A Book About Words

by G. F. Graham

On the other hand, there are some few cases where words are expanded or widened by the insertion of a letter. 1st. Of a vowel. We have ‘alarum,’ for ‘alarm;’ ‘lawyer,’ for ‘lawer;’ ‘clothier,’ for ‘clother.’ The i is also inserted in ‘parliament,’ ‘Saviour,’ ‘handicraft,’ ‘handiwork,’ ‘periwinkle,’ and a few others.

2nd. Sometimes, l or r is inserted; as in ‘principle,’ from ‘principe;’ ‘syllable,’ from ‘syllabe;’ ‘cartridge,’ from ‘cartouche;’ ‘partridge,’ from the Latin ‘perdix,’ through the French ‘perdrix;’ ‘groom,’ from the Anglo-Saxon ‘guma,’ a man; ‘vagrant,’ from ‘vagans;’ and ‘corporal,’ from ‘caporal.’

3rd. P and B are often inserted after m; as ’empty,’ Anglo-Saxon ‘æmtig,’ ‘tempt,’ from the French ‘tenter;’ ’embers,’ from the Anglo-Saxon ‘æmyrje;’ ‘nimble,’ from the Anglo-Saxon ‘nemol.’ Also in ‘lamb,’ ‘limb,’ ‘crumb,’ ‘thumb,’ and ‘numb,’ the b forms no part of the root.

4th. D naturally attaches itself to n final; as in ‘sound,’ ‘riband,’ ‘lend,’ &c. This may probably account for certain provincial pronunciations, as ‘gownd,’ ‘drownd,’ &c. Also in ‘thunder,’ ‘kindred,’ and ‘yonder,’ the d is parasitical.

Assimilation.

Assimilation, or the coming together of letters which have an affinity for each other, is a principle which affects the spelling, as well as the pronunciation, of many English words. This law softens the pronunciation, and will account for the frequent occurrence of a double consonant at the beginning of a large class of words. The rule is here:—‘When a prefix ending in a consonant is applied to a root beginning with one, that consonant disappears, and there is substituted for it the initial consonant of the root.’ This happens most frequently in English words compounded with Latin prepositions. The d in the preposition ‘ad’ is often assimilated to the initial consonant of the root to which it is applied.

The word ‘accede’ is made up of ‘ad’ (to) and ‘cede’ (come). But the initial c in ‘cede’ assimilated to itself the d in ‘ad,’ i.e. changed it into a c. Thus ‘adcede’ became ‘accede.’ This law will account for the double consonant in such forms as ‘accost,’ ‘aggrieve,’ ‘allude,’ ‘ammunition,’ ‘annex,’ ‘apply,’ ‘assist,’ ‘attract,’ and many others. In all these cases the first syllable was originally ‘ad.’

This law applies with equal force to other Latin prepositions which enter into the formation of English words; as ‘con,’ ‘in,’ ‘per,’ ‘sub,’ &c. We spell the word ‘collect’ for ‘conlect;’ ‘commune,’ for ‘conmune,’ &c. On the same principle we write ‘illegal,’ for ‘inlegal;’ ‘irregular,’ for ‘inregular;’ ‘pellucid,’ for ‘perlucid;’ ‘succumb,’ for ‘subcumb;’ and many others. But when the root begins with a labial (b, p, or m), then the final consonant of the preposition is always changed into m. This is why we write ‘imbibe,’ and not ‘ibbibe;’ ‘imbue,’ not ‘ibbue;’ and ‘impossible,’ not ‘ipposible,’ &c.

This principle of assimilation has operated in the formation of the words ‘hammock’ and ‘stirrup.’ The first is from ‘hang-mat,’ where the ng has been assimilated to m. The second is from the Anglo-Saxon ‘stig-rope’ (literally, ‘mount-rope,’ or rope to mount by), where r is substituted for the g in ‘stig.’