The English Language

7. Jesus takki na dem [foetoeboi]: Oene foeloe dem watra-djoggo nanga watra. Ed dem foeloe dem teh na moeffe.

8. En dan a takki na dem: Oene poeloe pikinso, tjarri go na grang-foetoeboi. En dem doe so.

9. Ma teh grangfoetoeboi tesi da watra, dissi ben tron wieni, kaba a no sabi, na hoepeh da wieni komotto (ma dem foetoeboi dissi ben teki da watra ben sabi): a kali da bruidigom.

10. A takki na hem: Inniwan somma njoesoe va gi fossi da morro switti wieni, en teh dem dringi noeffe kaba, na bakka da mendre swittiwan; ma joe ben kiebri da morro boennewan.

11. Datti da fossi marki dissi Jesus ben doe; en datti ben pa.s.sa na Cana na Galilea va dem somma si hem glori. En dem discipel va hem briebi na hem.

1. Three day after back, them hold one marriage in Cana in Galilee, and mamma of Jesus been there.

2. But them been call Jesus with him disciple, for come to that marriage.

3. And when wine end, mamma of Jesus talk to him, them no have wine more.

4. Jesus talk to him, me mamma how work me have with you? Time of me no been come yet.

5. Him mamma talk to them footboy, ye do things he talk to ye.

6. But them been put there six big water-jug, after the fas.h.i.+on of Jew for clean them; every one jug hold two or three firkins.

{574} 7. Jesus talk to them (footboy): ye fill them water jug with water. And them fill them till to mouth.

8. And then he talk to them, ye pour little, carry go to grandfootboy.

And them do so.

9. But when grandfootboy taste that water, this been turn wine, could he no know from where that wine come-out-of (but them footboy this been take that water well know): he call the bridegroom.

10. He talk to him, every one man use of give first the more sweet wine; and when them drink enough end, after back the less sweety wine: but you been cover that more good wine.

11. That the first miracle that Jesus been do, and that been pa.s.s in Cana in Galilee, for them men see him glory. And them disciple of him believe in him.

-- 715. That the Anglo-Norman of England was, in the reign of Edward III., not the French of Paris (and most probably not the Franco-Norman of Normandy), we learn from the well-known quotation from Chaucer:--

And Frenche she spake ful feteously, After the scole of Stratforde at Bowe, For Frenche of Parys was to her unknowe.

_Prologue to the Canterbury Tales._

-- 716. The concluding extract from the Testamenta Eboracensia, published by the Surtees' Society, is from the will of a gentleman in Yorks.h.i.+re. To me it seems to impugn the a.s.sertion of Higden, that the Norman was spoken throughout England without a variety of p.r.o.nunciation: "Mirandum videtur quomodo nativa propria Anglorum lingua, in unica insula coartata, p.r.o.nunciatione ipsa fit tam diversa, c.u.m tamen Normannica lingua, quae adventicia est, univoca maneat penes cunctos."--_Ed. Gale_, p. 210.

_Testamenta Eboracensia_, CLIX.

En le noune de Dieu, et de notre Dame Sante Marie, et en noun de teuz le sauntez de Paradyse, Amen. Moi Brian de Stapylton devise m'alme a Dieu et a notre Dame Saunte Marie, et a touz lez Sauntz de Paradyse, et mon chautiff corps d'estre enterre en le Priourie de le Parke decoste ma compaigne, que Dieu l'a.s.soille, et sur mon corps seit un drape de blew saye; et ma volunte ett au l'aide de Dieu d'avoire un herce ov synke tapirs, chescun tapir de synk livers, et tresze hommes vestuz en bluw ov tresze torchez, {575} de queux tresze torchez, si ne saiount degastez, jeo voile que quatre demore a le dit Priorie.

Item jeo devyse que j'ay un homme armes en mes armes et ma hewme ene sa teste, et quy soit bien monte et un homme de bon entaille de qil condicon que y sort.

Item jeo devyse que touz ceaux, qui a moy appendent meignialx en ma maison, soient vestuz en bluw a mes costagez. Et a touz les poores, qils veignent le jour de mon enterment jeo devise et voile que chescun ait un denier en ovre de charrte, et en aide de ma chitiffe alme, et jeo voile que les sires mes compaignons mez aliez et mez voiseignez, qui volliont venir de lour bone gre prier pour moy et pour faire honour a mon chettife corps, qi peue ne vault, jeo oille et chargez mez executour que y soient mesme cel jour bien a eise, et q'il eient a boiere a.s.seth, et a cest ma volunte parfournir jeo devise ci marcae ove l'estore de maison taunke juiste seit.

