A Brief History of the English Language and Literature, Vol. 2 — Text and Context

+-- A language is said to be dead when it is no longer spoken. Such a language we know only in books. Thus, Latin is a dead language, because no nation anywhere now speaks it. A dead language can undergo no change; it remains, and must remain, as we find it written in books. But a living language is always changing, just like a tree or the human body. The human body has its periods or stages. There is the period of infancy, the period of boyhood, the period of manhood, and the period of old age. In the same way, a language has its periods.

2. +No Sudden Changes-- a Caution.+-- We divide the English language into periods, and then mark, with some approach to accuracy, certain distinct changes in the habits of our language, in the inflexions of its words, in the kind of words it preferred, or in the way it liked to put its words together. But we must be carefully on our guard against fancying that, at any given time or in any given year, the English people threw aside one set of habits as regards language, and adopted another set. It is not so, nor can it be so. The changes in language are as gentle, gradual, and imperceptible as the changes in the growth of a tree or in the skin of the human body. We renew our skin slowly and gradually; but we are never conscious of the process, nor can we say at any given time that we have got a completely new skin.

3. +The Periods of English.+-- Bearing this caution in mind, we can go on to look at the chief periods in our English language. These are five in number; and they are as follows:--

I. Ancient English or Anglo-Saxon, 449-1100 II. Early English, 1100-1250 III. Middle English, 1250-1485 IV. Tudor English, 1485-1603 V. Modern English, 1603-1900

These periods merge very slowly, or are shaded off, so to speak, into each other in the most gradual way. If we take the English of 1250 and compare it with that of 900, we shall find a great difference; but if we compare it with the English of 1100 the difference is not so marked. The difference between the English of the nineteenth and the English of the fourteenth century is very great, but the difference between the English of the fourteenth and that of the thirteenth century is very small.

4. +Ancient English or Anglo-Saxon, 450-1100.+-- This form of English differed from modern English in having a much larger number of inflexions. The noun had five cases, and there were several declensions, just as in Latin; adjectives were declined, and had three genders; some pronouns had a dual as well as a plural number; and the verb had a much larger number of inflexions than it has now. The vocabulary of the language contained very few foreign elements. The poetry of the language employed head-rhyme or alliteration, and not end-rhyme, as we do now. The works of the poet +Caedmon+ and the great prose-writer +King Alfred+ belong to this Anglo-Saxon period.

5. +Early English, 1100-1250.+-- The coming of the Normans in 1066 made many changes in the land, many changes in the Church and in the State, and it also introduced many changes into the language. The inflexions of our speech began to drop off, because they were used less and less; and though we never adopted new _inflexions_ from French or from any other language, new French _words_ began to creep in. In some parts of the country English had ceased to be written in books; the language existed as a spoken language only; and hence accuracy in the use of words and the inflexions of words could not be ensured. Two notable books-- written, not printed, for there was no printing in this island till the year 1474-- belong to this period. These are the +Ormulum+, by +Orm+ or +Ormin+, and the +Brut+, by a monk called +Layamon+ or +Laweman+. The latter tells the story of Brutus, who was believed to have been the son of Æneas of Troy; to have escaped after the downfall of that city; to have sailed through the Mediterranean, ever farther and farther to the west; to have landed in Britain, settled here, and given the country its name.

6. +Middle English, 1250-1485.+-- Most of the inflexions of nouns and adjectives have in this period-- between the middle of the thirteenth and the end of the fifteenth century-- completely disappeared. The inflexions of verbs are also greatly reduced in number. The +strong+[1] mode of inflexion has ceased to be employed for verbs that are new-comers, and the +weak+ mode has been adopted in its place. During the earlier part of this period, even country-people tried to speak French, and in this and other modes many French words found their way into English. A writer of the thirteenth century, John de Trevisa, says that country-people “fondeth [that is, try] with great bysynes for to speke Freynsch for to be more y-told of.” The country-people did not succeed very well, as the ordinary proverb shows: “Jack would be a gentleman if he could speak French.” Boys at school were expected to turn their Latin into French, and in the courts of law French only was allowed to be spoken. But in 1362 Edward III. gave his assent to an Act of Parliament allowing English to be used instead of Norman-French. “The yer of oure Lord,” says John de Trevisa, “a thousond thre hondred foure score and fyve of the secunde Kyng Richard after the conquest, in al the gramer scoles of Engelond children leveth Freynsch, and construeth and turneth an Englysch.” To the first half of this period belong a +Metrical Chronicle+, attributed to +Robert of Gloucester+; +Langtoft’s+ Metrical Chronicle, translated by +Robert de Brunne+; the +Agenbite of Inwit+, by Dan Michel of Northgate in Kent; and a few others. But to the second half belong the rich and varied productions of +Geoffrey Chaucer+, our first great poet and always one of our greatest writers; the alliterative poems of +William Langley+ or +Langlande+; the more learned poems of +John Gower+; and the translation of the Bible and theological works of the reformer +John Wyclif+.

