CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
English in its earliest shape.
| A.D. |
|
page
|
|
The Aryan Clan on the Oxus |
1
|
|
Their way of life |
2
|
|
Words common to Sanscrit and English |
3, 4
|
|
Aryan Suffixes kept by us |
5
|
|
The origin of ward and like |
6
|
|
Aryan Comparatives and Superlatives |
7
|
|
The Aryan Verb - Strong Perfects |
8
|
|
The Participle, Strong and Weak |
9
|
|
Aryan Irregular Verbs |
10
|
|
Our forms akin to Latin and Greek |
11
|
|
Our forms akin to Lithuanian |
12
|
|
The Three divisions of Teutons |
13
|
|
Inflections of their Substantive and Verb |
14
|
|
Teutonic Endings of Nouns |
15
|
|
Weak Perfects - Inroads on the Celts |
16
|
|
The Teutons attack the Latins |
17
|
| 450. |
The Beowulf, an English Epic |
18
|
|
The English seize Britain |
19
|
| 600. |
They are Christianized |
20
|
|
Old English Substantives |
21
|
|
Old English Adjectives |
22
|
| A.D. |
|
page
|
|
Old English Pronouns |
23
|
|
Old English Verbs |
24
|
|
Letters cast out or put in |
25
|
|
Exchange of letters |
26
|
|
Prepositions still used in the old way |
27
|
|
The use of man - English Negation |
28
|
|
The Verb - The Article |
29
|
|
The Verb do prefixed to other Verbs |
30
|
|
Adverbial Idioms |
31
|
|
Corruption of words - Loss of Accents |
32
|
|
Alliterative Poetry |
33
|
|
It still keeps its hold on us |
34
|
CHAPTER II.
the old english, 680-1120.
the middle english, 1120-1300.
|
|
|
|
Northumbrian English |
35
|
| 680. |
Cadmon's Runes on the Ruthwell Cross |
36
|
| 737. |
Another piece of Cadmon's |
37
|
| 800. |
The Northern Psalter |
38
|
|
Its peculiarities |
39
|
| 876. |
The Norse Settlement in England |
40
|
|
Its abiding influence |
41
|
| 900. |
The Rushworth Gospels |
42
|
|
Southern and Northern English contrasted |
43
|
| 924. |
King Edward's Conquests |
44
|
| 941. |
The Five Danish Burghs |
45
|
| 954. |
Eadred becomes the One King of England |
46
|
|
The Danish influence on New English |
47
|
| 970. |
The Lindisfarne Gospels |
48
|
|
Southern and Northern English contrasted |
49
|
|
Norse corruptions |
50
|
| 1066. |
The French Conquest |
51
|
| 1090. |
The Legend of St. Edmund |
52
|
| A.D. |
|
page
|
|
Corruptions in the Saxon Chronicle |
53
|
|
Slow change from Old to New |
54
|
|
Interest attached to Peterborough |
55
|
| 1120. |
Its Forged Charters |
56
|
|
The letters h and g replaced |
57
|
|
The Dative replaces the Accusative |
58
|
|
Break-up of Case-endings |
59
|
|
New use of Prepositions |
60
|
|
Clipping of Infinitives and Participles |
61
|
|
The Northern, Midland, and Southern Shibboleths |
62
|
|
New Teutonic words crop up |
63
|
|
Scandinavian words come in |
64
|
| 1120. |
Specimen of East Midland Dialect |
65, 66
|
| 1120. |
Specimen of Southern Dialect |
67
|
|
A later Version of Ælfric's Homilies |
68
|
|
O and ch replace a and c |
69
|
|
New Relatives - The letter ʓ |
70
|
|
Lines on the Grave |
71
|
| 1160. |
The Peterborough Chronicle |
72
|
|
Southern corruptions appear |
73
|
|
K, qu, and gh are found |
74
|
| 1160. |
Specimen of East Midland Dialect |
75, 76
|
| 1160. |
Specimen of Southern Dialect |
77, 78
|
|
Early Rimes - The Sound au |
79
|
|
V and w replace f and g |
80
|
|
Sh replaces sc |
81
|
|
Change in Nouns and Verbs |
82
|
|
Change in Meaning of Words |
83
|
| 1170. |
The Moral Ode - The Worcester Manuscript |
84
|
|
Ou replaces o - The new besiden |
