PART VII.
THE DIALECTS OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.
[§ 678]. The consideration of the dialects of the English language is best taken in hand after the historical investigation of the elements of the English population. For this, see Part I.
It is also best taken in hand after the analysis of the grammatical structure of the language. For this, see Part IV.
This is because both the last-named subjects are necessary as preliminaries. The structure of the language supplies us with the points in which one dialect may differ from another, whilst the history of the immigrant populations may furnish an ethnological reason for such differences as are found to occur.
For a further illustration of this see pp. [4], [5].
[§ 679]. By putting together the history of the migrations into a country, and the grammatical structure of the language which they introduced, we find that there are two methods of classifying the dialects. These may be called the ethnological, and the structural methods.
According to the former, we place in the same class those dialects which were introduced by the same section of immigrants. Thus, a body of Germans, starting from the same part of Germany, and belonging to the same section of the Germanic population, even if, whilst at sea, they separated into two, three, or more divisions, and landed upon widely separated portions of Great Britain, would introduce dialects which were allied ethnologically; even though, by one of them changing rapidly, and the others not changing at all, they might, in their external characters, differ from each other, and agree with dialects of a different introduction. Hence, the ethnological principle is essentially historical, and
is based upon the idea of affiliation or affinity in the way of descent.
The structural principle is different. Two dialects introduced by different sections (perhaps it would be better to say sub-sections) of an immigrant population may suffer similar changes; e. g., they may lose the same inflexions, adopt similar euphonic processes, or incorporate the same words. In this case, their external characters become mutually alike. Hence, if we take two (or move) such dialects, and place them in the same class, we do so simply because they are alike; not because they are affiliated.
Such are the two chief principles of classification. Generally, they coincide; in other words, similarity of external characters is primâ facie evidence of affinity in the way of affiliation, identity of origin being the safest assumption in the way of cause; whilst identity of origin is generally a sufficient ground for calculating upon similarity of external form; such being, a priori, its probable effect.
Still, the evidence of one in favour of the other is only primâ facie evidence. Dialects of the same origin may grow unlike; dialects of different origins alike.
[§ 680]. The causes, then, which determine those minute differences of language, which go by the name of dialects are twofold.—1. Original difference; 2. Subsequent change.
[§ 681]. The original difference between the two sections (or sub-sections) of an immigrant population are referable to either—1. Difference of locality in respect to the portion of the country from which they originated; or 2. Difference in the date of the invasion.
Two bodies of immigrants, one from the Eyder, and the other from the Scheldt, even if they left their respective localities on the same day of the same month, would most probably differ from one another; and that in the same way that a Yorkshireman differs from a Hampshire man.
On the other hand, two bodies of immigrants, each leaving the very same locality, but one in 200 A.D., and the other in 500 A.D., would also, most probably, differ; and that as a Yorkshireman of 1850 A.D. differs from one of 1550 A.D.
[§ 682]. The subsequent changes which may affect the dialect of an immigrant population are chiefly referable to either, 1. Influences exerted by the dialects of the aborigines of the invaded country; 2. Influences of simple growth, or development. A dialect introduced from Germany to a portion of Great Britain, where the aborigines spoke Gaelic, would (if affected at all by the indigenous dialect) be differently affected from a dialect similarly circumstanced in a British, Welsh, and Cambrian district.
A language which changes rapidly, will, at the end of a certain period, wear a different aspect from one which changes slowly.
[§ 683]. A full and perfect apparatus for the minute philology of the dialects of a country like Great Britain, would consist in—
1. The exact details of the present provincialisms.
2. The details of the history of each dialect through all its stages.
3. The exact details of the provincialisms of the whole of that part of Germany which contributed, or is supposed to have contributed, to the Anglo-Saxon immigration.
4. The details of the original languages or dialects of the Aboriginal Britons at the time of the different invasions.
This last is both the least important and the most unattainable.
[§ 684]. Such are the preliminaries which are wanted for the purposes of investigation. Others are requisite for the proper understanding of the facts already ascertained, and the doctrines generally admitted; the present writer believing that these two classes are by no means coextensive.
Of such preliminaries, the most important are those connected with 1. the structure of language, and 2. the history of individual documents; in other words, certain points of philology, and certain points of bibliography.
[§ 685]. Philological preliminaries.—These are points of pronunciation, points of grammatical structure, and glossarial peculiarities. It is only the first two which will be noticed. They occur in 1. the modern, 2. the ancient local forms of speech.
[§ 686]. Present provincial dialects.—In the way of grammar we find, in the present provincial dialects (amongst many others), the following old forms—
1. A plural in en—we call-en, ye call-en, they call-en. Respecting this, the writer in the Quarterly Review, has the following doctrine:—
"It appears to have been popularly known, if not in East Anglia proper, at all events in the district immediately to the westward, since we find it in Orm, in an Eastern-Midland copy of the Rule of Nuns, sæc. XIII., and in process of time in Suffolk. Various conjectures have been advanced as to the origin of this form, of which we have no certain examples before the thirteenth century.[[72]] We believe the true state of the case to have been as follows. It is well known that the Saxon dialects differ from the Gothic, Old-German, &c. in the form of the present indicative plural—making all three persons to end in -aþ or -ad;—we—ȝe—hi—lufi-aþ (-ad). Schmeller and other German philologists observe that a nasal has been here elided, the true ancient form being -and, -ant, or -ent. Traces of this termination are found in the Cotton MS. of the Old Saxon Evangelical Harmony, and still more abundantly in the popular dialects of the Middle-Rhenish district from Cologne to the borders of Switzerland. These not only exhibit the full termination -ent, but also two modifications of it, one dropping the nasal and the other the dental. E.g.:—
| Pres. Indic. | Plur. 1, 2, 3 | liebent; |
| ,, | ,, | lieb-et; |
| ,, | ,, | lieb-en; |
—the last exactly corresponding with the Mercian. It is remarkable that none of the above forms appear in classical German compositions, while they abound in the Miracle-plays, vernacular sermons, and similar productions of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, specially addressed to the uneducated classes. We may, therefore, reasonably conclude from analogy that similar forms were popularly current in our midland counties, gradually insinuating themselves into the
written language. We have plenty of examples of similar phenomena. It would be difficult to find written instances of the pronouns scho, or she, their, you, the auxiliaries sal, suld, &c., before the twelfth century; but their extensive prevalence in the thirteenth proves that they must have been popularly employed somewhere even in times which have left us no documentary evidence of their existence."
I prefer to consider this termination as -en, a mere extension of the subjunctive form to the indicative.
2. An infinitive form in -ie; as to sowie, to reapie,—Wiltshire. (Mr. Guest).
3. The participial form in -and; as goand, slepand,—Lincolnshire (?), Northumberland, Scotland.
4. The common use of the termination -th in the third person present; goeth, hath, speaketh,—Devonshire.
5. Plural forms in -en; as housen,—Leicestershire and elsewhere.
6. Old preterite forms of certain verbs; as,
| Clom, | from | climb, | Hereford and elsewhere. |
| Hove, | — | heave, | ditto. |
| Puck, | — | pick, | ditto. |
| Shuck, | — | shook, | ditto. |
| Squoze, | — | squeeze, | ditto. |
| Shew, | — | sow, | Essex. |
| Rep, | — | reap, | ditto. |
| Mew, | — | mow, | ditto, &c. |
The following changes (a few out of many) are matters not of grammar, but of pronunciation:—
Ui for oo—cuil, bluid, for cool, blood,—Cumberland, Scotland.
Oy for i—foyne, twoyne, for fine, twine,—Cheshire, Cambridgeshire, Suffolk.
Oy for oo—foyt for foot,—Halifax.
Oy for o—noite, foil, coil, hoil, for note, foal, coal, hole,—Halifax.
Oy for a—loyne for lane,—Halifax.
Ooy for oo—nooin, gooise, fooil, tooil, for noon, goose, fool, tool,—Halifax.
W inserted (with or without a modification)—as spwort, scworn, whoam, for sport, scorn, home,—Cumberland, West Riding of Yorkshire.
Ew for oo, or yoo—tewn for tune,—Suffolk, Westmoreland.
Iv for oo, or yoo when a vowel follows—as Samivel for Samuel; Emmanivel for Emmanuel. In all these we have seen a tendency to diphthongal sounds.
In the following instances the practice is reversed, and instead of the vowel being made a diphthong, the diphthong becomes a vowel, as,
O for oy—boh for boy, Suffolk, &c.
Oo for ow—broon for brown,—Bilsdale.
Ee for i—neet for night,—Cheshire.
O for ou—bawn' for bound,—Westmoreland.
Of these the substitution of oo for ow, and of ee for i, are of importance in the questions of the Appendix.
Ēē for a—theere for there,—Cumberland.
Ēē for ĕ—reed, seeven, for red, seven,—Cumberland, Craven.
Ā for ō—sair, mair, baith, for sore, more, both,—Cumberland, Scotland.
Ă for ŏ—saft for soft,—Cheshire.
O for ă—mon for man,—Cheshire. Lond for land,—East-Anglian Semi-Saxon.
Y inserted before a vowel—styake, ryape, for stake, rope,—Borrowdale; especially after g (a point to be noticed), gyarden, gyown, for garden, gown,—Warwickshire, &c.; and at the beginning of a word, as yat, yan, for ate, one (ane),—Westmoreland, Bilsdale.
H inserted—hafter, hoppen, for after, open,—Westmoreland, &c.
H omitted—at, ard, for hat, hard,—Passim.
Transition of Consonants.
B for v—Whitehebbon for Whitehaven,—Borrowdale.
P for b—poat for boat.—Welsh pronunciation of many English words. See the speeches of Sir Hugh Evans in Merry Wives of Windsor.
V for f—vind for find,—characteristic of Devonshire, Kent.
T for d (final)—deet for deed,—Borrowdale.
T for ch (tsh)—fet for fetch,—Devonshire.
D for j (dzh)—sled for sledge,—Hereford.
D for th (þ)—wid=with; tudder=the other,—Borrowdale, Westmoreland. Initial (especially before a consonant)—drash, droo=thrash, through,—Devonshire, Wilts.
K for ch (tsh)—thack, pick, for thatch, pitch,—Westmoreland, Lincolnshire, Halifax.
G for j (dzh)—brig for bridge—Lincolnshire, Hereford.
G preserved from the Anglo-Saxon—lig, lie. Anglo-Saxon, licgan,—Lincolnshire, North of England.
Z for s—zee for see,—Devonshire.
S for sh—sall for shall,—Craven, Scotland.
Y for g—yet for gate,—Yorkshire, Scotland.
W for v—wiew for view,—Essex, London.
N for ng—bleedin for bleeding,—Cumberland, Scotland.
Sk for sh—busk for bush,—Halifax.
Ejection of Letters.
