A History of the English Language [1 ed.]

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6° 'b

A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

The Counties of England

A HISTORY OF THE

ENGLISH LANGUAGE

BY

ALBERT

C.

BAUGH

Professor of English, University of Pennsylvania

D.

APPLETON-CENTURY COMPANY INCORPORATED

New

York

London

Copyright, 1935, by D.

APPLETON-CENTURY COMPANY, All rights thereof,

This book,

reserved.

must not

be

reproduced

INC.

or parts

in

any

form without permission of the publisher. 412

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

PREFACE The

present book, intended primarily for college students, aims

to present the historical development of English in such a

preserve a proper balance between

history

—sounds

litical,

social,

what may be

—

way

as to

called internal

—

and inflections and external history, the poand intellectual forces that have determined the course of that development at different periods. The writer is convinced that the soundest basis for an understanding of present-day English and for an enlightened attitude toward questions affecting the language today is a knowledge of the path which it has pursued in becoming what it is. For this reason equal attention has been paid to its earlier and its later stages. The relation between the French and English languages in England in the period following the Norman Conquest has been treated in some detail and with rather full documentation, not only because the subject is one of great interest in itself but because it has so often been dealt with only in broad outline and unsupported generalization. The footnotes will be useful to him who wants them; to him

who

does not, they will be sufficiently harmless.

The chapter

bib-

liographies are intended as a guide to the scholarship on the subjects treated.

items

which

It is a

The discriminating

teacher can readily indicate those

will prove of value to the

more elementary student.

many obligations incurred To Mr. Kenneth Sisam and the

pleasure to acknowledge the

in the preparation of the

book.

Clarendon Press I owe the portraits of the editors of the New English Dictionary and permission to reproduce the portion of a specimen entry from that great work. To Mr. W. B. Briggs and the Harvard Library I am indebted for the photograph of the page from the Webster Spelling Book as well as for the privileges of the library so generously extended through various summers. Professor Norman E. McClure, of Ursinus College, furnished me with the transcript of the letter of John Chamberlain, soon to appear in his forthcoming edition of that most important of Elizabethan letter-writers. The late Professor Samuel Moore and Professor Sanford B. Meech sent me advance sheets of their study of Middle English dialect characteristics, prepared in connection with the new Middle English Dictionary now under way. Professor W. A. Read, of Louisiana

PREFACE

vi

State University, and Professor L. W. Payne, of the University of Texas, helped me with their special knowledge in establishing the boundary of Southern characteristics in Texas as shown on the map of the dialects of American English. I am indebted to Mr. Arnold K. Borden, research librarian at the University of Pennsylvania, for bibliographical assistance, and to the Faculty Committee on Research for two special grants. Several of my friends have had the kindness to read the book in proof: Professor W. F. Bryan, of Northwestern University, Professor Miles L. Hanley, of the University of Wisconsin, and Professor Kemp Malone, of the Johns Hopkins University. To them all I owe valuable criticism and suggestions. colleagues have been helpful in many ways. Professor P. V. D. Shelly and Professor Roland B. Kent read certain chapters in manuscript, Professor Harold S. Stine worked with me on the early Latin

My

and Dr. Ralph B. Allen has checked the proof. But above all I am indebted to my friend and teacher, Professor Clarence G. Child, not only for profound criticism of the book in manuscript and proof, but for a great part of my training and interest in things philological. Finally I should like to record the debt of influences,

gratitude

given at

which

I

all stages

owe

to

my

wife for her assistance so cheerfully

of the work.

TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER

I

ENGLISH PRESENT AND FUTURE of the English Language a Cultural Subject

1.

The History

at

Work on Language

—

3-

—

Growth and Decay

4.

—

Influences

2.

The Importance of a

— The Importance of English — The Future of the English — Will English Become a World Language? — Assets and Cosmopolitan Vocabulary — Liabilities — Grammatical Simplicity — Natural Gender — Liabilities. page 3 Language Language

6.

5-

7.

8.

10.

9.

12.

11.

.

CHAPTER

.

.

.

.

II

THE INDO-EUROPEAN FAMILY OF LANGUAGES

—

—

Constantly Changing 14. Dialectal Differentiation Law 16. Grimm's 17. The Indo15. The Discovery of Sanskrit 18. Indian 20. Armenian 19. Iranian 21. HelEuropean Family 22. Albanian 23. Italic 24. Balto-Slavic lenic 25. Teutonic 28. The Home of the Indo-Euro26. Celtic 27. Recent Discoveries pean Family page 19 13.

Language

—

—

—

—

— — — —

— —

—

CHAPTER

—

—

III

OLD ENGLISH

—

The Languages in England before English 30. The Romans in Brit32. Romanization of the Island 31. The Roman Conquest 34. The Teutonic Conquest 33- The Latin Language in Britain 36. The Names 'England' and 'English' 35- Anglo-Saxon Civilization 38. The Periods in the History 37. The Origin and Position of English of English 40. Some Characteristics 39. The Dialects of Old English of Old English 41. The Noun 42. Grammatical Gender 43- The Article Personal Pronoun Adjective 44. The Definite 45- The 46. The Verb 47. The Language Illustrated 48. The Resourcefulness of the Old English Vocabulary 50. Pre49. Self-explaining Compounds page 49 fixes and Suffixes 51. Old English Literature 29.

ain

—

—

—

— — — — —

—

—

— —

—

— — —

—

—

—

....