[Footnote 1: See p. 43.]

7. +Tudor English, 1485-1603.+-- Before the end of the sixteenth century almost all our inflexions had disappeared. The great dramatist Ben Jonson (1574-1637) laments the loss of the plural ending +en+ for verbs, because _wenten_ and _hopen_ were much more musical and more useful in verse than _went_ or _hope_; but its recovery was already past praying for. This period is remarkable for the introduction of an enormous number of Latin words, and this was due to the new interest taken in the literature of the Romans-- an interest produced by what is called the +Revival of Letters+. But the most striking, as it is also the most important fact relating to this period, is the appearance of a group of dramatic writers, the greatest the world has ever seen. Chief among these was +William Shakespeare+. Of pure poetry perhaps the greatest writer was +Edmund Spenser+. The greatest prose-writer was +Richard Hooker+, and the pithiest +Francis Bacon+.

8. +Modern English, 1603-1900.+-- The grammar of the language was fixed before this period, most of the accidence having entirely vanished. The vocabulary of the language, however, has gone on increasing, and is still increasing; for the English language, like the English people, is always ready to offer hospitality to all peaceful foreigners-- words or human beings-- that will land and settle within her coasts. And the tendency at the present time is not only to give a hearty welcome to newcomers from other lands, but to call back old words and old phrases that had been allowed to drop out of existence. Tennyson has been one of the chief agents in this happy restoration.

THE HISTORY OF THE VOCABULARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

1. +The English Nation.+-- The English people have for many centuries been the greatest travellers in the world. It was an Englishman-- Francis Drake-- who first went round the globe; and the English have colonised more foreign lands in every part of the world than any other people that ever existed. The English in this way have been influenced by the world without. But they have also been subjected to manifold influences from within-- they have been exposed to greater political changes, and profounder though quieter political revolutions, than any other nation. In 1066 they were conquered by the Norman-French; and for several centuries they had French kings. Seeing and talking with many different peoples, they learned to adopt foreign words with ease, and to give them a home among the native-born words of the language. Trade is always a kindly and useful influence; and the trade of Great Britain has for many centuries been larger than that of any other nation. It has spread into every part of the world; it gives and receives from all tribes and nations, from every speech and tongue.

2. +The English Element in English.+-- When the English came to this island in the fifth century, the number of words in the language they spoke was probably not over +two thousand+. Now, however, we possess a vocabulary of perhaps more than +one hundred thousand words+. And so eager and willing have we been to welcome foreign words, that it may be said with truth that: +The majority of words in the English Tongue are not English+. In fact, if we take the Latin language by itself, there are in our language more +Latin+ words than +English+. But the grammar is distinctly English, and not Latin at all.

3. +The Spoken Language and the Written Language-- a Caution.+-- We must not forget what has been said about a language,-- that it is not a printed thing-- not a set of black marks upon paper, but that it is in truest truth a +tongue+ or a +speech+. Hence we must be careful to distinguish between the +spoken+ language and the +written+ or +printed+ language; between the language of the +ear+ and the language of the +eye+; between the language of the +mouth+ and the language of the +dictionary+; between the +moving+ vocabulary of the market and the street, and the +fixed+ vocabulary that has been catalogued and imprisoned in our dictionaries. If we can only keep this in view, we shall find that, though there are more Latin words in our vocabulary than English, the English words we possess are +used+ in speaking a hundred times, or even a thousand times, oftener than the Latin words. It is the genuine English words that have life and movement; it is they that fly about in houses, in streets, and in markets; it is they that express with greatest force our truest and most usual sentiments-- our inmost thoughts and our deepest feelings. Latin words are found often enough in books; but, when an English man or woman is deeply moved, he speaks pure English and nothing else. Words are the coin of human intercourse; and it is the native coin of pure English with the native stamp that is in daily circulation.

