THE GROWTH OF A LANGUAGE 345 



with. For the former no reason can be given. For example, " afeard " 

 is a more logical form than " afraid " because of its evident connec- 

 tion with fear, but it is no longer considered fit company for re- 

 fined society. The history of " astun," " astony," " stun," " aston- 

 ish," affords another instructive example. " Climbed " and " heated " 

 have taken the place of " clomb " and " het," although they are 

 longer and more expressive. Generally speaking those words that 

 are the most used are the most irregular. Our verb of existence 

 — am, was, been — is made up of three different stems. Our gram- 

 matical auxiliaries are very defective; the missing parts have to be 

 supplied in various ways. We say " I must " for the present, but 

 we can not say " I musted " for the preterit, nor is there such a verb 

 in English as " to must " although it is found in the Anglo-Saxon. 

 " Might " is usually classed as the preterit of " may," but in many of 

 its uses it is not. In all the languages of the Aryan stock, and in their 

 descendants, we find the same lack of parts and the same alien substi- 

 tutions. The changes that have taken place within the historic period 

 are just as difficult, in fact just as impossible, to account for as the 

 earlier ones. If languages were constructed according to any system, 

 or even according to the most elementary principles of common sense, 

 they would differ widely from their present status. It may be said in 

 passing that some of the languages of the Turanian stock, notably the 

 Turkish, are to a considerable extent symmetrically built. It used to 

 be said that many words have been modified in obedience to the general 

 law that tends to ease of utterance; but this explanation is no longer 

 accepted. If such a law was ever operative an inexplicable break in the 

 continuity of the human psyche must have taken place at some remote 

 period in the past. Such a break would be at variance with the well- 

 established course of development. It seems probable that human 

 speech originated at three or more points on the surface of the earth. 

 As long as these primitive tongues were left to develop according to 

 their innate laws the process was consistent, if not logical. But when 

 two or more of these original stocks came into conflict, each party trying 

 in its clumsy way to acquire the speech of the other, confusion set in. 

 If ten crassly illiterate Frenchmen and ten equally illiterate Hunga- 

 rians were placed together where they would be compelled to communi- 

 cate with each other we may be sure that in two or three generations 

 a language would be produced differing widely from either parent. We 

 have practical examples in the mixture of Norman French and Anglo- 

 Saxon, of Iberian with Latin, and elsewhere, although these instances 

 are not precisely such as I have supposed above. 



As the Oxford dictionary is about four sevenths completed, the 

 entire work will include more than 350,000 words. It is claimed 

 by the publishers of the Standard Dictionary that the latest edition 



vol. lxxvi. — 24. 



