The English Language Part 55

4. _According as they affect proper names or common names._--_Hawkin_, _Perkin_, _Wilkin_, &c. In these words we have the diminutives of _Hal_, _Peter_, _Will_, &c.

-- 338. The diminutive forms of Gothic origin are the first to be considered.

1. _Those formed by a change of vowel._--_Tip_, from _top_. The relation of the feminine to the masculine is allied to the ideas conveyed by many diminutives. Hence in the word _kit_, from _cat_, it is doubtful whether there be meant a female cat or a little cat. _Kid_ is a diminutive form of _goat_.

2. _Those formed by the addition of a letter or letters._--Of the diminutive characteristics thus formed the commonest, beginning from the simpler forms, are

_Ie._--Almost peculiar to the Lowland Scotch; as _daddie_, _la.s.sie_, _minnie_, _wifie_, _mousie_, _doggie_, _boatie_, &c.--Deutsche Grammatik, iii. 686.

_Ock._--_Bullock_, _hillock_.

_Kin._--_Lambkin_, _mannikin_, _ladikin_, &c. As is seen above, common in proper names.

_En._--_Chicken_, _kitten_, from _c.o.c.k_, _cat_. The notion of diminution, if indeed that be the notion originally conveyed, lies not in the _-en_, but in the vowel. In the word _chicken_, from _c.o.c.k_, observe the effect of the small vowel on the c.

The consideration of words like _duckling_ and _gosling_ is purposely deferred.

The chief diminutive of cla.s.sical origin is--

_Et_, as in _trumpet_, _lancet_, _pocket_; the word _pock_, as in _meal-pock_=_a meal-bag_, being found in the Scottish. From the French _-ette_, as in _caissette_, _poulette_.

The forms _-rel_, as in _c.o.c.kerel_, _pickerel_, and _-let_, as in _streamlet_, require a separate consideration. The first has nothing to do with the Italian forms _acquerella_ and _coserella_--themselves, perhaps, of Gothic, rather than of cla.s.sical origin.

In the Old High-German there are a mult.i.tude of diminutive forms in _-l_; as _ouga_=_an eye_, _ougili_=_a little eye_, _lied_=_a song_, _liedel_=_a little song_. "In Austria and Bavaria {285} are the forms _mannel_, _weibel_, _hundel_, &c., or _mannl_, _weibl_, _hundl_, &c. In some districts there is an _r_ before the _l_, as _madarl_=_a little maid_, _muadarl_=_a little mother_, _briadarl_=_a little brother_, &c. This is occasioned by the false a.n.a.logy of the diminutives of the derived form in _r_."--Deutsche Grammatik, iii. p. 674. This indicates the nature of words like _c.o.c.kerel_.

Even in English the diminutive power of _-el_ can be traced in the following words:--

_Soare_=a deer in its third year. _Sor-rel_=a deer in its second year.--See _Love's Labour Lost_, with the note.

_Tiercel_=a small sort of hawk, one-third less (_tierce_) than the common kind.

_Kantle_=_small corner_, from _cant_=_a corner_.--_Henry IV._

_Hurdle_; in Dutch _horde_; German, _hurde_. _Hording_, without the _-l_, is used in an allied sense by builders in English.

In the words in point we must a.s.sume an earlier form, _c.o.c.ker_ and _piker_, to which the diminutive form _-el_ is affixed. If this be true, we have, in English, representatives of the diminutive form _-l_, so common in the High Germanic dialects. _Wolfer_=_a wolf_, _hunker_=_a haunch_, _flitcher_=_a flitch_, _teamer_=_a team_, _fresher_=_a frog_,--these are north country forms of the present English.[43]

The termination _-let_, as in _streamlet_, seems to be double, and to consist of the Gothic diminutive _-l_, and the French diminutive _-t_.

-- 339. _Augmentatives._--Compared with _capello_=_a hat_, the Italian word _capellone_=_a great hat_ is an augmentative. The augmentative forms, pre-eminently common in the Italian language, often carry with them a depreciating sense.

The termination _-rd_ (in Old High German, _-hart_), as in _drunkard_, _braggart_, _laggard_, _stinkard_, carries with it this idea of depreciation. In _buzzard_, and _reynard_, the name of the _fox_, it is simply augmentative. In _wizard_, from _witch_, it has the power of a masculine form.

The termination _-rd_, taken from the Gothic, appears in {286} the modern languages of cla.s.sical origin: French, _vieillard_; Spanish, _codardo_.

From these we get at, second-hand, the word _coward_.--Deutsche Grammatik, iii. 707.

The word _sweetheart_ is a derived word of this sort, rather than a compound word; since in Old High German and Middle High German, we have the corresponding form _liebhart_. Now the form for _heart_ is in German not _hart_, but _herz_.