K before s, the preceding vowel being lengthened by way of compensation—neist for next, seist for sixth,—Halifax.
D and v after a consonant—gol for gold, siller for silver,—Suffolk. The ejection of f is rarer; mysel for myself, however, occurs in most dialects.
L final, after a short vowel,—in which case the vowel is lengthened—poo for pull,—Cheshire, Scotland.
Al changed to a open—hawf for half, saumon for salmon,—Cumberland, Scotland.
Transposition.
Transpositions of the liquid r are common in all our provincial dialects; as gars, brid, perty, for grass, bird, pretty. Here the provincial forms are the oldest, gærs, brid, &c., being the Anglo-Saxon forms. Again; acsian, Anglo-Saxon=ask, English.
[§ 687]. Ancient forms of speech.—In the way of grammar—
1. The ge- (see [§ 409]), prefixed to the past participle (ge-boren=borne) is, in certain localities,[[73]] omitted.
2. The present[[74]] plural form -s, encroaches upon the form in -n. Thus, munuces=munucan=monks.
3. The infinitive ends in -a, instead of -an. This is Scandinavian, but it is also Frisian.
4. The particle at is used instead of to before the infinitive verb.
5. The article[[74]] the is used instead of se, seo, þæt=ὁ, ἡ, τὸ, for both the numbers, and all the cases and genders.
6. The form in -s (use, usse) replaces ure=our.
In the way of sound—
1. Forms with the slenderer, or more vocalic[[74]] sounds, replace forms which in the West-Saxon are broad or diphthongal.[[75]] Beda mentions that Cœlin is the Northumbrian form of Ceawlin.
2. The simple[[74]] sound of k replaces the combination out of which the modern sound of ch has been evolved.
3. The sound of sk replaces either the sh, or the sound out of which it has been evolved.
The meaning of these last two statements is explained by the following extract: "Another characteristic is the infusion of Scandinavian words, of which there are slight traces in monuments of the tenth century, and strong and unequivocal ones in those of the thirteenth and fourteenth. Some of the above criteria may be verified by a simple and obvious process, namely, a reference to the topographical nomenclature of our provinces. Whoever takes the trouble to consult the Gazetteer of England will find, that of our numerous 'Carltons' not one is to be met with south of the Mersey, west of the Staffordshire Tame, or south of the Thames; and that 'Fiskertons,' 'Skiptons,' 'Skelbrookes,' and a whole host of similar names are equally introuvables in the same district. They are, with scarcely a single exception, northern or eastern; and we know from Ælfric's Glossary, from Domesday and the Chartularies, that this distinction of pronunciation was established as early as the eleventh century. 'Kirby' or 'Kirkby,' is a specimen of joint Anglian and
Scandinavian influence, furnishing a clue to the ethnology of the district wherever it occurs. The converse of this rule does not hold with equal universality, various causes having gradually introduced soft palatal sounds into districts to which they did not properly belong. Such are, however, of very partial occurrence, and form the exception rather than the rule."—Quarterly Review, No. CLXIV.
Bibliographical preliminaries.—The leading facts here are the difference between 1. the locality of the authorship, and 2, the locality of the transcription of a book.
Thus: the composition of a Devonshire poet may find readers in Northumberland, and his work be transcribed by Northumbrian copyist. Now this Northumbrian copyist may do one of two things: he may transcribe the Devonian production verbatim et literatim; in which case his countrymen read the MS. just as a Londoner reads Burns, i.e., in the dialect of the writer, and not in the dialect of the reader. On the other hand, he may accommodate as well as transcribe, i.e., he may change the non-Northumbrian into Northumbrian expressions, in which case his countrymen read the MS. in their own rather than the writer's dialect.
Now it is clear, that in a literature where transcription, combined with accommodation, is as common as simple transcription, we are never sure of knowing the dialect of an author unless we also know the dialect of his transcriber. In no literature is there more of this semi-translation than in the Anglo-Saxon and the early English; a fact which sometimes raises difficulties, by disconnecting the evidence of authorship with the otherwise natural inferences as to the dialect employed; whilst, at others, it smoothes them away by supplying as many specimens of fresh dialects, as there are extant MSS. of an often copied composition.
Inquiring whether certain peculiarities of dialect in Layamon's Brut, really emanated from the author, a writer in the Quarterly Review, (No. clxiv.) remarks, that to decide this it "would be necessary to have access either to the priest's autograph, or to a more faithful copy of it than it was the practice to make either in his age or the succeeding
ones. A transcriber of an early English composition followed his own ideas of language, grammar, and orthography; and if he did not entirely obliterate the characteristic peculiarities of his original, he was pretty sure, like the Conde de Olivares, 'd'y meter beaucour du sein.' The practical proof of this is to be found in the existing copies of those works, almost every one of which exhibits some peculiarity of features. We have 'Trevisa' and 'Robert of Gloucester,' in two distinct forms—'Pier's Ploughman,' in at least three, and 'Hampole's Pricke of Conscience,' in half a dozen, without any absolute certainty which approximates most to what the authors wrote. With regard to Layamon, it might be supposed that the older copy is the more likely to represent the original; but we have internal evidence that it is not the priest's autograph; and it is impossible to know what alterations it may have undergone in the course of one or more transcriptions."
Again, in noticing the orthography of the Ormulum (alluded to in the present volume, [§ 266]), he writes: "It is true that in this instance we have the rare advantage of possessing the author's autograph, a circumstance which cannot with confidence be predicated of any other considerable work of the same period. The author was, moreover, as Mr. Thorpe observes, a kind of critic in his own language; and we therefore find in his work, a regularity of orthography, grammar, and metre, hardly to be paralleled in the same age. All this might, in a great measure, disappear in the very next copy; for fidelity of transcription was no virtue of the thirteenth or the fourteenth century; at least with respect to vernacular works. It becomes, therefore, in many cases a problem of no small complication, to decide with certainty respecting the original metre, or language, of a given mediæval composition, with such data as we now possess."
From all this it follows, that the inquirer must talk of copies rather than of authors.
[§ 688]. Caution.—Differences of spelling do not always imply differences of pronunciation; perhaps they may be primâ facie of such. Still it is uncritical to be over-hasty in
separating, as specimens of dialect, works which, perhaps, only differ in being specimens of separate orthographies.
[§ 689]. Caution.—The accommodation of a transcribed work is susceptible of degrees. It may go so far as absolutely to replace one dialect by another, or it may go no farther than the omission of the more unintelligible expressions, and the substitution of others more familiar. I again quote the Quarterly Review,—"There are very few matters more difficult than to determine à priori, in what precise form a vernacular composition of the thirteenth century might be written, or what form it might assume in a very short period. Among the Anglo-Saxon charters of the eleventh and twelfth centuries, many are modelled upon the literary Anglo-Saxon, with a few slight changes of orthography and inflection; while others abound with dialectical peculiarities of various sorts. Those peculiarities may generally be accounted for from local causes. An East-Anglian scribe does not employ broad western forms, nor a West of England man East-Anglian ones; though each might keep his provincial peculiarities out of sight, and produce something not materially different from the language of Ælfric."
[§ 690]. Caution.—In the Reeve's Tale, Chaucer puts into the mouth of one of his north-country clerks, a native of the Strother, in the north-west part of the deanery of Craven, where the Northumbrian dialect rather preponderates over the Anglian, certain Yorkshire glosses. "Chaucer[[76]] undoubtedly copied the language of some native; and the general accuracy, with which he gives it, shows that he was an attentive observer of all that passed around him.
"We subjoin an extract from the poem, in order to give our readers an opportunity of comparing southern and northern English, as they co-existed in the fifteenth century. It is from a MS. that has never been collated; but which we believe to be well worthy the attention of any future editor of the Canterbury Tales. The italics denote variations from the printed text:—
"John highte that oon and Aleyn highte that other:
Of oo toun were thei born that highte Strother,
Ffer in the north I can not tellen where.
This Aleyn maketh redy al his gere—
And on an hors the sak he caste anoon.
Fforth goth Aleyn the clerk and also John,
With good swerde and bokeler by his side.
John knewe the weye—hym nedes no gide;
And atte melle the sak a down he layth.
Aleyn spak first: Al heyle, Symond—in fayth—
How fares thi fayre daughter and thi wyf?
Aleyn welcome—quod Symkyn—be my lyf—
And John also—how now, what do ye here?
By God, quod John—Symond, nede has na pere.
Hym bihoves to serve him self that has na swayn;
Or ellis he is a fool as clerkes sayn.
Oure maunciple I hope he wil be ded—
Swa werkes hym ay the wanges in his heed.
And therefore is I come and eek Aleyn—
To grynde oure corn, and carye it ham agayne,
I pray yow spedes[[77]] us hethen that ye may.
It shal be done, quod Symkyn, by my fay!
What wol ye done while it is in hande?
By God, right by the hoper wol I stande,
Quod John, and see how gates the corn gas inne;
Yit saugh I never, by my fader kynne,
How that the hoper wagges til and fra!
Aleyn answerde—John wil ye swa?
Than wil I be bynethe, by my crown,
And se how gates the mele falles down
In til the trough—that sal be my disport.
Quod John—In faith, I is of youre sort—
I is as ille a meller as are ye.
* * * * * *
And when the mele is sakked and ybounde,
This John goth out and fynt his hors away—
And gan to crie, harow, and wele away!—
Our hors is lost—Aleyn, for Godde's banes,
Stepe on thi feet—come of man attanes!
Allas, oure wardeyn has his palfrey lorn!
This Aleyn al forgat bothe mele and corn—
Al was out of his mynde, his housbonderie.
What—whilke way is he goon? he gan to crie.
The wyf come lepynge in at a ren;
She saide—Allas, youre hors goth to the fen
With wylde mares, as faste as he may go.
Unthank come on this hand that band him so—
And he that bet sholde have knet the reyne.
Alas! quod John, Alayn, for Criste's peyne,
Lay down thi swerde, and I wil myn alswa;
I is ful swift—God wat—as is a ra—
By Goddes herte he sal nought scape us bathe.
Why ne hadde thou put the capel in the lathe?
Il hayl, by God, Aleyn, thou is fonne."
"Excepting the obsolete forms hethen (hence), swa, lorn, whilke, alswa, capel—all the above provincialisms are still, more or less, current in the north-west part of Yorkshire. Na, ham(e), fra, banes, attanes, ra, bathe, are pure Northumbrian. Wang (cheek or temple) is seldom heard, except in the phrase wang tooth, dens molaris. Ill, adj., for bad—lathe (barn)—and fond (foolish)—are most frequently and familiarly used in the West Riding, or its immediate borders."
Now this indicates a class of writings which, in the critical history of our local dialect, must be used with great caution and address. An imitation of dialect may be so lax as to let its only merit consist in a deviation from the standard idiom.
