A Comparative Grammar of the Anglo-Saxon Language

f

!

J

1

r

(iLil\ iri-\f>

^

li

I

|G

1

.

r-»

Li.

c->

<

V'-/,-

.

.,

.

,

27

-,\V?



a'*

r, li, ;

as a

m,

ht n,

ledn, loan

d

> ed. It is found in many po-*' p fred, lord; tedr, tear; hedh, :

;

bredp, brow.

It is also

found

gedfon, gave scedn, shone. It is an unstable combination, tending to d or to e English English The prevailing set is, ee, as more or less of the c-sound works in. :

;

>

>

on the whole, to e: stedp, step-cir\, steep. It is also an assimilation of i, %, by p or ed, io = Gothic in. I: treop, Gothic triva, tree feol. Old H. German fUa, mud apparently also by Ji, g ; but in these cases a change of h, g, to p may be supposed plhan '^ped7i, depart frig, freo, free. It is a peculiar progression from i final (perhaps here also a labial sound is to be added) Ijeo, Old 11. German hi, bee. It often also springs from contraction, especially of the reduplication, exchanging with ^. It exchanges in writing with id. It is found ;

;

:

;

:

often for ed.

changes to

It

iX:

sxipan, sup;

—

silcan, suck.

It

an unstable combimust have had a peculiar sound or sounds w ic in to on the one side, and to > nation, tending English si(2) ^> English ee on the other. The prevailing set is, on the whole, to H. A similar sound is produced by (7-sc-breaking from 6: seed, shoe

;

ie 26.

but the e is lighter, used for ed, ed.

is

Northumbrian Vowels.— a

glo-Saxon has ea, sometimes where

with ea: ml,

SB interchanges

e

for a? frequent

;

oe

it

often used

is

has

e, i,

eall, all, all

for e frequent.

;

where An-

eo, u. vn for e is

abundant;

Assimilation of

if^o

< \oe.

CONSONANTS.

15

icu < loi^ is found tcosa, Anglo-Saxon pesan, to be ; tcictta, AugloSaxon pitan, to know; also id

English sure.

Gutturals.

si

(=zy )^zh:

zi

> zh

:

— ci^tsh:

Latin thesaurus

> English

treasure.

Anglo-Saxon grasian >• English graze '^grazier. Latin ca5/?-wm

^ Anglo-Saxon

Chester {Win-cheste)-)

;

> English

ceasto-

Anglo-Saxon yecian,yei2a?i]> En-

glish fetch.

ci^ sh:

c^ s

Latin occa?2?/5> English ocean.

t77/5> English

:

Latin ct-

civil.

sce>5/i.- Anglo-Saxon scacan'^ sceacan^FjUgVish shake. sci *

>s

:

Latin scientia

> English science.

gi>^/cA; Anglo-Saxon ecg (stem "•encn5> English gender.

e^g-i)

^English edge; Latin

gi>y: Goi\\\c gards Anglo-Saxon ,§-ea?-(i> English i^dzh: Latin iocus > Italian gioco > English jo/ic. :

T/ort?.

The beginnings of the following arc in Anglo-Saxon sc before a and o has often changed to see in the oldest manuscripts sceacan for scacan, shake. The sound of sh for sc in O. H. German first appears in the eleventh cen:

:

tury,

and afterward rules

in

High German.

As

for the

Low German,

sh

is

EUPHONIC CHANGES.—ASSIMILATION.

22

not yet in Dutch, but in Phitt-Dcutsch it has become common as in Englisli. There is no indication in the alhtcration that see is pronounced sh, nor can In the Anglo-Saxon of the, elevit be received as current literary speech.

ch

enth century,

for c begins to

appear: chihK^cild, child.

This

is

also

outside of the literary speech, and springs from foreign (French) influence. The other changes are still later, and more purely Romanic in their source.

The

German assibilation is sh, and that is later than classic Anglo-Saxon. Physiological. t-|-i: Hon in qucs{a.) Assibilation of Dentals. In t the to sound as one tends i to y. to tio7i. io change syllabic Trying in y the tip of the tongue is pressed to the upper gum, and the voice blown only

—

—

2.

;

of the tongue is dropped to the lower gum, and the middle is humped up toward the palate, and the voice breathed. In tsh the tip is inverted and tip

This is a compromise in turned up to tlie hard palate, and the voice blown. two points of view, as to the place of the stop (between the f-stop and the

—

—

a kind of stop (inverted tongue against hard palate but it is not a mechanical reroundish against a flatish surface see ^ 27) sult of an attempt to go rapidly through t-\-i/: it is a quite new way to make

y-stop), and as

to the

;

;

a sound which the ear will accept as a substitute for the two. The explanasame, except that the voice in cl and in dzh is

tion of d-{- i {soldier) is the

The

breathed instead of blown.

explanation of s

+ ^ {pension), and

of s-j-i

and d-{-i, except that in these last {grazier), the stop is not complete either in blowing s and sh, or breathing z and z?i. In the change of see to sh, the c goes to h, and only gives strength to the is

the

same as

that of t-\- i

compromise oi s-\-y. {b.) The English Assibilation of Gutturals, as though dentals, springs from defective articulation. The root of the tongue never works as easily Children say, and Anglo-Saxon children said, tan as the more flexible tip. for can, tin for cin ; and chin (tshm) is a not unnatural compromise between When the organs are placed for y, or i, or e, the back of the tin and cin.

mouth makes the narrow neck of a

make

bottle, ^ 22,

and

it is

hard to raise the

Hence c

(k) before y, i, e, is always unstable and hence a child will learn to say can before cin, and will be more likely The most natural result, however, of the to compromise on chin than chan. and give the aspidifficulty of making this stop is to make an imperfect stop, root to

a c (k) stop.

