The French has properly but one word, plume, for the three English words, feather, en and quill. Its verbs have not such a variety of combinations to express the precise time of an action as the English. J'ecris is the only phrase for the English, I write and I am writing, which have distinct uses; and I do not know whether there is any phrase used in French which will exactly correspond with the English phrases answering to the inceptive verb of the Romans, I am going to write, or, am about writing.[30]
This solution of a difficulty, which has occurred to many people, in comparing the manners of the English and French, may not be the true one; but it appears rational. Other causes also have a material influence upon eloquence, particularly the form of government and the state of society. In these respects England and France may not be so favorable to the cultivation of oratory, as were the republics of Greece and Rome. But if a free government is the best soil for the growth of eloquence, why should it flourish in France rather than in England, which is said to be the fact with respect to pulpit eloquence? The genius of the nation may have its effect; but it is presumed, the state of the language may be considered as an auxiliary cause, if not a principal.
From the foregoing history of the language, we learn the causes of its incorrect orthography. The Saxon characters, some of which were Roman, both in shape and power, while others were peculiar to the language, continued in use till the fourteenth century. These were afterwards laid aside for the Old English characters, as they are usually called; which were introduced with the art of printing from Germany,[31] and continued in use, till within a century. But both the Saxon and German letters were much inferior to the Roman in the simplicity and elegance of their form; for which reason most of the European nations have rejected their primitive characters and adopted the Roman.[32]
In changing the characters of an alphabet, as well as in expressing the sounds of one language by letters of an other, some difficulty will often arise from the want of a perfect correspondence between the true sounds of letters in both. Altho there is, and must be, a great uniformity in the articulate sounds of all men, yet there are also differences peculiar to each nation, which others have not proper characters to express.
Thus the Romans, when they would express the sound of the Greek θ and of χ, for want of suitable characters, wrote th and ch. We conclude from this circumstance, that the Greek sound of the former was that of t followed by an aspirate, and the latter, that of k with an aspirate. Yet it is very probable that the sounds were guttural in Greek, and not exactly represented by the Latin combinations th and ch.
Thus two Saxon characters are represented in modern English, by the Latin combination th, as in think, thou. These Saxon characters were single letters and had distinct powers. We preserve the distinction of sounds to this day, but are subject to the inconvenience of having no mark by which the eye can discern that distinction.
On the other hand, sh was usually written by the Saxons sc, as sceaft, shaft; sceam, shame; sceal, shall. What was the pronunciation of sc cannot be determined; but it is evident that each letter had a distinct sound. It is most probable that before a, o, and u, sc were pronounced sk, or c might have had the force of ch in choose. It is very clear that c had this sound before e and i; for the Saxon words in which ch now precede e or i, were formerly spelt with c only; as child from the Saxon cild; chill from cele; chink from cinnon, to gape; chick from cicen. If therefore c before e and i had the force of ch, sceaft must have been pronounced scheaft, which would easily be softened down and contracted into shaft.
But whatever was the sound of sc in the Saxon, the sound derived from it is now simple, and has no single character to represent it in our language; for the proper sounds of s and h combined, do not form the sound which we invariably annex to sh. By not retaining the primitive Saxon c after s, we have probably lost the pronunciation and introduced an irregularity.
It is not certain however that a change of the alphabet was prior to the change of pronunciation; for the latter might have produced the former. But the effect is certain; we have a simple sound without a proper character, which is always an imperfection.[33]
We have therefore in English the two sounds of th, the aspirate in think, and the vocal in this, both of which are simple consonant sounds, peculiar to the language, and derived from two single characters. Each ought still to be represented by a distinct single letter. Sh, on the other hand, express a simple sound, derived from two separate Saxon consonants, which must have been originally pronounced as two letters. These irregularities must have been partly owing to a change of alphabet.[34]