We now first find the letter d in the middle of words like wrecchedness and wickedness. What used to be inlihton (inluxerunt) is now lightned, with a strange n. Hâs (raucus) becomes haast; hence the Scotch substantive hoast. We of the South have put an r into the old adjective, and call it hoarse. Olera herbarum (Vol. I. page 111) is translated wortes of grenes; hence our name for certain vegetables. Hors (equi) is corrupted into horses, as in Layamon's poem. In Vol. I. 245, we find pai pat horses stegh up. This word has had a fate exactly the reverse of hás (raucus), for we too often call equus 'a hoss.' We find some new substantives, such as understanding, foundling, yles (insulæ) ;1 there is also hand-mayden. English delights in making two nouns into a new compound. Molestus is translated by a new word, hackande (Vol. I. page 105); hence perhaps our 'hacking cough.' We see an effort made after a new idiom in Vol. I. page 265. Non erat qui sepeliret' is there translated was it nane pat walde biri. But this it could never drive out the old there. In Vol. I. page 61, 'exaruit velut testa' is translated He is wrong: That is the true Old English Relative, representing pe; the others are Thirteenth Century upstarts. It is curious that Yorkshire had far more influence than Kent upon the language of the capital in 1520. If we wish to be correct, we should translate 'qui amant' by they that love: those who love can date no higher than 1250. 1 Vol. i. p. 323. The Psalter being a most Teutonic work, we may hope that our isle is not derived from the French. The Old High German has isila. 2 We must allow that country-house is far better than the French maison de campagne. by dried als a pot might be. The two last words are a roundabout expression for wære. The verbs delve, cleave, swepe, and wepe take Weak perfects. This process has unluckily always been going on in England. In Vol. I. page 267, a new meaning is given to the verb spill; what of old was blod is agoten (effusus), now becomes blode es spilte. One of the puzzles in our language is, how ever could the Old English geotan be supplanted by the Celtic pour: this took place about 1500. The former word survives in the Lincoln goyts or canals. It is curious to mark the various compounds of wil, employed at different times to translate voluntariè. This about the year 800 was wilsum-lice (Vol. I. page 171); about 1250 it was willi; in a rather later copy of this Psalter it was wilfulli: we should now say willingly. A new phrase crops up, used to translate forsitan ; this (Vol. II. page 115) is thurgh hap: it is the forerunner of our mongrel perhaps. We now see the first employment of our word gainsay, the only one of all the old compounds of again that is left to us. In Vol. I. page 269 we read, 'thou set us in gaine-sagh,' that is, in contradictionem. This is a true Northern form; a Southerner would have written ayen sawe. The English tongue was still able to turn a substantive into a verb. 'Qui dominatur' (Vol. I. page 203) is translated by 'pat laverdes.'' 'In Shakespere's time, substantives and adjectives could be turned into verbs with ease. Dr. Johnson turns a preposition into a verb: 'I downed him with this.' We see the sense of shunt given for the first time to scunian. Expulsi sunt (Vol. I. page 291) is translated ere out-schouned. There are many Scandinavian words now found for the first time; as, Dreg, from the Icelandic dregg (sediment). Gnaist (gnash), from the Norse gnista. Lurk, from the Norse lurke. Molbery, from the Swedish mulbaer. Slaghter, from the Norse slátr. Scalp, from the Norse skal (a shell). Snub, from the Norse snubba (cut short). Besides these, we find for the first time our cloud (nubes); in Vol. I. 43, we read in pe kloudes of pe skewe; ' in nubibus aeris.' Sky has therefore at last got its modern meaning. We see snere, akin to the Dutch snarren, to grumble; stuble (stipula) related to the Dutch stoppel. In Vol. II. page 53, conquassare is translated in three different manuscripts by squat, squacche, swacche (our squash), all akin to the Dutch quassen. A few French words appear, such as fruitefull, oile, richesses; the last being the usual translation of divitiæ, and thus the Plural form of our word is accounted for. The older pais is sometimes turned into peas (pax). The word ire is used to translate the Latin ira; our kindred word yrre cannot have died out at this time: the Poet would think the Latin form more dignified than 1 Our word for accipiter clearly comes from the Norse, and not from the Old English heafoc. So we have preferred the Norse form slûtr to the Old English slæge. A glance at Stratmann's Dictionary will show, that the South held to the Old English forms long after the Norse forms, now used by us, had appeared in the North. the Old English. So we may hope that our ire is from an English and not from a Latin source. The word majestas (Vol. I. page 233) is turned into an ingenious compound, mastehede. What was in the year 800 a-deastrade sind (obscurati sunt) is now seen as er sestrede (Vol. I. page 241). This is a good example of the gradual change in the sounds of letters; thus eaðe became easy. The translator of the Psalter was used to write the French word city; he, therefore, sometimes writes cestrede as well as sestrede. Here we have the soft sound of c coming in; before this time it was always sounded hard, except in a French word. In Vol. I. page 243, we see,' when time tane haf I;' the first instance of taken being cut down to tane— a sure mark of the North. About the year 1250, Layamon's poem was turned into the English of the day; many old words of 1200 are dropped, being no longer understood; and some new French words are found. The old henan (hinc), already corrupted into henne, now becomes hennes, our hence; and betwyx becomes bitwixte. In this poem we first find our leg (crus); it comes from the Old Norse leggr, a stem; and slehpe (our sleight) comes from the Icelandic slægð. Cloke (chlamys) is a Celtic word. We owe a great deal to the men who, between 1240 and 1440, drew up the many manuscript collections of English poems that still exist, taken from various sources by each compiler. The writer who copied many lays into what is now called The Jesus Manuscript, ranged over at least one hundred and forty years. In one piece of his, professing to give a list of the English Bishopricks, there is no mention of Ely; hence the original must have been set down soon after the year 1100. In another piece in the same collection, mention is made of Saint Edmund, the Archbishop; this fixes the date of the poem as not much earlier than the year 1250. Most of these pieces, printed in An Old English Miscellany (Early English Text Society), seem to me to have been compiled at various dates between 1220 and 1250; for the proportion of obsolete English in them varies much. The Southern Dialect is well marked. What in Essex had been called patt an, is now changed into its present shape. De on is pat ich schal heonne.-Page 101. At page 164, the old gearwa is cut down to gere, our gear. The Virgin says, in page 100, ich am Godes wenche' (ancilla). The word was henceforth only used of Orrmin had called Isaac 'a wennchell.' women; We see in page 76, a Celtic word brought into English, a word which Shakspere was to make immortal. It is said that greedy monks shall be 'bitauht pe puke;' that is, given over to the Fiend. The Welsh pwcca and bwg mean 'an hobgoblin;' hence come our bugbears and bogies.1 At page 43, we see 'he wes more bold,' not bolder. This was put in for the sake of rime. 1 Good Bishop Bedell, in a letter to Usher, brands an oppressor named Cooke: he is the most cryed out upon. Insomuch as he hath found from the Irish the nickname of Pouc.'-Page 105 of Bedell's Life, printed in 1685. |