from the thirteenth century to the age of Elizabeth (1558). If, within this space of time we would distinguish an Old-English period (12501350) and a Middle English (1350—1558), we must consider on the other hand that, in point of fact, no epoch of change in the forms of the English language occurred in the middle of the fourteenth century, although the age of Edward the Third gave a new impulse to English literature. Those who wish to specify sharp distinctions in the forms of the language of these periods are justly in perplexity. No new principle of formation enters into the language, no one dialect is raised decidedly into a literary standard, it being currently said of the language, even by Chaucer: Ther is so great diversite in English and in writing of our tong p. 332 Tyrwh., with which Trevisa also agrees in his translation of Higden's Polychronicon (1387). And, if the formation and renovation of the English tongue is still ascribed, as it was by Skelton, to the poets Gower, and to Chaucer, the unsurpassed during two centuries, (compare Skelton I. 75 and 377), this refers to the syntactic and stylistic aspect of the tongue more than to its forms and their mutations. Moreover we shall, in the exposition of the Old-english forms, have the authors of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries especially in our eye, who. in regard to the Anglosaxon vocabulary and to the strong verbal forms still preserved, are, of course, richer than subsequent ones; in which respect Skelton might say that Gower's English was in his age obsolete; as also generally that, at the end of the Old English period, the linguistic revolution was so accelerated that Caxton could say, in 1490, that the language was then very different from that in use at the time of his birth in 1412.

The Modern English language, further developed under the influences of the art of printing, of newly reviving science and of the Reformation, and, from the sixteenth century, methodically cultivated, is, however, separated from the Old English by no sharp line of demarcation. Spencer and Shakespeare, who, in part consciously, affect archaisms, stand on the confines and at the same time reach back beyond them. Yet the language now gradually gains more and more in orthographical and grammatical consistency, although the golden age of Elizabeth is not at the same time the age of classical correctness of the language, chiefly because the study of the ancient languages operated immediately more upon the form than upon the substance of the literature. Nevertheless this study soon contributed to fix also the English prosody, which, in Old English, was fluctuating. Although the spelling has continued in certain particulars uncertain and complicated even to the present day, the settlement of the orthography, prosody and grammar since the beginning of the seventeenth century is an essential mark of distinction between the Old English and the Modern English. Herewith is associated the securing of a literary idiom, to which contributed not so much the translations from the classical languages and from the Italian, as the translation of the Bible, composed by order of James the First, (1607-11) still the authorized one, and not only an excellent work for its own age, but, even for the present, a model of classical language. The home of the present literary dialect is moreover universally shifted to the

ancient confines of the Angles and West Saxons. Some place it in the dialect of Northamptonshire (Thom. Sternberg); others, in that of Leicestershire (Guest); yet the same freedom from provincialisms is also attributed to the dialects of Bedfordshire and Herefordshire. The language of the educated is at present every where under the influence of the literary language, and it is a matter of course that the living speech of the inhabitants of the capital is regarded as the standard for cultivated intercourse, even in regard to pronunciation.

Although not unimportant, the invasion of numerous Latin words in the sixteenth century is of only subordinate moment in determining the character of the language. Many of these, called "inkhorn words' by the purists of the time, have been preserved. Not more important is the subsequent naturalization of Latin and Greek words through Milton, (1608-74) and the extension of the domain of French words in English, much that was repugnant having been rejected in more modern times, and English being especially adapted, from the blunting of its terminations, to assimilate foreign words of all kinds. A more essential distinction between Modern English and Old English is the loss of German words, particularly of strong forms. Even in the sixteenth century Puttenham (Art of English poetry, 1598) warns his readers against old grandsire words and phrases, and dictionaries down to the present time progressively expel obsolete matter from the language of the day. Moreover, Lexicography itself, (which began towards the end of the fifteenth and beginning of the sixteenth century, at first as English-Latin Lexicography, and in the interest of the acquisition of foreign languages, as of Latin, Greek and the modern tongues, but from the seventeenth and especially the eigthteenth century strove to collect a vocabulary of the English language, with a regard, at the same time, to the pronunciation,) has essential merits as to the correctness of the written and spoken language. A final distinction between Modern and Old-English is the manifold stylistic cultivation of the language in all departments of poetry and prose, whereas Old-English, particularly in prose narrative, lagged behind the endeavour for correctness and variety.

