The History of the English LanguageMacmillan and Company, 1894 - 415 pages |
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Common terms and phrases
accent adjectives adverbs American analogy became become belong borrowed words Celtic century Chaucer common compounds conquest consonant shift declension dental dialects diphthong early Modern English early Teutonic element ending England English language English words especially example final foreign words French words genitive gradation Greek guage Henry High German important inflectional inflectional forms labial later Latin literary language literature Low German Mercian Middle English Middle English period Midland mutation native neuter Norman Norse nouns occur Old English Old French older original palatal participle phonetic plural poetry present preserved preterit pronouns pronunciation relation remained root Sanskrit similar singular sometimes sound speech spoken standard language stems stress strong verbs suffix syllable tendency TEUT Teutonic languages tongue velars Verner's law vocabulary voiced voiceless vowel W. W. SKEAT weak verbs West Saxon written
Popular passages
Page 127 - Whan that Aprille with his shoures soote The droghte of Marche hath perced to the roote, And bathed every veyne in swich licour. Of which vertu engendred is the flour; Whan Zephirus eek with his swete breeth Inspired hath in every holt and heeth The tendre croppes...
Page 131 - Knowledge and wisdom, far from being one, Have ofttimes no connection. Knowledge dwells In heads replete with thoughts of other men, Wisdom in minds attentive to their own.
Page 131 - Knowledge dwells In heads replete with thoughts of other men ; Wisdom, in minds attentive to their own. Knowledge, a rude unprofitable mass, The mere materials with which Wisdom builds, Till smoothed, and squared, and fitted to its place, Does but encumber whom it seems to enrich.
Page 132 - More things are wrought by prayer Than this world dreams of. Wherefore, let thy voice Rise like a fountain for me night and day. For what are men better than sheep or goats That nourish a blind life within the brain, If, knowing God, they lift not hands of prayer Both for themselves and those who call them friend?
Page 129 - And though the sects of philosophers of that kind be gone, yet there remain certain discoursing wits, which are of the same veins, though there be not so much blood in them as was in those of the ancients. But it is not only the difficulty and...
Page 5 - Gallic is little known except through names quoted by Greek and Latin authors, or through inscriptions and coins. Britannic includes the Cymric, or Welsh, the Cornish, and the Armorican of northwest France. Welsh and Armorican are known from the eighth or ninth centuries, Cornish from a somewhat later period. The latter also became extinct at the end of the last, or the beginning of the present, century.
Page 91 - Our language is noble, full, and significant; and I know not why he who is master of it may not clothe ordinary things in it as decently as the Latin, if he use the same diligence in his choice of words: delectus verborum origo est eloquentiae.
Page 129 - Too well I see and rue the dire event, That with sad overthrow and foul defeat Hath lost us heaven, and all this mighty host In horrible destruction laid thus low...
Page 87 - He that will write well in any tongue must follow this counsel of Aristotle— to speak as the common people do, to think as wise men do, as so should every man understand him and the judgment of wise men allow him.
Page 92 - For I cannot approve of their way of refining, who corrupt our English idiom by mixing it too much with French: that is a sophistication of language, not an improvement of it ; a turning English into French, rather than a refining of English by French.