The Making of English

Henry Bradley

The making of English

Henry Bradley

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ISBN : 9789353701468

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THE MAKING OF ENGLISH

THE

MAKING OF ENGLISH

BY

HENRY BRADLEY Hox. M.A. OXON., HON. PH.D. HEIDELBERG SOMETIME PRESIDENT OF THE PHILOLOGICAL SOCIETY

MACMILLAN AND

CO.,

LIMITED

NEW YORK THE MACMILLAN COMPANY :

1904 All

rights reserved

States Copyright in the United of America, 1904.

PRINTED AT THK UNIVERSITY PUESS BY ROBRKT MACLKHOSE AND CO.

GLASGOW

:

PREFACE THIS little work was announced as in preparation some years ago, but illness compelled me to lay it aside when only a few pages had been written, and since then

me

to attempt

my

health has seldom permitted

any work

in addition to

my

daily

task as one of the editors of the Oxford English Dictionary.

Some

of the faults of this volume

may be due to the desultory manner in which it has been composed but, on the other hand, the length of time that has elapsed since it was first planned has given me opportunity for more care;

ful

consideration of difficult points.

The

object of the book

is

readers unversed in philology

to give to educated

some notion of the

have produced the excellences and defects of modern English as an instrument of causes that

expression.

With the

history of the language

I

have attempted to deal only so far as it bears on this special problem. The subject, even as thus restricted,

is

one which

it

is

not easy to

PREFACE

vi

treat briefly.

I

have, however, resisted the temp-

volume beyond the

tation to enlarge the originally

the purpose which is

more

My

because

intended, I

I

believe

limits

that

for

have in view a small book

likely to be useful than a large one.

thanks are due to

my

friends

Professor

Napier, Mr. W. A. Craigie, and Mr. C. T. Onions, for their kindness in reading the proofs, and

suggesting valuable corrections and improvements.

HENRY BRADLEY. OXFORD, January,

1904.

CONTENTS CHAPTER

I.

PAGE

INTRODUCTORY

-

i

i.

THE LIKENESS OF GERMAN AND ENGLISH

i

2.

DIFFERENCES

BETWEEN

GERMAN

AND

ENGLISH

-

4

3.

CHARACTERISTICS OF OLD ENGLISH

-

-

7

4.

OBJECT OF THIS BOOK

-

-

14

-

16

-

17

CHAPTER

II.

THE MAKING OF ENGLISH GRAMMAR i.

SIMPLIFICATION OF ACCIDENCE

-

2.

NEW GRAMMATICAL MATERIAL

-

3.

PROFIT AND Loss

CHAPTER WHAT ENGLISH TONGUES

-

OWES

53 -

-

74

III.

TO

FOREIGN 80

CONTENTS

viii

CHAPTER WORD-MAKING

IV. PAGE

IN

i.

COMPOSITION

2.

DERIVATION-

ENGLISH

^3. ROOT-CREATION

in

... -

-

CHAPTER CHANGES OF MEANING

-

CHAPTER

-

m I2 8

154

V. -

160

VI.

SOME MAKERS OF ENGLISH

215

INDEX

2 4l

CHAPTER

I.

INTRODUCTORY. 1.

Ax

The Likeness of German and English.

Englishman who begins to learn German fail to be struck by the resemblance which

cannot

that language presents to his native tongue.

the words which occur in his

first

Of

lessons because

they are those most commonly used in every-day conversation, a very large proportion are recognisably identical, in spite of considerable differences of pronunciation, with

The

their English

synonyms.

following examples will suffice to illustrate

the remarkable degree of similarity between the vocabularies of the two languages

:

Vater father,

Mutter mother, Bruder brother, Schwester sister, Haus house, Feld field, Gras grass, Korn corn,

Land

land, Stein stone,

Kuh

cow, Kalb

calf,

Ochse

ox, singen to sing, horen to hear, haben to have,

gehen to go, brechen to break, bringen to bring,

THE MAKING OF ENGLISH

2

gut good, wohl blind,

ich

I,

well,

[CHAP.

grim green, hart hard, blind

ivir we, selbst self, hier here, unter

At a very

under, bei by, vor be-fore.

early stage

of his progress, the learner will find himself able to compile a list of some hundreds of German

words

which

have

an

obvious

in

meaning.

In addition to these resemblances which

the

surface,

lie

on

which can

others

many

are

there

the

likeness to

English words with which they agree

only be perceived by the help of a knowledge of the general laws of correspondence between

German and English general laws

An

tration.

may

A

sounds.

few of these

be mentioned by way of

English

/ is

illus-

usually represented in

an English th by d an z, tz, English / by pf or f\ an English d by / and an English v in the middle of a word by b.