4. +A Diagram of English.+-- If we were to try to represent to the eye the proportions of the different elements in our vocabulary, as it is found in the dictionary, the diagram would take something like the following form:--

Diagram of the English Language.

+-----------------------------------------------------+ | ENGLISH WORDS. | +-----------------------------------------------------+ | LATIN WORDS | | (including Norman-French, which are also Latin). | +--------------+--------------------------------------+ | GREEK WORDS. | Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, | | | Hebrew, Arabic, Hindustani, Persian, | | | Malay, American, etc. etc. | +--------------+--------------------------------------+

5. +The Foreign Elements in our English Vocabulary.+-- The different peoples and the different circumstances with which we have come in contact, have had many results-- one among others, that of presenting us with contributions to our vocabulary. We found Kelts here; and hence we have a number of Keltic words in our vocabulary. The Romans held this island for several hundred years; and when they had to go in the year 410, they left behind them six Latin words, which we have inherited. In the seventh century, Augustine and his missionary monks from Rome brought over to us a larger number of Latin words; and the Church which they founded introduced ever more and more words from Rome. The Danes began to come over to this island in the eighth century; we had for some time a Danish dynasty seated on the throne of England: and hence we possess many Danish words. The Norman-French invasion in the eleventh century brought us many hundreds of Latin words; for French is in reality a branch of the Latin tongue. The Revival of Learning in the sixteenth century gave us several thousands of Latin words. And wherever our sailors and merchants have gone, they have brought back with them foreign words as well as foreign things-- Arabic words from Arabia and Africa, Hindustani words from India, Persian words from Persia, Chinese words from China, and even Malay words from the peninsula of Malacca. Let us look a little more closely at these foreign elements.

6. +The Keltic Element in English.+-- This element is of three kinds: (i) Those words which we received direct from the ancient Britons whom we found in the island; (ii) those which the Norman-French brought with them from Gaul; (iii) those which have lately come into the language from the Highlands of Scotland, or from Ireland, or from the writings of Sir Walter Scott.

7. +The First Keltic Element.+-- This first contribution contains the following words: _Breeches_, _clout_, _crock_, _cradle_, _darn_, _dainty_,_ mop_, _pillow_; _barrow_ (a funeral mound), _glen_, _havoc_, _kiln_, _mattock_, _pool_. It is worthy of note that the first eight in the list are the names of domestic-- some even of kitchen-- things and utensils. It may, perhaps, be permitted us to conjecture that in many cases the Saxon invader married a British wife, who spoke her own language, taught her children to speak their mother tongue, and whose words took firm root in the kitchen of the new English household. The names of most rivers, mountains, lakes, and hills are, of course, Keltic; for these names would not be likely to be changed by the English new-comers. There are two names for rivers which are found-- in one form or another-- in every part of Great Britain. These are the names +Avon+ and +Ex+. The word +Avon+ means simply _water_. We can conceive the children on a farm near a river speaking of it simply as “the water”; and hence we find fourteen Avons in this island. +Ex+ also means _water_; and there are perhaps more than twenty streams in Great Britain with this name. The word appears as +Ex+ in +Exeter+ (the older and fuller form being _Exanceaster_-- the camp on the Exe); as +Ax+ in +Axminster+; as +Ox+ in +Oxford+; as +Ux+ in +Uxbridge+; and as +Ouse+ in Yorkshire and other eastern counties. In Wales and Scotland, the hidden +k+ changes its place and comes at the end. Thus in Wales we find +Usk+; and in Scotland, +Esk+. There are at least eight Esks in the kingdom of Scotland alone. The commonest Keltic name for a mountain is +Pen+ or +Ben+ (in Wales it is _Pen_; in Scotland the flatter form _Ben_ is used). We find this word in England also under the form of +Pennine+; and, in Italy, as +Apennine+.

8. +The Second Keltic Element.+-- The Normans came from Scandinavia early in the tenth century, and wrested the valley of the Seine out of the hands of Charles the Simple, the then king of the French. The language spoken by the people of France was a broken-down form of spoken Latin, which is now called French; but in this language they had retained many Gaulish words out of the old Gaulish language. Such are the words: _Bag_, _bargain_, _barter_; _barrel_, _basin_, _basket_, _bucket_; _bonnet_, _button_, _ribbon_; _car_, _cart_; _dagger_, _gown_; _mitten_, _motley_; _rogue_; _varlet_, _vassal_, _wicket_. The above words were brought over to Britain by the Normans; and they gradually took an acknowledged place among the words of our own language, and have held that place ever since.