In the Lear of Shakspeare we have speeches from a Kentish clown. Is this the dialect of the character, the dialect of the writer, or is it some conventional dialect appropriated to theatrical purposes? I think the latter.
In Ben Jonson's Tale of a Tub, one (and more than one of the characters) speaks thus. His residence is the neighbourhood of London, Tottenham Court.
Is it no sand? nor buttermilk? if't be,
Ich 'am no zive, or watering-pot, to draw
Knots in your 'casions. If you trust me, zo—
If not, praforme 't your zelves, 'Cham no man's wife,
But resolute Hilts: you'll vind me in the buttry.
Act I. Scene 1.
I consider that this represents the dialect of the neighbourhood of London, not on the strength of its being put in the mouth of a man of Tottenham, but from other and independent circumstances.
Not so, however, with the provincialisms of another of Ben Jonson's plays, the Sad Shepherd:—
—— shew your sell
Tu all the sheepards, bauldly; gaing amang hem.
Be mickle in their eye, frequent and fugeand.
And, gif they ask ye of Eiarine,
Or of these claithes; say that I ga' hem ye,
And say no more. I ha' that wark in hand,
That web upon the luime, sall gar em thinke.
Act II. Scene 3.
The scene of the play is Sherwood Forest: the language, however, as far as I may venture an opinion, is not the language from which the present Nottinghamshire dialect has come down.
[§ 691]. Caution.—Again, the word old, as applied to language, has a double meaning.
The language of the United States was imported from England into America in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. The language of South Australia has been introduced within the present generation. In one sense, the American English is older than the Australian. It was earliest separated from the mother-tongue.
The language, however, of America may (I speak only in the way of illustration, and consequently hypothetically), in the course of time, become the least old of the two; the word old being taken in another sense. It may change with greater rapidity. It may lose its inflections. It may depart more from the structure of the mother-tongue, and preserve fewer of its old elements. In this sense the Australian (provided that it has altered least, and that it retain the greatest number of the old inflections) will be the older tongue of the two.
Now what may be said of the language of two countries, may be said of the dialects of two districts. The one dialect may run its changes apace; the other alter but by degrees.
Hence, of two works in two such dialects, the one would appear older than the other, although in reality the two were cotemporary.
Hence, also, it is a lax expression to say that it is the old forms (the archaisms) that the provincial dialects retain. The provincial forms are archaic only when the current language changes more rapidly than the local idiom. When the local idiom changes fastest, the archaic forms belong to the standard mode of speech.
The provincial forms, goand, slepand, for going and sleeping, are archaic. Here the archaism is with the provincial form.
The forms almost, horses, nought but, contrasted with the provincialisms ommost, hosses, nobbot, are archaic. They have not been changed so much as they will be. Here the archaism (that is, the nearer approach to the older form) is with the standard idiom. A sequestered locality is preservative of old forms. But writing and education are preservatives of them also.
[§ 692]. With these preliminaries a brief notice of the English dialects, in their different stages, may begin.
The districts north of the Humber.—There is so large an amount of specimens of the dialects of this area in the Anglo-Saxon stage of our language, the area itself so closely coincides with the political division of the kingdom of Northumberland, whilst the present arrangement (more or less provisional) of the Anglo-Saxon dialects consists of the divisions of them into the, 1, West-Saxon; 2, Mercian; and 3, Northumbrian, that it is best to give a general view of the whole tract before the minuter details of the different counties which compose them are noticed. The data for the Northumbrian division of the Anglo-Saxon dialects are as follows:—
1. Wanley's Fragment of Cædmon.—The north-east of Yorkshire was the birth-place of the Anglo-Saxon monk Cædmon. Nevertheless, the form in which his poems in full have come down to us is that of a West-Saxon composition. This indicates the probability of the original work having first been re-cast, and afterwards lost. Be this as it may, the
following short fragment has been printed by Wanley, from an ancient MS., and by Hickes from Bede, Hist. Eccl., 4, 24, and it is considered, in the first form, to approach or, perhaps, to represent the Northumbrian of the original poem.
|
1. Wanley. Nu seylun hergan Herfaen-ricaes uard, Metudes mæcti, End his modgethanc. Uerc uuldur fadur, Sue he uundra gihuaes, Eci drictin, Ord stelidæ. He ærist scopa, Elda barnum, Heben til hrofe; Haleg scepen: Tha mittungeard, Moncynnæs uard, Eci drictin, Æfter tiaðæ, Firum foldu, Frea allmectig. |
2. Hickes. Nú we sceolan herigean Heofon-ríces weard, Metodes mihte, And his módgethanc. Weorc wuldor-fæder, Sva he wundra gewæs, Ecé driten, Ord onstealde. Ne ǽrest scóp, Eorðan bearnum, Heofon tó rófe; Hálig scyppend: Dá middangeard, Moncynnes weard, Ece drihten, Æfter teóde, Firum foldan, Freá almihtig. |
Translation.
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Now we should praise The heaven-kingdom's preserver, The might of the Creator, And his mood-thought. The glory-father of works, As he, of wonders, each Eternal Lord, Originally established. He erst shaped, |
For earth's bairns, Heaven to roof; Holy shaper; Then mid-earth, Mankind's home, Eternal Lord, After formed, For the homes of men, Lord Almighty. |
2. The death-bed verses of Bede.
From a MS. at St. Gallen; quoted by Mr. Kemble, Archæologia, vol. xxviii.
3. The Ruthwell Runes.—The inscription in Anglo-Saxon Runic letters, on the Ruthwell Cross, is thus deciphered and translated by Mr. Kemble:—
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. . . . . . . mik. Riiknæ kyningk Hifunæs hlafard, Hælda ic ne dærstæ. Bismerede ungket men, Bâ ætgæd[r]e, Ik (n)iðbædi bist(e)me(d) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . geredæ Hinæ gamældæ Estig, ða he walde An galgu gistîga Môdig fore Men, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Mid stralum giwundæd, Alegdun hiæ hinæ, Limwêrigne. Gistodun him . . . . . . . . . . . . . Krist wæs on rôdi; Hweðræ ther fûsæ Fearran cwomu Æððilæ ti lænum. Ic that al bih (eôld) . . . . . sæ (...) Ic w(æ)s mi(d) ga(l)gu Æ (. . . .) rod . ha . . . . . . . . . . . . |
. . . . . . me. The powerful King, The Lord of Heaven, I dared not hold. They reviled us two, Both together, I stained with the pledge of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . prepared Himself spake Benignantly when he would Go up upon the cross, Courageously before Men . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Wounded with shafts, They laid him down, Limb-weary. They stood by him. . . . . . . . . . . Christ was on cross. Lo! there with speed From afar came Nobles to him in misery. I that all beheld . . . . . . . . . . I was with the cross . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
"The dialect of these lines is that of Northumberland in the seventh, eighth, and even ninth centuries. The first peculiarity is in the æ for e in the oblique cases, and which I have observed in the cotemporary MS. of Cuðberht's letter at St. Gallen. This, which is strictly organic, and represents the uncorrupted Gothic genitive in -as, and dative in -a, as well as the Old Saxon forms of the substantive, is evidence of great antiquity. But that which is, perhaps, the most characteristic of the Northumbrian dialect is the formation of the infinitive in -a and -æ, instead of -an (hældæ, gistiga). The Durham Book has, I believe, throughout but one single verb, which makes the infinitive in -an, and that is the anomalous word bean=to be; even wosa and wiortha following the common rule. The word ungket is another incontrovertible proof of extreme antiquity, having, to the best of my knowledge, never been found but in this passage. It is the dual of the first personal pronoun Ic, and corresponds to the very rare dual of the second personal pronoun incit, which occurs twice in Cædmon."[[78]]
4. The Cotton Psalter.—This is a Latin Psalter in the Cotton collection, accompanied by an Anglo-Saxon interlineation. Place uncertain. Time, ninth century or earlier. The following points of difference between this and the West-Saxon are indicated by Mr. Garnett, Phil. Soc. No. 27.
| COTTON PSALTER. | WEST-SAXON. |
| Boen, prayer | Bën. |
| Boec, books | Béc. |
| Coelan, cool | Célan. |
| Doeman, judge | Déman. |
| Foedan, feed | Fédan. |
| Spoed, fortune | Spéd. |
| Swoet, sweet | Swét. |
| Woenan, think, ween | Wénan. |
5. The Durham Gospels—Quatuor Evangelia Latine, ex translatione B. Hieronymi, cum glossâ interlineatâ Saxonica. Nero, D. 4.
Matthew, cap. 2.
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6. The Rituale Ecclesiæ Dunhelmensis.—Edited for the Surtees Society by Mr. Stevenson. Place: neighbourhood of Durham. Time: A.D. 970. Differences between the Psalter and Ritual:—
a. The form for the first person is in the Psalter generally -u. In the Ritual it is generally -o. In West Saxon, -e.
Psalter.—Getreow-u, I believe; cleopi-u, I call; sell-u, I give; ondred-u, I fear; ageld-u, I pay; getimbr-u, I build. Forms in -o; sitt-o, I sit; drinc-o, I drink.
Ritual.—Feht-o, I fight; wuldrig-o, I glory. The ending in -u is rarer.
b. In the West Saxon the plural present of verbs ends in -að: we lufi-að, ge lufi-að, hi lufi-að. The Psalter also exhibits this West Saxon form. But the plurals of the Ritual
end in -s: as, bidd-as=we pray; giwoed-es=put on; wyrc-as=do.
c. The infinitives of verbs end in the West Saxon in -an, as cwed-an=to say. So they do in the Psalter. But in the Ritual the -n is omitted, and the infinitive ends simply in -a: cuoetha=to say; inngeonga=to enter.
d. The oblique cases and plurals of substantives in West Saxon end in -an: as heortan=heart's; heortan=hearts. So they do in the Psalter. But in the Ritual the -n is omitted, and the word ends simply in -a or -e; as nome=of a name (West Saxon nam-an); hearta=hearts.
7. The Rushworth Gospels.—Place, Harewood in Wharfdale, Yorkshire. Time, according to Wanley, the end of the ninth century.
Here observe—
1. That the Ruthwell inscription gives us a sample of the so-called Northumbrian Anglo-Saxon, and that as it is spoken in Scotland, i.e., in Galloway. For the bearings of this see Part II., c. 3.
2. That the Rushworth Gospels take us as far south as the West Riding of Yorkshire.
3. That there are no specimens from any Cumberland, Westmoreland, or North Lancashire localities, these being, most probably, exclusively Celtic.
[§ 693]. The most general statements concerning this great section of the Anglo-Saxon, is that—
1. It prefers the slenderer and more vocalic to the broader and more diphthongal forms.
2. The sounds of k and s, to those of ch and sh.
3. The forms without the prefix ge-, to those with them. Nevertheless the form ge-cenned (=natus) occurs in the first line of the extract from the Durham Gospels.