German by

or ss

;

;

;

There be

are

stated

similar

here, relating

of the vowels.

By

to

complicated

the

to

correspondence

the study of these laws, and

of the facts that are

two

too

laws,

known about

the history

have

been languages, enabled to prove the fundamental identity of a vast number of English words with German

of

the

scholars

words

which are very different from them in sound and spelling, and often also in meaning. Thus,

for

example, Ba.um, a

tree,

is

the

same

INTRODUCTORY

I.]

\vord as the English

our

'

town

beam

3

'

Zaun, a hedge, is (which originally meant a place sur-

'

'

;

rounded by a hedge, a farm enclosure) is

our

'

tide

'

drehen, to turn, wind,

;

and the derivative Draht, wire, draw Iragen, to carry, is our

But

to

a very remarkable

of forming

The

and

-er

syllables

'

des

adding s ' :

is

the king'j

Haus.'

Konigj used

are

-est

Our

extent.

by

genitive

German

in

is

the

many German words

paralleled in

house'

in

In their grammar, also, they resemble

each other

way

;

on.

and German have a great deal

that English

common.

5

'

our thread

and so

;

throw,

not merely in their stock of words

is

it

'

'

is

'

'

Zeit, time,

;

our

is

both

in

form the comparatives and superof adjectives. In the conjugation of the

languages to latives

verbs the similarity '

I

'

heard,'

I

ich horte, ich

seen

'

is

'

have heard habe gehort

are in '

;

German

I see,'

'

I

I hear,'

ich kore,

saw,'

'

I

are ich sehe, ich sah, ich habe gesehen '

sing,'

I

sang,'

'

I

have sung

sang, ich habe gesungen

have brought habe gebracht.

du

'

equally striking.

'

are

Our

' ;

ich '

I

'

'

;

I

are ich singe, ich '

bring,'

bringe,

have

brought/

I

brachtey

ich

thou singest

'

in

is

'

I

ich

German

singst.

The

explanation of these facts English is derived from German

is

or

not that

German

THE MAKING OF ENGLISH

4

from

English,

with

changes,

which

language

have

both

that

divergent

gradual

historic

but

[CHAP.

scholars

descended,

from

a

have

Low

Primitive Germanic or Primitive Teutonic.

German

or

the

Plattdeutsch,

dialect

(now only by the common people) Northern Germany, is much more

in

'

precalled

spoken

Low

'

or

like

English than literary High German is and Dutch and Frisian resemble Low German. The Scandinavian ;

languages, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, and Icelandic, are also of

and so chiefly

made

2.

is

(or Teutonic) origin

Gothic, a dead language

known

;

to us

from a translation of portions of the Bible the fourth century.

in

Differences between

But

while

German have their

Germanic

original

modern so

German and English

many

English.

and

modern

conspicuous traces of points of contrast

the

kinship,

between the two languages are equally striking and significant. In the

first

accidence, of plicated

than

place, the

German that

of

is

grammar, or rather the enormously more comEnglish.

The German

noun has three genders, which in many instances have no relation to the sex of the object sig-

INTRODUCTORY

I.]

the meaning or form of the word.

or to

nified,

Kopf, head,

masculine, though the

is

neuter

Hand

Haupt

is

foot, is

masculine, and Bein, leg,

and

woman,

student

culties

to

have no or

of English

genders

'

'

the

genitive

of

four

case

and

gute,

the

to

neuter

the

its

all

Weib,

The

no such

diffi-

we

speaking, '

'

he,'

she,'

absence

or

refer.

of

English s of

the

mode

one

only few

exceptions

German nouns

divided

into

own set of The English

several

inflexions

adjective

the one form good cor-

;

German forms

six

Fusz,

;

neuter.

case-ending,

are

with

but

we say sex,

as

number.

not inflected at

responds

:

half-an-hour.

cases,

and

has

practically

plural, in

declensions each

are

which we

one

and

forming can be learned

all

the

to

only ;

the

have

at

object

have

is

Properly

to

according

it

nouns

is

'

synonymous

feminine,

is

girl,

encounter.

sex, of the

for

;

Madchen,

foreign

'

5

gut, guter,

gutem, guten, the choice of which the gender, number, and partly on

gutes,

depends

case of the

noun which

is

and partly

qualified,

on other grammatical relations. In conjugating an English verb, such as sing, we meet with only

eight

singeth,

distinct

sang,

forms,

sangest,

sing,

singing,

sings,

singest,

sung

;

and

of these, three are practically obsolete.

even

In the

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