PE \oi3 SMITHSONIAN DEPOSIT rs ENGLISH DESTINED TO BECOME THE [VERBAL LANGUAGE OF THE WORLD? AN INAUGURAL DISSERTATION FOR OBTAINING THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY r J IN THE UNIVERSITY OF GOTTINGEN * BY W. BEACKEBUSCH. i GOTTINGEN PRINTED AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS BY W. FR. KAESTNER. '> 1868. TE»*73 37 The British Empire embraces an area of eight and a halt millions of square miles with a population of 220 mil- lions, while the United Slates of America contain three and a quarter millions of square miles and thirty -five millions of inhabitants, so that the sway of English-speaking men extends over nearly a quarter of the land portion of the globe, and nearly a quarter of the human race. The im- mense territories composing these two gigantic empires con- sist in Europe of the British Isles, Heligoland, Gibraltar and the Maltese group; Gambia, Sierra Leone, the Gold- Coast, the Cape, Natal, Kaffraria, Mauritius, Admirantes, the Seychelles, St. Helena and Ascension in Africa; and Hongkong , Aden, Hindoostan , Ceylon and parts "of further India in Asia; the whole of the continent of North-America, xMexico excepted, with the Islands belonging to it and the Bermudas, Honduras, Guiana, the Falkland Islands with a considerable portion of the Westindias in America; Au- stralia, Tasmania, New-Zealand, Auckland, the Norfolk Is- lands and Labuan in Oceania. The very array of names, not a few of them stauding for districts, in comparison whith which the largest coun- tries of Europe dwindle into insignificance, is amply suffi- cient to point out the importance of a race that owns pos- sessions so vast and subjects so numerous. England manufactures articles for the consumption of half the human race and sends them to their destination 1* ill her own ships, bringing hack such raw material and food as her own markets require. Fler exports and her imports are worth each two hundred millions of Pounds a year, and eighty thousand vessels of twenty millions of tons burden enter and clear her harbours annually. She keeps an army as brave as ever fought a foe and numbering four hundred thousand men distributed over her various colonies and dependencies; and her navy, still the first in the world, does what a great Dutch admiral only boasted — she sweeps the sea. — Her sons are unsurpassed in physical and mental strength, in tenacious persistency of purpose — that secret of success in incorrupt morality and firm religious convic- tions. Her unrivalled internal communication, her easy connection with her own possessions, her constant inter- course with other nations • — by rail and road, steamboat and telegraph — keep up the conscious sense of nationality in her children, which is still strengthened by a great history, a great literature, in the past and in the present, and by a constitution , which as it has grown out of the wants of the people, not manufactured for it or forced upon it, has long served as an ideal for political reformers on the Continent, and makes the land an abode of freedom and of justice. In all these characteristics of a powerful and rising nation England is rivalled only by her overgrown daughter, the United States of America, who, in energy and education superior to the mothercountry, have already outstripped her in population and will perhaps at a not distant period di- stance her in some others also of her attributes of great- ness and prosperity. And, as the language of the two huge empires is the same, the sonsideration of that circum- . stance can only increase the sense of its importance. — j Yes, the English language is heard in every clime, in the manufactories and warehouses of Britain, the bustling cities in the east, the backwoods and the clearings in the West of North -America as well as in the icebound forts of its vast northern wildernesses; it resounds in the diggings of California and- Australia and on the sheepwalks of New- Zealand and the Cape; it reechoes from the West Indian sugar and the East Indian opium plantation; it is heard in the loghut of that pioneer of civilisation, the settler, on every rich and untilled soil that tempts the tiller's plough, it is heard in the dwelling of the missionary among a hundred tribes, it is heard in the crowded cities of con- tinental Europe, it breaks the silence of the highest Alpine or Himalaya peaks, it is heard on the ruins of every city that was renowned in Italy or Greece or Palestine, on the summit of the Great Pyramid, in the depths of the excava- tions of Niniveh, it rings along the wharves and quays of every seaport-lown within the Universe, and — more than that — it rings over every sea that carries keel of wood or iron, and from innumerable ocean-fortresses its greeting hail is answered by a hail in kindred speech. It was in English Chaucer and Shakespere wrote and Milton; and Gibbon and Macaulay and Carlyle are Englishmen. The English literature of the day contains the soundest mora- lity, imeorrupted by irreligious tendencies, it embodies the highest results of science in the most popular form at the lowest price to the greatest public; its daily press is unri- valled for the copiousness of the information it conveys, the sound sense of its leaders, the moderation of its lan- guage, the immensity of the circulation of its products and the minuteness of their price. Independently of this the English language is the easiest in the world; it contains so many German. French 6 and Latin words, that most European nations find a part of their own language reproduced in it and thus have the task of acquisition materially diminished. It has a strong tendency to become monosyllabic, and the ease of pro- nunciation grows, of course, as well as the ease of re- membrance in direct proportion to the shortness of the words ; it has but few inflections and