[§ 694]. The Old and Middle English MSS. from this quarter are numerous; falling into two classes:
1. Transcriptions with accommodation from works composed southwards. Here the characteristics of the dialect are not absolute.
2. Northern copies of northern compositions. Here the characteristics of the dialect are at the maximum. Sir Tristram is one of the most important works of this class; and in the wider sense of the term Northumbrian, it is a matter of indifference on which side of the Border it was composed. See [§ 190].
[§ 695]. Taking the counties in detail, we have—
Northumberland.—Northern frontier, East Scotland; the direction of the influence being from South to North, rather than from North to South, i. e., Berwickshire and the Lothians being Northumbrian and English, rather than Northumberland Scotch.
West frontier Celtic—the Cumberland and Westmoreland Britons having been encroached upon by the Northumbrians of Northumberland.
Present dialect.—Believed to be nearly uniform over the counties of Northumberland and Durham; but changing in character in North Yorkshire, and in Cumberland and Westmoreland.
The Anglo-Saxon immigration considered to have been Angle (so-called) rather than Saxon.
Danish admixture—Very great. Possibly, as far as the marks that it has left on the language, greater than in any other part of England.[[79]]—See [§ 152].
Cumberland, Westmoreland, North Lancashire.—Anglo-Saxon elements introduced from portions of Northumbria rather than directly from the Continent.
Celtic language persistent until a comparatively late though undetermined period.
Northern frontier, West-Scotland—the direction of the influence being from Scotland to England, rather than vice versâ; Carlisle being more of a Scotch town than Berwick.
Specimens of the dialects in the older stages, few and doubtful.
Topographical nomenclature characterized by the preponderance of compounds of -thwaite; as Braithwaite, &c.
North Lancashire, Westmoreland, and Cumberland, "exhibit many Anglian[[80]] peculiarities, which may have been occasioned in some degree by the colonies in the south, planted in that district by William Rufus (Saxon Chronicle, A.D. 1092.) A comparison of Anderson's ballads with Burns's songs, will show how like Cumbrian is to Scottish, but how different. We believe that Weber is right in referring the romance of Sir Amadas to this district. The mixture of the Anglian forms gwo, gwon, bwons, boyd-word (in pure Northumbrian), gae, gane, banes, bod-worde, with the northern terms, tynt, kent, bathe, mare, and many others of the same class, could hardly have occurred in any other part of England."[[81]]
Yorkshire, North and part of West Riding.—The Anglo-Saxon specimens of this area have been noticed in [§ 692].
The extract from Chaucer is also from this district.
The modern dialects best known are—
1. The Craven.—This, in northern localities, "becomes slightly tinctured with Northumbrian."—Quart. Rev. ut supra.
2. The Cleveland.—With not only Northumbrian, but even Scotch characters. Quart. Rev. ut supra.
Danish admixture—Considerable.
All these dialects, if rightly classified, belong to the Northumbrian division of the Angle branch of the Anglo-Saxon language; whilst, if the primâ facie view of their affiliation or descent, be the true one, they are the dialects of [§ 692], in their modern forms.
[§ 696]. The classification which gives this arrangement now draws a line of distinction at the river Ribble, in Lancashire, which separates South from North Lancashire; whilst in Yorkshire, the East Riding, and that part of the West which does not belong to the Wapentake of Claro, belong to the class which is supposed to exclude the previous and contain the following dialects:—
[§ 697]. South Lancashire and Cheshire.—Sub-varieties of
the same dialects, but not sub-varieties of the previous ones.
The plural form in -en is a marked character of this dialect—at least of the Lancashire portion.
Supposed original population—Angle rather than Saxon.
Original political relations—Mercian rather than Northumbrian.
These last two statements apply to all the forthcoming areas north of Essex. The latter is a simple historical fact; the former supposes an amount of difference between the Angle and the Saxon which has been assumed rather than proved; or, at any rate, which has never been defined accurately.
The elements of uncertainty thus developed, will be noticed in [§§ 704]-708. At present it is sufficient to say, that if the South Lancashire dialect has been separated from the north, on the score of its having been Mercian rather than Northumbrian, the principle of classification has been based upon political rather than philological grounds; and as such is exceptionable.
[§ 698]. Shropshire, Staffordshire, and West Derbyshire.—Supposing the South Lancashire and Cheshire to be the Mercian (which we must remember is a political term), the Shropshire, Staffordshire, and West Derbyshire are Mercian also; transitional, however, in character.
Shropshire and Cheshire have a Celtic frontier.
Here, also, both the a priori probabilities and the known facts make the Danish intermixture at its minimum.
[§ 699]. East Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire.—Here the language is considered to change from the mode of speech of which the South Lancashire is the type, to the mode of speech of which the Norfolk and Suffolk dialect is the type.
Danish elements may now be expected, Derbyshire being the most inland Danish area.
Original political relations—Mercian.
Specimens of the dialects in their older stages, preeminently scanty.
Hallamshire.—This means the parts about Sheffield
extended so as to include that portion of the West Riding of Yorkshire which stands over from [§ 696]. Probably belonging to the same group with the South Lancashire.
East Riding of Yorkshire.—It is not safe to say more of this dialect than that its affinities are with the dialects spoken to the north rather than with those spoken to the south of it, i.e., that of—
Lincolnshire.—Frontier—On the Nottinghamshire and Leicestershire frontier, passing into the form of speech of those counties. Pretty definitely separated from that of Norfolk. Less so from that of North Cambridgeshire. Scarcely at all from that of Huntingdonshire, and North Northamptonshire.
Danish admixture.—The number of towns and villages ending in the characteristic Danish termination -by, at its maximum; particularly in the neighbourhood of Spilsby.
Traditions Danish, e. g., that of Havelok the Dane, at Grimsby.
Physiognomy, Danish.
Language not Danish in proportion to the other signs of Scandinavian intermixture.
Specimens of the dialects in its older form—Havelok[[82]] the Dane (?), Manning's Chronicle (supposing the MS. to have been transcribed in the county where the author was born).
Provincial peculiarities (i.e., deviations from the written language) nearly at the minimum.
Huntingdonshire, North Northamptonshire, and Rutland.—Anglo-Saxon period.—The latter part of the Saxon Chronicle was written at Peterboro. Probably, also, the poems of Helena and Andreas. Hence, this area is that of the old Mercian in its most typical form; whilst South Lancashire is that of the new—a practical instance of the inconvenience of applying political terms to philological subjects.
[§ 700]. Norfolk, Suffolk, and the fen part of Cambridgeshire.—Here the population is pre-eminently Angle. The political character East-Anglian rather than Mercian.
Specimens of the dialects in the Anglo-Saxon stage.—The Natale St. Edmundi, in Thorpe's Analecta Anglo-Saxonica.
Early English—The Promtuarium Parvulorum.
[§ 701]. Leicestershire, Warwickshire, and South Northamptonshire.—Mercian (so-called) rather than West-Saxon (so-called).
Probably, approaching the written language of England more closely than is the case with the dialects spoken to the south of them.
Certainly, approaching the written language of England less closely than is the case with the dialect of Huntingdonshire, North Northamptonshire, and South Lincolnshire.
[§ 702]. These remarks have the following import. They bear upon the question of the origin of the written language of England.
Mr. Guest first diverted the attention of scholars from the consideration of the West Saxon of the chief Anglo-Saxon writers as the mother-dialect of the present English, to the Mercian; so turning their attention from the south to the centre of England.
The general principle that a central locality has the a priori likelihood in its favour, subtracts nothing from the value of his suggestion.
Neither does the fact of the nearest approach to the written language being found about the parts in question; since the doctrine to which the present writer commits himself, viz., that in the parts between Huntingdon and Stamford, the purest English is most generally spoken, is, neither universally recognised, nor yet part of Mr. Guest's argument.
Mr. Guest's arguments arose out of the evidence of the MSS. of the parts in question.
That the dialect most closely allied to the dialect (or dialects) out of which the present literary language of England is developed, is to be found either in Northamptonshire or the neighbouring counties is nearly certain. Mr. Guest looks for it on the western side of that county (Leicestershire); the present writer on the eastern (Huntingdonshire).
[§ 703]. It is now convenient to pass from the dialects of
the water-system of the Ouse, Nene, and Welland to those spoken along the lower course of the Thames.
These, to a certain extent, may be dealt with like those to the north of the Humber. Just as the latter were, in the first instance, and in the more general way, thrown into a single class (the Northumbrian), so may the dialects in question form the provisional centre of another separate class. For this we have no very convenient name. The dialects, however, which it contains agree in the following points.
1. These are considered to be derived from that variety of the Anglo-Saxon which is represented by the chief remains of the Anglo-Saxon literature, i.e., the so-called standard or classical language of Alfred, Ælfric, the present text of Cædmon, &c.
2. About half their present eastern area consists of the counties ending in -sex; viz., Sussex, Essex, and Middlesex.
3. Nearly the whole of their original area consisted in kingdoms (or sub-kingdoms) ending in -sex; viz., the districts just enumerated, and the kingdom of Wessex.
Hence they are—
a.—Considered with reference to their literary history.—They are dialects whereof the literary development began early, but ceased at the time of the Norman Conquest, being superseded by that of the central dialects (Mercian so-called) of the island. The truth of this view depends on the truth of Mr. Guest's doctrine noticed in page [555]. If true, it is by no means an isolated phænomenon. In Holland the present Dutch is the descendant of some dialect (or dialects) which was uncultivated in the earlier periods of the language; whereas the Old Frisian, which was then the written language, is now represented by a provincial dialect only.
"In speaking of the Anglo-Saxon language, scholars universally intend that particular form of speech in which all the principal monuments of our most ancient literature are composed, and which, with very slight variations, is found in Beowulf and Cædmon, in the Exeter and Vercelli Codices, in the translation of the Gospels and Homilies, and in the works
of Ælfred the Great. For all general purposes this nomenclature is sufficiently exact; and in this point of view, the prevalent dialect, which contains the greatest number of literary remains, may be fairly called the Anglo-Saxon language, of which all varying forms were dialects. It is, however, obvious that this is in fact an erroneous way of considering the subject; the utmost that can be asserted is, that Ælfred wrote his own language, viz., that which was current in Wessex; and that this, having partly through the devastations of heathen enemies in other parts of the island, partly through the preponderance of the West-Saxon power and extinction of the other royal families, become the language of the one supreme court, soon became that of literature and the pulpit also."—Kemble. Phil. Trans. No. 35.
b.—Considered in respect to their political relations.—Subject to the influence of the Wessex portion of the so-called Heptarchy, rather than to the Mercian,
c.—Considered ethnologically—Saxon rather than Angle. The exceptions that lie against this class will be noticed hereafter.
