez preiser."Uncore en sa-jo on ki plus se fait léger,Quant il porte corune entre ses chevalers;Kaunt il met sur sa teste, plus belement lui set."
Un jur fu Karléun al Seint-Denis muster,Reout prise sa corune, en croiz seignat sun chef,E ad ceinte sa espée: li pons fud d'or mer.Dux i out e demeines e baruns e chevalers.Li emperères reguardet la reine sa muillers.Ele fut ben corunée al plus bel e as meuz.Il la prist par le poin desuz un oliver,De sa pleine parole la prist à reisuner:"Dame, véistes unkes humc nul de desuz ceilTant ben séist espée ne la corone el chef?Uncore cunquerrei-jo citez ot mun espeez."Cele ne fud pas sage, folement respondeit:"Emperere," dist-ele, trop vus poez preiser."Uncore en sa-jo on ki plus se fait léger,Quant il porte corune entre ses chevalers;Kaunt il met sur sa teste, plus belement lui set."
Un jur fu Karléun al Seint-Denis muster,
Reout prise sa corune, en croiz seignat sun chef,
E ad ceinte sa espée: li pons fud d'or mer.
Dux i out e demeines e baruns e chevalers.
Li emperères reguardet la reine sa muillers.
Ele fut ben corunée al plus bel e as meuz.
Il la prist par le poin desuz un oliver,
De sa pleine parole la prist à reisuner:
"Dame, véistes unkes humc nul de desuz ceil
Tant ben séist espée ne la corone el chef?
Uncore cunquerrei-jo citez ot mun espeez."
Cele ne fud pas sage, folement respondeit:
"Emperere," dist-ele, trop vus poez preiser.
"Uncore en sa-jo on ki plus se fait léger,
Quant il porte corune entre ses chevalers;
Kaunt il met sur sa teste, plus belement lui set."
In the northern French we must recognise not only a Celtic and a Classical, but also a Gothic element: since Clovis and Charlemagne were no Frenchmen, but Germans; their language beingHigh-Germanic. The High-Germanic element in French has still to be determined.
In the northern French ofNormandythere is a second Gothic element,viz., a Scandinavian element. By this the proper northern French underwent a further modification.
Until the time of the Scandinavians or Northmen, the present province of Normandy was called Neustria. A generation before the Norman Conquest, a Norwegian captain, named in his own countryRolf, and in FranceRollo, orRou, settled upon the coast of Normandy. What Hengist and the Germans are supposed to have been in Britain, Rollo and his Scandinavians were in France. The province took from them its name of Normandy. TheNorwegianelement in the Norman-French has yet to be determined. Respecting it, however, the following statements may, even in the present state of the question, be made:—
1. That a Norse dialect was spoken in Normandy at Bayeux, some time after the battle of Hastings.
2. That William the Conqueror understood the Norse language.
3. That the names Jersey, Guernsey, and Alderney are as truly Norse names as Orkney and Shetland.
THE POSITION OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE AS INDO-EUROPEAN.
§ 145. In each of the three preceding chapters a separate stock of languages has been considered; and it has been shown, in some degree, how far languages of the same stock differ from, or agree with, each other.
Furthermore, in each stock there has been some particular language that especially illustrates the English.
In the Gothic stock there has been the Anglo-Saxon; in the Celtic the Welsh; and in the Classical the Anglo-Norman.
Nevertheless, the importance of the languages of these three divisions is by no means equal. The Gothic tongues supply the basis of our investigations. The Celtic afford a few remnants of that language which the Anglo-Saxon superseded. The Anglo-Norman language exhibits certain superadded elements.
§ 146. Over and above the Gothic, Celtic, and Classical languages, there are others that illustrate the English; and some of our commonest grammatical inflections can be but half understood unless we go beyond the groups already enumerated.
The Gothic, Celtic (?),[20]and Classical stocks are but subordinate divisions of a wider class. Each has a sufficient amount of mutual affinities to be illustrative of each other, and each is contained, along with two other groups of equal value, under a higher denomination in philology.
What is the nature of that affinity which connects languages so different as the Gothic, Celtic (?), and Classical stocks? or what is the amount of likeness between,e.g., theGerman and Portuguese, the Greek and Islandic, the Latin and Swedish, the Anglo-Saxon and Italian? And what other languages are so connected?