those very simple, and its syntax is a very pattern and model of clearness and simplicity. What, then, can prevent its becoming sooner or later the universal language of humanity; in a time when inter r communication is so rapid, when the links that unite distant peoples are drawn so close, when time and space are annihilated by the great discoveries, that will ever cha- racterise this century as the epoch of inventions? Surely, the time is not far distant, when all the human race, united in strong brotherhood by unity of religion and of thought, will add to these encircling bonds the unity of speech, and that speech will be English!" Such are the powerful and striking arguments and inferences arrived at from incontestable facts, that may, with several others of less importance, be heard daily, that are brought forward not only by Englishmen and Ameri- cans, but by intelligent and thoughtful men of many na- tions and in the publications of many countries ; this is the strong and dazzling chain of reasoning, that I now intend — as far as is within my humble power — to examine link by link, confirming the statements that I find correct, and refuting the conclusions arrived at, where I deem them hasty or illogical. For this purpose I shall have to give a short sketch of the great historical languages of civilisation, that successively have held sway over a large portion of thinking humanity and give a short synopsis of the great languages now spoken. In doing so 1 cannot notice the conglomeration of territo- ries brought about by individual conquerors and dismem- bered after their death , nor of remote and distant empires in other continents, nor the incursions of barbarian hordes in civilised countries, whose speech, if their conquests were permanent, always was exchanged for that of the conque- red ; I shall therefore pass over in silence the great Baby- lonian, Assyrian, Persian and Medo-Persian Empires, though the latter, in particular, exceeded the Roman in extent, not speak of Tartars, Huns and Turks, nor mention Alexander, Charles the Great, Charles V and Napoleon, as the nations governed by their sceptre had nod the common bond of language, but of ruler only. — This survey of the languages that have either by the extent of the area of their geographical distribution or by the masterpieces of thought composed in them established a claim as the leading languages of the world ; will facili- tate our understanding the position, which the English lan- guage now occupies. The language of Greece, a parallel branch with that of Italy from the common indo-germanic trunk, of which the Celtic, Teutonic and Sclavonic tongues are more distant offshoots, spread from its original seats, which besides mo- dern Greece embraced a considerable part of what is now called Turkey, in the earliest times to Asia minor, later to the numerous colonies that dotted both shores of the Mediterranian, including Italy, Sicily and perhaps the South of France; while the great Alexander opened for it a bound- less vista of extension in the East, and though his stu- pendous realm was disintegrated after his early death, Greek made its way in Syria and to some extent in Egypt. In consequence of the mercantile connections of the Greeks and their superior genius, which conquered the 8 Roman conquerors, it not only continued to keep, but ex- tended its influence until the destruction of the Western Empire, led a precarious existence in the Eastern up to the taking of Constantinople by the Turks, when it became extinct as a civilised language, for a time at least, in its own hearth, while about the same period the study of its classic treasures revived in Italy, Germany, France, Hol- land, England. The Greek language richer in forms and structure, in power of combination and in variety of expression, blending strength and dignity, tenderness and subtility, gran- deur and sarcasm into one accord of glorious and harmo- nious sound, has among all the vicissitudes of fate kept its distinguishing characteristics intact and though three thousand years have not passed b^y, without effecting changes in pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar, to all intents and purposes Greek is a living language still though nar- rowed in its dimensions and importance to a mere shadow of its former self. The empire which the Greek language obtained was founded on intellectual, not material causes, not on the geographical extent of the Empire of the Greeks, but on its own euphonious beauty, strength and elegance, on the intellectual superiority of the nation. The most flourishing period of Greek literature and the widest disse- mination of the language are by no means contempora- neous; when Alexander conceived the idea of founding an Eastern Empire the heroes of Greek literature were de- parted never to return and in the first and second century of our era, when it obtanied its widest geographical di- mensions, the language had degenerated like the nation and its former spirit was as dead as that of the national independence. Without taking into consideration the po- werful influence it now exercises over ideas and thoughts. by being- a subject of study (or all persons enjoying the advantages of classical education , it enters on account of its plastic ease of form largely into the vocabularies of all civilised nations especially with regard to scientific terms. The language of the Romans, twin sister of the Greek, has played in the worlds history a part hardly less important than the Romans themselves. Though by no means coextensive with that empire, that for cen- turies embraced all Europe west and south of Danube and Rhine, the North Coast of Africa and the West of Asia, it became in course of time the spoken lan- guage of a very considerable part of its provinces and is the root of