The English Language Part 111

Toit, adj. _frisky_, _wanton_.

Vair, n. s. _weasel_ or _stoat_.

Want, n. s. _a mole_.

Wirg, n. s. _a willow_.

Wimble, v. _to winnow_.

Weest, adj. _lonely_, _desolate_.

Wash-dish, n. s. _the t.i.tmouse_.

-- 710. _The baronies of Forth and Bargie in the County Wexford._--The barony of Forth "lies south of the city of Wexford, and is bounded by the sea to the south and east, and by the barony of Bargie to the west. It is said to have been colonized by the Welshmen who accompanied Strongbow in his invasion of Ireland; but by the term Welshmen, as here used, we must no doubt understand the English settlers of Gower and Pembroke. Vallancey published a specimen of their language. Some of the grammatical forms can hardly {564} fail to interest the English scholar, and we may venture more particularly to call his attention to the verbal ending _th_. In no other of our spoken dialects do we find the _th_ still lingering as an inflection of the _plural_ verb."

ADDRESS IN THE BARONY OF FORTH LANGUAGE.

_Presented in August 1836, to the Marquis of Normanby, then Earl of Mulgrave, and Lord Lieutenant of Ireland; with a Translation of the Address in English._

_To's Excellencie Consantine Harrie Phipps, Earle Mulgrave, "Lord Lieutenant-General, and General Governor of Ireland;" Ye soumissive spakeen o' ouz Dwellers o' Baronie Forthe, Weisforthe._

Mai't be plesaunt to th' Excellencie,

Wee, Va.s.sales o' "His Most Gracious Majesty" Wilyame ee 4th an az wee verilie chote na coshe an loyale Dwellers na Baronie Forth, crave na d.i.c.ke luckie acte t'uck necher th' Excellencie, an na plaine garbe o'

oure yola talke, wi' vengem o' core t'gie oure zense o'ye grades wilke be ee dighte wi' yer name, and whilke wee canna zie, albeit o'

"Governere" Statesman an alike. Yn ercha an ol o' whilke yt beeth wi'

gleezom o'core th' oure eene dwitheth apan ye vigere o'd.i.c.ke zovereine, Wilyame ee Vourthe unnere fose fatherlie zwae oure deis be ee spant, az avare ye trad d.i.c.ke lone ver name was ee kent var ee _Vriene o'

Levertie_, an _He fo brack ge neckers o' Zlaves_--Mang ourzels--var wee dwitheth an Irelone az oure general haime--y'ast bie' ractzom homedelt tous ye la.s.s ee mate var ercha va.s.sale, ne'er dwith ee na d.i.c.ke wai n'ar d.i.c.ka. Wee dewithe ye ane fose deis bee gien var ee gudevare o' ee lone ye zwae, t'avance {565} pace an levertie, an wi'out vlinch ee garde o' general riochts an poplare vartue.--Ye pace--yea wee ma' zei ye vaste pace whilke be ee stent o'er ye lone zince th' ast ee cam, prooth, y'at we alane needed ye giftes o' general riochts, az be displayte bie ee factes o' thie governmente. Ye state na d.i.c.ke die o'ye lone, na whilke be ne'er fash n'ar moil, albeit "Const.i.tutional Agitation" ye wake o'hopes ee blighte, stampe na per zwae ee be rare an lightzom. Yer name var zetch avanct avare y'e, e'en a d.i.c.ke var hie, arent whilke ye brine o' zea, an ee crags o'noghanes cazed nae balk. Na oure glades ana whilke we dellte wi' mattoc, an zing t'oure caules wi plou, we hert ee zough o'ye colure o' pace na name o' "_Mulgrave_." Wi "Irishmen" oure general hopes be ee bond, az "Irishmen," an az dwellers na coshe an loyale o' Baronie Forthe, w'oul dei an ercha dei, oure maunes an aure gurles, prie var lang an happie zins, home o'leurnagh an ee vilt wi benizons, an yersel an oure zoverine 'till ee zin o'oure deis be var ay be ee go t'glade.

_To His Excellency Constantine Henry Phipps, Earl Mulgrave, Lord Lieutenant-General and General Governor of Ireland: The humble Address of the Inhabitants of Barony Forth, Wexford._