What other philological groups are connected with each other, and with the languages already noticed, by the same affinities which connect the Gothic, Celtic (?), and Classical stocks? Whatever these languages may be, it is nearly certain that they will be necessary, on some point or other, for the full illustration of the English.
As both these questions are points of general, rather than of English, philology, and as a partial answer may be got to the first from attention to the degree in which the body of the present work exhibits illustrations drawn from widely different languages, the following statements are considered sufficient.
§ 147. The philological denomination of the class which contains the Gothic, Celtic (?), and Classical divisions, and, along with the languages contained therein, all others similarly allied, isIndo-European; so that the Gothic, Celtic (?), Classical and certain other languages are Indo-European.
All Indo-European languages illustrate each other.
The other divisions of the great Indo-European group of languages are as follows:—
1. The Iranian stock of languages.—This contains the proper Persian languages of Persia (Iran) in all their stages, the Kurd language, and all the languages of Asia (whatever they may be) derived from the Zend or Sanskrit.
2. The Sarmatian stock of languages.—This contains the languages of Russia, Poland, Bohemia, and of the Slavonian tribes in general. It contains also the Lithuanic languages,i.e., the Lithuanic of Lithuania, the old Prussian of Prussia (now extinct), and the Lettish or Livonic of Courland and Livonia.
3, 4, 5. The Classical, Gothic, and Celtic (?) stocks complete the catalogue of languages undoubtedly Indo-European, and at the same time they explain the import of the term. Indo-European is the name of a class which embraces the majority of the languages ofEurope, and is extended overAsia as far asIndia.Until the Celtic was shown by Dr. Prichard to have certain affinities with the Latin, Greek, Slavonic, Lithuanic, Gothic, Sanskrit, and Zend, as those tongues had with each other, the class in question was called Indo-Germanic; since, up to that time, the Germanic languages had formed its western limit.
§ 148.Meaning of the note of interrogation (?) after the word Celtic.—In a paper read before the Ethnological Society, February 28th, 1849, and published in the Edinburgh Philosophical Magazine, the present writer has given reasons for considering the claims of the Celtic to be Indo-European as somewhat doubtful; at the same time he admits, and highly values, all the facts in favour of its being so, which are to be found in Prichard's Eastern Origin of the Celtic Nations.
He believes, however, that the Celtic can only be brought in the same group with the Gothic, Slavonic, &c., byextendingthe value of the class.
"To draw an illustration from the common ties of relationship, as between man and man, it is clear that a family may be enlarged in two ways.
"a.A brother, or a cousin, may be discovered, of which the existence was previously unknown. Herein the family is enlarged, or increased, by therealaddition of a new member, in a recognised degree of relationship.
"b.A degree of relationship previously unrecognised may be recognised,i.e., a family wherein it was previously considered that a second-cousinship was as much as could be admitted within its pale, may incorporate third, fourth, or fifth cousins. Here the family is enlarged, or increased, by averbalextension of the term.
"Now it is believed that the distinction between increase by the way of real addition, and increase by the way of verbal extension, has not been sufficiently attended to. Yet, that it should be more closely attended to, is evident; since, in mistaking a verbal increase for a real one, the whole end and aim of classification is overlooked. The publication of Dr. Prichard's Eastern Origin of the Celtic Nations, in 1831,supplied philologists with the most definite addition that has perhaps, yet been made to ethnographical philology.
"Ever since then the Celtic has been considered to be Indo-European. Indeed its position in the same group with the Iranian, Classical, Slavono-Lithuanic, and Gothic tongues, supplied the reason for substituting the term Indo-Europeanfor the previous one Indo-Germanic.
"On the other hand, it seems necessary to admit thatlanguages are allied just in proportion as they were separated from the mother-tongue in the same stage of its development.
"If so, the Celtic became detached anteriorto the evolution of the declension of nouns, whereas the Gothic, Slavonic, Classical and Iranian languages all separatedsubsequent to that stage."[21]
This, along with other reasons indicated elsewhere,[22]induces the present writer to admit an affinity between the Celtic and the other so-called Indo-European tongues, but to deny that it is the same affinity which connects the Iranian, Classical, Gothic and Slavonic groups.
HISTORY AND ANALYSIS OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.