—

—

CONTENTS

viii

CHAPTER IV FOREIGN INFLUENCES ON OLD ENGLISH 52.

The Contact of English with Other Languages

—

—

—

53.

The

Celtic Influ-

— — — — —

Place-names 55- Other Celtic Loan-words 56. Three Latin Influences on Old English 57. Chronological Criteria 58. Continental Borrowing (Latin Influence of the Zero Period) 59. Latin through Celtic Transmission (Latin Influence of the First Period) 60. Latin Influence of the Second Period: The Christianizing of Britain 61. Effects on English Civilization 62. The Earlier Influence of Christianity on the Vocabulary 64. Its Influence on Eng63. The Benedictine Reform lish 66. The 65. The Application of Native Words to New Concepts Extent of the Influence 67. The Scandinavian Influence: The Viking Age 68. The Scandinavian Invasions of England 69. The Settlement of the Danes in England 70. The Amalgamation of the Two Races 71. The Relation of the Two Languages 72. The Tests of Borrowed Words 73- Scandinavian Place-names 74. The Earliest Borrowings 76. The Relation of 75- Scandinavian Loan-words and Their Character Borrowed and Native Words 78. Scandinavian Influ77. Form Words ence outside the Standard Speech 79. Effect on Grammar and Syntax 80. Period and Extent of the Influence page 86 ence

54. Celtic

—

—

— —

—

—

— —

—

—

—

—

—

— —

—

—

—

—

—

CHAPTER V THE NORMAN CONQUEST AND THE SUBJECTION OF ENGLISH

1066-1200

— — — — — Class — 86. Circumstances Promoting the Continued Use of French — English the French Literature at The Attitude toward English The Diffusion of French and Fusion of the Two Races — Court — Knowledge of English among the Upper Class — 92. KnowlEnglish — 81.

83. The Year 82. The Origin of Normandy The Norman Conquest 85- The Use of French by the Upper 84. The Norman Settlement

1066

88.

87.

90.

89.

91.

edge of French

among

the Middle Class

page 131

CHAPTER

VI

THE REESTABLISHMENT OF ENGLISH

— 94.

1200-1500

Sepof Normandy — — French Reinforcements — Growth of National Feeling — — the 99. English and French 98. French Cultural Ascendancy in Europe — Thirteenth Century — 100. Attempts to Arrest the Decline of French

93.

Changing Conditions

after 1200

The Loss

aration of the French and English Nobility 97. The Reaction against Foreigners and the

95-

96.

in

CONTENTS 101. Provincial Character of

War

— 103.

French

ix

— 102. The Hundred Years' — 104. General Adoption of English in the Law Courts —

England

in

The Rise of the Middle

—

Class

English in the Fourteenth Century 105. 106. English in the Schools 107. Increasing Ignorance of French in the Fifteenth Century 108. French as a Language of Culture and Fashion 109. The Use of English in Writing 110. Middle English Literature page 155

—

—

—

—

CHAPTER

VII

MIDDLE ENGLISH

—

111. Middle English a Period of Great Change 112. Decay of Inflectional 114. Adjective Endings 116. Verb 113. Noun 115- Pronoun 117. Losses among the Strong Verbs 118. Strong Verbs Which Became Weak 119. Survival of Strong Participles 120. Surviving Strong Verbs 121. Loss of Grammatical Gender 122. Grammatical Changes and the Norman Conquest 123. French Influence on the Vocabulary 124. Governmental and Administrative Words 125. Ecclesiastical Words -- 126. Law 128. Fashion, Meals, and Social 127. Army and Navy Life 129. Art, Learning, Medicine 130. Breadth of the French Influence 131. Anglo-Norman and Central French 132. Popular and Literary Borrowings 134. Assimila133- The Period of Greatest Influence tion 136. Differentiation in Meaning 135. Loss of Native Words 137. Curtailment of O. E. Processes of Derivation 138. Prefixes 139. Suffixes 141. The Language Still Eng140. Self-explaining Compounds lish 142. Latin Borrowings in Middle English 143. Aureate Terms 144. Synonyms at Three Levels 145- Words from the Low Countries 147. The Middle English 146. Dialectal Diversity of Middle English Dialects 149. The Importance of 148. The Rise of Standard English London English 151. Com150. The Spread of the London Standard plete Uniformity Still Unattained page 194

—

—

—

— —

—

— —

—

— —

—

—

— — —

—

—

—

CHAPTER

—

—

—

— — —

—

—

—

—

— — — — —

—

— —

—

VIII

THE RENAISSANCE,

1500-1650

the Modern Period — 153. Effect upon Gram— 154. The Problems of the Vernaculars — 155. The Struggle for Recognition — 156. The Problem of Orthography — 157. The Problem of Enrichment — 158. The Opposition to "Inkhorn" Terms — The Defense of Borrowing — Compromise — 161. Permanent Additions — 162. Adaptation — 163. Reintroductions and New Meanings — Rejected Words — Reinforcement through French — 166. Words from the Romance Languages — The Method of Introducing the New Words — Methods of InEnrichment from Native Sources — Dictionaries of Hard Words — 171. Naterpreting the New Words — 152.