Words like _braggadocio_, _trombone_, _balloon_, being words of foreign origin, prove nothing as to the further existence of augmentative forms in English.

-- 340. _Patronymics._--In the Greek language the notion of lineal descent, in other words, the relation of the son to the father, is expressed by a particular termination; as, [Greek: Peleus] (_Peleus_), [Greek: Peleides]

(_Peleidaes_), the son of Peleus. It is very evident that this mode of expression is very different from either the English form _Johnson_, or Gaelic _MacDonald_. In these last-named words, the words _son_ and _Mac_ mean the same thing; so that _Johnson_ and _MacDonald_ are not derived, but compound words. This Greek way of expressing descent is peculiar, and the words wherein it occurs are cla.s.sed together by the peculiar name _patronymic_, from _pataer_=_a father_, and _onoma_=_a name_. Is there anything in English corresponding to the Greek patronymics? It was for the sake of this question that the consideration of the termination _-ling_, as in _duckling_, &c., was deferred.

The termination _-ling_, like the terminations _-rel_ and _-let_, is compound. Its simpler form is _-ing_. This, from being affixed to the derived forms in _-l_, has become _-ling_.

In Anglo-Saxon the termination _-ing_ is as truly patronymic as [Greek: -ides] is in Greek. In the Bible-translation the son of Elisha is called _Elising_. In the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle occur such genealogies as the following:--_Ida waes Eopping, Eoppa esing, esa Inging, Inga Angenviting, Angenvit Alocing, Aloc Beonocing, Beonoc Branding, Brand Baeldaeging, Baeldaeg Vodening, Voden Friowulfing, Friowulf Finning, Finn G.o.dwulfing, G.o.dwulf Geating_=Ida was the son of Eoppa, Eoppa of Esing, Esing of Inga, Inga of Angenvit, {287} Angenvit of Aloc, Aloc of Beonoc, Beonoc of Brand, Brand of Baeldag, Baeldag of Woden, Woden of Friowulf, Friowulf of Finn, Finn of G.o.dwulf, G.o.dwulf of Geat.--In Greek, [Greek: Ida en Eoppeides, Eoppa eseides, esa Ingeides, Inga Angenphiteides], &c. In the plural number these forms denote the _race of_; as _Scyldingas_=_the Scyldings_, or the race of _Scyld_, &c. Edgar Atheling means Edgar of the race of the n.o.bles. The primary of _-ing_ and _-l-ing_ is descent or relations.h.i.+p; from these comes the idea of youth and endearment, and thence the true diminutive idea. In _darling_, _stripling_, _duckling_, _gosling_ (pr. _gesling_), _kitling_ (pr. for _kitten_), _nestling_, _yearling_, _chickling_, _fatling_, _fledgling_, _firstling_, the idea of descent still remains. In _hireling_ the idea of diminution is accompanied with the idea of contempt. In _changeling_ we have a Gothic termination and a cla.s.sical root. See, for the full exposition of this view, Deutsche Grammatik, ii. 349-364, iii.

682.

In the opening speech of Marlow's Jew of Malta we have the following lines:--

Here have I pursed their paltry _silverlings_.

Fie! what a trouble 'tis to count this tras.h.!.+

Well fare the Arabs, that so richly pay For what they traffick in with wedge of gold.

The word _silverlings_ has troubled the commentators. _Burst their silverbins_ has been proposed as the true reading. The word, however, is a true diminutive, as _siluparlinc_, _silarbarling_=_a small silver coin_, Old High German.

A good chapter on the English diminutives may be seen in the Cambridge Philological Museum, vol. i. p. 679.

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CHAPTER XVI.

GENTILE FORMS.

-- 341. These have been ill.u.s.trated by Mr. Guest in the Transactions of the Philological Society.

The only word in the present English that requires explanation is the name of the princ.i.p.ality _Wales_.

1. The form is plural, however much the meaning may be singular; so that the _-s_ in _Wale-s_ is the _-s_ in _fathers_, &c.

2. It has grown out of the Anglo-Saxon from _wealhas_=_foreigners_, the name by which the Welsh are spoken of by the Germans of England, just as the Italians are called Welsh by the Germans of Germany: _wal-nuts_=_foreign nuts_.

3. The transfer of the name of the _people_ inhabiting a certain country to the _country_ so inhabited, was one of the commonest processes in both Anglo-Saxon and Old English.--Guest, Phil. Trans.

{289}

CHAPTER XVII.

ON THE CONNEXION BETWEEN THE NOUN AND VERB, AND ON THE INFLECTION OF THE INFINITIVE MOOD.

-- 342. In order to understand clearly the use of the so-called infinitive mood in English, it is necessary to bear in mind two facts, one a matter of logic, the other a matter of history.

In the way of logic, the difference between a noun and a verb is less marked than it is in the way of grammar.