-- 717. _Relations of dialects_ (_so-called_) _to languages_ (_so-called_).--"It is necessary clearly to conceive the nature and character of what we call dialects. The Doric, aeolic, and Ionic for example, in the language of grammarians, are dialects of the Greek: to what does this a.s.sertion amount? To this only, that among a people called the Greeks, some being Dorians spoke a language called Doric, some being aeolians spoke another language called aeolic, while a third cla.s.s, Ionians, spoke a third language called, from them, Ionic. But though all these are termed dialects of the Greek, it does not follow that there was ever a Greek language of which these were variations, and which had any being apart from these. Dialects then are essentially languages: and the name dialect itself is but a convenient grammarian's phrase, invented as part of the machinery by which to carry on reasonings respecting languages. We learn the language which has the best and largest literature extant; and having done so, we treat all very nearly resembling languages as _variations_ from what we have learnt. And that dialects are in truth several languages, will readily appear to any one who perceives the progressive development of the principle of separation in cognate tongues.

The language of the Bavarian highlander or High Dutch, the language of the Hanoverian lowlander or Low Dutch, are German dialects: elevate, as it is called, regulate, and purify the one, and it a.s.sumes the {576} name and character of a language--it is German. Transplant the other to England, let nine centuries pa.s.s over it, and it becomes a language too, and a language of more importance than any which was ever yet spoken in the world, it has become English. Yet none but practised philologists can acknowledge the fact that the German and English languages are dialects of one Teutonic tongue."

-- 718. _Relation of dialects to the older stages of the mother-tongue._--This has been noticed in -- 691. The following extract from Mr. Kemble's paper just quoted, ill.u.s.trates what he calls the _spontaneity_ of dialects:--

"Those who imagine language invented by a man or men, originally confined and limited in its powers, and gradually enlarged and enriched by continuous practice and the reflection of wise and learned individuals--unless, indeed, they look upon it as potentially only--in _posse_ though not in _esse_--as the tree may be said to exist in the seed, though requiring time and culture to flourish in all its majesty--appear to neglect the facts which history proves. There is nothing more certain than this, that the earlier we can trace back any one language, the more full, complete, and consistent are its forms; that the later we find it existing, the more compressed, colloquial, and business-like it has become. Like the trees of our forests, it grows at first wild, luxuriant, rich in foliage, full of light and

"In general it may be said that dialects possess this vitality in a remarkable degree, and that their very existence is the strongest proof of its continuance. This is peculiarly the case when we use the word to denote the popular or provincial forms of speech in a country where, by common consent of the learned and educated cla.s.ses, one particular form of speech has been elevated to the dignity of the national language. It is then only the strength of the principles which first determined the peculiarities of the dialect that continues to support them, and preserves them from being gradually rounded down, as stones are by friction, and confounded in the course of a wide-spreading centralization. Increased opportunity of intercommunion with other provincials or the metropolis (dependent upon increased facilities of locomotion, {578} the improvement of roads and the spread of mechanical inventions) sweeps away much of these original distinctions, but it never destroys them all. This is a necessary consequence of the fact that they are in some degree connected with the physical features of the country itself, and all those causes which influence the atmosphere. A sort of pseudo-vitality even till late periods bears witness to the indwelling power, and the consciousness of oppression from without: _false_ a.n.a.logies are the form this life a.s.sumes. How often have we not heard it a.s.serted that particular districts were remarkable for the Saxonism of their speech, because they had retained the archaisms, _kine_, _shoon_, _housen_! Well and good! Archaisms they are, but they are false forms nevertheless, based upon an a.n.a.logy just as erroneous as that which led men in the last century to say _crowed_, _hanged_ for _crew_, _hung_. The Anglo-Saxon language never knew any such forms, and one wonders not to find by their side equally gratuitous Saxonisms, _mousen_, _lousen_."--Phil. Soc. No. 35.

The doctrine that languages become _dead_ when they lose a certain power of evolving new forms out of previously existing ones, is incompatible with views to which the present writer has committed himself in the preface. If the views there exhibited be true the test of the _vitality_ of a language, if such metaphors _must_ be used, is the same as the test of vitality in material organisms, _i.e._, the power of fulfilling certain functions.

Whether this is done by the evolution of new forms out of existing materials, or by the amalgamation (the particular power of the English language) of foreign terms is a mere difference of process.

