period the modifications were chiefly orthographical, but they affected the endings of words, and thus led the way to the grammatical changes which took place in the latter part of the thirteenth century.

To the earlier part of this period belong the following works: the Brut, written by Layamon; the Ormulum, by Ormin; the Ancren Riwle, &c. To the latter half belong the Story of Genesis and Exodus, the Owl and Nightingale, &c.

(3) Middle English (A.D. 1250-1485).-Most of the older inflexions of nouns and adjectives have now disappeared. The verbal inflexions are much altered, and many strong verbs have been replaced by weak ones. To the first half of this period belong a Metrical Chronicle, and Lives of Saints, attributed to Robert of Gloucester; Langtoft's Metrical Chronicle, translated by Robert of Brunne, and the Handlyng Synne, by the same writer; the Pricke of Conscience, by Hampole; the Ayenbite of Inwyt, by Dan Michel of Northgate, Kent. To the second half belong the works of Wicliffe, William Langley (or Langland), Gower, and Chaucer, &c.

(4) Modern English, from A.D. 1485 to the present time. We might subdivide this period into two parts, calling the language in the earlier period from 1485 to 1600 Tudor English.

CHAPTER IV.

Sounds and Letters.

(1) LETTERS.

51. Letters are conventional signs employed to represent sounds. They have grown out of the old pictorial mode of writing, and were at first abbreviated pictures.1

In the oldest alphabets, a letter does not represent an indivisible sound (consonant or vowel), but a syllable (consonant and vowel).

After a time the consonants were looked upon as the most important part, and consequently they alone were written, or written in full, while the vowel was either omitted or represented by some less conspicuous symbol.

Such was the character of the old Phoenician alphabet, from which have come the Hebrew, Syriac, Arabic, Sanskrit, and Greek alphabets.

The Latin alphabet, derived from one of the older forms of the Greek, is the parent of our Own symbols.

I

= beth daleth (door),

Cp. the names of the letters in Hebrew and Greek, b (house), Beta: g = gimel (camel), Gamma; d Delta.

=

I

=

The oldest English alphabet consisted of twentyfour letters, all except three being Roman characters: Þ, (thorn th); and p (wên = w), are Runic letters; Đ, is merely a crossed d used instead of the thorn. j is another form of i, and v of u. w is a doubling of u.

(2) SOUNDS.

52. The spoken alphabet is composed of sounds produced by the articulating organs (or organs of speech), throat, tongue, palate, lips, &c., which serve to modify the breath as it issues from the larynx.

There are two great divisions of Sounds:

Vowels and Consonants.

The Vowels are the open sounds of a language. In a vowel sound the emission of the breath is modified by the organs of speech, but is not interrupted or stopped by the actual contact of any of these organs. In the Indo-European speech there were only three original short vowels a, i, u (far, bit, full), from which have sprung the long vowels a (father), i (machine), u (fool).

The dipthongs are formed in passing from one vowel sound to another: the oldest are e = a + i (fête), o = a + u (note). All the varieties of vowel sounds,

'See Whitney, "Language and the study of Language,” P. 465 (1867).

(and they may be almost infinite) are modifications of the three original vowels (a, i, u.)

The Consonants are closer sounds than the vowels and less musical. They are produced by the contact of one or other of the organs of speech, whereby the stream of breath is wholly or partially stopped. In the oldest Indo-European speech there were only twelve consonant sounds, b, p, d, t, g, k, s, m, n, 1, r; and h in combination with b, d, g, forming the aspirates bh, dh, gh (cp. Gr. ø, 0, x).

53. Classification of Consonants.-The consonants can be arranged according to the organ by which they are sounded: Guttural (g, k): Dental (d, t, th), Labial (b, p, v, ƒ,) &c. They can also be classified according as the breath is wholly or partially stopped in its exit. Stopped sounds are called mutes or checks, as g, k, d, t, b, p.

In the sounds m, n, ng, the breath passes through the nose, and they are called nasals.

Partially stopped sounds are termed Spirants, as, h, th, f, s, z, &c.; 1 and r are called Trills.

54. In comparing b and p &c., d and t &c., we shall find that b and d are pronounced with less effort than p and t; hence band d, &c. are said to be soft or flat, while p and t, &c. are called hard or sharp consonants.

j

56. Ch and j (in English) are compounds: ch = tsh (sure); d+zh (azure).

=

Zh and sh are connected with the palatals, while z and s are allied to the dental, or lingual series of sounds.

57. From this table of consonants we have omitted

(1) c; because it can be represented by k before a, o, u, and by s (in rice) before e, i, y.

(2) q; because it is equivalent to kw.

(3) x; because it is a compound of ks, as in fox.