A Handbook of the English Language Part 32

In the Old High-German there are a mult.i.tude of diminutive forms in -el; as _ouga_ = _an eye_, _ougili_ = _a little eye_; _lied_ = _a song_, _liedel_ = _a little song_. This indicates the nature of words like _c.o.c.kerel_.

Even in English the diminutive power of -el can be traced in the following words:--

_Soare_ = a deer in its third year. _Sor-rel_--a deer in its second year.--See "Love's Labour Lost," with the note.

_Tiercel_ = a small sort of hawk, one-third less (_tierce_) than the common kind.

_Kantle_ = _small corner_, from _cant_ = _a corner_.--"Henry IV."

_Hurdle_; in Dutch _horde_; German, _hurde_. _Hording_, without the -l, is used in an allied sense by builders in English.

In the words in point we must a.s.sume an earlier form, _c.o.c.ker_ and _piker_, to which the diminutive form -el is affixed. If this be true, we have, in English, representatives of the diminutive form -el so common in the High Germanic dialects. _Wolfer_ = _a wolf_, _hunker_ = _a haunch_, _flitcher_ = _a flitch_, _teamer_ = _a team_, _fresher_ = _a frog_,--these are north country forms of the present English.

The termination -let, as in _streamlet_, seems to be double, and to consist of the Gothic diminutive -l, and the French diminutive -t.

-- 271. _Augmentatives._--Compared with _capello_ = _a hat_, the Italian word _capellone_ = _a great hat_, is an augmentative. The augmentative forms, pre-eminently common in the Italian language, often carry with them a depreciating sense.

The termination -rd (in Old High German, -hart), as in _drunkard_, _braggart_, _laggard_, _stinkard_, carries with it this idea of depreciation. In _buzzard_, and _reynard_, the name of the fox, it is simply augmentative. In _wizard_, from _witch_, it has the power of a masculine form.

The termination -rd, taken from the Gothic, appears in the modern languages of cla.s.sical origin: French, _vieillard_; Spanish, _codardo_. From these we get, at secondhand, the word _coward_.

The word _sweetheart_ is a derived word of this sort, rather than a compound word; since in Old High German and Middle High German, we have the corresponding form _liebhart_. Now the form for _heart_ is in German not _hart_, but _herz_.

Words like _braggadocio_, _trombone_, _balloon_, being words of foreign origin, prove nothing as to the further existence of augmentative forms in English.

-- 272.--_Patronymics._--In the Greek language the notion of _lineal descent_, in other words, the relation of the son to the father, is expressed by a particular termination; as ???e?? (_Peleus_), ???e?d??

(_Peleidaes_), the son of Peleus. It is very evident that this mode of expression is very different from either the English form _Johnson_ = _the son of John_, or the Gaelic _MacDonald_ = _the son of Donald_. In these last-named words, the words _son_ and _Mac_ mean the same thing; so that _Johnson_ and _MacDonald_ are not _derived_ but _compound_ words. This Greek way of expressing descent is peculiar, and the words wherein it occurs are cla.s.sed together by the peculiar name _patronymic_; from _pataer_ = _a father_, and _onoma_ = _a name_.

Is there anything in English corresponding to the Greek patronymics?

Not in the _present_ English? There was, however, in the Anglo-Saxon.

In the Anglo-Saxon, the termination -ing is as truly patronymic as -?d?? in Greek. In the Bible-translation the _son of Elisha_ is called _Elising_. In the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle occur such genealogies as the following:--_Ida waes Eopping_, _Eoppa Esing_, _Esa Inging_, _Inga Angenviting_, _Angenvit Alocing_, _Aloc Beonocing_, _Beonoc Branding_, _Brand Baeldaeging_, _Baeldaeg Vodening_, _Voden Friowulfing_, _Friowulf Finning_, _Finn G.o.dwulfing_, _G.o.dwulf Geating_ = Ida was the son of Eoppa, Eoppa of Esa, Esa of Inga, Inga of Angenvit, Angenvit of Aloc, Aloc of Beonoc, Beonoc of Brand, Brand of Baeldaeg, Baeldaeg of Woden, Woden of Friowulf, Friowulf of Finn, Finn of G.o.dwulf, G.o.dwulf of Geat.--In Greek, ?da ?? ??ppe?d??, ??ppa ?se?d??, ?sa ???e?d??, ???a ???e?f?te?d??, &c. In the plural number these forms denote the _race of_; as _Scyldingas_ = _the Scyldings_, or the race of _Scyld_, &c. Edgar Atheling means Edgar of the race of the n.o.bles.