————
HISTORICAL AND LOGICAL ELEMENTS OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.
§ 149. The Celtic elements of the present English fall into five classes.
1. Those that are of late introduction, and cannot be called original and constituent parts of the language. Such are (amongst others) the wordsflannel,crowd(a fiddle), from the Cambrian; andkerne(an Irish foot-soldier),galore(enough),tartan,plaid, &c., from the Gaelic branch.
2. Those that are common to both the Celtic and Gothic stocks, and are Indo-European rather than either Welsh, or Gaelic, or Saxon. Such (amongst others) arebrother,mother, in Celticbrathair,mathair; the numerals, &c.
3. Those that have come to us from the Celtic, but have come to us through the medium of another language. Such aredruidandbard, whoseimmediatesource is, not the Celtic but, the Latin.
4. Celtic elements of the Anglo-Norman, introduced into England after the Conquest, and occurring in that language as remains of the original Celtic of Gaul.
5. Those that have been retained from the original Celtic of the island, and which form genuine constituents of our language. These fall into three subdivisions.
a.Proper names—generally of geographical localities; asthe Thames,Kent, &c.
b.Common names retained in the provincial dialects of England, but not retained in the current language; asgwethall=household stuff, andgwlanen=flannelin Herefordshire.
c.Common names retained in the current language.—The following list is Mr. Garnett's:—
§ 150.Latin of the first period.—Of the Latin introduced by Cæsar and his successors, the few words remaining are those that relate to military affairs;viz.street(strata);coln(as inLincoln=Lindi colonia);cest(as inGloucester=glevæ castra) fromcastra. The Latin words introduced between the time of Cæsar and Hengist may be called theLatin of the first period, or theLatin of the Celtic period.
§ 151.The Anglo-Saxon.—This is not noticed here, because from being the staple of the present language it is more or less the subject of the book throughout.
§ 152.The Danish, or Norse.—The pirates that pillaged Britain, under the name of Danes, were not exclusively the inhabitants of Denmark. Of the three Scandinavian nations, the Swedes took the least share, the Norwegians the greatestin these invasions. Not that the Swedes were less piratical, but that they robbed elsewhere,—in Russia, for instance, and in Finland.
The language of the three nations was the same; the differences being differences of dialect. It was that which is now spoken in Iceland, having been once common to Scandinavia and Denmark. Whether this was aboriginal inDenmark, is uncertain. InScandinaviait was imported; the tongue that it supplanted having been, in all probability, the mother-tongue of the present Laplandic.
The Danish that became incorporated with our language, under the reign of Canute and his sons, may be called the direct Danish (Norse or Scandinavian) element, in contradistinction to the indirect Danish of§§ 144,155.
The determination of the amount of Danish in English is difficult. It is not difficult to prove a wordScandinavian. We must also show that it is not German. A few years back the current opinion was against the doctrine that there was much Danish in England. At present, the tendency is rather the other way. The following facts are from Mr. Garnett.—Phil. Trans. Vol. i.
1. The Saxon name of the present town ofWhitbyin Yorkshire wasStreoneshalch. The present nameWhitby,Hvitby, orWhite-town, is Danish.
2. The Saxon name of the capital of Derbyshire wasNorthweortheg. The present name is Danish.
3. The termination-by=townis Norse.
4. On a monument in Aldburgh church, Holdernesse, in the East Riding of Yorkshire, referred to the age of Edward the Confessor, is found the following inscription:—
Ulfhet aræran cyricefor hanumand for Gunthara saula."Ulf bid rear the church for him and for the soul of Gunthar."
Ulfhet aræran cyricefor hanumand for Gunthara saula."Ulf bid rear the church for him and for the soul of Gunthar."
Ulfhet aræran cyricefor hanumand for Gunthara saula.
"Ulf bid rear the church for him and for the soul of Gunthar."
Now, in this inscription,Ulf, in opposition to the Anglo-Saxonwulf, is a Norse form; whilsthanumis a Norse dative, and by no means an Anglo-Saxon one.—Old Norsehanum, Swedishhonom.
5. The use ofatfortoas the sign of the infinitive moodis Norse, not Saxon. It is the regular prefix in Icelandic, Danish, Swedish, and Feroic. It is also found in the northern dialects of the Old English, and in the particular dialect of Westmoreland at the present day.