Changing Conditions

in

mar and Vocabulary

160.

159.

164.

165-

167.

168.

169.

170.

x ture and Extent of the

CONTENTS Movement — 172. The

Movement

Illustrated in

— 173- Shakespeare's Pronunciation — 174. The Importance of Sound Changes — 175- From Old to Middle English — 176. From Middle English to Modern — 177. The Great Vowel Shift — 178. Weakening of Unaccented Vowels — 179. Grammatical Features — 180. The Noun — 181. The Adjective — 182. The Pronoun — 183. The Verb — 184. Usage and Idiom — 185- General Characteristics of the Period page 245

Shakespeare

.

.

CHAPTER IX THE APPEAL TO AUTHORITY, 186.

The Temper

of the Eighteenth Century

Attitude toward the Language

— 188.

1650-1800

— 187.

Ascertainment

Its

Reflection in the

— 189.

The Problem

— 190. The Desire to the Language — — 191. The Example of Italy and France 192. An English Academy — 193- Swift's Proposal, 1712 — 194. The Effect of Swift's Proposal — Substitutes' for an Academy — 195- Objection to an Academy — 196. 197. Johnson's Dictionary — 198. The Eighteenth Century Grammarians and Rhetoricians — 199. The Aims of the Grammarians — 200. The Beginnings of Prescriptive Grammar — 201. Methods of Approach — 202. The Doctrine of Usage — 203. Results — 204. Weakness of the Early Grammarians — 205. Attempts to Reform the Vocabulary — 206. Objection to Foreign Borrowings — 207. The Expansion of the British Empire — 208. Some Effects on the Language — 209. Development of Progressive Verb Forms —

of "Refining" the Language

210.

'Fix'

The Progressive Passive

page 313

CHAPTER X THE NINETEENTH CENTURY AND AFTER

— 212. The Growth of Science — — 214. The World War — 215- Lan213. Automobile, moving picture, radio guage as a Mirror of Progress — 216. Sources of the New Words: Borrowings — 217. Self-explaining Compounds — 218. Compounds formed from Greek and Latin Elements — 219. Prefixes and Suffixes — 220. Coinages — 221. Common Words from Proper Names — 222. Old Words with New Meanings — 223. The Influence of Journalism — 224. Changes of Meaning — 225. Slang — 226. Levels of Usage — 227. The Standard Speech — 228. English Dialects — 229. English the Colonies — 230. Spelling Re^ form — 231. English as an International Language — 232. Purist Efforts — — 233. The Society for Pure English — 234. The Oxford English Dictionary 235. Grammatical Tendencies — 236. Verb-adverb Combinations —237. A 211. Influences Affecting the

Language

in

Liberal Creed

.

page 366

CONTENTS

xi

CHAPTER XI THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE IN AMERICA of America — 239. The Thirteen Colonies — 240. The — 241. The Far West — 242. Uniformity of American English — 243- Archaic Features American English — 244. Early Changes in the Vocabulary — 245- National Consciousness — 246. Noah Webster and an American Language — 247. His Influence on American Spelling — 248. His Influence on American Pronunciation — 249. Pronunciation — 250. The American Dialects — 251. The Controversy over Americanisms — 252. The Purist Attitude — 253- Present Differentiation of Vocabulary — Interest in 254. American Words in General English — 255American English Good English? page 415 American English — 256. 238.

The Settlement

Middle

West

in

Scientific

Is

APPENDIX

I

SPECIMENS OF THE MIDDLE ENGLISH DIALECTS

APPENDIX

page 471

II

ENGLISH SPELLING

page 485

INDEX

page 495

LIST

OF MAPS Page

The Counties of England The Home of the English The Dialects of Old English The Dialects of Middle English The Dialects of American English

Frontispiece

.

55 63

235

447

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Facing Page

The Editors

of the

New

(Oxford) English Dictionary

William Bullokar's Books At Large (1580) Extract from the

New

English Dictionary

The American Spelling Book of

Noah Webster

xm

....

220 258

406 442

HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

PHONETIC SYMBOLS [«] [a]

i

n father

'

M

'

[«4

' '

[e] [i]

'

[i]

'

in play

French la

[00]

so

mat met mate

[01]

line

[an]

house

[01]

boy

[q] [»] [«] IS]

" sing " thin

sit '

[o]

[ei]

'

meat law note

[o]

'

[u]

•

book

[u]

•

boot

'

[

3

then

shoe azure

]

•

but

[a] '

[a] '

[y] ]

[ :

you

'

[J]

about German fur

enclose phonetic symbols and transcriptions.

after a

symbol indicates that the sound

In other than phonetic transcriptions

open vowels,

e

and

is

e

long.

and

g

indicate close vowels.

* denotes a hypothetical form.

>

denotes 'develops into',