[§ 704]. Kent—Theoretically, Kent, is Jute rather than Saxon, and Saxon rather than Angle.
Celtic elements, probably, at the minimum.
Predominance of local terms compounded of the word -hurst; as, Penshurst, Staplehurst, &c.
Frisian hypothesis.—The following facts and statements (taken along with those of [§§ 15]-20, and [§§ 129]-131), pre-eminently require criticism.
1. Hengest the supposed father of the Kentish kingdom is a Frisian hero—Kemble's Sächsische Stamtaffel.
2. The dialect of the Durham Gospels and Ritual contain a probably Frisian form.
3. "The country called by the Anglo-Saxons Northumberland, and which may loosely be said to have extended from the Humber to Edinburgh, and from the North Sea to the hills of Cumberland, was peopled by tribes of Angles. Such, at least, is the tradition reported by Beda, who adds that Kent was first settled by Jutes. Who these Jutes were is
not clearly ascertained, but from various circumstances it may be inferred that there was at least a considerable admixture of Frisians amongst them. Hengest, the supposed founder of the Kentish kingdom, is a Frisian hero, and Jutes, 'ëotenas,' is a usual name for the Frisians in Bëówulf. Beda, it is true, does not enumerate Frisians among the Teutonic races by which England was colonized, but this omission is repaired by the far more valuable evidence of Procopius, who, living at the time of some great invasion of Britain by the Germans, expressly numbers Frisians among the invaders. Now the Anglo-Saxon traditions themselves, however obscurely they may express it, point to a close connection between Kent and Northumberland: the latter country, according to these traditions, was colonized from Kent, and for a long time received its rulers or dukes from that kingdom. Without attaching to this legend more importance than it deserves, we may conclude that it asserts an original communion between the tribes that settled in the two countries; and consequently, if any Frisic influence is found to operate in the one, it will be necessary to inquire whether a similar action can be detected in the other. This will be of some moment hereafter, when we enter upon a more detailed examination of the dialect. The most important peculiarity in which the Durham Evangeles and Ritual differ from the Psalter is the form of the infinitive mood in verbs. This in the Durham books is, with exception of one verb, beán, esse, invariably formed in -a, not in -an, the usual form in all the other Anglo-Saxon dialects. Now this is also a peculiarity of the Frisic, and of the Old Norse, and is found in no other Germanic tongue; it is then an interesting inquiry whether the one or the other of these tongues is the origin of this peculiarity; whether, in short, it belongs to the old, the original Frisic form which prevailed in the fifth, sixth and seventh centuries, or whether it is owing to Norse influence, acting in the ninth and tenth, through the establishment of Danish invaders and a Danish dynasty in the countries north of the Humber."—Kemble. Phil. Trans. No. 35.
The details necessary for either the verification or the overthrow of the doctrine of a similarity of origin between
portions of the Northumbrian[[83]] and portions of the Kentish population have yet to be worked out.
So have the differentiæ between the dialects of Kent, and the dialects of Sussex, Essex, Middlesex, and Wessex.
Probable Anglo-Saxon of Kent.—Codex Diplomaticus, No. 191.
[§ 705]. Sussex.—The characteristics are involved in those of Kent—thus, if Kent be simply Saxon the two counties have the same ethnological relation; whilst if Kent be Frisian or Jute(?) Sussex may be either like or unlike.
Hampshire.—Theoretically, Saxon rather than Angle, and West Saxon (Wessex) rather than south, east, or Middle-Saxon.
Jute elements in either the Hants or Isle of Wight dialects, hitherto undiscovered. Probably, non-existent.
Present dialect certainly not the closest representative of the classical Anglo-Saxon, i. e., the so-called West Saxon.
Berkshire.—Present dialect, probably, the closest representative of the classical Anglo-Saxon.
Cornwall.—Celtic elements at the maximum.
Devonshire and West Somerset.—Present dialect strongly marked by the use of z for s (Zomerzet=Somerset).
Celtic elements probably considerable.
Worcestershire.—The language of the Anglo-Saxon period is characterized by the exclusive, or nearly exclusive, use of s in the forms usse and usses for ure and ures. See Codex Diplomaticus, Nos. 95 and 97.
The affiliation of the present dialect has yet to be investigated.
North Glostershire.—Politically, both North Gloster and Worcestershire are Mercian rather than West-Saxon.
Now the language of Layamon was North Gloster.
And one at least of the MSS. is supposed to represent this language.
Nevertheless its character is said to be West Saxon rather than Mercian.
What does this prove? Not that the West Saxon dialect
extended into Mercia, but that a political nomenclature is out of place in philology.
The Welsh frontier.—Herefordshire, &c.—Celtic elements. General character of the dialects, probably, that of the counties immediately to the east of them.
Essex.—Theoretically, Saxon rather than Angle. No such distinction, however, is indicated by the ascertained characteristic of the Essex dialects as opposed to the East Anglian, Suffolk, and the Mercian.
Hertfordshire.—I am not aware of any thing that distinguishes the South Hertfordshire form of speech from those of—
Middlesex.—Here, as far as there are any characteristics at all, they are those of Essex. The use of v for w, attributed (and partially due) to Londoners, occurs—not because there is any such thing as a London dialect, but because London is a town on the Essex side of Middlesex.
Surrey.—The name (Suð rige=southern kingdom) indicates an original political relation with the parts north rather than south of the Thames.
The evidence of the dialect is, probably, the other way.
[§ 706]. Supposed East-Anglian and Saxon frontier.—For the area just noticed there are two lines of demarcation—one geographical, and one ethnological.
a. Geographical.—The river Thames.
b. Ethnological.—The line which separates Middlesex and Essex (so-called Saxon localities) from Herts and Suffolk (so-called Angle localities).
Of these the first line involves an undeniable fact; the second a very doubtful one. No evidence has been adduced in favour of disconnecting Saxon Essex from Anglian Suffolk, nor yet for connecting it with Sussex and Wessex. The termination -sex is an undoubted fact; the difference between the Saxons and Angles which it is supposed to indicate is an assumption.
[§ 707]. The dialects of the remaining counties have, probably, the transitional characters, indicated by their geographical position.
Dorset—Hants and Somerset.
Wilts.—Hants, Dorset, Somerset, Berks.
Buckingham, Beds, Northampton.—These connect the two most convenient provisional centres of the so-called West-Saxon of Alfred, &c., and mother-dialect of the present written English, viz.: Wantage and Stamford (or Huntingdon); and in doing this they connect dialects which, although placed in separate classes (West-Saxon and Mercian), were, probably, more alike than many subdivisions of the same group.
To investigate the question as to the Mercian or West-Saxon origin of the present written English without previously stating whether the comparison be made between such extreme dialects as those of the New Forest, and the neighbourhood of Manchester, or such transitional ones as those of Windsor and Northampton is to reduce a real to a mere verbal discussion.
Warwickshire, Staffordshire.—From their central position, probably transitional to both the north and south, and the east and west groups.
Celtic elements increasing.
Danish elements decreasing. Perhaps at the minimum.
[§ 708]. The exceptions suggested in [§§ 703], 704, lie not only against the particular group called West-Saxon, but (as may have been anticipated) against all classifications which assume either—
1. A coincidence between the philological divisions of the Anglo-Saxon language, and the political division of the Anglo-Saxon territory.
2. Any broad difference between the Angles and the Saxons.
3. The existence of a Jute population.
[§ 709]. English dialects not in continuity with the mother-tongue.—Of these the most remarkable are those of—
1. Little England beyond Wales.—In Pembrokeshire, and a part of Glamorganshire, the language is English rather than Welsh. The following extracts from Higden have effected the belief that this is the result of a Flemish colony. "Sed
et Flandrenses, tempore Regis Henrici Primi in magna copia juxta Mailros ad orientalem Angliæ plagam habitationem pro tempore accipientes, septimam in insula gentem fecerunt: jubente tamen eodem rege, ad occidentalem Walliæ partem, apud Haverford, sunt translati. Sicque Britannia ... his ... nationibus habitatur in præsenti ... Flandrensibus in West Wallia."
A little below, however, we learn that these Flemings are distinguished by their origin only, and not by their language:—"Flandrenses vero qui in Occidua Walliæ incolunt, dimissa jam barbarie, Saxonice satis loquuntur."—Higden, edit. Gale, p. 210.
On the other hand, Mr. Guest has thrown a reasonable doubt upon this inference; suggesting the probability of its having been simply English. The following vocabulary collected by the Rev. J. Collins,[[84]] in the little peninsula of Gower, confirms this view. It contains no exclusively Flemish elements.
Angletouch, n. s. worm.
Bumbagus, n. s. bittern.
Brandis, n. s. iron stand for a pot or kettle.
Caffle, adj. entangled.
Cammet, adj. crooked.
Cloam, n. s. earthenware.
Charnel, n. s. a place raised in the roof for hanging bacon.
Clit, v. to stick together.
Deal, n. s. litter, of pigs.
Dotted, adj. giddy, of a sheep.
Dome, adj. damp.
Dreshel, n. s. a flail.
Eddish, n. s. wheat-stubble.
Evil, n. s. a three-pronged fork for dung, &c.
Firmy, v. to clean out, of a stable, &c.
Fleet, adj. exposed in situation, bleak.
Flott, n. s. aftergrass.
Flamiring, s. an eruption of the nature of erysipelas.
Fraith, adj. free-spoken, talkative.
Frithing, adj. a fence made of thorns wattled.
Foust, v. act. to tumble.
Flathin, n. s. a dish made of curds, eggs, and milk.
Gloy, n. s. refuse straw after the "reed" has been taken out.
Gloice, n. s., a sharp pang of pain.
Heavgar, adj. heavier (so also near-ger, far-ger).
Hamrach, n. s. harness collar made of straw.
Hay, n. s. a small plot of ground attached to a dwelling.
Kittybags, n. s. gaiters.
Lipe, n. s. matted basket of peculiar shape.
Letto, n. s. a lout, a foolish fellow.
Main, adj. strong, fine (of growing crops),
Nesseltrip, n. s. the small pig in a litter.
Nommet, n. s. a luncheon of bread, cheese, &c.—not a regular meal.
Noppet, Nipperty, adj. lively—convalescent.
Ovice, n. s. eaves of a building.
Plym, v. to fill, to plump up.
Plym, adj. full.
Planche, v. to make a boarded floor.
Peert, adj. lively, brisk.
Purty, v. n. to turn sulky.
Quat, v. act. to press down, flatten.
Quapp, v. n. to throb.
Rathe, adj. early, of crops.
Reremouse, n. s. bat.
Ryle, v. to angle in the sea.
Riff, n. s. an instrument for sharpening scythes.
Seggy, v. act. to tease, to provoke.
