Anglo-Saxon Britain Part 8

Verbs are conjugated about as fully as in Latin. There are two princ.i.p.al forms: strong verbs, which form their preterite by vowel modification, as _binde_, pret. _band_; and weak verbs, which form it by the addition of _ode_ or _de_ to the root, as _lufige_, pret. _lufode_; _hire_, pret.

_hirde_. The present and preterite of the first form are as follows:

IND. SUBJ.

_Pres. sing._ 1. binde. binde.

2. bindest. binde.

3. bindeth. binde.

_plur._ 1, 2, 3. bindath. binden.

_Pret. sing._ 1. band. bunde.

2. bunde. bunde.

3. band. bunde.

_plur._ 1, 2, 3. bundon. bunden.

Both the grammatical forms and still more the orthography vary much from time to time, from place to place, and even from writer to writer. The forms used in this work are for the most part those employed by West Saxons in the age of aelfred.

A few examples of the language as written at three periods will enable the reader to form some idea of its relation to the existing type. The first pa.s.sage cited is from King aelfred's translation of Orosius; but it consists of the opening lines of a paragraph inserted by the king himself from his own materials, and so affords an excellent ill.u.s.tration of his style in original English prose. The reader is recommended to compare it word for word with the parallel slightly modernised version, bearing in mind the inflexional terminations.

Ohthere saede his hlaforde, | Othhere said [to] his lord, aelfrede cyninge, thaet he | aelfred king, that he of all ealra Northmonna northmest | Northmen northmost abode.

bude. He cwaeth thaet he | He quoth that he abode bude on thaem lande northweardum | on the land northward against with tha West-sae. | the West Sea. He said, He saede theah thaet thaet land | though, that that land was sie swithe lang north thonan; | [or extended] much north ac hit is eall weste, buton on | thence; eke it is all waste, feawum stowum styccemaelum | but [except that] on few stows wiciath Finnas, on huntothe | [in a few places] piecemeal on wintra, and on sumera on | dwelleth Finns, on hunting on fiscathe be thaere sae. He | winter, and on summer on saede thaet he aet sumum cirre | fishing by the sea. He said wolde fandian hu longe thaet | that he at some time [on one land northryhte laege, oththe | occasion] would seek how long hwaether aenig monn be northan | that land lay northright [due thaem westenne bude. Tha | north], or whether any man by for he northryhte be thaem | north of the waste abode.

lande: let him ealne weg | Then fore [fared] he northright, thaet weste land on thaet steorbord, | by the land: left all the and tha wid-sae on thaet | way that waste land on the baecbord thrie dagas. Tha | starboard of him, and the wide waes he swa feor north swa tha | sea on the backboard [port, hwael-huntan firrest farath. | French _babord_] three days.

| Then was he so far north as | the whale-hunters furthest | fareth.

In this pa.s.sage it is easy to see that the variations which make it into modern English are for the most part of a very simple kind. Some of the words are absolutely identical, as _his_, _on_, _he_, _and_, _land_, or _north_. Others, though differences of spelling mask the likeness, are practically the same, as _sae_, _saede_, _cwaeth_, _thaet_, _lang_, for which we now write _sea_, _said_, _quoth_, _that_, _long_. A few have undergone contraction or alteration, as _hlaford_, now _lord_, _cyning_, now _king_, and _steorbord_, now _starboard_. _Stow_, a place, is now obsolete, except in local names; _styccemaelum_, stickmeal, has been Normanised into _piecemeal_. In other cases new terminations have been subst.i.tuted for old ones; _huntath_ and _fiscath_ are now replaced by _hunting_ and _fishing_; while _hunta_ has been superseded by _hunter_.

Only six words in the pa.s.sage have died out wholly: _buan_, to abide (_bude_); _swithe_, very; _wician_, to dwell; _cirr_, an occasion; _fandian_, to enquire (connected with _find_); and _baecbord_, port, which still survives in French from Norman sources. _Daeg_, day, and _aenig_, any, show how existing English has softened the final _g_ into a _y_. But the main difference which separates the modern pa.s.sage from its ancient prototype is the consistent dropping of the grammatical inflexions in _hlaforde_, _aelfrede_, _ealra_, _feawum_, and _fandian_, where we now say, _to his lord_, _of all_, _in few_, and _to enquire_.

