Assimilation of Consonants.

The original word may undergo a change, in that one of two different consonants, mostly the final and the initial sound of two syllables, either originally standing beside each other, or else meeting together after a rejection of vowels, assimilates itself to the other, whence arises the reduplication either of the former or of the latter consonant. In general the second consonant beginning a new, even an unaccented syllable, prevails to which the preceding one is wont to join itself, although, the nasal consonant especially, rather draws the succeeding one over to itself. But English has brought over numerous assimilations from its constituent tongues.

1. The assimilation of a consonant with a nasal or liquid letter is perhaps the most frequent. Here belong:

mm instead of fm: lemman, now sometimes leman (lefmon DAME SIRIZ p. 11. levemon p. 12.), dearest, darling. Compare lammastide (Anglosaxon hlâfmesse and even hlâmmesse); instead of dm: gammer (Anglosaxon godmodor); instead of mb: plummer alongside of plumber (French plombier), plummet &c.; instead of nm: hammock (Hollandish hangmat, -mak), grammercy! (COLLEY CIBBER) = grand' merci.

nn instead of nd: winnow (Anglosaxon vindvjan), dialectically windewe; Bennet (Benedict), bannerol alongside of bandrol (Old-French banderolle); trunnel alongside of trundle (Anglosaxon tryndel = orbis); instead of nw: gunnel alongside of gunwale.

U instead lh: fullam, false die (from the name of a place Fulham); instead rl: ballast (Old-English barlest, Swedish barlast, Danish baglast).

rr instead of rn: garrison (Old-French garnison, guarnison, but also partly confounded with garison), Old-English garnison (CHAUCER); instead of dr: Derric, Derrick (Anglosaxon peódric, French Thierry); instead of thr: Surrey (Anglosaxon Sûdreá, compare Old-Highdutch sundarauwa), Old-English Soperei (ROB. OF GLOUCESTER); instead of gr: stirrup (Anglosaxon stigerâp, stigrap); instead of nr: Harry alongside of Henry.

2. Among lipletters another consonant is especially assimilated to b and f.

bb instead of pb: robbins, which means rope-bands; instead of gb; Hubbard (Old-Highdutch Hugibert, compare Anglosaxon hyge mens).

: gaffer (Anglosaxon godfäder); Suffolk (Anglosaxon Suðfole), Old-English Sopfole (ROB. OF GLOUCESTER).

3. A toothsound occasions the assimilation of another sound.

tt instead of ct: dittany (dictamnus); similarly in Old-English Atteon, Latin Actæon (CHAUCER), like the pronunciation of victuals; ditty (belonging to the Anglosaxon dihtan, Latin dictare), Old-English dite as a substantive.

In Old-English b also assimilated itself to t in dettour debtor (CHAUCER).

dd instead of dw: in Old-English goddot - godwot (HAVELOK). 88 instead of ths: Sussex (Anglosaxon Sûdseaxan), Old-English Soupsex; lissom is in like manner written for lithesome, compare bliss (Anglosaxon blids, bliss); instead of ds: gossip (Anglosaxon godsibb), Old-English godsib, compare gospel for godspell; instead of ts and st: mess, to feed &c. (Anglosaxon metsjan cibare), compare bless (Anglosaxon blêtsjan and blêssjan); misseltoe alongside of mistletoe (Anglosaxon misteltâ), tressel alongside of trestle (Old-French trestel, Modern-French tréteau, according to Diez, Hollandish driestal).

zz instead of rs: nuzzle in the meaning of to foster (OldEnglish noursle to nurse up).

4. To a guttural another consonant is hardly ever assimilated. gg is put for rg in guggle instead of gurgle; in Warwickshire it is used for gargle.

Transposition of Sounds, or Metathesis.

The transposition of the sounds of a word, insignificant for the notion, is a general phenomenon, brought about by a physiological cause, the Elective Affinity of the sounds, and supported by the defective apprehension of the sounds as a whole. It affects various sounds, but liquid sounds are especially the cause of the transposition. This metathesis distinguishes words partly into various periods, partly into various dialects of the same tongue.