-- 719. _Effect of common physical conditions._--I again quote the same paper of Mr. Kemble's:--

"Professor Willis of Cambridge, in the course of some most ingenious experiments upon the organization and conditions of the human larynx, came upon the law which regulated the p.r.o.nunciation of the vowels. He found this to be partly in proportion to the size of the opening in the pipe, partly to the force with which the air was propelled through it, and by the adaptation of a tremulous artificial larynx to the pipe of an {579} organ, he produced the several vowels at will. Now bearing in mind the difference between the living organ and the dead one, the susceptibility of the former to dilatation and compression, from the effects, not only of the human will, but also of cold, of denser or thinner currents of air, and above all the influence which the general state of the body must have upon every part of it, we are furnished at once with the necessary hypothesis; viz. that climate, and the local positions on which climate much depends, are the main agency in producing the original variations of dialect. Once produced, tradition perpetuates them, with subsequent modifications proportionate to the change in the original conditions, the migration to localities of a different character, the congregation into towns, the cutting down of forests, the cultivation of the soil, by which the prevalent degrees of cold and the very direction of the currents of air are in no small degree altered. It is clear that the same influences will apply to all such consonants as can in any way be affected by the greater or less tension of the organs, consequently above all to the gutturals; next to the palatals, which may be defined by the position of the tongue; least of all to the l.a.b.i.als, and generally to the liquids also, though these may be more or less strongly p.r.o.nounced by different peoples. This hint must suffice here, as the pursuit of it is rather a physiological than a philological problem, and it is my business rather to show historically what facts bear upon my present inquiry, than to investigate the philosophical reasons for their existence. Still, for the very honour of human nature, one of whose greatest and most universal privileges is the recognition of and voluntary subjection to the laws of beauty and harmony, it is necessary to state that no developed language exists which does not acknowledge some internal laws of euphony, from which many of its peculiarities arise, and which by these a.s.similates its whole practice and a.s.sumes an artistical consistency. On this faculty, which is rather to be considered as a moral quality of the people than a necessity of their language, depends the facility of employing the language for certain purposes of art, and {580} the form which poetry and rhythm shall a.s.sume in the period of their cultivation.

"In reviewing the princ.i.p.al languages of the ancient and modern world, where the migrations of those that spoke them can be traced with certainty, we are struck with the fact that the dwellers in chains of mountains, or on the elevated plains of hilly districts, strongly affect broad vowels and guttural consonants. Compare the German of the Tyrol, Switzerland, or Bavaria, with that of the lowlands of Germany, Westphalia, Hanover, and Mecklenburg: compare the Doric with the Attic, or still more the soft Ionic Greek: follow the Italian of our own day into the mountains of the Abruzzi: pursue the English into the hills of Northumberland; mark the characteristics of the Celtic in the highlands of Wales and Scotland, of the Vascongado, in the hilly ranges of Spain.

Everywhere we find the same type; everywhere the same love for broad sounds and guttural forms; everywhere these appear as the peculiarity of mountaineers. The difference of lat.i.tude between Holstein and Inspruck is not great; that between Newcastle and Coventry is less; Sparta is more southerly than Athens; Crete more so than either; but this does not explain our problem; its solution is found in the comparative number of feet above the level of the sea, in the hills and the valleys which they enclose."

If true, the bearings of this is important; since, if common physical conditions effect a common physiognomy of language, we may have a certain amount of resemblance without a corresponding amount of ethnological affinity.

{581}

PRAXIS.

The following extracts are given in the form of simple texts. They are meant, more especially, to be explained by masters to their cla.s.ses; and as such were used by myself during the time that I was Professor of the English language and literature at University College. They are almost all taken from editions wherein either a translation or a full commentary can be found by reference. To have enlarged the present Appendix into a full Praxis, would have been to overstep the prescribed limits of the present work.

I.

MOESO-GOTHIC.

_Mark, Chap. 1._

1. 2. Anastodeins aivaggeljons esuis xristaus sunaus gus. sve gameli st n esa in praufetau. sai. k nsandja aggilu meinana faura us. saei gamanvei vig einana faura us. stibna vopjandins 3. n auidai. manvei vig fraujins. raihtos vaurkei 4. staigos gus unsaris. vas ohannes daupjands n auidai jah 5. merjands daupein dreigos du aflageinai fravaurhte. jah usddjedun du mma all udaialand jah airusaulymeis jah daupidai vesun allai n aurdane awai fram mma andhaitandans fravaurhtim 6. seinaim. vasu-an ohannes gavasis taglam ulbandaus jah gairda filleina bi hup seinana jah matida ramsteins 7. jah mili haiivisk jah merida qiands. qimi svinoza mis sa afar mis. izei k ni m vairs anahneivands andbindan skaudaraip 8. skohe is. aan k daupja zvis n vatin. s daupei zvis {582} 9. n ahmin veihamma. jah var n jainaim dagam. qam esus fram nazarai galeilaias jah daupis vas fram ohanne n 10. aurdane. jah suns usgaggands us amma vatin gasaw usluknans 11. himinans jah ahman sve ahak atgaggandan ana na. jah stibna qam us himinam. u s sunus meins sa liuba. n uzei 12. vaila galeikaida. jah suns sai. ahma na ustauh n auida.

