A Handbook of the English Language Part 62

The country about Huntingdon and Stamford is, in the mind of the present writer, that part of England where provincial peculiarities are at the _minimum_. This may be explained in various ways, of which none is preferable to the doctrine, that the dialect for those parts represents the dialect out of which the literary language of England became developed.

Such are the chief problems connected with the study of the provincial dialects of England; the exhibition of the methods applicable to their investigation not being considered necessary in a work like the present.

NOTE.

That _Saxon_ was the _British_ name of the Germanic invaders of Great Britain is certain.--See -- 45.

The reasons which induce me to consider it as _exclusively_ British, i.e., as foreign to the Angles, are as follows,--

a. No clear distinction has ever been drawn between, e.g., an _Angle_ of Suffolk, and a _Saxon_ of Ess.e.x.

b. The Romans who knew, for some parts at least, every inch of the land occupied by the Saxons of Germany, as long as there is reason for believing that they took their names from German sources, never use the word. It is strange to Caesar, Strabo, Pliny, and Tacitus. Ptolemy is the first who uses it.

c. Ecbert, who is said to have attached the name of _Engl_and, or Land of _Angles_, to South Britain, was, himself, no _Angle_, but a West-Saxon.[66]

QUESTIONS ON PARTS IV. V. VI. and VII.

PART IV.

1. What is Johnson's explanation of the word _Etymology_? Into what varieties does the study fall? What is the difference between _Etymology_ and _Syntax_?

2. How far are the following words instances of gender--_boy_, _he-goat_, _actress_, _which_? a.n.a.lyze the forms _what_, _her_, _its_, _vixen_, _spinster_, _gander_, _drake_.

3. How far is there a dual number in the Gothic tongues? What is the rule for forming such a plural as _stags_ from _stag_? What are the peculiarities in _monarchs_, _cargoes_, _keys_, _pence_, _geese_, _children_, _women_, _houses_, _paths_, _leaves_? Of what number are the words _alms_, _physics_, _news_, _riches_?

4. To what extent have we in English a dative, an accusative, and instrumental case? Disprove the doctrine that the genitive in -s (_the father's son_) is formed out of the combination _father his_.

5. Decline _me_, _thee_, and _ye_.

6. How far is there a true reflective p.r.o.noun in English?

7. What were the original powers and forms of _she_, _her_, _it_? What case is _him_? What is the power and origin of _the_ in such expressions as _all the more_? Decline _he_ in Anglo-Saxon. Investigate the forms _these_ and _those_, _whose_, _what_, _whom_, _which_, _myself_, _himself_, _herself_, _such_, _every_.

8. What is the power (real or supposed) of the -er in _over_, and in _either_?

9. What words in the present English are explained by the following forms--_sutiza_ in Mso-Gothic, and _scearpor_, _neah_, _yldre_, in Anglo-Saxon? Explain the forms, _better_, _worse_, _more_, _less_.

10. a.n.a.lyze the words _former_, _next_, _upmost_, _thirty_, _streamlet_, _sweetheart_, _duckling_.

11. Translate _Ida waes Eopping_. a.n.a.lyze the word _Wales_.

12. Exhibit the extent to which the noun partakes of the character of the verb, and _vice versa_. What were the Anglo-Saxon forms of, _I can call_, _I begin to call_?

13. Investigate the forms, _drench_, _raise_, _use_ (the verb), _clothe_.

14. _Thou speakest_. What is the peculiarity of the form? _We loven_, _we love_, account for this.

15. _Thou rannest_ = (_tu cucurristi_). Is this an unexceptionable form? if not, why?

16. What are the _moods_ in English? What the _tenses_? How far is the division of verbs into weak and strong tenses natural? Account for the double forms _swam_ and _swum_. Enumerate the other verbs in the same cla.s.s. Explain the forms _taught_, _wrought_, _ought_, _did_, (from _do_ = _facio_), _did_ (from _do_ = _valeo_), _minded_.

17. Define the term _irregular_, so as to raise the number of irregular verbs, in English, to more than a hundred. Define the same term, so as to reduce them to none. Explain the form _could_.

18. What is the construction of _meseems_ and _methinks_? Ill.u.s.trate the _future_ power of be. _Werden_ in German means _become_--in what form does the word appear in English?

19. _To err is human_,--_the rising_ in the North. Explain these constructions. Account for the second -r in _forlorn_; and for the y in y_cleped_.

20. Explain the difference between _composite_ and _de-composite_ words, _true_ and _improper compounds_. a.n.a.lyze the word _nightingale_.

21. How far are adverbs inflected? Distinguish between a _preposition_ and a _conjunction_.

22. Explain the forms _there_, _thence_, _yonder_, and _anon_.

23. What part of speech is _mine_?

24. What is the probable origin of the -d in such preterites as call-ed.

PART V.

1. Explain the terms _Syntax_, _Ellipsis_, _Pleonasm_, _Zeugma_, _Pros to semainomenon_, _Apposition_, and _Convertibility_, giving ill.u.s.trations of each.

2. What is the government of adjectives?

3. What is the construction in--

a. Rob _me_ the Exchequer.--SHAKSPEARE.

b. Mount _ye_ on horseback.

c. _His_ mother.

d. If the salt have lost _his_ savour.

e. Myself _is_ weak.

f. This is _mine_.

4. What are the concords between the relative and antecedent? How far is, _whom_ do they say that I am, an exceptionable expression?

5. _Eteocles and Polynices killed each other._ What is the construction here? _Ils se battaient, l'un l'autre_--_Ils se battaient, les uns les autres._ Translate these two sentences into English. _My wife and little ones are well._ What is the origin of the word _ones_ here? _It _was_ those who spoke_. _These _was_ those who spoke_. Why is one of those expressions correct, and the other incorrect?

6. What is the difference between--

_The_ secretary and treasurer, and _The_ secretary and _the_ treasurer?

What is that between--

The first two-- and The two first?

7. What is the construction of--