lies as bothe, the Gothic bayoths and the Sanscrit ubhau. Danish influence was making itself felt on the Thames. The form abec (aback, in Gothic ibukai) is seen, like the Midland o pe half; in pe is shortened into i de. Ealswa is

cut down into alse and then into as, the most rapid of all our changes; thus we have formed two new words, also and as, out of one old word. Min and pîn are shortened into mi and ti.

We now find the first use of our New English Relative Pronoun. Hwa and hwyle were never so employed of yore; the former answered to the Latin quis, not to qui; but our tongue was now subject to French influence. As yet, the Genitive and Dative alone of hwa, not the Nominative, are used to express the Relative. Teonðe and sefentize are found instead of teoða and hundseofontig. Swyle, hwyle, and mycel now become swice, wice, and moche; further changes are to come forty years later. Cildru turns into cyldren, for the South of England, unlike the North, always loved the Plural in en, of which the Germans are so fond. Ege becomes azéie, not far from our modern awe; the g is softened into y or i, especially at the beginning of Past Participles. The new letter 3 now appears to replace the old hard g; it lasted for nearly 350 years. Thanks to it, we wrote citeien, the old French word, as citezen in 1340, and in 1380 pronounced it citisen. Thus the Scottish Dalyell and Mackenyie have become Dalziel and Mackenzie.1 The former he hafað gewesen is now seen as he hað íbí (he hath been), a wondrous change; hafde becomes had,

1 About 1340, cnokeg was written for knocks. See the Lancashire specimen, given in Chapter III,

and we weren is shortened into we wer. Agên, áfre, pás, neah, genoh, yfel, bydel, are replaced by azénes, efer, þes, nieh, innoh, euyl, bedele (against, ever, these, nigh, enough, evil, beadle). For is now found for the first time, answering to the Latin enim; and bread (panis) replaces the old hlaf. This reign of Henry the First is indeed an age of change, both in the Midland and in the South. Old English words were becoming strange to English ears. Thus the adapter of the Homilies in this reign has to add the word laga to explain , the Latin lex (p. 227). A verb sometimes gets a new sense; thus the old ágan, which of old meant nothing more than possidere, comes now to stand for debere; he is ofer us and ah to bienne (ought to be), p. 233; there is also pu ahst (debes). Burch is found instead of burh, as we saw it at Peterborough; and ch often replaces the old h, as richtwis, michti, nachte (nihil); in the word geworhcte we see a mixture of both the forms. We now find a budding corruption that is for ages the sure mark of a Southern dialect; namely, the turning of the old i or y into u. Thus swipen here becomes suupen (p. 239),1 and the old mycele is sometimes seen as mucele. This particular change has not greatly affected our Standard English, except that we use the Southern much and such instead of the old mycel and swylc. We once see the w thrown out of swa, for we read sa ful (p. 233). Hatrede is found for the first time as well as hate.

A few lines on The Grave, printed by Mr. Thorpe in his Analecta Anglo-Saxonica (p. 142), seem to belong to

1 This old word only survives among cricketers, who make good swipes.

;

this time. In this piece we find for the first time in English the word lah or lage (humilis): 'Hit bið unheh and lah de hele-wages beod lage.' The Scandinavian and Frisian have words akin to this. Fourscore years later, we find the verb to lazhenn (to lower); and almost two hundred years further on, we light on bi loogh (below). We thus in Chaucer's time compounded a new preposition out of an adjective.

THE EAST MIDLAND DIALECT.

(About 1160.)

We now skip thirty years, and once more return to the neighbourhood of Rutland. The Peterborough Chronicle seems to have been laid aside for many years after 1131. England was at this time groaning under some of the worst sorrows she has ever known; we have come to the nineteen winters when Stephen was King. As soon as these evil days were over, and England had begun her happy course (this has lasted, with but few checks, for more than seven hundred years 1), the Peterborough monks went on with their Chronicle. Their language was becoming more and more corrupt; but the picture they set before us of King Stephen's days is a marvel of power, and shows the sterling stuff that a Monastic writer often had in him.

The English, which we are now to weigh, dates from about the year 1160. More Norse forms crop up; we find cyrceiard (kirkyard) formed on the Norse pattern, instead of the Old English cirictune. When King Stephen lays hold of Earl Randolph, he is said to

Even our few civil wars have commonly in the end furthered the good estate of the realm.

act through wicci rede.' This is the first appear

ance in our island of the common word wicked, a word which Mr. Wedgwood derives from Lapland or Esthonia. There is a change in the meaning of words; thus war of old meant cautus, but it now gets the new sense of sciens; as in the account of the year 1140, 'he wart it war,' he became aware of it. By this time many of the Southern corruptions had made their way to Rutland and its neighbourhood: thus o was beginning to replace a; mor and oune are used instead of már and an. We see here wie, agenes, alsuic, alse, for, onoh, a, just as we saw them in the Homilies; and ahte stands for debuit, following the Southern fashion. What was hwa swa thirty years earlier is now wua sua, not far from our whoso. Eall is dropped altogether, in favour of the Anglian all. A form, of old found but seldom, now appears instead of œlc; to this word ever is prefixed, and auric (every) is the result. In this way our fathers afterwards compounded whoever, whatsoever, and other strange forms. Ic makes way for I, the old Anglian ih, found in the Northumbrian Gospels; seo changes into scoe, but we have to wait more than a hundred years for our well-known she; hit becomes it. The Southern 'heo hefde íbí' is seen in the Midland as scæ hadde ben. The particle ne of old was always attached to the verb to express negation; but this ne is now replaced by noht, our not; in the account of 1132, we read, was it noht lang. This form was unknown at London for nearly two hundred years afterwards: Peterborough, it is plain, has had more influence upon our speech than London. The Anglian til

(usque), a word never found in the South, replaces the Old English oð, which soon vanished altogether. The ending of the Infinitive had already been pared down from an into en and e; it now lost even this; for we find in the account of the year 1135, sculde cumm (should come), durste sei (durst say); this sculde was once sceolde.1 Other corruptions of the Verb are seen in hi namm for hî nâmen; there is also he spac, he let, he mint; what is now the Scottish form gæde (ivit) is found for the first time instead of the old eôde. Læde

(duxit) now becomes lad, our led. Nefan becomes neues; the Irish peasantry still keep this old form 'nevvies,' rejecting our French-born word 'nephews.' Cyse, niwe, treówd, dúman, nearo, become in 1160 cæse (cheese), neuue (new), treuthe, pumbes, nareu (narrow). On slap becomes an slep, not far from our asleep. We find both nan treuthe and na iustise, the old and the new form for nullus.

Prepositions are not often prefixed to the Verb, but are separated from it; we find such forms as candles to æten bi, he let him ut, he sculde cumm ut. Wile is used no longer exclusively as a noun, but like the Latin dum; an early instance of a conjunction being thus formed. Our modern qu is found instead of the Old English cw, as quarterne; c is giving way to k, for we find smoke and snake. Moreover, we see in the account of the year 1138 the first beginning of a new combination of letters, most common now in our speech; gh supplants g, as sloghen (they slew); we saw something similar in the Homilies.

1 But the Infinitive in en lasted in the South down to the Reformation. Surrey writes, 'I dare well sayen.'