85
|
|
The Hatton Gospels |
86
|
| 1180. |
The Essex Homilies - The form ie |
87
|
|
Clipping of Words - New phrases |
88
|
|
The Masculine and Neuter Article confused |
89
|
|
New Norse words |
90
|
| 1200. |
King Alfred's Proverbs |
91
|
|
Orrmin |
92
|
| A.D. |
|
page
|
|
His Norse origin |
93
|
|
His probable abode |
94
|
|
His many corruptions |
95
|
|
His new Pronouns |
96
|
|
His Norse words, kept by us |
97
|
|
His Prepositional compounds |
98
|
|
He uses that for thilk |
99
|
|
Theirs, what man, thyself |
100
|
|
Forthwith, right, or, alone, same |
101
|
|
He replaces œ by a |
102
|
|
Change in the meaning of words |
103
|
|
The Norse auxiliary mun |
104
|
|
Strong Verbs corrupted into Weak |
105
|
|
Hid, sicken, shown |
106
|
|
Mid and niman die out |
107
|
| 1200. |
Specimen of East Midland Dialect |
108, 109
|
| 1205. |
Specimen of Western Dialect |
110
|
|
Layamon's Brut |
111
|
|
He is the last to use œ |
112
|
|
The Corrupt Participle in ing |
113
|
|
His Norse Words |
114
|
|
The Legend of St. Margaret |
115
|
|
The letters ea - The ending ful |
116
|
| 1220. |
The Hali Meidenhad |
117
|
|
The Ancren Riwle |
118
|
|
The use of one for man |
119
|
|
The New Relative |
120
|
|
The Superlative replaced by most |
121
|
|
New Norse words |
122
|
|
New Low German words |
123
|
|
Salopian works |
124
|
| 1230. |
The Bestiary |
125
|
|
Ou replaces u; one |
126
|
|
The Genesis and Exodus |
127
|
|
Drag, dray, draw - The i and oo |
128
|
|
Clipping of words in East Anglia |
129
|
|
Whilum, seldum, muste, these |
130
|
| A.D. |
|
page
|
|
New Norse words |
131
|
| 1230. |
Specimen of East Midland Dialect |
132
|
| 1230. |
Specimen of Southern Dialect |
134, 135
|
| 1240. |
The Lincolnshire Creed |
136
|
|
Interchange of f and g |
137
|
| 1240. |
Specimen of East Midland Dialect |
138, 139
|
| 1240. |
Specimen of South Western Dialect |
140
|
|
The Owl and the Nightingale |
141
|
| 1250. |
Mercian Religious pieces |
142
|
| 1250. |
Specimen of East Midland Dialect |
143, 144
|
| 1250. |
Specimen of Northern Dialect |
145
|
|
The Yorkshire Psalter |
146
|
|
Gh replaces h |
147
|
|
Brake, feet, gives |
148
|
|
The New Relatives - Those |
149
|
|
New Substantives |
150
|
|
Through hap, gainsay |
151
|
|
New Norse words |
152
|
|
New Version of Layamon's Brut |
153
|
|
The Jesus Manuscript |
154
|
| 1270. |
Huntingdon (?) Poem |
155
|
| 1270. |
Specimen of East Midland Dialect |
156
|
| 1270. |
Specimen of Southern Dialect |
157
|
|
The Proverbs of Hending |
158
|
|
The Sir Tristrem |
159
|
|
The new sense of bond |
160
|
|
New Norse words |
161
|
| 1280. |
The Harrowing of Hell |
162
|
|
The curious dialogue |
163
|
|
The Strong Perfect corrupted |
164
|
|
The Havelok |
165
|
|
Northern and Southern forms meet |
166
|
|
You used for thou |
167
|
|
The mangling of drake; lark |
168
|
|
New Norse words |
169
|
|
Loss of old Prepositions |
170
|
| 1280. |
Specimen of East Midland Dialect |
171, 172
|
| A.D. |
|
page
|
| 1280. |
Specimen of Southern Dialect |
173
|
|
The King Horn. |
174
|
| 1290. |
Kentish Sermons |
175
|
| 1300. |
Robert of Gloucester's Chronicle |
176
|
|
His Life of Becket |
177
|
|
His Life of St. Brandan |
178
|
|
The Romance of Alexander |
179
|
|
The New English, where compounded |
180
|
| 1300. |
Few new Teutonic idioms since this date |
181
|
CHAPTER III.
the rise of the new english.
