19G 



♦ KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



[July 2, 1888. 



them as likely to be of use to his kiudred. It was from the same 

 nether country that he likewise obiained bj- craft and falsehood the 

 strong drink that was to cheer man, to give him the dreams of poets 

 and the visions of prophets. These and otlier boons, too many to 

 name one by one, made him very famous and beloved, more so in 

 some lands than even the king of the gods himself. 



ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION. 



i,T first sight it seems strange that the pro- 

 nunciation of English, though diverse both 

 in America and in England, is more diverse 

 in the old home of the language than in the 

 new. But so soon as we recognise why this 

 is, and why even in Scotland and Ireland 

 peculiaiities of pronunciation are retained 

 which have long since been lost in England, we perceive 

 that in past ages English in England must have been even 

 more diverse than it is now, and must have tended to change 

 more rapidly. The circumstances which, while encouraging 

 the growth of a language, tend to uniformity of usage — as 

 constant and ready intercommunication, widely read litera- 

 ture, and the like — were almost wholly wanting when our 

 language was young ; nor was the necessity apparent in any 

 of the earlier English communities for such care in teaching 

 as might prevent unduly rapid changes. 



Those who remember England as it was but a generation 

 ago will see that there has been even in that time a marked 

 advance towards uniformity. The English of Northumber- 

 land was distinct from that of Yorkshire, and neither was 

 like the English of Cumberland or Lancashire. The midland 

 counties had various dialects ; while the dialects of Dorset- 

 shire, of Wiltshire, or of Devon were not only diSercnt from 

 any used in the midland or northern counties, but differed 

 widely Inter se. In places remote from considerable towns 

 the language spoken was almost as difficult to understand 

 as Dutch or Frisian. 



That in long past times '• English as she was spoke " in 

 different places was various and variable is showm also by 

 the language as it was written. Bishop Edfrid, about the 

 year 700, began the Lord's Prayer thus : 



Uren. fader tJiic arth it- Jienfnas, sic gekalgnd thin noma; so 

 cijmcth thill ric ; sic thin n-ill a sue in hcofnas and in eortlis. 



Only two centuries later the same part of the prayer was 

 thus rendered : 



Thue vr fadiT the eart on hcofrnnm ; si thin nama gehalgod cunie ; 

 thin rice [■' c " hard] ; si thin willa on carthan siva sieo on heofcnum. 



We may be sure it was not diflFerence in time only, but 

 difference in dialect which caused this difference of form. 

 Indeed some of the words in the more recent rendering are 

 older in form than those in the earlier. 



About the year 1160, Adrian, our only English Pope, 

 rendered the same part of the Lord's Prayer in the following 

 poetic form, probably the earliest rh^-mcd poetry in the 

 language : — 



J'refailcf in hsarcn rieh * (ricli = kingdom), 



Thif name he halytd crer!ic/i. 



Than tiring iis thy michcU hlisse ; 



Ah hit in hiaren y doc, 



£i'ar in ycarth hccn it alsoc. 



(Observe the looseness of his Holiness's aspirates, as shown 

 in " hit " and " it.") 



In 1,'537 the Lord's Prayer, as printed for gener.il use, 

 began thus : — 



cure Father which arte in heven, hallowed he thy name : let 

 thy kingdom come, thy will be fulfilled as well in erth as it is in 

 heven, etc. 



• " Ch " hard and guttural throughout. 



We see here most striking evidence of the influence of 

 printing in preventing the rapid change of a language, and 

 in smoothing down diversities already existing. For while 

 the earlier forms of the same sentences might have been in 

 (liff'erent languages, so diverse are they, we find in 1.337 a 

 form which differs only in .spelling from the language of 

 to-day. (I doubt whether the " e " in " oure " and " arte " 

 was sounded in the sixteenth century, though it certainly 

 had been in the fourteenth. Probably it was a mere 

 survival in spelUng, like the final " e " in " were,'' " are," 

 kc. 



But on this question of diversity of dialect in the past 

 as at the present time in England, we have curious 

 evidence in an address, written a.d. 13S.5, on this very 

 subject : — 



As it is knowe how meny manor peple beeth in this lond, ther 

 beeth also so many dyvers longages and tonges. Natheless 

 Walschemen and Scots that beeth nought medled wi^h other 

 nation, holdeth wel nyh hir firste longage and speche ; but yit the 

 Scottes, that were sometime confederate and woned with tlie I'ictes, 

 drawe somewhat after hir speche ; but the Flemynges, that woneth 

 on the west side of Wales, havelh lost her strange spech, and 

 speketh Se.xonliche now. Also Englishemen, they had from the 

 begynnynge thre maner speche ; northerne, soatherne, and middel 

 speclie in the middel of tlie lond, as they come of thre maner of 

 peple of Germania ; notheles9 by commystion and mellynge, first 

 with Danes and afterwards with Normans, in meny the oontry 

 longage is apayred (_corriij)tcd). 



This ancient writer, whose very name has been forgotten 

 (I have quoted fi-om Dr. Hicks, of the last century, verbatim 

 et literatim, except that he has ''contrary" where I have 

 written " contry "), proceeds then to inquire into the cause 

 of this diversity. Strangely enough, he dwells on a point 

 which I shall presently have occasion to consider — the cir- 

 cumstance that a foreign language changes little within ,a 

 country where it is foreign, while the native tongue varies 

 greatly :— 



Hit seemeth a greet wonder how Englischemen and her own 

 longage and tonge is so dyverse of sown in this oon Hand, and the 

 longage of Normandie is comlynge of another lond, and hath oon 

 maner of soun amongo alle men that speketh hit aright in 

 Enoelond. Also of the aforesaid Saxon tonge that is deled 

 {dirided) a three, and is abide scirceliche with few uplondissche 

 men, is greet wonder. For men of the est, with men of the west, 

 is, as it were, under the same partie of hevene accordeth more (our 

 author's grammar seems slightly mixed here, at an.v rate his mean- 

 ing is not clear) in sownynge of speche than men of tlie north with 

 men of the south. Therefore it is tli.it Mercii, that beeth men of 

 myddel Englelond, as it were, parteners of the endes, understandeth 

 bettre the side londes, noitherne and southerne, than northerne and 

 southerne understondeth either other. 



He adds some special remarks about the " maneres of 

 speche " in diff'erent parts of the island which might bo 

 worth quoting in full if he had used " longage " we could 

 understand. But probably the following specimen will 

 suffice : — 



All the longage of the Northumbors, and speohialliche at York, is 

 so scharp, flitting,* and frotynge, and unsch.ape, that we southerne 

 men may tliat longage unnethe understonde 



any more perhaps than we nineteenth -century men cm 

 " understonde " what sort of a " longage" our author would 

 indicate by such " very bitter words " as " frotj-nge " and 

 " unschape," or even by the more fomiliar " scharp " and 

 " flitting." 



Although this evidence as to the constant changes which 

 our language has undergone, and as to the diversity of 

 form and sound which it has presented in the ])ast, even 

 more markedly than at the present time, may prevent us 

 from expecting to discover what was the English spoken in 



* In my copy the word reads "slitting." It seems clear, how- 

 ever, that the original word was " flitting." 