modern Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, French and Wallachian (or Roumain\ And as were it not suf- ficient that East and West-Goths, Allemans, Francs, Lon- gobards and Burgundians should each and all adopt the speech of the nation they conquered, the Latin tongue achieved a greater conquest; she became a second time the mistress of the world by becoming the language of the Church. In consequence of this she was not only throughout Cliristendoom the language of the ritual, as she is now throughout that Church that still is called the Ro- /wrtw-Catholic ; but as m the troubled times of the early middle ages the clergy alone in Europe were wardens of science, of arts and of literature, she reigned for ages pa- ramount in all the scientific branches of the human intel- lect, which reign she extended to the „Schools u , when Uni- versities and other seats of learning became independent institutions; nor is her reign for original productions by the learned of Europe, though greatly on the wane, quite over even now. The importance of the Latin tongue and its extension were due to the dominion of the Latin race, 10 the literary treasures it contains and to its perspicuity, force and simplicity in sound, if not in structure. The influence which Latin has exercised and still exercises on the languages of all Europe, even those which are in no way derived from it, by being a principal ele- ment of liberal education, by offering in the Roman Law an ever necessary study for the jurist and the historian, by bequeathing us the standard authors of history and elo- quence, can never be too highly estimated, though Latin now be dead. The Latin of Antiquity died from decay, accelerated by the multifarious barbarian elements, the La- tin of the Middle ages , the language of the Pope and of the Schools was killed by Luther. Our attention is next engaged by the Arabian language, the offspring of the desert, coextensive or nearly so at one time with the Arabian Empire, spread by enthusiastic de- votees who, within a century after the Hedgira, the sword in one hand and the Koran in the other, overran the South of Asia and the North of Africa gaining a firm footing even in Europe. The sway of the Arabic language, at the period of its greatest extension, reached from the Ganges to Narbonne and it served as a vehicle for the boldest thought and the most careful observation in Mathematics, Medicine and Natural Science, that existed during the Middle-ages. The realm of the Arabs had long been splintered into numerous independent fragments, when their language was still do- minant in the disintegrated portions. In Europe, where the progress of their material power was checked by Charles Martell, the revival of classical studies and the hatred of a Christian population against the Moslemin opposed its influence. It is however by no means an extinct language, as it is the idiom of Arabia, Egypt. Mesopotamia, Barbary, 11 parts of Nubia, Persia, spoken by more than thirty millions of men; understood and paramount, wherever the faith of the Islam prevails; it has exercised a lasting influence on the language of Spain and forms a large ingredient of the „lingua,franca". Besides the sacred Koran it contains large treasures of poetry history and science in its literature. Looking next at the Italian language, with French and Spanish a direct descendant of the Latin, of which it is the purest representative, we find it bursting forth in a rich blossom of literary excellence first of the modern languages ' of Europe, at the time when the maritime republics of Italy were the principal mediators of the trade with the East and the greatest emporiums of mercantile enterprise in the world; at the time when classical studies revived at its great seats of learning, and arts and sciences flourished through the length and breadth of the land. With the dis- covery of America, that destroyed its trade, — a punishment inflicted upon the country by an unapreciated son of Italy and of genius — and in consequence of the Reformation, preceded and accompanied as it was by a general revival of letters and development of the modern stage of European languages, which to a great extent destroyed its religious influence , the language of Italy lost ils importance with reference to the great states of Europe; and, whether the reconstruction of the „geographical idea" Italy into an en- tity be a real resurrection to political life, or only a gal- vanic spasm that assumes its semblance, it cannot be doubt- ful, that the enervated though polished speech of an effe- minate but accomplished nation, which requires a moral before it can hope for a lasting political regeneration, will never again exercise a powerful influence beyond its own borders. Italian is the typical language of progress for the fourteenth and fifteenth century; it is at present spoken 12 by about 25 millions of people in Italy and the islands ot the Mediterranean and enters very largely into the compo- sition of that dialect, which under the name of lingua franca is in use in many trading-places on the eastern coasts of that sea. It still retains throughout Europe its place as the language of music, for which by its striking prepon- derance of vowelsounds and consequent almost weakly eu- phony it is particulary qualified; it is not unfrequentiy stu- died as an elegant accomplishment. In turning over the pages of history we next find the Spanish Empire the largest and most powerful, and its lan- guage spreading in proportion. We cannot take account of the extent of the realm at the time of Charles V. , be- cause his being emperor of Germany, at the same time as monarch of the Spanish dominions and the Netherlands, was an accident that terminated with his abdication; but Philip his son commanded still an empire in which the sun never set, and if we leave out of consideration