A Brief History of the English Language and Literature Part 12

Drosky.

Knout.

Morse.

Rouble.

Steppe.

Ukase.

Verst.

TARTAR.

Khan.

TURKISH.

Bey.

Caftan.

Chibouk.

Chouse.

Dey.

Janissary.

Kiosk.

Odalisque.

Ottoman.

Tulip.

Yashmak.

Yataghan.

10. +Scientific Terms.+-- A very large number of discoveries in science have been made in this century; and a large number of inventions have introduced these discoveries to the people, and made them useful in daily life. Thus we have _telegraph_ and _telegram_; _photograph_; _telephone_ and even _photophone_. The word _dynamite_ is also modern; and the unhappy employment of it has made it too widely known. Then pa.s.sing fas.h.i.+ons have given us such words as _athlete_ and _aesthete_.

In general, it may be said that, when we wish to give a name to a new thing-- a new discovery, invention, or fas.h.i.+on-- we have recourse not to our own stores of English, but to the vocabularies of the Latin and Greek languages.

LANDMARKS IN THE HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

[Transcriber's Note:

In the original book, the following chart was laid out much like a typical table of contents, with the +date+ in a separate column along the right edge. It has been reformatted for this e-text. The date is repeated in brackets where appropriate.]

+450+ 1. +The Beowulf+, an old English epic, "written on the mainland"

+597+ 2. +Christianity+ introduced by St Augustine (and with it many Latin and a few Greek words)

+670+ 3. +Caedmon+-- 'Paraphrase of the Scriptures,'-- first English poem

+735+ 4. +Baeda+-- "The Venerable Bede"-- translated into English part of St John's Gospel

+901+ 5. +King Alfred+ translated several Latin works into English, among others, Bede's 'Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation'

(+851+)

+1000+ 6. +Aelfric+, Archbishop of York, turned into English most of the historical books of the Old Testament

+1066+ 7. +The Norman Conquest+, which introduced Norman French words

+1160+ 8. +Anglo-Saxon Chronicle+, said to have been begun by King Alfred, and brought to a close in [1160]

+1200+ 9. +Orm+ or +Orrmin's Ormulum+, a poem written in the East Midland dialect, about [1200]

+1204+ 10. +Normandy+ lost under King John. Norman-English now have their only home in England, and use our English speech more and more

+1205+ 11. +Layamon+ translates the 'Brut' from the French of Robert Wace.

This is the first English book (written in _Southern English_) after the stoppage of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle

+1220+ 12. +The Ancren Riwle+ ("Rules for Anchorites") written in the Dorsets.h.i.+re dialect. "It is the forerunner of a wondrous change in our speech." "It swarms with French words"

+1258+ 13. +First Royal Proclamation in English+, issued by Henry III.

+1300+ 14. +Robert of Gloucester's+ Chronicle (swarms with foreign terms)

+1303+ 15. +Robert Manning+, "Robert of Brunn," compiles the 'Handlyng Synne.' "It contains a most copious proportion of French words"

+1340+ 16. +Ayenbite of Inwit+ (= "Remorse of Conscience")

+1349+ 17. +The Great Plague+. After this it becomes less and less the fas.h.i.+on to speak French

+1356+ 18. +Sir John Mandeville+, first writer of the newer English Prose-- in his 'Travels,' which contained a large admixture of French words.

"His English is the speech spoken at Court in the latter days of King Edward III."

+1362+ 19. +English+ becomes the language of the Law Courts

+1380+ 20. +Wickliffe's+ Bible

+1400+ 21. +Geoffrey Chaucer+, the first great English poet, author of the 'Canterbury Tales'; born in 1340, died [1400]

+1471+ 22. +William Caxton+, the first English printer, brings out (in the Low Countries) the first English book ever printed, the 'Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye,'-- "not written with pen and ink, as other books are, to the end that every man may have them at once"

+1474+ 23. +First English Book+ printed in England (by Caxton) the 'Game and Playe of the Chesse'

+1523+ 24. +Lord Berners'+ translation of Froissart's Chronicle

+1526-30+ 25. +William Tyndale+, by his translation of the Bible "fixed our tongue once for all." "His New Testament has become the standard of our tongue: the first ten verses of the Fourth Gospel are a good sample of his manly Teutonic pith"

+1590+ 26. +Edmund Spenser+ publishes his 'Faerie Queene.' "Now began the golden age of England's literature; and this age was to last for about fourscore years"

+1611+ 27. +Our English Bible+, based chiefly on Tyndale's translation.

"Those who revised the English Bible in 1611 were bidden to keep as near as they could to the old versions, such as Tyndale's"

+1616+ 28. +William Shakespeare+ carried the use of the English language to the greatest height of which it was capable. He employed 15,000 words. "The last act of 'Oth.e.l.lo' is a rare specimen of Shakespeare's diction: of every five nouns, verbs, and adverbs, four are Teutonic" (+Born 1564+)

+1667+ 29. +John Milton+, "the most learned of English poets," publishes his 'Paradise Lost,'-- "a poem in which Latin words are introduced with great skill"

+1661+ 30. +The Prayer-Book+ revised and issued in its final form. "_Are_ was subst.i.tuted for _be_ in forty-three places. This was a great victory of the North over the South"