2d. Still more striking have been those Changes in the Grammatical forms of the English which may be referred to the last four centuries.
The ancient Saxon was a language of inflections—the modern English is a language of simple forms. Thus, in the Anglo-Saxon the terminations of the Verb were varied in different Persons, as they are in the Latin “Hab-eo, Hab-emus, Hab-ent,” and in the German “Hab-e, Hab-en, Hab-en.” These inflections have, for the most part, progressively disappeared from the English, which expresses the changes of [pg 036] Persons by separate Pronouns, in conjunction with a Root, in most instances unvarying, as “I Have, We Have, They Have.” There is distinct evidence that this change has, in a great measure, perhaps principally, taken place since the time of Chaucer—whose writings, to a great extent, preserve the Anglo-Saxon inflections, such as “They Hav-en,”[34] &c., corresponding with the German “Sie Hab-en,” &c.
Slow and almost imperceptible have been the steps in this as in other examples of that revolution of which the progress may be faintly traced in the writings of Spenser, and Shakspeare, and Milton, and even in those of the great modern Masters of the last century. In our own generation it has not been consummated! A striking instance occurs in the old inflection of the third person singular “He Giv-eth,” still partially used in the venerable forms of Scripture. This inflection, now fast passing into oblivion, trifling as it may appear, forms a link which serves to associate the English language not only with the German, but with the Latin and the Sanscrit![35]
The Auxiliary Verb may probably be regarded as the most important part of Language. Now it is highly deserving of remark, that in the Anglo-Saxon there existed an Auxiliary Verb, “Beo, or Beonne, To Be,” which has been abandoned in the modern English. This Verb is interesting, not merely from its important functions as a part of Language, but also from its forming a link, as will hereafter appear, between the Anglo-Saxon, the German, the dialects of the English Provinces, and of the Scottish Lowlands. From the English of [pg 037] Literature it has been lost since the days of Chaucer, by whom it is commonly used, as in the following example:
“These two sinnes bin so nigh cosins.”—Person's Tale.
The peculiarities which distinguish the dialects of the English Counties from the language of the higher classes of society are not, as is perhaps generally supposed, the results of the capricious deviation of uncultivated minds from an established standard. On the contrary, they appear clearly for the most part to be various relics or Fragments of Old English or Anglo-Saxon, which the more educated classes have lost. For example, To “axe” (for To ask,) “I conne,” (I can,) expressions used by the peasantry of Shropshire, are words of Saxon origin that occur in Chaucer. In an able work on the peculiarities of the dialect of Lancashire, by Mr. Collier,[36] it has been shown with much learning and research that those peculiarities are to be recognized in Chaucer, Spenser, Ben Jonson, and other old English writers. Obsolete Norman, as well as Saxon, words occur in this dialect. Similar inferences with regard to the Lowland Scotch may be drawn from Mr. Jamieson's work on that branch of the Anglo-Saxon.
Some very interesting results will be found to flow from a Comparison of the “Pronunciation” of different English Counties, and of the Lowland Scotch, with that of the educated classes of modern England. One of the most marked differences between the modern English and the German consists in the superior breadth or distinctness which is given in the German to words which are uttered with a comparatively narrow and indistinct sound in Modern English. There is every reason to believe that the Anglo-Saxon Pronunciation [pg 038] was similar to the German, and that the present English mode has been the result of progressive innovation. Of the various dialects of the Anglo-Saxon, the Lowland Scotch, in its pronunciation, as well as in individual words, approaches nearest to the Continental German.[37] But, as intimated above, many of the characteristics of German articulation have been preserved also in the Provincial dialects of England. Moreover, it is interesting to observe, that different primitive peculiarities have been preserved in different counties. For example, the English of the educated classes differs from the Continental German, and, as it is believed, from the Anglo-Saxon also,[38] in giving a narrow sound to the vowels A and U. Now the Shropshire dialect has preserved the broad A; (“Hair,” for instance, is pronounced “H-ā-r,” as it is by the Germans!) On the other hand, in Lancashire and Cheshire the broad U forms the prominent feature in the dialect of the peasantry; (for example, “Butter” and “Gutter” are pronounced “Bootter” and “Gootter!”)
As already noticed, the Anglo-Saxon Auxiliary Verb forms in numerous instances an important connecting link. Thus the modern English and the modern German Auxiliary Verbs differ totally in the present tense.
| English. | German. |
| I am, | Ich bin, |
| Thou art, | Du bist, |
| He is. | Er ist. |
| We are, | Wir sind, |
| You are, | Ihr seyd, |
| They are. | Sie sind. |
But both these Verbs co-exist in the present tense in the old Anglo-Saxon.