CHAPTER XVI.

GENTILE FORMS.

-- 273. The only word in the present English that requires explanation is the name of the princ.i.p.ality _Wales_.

1. The form is _plural_, however much the meaning may be _singular_; so that the -s in _Wale-s_ is the -s in _fathers_, &c.

2. It has grown out of the Anglo-Saxon from _wealhas_ = _foreigners_, from _wealh_ = _a foreigner_, the name by which the Welsh are spoken of by the Germans of England, just as the Italians are called Welsh by the Germans of Germany; and just as _wal-nuts_ = _foreign nuts_, or _nuces Galliae_.

_Welsh_ = _weall-isc_ = _foreign_, and is a derived adjective.

3. The transfer of the name of the _people_ inhabiting a certain country to the _country_ so inhabited, was one of the commonest processes in both Anglo-Saxon and Old English.

CHAPTER XVII.

ON THE CONNEXION BETWEEN THE NOUN AND VERB, AND ON THE INFLECTION OF THE INFINITIVE MOOD.

-- 274. In order to understand clearly the use of the so-called infinitive mood in English, it is necessary to bear in mind two facts, one a matter of _logic_, the other a matter of _history_.

In the way of _logic_, the difference between a noun and a verb is less marked than it is in the way of _grammar_.

Grammatically, the contrast is considerable. The inflection of nouns expresses the ideas of s.e.x as denoted by gender, and of relation in place as denoted by cases. That of verbs rarely expresses s.e.x, and never relations in place. On the other hand, however, it expresses what no noun ever does or can express; e.g., the relation of the agency to the individual speaking, by means of _person_; the time in which acts take place, by means of _tense_; and the conditions of their occurrence, by means of _mood_.

The idea of _number_ is the only one that, on a superficial view, is common to these two important parts of speech.

-- 275. Logically, however, the contrast is inconsiderable. A noun denotes an object of which either the senses or the intellect can take cognizance, and a verb does no more. _To move_ = _motion_, _to rise_ = _rising_, _to err_ = _error_, _to forgive_ = _forgiveness_. The only difference between the two parts of speech is this, that, whereas a noun may express any object whatever, verbs can only express those objects which consist in an action. And it is this superadded idea of action that superadds to the verb the phenomena of tense, mood, person, and voice; in other words, the phenomena of conjugation.

-- 276. A noun is a word capable of _declension_ only. A verb is a word capable of declension and _conjugation_ also. The fact of verbs being declined as well as conjugated must be remembered. _The participle has the declension of a noun adjective, the infinitive mood the declension of a noun substantive. Gerunds and supines, in languages where they occur, are only names for certain cases of the verb._

-- 277. Although in all languages the verb is equally capable of declension, it is not equally declined. The Greeks, for instance, used forms like

t? f???e?? = _invidia_.

t?? f???e?? = _invidiae_.

?? t? f???e?? = _in invidia_.

-- 278. Returning, however, to the ill.u.s.tration of the substantival character of the so-called infinitive mood, we may easily see--

a. That the name of any action may be used without any mention of the agent. Thus, we may speak of the simple fact of _walking_ or _moving_, independently of any specification of the _walker_ or _mover_.

. That, when actions are spoken of thus indefinitely, the idea of either person or number has no place in the conception; from which it follows that the so-called infinitive mood must be at once impersonal, and without the distinction of singular, dual, and plural.

?. That, nevertheless, the ideas of time and relation in s.p.a.ce _have_ place in the conception. We can think of a person being _in the act of striking a blow_, of his _having been in the act of striking a blow_, or of his _being about to be in the act of striking a blow_. We can also think of a person being _in the act of doing a good action_, or of his being _from the act of doing a good action_.

-- 279. This has been written to show that verbs of languages in general are as naturally declinable as nouns. What follows will show that the verbs of the Gothic languages in particular were actually declined, and that fragments of this declension remain in the present English.

The inflection of the verb in its impersonal (or infinitive state) consisted, in its fullest form, of three cases, a nominative (or accusative), a dative, and a genitive. The genitive is put last, because its occurrence in the Gothic languages is the least constant.

In Anglo-Saxon the nominative (or accusative) ended in -an, with a single n.

Lufian = _to love_ = _amare_.

Baernan = _to burn_ = _urere_.

Syllan = _to give_ = _dare_.

In Anglo-Saxon the dative of the infinitive verb ended in -nne, and was preceded by the preposition _to_.

To lufienne = _ad amandum_.

To baernenne = _ad urendum_.

To syllanne = _ad dandum_.