May it please your Excellency,

We, the subjects of His Most Gracious Majesty William IV., and as we truly believe both faithful and loyal inhabitants of the Barony Forth, beg leave, at this favourable opportunity to approach Your Excellency, and in the simple garb of our old dialect to pour forth from the strength (or fulness) of our hearts, our strength (or admiration) of the qualities which characterize your name, and for which we have no words but of "Governor," "Statesman," &c. Sir, each and every condition, it is with joy of heart that our eyes rest upon the representative of that Sovereign, William IV., under whose paternal rule our days are spent; for before your foot pressed the soil, your name was known to us as the _Friend of Liberty_, and _He who broke the fetters of the Slave_. Unto ourselves--for we look on Ireland to be our common country--you have with impartiality (of hand) ministered the laws made for every subject, without regard to this party or that. We behold you, one whose days devoted to the welfare of the land you govern, to promote peace and liberty--the uncompromising guardian of common rights and public virtue. The peace, yes we may say the profound peace, which overspreads the land since your arrival, proves that we alone stood in need of the enjoyment of common privileges, as is demonstrated by the results of your government. The condition, this day, of the country, in which is neither tumult nor confusion, but that const.i.tutional agitation, the consequence of disappointed hopes, confirm your rule to be rare and enlightened. Your fame for such came before you, even into this retired spot, to which neither the waters of the sea yonder, nor the mountains above, caused any impediment. In our valleys, where we were digging with the spade, or as we whistled to our horses in the plough, we heard in the word "Mulgrave," the sound of the wings of the dove of peace. With Irishmen our common hopes are inseparably wound up; as Irishmen, and as inhabitants, faithful and loyal, of the Barony Forth, we will daily, and every day, our wives and our children, implore long and happy days, free from melancholy and full of blessings, for yourself and good Sovereign, until the sun of our lives be for ever gone down the dark valley of death.[85]

-- 711. _Americanisms._--These, which may be studied in the excellent dictionary of J. R. Bartlett, are chiefly referable to five causes--

{566}

1. Influence of the aboriginal Indian languages.

2. Influence of the languages introduced from Europe anterior to the predominance of English; viz.: French in Louisiana, Spanish in Florida, Swedish in Pennsylvania and Delaware, and Dutch in New York.

3. Influence, &c., subsequent to the predominance of the English; viz.: German in Pennsylvania, and Gaelic and Welsh generally.

4. Influence of the original difference of dialect between the different portions of the English population.

5. Influence of the preponderance of the Anglo-Saxon over the Anglo-Norman element in the American population in general.

-- 712. _Extract._--In a sound and sagacious paper upon the Probable Future Position of the English Language,[86] Mr. Watts, after comparing the previous predominance of the French language beyond the pale of France, with the present spread of the German beyond Germany, and after deciding in favour of the latter tongue, remarks that there is "The existence of another language whose claims are still more commanding. That language is our own. Two centuries ago the proud position that it now occupies was beyond the reach of antic.i.p.ation. We all smile at the well-known boast of Waller in his lines on the death of Cromwell, but it was the loftiest that at the time the poet found it in his power to make:--

'Under the tropie is our language spoke, And part of Flanders hath received our yoke.'

"'I care not,' said Milton, 'to be once named abroad, though perhaps I could attain to that, being content with these islands as my world.' A French Jesuit, Garnier, in 1678, laying down rules for the arrangement of a library, thought it superfluous to say anything of English books, because, as he observed, 'libri Anglica scripti lingua vix mare transmittunt.'

Swift, in the earlier part of the eighteenth century, in his 'Proposal for correcting, improving, and {567} ascertaining the English Tongue,'

observed, 'the fame of our writers is usually confined to these two islands." Not quite a hundred years ago Dr. Johnson seems to have entertained far from a lofty idea of the legitimate aspirations of an English author. He quotes in a number of the 'Rambler' (No. 118, May 4th, 1751), from the address of Africa.n.u.s as given by Cicero, in his Dream of Scipio:--'The territory which you inhabit is no more than a scanty island inclosed by a small body of water, to which you give the name of the great sea and the Atlantic Ocean. And even in this known and frequented continent what hope can you entertain that your renown will pa.s.s the stream of Ganges or the cliffs of Caucasus, or by whom will your name be uttered in the extremities of the north or south towards the rising or the setting sun? So narrow is the s.p.a.ce to which your fame can be propagated, and even there how long will it remain?' 'I am not inclined,' remarks Johnson, 'to believe that they who among us pa.s.s their lives in the cultivation of knowledge or acquisition of power, have very anxiously inquired what opinions prevail on the further banks of the Ganges.... The hopes and fears of modern minds are content to range in a narrower compa.s.s; a single nation, and a few years have generally sufficient amplitude to fill our imagination.' What a singular comment on this pa.s.sage is supplied by the fact that the dominions of England now stretch from the Ganges to the Indus, that the whole s.p.a.ce of India is dotted with the regimental libraries of its European conquerors, and that Ra.s.selas has been translated into Bengalee! A few years later the great historian of England had a much clearer perception of what was then in the womb of Fate. When Gibbon, as has been already mentioned, submitted to Hume, a specimen of his intended History of Switzerland, composed in French, he received a remarkable letter in reply: 'Why,' said Hume, 'do you compose in French and carry f.a.ggots into the wood, as Horace says with regard to Romans who wrote in Greek? I grant that you have a like motive to those Romans, and adopt a language much more generally diffused than your native tongue, but have you not remarked the fate {568} of those two ancient languages in following ages? The Latin, though then less celebrated and confined to more narrow limits, has in some measure outlived the Greek, and is now more generally understood by men of letters. Let the French therefore triumph in the present diffusion of their tongue. Our solid and increasing establishments in America, where we need less dread the inundation of barbarians, promise a superior stability and duration to the English language.'

