PART VII.
Reading edition
THE DIALECTS OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.
§ 541. Certain parts of England are named as if their population were preeminently Saxon rather than Angle; viz., Wes-sex ( = West Saxons), Es-sex ( = East Saxons), Sus-sex ( = South Saxons), and Middle-sex, ( = Middle Saxons).
Others are named as if their population were preeminently Angle rather than Saxon; thus, the counties of Norfolk and Suffolk once constituted the kingdom of the East Angles, and even at the present moment, are often spoken of as East Anglia.
§ 542. It is safe to say that the dialects of the English language do not coincide with the distribution of these terms. That parts of the Angle differ from parts of the Saxon districts in respect to the character of their provincialisms is true; but it is by no means evident that they differ on that account.
Thus, that the dialect of Hampshire, which was part of Wes-sex, should differ from that of Norfolk, which was part of East Anglia, is but natural. There is a great space of country between them—a fact sufficient to account for their respective characteristics, without assuming an original difference of population. Between the Saxons of Es-sex and the Anglians of Suffolk, no one has professed to find any notable difference.
Hence, no division of the English dialects into those of Saxon or those of Angle origin, has been successful.
Neither have any peculiarities in the dialect of Kent, or the Isle of Wight, verified the notion of the population for those parts having been originally Jute.
Nor yet has any portion of England been shown by the evidence of its dialects, to have been Frisian.
§ 543. Yet the solution of such problems is one of the great objects of the study of provincial modes of speech.
§ 544. That Jute characteristics will be sought in vain is the inference from §§ 7-13.
That differential points between the Angles and Saxons will be sought in vain is also probable.
On the other hand, differential points between the Frisians and Angles are likely to be discovered.
§ 545. The traces of the Danes, or Northmen, are distinct; the following forms of local names being primâ facie evidence (at least) of Danish or Norse occupancy.
a. The combination Sk-, rather than the sound of Sh-, in such names as Skip-ton, rather than Ship-ton.
b. The combination Ca-, rather than Ch-, in such names as Carl-ton rather than Charl-ton.
c. The termination -by ( = town, habitation, occupancy,) rather than -ton, as Ash-by, Demble-by, Spills-by, Grims-by, &c.
d. The form Kirk rather than Church.
e. The form Orm rather than Worm, as in Orms-head.
In Orms-kirk and Kir-by we have a combination of Danish characteristics.
§ 546. In respect to their distribution, the Danish forms are—
At their maximum on the sea-coast of Lincolnshire; i.e., in the parts about Spills-by.
Common, but less frequent, in Yorkshire, the Northern counties of England, the South-eastern parts of Scotland, Lancashire, (Ormskirk, Horn-by), and parts of South Wales (Orms-head, Ten-by).
In Orkney, and the northern parts of Scotland, the Norse had originally the same influence that the Anglo-Saxon had in the south.—See the chapter of the Lowland Scotch.
This explains the peculiar distribution of the Norse forms. Rare, or non-existent, in central and southern England, they appear on the opposite sides of the island, and on its northern extremity; showing that the stream of the Norse population went round the island rather than across it.
§ 547. Next to the search after traces of the original differences in the speech of the Continental invaders of Great Britain, the question as to the origin of the written language of England is the most important.
Mr. Guest has given good reasons for believing it to have arisen out of a Mercian, rather than a West-Saxon dialect—although of the Anglo-Saxon the West-Saxon was the most cultivated form.
This is confirmed by the present state of the Mercian dialects.
The country about Huntingdon and Stamford is, in the mind of the present writer, that part of England where provincial peculiarities are at the minimum. This may be explained in various ways, of which none is preferable to the doctrine, that the dialect for those parts represents the dialect out of which the literary language of England became developed.
Such are the chief problems connected with the study of the provincial dialects of England; the exhibition of the methods applicable to their investigation not being considered necessary in a work like the present.
NOTE.
That Saxon was the British name of the Germanic invaders of Great Britain is certain.—See § 45.
The reasons which induce me to consider it as exclusively British, i.e., as foreign to the Angles, are as follows,—
a. No clear distinction has ever been drawn between, e.g., an Angle of Suffolk, and a Saxon of Essex.
b. The Romans who knew, for some parts at least, every inch of the land occupied by the Saxons of Germany, as long as there is reason for believing that they took their names from German sources, never use the word. It is strange to Cæsar, Strabo, Pliny, and Tacitus. Ptolemy is the first who uses it.
QUESTIONS ON PARTS IV. V. VI. and VII.
Part IV.
1. What is Johnson's explanation of the word Etymology? Into what varieties does the study fall? What is the difference between Etymology and Syntax?
