Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VI.djvu/643

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ENGLAND (LANGUAGE AND LITEKATUBE) 631 guage from the Anglo-Norman or the Anglo- Saxon, according as the objects or ideas -ex- pressed by those words belonged more exclu- sively to one race or the other. Thus the names of common articles of dress are Anglo- Saxon, as shirt, breeches, hose, shoes, hat, cloak; but other articles subject to changes of fashion are Anglo-Norman, as gown, coat, boots, man- tle, cap, bonnet. The word house, a common residence, is Anglo-Saxon ; but palace, castle, manor, and mansion are Anglo-Norman. The names ox, calf, sheep, pig, boar are Anglo-Sax- on, because that part of the population were engaged in tending those animals while they were living ; but beef, veal, mutton, pork, veni- son are Anglo-Norman names, because that part of the population were accustomed to eat their flesh when they were killed. The natu- ral development of the Anglo-Norman or Ro- manic portion of the language is nearly as fol- lows: 1, verbal roots in English, as boil, cay in decay, ceive in conceive, pound, vouch ; 2, stem adjectives, as chaste, clear ; 3, stem sub- stantives, as beast, peace; 4, derivative words with suffixes, as flourish, authorize, volunteer, arabesque, plumage, journal, service, fashion ; 5, derivative words with prefixes, as avouch, antechamber, countermark; 6, Romanic com- pounds, as portfolio, wardrobe; 7, disguised Romanic words, as biscuit, bachelor, proctor, curfew. The common statement is that Anglo- Saxon was converted into English : 1, by con- tracting and otherwise modifying the pronun- ciation and orthography of words ; 2, by omit- ting many inflections, especially of the noun, and consequently making more use of articles and auxiliaries; 3, by the introduction of French derivatives ; 4, by using less inversion and ellipsis, especially in poetry. Besides the languages already mentioned which have contributed to the composition of the Eng- lish, several others, and especially the Greek, should also be mentioned : 1, Greek verbal roots, as arch, in archetype, graph in graphic; 2, stem adjectives, as kal, beautiful, in calli- graphy, kryph, hidden, in apocrypha ; 3, stem substantives, as rhomb, cord; 4, derivative words with suffixes, as poet, chrism ; 5, second- ary derivatives, as Baptist, Christian ; 6, deriv- ative words with prefixes, as apoplexy, catarrh, catastrophe; 7, compounds, as democracy, pedagogue. There are also in the language Hebrew words, as manna, a gum, jasper, a precious stone, sabbath ; Spanish, as guerilla, matadore ; Italian, as stanza, piazza ; Persian, as bazaar, chess; Arabic, as alembic, gazelle; Chinese, as chop, hyson; and Indian, as hom- iny, moccason. Our terms in polite literature come from Greece; in music and painting, from Italy; in cookery and war, from the French ; and in navigation, from the Flemings and Dutch. From its composite character, the English is copious in its vocabulary and phrases. There are large classes of words derived from the Norman or the classical languages which are in common parlance sy- nonymous with words derived from the Anglo- Saxon. General terms are from the Latin- those that Denote the special varieties of ob- jects, qualities, and modes of action are from the Anglo-Saxon. Thus, color is Latin ; but white, black, green are Anglo-Saxon. It has been remarked that "Latin furnishes the ele- gant, the Saxon the common expression, as bad odor and. stench, perspiration and sweat." In looking through the several stages of the lan- guage, namely, the Saxon, the semi-Saxon, the old English, the middle English, the modern English, we are struck with the constant death of old words, and the constant birth of new- ones that come in to fill their places. In the early periods this was due to the successive ir- ruptions of foreigners, who in introducing their own language necessarily expelled a portion of the vernacular. Another cause of these mu- tations is that the pursuits of the English peo- ple have been multiform beyond those of any other nation, and the language has correspond- ingly changed. Lexicographers, in their zeal to introduce new words, to the neglect of old ones, have contributed to the changes by re- cording the One class and omitting the other. In Halliwell's " Dictionary of Archaic and Pro- vincial "Words" there are more than 50,000- words not recorded in modern dictionaries. For further information on this subject the reader may consult Grimm's Deutsche Gram- matik (4 vols., Gottingen, 1819-'37); Guest's "History of English Rhythms" (London, 1838) ; Rask's " Anglo-Saxon Grammar," trans- lated by Thorpe (London) ; Bopp's " Compara- tive Grammar," translated by Eastwick (3 vols. 8vo, London) ; Trench's " English, Past and Present " (New York ed., 1855), and " Study of Words "' (New York ed., 1861) ; Goold Brown's "Grammar of English Grammars" (New York, 1857); Latham's "Hand-Book of the English Language " (New York ed., 1857) ; Fowler's "English Language in its Elements and Forms" (New York, 1859) ; G. P. Marsh's "History of the English Language" (New York, 1862) ; Alford's " Queen's English " (London, 1864) ; Earle's " Philology of the English Language" (Oxford, 1867 and 1871); March's " Comparative Grammar of the Anglo- Saxon" and " Introduction to Anglo-Saxon" (New York, 1870) ; Stormonth's " Etymo- logical Dictionary of English " (Edinburgh and London, 1871); Morris's "Historical Outlines of English Accidence" (London, 1872); and R. G. White's " Words and their Uses " (New York, 1870 and 1873). ENGLISH LITERATURE was preceded in the British islands by com- positions in the Cymric or ancient British, Anglo-Saxon, Anglo-Norman or early French, and Latin languages. A few Cymric metri- cal pieces are extant, which date probably from the 6th century ; they are the songs of the Welsh bards Aneurin, Taliesin, Llewarch- Hen, and Myrddin, the sage as well as poet, whom succeeding centuries transfigure into the enchanter Merlin. To Gildas, a brother