The next pa.s.sage, from the old English epic of _Beowulf_, shows the language in another aspect. Here, as in all poetry, archaic forms abound, and the syntax is intentionally involved. It is written in the old alliterative rhythm, described in the next chapter:

Beowulf mathelode bearn Ecgtheowes; Hwaet! we the thas sae-lac sunu Healfdenes Leod Scyldinga l.u.s.tum brohton, Tires to tacne, the thu her to-locast.

Ic thaet un-softe ealdre gedigde Wigge under waetere, weore genethde Earfothlice; aet rihte waes Guth getwaefed nymthe mec G.o.d scylde.

Beowulf spake, the son of Ecgtheow: See! We to thee this sea-gift, son of Healfdene, Prince of the Scyldings, joyfully have brought, For a token of glory, that thou here lookest on.

That I unsoftly, gloriously accomplished, In war under water: the work I dared, With much labour: rightly was The battle divided, but that a G.o.d shielded me.

Or, to translate more prosaically:

"Beowulf, the son of Ecgtheow, addressed the meeting. See, son of Healfdene, Prince of the Scyldings; we have joyfully brought thee this gift from the sea which thou beholdest, for a proof of our valour. I obtained it with difficulty, gloriously, fighting beneath the waves: I dared the task with great toil. Evenly was the battle decreed, but that a G.o.d afforded me his protection."

In this short pa.s.sage, many of the words are now obsolete: for example, _mathelian_, to address an a.s.sembly (_concionari_); _lac_, a gift; _wig_, war; _guth_, battle; and _leod_, a prince. _Ge-digde_, _ge-nethde_, and _ge-twaefed_ have the now obsolete particle _ge_-, which bears much the same sense as in High German. On the other hand, _bearn_, a bairn; _sunu_, a son; _sae_, sea; _tacen_, a token; _waeter_, water; and _weorc_, work, still survive: as do the verbs _to bring_, _to look_, and _to shield_. _l.u.s.t_, pleasure, whence _l.u.s.tum_, joyfully, has now restricted its meaning in modern English, but retains its original sense in High German.

A few lines from the "Chronicle" under the year 1137, during the reign of Stephen, will give an example of Anglo-Saxon in its later and corrupt form, caught in the act of pa.s.sing into Chaucerian English:

This gaere for the King | This year fared the King Stephan ofer sae to Normandi; | Stephen over sea to Normandy; and ther wes under | and there he was fangen, forthi thaet hi wenden | accepted [received as duke]

thaet he sculde ben alsuic alse | because that they weened the eom waes, and for he | that he should be just as his hadde get his tresor; ac he | uncle was, and because he todeld it and scatered sotlice. | had got his treasure: but he Micel hadde Henri king | to-dealt [distributed] and gadered gold and sylver, and | scattered it sot-like [foolishly].

na G.o.d ne dide men for his | Muckle had King saule tharof. Tha the King | Henry gathered of gold and Stephan to Englaland com, | silver; and man did no good tha macod he his gadering | for his soul thereof. When aet Oxeneford, and thar he | that King Stephan was come nam the biscop Roger of | to England, then maked he Sereberi, and Alexander | his gathering at Oxford, and biscop of Lincoln, and the | there he took the bishop Canceler Roger, hise neves, | Roger of Salisbury, and Alexander, and dide aelle in prisun, til | bishop of Lincoln, and hi iafen up hire castles. | the Chancellor Roger, his | nephew, and did them all in | prison [put them in prison]

| till they gave up their castles.