1. Two consonants immediately following each other may change places with each other. At the beginning of At the beginning of a word this, at least in the written tongue, is the case with the Anglosaxon hv, now appearing only as wh. In Old-English writings the instances of the position hw are scanty; more early, on the contrary, we find wh almost everywhere, unless h is thrown out, as in ROB. OF GLOUCESTFR in wo (who), wer (where), wat (what) &c. But wh also stands, in a striking manner, for qu (Anglosaxon cv), as in whik (quick), whake (quake), whaynt (quaint) (TOWNEL. MYSTER.), and even now in Northern dialects, whence we might infer the originally sameness of pronunciation of hw (wh) and cv (qu); especially since also, conversely, qu often appears for wh, as in quetstone (whetstone) (IBID.), quete (wheat), quedur (whether) (HALLIWELL S. vv.); whereas Scottish formerly substituted quh for wh: quhittle (whittle), quhow (how), quham (whom) &c., as qwh is likewise found: qwhicke (WARKWORTH'S CHRONICLE p. 3.). As to the present pronunciation of wh as hw no cause can be assigned for the transposition. Compare white (Anglosaxon hvît), wheat (hvate), whoop (hvôpan) &c. At the middle and end of a word the inversion of sp into ps is very common in dialects; thus in Sussex they say wapse, hapse, clapse for wasp, hasp, clap &c., in Kent eps for asp &c., as Anglosaxon presented äpse, väps, häpse, vlips, cops &c., alongside of äspe, väsp, häspe, vlisp, cosp &c. In Chaucer crispe and cirps are found (Anglosaxon crisp and cirps); Mo

Mätzner, engl. Gr. I.

13

dern-English ever prefers sp; compare grasp (Lowdutch grapsen, belonging to gripen, Anglosaxon grîpan). Methatheses of another sort, as those of gn and ng in pegen, pëgn, pëng, pên, English thane, minister (also familiar to Old-French) are found more rarely in Anglosaxon; or ns and sn in clansjan and clæsnjan, English cleanse, which are not met with in English. 2. Consonants originally commencing two syllables seldom change places. This is the case in tickle (Anglosaxon citeljan) alongside of the obsolete kittle (SHERWOOD), which still survives in Northern dialects. Old-English certainly used tinclan, tolcettan in a like sense. Through the interchange of the second liquid consonant of the next syllable with the initial sound of the previous one the apparently compound form gilliflower, otherwise gillo fer, has arisen. In Chaucer it sounds clouegilofre (that is French girofle caryophyllum).

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3. Two consonants, originally including a vowel often come together as an initial sound, when the last is a liquid consonant, which is easily attracted by another, so called mute. ModernEnglish offers this attraction of ther in an accented syllable, not unknown either to Anglosaxon or Old-French, still more frequently then Old-English: bright (Anglosaxon beorht, but also bryht), obsolete bert; fright (fyrhta), wright (vyrhta), frith, Scotch firth; compare Dieffenbach's Dictionary I, p. 365. 405; fresh (Anglosaxon ferse, but Old-norse friskr, Old-Highdutch frisc), cress (Anglosaxon cresse and cerse, compare vyllecerse), Old-English kerse, like the Danish karse; thrill (pyrheljan, þyrljan perforare), Old-English therlen, later thirl; nostril naspyrl), through (Anglosaxon purh, puruh), Old-English thurgh &c.; brothel (Old-French bordel), Old-English and Old-Scotch bordel; fruggin, provincial oven-fork (French fourgon, from the Latin furca), cruddle is used for curdle, frubbish, frub for furbish (BARRET), scruf for scurf. The participle afraid is Old-English aferd, aferid (Anglosaxon afæran); the Old-French effreier, effroier and the Anglosaxon færan blend here. - Hither too we may refer the unaccented syllables, particularly those in which 7, less so r, come alongside of another consonant and take e after them, although here and there the joining on of e after the rejection of a vowel between the mute and liquid letters appears as natural an assumption; compare idle (Anglosaxon îdel), Old-English idel; bridle (Anglosaxon brîdel), Old-English bridel; apple (Anglosaxon appel, äpl), maple (Anglosaxon mapeltreó), fickle (Anglosaxon ficol), sickle (Anglosaxon sicol, sicel), Old-English sikel; kirtle (Anglosaxon cyrtel), Old-English kirtel; thistle (Anglosaxon pistel), Old-English pistill; cattle Old-French catel, chatel), Old-English catel); castle, Old-English castel; mantle alongside of mantel, even with a diversity of meaning. This especially takes place with regard to 1, whereas with r the reverse mostly takes place in Modern-English. Yet r also is attracted: acre (Anglosaxon acer), augre alongside of auger and some others. Old-English, on the other hand, has aftre, thidre, whidre, watre, Alisandre, laddre, wun

dre &c. (MAUNDEV.), where Modern-English reinstated the vowel into its original place.