9. +The Third Keltic Element.+-- This consists of comparatively few words-- such as _clan_; _claymore_ (a sword); _philabeg_ (a kind of kilt), _kilt_ itself, _brogue_ (a kind of shoe), _plaid_; _pibroch_ (bagpipe war-music), _slogan_ (a war-cry); and _whisky_. Ireland has given us _shamrock_, _gag_, _log_, _clog_, and _brogue_-- in the sense of a mode of speech.

10. +The Scandinavian Element in English.+-- Towards the end of the eighth century-- in the year 787-- the Teutons of the North, called Northmen, Normans, or Norsemen-- but more commonly known as Danes-- made their appearance on the eastern coast of Great Britain, and attacked the peaceful towns and quiet settlements of the English. These attacks became so frequent, and their occurrence was so much dreaded, that a prayer was inserted against them in a Litany of the time-- “From the incursions of the Northmen, good Lord, deliver us!” In spite of the resistance of the English, the Danes had, before the end of the ninth century, succeeded in obtaining a permanent footing in England; and, in the eleventh century, a Danish dynasty sat upon the English throne from the year 1016 to 1042. From the time of King Alfred, the Danes of the Danelagh were a settled part of the population of England; and hence we find, especially on the east coast, a large number of Danish names still in use.

11. +Character of the Scandinavian Element.+-- The Northmen, as we have said, were Teutons; and they spoke a dialect of the great Teutonic (or German) language. The sounds of the Danish dialect-- or language, as it must now be called-- are harder than those of the German. We find a +k+ instead of a +ch+; a +p+ preferred to an +f+. The same is the case in Scotland, where the hard form +kirk+ is preferred to the softer +church+. Where the Germans say +Dorf+-- our English word +Thorpe+, a village-- the Danes say +Drup+.

12. +Scandinavian Words+ (i).-- The words contributed to our language by the Scandinavians are of two kinds: (i) Names of places; and (ii) ordinary words. (i) The most striking instance of a Danish place-name is the noun +by+, a town. Mr Isaac Taylor[2] tells us that there are in the east of England more than six hundred names of towns ending in +by+. Almost all of these are found in the Danelagh, within the limits of the great highway made by the Romans to the north-west, and well-known as +Watling Street+. We find, for example, +Whitby+, or the town on the _white_ cliffs; +Grimsby+, or the town of Grim, a great sea-rover, who obtained for his countrymen the right that all ships from the Baltic should come into the port of Grimsby free of duty; +Tenby+, that is +Daneby+; +by-law+, a law for a special town; and a vast number of others. The following Danish words also exist in our times-- either as separate and individual words, or in composition-- +beck+, a stream; +fell+, a hill or table-land; +firth+ or +fiord+, an arm of the sea-- the same as the Danish fiord; +force+, a waterfall; +garth+, a yard or enclosure; +holm+, an island in a river; +kirk+, a church; +oe+, an island; +thorpe+, a village; +thwaite+, a forest clearing; and +vik+ or +wick+, a station for ships, or a creek.

[Footnote 2: Words and Places, p. 158.]

13. +Scandinavian Words+ (ii).-- The most useful and the most frequently employed word that we have received from the Danes is the word +are+. The pure English word for this is +beoth+ or +sindon+. The Danes gave us also the habit of using +to+ before an infinitive. Their word for +to+ was +at+; and +at+ still survives and is in use in Lincolnshire. We find also the following Danish words in our language: +blunt+, +bole+ (of a tree), +bound+ (on a journey-- properly +boun+), +busk+ (to dress), +cake+, +call+, +crop+ (to cut), +curl+, +cut+, +dairy+, +daze+, +din+, +droop+, +fellow+, +flit+, +for+, +froward+, +hustings+, +ill+, +irk+, +kid+, +kindle+, +loft+, +odd+, +plough+, +root+, +scold+, +sky+, +tarn+ (a small mountain lake), +weak+, and +ugly+. It is in Northumberland, Durham, Yorkshire, Lincoln, Norfolk, and even in the western counties of Cumberland and Lancashire, that we find the largest admixture of Scandinavian words.