13. jah vas in izai auidai dage fidvortiguns fraisans fram satanin 14. jah vas mi diuzam jah aggileis andbahtidedun mma. p afar atei atgibans var ohannes. qam esus n galeilaia merjands 15. aivaggeljon iudangardjos gus qiands atei usfullnoda ata mel jah atnewida sik iudangardi gus. dreigo jah galaubei 16. n aivaggeljon. jah warbonds faur marein galeilaias gasaw seimonu jah andraian broar s. is seimonis. vairpandans 17. nati n marein. vesun auk fiskjans. jah qa m esus. hirjats 18. afar mis jah gatauja gqis vairan nutans manne. jah suns 19. affetandans o natja seina laistidedun afar mma. jah jainro nngaggands framis leitil gasaw akobu ana zaibaidaiaus jah 20. ohanne broar s jah ans n skipa manvjandans natja. jah suns haihait ns jah affetandans attan seinana zaibaidaiu n amma skipa mi asnjam galiun afar mma jah galiun n kafarnaum.

21. jah suns sabbato daga galeiands n synagogen laisida 22. ns jah usfilmans vaurun ana izai laiseinai s. unte vas laisjands 23. ns sve valdufni habands jah ni svasve ai bokarjos. jah vas n izai synagogen ze manna n unhrainjamma ahmin jah 24. ufhropida qiands. fralet. wa uns jah us esu nazorenai.

qamt fraqistjan uns. kann uk was u s. sa veiha gus.

25. jah andbait na esus qiands. ahai jah usgagg ut us amma.

26. ahma unhrainja. jah tahida na ahma sa unhrainja jah hropjands 27. stibnai mikilai usddja us mma. jah afslaunodedun allai sildaleikjandans. svaei sokidedun mi sis misso qiandans.

wa sijai ata. wo so laiseino so niujo. ei mi valdufnja jah ahmam aim unhrainjam anabiudi jah ufhausjand mma.

28. usddja an meria s suns and allans bisitands galeilaias.

29. jah suns us izai synagogen usgaggandans qemun n garda seimonis 30. jah andrains mi okobau jah ohannem. svaihro 31. seimonis log n brinnon. jah suns qeun mma bi ja. jah duatgaggands urraisida o undgreipands handu zos. jah affailot 32. o so brinno suns jah andbahtida m. andanahtja an vauranamma.

an gasaggq saul. berun du mma allans ans ubil {583} 33. habandans jah unhulons habandans. jah so baurgs alla garunnana 34. vas at daura. jah gahailida managans ubil habandans missaleikaim sauhtim jah unhulons managos usvarp jah ni 35. fralailot rodjan os unhulons. unte kunedun na. jah air uhtvon usstandans usddja jah galai ana aujana sta jah jainar 36. ba. jah galaistans vaurun mma seimon jah ai mi 37. mma. jah bigitandans na qeun du mma atei allai uk 38. sokjand. jah qa du m. gaggam du aim bisunjane haimom 39. jah baurgim. ei jah jainar merjau. unte due qam. jah vas merjands n synagogim ze and alla galeilaian jah unholons 40. usvairpands. jah qam at mma rutsfill habands bidjands na jah knivam knussjands jah qiands du mma atei. jabai 41. vileis. magt mik gahrainjan. esus nfeinands ufrakjands handu seina attaitok mma jah qa mma. viljau. vair hrains.

42. jah bie qa ata esus. suns ata rutsfill affai af mma jah 43. hrains var. jah gawotjands mma suns ussandida na jah qa 44. du mma. saiw ei mannhun ni qiais vaiht ak gagg uk silban ataugjan gudjin jah atbair fram gahraineinai peinai. atei 45. anabau moses du veitvodiai m. s usgaggands dugann merjan filu jah usqian ata vaurd. svasve s juan ni mahta andaugjo n baurg galeian ak uta ana aujaim stadim vas.

jah ddjedun du mma allaro.