"Every year that has since elapsed has added a superior degree of probability to the antic.i.p.ations of Hume. At present the prospects of the English language are the most splendid that the world has ever seen. It is spreading in each of the quarters of the globe by fas.h.i.+on, by emigration, and by conquest. The increase of population alone in the two great states of Europe and America in which it is spoken, adds to the number of its speakers in every year that pa.s.ses, a greater amount than the whole number of those who speak some of the literary languages of Europe, either Swedish, or Danish, or Dutch. It is calculated that, before the lapse of the present century, a time that so many now alive will live to witness, it will be the native and vernacular language of about one hundred and fifty millions of human beings.

"What will be the state of Christendom at the time that this vast preponderance of one language will be brought to bear on all its relations,--at the time when a leading nation in Europe and a gigantic nation in America make use of the same idiom,--when in Africa and Australasia the same language is in use by rising and influential communities, and the world is circled by the accents of Shakspeare and Milton? At that time such of the other languages of Europe as do not extend their empire beyond this quarter of the globe will be reduced to the same degree of insignificance in comparison with English, as the subordinate languages of modern Europe to those of the state they belong to,--the Welsh to the English, the Basque to the Spanish, the Finnish to the Russian. This predominance, we may flatter ourselves, will be a more signal blessing to literature than that of any other language could possibly be. The English is essentially a {569} medium language;--in the Teutonic family it stands midway between the Germanic and Scandinavian branches--it unites as no other language unites, the Romanic and the Teutonic stocks. This fits it admirably in many cases for translation. A German writer, Prince Puckler Muskau, has given it as his opinion that English is even better adapted than German to be the general interpreter of the literature of Europe.

Another German writer, Jenisch, in his elaborate 'Comparison of Fourteen Ancient and Modern Languages of Europe,' which obtained a prize from the Berlin Academy in 1796, a.s.signs the general palm of excellence to the English. In literary treasures what other language can claim the superiority? If Rivarol more than sixty years back thought the collective wealth of its literature able to dispute the pre-eminence with the French, the victory has certainly not departed from us in the time that has since elapsed,--the time of Wordsworth and Southey, of Rogers and Campbell, of Scott, of Moore, and of Byron.

"The prospect is so glorious that it seems an ungrateful task to interrupt its enjoyment by a shade of doubt: but as the English language has attained to this eminent station from small beginnings, may it not be advisable to consider whether obstacles are not in existence, which, equally small in their beginnings, have a probability of growing larger? The first consideration that presents itself is that English is not the only language firmly planted on the soil of America, the only one to which a glorious future is, in the probable course of things, a.s.sured.

"A sufficient importance has not always been attached to the fact, that in South America, and in a portion of the northern continent, the languages of the Peninsula are spoken by large and increasing populations. The Spanish language is undoubtedly of easier acquisition for the purposes of conversation than our own, from the harmony and clearness of its p.r.o.nunciation; and it has the recommendation to the inhabitants of Southern Europe of greater affinity to their own languages and the Latin. Perhaps the extraordinary neglect which has been the portion of this language for the last {570} century and a half may soon give place to a juster measure of cultivation, and indeed the recent labours of Prescott and Ticknor seem to show that the dawn of that period has already broken. That the men of the North should acquire an easy and harmonious southern language seems in itself much more probable than that the men of the south should study a northern language, not only rugged in its p.r.o.nunciation, but capricious in its orthography. The dominion of Spanish in America is, however, interrupted and narrowed by that of Portuguese, and to a singular degree by that of the native languages, some of which are possibly destined to be used for literary purposes in ages to come.

"At the time when Hume wrote his letter to Gibbon, the conquest of Canada had very recently been effected. The rivalry of the French and English in North America had been terminated by the most signal triumph of the English arms. Had measures been taken at that time to discourage the use of French and to introduce that of English, there can be little doubt that English would now be as much the language of Quebec and Montreal as it is of New York and the Delaware. Those measures were not taken. At this moment, when we are approaching a century from the battle of the Heights of Abraham, there is still a distinction of races in Canada, nourished by a distinction of language, and both appear likely to continue.