The following pa.s.sage from aelfric's Life of King Oswold, in the best period of early English prose, may perhaps be intelligible to modern readers by the aid of a few explanatory notes only. _Mid_ means _with_; while _with_ itself still bears only the meaning of _against_:

"aefter tham the Augustinus to Englalande becom, waes sum aethele cyning, Oswold ge-haten [_hight_ or _called_], on North-hymbra-lande, ge-lyfed swithe on G.o.d. Se ferde [went] on his iugothe [youth] fram his freondum and magum [relations] to Scotlande on sae, and thaer sona wearth ge-fullod [baptised], and his ge-feran [companions] samod the mid him sithedon [journeyed]. Betwux tham wearth of-slagen [off-slain] Eadwine his eam [uncle], North-hymbra cyning, on Crist ge-lyfed, fram Brytta cyninge, Ceadwalla ge-ciged [called, named], and twegen his aefter-gengan binnan twam gearum [years]; and se Ceadwalla sloh and to sceame tucode tha North-hymbran leode [people] aefter heora hlafordes fylle, oth thaet [until] Oswold se eadiga his yfelnysse adwaescte [extinguished]. Oswold him com to, and him cenlice [boldly] with feaht mid lytlum werode [troop], ac his geleafa [belief] hine ge-trymde [encouraged], and Crist him ge-fylste [helped] to his feonda [fiends, enemies] slege."

It will be noticed in every case that the syntactical arrangement of the words in the sentences follows as a whole the rule that the governed word precedes the governing, as in Latin or High German, not _vice versa_, as in modern English.

A brief list will show the princ.i.p.al modifications undergone by nouns in the process of modernisation. _Stan_, stone; _snaw_, snow; _ban_, bone.

_Craeft_, craft; _staef_, staff; _baec_, back. _Weg_, way; _daeg_, day; _naegel_, nail; _fugol_, fowl. _Gear_, year; _geong_, young. _Finger_, finger; _winter_, winter; _ford_, ford. _aefen_, even; _morgen_, morn.

_Monath_, month; _heofon_, heaven; _heafod_, head. _Fot_, foot; _toth_, tooth; _boc_, book; _freond_, friend. _Modor_, mother; _faeder_, father; _dohtor_, daughter. _Sunu_, son; _wudu_, wood; _caru_, care; _denu_, dene (valley). _Scip_, ship; _cild_, child; _ceorl_, churl; _cynn_, kin; _ceald_, cold. Wherever a word has not become wholly obsolete, or a.s.sumed a new termination, (_e.g._, _gifu_, gift; _morgen_, morn-ing), it usually follows one or other of these a.n.a.logies.

The changes which the English language, as a whole, has undergone in pa.s.sing from its earlier to its later form, may best be considered under the two heads of form and matter.

As regards form or structure, the language has been simplified in three separate ways. First, the nouns and adjectives have for the most part lost their inflexions, at least so far as the cases are concerned.

Secondly, the nouns have also lost their gender. And thirdly, the verbs have been simplified in conjugation, weak preterites being often subst.i.tuted for strong ones, and differential terminations largely lost.

On the other hand, the plural of nouns is still distinguished from the singular by its termination in _s_, which is derived from the first declension of Anglo-Saxon nouns, not as is often a.s.serted, from the Norman-French usage. In other words, all plurals have been a.s.similated to this the commonest model; just as in French they have been a.s.similated to the final _s_ of the third declension in Latin. A few plurals of the other types still survive, such as _men_, _geese_, _mice_, _sheep_, _deer_, _oxen_, _children_ and (dialectically) _peasen_. To make up for this loss of inflexions, the language now employs a larger number of particles, and to some extent, of auxiliaries. Instead of _wines_, we now say _of a friend_; instead of _wine_, we now say _to a friend_; and instead of _winum_, we now say _to friends_. English, in short, has almost ceased to be inflexional and has become a.n.a.lytic.