Semmatt, n. s. sieve made of skin for winnowing.
Shoat, n. s. small wheaten loaf.
Showy, v. n. to clear (of weather); (show, with termination y, common).
Soul, n. s. cheese, butter, &c. (as eaten with bread).
Snead, n. s. handle of a scythe.
Songalls, n. s. gleanings: "to gather songall" is to glean.
Sull, or Zull, n. s. a wooden plough.
Stiping, n. s. a mode of fastening a sheep's foreleg to its head by a band of straw, or withy.
Susan, n. s. a brown earthenware pitcher.
Sump, n. s. any bulk that is carried.
Suant, part. regular in order.
Slade, n. s. ground sloping towards the sea.
Tite, v. to tumble over.
Toit, n. s. a small seat or stool made of straw.
Toit, adj. frisky, wanton.
Vair, n. s. weasel or stoat.
Want, n. s. a mole.
Wirg, n. s. a willow.
Wimble, v. to winnow.
Weest, adj. lonely, desolate.
Wash-dish, n. s. the titmouse.
[§ 710]. The baronies of Forth and Bargie in the County Wexford.—The barony of Forth "lies south of the city of Wexford, and is bounded by the sea to the south and east, and by the barony of Bargie to the west. It is said to have been colonized by the Welshmen who accompanied Strongbow in his invasion of Ireland; but by the term Welshmen, as here used, we must no doubt understand the English settlers of Gower and Pembroke. Vallancey published a specimen of their language. Some of the grammatical forms can hardly
fail to interest the English scholar, and we may venture more particularly to call his attention to the verbal ending th. In no other of our spoken dialects do we find the th still lingering as an inflection of the plural verb."
Address in the Barony of Forth Language.
Presented in August 1836, to the Marquis of Normanby, then Earl of Mulgrave, and Lord Lieutenant of Ireland; with a Translation of the Address in English.
| To's Excellencie Consantine Harrie Phipps, Earle Mulgrave, "Lord Lieutenant-General, and General Governor of Ireland;" Ye soumissive spakeen o' ouz Dwellers o' Baronie Forthe, Weisforthe. Mai't be plesaunt to th' Excellencie, Wee, Vassales o' "His Most Gracious Majesty" Wilyame ee 4th an az wee verilie chote na coshe an loyale Dwellers na Baronie Forth, crave na dicke luckie acte t'uck necher th' Excellencie, an na plaine garbe o' oure yola talke, wi' vengem o' core t'gie oure zense o'ye grades wilke be ee dighte wi' yer name, and whilke wee canna zie, albeit o' "Governere" Statesman an alike. Yn ercha an ol o' whilke yt beeth wi' gleezom o'core th' oure eene dwitheth apan ye vigere o'dicke zovereine, Wilyame ee Vourthe unnere fose fatherlie zwae oure deis be ee spant, az avare ye trad dicke lone ver name was ee kent var ee Vriene o' Levertie, an He fo brack ge neckers o' Zlaves—Mang ourzels—var wee dwitheth an Irelone az oure general haime—y'ast bie' ractzom homedelt tous ye lass ee mate var ercha vassale, ne'er dwith ee na dicke wai n'ar dicka. Wee dewithe ye ane fose deis bee gien var ee gudevare o' ee lone ye zwae, t'avance pace an levertie, an wi'out vlinch ee garde o' general riochts an poplare vartue.—Ye pace—yea wee ma' zei ye vaste pace whilke be ee stent o'er ye lone zince th' ast ee cam, prooth, y'at we alane needed ye giftes o' general riochts, az be displayte bie ee factes o' thie governmente. Ye state na dicke die o'ye lone, na whilke be ne'er fash n'ar moil, albeit "Constitutional Agitation" ye wake o'hopes ee blighte, stampe na per zwae ee be rare an lightzom. Yer name var zetch avanct avare y'e, e'en a dicke var hie, arent whilke ye brine o' zea, an ee crags o'noghanes cazed nae balk. Na oure glades ana whilke we dellte wi' mattoc, an zing t'oure caules wi plou, we hert ee zough o'ye colure o' pace na name o' "Mulgrave." Wi "Irishmen" oure general hopes be ee bond, az "Irishmen," an az dwellers na coshe an loyale o' Baronie Forthe, w'oul dei an ercha dei, oure maunes an aure gurles, prie var lang an happie zins, home o'leurnagh an ee vilt wi benizons, an yersel an oure zoverine 'till ee zin o'oure deis be var ay be ee go t'glade. | To His Excellency Constantine Henry Phipps, Earl Mulgrave, Lord Lieutenant-General and General Governor of Ireland: The humble Address of the Inhabitants of Barony Forth, Wexford. May it please your Excellency, We, the subjects of His Most Gracious Majesty William IV., and as we truly believe both faithful and loyal inhabitants of the Barony Forth, beg leave, at this favourable opportunity to approach Your Excellency, and in the simple garb of our old dialect to pour forth from the strength (or fulness) of our hearts, our strength (or admiration) of the qualities which characterize your name, and for which we have no words but of "Governor," "Statesman," &c. Sir, each and every condition, it is with joy of heart that our eyes rest upon the representative of that Sovereign, William IV., under whose paternal rule our days are spent; for before your foot pressed the soil, your name was known to us as the Friend of Liberty, and He who broke the fetters of the Slave. Unto ourselves—for we look on Ireland to be our common country—you have with impartiality (of hand) ministered the laws made for every subject, without regard to this party or that. We behold you, one whose days devoted to the welfare of the land you govern, to promote peace and liberty—the uncompromising guardian of common rights and public virtue. The peace, yes we may say the profound peace, which overspreads the land since your arrival, proves that we alone stood in need of the enjoyment of common privileges, as is demonstrated by the results of your government. The condition, this day, of the country, in which is neither tumult nor confusion, but that constitutional agitation, the consequence of disappointed hopes, confirm your rule to be rare and enlightened. Your fame for such came before you, even into this retired spot, to which neither the waters of the sea yonder, nor the mountains above, caused any impediment. In our valleys, where we were digging with the spade, or as we whistled to our horses in the plough, we heard in the word "Mulgrave," the sound of the wings of the dove of peace. With Irishmen our common hopes are inseparably wound up; as Irishmen, and as inhabitants, faithful and loyal, of the Barony Forth, we will daily, and every day, our wives and our children, implore long and happy days, free from melancholy and full of blessings, for yourself and good Sovereign, until the sun of our lives be for ever gone down the dark valley of death.[[85]] |
[§ 711]. Americanisms.—These, which may be studied in the excellent dictionary of J. R. Bartlett, are chiefly referable to five causes—
1. Influence of the aboriginal Indian languages.
2. Influence of the languages introduced from Europe anterior to the predominance of English; viz.: French in Louisiana, Spanish in Florida, Swedish in Pennsylvania and Delaware, and Dutch in New York.
3. Influence, &c., subsequent to the predominance of the English; viz.: German in Pennsylvania, and Gaelic and Welsh generally.
4. Influence of the original difference of dialect between the different portions of the English population.
5. Influence of the preponderance of the Anglo-Saxon over the Anglo-Norman element in the American population in general.
[§ 712]. Extract.—In a sound and sagacious paper upon the Probable Future Position of the English Language,[[86]] Mr. Watts, after comparing the previous predominance of the French language beyond the pale of France, with the present spread of the German beyond Germany, and after deciding in favour of the latter tongue, remarks that there is "The existence of another language whose claims are still more commanding. That language is our own. Two centuries ago the proud position that it now occupies was beyond the reach of anticipation. We all smile at the well-known boast of Waller in his lines on the death of Cromwell, but it was the loftiest that at the time the poet found it in his power to make:—
'Under the tropie is our language spoke,
And part of Flanders hath received our yoke.'
"'I care not,' said Milton, 'to be once named abroad, though perhaps I could attain to that, being content with these islands as my world.' A French Jesuit, Garnier, in 1678, laying down rules for the arrangement of a library, thought it superfluous to say anything of English books, because, as he observed, 'libri Anglicâ scripti linguâ vix mare transmittunt.' Swift, in the earlier part of the eighteenth century, in his 'Proposal for correcting, improving, and
ascertaining the English Tongue,' observed, 'the fame of our writers is usually confined to these two islands." Not quite a hundred years ago Dr. Johnson seems to have entertained far from a lofty idea of the legitimate aspirations of an English author. He quotes in a number of the 'Rambler' (No. 118, May 4th, 1751), from the address of Africanus as given by Cicero, in his Dream of Scipio:—'The territory which you inhabit is no more than a scanty island inclosed by a small body of water, to which you give the name of the great sea and the Atlantic Ocean. And even in this known and frequented continent what hope can you entertain that your renown will pass the stream of Ganges or the cliffs of Caucasus, or by whom will your name be uttered in the extremities of the north or south towards the rising or the setting sun? So narrow is the space to which your fame can be propagated, and even there how long will it remain?' 'I am not inclined,' remarks Johnson, 'to believe that they who among us pass their lives in the cultivation of knowledge or acquisition of power, have very anxiously inquired what opinions prevail on the further banks of the Ganges.... The hopes and fears of modern minds are content to range in a narrower compass; a single nation, and a few years have generally sufficient amplitude to fill our imagination.' What a singular comment on this passage is supplied by the fact that the dominions of England now stretch from the Ganges to the Indus, that the whole space of India is dotted with the regimental libraries of its European conquerors, and that Rasselas has been translated into Bengalee! A few years later the great historian of England had a much clearer perception of what was then in the womb of Fate. When Gibbon, as has been already mentioned, submitted to Hume, a specimen of his intended History of Switzerland, composed in French, he received a remarkable letter in reply: 'Why,' said Hume, 'do you compose in French and carry faggots into the wood, as Horace says with regard to Romans who wrote in Greek? I grant that you have a like motive to those Romans, and adopt a language much more generally diffused than your native tongue, but have you not remarked the fate
of those two ancient languages in following ages? The Latin, though then less celebrated and confined to more narrow limits, has in some measure outlived the Greek, and is now more generally understood by men of letters. Let the French therefore triumph in the present diffusion of their tongue. Our solid and increasing establishments in America, where we need less dread the inundation of barbarians, promise a superior stability and duration to the English language.'
"Every year that has since elapsed has added a superior degree of probability to the anticipations of Hume. At present the prospects of the English language are the most splendid that the world has ever seen. It is spreading in each of the quarters of the globe by fashion, by emigration, and by conquest. The increase of population alone in the two great states of Europe and America in which it is spoken, adds to the number of its speakers in every year that passes, a greater amount than the whole number of those who speak some of the literary languages of Europe, either Swedish, or Danish, or Dutch. It is calculated that, before the lapse of the present century, a time that so many now alive will live to witness, it will be the native and vernacular language of about one hundred and fifty millions of human beings.