A.D. 1303.
|
|
|
|
Robert of Brunne in Lincolnshire |
182
|
| 1303. |
His Work, The Handlyng Synne |
183
|
|
His dialect, partly Southern |
184
|
|
Partly Western, partly Northern |
185
|
|
Went, second, right, full, down |
186
|
|
Kind, mind, truth, buck |
187
|
|
Adder, one after an Adjective |
188
|
|
Wholly, lost, to be blamed |
189
|
|
Sack, toy, cannot |
190
|
|
New words - St. Audre |
191
|
|
Yon, what time, the which |
192
|
|
Somebody, once, inasmuch |
193
|
|
Would God, Lord, side by side |
194
|
|
He asks pardon for his diction |
195
|
|
His tale of Bishop Robert |
196
|
|
His account of Charity |
197
|
|
Taken from St. Paul |
198
|
|
His advice about Mass |
199
|
|
His tale of the Norfolk Bondeman |
200
|
|
His account of himself |
201
|
|
Specimens of Dialects - North Lincolnshire |
202
|
| A.D. |
|
page
|
|
Yorkshire - Durham |
203
|
|
Lancashire |
204
|
|
Salop - Herefordshire |
205
|
|
Gloucestershire - Irish Pale |
206
|
|
Somersetshire |
207
|
|
Oxfordshire - Kent |
208
|
|
Middlesex |
209
|
|
Bedfordshire |
210
|
|
Tables - Words akin to Dutch and German |
211
|
|
Scandinavian words of the Fourteenth Century |
212
|
|
Celtic words - Dutch words |
213
|
|
Scandinavian words of the Fifteenth Century |
214
|
CHAPTER IV.
the inroad of french words into england.
|
|
|
|
Harm done in the Thirteenth Century |
215
|
| 1066. |
English Poetic words die out |
216
|
|
French alone is in favour |
217
|
| 1160. |
How French words first came in |
218
|
|
Forty of them in use very early |
219
|
|
Proper names spelt in French |
220
|
| 1220. |
The Ancren Riwle abounds in French |
221
|
|
The foreign sound oi |
222
|
|
Words of Religion - The foreign j |
223
|
|
Table of French words akin to English |
224
|
|
English words drop in the Thirteenth Century |
225
|
|
This fact explained |
226
|
|
The Franciscans in England |
227
|
| 1250. |
Their daily work |
228
|
|
They bring in French words |
229
|
|
The 'Luve Ron' of a friar |
230
|
|
Poem by one of the Old School |
231
|
| 1290. |
The Kentish Sermons |
232
|
|
Treatise on Science |
233
|
| 1300. |
Coarse English Words cast aside |
234
|
| A.D. |
|
page
|
|
French used by Architects |
235
|
|
French used by Ladies |
236
|
|
Warlike Romances Englished |
237
|
|
Our French words for soldiering |
238
|
|
French employed by lawyers |
239
|
|
The number of new French words |
240
|
|
These take English endings |
241
|
|
French words used by the lowest |
242
|
| 1303. |
French brought in by Robert of Brunne |
243
|
|
Jolly, party, divers, nice |
244
|
|
Touch, trail, single, afraid |
245
|
|
Certain, passing, bondage |
246
|
|
English roots take French endings |
247
|
|
The decay of Teutonic words arrested |
248
|
|
Corruption of the Franciscan Order |
249
|
| 1360. |
Robert's words need explanation |
250
|
|
Gradual loss of Old English Words |
251
|
|
Table of Words, Obsolete and Romance |
252
|
CHAPTER V.
the new english.
a.d. 1303-1873.
|
|
|
|
English differs from other Literatures |
253
|
|
Each shire had its own speech |
254
|
|
Norse influence in England |
255
|
| 1303. |
The East Midland advances Southwards |
256
|
|
Contrast between it and the London speech |
257
|
|
Edward I. neglected English |
258
|
|
The New Standard English spreads |
259
|
| 1349. |
Edward III. favours it |
260
|
|
New Forms of old words |
261
|
|
Poem on the Carpenter's Tools |
262
|
| 1356. |
Mandeville's writings |
263
|
|
Nassington at Cambridge |
264
|
| A.D. |
|
page
|
| 1380. |
Wickliffe's version of the Bible |
265
|
|
Young one, wast, shipwreck, haply |
266
|
|
His Latin idioms bad |
267
|
|
Purvey and Hereford |
268
|
|
New forms used at this time |
269
|
| 1400. |
Creed and Prayers |
270
|
| 1408. |
Forms of Matrimony |
271
|
| 1450. |
Lollard Tract on Scriptural translation |
272
|
|
The Speech of the Court |
273
|
| 1390. |