As principal constituents of the English language in regard to its material are to be specified the words of Anglosaxon and Normanfrench origin, with which are associated modern words borrowed from the Latin, Greek and Romance, and a few Germanic and even extra-European tongues. In spite of the lessening of the Anglosaxon and the growth of foreign elements, the Anglosaxon is still regarded as the main stock of English. According to some, of 38,000 words regarded as genuine English, the number of Anglosaxon in the English of the present day amounts to about 23,000, or nearly. According to Chambers, there are 53,000 English words, of which 3,820 are primitive, amongst which 2513 are common to the English and the Germanic and 1,250 to the English and the classical tongues. According to Thommerel, the number of words originally Anglosaxon is 12,000. However it be, the mixture of ingredients in writings of different kinds is very different, so that in works strictly scientific the number of the Anglosaxon is the smallest, whereas in other prose works, as well as in poetry and in common life in general, the Anglosaxon prevail, although

even here the cosmopolitan intercourse of modern times affords increased access to foreign ingredients.

With regard to linguistic forms Anglosaxon has operated along with French, yet in a greatly preponderant measure. English owes to Anglosaxon the remnants of inflective terminations in the noun, the verb and the pronoun, likewise its articles, its numerals, its chief store of particles in words of relation and in conjunctions, also the comparative and superlative forms of the adjective, and its adverbial formation. The Anglosaxon has bequeathed the facility of compounding words, and a considerable number of forms of derivation, and lastly has chiefly determined the formation of its periods. The influence of French shews itself first in regard to sounds: to it is perhaps to be ascribed the silence of the before other consonants, like, ƒ, v, k, m; as also the partial silence of the haud gh. It has also, perhaps, accelerated the silence of the final e, which in Chaucer is still often sounded. The introduction of the sibilant sound of es is also due to the influence of French, likewise the diffusion of the letters ≈ and instead of the original f. It may also have cooperated in consigning to the Anglosaxon s almost exclusively the formation of the plural. It has further conveyed to English a number of forms of terminations, which have given the language a fresh mobility, as they are often joined on to Germanic roots. Of no slight import is the influence of French upon the collocation of English words, whereby a freedom, not possessed by the German, is produced.

The blending of the Germanic with the Romance imparts to English in general a richness of expression for all shades of thought, possessed by no other modern language. Its Germanic prosody makes English more adapted for poetical forms than French, to which, however, it owes in part the diffusion of rhyme instead of alliteration, although rhyme was not quite foreign to Anglosaxon. With the-boldness and force of Germanic speech English unites the flexibility and polish of the Romance languages, and only the stunting of the words. and the poverty in inflections, which frequently cause a monosyllabic barking, obstruct occasionally the artistic cultivation of the language.

The English language, in the wider sense, is primarily divided into English, in the narrower sense, and Scotch.

a. English, even in the olden time split up into many dialects, most of them appearing also in literature, has, even now, numerous popular dialects, the investigation of which, in regard to sound, to the grammar and to the vocabulary is important both for the history of the language and for philology. Collections have, in modern times in particular, begun to be made of their vocabulary, so rich in what has been abandoned by the modern language. Although Anglosaxon, judged by its manuscripts, did not possess numerous dialects, almost every English county has preserved its own dialect, sometimes even divided into several shades. These popular dialects are distinguished from each other and from the literary language; firstly and chiefly, by their vocalization; secondly, by the transmutation of many consonants; thirdly, by the rejection and transposition of consonants; by the preservation, not only

of Old-germanic, but also Old-french words; fifthly, by the preservation of Germanic strong flexional forms, as well as by the interchange of strong and weak forms. Halliwell, in his collection of archaic and provincial words, has exhibited 51,027 forms of words, and numerous comparisons of words of various dialects are gradually offering more and more support to research.

The present popular dialects are divided, as they were by Verstegan (in his Restitution in 1634) into three groups; the Western, the Southern and the Northern. In the fourteenth century Halliwell fancies there were a Southern, a Middle and a Northern Group, of which the Southern at present remains only in the West.

The Western group is most sharply expressed in the counties of Dorset, a part of Somerset, Devon and Cornwall; less so in Wiltshire, Berkshire and Oxfordshire, and in Gloucestershire, the present dialect whereof is still similar to that of old Robert of Gloucester. Apart from their peculiar vocabulary, these dialects are seemingly characterized by the lengthening of the vowels, the broadening of the diphthongs, the softening of s into z and f into e, as also by suppressed pronunciation without the full opening of the mouth.

