[CHAPTER XIV.]
GENERAL REMARKS ON WORDS, ETC.
In old English spelling, we frequently meet with y initial, where we now use th; as in ‘ye manners and ye customs,’ &c. This error probably arose from the blundering of the copyists, who mistook one letter for another. Down to the close of the reign of Edward III., two characters of the Saxon alphabet were in common use, which we have now rejected; tha (þ) (th hard), and edh (ð) (th soft). The first of these, (þ), somewhat resembled a y in shape; and hence the mistake. This is, probably, the true explanation of the case, as y was, in all these instances, used where we now have th.
Y initial, as indicating a participle or an intensive meaning, has now become obsolete in English. But it lingered in the language till the seventeenth century, as may be seen in Milton. ‘In heaven yclept Euphrosyne.’ This is the ge initial of the modern German, as in ‘gekannt,’ ‘gebrochen,’ &c. Our word ‘guess,’ is supposed to be connected with the German ‘gewiss;’ where the initial ge may be referred to the same source. In comparing certain German with English words, we may see that this prefix (g or y) has, in most cases, fallen off, though in some few words it still retains its place. The German ‘Glück,’ is in English ‘luck,’ and the German ‘gleich’ has become with us ‘like.’ Again,’to glow’ was, in Saxon, ‘hlowian.’ We retain the g in ‘gleam,’ and ‘glimpse,’ though we lose it in ‘light.’ The same connection may be observed between the German ‘gern,’ and the English ‘yearn.’
Many are puzzled when to use ei and when ie in the spelling of certain English words, when these combinations are pronounced as a long e. The rule is, that when a sibilant (c or s) precedes, ei is the right spelling; but that when any other consonant comes before, ie should be written. Thus, ‘seize, conceive, ceiling, deceit,’ &c., must have ei; whilst ‘believe, priest, chief, retrieve,’ &c., must be spelled ie. The word ‘siege’ is an exception; we here adopt the French spelling.
It is generally well known that the prefixes ante and anti have, in English, each a distinct meaning. ‘Ante’ is the Latin preposition for ‘before.’ It is found in ‘antedate’ (to date before); ‘antechamber’ (a waiting-room before another); ‘antecedent’ (going before), &c. ‘Anti’ is originally Greek, and means ‘against.’ It is found in ‘antipathy’ (a feeling against); ‘antidote’ (a medicine given against); i.e. as a preventive. But there is one exception to this explanation; viz. ‘anticipate.’ ‘Anti,’ in this case, does not mean ‘against,’ but beforehand. To ‘anticipate’ is to enjoy or suffer prospectively. The Latin i always becomes an e in French; and vice versâ. This is considered as an organic law of transformation. The Latin mihi, tibi, sibi, in, inter, &c., are in French me, te, se, en, entre. On the other hand, the Latin ‘implēre,’ ‘fallĕre,’ ‘legĕre,’ ‘quaerĕre,’ and ‘florĕre,’ are in French, remplir, ‘faillir,’ ‘lire,’ ‘quérir,’ and ‘fleurir.’ This may be seen in ‘antichambre,’ ‘antidater,’ &c.; and the English has, in this one case, ‘anticipate,’ adopted the French form of spelling.
The difference in pronunciation between such words as ‘hōme,’ and ‘sŏme;’ ‘bōne’ and ‘dŏne;’ ‘alōne’ and ‘gŏne,’ depends on their derivation. In these cases, the long ō corresponds with the modern German ‘ei.’ The German ‘Heim’ is the English ‘hōme.’ ‘Bein’ is in English bōne; ‘allein,’ ‘alōne,’ &c., whereas the closer sound of ŏ approaches to a closer sound of a or o in German. Hence, the root sam (as in sammeln), gives the English ‘sŏme.’ ‘Dŏne’ is from ‘gethăn,’ ‘cŏme,’ from ‘kŏmmen,’ &c. From the same cause, the adverb ‘so’ in English has the same long sound as in German; whereas ‘tŏ’ and ‘dŏ,’ being from ‘zu’ and ‘thun,’ have a closer pronunciation.
It is natural to expect that as the genius of a people powerfully influences the spelling of their common terms, the same cause should operate in that of their proper names, both of persons and places. With respect to names of places, there is now and then some difficulty. The inhabitants of a town or country do not always give it the name by which it is known to foreigners. An English tourist who is a novice in continental travel, arrives at a town he has been accustomed to call ‘Aix,’ or ‘Aix-la-Chapelle;’ and he is not a little puzzled to hear it named ‘Aachen.’ It is doubtful whether many English would recognise the German word; and yet it is certainly the one used by the Prussians from time immemorial. There are many other continental towns with whose names we English are, in general, not familiar; for example, Lüttich (Liège), Regensburg (Ratisbon), Bruxelles (Brussels), Kiobenhavn (Copenhagen), Vliessingen (Flushing), Genf (Geneva), &c., &c.
That these differences should exist was but natural in bygone times when there was so scanty a communication between one country and another. But nowadays, when one touch of the telegraph ‘should make the whole world akin,’ and when steamboats and railroads seem to be literally annihilating both time and space, it is to be regretted that some one standard form for the spelling of names of places should not be agreed on, which all should adopt, and which would be intelligible to the whole civilised world. There appears to be some probability of the continental states adopting a standard coin which shall have a universal currency. Why should they not also determine on one standard form of spelling for the names of all their towns and districts? The one change would not be more difficult than the other.