6. The use ofsumforas;e.g.—swa sumwe forgive oure detturs.
7. Isolated words in the northern dialects are Norse rather than Saxon.
§ 153.Roman of the Second Period.—Of the Latin introduced under the Christianised Saxon sovereigns, many words are extant. They relate chiefly to ecclesiastical matters, just as the Latin of the Celtic period bore upon military affairs.—Mynster, a minster,monasterium;portic, a porch,porticus;cluster, a cloister,claustrum;munuc, a monk,monachus;bisceop, a bishop,episcopus;arcebisceop, archbishop,archiepiscopus;sanct, a saint,sanctus;profost, a provost,propositus;pall, a pall,pallium;calic, a chalice,calix;candel, a candle,candela;psalter, a psalter,psalterium;mæsse, a mass,missa;pistel, an epistle,epistola;prædic-ian, to preach,prædicare;prof-ian, to prove,probare.
The following are the names of foreign plants and animals:—camell, a camel,camelus;ylp, elephant,elephas;ficbeam, fig-tree,ficus;feferfuge, feverfew,febrifuga;peterselige, parsley,petroselinum.
Others are the names of articles of foreign origin, aspipor, pepper,piper;purpur, purple,purpura;pumicstan, pumice-stone,pumex.
The above-given list is from Guest's English Rhythms (B. iii. c. 3). It constitutes that portion of the elements of our language which may be called the Latin of the second, or Saxon period.
§ 154.The Anglo-Norman element.—For practical purposes we may say that the French or Anglo-Norman element appeared in our language after the battle of Hastings,A.D.1066.
Previous, however, to that period we find notices of intercourse between the two countries.
1. The residence in England of Louis Outremer.
2. Ethelred II. married Emma, daughter of Richard Duke of Normandy, and the two children were sent to Normandy for education.
3. Edward the Confessor is particularly stated to have encouraged French manners and the French language in England.
4. Ingulphus of Croydon speaks of his own knowledge of French.
5. Harold passed some time in Normandy.
6. The French articlela, in the termla Drove, occurs in a deed ofA.D.975.—See Ranouard,Journal des Savans, 1830.
The chief Anglo-Norman elements of our language are the terms connected with the feudal system, the terms relating to war and chivalry, and a great portion of the law terms—duke,count,baron,villain,service,chivalry,warrant,esquire,challenge,domain, &c.
§ 155. The Norwegian, Danish, Norse, or Scandinavian element of the Anglo-Norman (as in the proper namesGuernsey,Jersey,Alderney, and perhaps others) constitutes theindirectScandinavian element of the English.
§ 156.Latin of the Third Period.—This means the Latin which was introduced between the battle of Hastings and the revival of literature. It chiefly originated with the monks, in the universities, and, to a certain extent, in the courts of law. It must be distinguished from theindirectLatin introduced as part and parcel of the Anglo-Norman. It has yet to be accurately analyzed.
Latin of the Fourth Period.—This means the Latin which has been introduced between the revival of literature and the present time. It has originated in the writings of learned men in general, and is distinguished from that of the previous periods by—
1. Being less altered in form—
2. Preserving, in the case of substantives, in many cases its original inflections;axis,axes;basis,bases—
3. Relating to objects and ideas for which the increase of the range of science in general has required a nomenclature.
§ 157.Greek.—Words deriveddirectlyfrom the Greek are in the same predicament as the Latin of the third period—phænomenon,phænomena;criterion,criteria, &c.; words which are onlyindirectlyof Greek origin, being considered to belong to the language from which they were immediately introduced into the English. Such aredeacon,priest, &c., introduced through the Latin; thus a word likechurchproves no more in regard to a Greek element in English, than the wordabbotproves in respect to a Syrian one.
§ 158. The Latin of the fourth period and the Greek agree in retaining, in many cases, the Latin or Greek inflexions rather than adopting the English ones; in other words, they agree in being butimperfectly incorporated. The phænomenon of imperfect incorporation (an important one) is reducible to the following rules:—
1. That it has a direct ratio to the date of the introduction,i.e., the more recent the word the more likely it is to retain its original inflexion.