The so called Southern dialects may be divided into three branches. One begins with Kent, wherewith is allied Sussex, Surrey and Hampshire on the one hand, and Essex on the other, so that the dialects pass partly into the Western and partly into the East-anglian. The East-anglian form the second branch, which shews itself most decidedly in Norfolk and Suffolk, but to which also Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire, and, as cognate, Leicestershire and Rutlandshire are attached. These dialects are thin and have something of singsong, whence the Suffolk "whining", and form a sharp contrast to the full-toned northern dialects. The midland dialects are to be regarded as the third branch, as, that of Herefordshire, Warwickshire and Northamptonshire, also at present that of Nottinghamshire, where the northern dialect was formerly native. They form the transition to the northern dialects.

The Northern group, which we may call the Northumbrian, exhibits itself most decidedly in the dialects of Northumberland, Durham and the North Riding of Yorkshire, and in Cumberland and Westmoreland. Broad, full-toned, guttural and passing into the Scottish, it is hardest in Northumberland and most monotonous in Durham. In Lincolnshire, where a northern dialect is divided from a southern one by the river Witham, the latter resembles the Eastanglian. The dialect of Lancashire recedes in the West from that of Yorkshire, but, like this, favours the a sound instead of o and ou, and puts the o sound in the place of ea and oi, and hardens the final g and d into k and t. These dialects, the most remote from the literary English, have enjoyed the most especial lexicographic research. b. The Scotch language, or the speech of the Scottish lowlands, which has maintained its Germanic character with the greatest fidelity, is distinguished from the English by a broader vocalization, especially by the frequent employment of the obscure a instead of o, of ai instead of oa and o, the preservation of the guttural ch,

English gh, and the more frequent retention of the original g and k, likewise the frequent rejection of the final 1, of d after n at the end of a word, likewise of g in the termination ing. It often exchanges the participial termination ed for it, preserves many archaic forms and is distinguished by the employment of particular derivative terminations, such as the ukie, from ock: The Scotch language kept pace with the English as a literary dialect till the sixteenth century; but from that time the English outstripped it. Queen Elizabeth no longer understood the Scotch letters of Mary Stuart in the same age when it seemed to the publisher of Chaucer (Speght), in 1602, needful to subjoin a glossary of Chaucer's obscure words, which had not appeared necessary in the editions of 1542 and 1561, notwithstanding Spencer's Shepheardes Calendar in 1579 needed a glossary by reason of its "Chaucerisms". With the union of the two kingdoms in 1603, the removal of the court to England and the neglect of the Scotch by the upper ranks, the language lost its literary dignity and subsided into a mere popular dialect. It raised itself indeed, particulary with the commencement of the eighteenth century, (Allan Ramsay born 1686) in popular poetry into a certain finish in a narrow department; without, however, again acquiring the importance of a language of varied cultivation. In its stationariness the Scotch, originally very close to the English, has preserved many materials of speech which have been abandoned in English. The Scotch has hitherto become more the subject of lexicographical than of scientific grammatical research.

The forms of English in the countries which have received it from its original home are hardly to he considered English dialects in the strict sense, although there it receives a provincial cast in the mouth of the people. The English of North America, for instance, which, like the speech of all colonies, has to keep up its intimate connection with the mother country chiefly through the language of books, is gradually diverging in pronunciation. It retains words already obsolete in England, elevates particular English provincialisms into expressions of universal currency, assigns new and peculiar expressions to many old words, and takes up many words from the American languages. The language of conversation in the colonies suffers everywhere from similar defects, but the general physiognomy of the tongue remains the same.

Linguistic varieties, such as the thieves' language of England, the "flash" or "cant" of thieves and beggars, likewise the mob language of the populace of great cities, a mixed language of divers dialects and, partly, of arbitrary formations, wherein words are employed with new and peculiar meanings, (slang words and phrases) do not come under review as dialects. The pronunciation of the common people of the great towns, such as that of the cockney speakers of London, has also no dialectic nature, properly speaking; like as the perversion of the vocalization and the guttural tinge to the dentals and to r, except at the end of a syllable, with the Irishman is to be ascribed to the influence of the Celtic, which also imparts a particular quality to the pronunciation of Wales.