;

rate h, ch, instead of c(k), and this tendency has prevailed in the Germanic From this aspirate a foreign influence easily leads to the assibi-

tongues.

Aphaeresis of geofa, giver compare § 32 -am'>-um, %1\,b. Note also the diphthongs, § 25. The gutturals c (sc), g, place the organs so as to call out a

dedp,

dew

tredp, Gothic triva, tree.

;

;

;

while h, parasitic «-sound (breaking, § 33),

and

r, especially

(•ili-sound),

when followed by another

and the Unguals

1

consonant, had a burr

which brought a preceding i to eo (§ 23), NorthumFor i> eu before A, g, see § 25.

brian u: silfysulf, § 26. In Latin spatula, Xavrj

;

I

brings in

(TTrardXr}

;

u

most,

Hecuba,

—

'Ek(1j3i].

Masimssa, Maaavdaaris.

b,p,f, sometimes: The dentals bring in

nebula,

?;?,

The r

likes e before

it

:

z

:

vi(l>i\r]

machina,

;

fii]-

camera, Kajidpa

;

cinerisg, s>r, d=pyd, gyp, hpyp, byf: ;

they slew ceds, curon, chose cptved, cpscdon, dwell ; habban, hafact, have, haveth quoth bUgian, bitpian, to for seah, ssege, sdpe, saw, § 197. consonant assimilates a consonant. This occurs in An-

sloh, slogon, I slew,

;

;

;

;

(4.)

A

o-lo-Saxon mainly when, by composition, inflection, or apothesis, two consonants are brought together which can not be easily The most common case is the in the same

pronounced

syllable.

comino- to st hledst > cpidst > epist, quothest

bliss

;

:

),

;

hlest^ loadest.

Exception

(1).

graphic rule that

dp

is

d

is

often written



>

ns, § 130, c. cs=x^ a favorite letter ; tns If the surd precedes the sonant, the sonant is changed to

d; gs

B.

the nearest surd of

to

own

its

organ.

Thus,

cd,

hd,

7?c?,

fd,

sr,

sd,

sd,

td,

ct,

M,

pt^

ft.,

ss,

st,

st,

tt:

sought; stqyde "> stqyte, evecied pisreypisse, of this gretde ?itst:

> grette,

;

socde^soete^sohte

dnf{e)dy

{^ SQ),

194; c^sd^cpst, chooseth ; After this analogy, gs'^cs = x, ndst > ;

cysde'yeyste, kissed

greeted.

drift, dr'iveth, ^

;

agse'^axe, ashes; stendst^stentst, standest.

And by

simplifying gemination (§ 27, 5), final td'yt, std^st: blttd~ybltt, sacrificeth; hirstd^biTSt,\>wc^i^\X\', and after a con-

sonant: ehtde^ehte, persecuted. In st^ssin piste^pisse,\{\?,t, the s is strong enough to take an explosive over to its continuous. another consonant may (5.) An explosive consonant before

change to a continuous of the same organ. 1.

The

explosive

sound but s after 2.

This

fact

gd^hd ;

it

is

a complete stop, and hence

same

in the

may work

gstyhst

:

cshd: seedy sehd, seeks, Hask. an explosive may change to its cognate

n a surd or fn^7nn, gn^ng: nefne^ nemne,

Before

(c.)

it is

syllable.

unless; stefn'ystemn,

stem; gefrignciWy gefringan, Xo inquire. Compare («) and (J) above. The veil is raised for the n an instant too soon, §§ 27, 28. 36. Dissimilation. (l.) A vowel may change to a consonant to avoid the hiatus with another vowel; «'> d: prdd, pridon,

I writhed, they writhed, ? § 35, 3, b.

EUPHONIC CHANGES.— COMPENSATION.

explosive sometimes changes to a contiuuous

The former

(3.)

of

same organ.

tlic

25

h, 2.

§ 35, 4,

hdyfd., ctyht, (jtyht, ttyst:

habba7i, hcefd€,\ia.ye,ha.d', soctey so hte, sought; dgaji, dhte^ own,

owned; motdeymotteyinoste, must; jnttey piste, wist. become explosive; hsyx — (4.) One of two continuous may cs? (§ 28, h) feax. Old H. German fcihs, hair Idyld: beald, :

;

Gothic hcdps, bold ; let seldom occurs fekt, falleth swld, house. The former sonant becomes a surd in ddy{tdy)t (§ 35, (5.) in third singular of Acrbs (Conformation) stenddy stoit, the B) :

;

:

standeth.

—

In Latin and English, -al and -ar inSuccessive syllables. I or r from successive syllables to stellar, solar, keep terchange (6.)

:

The former assibilation is liberal, literal; so coeruleane, etc. eo