"What will be the state of Christendom at the time that this vast preponderance of one language will be brought to bear on all its relations,—at the time when a leading nation in Europe and a gigantic nation in America make use of the same idiom,—when in Africa and Australasia the same language is in use by rising and influential communities, and the world is circled by the accents of Shakspeare and Milton? At that time such of the other languages of Europe as do not extend their empire beyond this quarter of the globe will be reduced to the same degree of insignificance in comparison with English, as the subordinate languages of modern Europe to those of the state they belong to,—the Welsh to the English, the Basque to the Spanish, the Finnish to the Russian. This predominance, we may flatter ourselves, will be a more signal blessing to literature than that of any other language could possibly be. The English is essentially a
medium language;—in the Teutonic family it stands midway between the Germanic and Scandinavian branches—it unites as no other language unites, the Romanic and the Teutonic stocks. This fits it admirably in many cases for translation. A German writer, Prince Pückler Muskau, has given it as his opinion that English is even better adapted than German to be the general interpreter of the literature of Europe. Another German writer, Jenisch, in his elaborate 'Comparison of Fourteen Ancient and Modern Languages of Europe,' which obtained a prize from the Berlin Academy in 1796, assigns the general palm of excellence to the English. In literary treasures what other language can claim the superiority? If Rivarol more than sixty years back thought the collective wealth of its literature able to dispute the pre-eminence with the French, the victory has certainly not departed from us in the time that has since elapsed,—the time of Wordsworth and Southey, of Rogers and Campbell, of Scott, of Moore, and of Byron.
"The prospect is so glorious that it seems an ungrateful task to interrupt its enjoyment by a shade of doubt: but as the English language has attained to this eminent station from small beginnings, may it not be advisable to consider whether obstacles are not in existence, which, equally small in their beginnings, have a probability of growing larger? The first consideration that presents itself is that English is not the only language firmly planted on the soil of America, the only one to which a glorious future is, in the probable course of things, assured.
"A sufficient importance has not always been attached to the fact, that in South America, and in a portion of the northern continent, the languages of the Peninsula are spoken by large and increasing populations. The Spanish language is undoubtedly of easier acquisition for the purposes of conversation than our own, from the harmony and clearness of its pronunciation; and it has the recommendation to the inhabitants of Southern Europe of greater affinity to their own languages and the Latin. Perhaps the extraordinary neglect which has been the portion of this language for the last
century and a half may soon give place to a juster measure of cultivation, and indeed the recent labours of Prescott and Ticknor seem to show that the dawn of that period has already broken. That the men of the North should acquire an easy and harmonious southern language seems in itself much more probable than that the men of the south should study a northern language, not only rugged in its pronunciation, but capricious in its orthography. The dominion of Spanish in America is, however, interrupted and narrowed by that of Portuguese, and to a singular degree by that of the native languages, some of which are possibly destined to be used for literary purposes in ages to come.
"At the time when Hume wrote his letter to Gibbon, the conquest of Canada had very recently been effected. The rivalry of the French and English in North America had been terminated by the most signal triumph of the English arms. Had measures been taken at that time to discourage the use of French and to introduce that of English, there can be little doubt that English would now be as much the language of Quebec and Montreal as it is of New York and the Delaware. Those measures were not taken. At this moment, when we are approaching a century from the battle of the Heights of Abraham, there is still a distinction of races in Canada, nourished by a distinction of language, and both appear likely to continue.
"Within the United States themselves, a very large body of the inhabitants have remained for generation after generation ignorant of the English language. The number is uncertain. According to Stricker, in his dissertation 'Die Verbreitung des deutschen Volkes über die Erde,' published in 1845, the population of German origin in the United States in 1844 was 4,886,632, out of a total of 18,980,650. This statement, though made in the most positive terms, is founded on an estimate only, and has been shown to be much exaggerated. Wappaus (in his 'Deutsche Auswanderung und Colonisation'), after a careful examination, arrives at the conclusion that the total cannot amount to a million and a half. Many of these are of course acquainted with both
languages—in several cases where amalgamation has taken place, the German language has died out and been replaced by the English,—but the number of communities where it is still prevalent is much larger than is generally supposed. In Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Missouri, to say nothing of other states, there are masses of population of German origin or descent, who are only acquainted with German. This tendency has of late years increased instead of declining. It has been a favourite project with recent German emigrants to form in America a state, in which the language should be German, and from the vast numbers in which they have crossed the Atlantic, there is nothing improbable in the supposition, that, by obtaining a majority in some one state, this object will be attained. In 1835 the legislature of Pennsylvania placed the German language in its legal rights on the same footing with the English.
"It may be asked if any damage will be done by this? The damage, it may be answered, will be twofold. The parties who are thus formed into an isolated community, with a language distinct from that of those around them, will be placed under the same disadvantages as the Welsh of our own day, who find themselves always as it were some inches shorter than their neighbours, and have to make an exertion to be on their level. Those of them who are only masters of one language are in a sort of prison; those who are masters of two, might, if English had been their original speech, have had their choice of the remaining languages of the world to exert the same degree of labour on, with a better prospect of advantage. In the case of Welsh, the language has many ties: even those who see most clearly the necessity of forsaking it, must lament the harsh necessity of abandoning to oblivion the ancient tongue of an ancient nation. But these associations and feelings could not be pleaded in favour of transferring the Welsh to Otaheite; and when these feelings are withdrawn, what valid reason will remain for the perpetuation of Welsh, or even, it may be said, of German?
"The injury done to the community itself is perhaps the greatest; but there is a damage done to the world in general. It will be a splendid and a novel experiment in modern society, if a single language becomes so predominant over all others as
to reduce them in comparison to the proportion of provincial dialects. To have this experiment fairly tried, is a great object. Every atom that is subtracted from the amount of the majority has its influence—it goes into the opposite scale. If the Germans succeed in establishing their language in the United States, other nations may follow. The Hungarian emigrants, who are now removing thither from the vengeance of Austria, may perpetuate their native Magyar, and America may in time present a surface as checkered as Europe, or in some parts, as Hungary itself, where the traveller often in passing from one village to another, finds himself in the domain of a different language. That this consummation may be averted must be the wish not only of every Englishman and of every Anglo-American, but of every sincere friend of the advancement of literature and civilization. Perhaps a few more years of inattention to the subject will allow the evil to make such progress that exertion to oppose it may come too late."
[§ 713]. Of the Gypsy language I need only say, that it is not only Indo-Germanic, but that it is Hindoo. Few words from it have mixed themselves with our standard (or even our provincial) dialects.
Thieves' language, or that dialect for which there is no name, but one from its own vocabulary, viz. Slang, is of greater value in philology than in commerce. It serves to show that in speech nothing is arbitrary. Its compound phrases are either periphrastic or metaphorical; its simple monosyllables are generally those of the current language in an older form. The thieves of London are conservators of Anglo-Saxonisms. In this dialect I know of no specimens earlier than the reign of Queen Elizabeth. In the dramatic literature of that age they are rife and common. The Roaring Girl, the Jolly Beggars, amongst the plays, and Deckar's Bellman amongst the tracts, preserve us a copious vocabulary, similar to what we have now, and similar to what it was in Gay's time. Of this the greater part is Saxon. Here and there appears a word of Latin origin, e.g., pannum, bread; cassons, cheese. Of the Gypsy language I have discovered no trace.
[§ 714]. The Talkee-Talkee is a Lingua Franca based on the English, and spoken by the Negroes of Surinam.
It is Dutch rather than English; it shows, however, the latter language as an element of admixture.
SPECIMEN.[[87]]
1. Drie deh na bakka dem holi wan bruiloft na Cana na Galilea; on mamma va Jesus ben de dapeh.
2. Ma dem ben kali Jesus nanga hem discipel toe, va kom na da bruiloft.
3. En teh wieni kaba, mamma va Jesus takki na hem; dem no habi wieni morro.
4. Jesus takki na hem: mi mamma, hoeworko mi habi nanga joe? Tem va mi no ben kom jette.
5. Hem mamma takki na dem foetoeboi; oene doe sanni a takki gi oene.
6. Ma dem ben poetti dapeh siksi biggi watra-djoggo, na da fasi va Djoe vo krieni dem: inniwan djoggo holi toe effi drie kannetjes.
7. Jesus takki na dem [foetoeboi]: Oene foeloe dem watra-djoggo nanga watra. Ed dem foeloe dem teh na moeffe.
8. En dan a takki na dem: Oene poeloe pikinso, tjarri go na grang-foetoeboi. En dem doe so.
9. Ma teh grangfoetoeboi tesi da watra, dissi ben tron wieni, kaba a no sabi, na hoepeh da wieni komotto (ma dem foetoeboi dissi ben teki da watra ben sabi): a kali da bruidigom.
10. A takki na hem: Inniwan somma njoesoe va gi fossi da morro switti wieni, en teh dem dringi noeffe kaba, na bakka da mendre swittiwan; ma joe ben kiebri da morro boennewan.
11. Datti da fossi marki dissi Jesus ben doe; en datti ben passa na Cana na Galilea va dem somma si hem glori. En dem discipel va hem briebi na hem.
1. Three day after back, them hold one marriage in Cana in Galilee, and mamma of Jesus been there.
2. But them been call Jesus with him disciple, for come to that marriage.
3. And when wine end, mamma of Jesus talk to him, them no have wine more.
4. Jesus talk to him, me mamma how work me have with you? Time of me no been come yet.
5. Him mamma talk to them footboy, ye do things he talk to ye.
6. But them been put there six big water-jug, after the fashion of Jew for clean them; every one jug hold two or three firkins.
7. Jesus talk to them (footboy): ye fill them water jug with water. And them fill them till to mouth.
8. And then he talk to them, ye pour little, carry go to grandfootboy. And them do so.
9. But when grandfootboy taste that water, this been turn wine, could he no know from where that wine come-out-of (but them footboy this been take that water well know): he call the bridegroom.
10. He talk to him, every one man use of give first the more sweet wine; and when them drink enough end, after back the less sweety wine: but you been cover that more good wine.
11. That the first miracle that Jesus been do, and that been pass in Cana in Galilee, for them men see him glory. And them disciple of him believe in him.
[§ 715]. That the Anglo-Norman of England was, in the reign of Edward III., not the French of Paris (and most probably not the Franco-Norman of Normandy), we learn from the well-known quotation from Chaucer:—
And Frenche she spake ful feteously,
After the scole of Stratforde at Bowe,
For Frenche of Parys was to her unknowe.
Prologue to the Canterbury Tales.
[§ 716]. The concluding extract from the Testamenta Eboracensia, published by the Surtees' Society, is from the will of a gentleman in Yorkshire. To me it seems to impugn the assertion of Higden, that the Norman was spoken throughout England without a variety of pronunciation: "Mirandum videtur quomodo nativa propria Anglorum lingua, in unica insula coartata, pronunciatione ipsa fit tam diversa, cum tamen Normannica lingua, quæ adventicia est, univoca maneat penes cunctos."—Ed. Gale, p. 210.