and drîta

4. Equally familiar to Modern-English is the separation of the initial liquid in such manner that the two consonants now include the vowel which originally followed them. In an accented syllable this metathesis again affects the r, as even in Anglosaxon; compare gräs and gärs, grin and girn &c. Modern-English instances are: bird (Anglosaxon bridd, pullus), Old-English and Old-Scotch brid, bridde; third (Anglosaxon pridda), Old-English thridde; thirty (Anglosaxon pritig, prittig), Old-English thritty; dirt (Anglosaxon dritan cacare, Old-norse drit = excrementum cacare), Old-Scotch dryte cacare; thresh (Anglosaxon perscan, but Old-Highdutch driscan); curl (Old-norse krulla, Middle - Highdutch krülle, a lock of hair); girn still stands sometimes alongside of grin; forst still occurs alongside of frost (HALLIWELL), like the Anglosaxon frost and forst, frostig and fyrstig; garner (Old-French grenier and also gernier, Latin granarium); garnet alongside of granate (Italian granato), furmenty alongside of frumenty (compare Old-French froment and forment), purpose (compare Old-French proposer and purposer), burnish (Old-French brunir and burnir) &c. Even in an unaccented syllabler frequently, but I hardly ever, steps out of the combination with its consonant, so that a return is made to the primitive position of the vowel, which the older tongue, especially the French, had forsaken (compare above, 3), although we might here often think of the insertion of a vowel: sugar, Old-English sugre (PIERS PLOUGпM. p. 292. Latin saccharum, Spanish, Portugese azucar, French sucre); letter (OldFrench letre, Latin littera), Old-English lettre; pattern (French patron), number (nombre), minister (ministre); without a primitive vowel before r: proper (propre), member (membre), vinegar (vinaigre) and others. Even Anglosaxon has plaster, as well as Modern-English, overagainst plastre, plaistre. OldEnglish forms, like philosophre, Modern-English philosopher, jaspre, Modern-English jasper (jaspis) and the like, are also transpositions. I rarely occurs in this case: ousel, ouzel (Anglosaxon ôsle). 5. The transposition of vowel and consonant in an unaccented syllable, with which also the cases named under 3 and 4 might partly be reckoned, have perhaps often for their cause the attempt to render the spoken sound with greater certainty in writing. Hence the formerly occurring forms fier, hier, and the like, alongside of fire, hire; as also thence, thrice, once, else are not to be taken as transpositions of the older forms thennes, thries, ones, elles, whose e became mute.

6. French used to admit an attraction of a short or ě by a preceding vowel, when a consonant stood between them and the short vowel was followed by another, as in histoire (historia), poison (potion-em). English has in part abolished these matetheses and approximated itself to the Latin fundamental form, perhaps conformably with Old-French collateral forms; compare

history, story (Old-French histoire, estoire, but also estore), victory (victoire, but also victorie, victore), secretary (secretaire), chartulary (cartulaire, chartulaire) and many more. The words in ier (arius) belonging here, have also likewise approached the Latin form: primary (Old-French primier, primer), January (janvier) &c. The more frequent transmutations of the liquids ill (il) and gn (partly arising from gn, ng, partly from ni, ně before another vowel) are likewise to be considered as a transposition of the French metathesis, in which English likewise had ancient French collateral forms as models: pavilion (OldFrench pavillon, paveillon, Latin papilion-em), bullion (French billon), minion (French mignon), companion (Old-French compaignon, companion), poniard (poignard) and the like. Carrion also belongs here (Old-French caroigne), Old-English

caroyne, careyne.

7. Solitary uncommon metatheses are biovac alongside of birouac; culverine (French couleuvrine), the Old-English cokodrill and cokedrill (MAUNDEV.) (crocodilus), zurstendai (yesterday) (DAME SIRIZ p. 4.). Must we also take parsley to be a metathesis? Compare the Old-English percile (PIERS PLOUGHMAN).

Assimilation of different words and double forms of the same word.

The constitution of the material of speech and the manner of its embodiment into the mixed tongue, English, the habit of rendering various sounds by one and the same, as well as, conversely, the facility of denoting the same sound by various English letters, explain the possibility both of seeing words originally different represented by one and the same English word, and also of finding the same original word differently represented. The latter found the more support in the constitution of such words as had already passed through another tongue and could be received both in their fundamental form and in their altered shape. This was especially done when occasion was found to couple notional differences on to them. In this even the mistaking of roots, which had been long possessed in their renewed form, was of service.

A) Assimilation of different words.

We have already frequently had occasion to distinguish by their roots words of the same sound. But the number of words belonging to this class is in English very considerable, and demands a careful discrimination in detail, which in the first instance is incumbent upon Lexicography. We give here, out of the great multitude, by way of examples, a list of assimilated words, whose descent seems to result from their phonetic development.

1. Words beginning with a vowel sound.

Impair. 1) Verb: worsen, spoil, Old-French empeirer. 2) Adjective: uneven, unadapted, French impair.