As regards matter or vocabulary, the language has lost in certain directions, and gained in others. It has lost many old Teutonic roots, such as _wig_, war; _rice_, kingdom; _tungol_, light; with their derivatives, _wigend_, warrior; _rixian_, to rule; _tungol-witega_, astrologer; and so forth. The relative number of such losses to the survivals may be roughly gauged from the pa.s.sages quoted above. On the other hand, the language has gained by the incorporation of many Romance words, shortly after the Norman Conquest, such as _place_, _voice_, _judge_, _war_, and _royal_. Some of these have entirely superseded native old English words. Thus the Norman-French _uncle_, _aunt_, _cousin_, _nephew_, and _niece_, have wholly ousted their Anglo-Saxon equivalents. In other instances the Romance words have enriched the language with symbols for really new ideas. This is still more strikingly the case with the direct importations from the cla.s.sical Greek and Latin which began at the period of the Renaissance. Such words usually refer either to abstract conceptions for which the English language had no suitable expression, or to the accurate terminology of the advanced sciences. In every-day conversation our vocabulary is almost entirely English; in speaking or writing upon philosophical or scientific subjects it is largely intermixed with Romance and Graeco-Latin elements. On the whole, though it is to be regretted that many strong, vigorous or poetical old Teutonic roots should have been allowed to fall into disuse, it may safely be a.s.serted that our gains have far more than outbalanced our losses in this respect.

It must never be forgotten, however, that the whole framework of our language still remains, in every case, purely Englishthat is to say, Anglo-Saxon or Low Dutchhowever many foreign elements may happen to enter into its vocabulary. We can frame many sentences without using one word of Romance or cla.s.sical origin: we cannot frame a single sentence without using words of English origin. The Authorised Version of the Bible, "The Pilgrim's Progress," and such poems as Tennyson's "Dora,"

consist almost entirely of Teutonic elements. Even when the vocabulary is largely cla.s.sical, as in Johnson's "Ra.s.selas" and some parts of "Paradise Lost," the grammatical structure, the prepositions, the p.r.o.nouns, the auxiliary verbs, and the connecting particles, are all necessarily and purely English. Two examples will suffice to make this principle perfectly clear. In the first, which is the most familiar quotation from Shakespeare, all the words of foreign origin have been printed in italics:

To be, or not to be,that is the _question_: Whether 'tis _n.o.bler_ in the mind to _suffer_ The slings and arrows of _outrageous fortune_; Or to take _arms_ against a sea of _troubles_, And, by _opposing_, end them? To die,to sleep, No more; and, by a sleep, to say we end The heart-ache, and the thousand _natural_ shocks That flesh is _heir_ to,'tis a _consummation_ _Devoutly_ to be wished. To die,to sleep; To sleep! _perchance_ to dream: ay, there's the rub For in that sleep of death what dreams may come, When we have shuffled off this _mortal_ coil, Must give us _pause_: there's the _respect_ That makes _calamity_ of so long life; For who would bear the whips and scorns of time, The _oppressor's_ wrong, the proud man's _contumely_, The _pangs_ of _despised_ love, the law's _delay_, The _insolence_ of _office_, and the _spurns_ That _patient merit_ of the unworthy takes, When he himself might his _quietus_ make With a bare bodkin?

Here, out of 167 words, we find only 28 of foreign origin; and even these are Englished in their terminations or adjuncts. _n.o.ble_ is Norman-French; but the comparative _n.o.bler_ stamps it with the Teutonic mark. _Oppose_ is Latin; but the participle _opposing_ is true English.

_Devout_ is naturalised by the native adverbial termination, _devoutly_.

_Oppressor's_ and _despised_ take English inflexions. The formative elements, _or_, _not_, _that_, _the_, _in_, _and_, _by_, _we_, and the rest, are all English. The only complete sentence which we could frame of wholly Latin words would be an imperative standing alone, as, "Observe," and even this would be English in form.

On the other hand, we may take the following pa.s.sage from Mr. Herbert Spencer as a specimen of the largely Latinised vocabulary needed for expressing the exact ideas of science or philosophy. Here also borrowed words are printed in italics:

"The _const.i.tution_ which we _a.s.sign_ to this _etherial medium_, however, like the _const.i.tution_ we _a.s.sign_ to _solid substance_, is _necessarily_ an _abstract_ of the _impressions received_ from _tangible_ bodies. The _opposition_ to _pressure_ which a _tangible_ body _offers_ to us is not shown in one _direction_ only, but in all _directions_; and so likewise is its _tenacity_. _Suppose countless lines radiating_ from its _centre_ on every side, and it _resists_ along each of these _lines_ and _coheres_ along each of these _lines_. Hence the _const.i.tution_ of those _ultimate units_ through the _instrumentality_ of which _phenomena_ are _interpreted_. Be they _atoms_ of _ponderable matter_ or _molecules_ of _ether_, the _properties_ we _conceive_ them to _possess_ are nothing else than these _perceptible properties idealised_."