Testamenta Eboracensia, CLIX.
En le noune de Dieu, et de notre Dame Sante Marie, et en noun de teuz le sauntez de Paradyse, Amen. Moi Brian de Stapylton devise m'alme a Dieu et a notre Dame Saunte Marie, et a touz lez Sauntz de Paradyse, et mon chautiff corps d'estre enterre en le Priourie de le Parke decoste ma compaigne, que Dieu l'assoille, et sur mon corps seit un drape de blew saye; et ma volunte ett au l'aide de Dieu d'avoire un herce ov synke tapirs, chescun tapir de synk livers, et tresze hommes vestuz en bluw ov tresze torchez, de queux tresze torchez, si ne saiount degastez, jeo voile que quatre demore a le dit Priorie.
Item jeo devyse que j'ay un homme armes en mes armes et ma hewme ene sa teste, et quy soit bien monte et un homme de bon entaille de qil condicon que y sort.
Item jeo devyse que touz ceaux, qui a moy appendent meignialx en ma maison, soient vestuz en bluw a mes costagez. Et a touz les poores, qils veignent le jour de mon enterment jeo devise et voile que chescun ait un denier en ovre de charrte, et en aide de ma chitiffe alme, et jeo voile que les sires mes compaignons mez aliez et mez voiseignez, qui volliont venir de lour bone gre prier pour moy et pour faire honour a mon chettife corps, qi peue ne vault, jeo oille et chargez mez executour que y soient mesme cel jour bien a eise, et q'il eient a boiere asseth, et a cest ma volunté parfournir jeo devise ci marcæ ove l'estore de maison taunke juiste seit.
[§ 717]. Relations of dialects (so-called) to languages (so-called).—"It is necessary clearly to conceive the nature and character of what we call dialects. The Doric, Æolic, and Ionic for example, in the language of grammarians, are dialects of the Greek: to what does this assertion amount? To this only, that among a people called the Greeks, some being Dorians spoke a language called Doric, some being Æolians spoke another language called Æolic, while a third class, Ionians, spoke a third language called, from them, Ionic. But though all these are termed dialects of the Greek, it does not follow that there was ever a Greek language of which these were variations, and which had any being apart from these. Dialects then are essentially languages: and the name dialect itself is but a convenient grammarian's phrase, invented as part of the machinery by which to carry on reasonings respecting languages. We learn the language which has the best and largest literature extant; and having done so, we treat all very nearly resembling languages as variations from what we have learnt. And that dialects are in truth several languages, will readily appear to any one who perceives the progressive development of the principle of separation in cognate tongues. The language of the Bavarian highlander or High Dutch, the language of the Hanoverian lowlander or Low Dutch, are German dialects: elevate, as it is called, regulate, and purify the one, and it assumes the
name and character of a language—it is German. Transplant the other to England, let nine centuries pass over it, and it becomes a language too, and a language of more importance than any which was ever yet spoken in the world, it has become English. Yet none but practised philologists can acknowledge the fact that the German and English languages are dialects of one Teutonic tongue."
[§ 718]. Relation of dialects to the older stages of the mother-tongue.—This has been noticed in [§ 691]. The following extract from Mr. Kemble's paper just quoted, illustrates what he calls the spontaneity of dialects:—
"Those who imagine language invented by a man or men, originally confined and limited in its powers, and gradually enlarged and enriched by continuous practice and the reflection of wise and learned individuals—unless, indeed, they look upon it as potentially only—in posse though not in esse—as the tree may be said to exist in the seed, though requiring time and culture to flourish in all its majesty—appear to neglect the facts which history proves. There is nothing more certain than this, that the earlier we can trace back any one language, the more full, complete, and consistent are its forms; that the later we find it existing, the more compressed, colloquial, and business-like it has become. Like the trees of our forests, it grows at first wild, luxuriant, rich in foliage, full of light and shadow, and flings abroad in its vast branches the fruits of a vigorous youthful nature: transplanted into the garden of civilization and trained for purposes of commerce, it becomes regulated, trimmed and pruned; nature indeed still gives it life, but art prescribes the direction and extent of its vegetation. Compare the Sanscrit with the Gothic, the Gothic with the Anglo-Saxon, and again the Anglo-Saxon with the English: or what is even better, take two periods of the Anglo-Saxon itself, the eighth and tenth centuries for example. Always we perceive a compression, a gradual loss of fine distinctions, a perishing of forms, terminations and conjugations, in the younger state of the language. The truth is, that in language up to a certain period, there is a real indwelling vitality, a principle acting unconsciously but pervasively in every part: men wield their forms of speech as they do their limbs, spontaneously, knowing nothing of their construction, or the means by which these instruments possess their power. There are flexors and extensors long before the anatomist discovers and names them, and we use our arms without inquiring by what wonderful mechanism they are made obedient to our will. So is it with language long before the grammarian undertakes its investigation. It may even be said, that the commencement of the age of self-consciousness is identical with the close of that of vitality in language; for it is a great error to speak of languages as dead, only when they have ceased to be spoken. They are dead when they have ceased to possess the power of adaptation to the wants of the people, and no longer contain in themselves the means of their own extension. The Anglo-Saxon, in the spirit and analogy of his whole language, could have used words which had never been heard before, and been at once understood: if we would introduce a new name for a new thing, we must take refuge in the courtesy of our neighbours, and borrow from the French, or Greek, or Latin, terms which never cease to betray their foreign origin, by never putting off the forms of the tongue from which they were taken, or assuming those of the tongue into which they are adopted. The English language is a dead one.
"In general it may be said that dialects possess this vitality in a remarkable degree, and that their very existence is the strongest proof of its continuance. This is peculiarly the case when we use the word to denote the popular or provincial forms of speech in a country where, by common consent of the learned and educated classes, one particular form of speech has been elevated to the dignity of the national language. It is then only the strength of the principles which first determined the peculiarities of the dialect that continues to support them, and preserves them from being gradually rounded down, as stones are by friction, and confounded in the course of a wide-spreading centralization. Increased opportunity of intercommunion with other provincials or the metropolis (dependent upon increased facilities of locomotion, the improvement of roads and the spread of mechanical inventions) sweeps away much of these original distinctions, but it never destroys them all. This is a necessary consequence of the fact that they are in some degree connected with the physical features of the country itself, and all those causes which influence the atmosphere. A sort of pseudo-vitality even till late periods bears witness to the indwelling power, and the consciousness of oppression from without: false analogies are the form this life assumes. How often have we not heard it asserted that particular districts were remarkable for the Saxonism of their speech, because they had retained the archaisms, kine, shoon, housen! Well and good! Archaisms they are, but they are false forms nevertheless, based upon an analogy just as erroneous as that which led men in the last century to say crowed, hanged for crew, hung. The Anglo-Saxon language never knew any such forms, and one wonders not to find by their side equally gratuitous Saxonisms, mousen, lousen."—Phil. Soc. No. 35.
The doctrine that languages become dead when they lose a certain power of evolving new forms out of previously existing ones, is incompatible with views to which the present writer has committed himself in the preface. If the views there exhibited be true the test of the vitality of a language, if such metaphors must be used, is the same as the test of vitality in material organisms, i.e., the power of fulfilling certain functions. Whether this is done by the evolution of new forms out of existing materials, or by the amalgamation (the particular power of the English language) of foreign terms is a mere difference of process.
[§ 719]. Effect of common physical conditions.—I again quote the same paper of Mr. Kemble's:—
"Professor Willis of Cambridge, in the course of some most ingenious experiments upon the organization and conditions of the human larynx, came upon the law which regulated the pronunciation of the vowels. He found this to be partly in proportion to the size of the opening in the pipe, partly to the force with which the air was propelled through it, and by the adaptation of a tremulous artificial larynx to the pipe of an organ, he produced the several vowels at will. Now bearing in mind the difference between the living organ and the dead one, the susceptibility of the former to dilatation and compression, from the effects, not only of the human will, but also of cold, of denser or thinner currents of air, and above all the influence which the general state of the body must have upon every part of it, we are furnished at once with the necessary hypothesis; viz. that climate, and the local positions on which climate much depends, are the main agency in producing the original variations of dialect. Once produced, tradition perpetuates them, with subsequent modifications proportionate to the change in the original conditions, the migration to localities of a different character, the congregation into towns, the cutting down of forests, the cultivation of the soil, by which the prevalent degrees of cold and the very direction of the currents of air are in no small degree altered. It is clear that the same influences will apply to all such consonants as can in any way be affected by the greater or less tension of the organs, consequently above all to the gutturals; next to the palatals, which may be defined by the position of the tongue; least of all to the labials, and generally to the liquids also, though these may be more or less strongly pronounced by different peoples. This hint must suffice here, as the pursuit of it is rather a physiological than a philological problem, and it is my business rather to show historically what facts bear upon my present inquiry, than to investigate the philosophical reasons for their existence. Still, for the very honour of human nature, one of whose greatest and most universal privileges is the recognition of and voluntary subjection to the laws of beauty and harmony, it is necessary to state that no developed language exists which does not acknowledge some internal laws of euphony, from which many of its peculiarities arise, and which by these assimilates its whole practice and assumes an artistical consistency. On this faculty, which is rather to be considered as a moral quality of the people than a necessity of their language, depends the facility of employing the language for certain purposes of art, and the form which poetry and rhythm shall assume in the period of their cultivation.
"In reviewing the principal languages of the ancient and modern world, where the migrations of those that spoke them can be traced with certainty, we are struck with the fact that the dwellers in chains of mountains, or on the elevated plains of hilly districts, strongly affect broad vowels and guttural consonants. Compare the German of the Tyrol, Switzerland, or Bavaria, with that of the lowlands of Germany, Westphalia, Hanover, and Mecklenburg: compare the Doric with the Attic, or still more the soft Ionic Greek: follow the Italian of our own day into the mountains of the Abruzzi: pursue the English into the hills of Northumberland; mark the characteristics of the Celtic in the highlands of Wales and Scotland, of the Vascongado, in the hilly ranges of Spain. Everywhere we find the same type; everywhere the same love for broad sounds and guttural forms; everywhere these appear as the peculiarity of mountaineers. The difference of latitude between Holstein and Inspruck is not great; that between Newcastle and Coventry is less; Sparta is more southerly than Athens; Crete more so than either; but this does not explain our problem; its solution is found in the comparative number of feet above the level of the sea, in the hills and the valleys which they enclose."
If true, the bearings of this is important; since, if common physical conditions effect a common physiognomy of language, we may have a certain amount of resemblance without a corresponding amount of ethnological affinity.