Chaucer's new forms |
274
|
|
Belike, bi and bi, scarcely, menes |
275
|
| 1432. |
Letters written by knights - Warwick |
276
|
|
Suffolk's letter to his son |
277
|
| 1447. |
East Anglian Letters - Shillingford |
278
|
| 1450. |
Pecock's Repressor |
279
|
|
The Word unless - Good Prose |
280
|
| 1460. |
Yorkshire letters of the time |
281
|
| 1426. |
Audlay in Salop |
282
|
| 1454. |
York's children at Ludlow |
283
|
| 1471. |
Caxton prints the First English Book |
284
|
|
He restores the hard g |
285
|
| 1481. |
His Renard the Fox |
286
|
| 1482. |
He alters Trevisa's words |
287
|
| 1523. |
Lord Berners - Tyndale |
288
|
| 1525. |
Corruptions in his Testament |
289
|
|
Once, father, coulde, righteous |
290
|
|
Abroad, waves, sad, roll |
291
|
|
Tyndale's sound Teutonic style |
292
|
| 1542. |
His version disliked by Gardiner |
293
|
|
His wrangles with More |
294
|
| 1528. |
His critical power - Roy's rimes |
295
|
| 1536. |
Plumpton's letter home |
296
|
|
English Poetry becomes more Teutonic |
297
|
| 1524. |
Abbot Malvern's verses |
298
|
|
Theology, the Classics, Travels |
299
|
| 1560. |
Cranmer's Prayer Book |
300
|
|
Latin and Teutonic in our Bible |
301
|
| A.D. |
|
page
|
| 1583. |
Fulke's scorn of the Douay Bible |
302
|
| 1611. |
Influence of our Version |
303
|
|
Romanism adverse to our Literature |
304
|
|
The Reformation unites England and Scotland |
305
|
|
The Bible a bond for the Angel cyn |
306
|
| 1550. |
Wilson's criticism - Shakespere |
307
|
| 1590. |
Spenser - Our Golden Age |
308
|
|
The form its - Loss of Old Forms |
309
|
| 1640. |
Strafford's Thorough - Milton |
310
|
|
His Lycidas - Bunyan |
311
|
| 1650. |
The Change in English Prose |
312
|
| 1750. |
Johnson's Corruptions |
313
|
|
The Study of Sanscrit |
314
|
| 1810. |
Scott, Byron, Coleridge |
315
|
| 1820. |
Scott's Romances - The Ballad revived |
316
|
| 1830. |
Cobbett - Monk's Life of Bentley |
317
|
| 1870. |
Speeches of Mr. Gladstone and Mr. Bright |
318
|
| 1873. |
Mr. Tennyson, Mr. Morris |
319
|
|
Table of Dates bearing on English Literature |
320, 321
|
CHAPTER VI.
good and bad english in 1873.
|
|
|
|
Scholars and the Middle Class |
322
|
|
The Latter love Foreign phrases |
323
|
|
How a man writes to The Times |
324
|
|
Latin is too often a pitfall |
325
|
|
The Penny-a-liner of our day |
326
|
|
Blunder of Irish Prelates |
327
|
|
Correspondents of Journals |
328
|
|
Editors should put down bad English |
329
|
|
Americans misspell honour |
330
|
|
Fine writing in America |
331
|
|
To interview |
332
|
|
English abuse of the letter h |
333
|
|
Bad style of English preachers |
334
|
| A.D. |
|
page
|
|
English not taught at schools |
335
|
|
Good influence of the Classics |
336
|
|
Punch a good English critic |
337
|
|
We borrow from all sides |
338
|
|
We send our own staple abroad |
339
|
|
Bad English of a Queen's Speech |
340
|
|
Watchwords of English History |
341
|
|
Simplicity recommended by Mr. Freeman |
342
|
|
We have improved on our fathers |
343
|
|
Three ways of writing English |
344
|
|
Teutonic, Romance, and Penny-a-lining |
345
|
|
Parable of a maiden's dress |
346
|
|
Sometimes neat, sometimes outrageous |
347
|
|
Chaucer's advice to fine writers |
348
|
|
|
|
| 680. |
Lines on the Ruthwell Cross |
349
|
| 737. |
Lines by Cadmon |
350
|
| 800-900. |
Northumbrian Psalter - Rushworth Gospels |
351
|
| 970. |
Lindisfarne Gospels |
352
|
| 1090. |
St. Edmund's Legend |
353, 354
|
| 1220. |
The Ancren Riwle |
355, 356, 357
|
| 1356. |
Sir John Mandeville |
358, 359
|
| 1450. |
Bishop Pecock |
360
|
| 1550. |
Lever |
361, 362
|
| 1668. |
Cowley |
363, 364
|
| 1776. |
Gibbon |
365, 366
|
| 1872. |
Morris |
367, 368
|
|
Advice as to Studying English |
369
|
|
Antiquam exquirite Matrem |
370
|
| Page 262, lines 5, 6, 7, dele The form graciouser |
ending in ous.
|
