June 11. 1853.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES: 



575- 



doned. AU the rest I hold to be mere rumours, 

 not countenanced by Mr. Fawcett or his family, 

 and not asserted by his biographers. H. B. C. 



U. U. Club. 



MYTHE VERSUS MYTH. 



(Vol.vii., p.326.) 



, Mr. Keightley's rule is only partially true, 

 and in the part which is true is not fully stated. 

 The following rules, qualified by the accompany- 

 ing remarks, will I trust be found substantially 

 correct. 



English monosyllables, formed from Greek or 

 Latin monosyllabic roots, 



OO When the root ends in a single consonant 

 preceded by a vowel, require the lengthening e. 



(2.) When the root ends in a single consonant 

 preceded by a diphthong, or in more than one 

 consonant preceded by a vowel, reject the e. 



1. Examples from the Greek : — o-xw""? scheme; 

 Kvp-a (lyr-a), lyre ; ^dvi] (zon-a), zon-e ; Pour-i^, 

 base ; <ppd(T-is, phras-e ; rpu-n-os, trop-e. From 

 Latin, ros-a, rps-e ; fin-is, _^K-e ; fum-us, y?/m-e ; 

 pur-US, pur-e ; grad-us, grad-e. Compare, in 

 verbs, ced-o, ced-e. 



Remarks. — This rule admits of a modification ; 

 e.g. M'e form from ^TjA-or zeal (the sound hardly 

 perceptibly differing from zel-e) ; from u>p-a (hor-a), 

 hour; from flos (flor-is),_^oM,'er and Jlour (the long 

 sound communicated to the vowel in the other 

 words by the added e, being in these already con- 

 tained in the diphthong). Add ven-a, vein; van-us, 

 vain; sol-um, .wil, &c.; and compare -ceej in p7'o- 

 ceed, succeed, formed from compounds of ced-o. 

 Some, but not all, of these words have come to us 

 through the French. 



2. Examples from the Greek : — ()edfj.-a, rheum; 

 xicrfi-a, chasm ; nvpp-a, mprrh ; ■y\u>a(r-a, gloss ; 

 vvfKp-T) (nymph-a), nymph ; S'ktk-os (disc-us), disk ; 

 irKlfd-os, plinth ; \pa\ij.-6s, psalm. From Latin, fraus 

 (fraud-is), /raM(i,- laus (laud-is), laud; plant-a, 



plant ; orb-is, orb ; plumb-um, plumb ; long-us, 

 lo7ig; flux-US, ^Mx ,- port-us, port. Compare, in 

 verbs, damn-o, damn ; err-o, err ; add-o, add ; 

 vex-o, vex. 



Remarks. — From roots ending in the same con- 

 sonant doubled, our derived words ordinarily drop 

 one of them; e.g. crT€fip.'a, stem; gemm-a, gem; 

 summ-a, sum; penn-a, pen; carr-us, car. (Note 

 this tendency of our language, by comparing our 

 man with the German mann.) 



If the root ends in 5 or i; preceded by a diph- 

 thong, or in a consonant +«* or -{-v preceded by 

 a vowel, our derived words add e, as irav<T-is 

 (paus-a), paus-e ; caus-a, caus-e ; naev-a, nav-e ; 

 puls-us, puls-e ; dens-us, dens-e ; a\p-ls, aps-e ; 



* Except a: ( = cs). Compare /aa-, wax, oa-. 



laps-us, laps-e ; vers-us, vers-e ; valv-a, valv-e ; 

 nerv-us, nerv-e.* The cause of tliis lies in the 

 genius of our language, which totally rejects the 

 ending v, and uses s (single) very sparingly in the 

 singular number, except in tlie ending oui, the- 

 genitive case, the third person of the present 

 tense, the obsolete wis, and v)as. Other words- 

 are, the interjection alas; pronouns or pronominal 

 particles ; proper names, as Thomas, Chaos ; com- 

 pounds, as Lammas, Christmas ; plural adverbs, as 

 towards, thereabouts; and the (perhaps) plural — 

 it ought to be so — alms.^ 



From roots ending in a mute -f « liquid, our 

 derived words also end in e, and are then in fact 

 dissyllables; e.g. pijSA-os, bible; kvk\-os, cycl-e ; 

 fiirp-a, mitr-e ; virp-uv, nitr-e ; trfrp-os, petr-e. In 

 this class of words the final letters (after the ana- 

 logy of Latin) have sometimes become transposed;- 

 e.g. \fTTp-6s, lep-er. So now-a-days, cent-er as well 

 as centr-e. Compare melr-e, diamet-er. 



To apply our rules to the words required to be- 

 formed in an English shape from fivd-os. 



Very few words in our language end in th which 

 are not of purely native growth. Frith is a ques- 

 tionable exception. Besides the monosyllable 

 plinth, we have imported from the Greek colo- 

 cynth, hyacinth, labyrinth, with the proper names- 

 Corinth, Ei-ymanth, all terminating in nth. 



In the ending the our language does not re- 

 joice. Most of such words are verbs, so distin- 

 guished from their cognate substantives, as wreathe 

 from wreath. We have, as substantives, lathe (A.- 

 S. lets), hythe (hy^), scythe (more properly sithe, 

 rifie), tythe (rytSe) ; as adjectives, blithe (l-h'St'), lithe 

 (lit!). There may be one or two more. 



In all these the sound is ^ {th in this) not J> (tk 

 in thick). This appears worth notice. 



On the whole, I should venture to say that so 

 uncouth a slip as mythe, when set in our soil, wa& 

 unlikely to thrive. Still myth is objectionable, 

 though we at Cambridge niiglit quote gyp. How- 

 ever I may seem to be a breaker of my own laws, 

 I suggest, if we must have an English form of the 

 word, that we should write and pronounce myth. 

 Several words ending in th have the preceding 

 vowel lengthened, e. g. both, sloth, ruth, truth 

 (though with the inconsistency attributed to us, 

 one, by the way, generally of orthography rather 

 than pronunciation, we shorten the di{)hihong in 

 breath, death). Compare also the sound of the 

 endings ?7rf and ind. 



I have already troubled you with a very long 

 Note ; but, before I close, allow me to add that 

 in what I have advanced I have had in view only 

 our modern mode of spelling, without binding my- 



* From serv-us (after the P'rench) we form serf. 



f Rebus, overplus, and surplus may, if not satisfied, 

 take an omnibu.s, hring their action at the Nisi Prius, 

 and meet there with a nonplus. 