2. How far are the following words instances of gender—boy, he-goat, actress, which? Analyze the forms what, her, its, vixen, spinster, gander, drake.
3. How far is there a dual number in the Gothic tongues? What is the rule for forming such a plural as stags from stag? What are the peculiarities in monarchs, cargoes, keys, pence, geese, children, women, houses, paths, leaves? Of what number are the words alms, physics, news, riches?
4. To what extent have we in English a dative, an accusative, and instrumental case? Disprove the doctrine that the genitive in -s (the father's son) is formed out of the combination father his.
5. Decline me, thee, and ye.
6. How far is there a true reflective pronoun in English?
7. What were the original powers and forms of she, her, it? What case is him? What is the power and origin of the in such expressions as all the more? Decline he in Anglo-Saxon. Investigate the forms these and those, whose, what, whom, which, myself, himself, herself, such, every.
8. What is the power (real or supposed) of the -er in over, and in either?
9. What words in the present English are explained by the following forms—sutiza in Mœso-Gothic, and scearpor, neah, yldre, in Anglo-Saxon? Explain the forms, better, worse, more, less.
10. Analyze the words former, next, upmost, thirty, streamlet, sweetheart, duckling.
11. Translate Ida wæs Eopping. Analyze the word Wales.
12. Exhibit the extent to which the noun partakes of the character of the verb, and vice versâ. What were the Anglo-Saxon forms of, I can call, I begin to call?
13. Investigate the forms, drench, raise, use (the verb), clothe.
14. Thou speakest. What is the peculiarity of the form? We loven, we love, account for this.
15. Thou rannest = (tu cucurristi). Is this an unexceptionable form? if not, why?
16. What are the moods in English? What the tenses? How far is the division of verbs into weak and strong tenses natural? Account for the double forms swam and swum. Enumerate the other verbs in the same class. Explain the forms taught, wrought, ought, did, (from do = facio), did (from do = valeo), minded.
17. Define the term irregular, so as to raise the number of irregular verbs, in English, to more than a hundred. Define the same term, so as to reduce them to none. Explain the form could.
18. What is the construction of meseems and methinks? Illustrate the future power of be. Werden in German means become—in what form does the word appear in English?
19. To err is human,—the rising in the North. Explain these constructions. Account for the second -r in forlorn; and for the y in ycleped.
20. Explain the difference between composite and de-composite words, true and improper compounds. Analyze the word nightingale.
21. How far are adverbs inflected? Distinguish between a preposition and a conjunction.
22. Explain the forms there, thence, yonder, and anon.
23. What part of speech is mine?
24. What is the probable origin of the -d in such preterites as call-ed.
Part V.
1. Explain the terms Syntax, Ellipsis, Pleonasm, Zeugma, Pros to semainomenon, Apposition, and Convertibility, giving illustrations of each.
2. What is the government of adjectives?
3. What is the construction in—
a. Rob me the Exchequer.—Shakspeare. b. Mount ye on horseback. c. His mother. d. If the salt have lost his savour. e. Myself is weak. f. This is mine.
4. What are the concords between the relative and antecedent? How far is, whom do they say that I am, an exceptionable expression?
5. Eteocles and Polynices killed each other. What is the construction here? Ils se battaient, l'un l'autre—Ils se battaient, les uns les autres. Translate these two sentences into English. My wife and little ones are well. What is the origin of the word ones here? It was those who spoke. These was those who spoke. Why is one of those expressions correct, and the other incorrect?
6. What is the difference between—
The secretary and treasurer, and The secretary and the treasurer?
What is that between—
The first two— and The two first?
7. What is the construction of—
He sleeps the sleep of the righteous?
8. Whether do you say—It is I your master who command you, or It is I your master who commands you!
9. Barbican it hight. Translate this into Latin.
10. Explain in full the following constructions—
a. I have ridden a horse. b. I am to blame. c. I am beaten. d. A part of the body. e. All fled but John.
11. What is meant by the Succession of Tenses? Show the logical necessity of it.
12. Or hear'st thou rather pure ethereal stream, Whose fountain who can tell?—Milton.
Give the meaning of this passage, and explain the figure of speech exhibited in the words in Italics.
13. The door being open the steed was stolen.—In what case is door?
Part VI.
1. The way was long, the wind was cold. Express the metre of this symbolically.
2. Define rhyme.
3. Give instances of Service metre, Blank heroics, Alexandrines.
Part VII.
1. How far do the present dialects of England coincide with the parts, that took their names from the Angles and the Saxons respectively.
2. What traces of Danish or Norse occupancy do we find in local names?