"Within the United States themselves, a very large body of the inhabitants have remained for generation after generation ignorant of the English language. The number is uncertain. According to Stricker, in his dissertation 'Die Verbreitung des deutschen Volkes uber die Erde,'

published in 1845, the population of German origin in the United States in 1844 was 4,886,632, out of a total of 18,980,650. This statement, though made in the most positive terms, is founded on an estimate only, and has been shown to be much exaggerated. Wappaus (in his 'Deutsche Auswanderung und Colonisation'), after a careful examination, arrives at the conclusion that the total cannot amount to a million and a half. Many of these are of course acquainted with both {571} languages--in several cases where amalgamation has taken place, the German language has died out and been replaced by the English,--but the number of communities where it is still prevalent is much larger than is generally supposed. In Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Missouri, to say nothing of other states, there are ma.s.ses of population of German origin or descent, who are only acquainted with German. This tendency has of late years increased instead of declining. It has been a favourite project with recent German emigrants to form in America a state, in which the language should be German, and from the vast numbers in which they have crossed the Atlantic, there is nothing improbable in the supposition, that, by obtaining a majority in some one state, this object will be attained. In 1835 the legislature of Pennsylvania placed the German language in its legal rights on the same footing with the English.

"It may be asked if any damage will be done by this? The damage, it may be answered, will be twofold. The parties who are thus formed into an isolated community, with a language distinct from that of those around them, will be placed under the same disadvantages as the Welsh of our own day, who find themselves always as it were some inches shorter than their neighbours, and have to make an exertion to be on their level. Those of them who are only masters of one language are in a sort of prison; those who are masters of two, might, if English had been their original speech, have had their choice of the remaining languages of the world to exert the same degree of labour on, with a better prospect of advantage. In the case of Welsh, the language has many ties: even those who see most clearly the necessity of forsaking it, must lament the harsh necessity of abandoning to oblivion the ancient tongue of an ancient nation. But these a.s.sociations and feelings could not be pleaded in favour of transferring the Welsh to Otaheite; and when these feelings are withdrawn, what valid reason will remain for the perpetuation of Welsh, or even, it may be said, of German?

"The injury done to the community itself is perhaps the greatest; but there is a damage done to the world in general. It will be a splendid and a novel experiment in modern society, if a single language becomes so predominant over all others as {572} to reduce them in comparison to the proportion of provincial dialects. To have this experiment fairly tried, is a great object. Every atom that is subtracted from the amount of the majority has its influence--it goes into the opposite scale. If the Germans succeed in establis.h.i.+ng their language in the United States, other nations may follow.

The Hungarian emigrants, who are now removing thither from the vengeance of Austria, may perpetuate their native Magyar, and America may in time present a surface as checkered as Europe, or in some parts, as Hungary itself, where the traveller often in pa.s.sing from one village to another, finds himself in the domain of a different language. That this consummation may be averted must be the wish not only of every Englishman and of every Anglo-American, but of every sincere friend of the advancement of literature and civilization. Perhaps a few more years of inattention to the subject will allow the evil to make such progress that exertion to oppose it may come too late."

-- 713. Of the Gypsy language I need only say, that it is not only Indo-Germanic, but that it is Hindoo. Few words from it have mixed themselves with our standard (or even our provincial) dialects.

Thieves' language, or that dialect for which there is no name, but one from its own vocabulary, _viz._ Slang, is of greater value in philology than in commerce. It serves to show that in speech nothing is arbitrary. Its compound phrases are either periphrastic or metaphorical; its simple monosyllables are generally those of the current language in an older form.

The thieves of London are conservators of Anglo-Saxonisms. In this dialect I know of no specimens earlier than the reign of Queen Elizabeth. In the dramatic literature of that age they are rife and common. The Roaring Girl, the Jolly Beggars, amongst the plays, and Deckar's Bellman amongst the tracts, preserve us a copious vocabulary, similar to what we have now, and similar to what it was in Gay's time. Of this the greater part is Saxon.

Here and there appears a word of Latin origin, _e.g._, _pannum_, bread; _ca.s.sons_, cheese. Of the Gypsy language I have discovered no trace. {573}

-- 714. The Talkee-Talkee is a Lingua Franca based on the English, and spoken by the Negroes of Surinam.

It is Dutch rather than English; it shows, however, the latter language as an element of admixture.

SPECIMEN.[87]

1. Drie deh na bakka dem holi wan bruiloft na Cana na Galilea; on mamma va Jesus ben de dapeh.

2. Ma dem ben kali Jesus nanga hem discipel toe, va kom na da bruiloft.

3. En teh wieni kaba, mamma va Jesus takki na hem; dem no habi wieni morro.

4. Jesus takki na hem: mi mamma, hoeworko mi habi nanga joe? Tem va mi no ben kom jette.

5. Hem mamma takki na dem foetoeboi; oene doe sanni a takki gi oene.

6. Ma dem ben poetti dapeh siksi biggi watra-djoggo, na da fasi va Djoe vo krieni dem: inniwan djoggo holi toe effi drie kannetjes.