2. That it has a relation to the number of meanings belonging to the words: thus, when a single word has two meanings, the original inflexion expresses one, the English inflexion another—genius,genii, often (spirits),geniuses(men of genius).
3. That it occurs with substantives only, and that only in the expression of number. Thus, although the plural of substantives likeaxisandgeniusare Latin, the possessive cases are English. So also are the degrees of comparison, foradjectives likecircular, and the tenses, &c. for verbs, like perambulate.
§ 159. The following is a list of the chief Latin substantives, introduced during the latter part of the fourth period; and, preserving theLatinplural forms—
FIRST CLASS.
Words wherein the Latin Plural is the same as the Latin Singular.
SECOND CLASS.
Words wherein the Latin Plural is formed from the Latin Singular by changing the last Syllable.
(a).—Where the Singular termination-ais changed in the Plural into-æ:—
(b).—Where the singular termination-usis changed in the Plural into-i:—
(c).—Where the Singular termination-umis changed in the Plural into-a:—
(d).—Where the singular termination-isis changed in the Plural into-es:—
THIRD CLASS.
Words wherein the Plural is formed by inserting-ebetween the last two sounds of the singular, so that the former number always contains a syllable more than the latter:—
In all these words thecof the singular number is sounded ask, of the plural ass.
§ 160. The following is a list of the chief Greek substantives lately introduced, and preserving theGreekplural forms—
FIRST CLASS.
Words where the singular termination-onis changed in the plural into-a:—
SECOND CLASS.
Words where the plural is formed from the original root by adding either-esor-a, but where the singular rejects the last letter of the original root.
Plurals in-es:—
Plurals in-a:—
§ 161.Miscellaneous elements.—Of miscellaneous elements we have two sorts; those that are incorporated in our language, and are currently understood (e.g., the Spanish wordsherry, the Arabic wordalkali, and the Persian wordturban), and those that, even amongst the educated, are considered strangers. Of this latter kind (amongst many others) are the Oriental wordshummum,kaftan,gul, &c.
Of the currently understood miscellaneous elements of the English language, the most important are from the French; some of which agree with those of the Latin of the fourth period, and the Greek in preserving theFrenchplural forms—asbeau,beaux,billets-doux.
Italian.—Some words of Italian origin do the same: asvirtuoso,virtuosi.
Hebrew.—The Hebrew words,cherubandseraphdo the same; the formcherub-im, andseraph-im, being not only plurals but Hebrew plurals.
Beyond the words derived from these five languages, none form their plurals other than after the English method,i.e., in-s: aswaltzes, from the German wordwaltz.
§ 162. The extent to which a language, which like the English, at one and the same time requires names for many objects, comes in contact with the tongues of half the world,and has, moreover, a great power of incorporating foreign elements, derives fresh words from varied sources, may be seen from the following incomplete notice of the languages which have, in different degrees, supplied it with new terms.
Arabic.—Admiral, alchemist, alchemy, alcohol, alcove, alembic, algebra, alkali, assassin, from a paper of Mr. Crawford, read at the British Association, 1849.
Persian.—Turban, caravan, dervise, &c.—Ditto.
Turkish.—Coffee, bashaw, divan, scimitar, janisary, &c.—Ditto.
Hindu languages.—Calico, chintz, cowrie, curry, lac, muslin, toddy, &c.—Ditto.
Chinese.—Tea, bohea, congou, hyson, soy, nankin, &c.—Ditto.
Malay.—Bantam (fowl), gamboge, rattan, sago, shaddock, &c.—Ditto.
Polynesian.—Taboo, tattoo.—Ditto.
Tungusian, or some similar Siberian language.—Mammoth, the bones of which are chiefly from the banks of the Lena.
North American Indian.—Squaw, wigwam, pemmican.
Peruvian.—Charki=prepared meat; whencejerkedbeef.
Caribbean.—Hammock.
Ancient Carian.—Mausoleum.
§ 163. In§ 157a distinction is drawn between thedirectandindirect, the latter leading to theultimate originof words.
Thus a word borrowed into the English from the French, might have been borrowed into the French from the Latin, into the Latin from the Greek, into the Greek from the Persian, &c., and soad infinitum.
The investigation of this is a matter of literary curiosity rather than any important branch of philology.
The ultimate known origin of many common words sometimes goes back to a great date, and points to extinct languages—