In this case, out of 122 words we find no less than 46 are of foreign origin. Though this large proportion sufficiently shows the amount of our indebtedness to the cla.s.sical languages for our abstract or specialised scientific terms, the absolutely indisputable nature of the English substratum remains clearly evident. The tongue which we use to-day is enriched by valuable loan words from many separate sources; but it is still as it has always been, English and nothing else. It is the self-same speech with the tongue of the Sleswick pirates and the West Saxon over-lords.

CHAPTER XIX.

ANGLO-SAXON NOMENCLATURE.

Perhaps nothing tends more to repel the modern English student from the early history of his country than the very unfamiliar appearance of the personal names which he meets before the Norman Conquest. There can be no doubt that such a shrinking from the first stages of our national annals does really exist; and it seems to be largely due to this very superficial and somewhat unphilosophical cause. Before the Norman invasion, the modern Englishman finds himself apparently among complete foreigners, in the aethelwulfs, the Eadgyths, the Oswius, and the Seaxburhs of the Chronicle; while he hails the Norman invaders, the Johns, Henrys, Williams, and Roberts, of the period immediately succeeding the conquest, as familiar English friends. The contrast can scarcely be better given than in the story told about aethelred's Norman wife. Her name was Ymma, or Emma; but the English of that time murmured against such an outlandish sound, and so the Lady received a new English name as aelfgifu. At the present day our nomenclature has changed so utterly that Emma sounds like ordinary English, while aelfgifu sounds like a wholly foreign word. The incidental light thrown upon our history by the careful study of personal names is indeed so valuable that a few remarks upon the subject seem necessary in order to complete our hasty survey of Anglo-Saxon Britain.

During the very earliest period when we catch a glimpse of the English people on the Continent or in eastern Britain, a double system of naming seems to have prevailed, not wholly unlike our modern plan of Christian and surname. The clan name was appended to the personal one. A man was apparently described as Wulf the Holting, or as Creoda the aescing. The clan names were in many cases common to the English and the Continental Teutons. Thus we find Helsings in the English Helsington and the Swedish Helsingland; Harlings in the English Harlingham and the Frisian Harlingen; and Bleccings in the English Bletchingley and the Scandinavian Bleckingen. Our Thyrings at Thorrington answer, perhaps, to the Thuringians; our Myrgings at Merrington to the Frankish Merwings or Merovingians; our Waerings at Warrington to the Norse Vaeringjar or Varangians. At any rate, the clan organization was one common to both great branches of the Teutonic stock, and it has left its mark deeply upon our modern nomenclature, both in England and in Germany. Mr. Kemble has enumerated nearly 200 clan names found in early English charters and doc.u.ments, besides over 600 others inferred from local names in England at the present day. Taking one letter of the alphabet alone, his list includes the Glaestings, Geddings, Gumenings, Gustings, Getings, Grundlings, Gildlings, and Gillings, from doc.u.mentary evidence; and the Gaersings, Gestings, Geofonings, Goldings, and Garings, with many others, from the inferential evidence of existing towns and villages.

The personal names of the earliest period are in many cases untranslateablethat is to say, as with the first stratum of Greek names, they bear no obvious meaning in the language as we know it.

Others are names of animals or natural objects. Unlike the later historical cognomens, they each consist, as a rule, of a single element, not of two elements in composition. Such are the names which we get in the narrative of the colonization and in the mythical genealogies; Hengest, Horsa, aesc, aelle, Cymen, Cissa, Bieda, Maegla; Ceol, Penda, Offa, Blecca; Esla, Gewis, Wig, Brand, and so forth. A few of these names (such as Penda and Offa), are undoubtedly historical; but of the rest, some seem to be etymological blunders, like Port and Wihtgar; others to be pure myths, like Wig and Brand; and others, again, to be doubtfully true, like Cerdic, Cissa, and Bieda, eponyms, perhaps, of Cerdices-ford, Cissan-ceaster, and Biedan-heafod.