very smooth syllables out of two which are very harsh; and, by making an elision of the i in it, and changing t into d, to harmonize with the preceding consonant, a smooth syllable, doo'd, is made out of two, do and it, the junction of which is disagreeable. In the use which is made of the words of very frequent recurrence, of which the most remarkable are the auxiliary verbs and the prepositions, the most decisive effects on the harmony of a language are seen. In forming the vast class of negative propositions, with the auxiliary verbs, and the particle not, both the English and the Scots have, for the sake of dispatch, abbreviated the pronunciation: but the former have so abbreviated as to increase the harshness, and the latter so as entirely to take it away. Could not lays no claim to be ranked among the sweetest of syllabic sounds: but it is much. better than couldn't. Couldna', on the other hand, which is the Scotch abbreviation, avoids every element of harshness. The English have formed this abbreviation by throwing out the vowel in not, and bringing the harsh consonants all together: the Scots by throwing away the final consonant, have made two harmonious syllables, the one ending with a consonant, the other with a vowel; - the consonants with which the one syllable ends and the other begins, d and n, being two of which the pronunciation happily slides into one another. The same observations are exemplified in can't, canna; mayn't, mayna; must'nt, which is most offensively harsh, arıd manna; shouldn't, shouldna; won't, winna; shan't, sanna; don't, dinno. The influence which is produced on a language by phrases of so remarkable a frequency is immense. Of the words of most constant recurrence, the next class is the prepositions; which the Scots have fashioned to smoothness with an unsparing hand. The terminations of them, whether vowels or consonants, they seem to have changed at will, according as the words with which they were to be joined required change, for the preservation of harmony, in either the one or the other. From such of them as ended with a consonant, of, from, with, in, &c. they struck off the consonant, whenever the words with which they were to be joined began with a consonant; and when these words began with a vowel, they either retained the consonant of the preposition, or made a farther elision of the vowel. When the preposition ended with a vowel, as in the case of to, by, &c. the vowel was retained before consonants, and elision made of it before vowels. Thus, when in English we say with strength, producing a strong and harsh combination of consonants, a Scotchman says wi' strength; -from France, frae France. With to, they have a particular contri contrivance before a vowel, to avoid the hiatus, an is inserted, and the changes into i. Thus a Scotchman says, come to me-gae till him. We proceed to the second consideration.-Besides the peculiar properties which, in the usage of Scotchmen, our common Gothic tongue has acquired, and which intitle it to consideration as a language by itself, it is worthy of peculiar regard as a help to those important discoveries respecting the nature and origin of language, for so many of which we are indebted to the penetration and learning of Mr. Horne Tooke. It is by tracing our words to their original meaning in the primitive dialect, that Mr. Tooke has shewn the nature and mode of signification of so many among the classes of our words, of which none but unintelligible and absurd accounts had before been rendered In referring them back, however, to the primitive dialect, the means are far too scanty. The monuments of that dialect are very few; and it happens, with regard to many words, that their line of descent cannot be discovered. Of the stages of their progress, the memory is lost, and no vestiges of them remain. In this state of things, a sister-dialect is of peculiar importance. The thread of meaning, by which the existing use may be traced to the primitive use, is frequently preserved with regard to many words in the one language, respecting which it is lost in the other, and vice versa. When one dialect has remained much nearer to the primitive stock than another, its advantages over that other are in this respect comparatively important. This is the case in regard to the Scottish dialect, as compared with the English, since it is much more purely Saxon or Gothic than the southern dialect. Accordingly, some of the principal helps which Mr. Horne Tooke has found, in discovering several of the obscurest among the paths of the words of which he has illustrated the descent, have been afforded by Douglas, the celebrated translator of Virgil into the antient dialect of Scotland. Had Mr. Horne Tooke been as familiar, or nearly as familiar, with the language of Scotland, as a native commonly is, his labour would in many cases have been much easier, and much more successful. When we say, however, more successful, we mean only in regard to the gratification and instruction which would have been afforded by the satisfactory etymology of a greater number of words: but in regard to the general principies respecting language, to which his etymological investigations conduct, the instances which he affords are sufficiently numerous to be perfectly conclusive. The proof, as far as he has yet chosen to state his principles, is complete. The Bishop of Norwich, and the late Mr. Windham, in company, contested and very feebly contested them: but their victorious evidence, REY. SEPT. 1810. C where when the mind was not previously occupied by guests unfavourable to the reception of truth, has no where probably failed to produce its effects. -a When we view the Scottish language in this light, and are aware of the essential aid which it would afford in exploring the etymology of the English, we own that our hopes, on hearing of an Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish language, were raised very high. Were a Scottish dictionary, truly etymological, supplied, the task would be easy to produce that which it would be of so much importance to possess, and which we are yet so very far from possessing, a good dictionary of the English language. In Dr. Jamieson's etymological labours, however, we cannot compliment him with the praise of having contributed much to our information, Though he is evidently a well-informed and a sensible man, he evinces not that high degree of philosophy which appears requisite even to conceive justly what are the true nature and object of etymology; and he seems to have read the work of Horne Tooke without an adequate sense of its real scope and purpose. Though Mr. Tooke has embraced almost innumerable occasions of declaring that it is not etymology to give us another similar word in a different language, this is nearly all that, in his etymological elucidations, Dr. Jamieson has deemed it incumbent on him to confer on us. It is not in tracings sounds, but in tracing meanings, that the true business of etymology consists. When any word in any language has not an original but a derived meaning, the etymology of it is to be obtained by referring it to the word of original meaning; that is, the name of some object, whether it be in the same or in another language that such word is to be found. Dr. Jamieson has, indeed, taken laudable pains to gain some acquaintance with the connate languages of the north; and he has pointed out many coincidences between the words of these languages, and the words of the language which it was his business to elucidate. Now this, by good fortune, is frequently of use, and in many instances leads to the word originally significant, but without much solicitude on the part of Dr. Jamieson: his object was to find a word sufficiently similar in sound and signification to enable him to believe that the one was somehow derived from the other; and with that discovery he remains satisfied. Among the specimens of Dr. Jamieson's success in the field of etymology, may be quoted the following: ALLTHOCHTE, conj. Although. The sonnys licht is nauer the wers, traist me, Doug. Virgil, 8. 49. Mr. Tooke derives E. though from A. S. thaf-ian. thaf-igan, to allow. But there is not the same evidence here, as with respect to some some other conjunctions illustrated by this acute and ingenious writer. It certainly is no inconsiderable objection to this hypothesis, that it is not supported by analogy, in the other Northern languages. In A S. theab signifies though, Alem. thach, Isl. O. Sw. tho, id. I shall not argue from MoesG. thauh in thauhjaba, which Jun. views as synon. with though; because this seems doubtful. In O. E thah was written about 1264. V Percy's Reliques, ii. 2. 10. In Sir Tristrem, the occurs, which nearly approaches to A. S. theab. V. THEI. Instead, of thoch, in our oldest MSS. we generally find thocht, althocht. This might seem allied to Isl. thoett quamvis; which, according to G. Andr. is per syncop. for the at, from the licet, etsi ; Lex. p. 266. But it is more probable that our term is merely A. S. thobte, MoesG. thaht-a, cogitabat; or the part. pa, of the . from which E. think is derived; as, in latter times, provided, except, &c. have been formed. Resolve althocht, and it literally significs, "all being thought of," or "taken into account;" which is the very idea meant to be expressed by the use of the conjunction. Indeed, it is often written all thocht. • All thocht he, as ane gentile sum tyme vary, Doug. Virgil, Prol. 159, 10, 15. The synon. in Germ. exhibits some analogy, Dachte being the imperf. and part. pa. of denk-en; doch, although, may have been formed from the same verb. V. THOCHT.' Dr. Jamieson is here, in all probability, right; and we are of opinion that the original verb, to think, rather than the Anglosaxon word meaning to allow, is the root of this conjunction. Still, however, this is but an additional confirmation of Mr. Horne Tooke's brilliant theory; affording an evidence of the use which, in this important line of investigation, might be made of an acquaintance with the Scottish language. The knowlege of the fact that this conjunction was originally spelt with a t, and was the same in sound and orthography with the past participle of the verb to think, naturally and almost unavoidably (after the instruction received from Mr. Horne Tooke) led to the idea that the conjunction and the participle must be the same: but, without this knowlege, the connection would not easily, and possibly never would, have suggested itself. As an instance in which this learned lexicographer is, in our opinion, far less successful, we may take the word Qubill: QUHILL, conj. Until S. -Man is in to dreding ay C 2 Barbour, iv. 763. MS. A. S: 'A. S. bwile, donec, untill, Somner. Or more fully, tha hwile the, which seems to signify, the time that. For this conj. is evidently formed from the s., as marking the time that elapses between one act or event and another. I prefer deriving it from the s., as the does not occur in MoesG. or A. S.; although some might be inclined to view it as the imperat. of Su. G. Isl. bwil-a quiescere. Thus these words might be resolved, "Wait for me till gloaming ;" i. e. "wait for me; the Time, that which intervenes between and twilight." Upon looking into the Diversions of Purley, i. 363, I find that I have given materially the same explanation of this particle with that of Mr. H. Tooke. But he seems to give too much scope to fancy, when he says of the synon. Till, that it is a word composed of to and bile, i. c. Time. It is scarcely supposable, that there would be such a change of form, without some vestige of it in A. S. or O. E. If there ever was such a change, it must have been previous to the existence of the language which we now call English. For in A. S. til signified donec, or until, at the same time that the phrase tha hwile, (not fo while) was used in the very same sense. Although they occur as synon, there is not the least evidence that the one assumed the form of the other. Besides, one great objection to the whole plan of this very ingenious work, forcibly strikes the mind here. Mr. Tooke scarcely pays any regard to the cognate languages. In Su. G. not only is hila used, as denoting rest, cessation; being radically the same word with A. S. bwile, and expressing substantially the same idea: but til is a prep. respecting both time and place. In MoesG., as hweila signifies time, til denotes occasion, opportunity. Now, it would be far more natural to view our till as originally the MoesG. term, used in the same manner as A. S. bwile, to mark the time, season, or opportunity for doing any thing. But it appears to me still more simple and natural, to view till as merely the prep. primarily used in the sense of ad, to. The A. S.` word til, or tille, is rendered both ad and donec. Su.G. till also admits of both senses. It is thus defined by Ihre; Till, praepositio, notans motum ad locum, et id diverso modo; dum enim genitivum regit, indicat durationem, secus si accusativo jungatur. Thus all the difference between till, ad, and till, donec, is that the former denotes progress with respect to place, the other, progress as to time. As till and to are used promiscuously in old writing, in the sense of ad; till, donec, may be often resolved into to. Thus, "I must work from twelve till six," i. e. from the hour of twelve to that of six; marking progressive labour. In one of the examples given by Dr. Johns. under until, which he properly designs a prep., the substitution of to would express the sense equally well: "His sons were priests of the tribe of Dan until the day of the captivity." It is no inconsiderable confirmation of this hypothesis, that although til does not occur in the Teut. dialects, tot, to, is used in this sense; the same prep. denoting progress both with respect to place and time. Tat buys gaen, to go home, to go to one's house ; Tot den nacht |