what little influence he had in England during the life of Alary, his wife, and lost after her deach, in the Netherlands, which he lost, his Italian and Sicilian possessions, in which the native idiom remained in the ascendant; he yet was po- werful on the coast of Africa; Peru and Mexico as well as the West-Indias were subject to his sway, and have with many other rich colonies remained appendages of the Spanish crown partly until the second decad in this cen- tury, partly till now. Although the Spanish language there- fore spread over and is still spoken in Mexico, Central and a great part of South - America , besides the Spanish colonies of Cuba, Portorico etc., the Canaries, Philippines and Ladrone- Islands, as well as in the mother country, although we may still higher estimate its former impor- tance, if we consider, that , if politically separated the Spa- 13 niards ami Portuguese speak dialects of the same tongue, which 300 years ago did uot present points of distinction sufficiently marked to class them as different languages, and if we consider, that at the same time the kingdom of Portugal embraced numerous settlements in Africa, East- India and Brazil besides many of the colonies it now pos- sesses, that its political and mercantile importance was in- ferior only to that of Spain, that its language is still spo- ken by ten millions of people, who cover geographically nearly the tenth part of the earths surface, although, 1 repeat, forty millions of men still speak the Spanish lan- guage, and although then Spain was the mistress of the sea, and its influence preponderating over the whole of the newly discovered continent, how little influence has it exercised over civilised Europe! Though pos- sessing a sonorous, refined and expressive language, nearest akin in dignity to Latin , Spain , which had given birth to Martial, Lucan, Seneca and perhaps to Quinclilian, has since the modern development of her lan- guage not given us those treasures of science, eloquence and thought, that other nations have bestowed upon us, because in refusing the Reformation she refused the con- comitant freedom of thought and of expression; her im- mense riches, acquired without labour, destroyed the energy of the people, and worked the moral ruin of the nation which was necessarily followed by the physical ruin of the country, and still keeps the masses in a hopeless state of degradation. — For the latter half of the sixteenth and the first of the seventeenth century it was the most rising language in the world; then we see French rising into importance. Raised to an uuexampled state of splendour, unsub- staulial and unsatisfactory as it was, the French court at 14 the time of Louis XIV., in conjunction with a brilliant li- terature, dazzled the other courts of Europe and excited them to envious admiration and imitation; its speech ere long- became the symbol of good breeding and of elegance, the language of diplomacy, supplanted the vernacular among the higher, if not the better classes, in Germany, the north- ern states of Europe, and, to some extent, in England and in Italy, and in manifold distortions penetrated even to the lowest strata of society. As every action causes a reaction, opposition was not wanting, and purgers of the language endeavoured, in Germany more particularly, to resist French influence in which attempts they were powerfully seconded by the French Revolution, which annihilaled court and the upper ten thousands, and the rising into the highest place in Europe of German literature, and which was finally achieved when the overbearing ambition of the first Napo- leon awakened the spirit of nationality, that, once roused, hurled him into perdition and gave the „coup de grace" to that Gallomania, that had so long been rampant in most states of Europe. As the Greek language was the lan- guage of genius, Latin and Spanish that of conquerors, Arabian the tongue of religious enthusiasm, so French was the language of courts and of „polite society". Its impor- tance ceased with that of courts, that were supplanted by the reign of nations, and with that of hereditary aristo- cracy, the place of which is taken or disputed for by the power of genius and of capital. The French language had however, and still has, high claims to distinction by its crystalline clearness and precision, its systematic regu- larity of construction, and, generally speaking, the ease with which it is acquired by foreigners of all nations; yet it is in my opinion not fated to extend its influence, if it keeps its ground : because the military greatness of France was caused by her unity and the division of her neigh hours, and though France has not been divided, the other states have also become consolidated; because the French nation does not materially increase in number; because neither is French literature superior to others, nor the ma- terial resources of the Empire even equal; because the French are individually and collectively bad settlers, and have not been particularly successful with any of their colonies; because they are but indifferent sailors. French is at present still extensively taught in schools, though English is rising up as a formidable rival against it on the Continent, German in England; it still is the language of diplomacy, and reigns in ball-room, kitchen and in gam- bling-hells. — It is the idiom, besides part of the Russian aristocracy, of 45 millions of men iu France, Belgium Switzerland, Lower Canada, the Channel-Islands, the United States and the French colonies in Asia, Africa, America and Oceania. Turning next to the heart of Europe, we find a race possessed of all the qualities requisite to make it a leader among nations, with a speech of great power and beauty; and which, notwithstauding, on account of internal division and dissension , that often made her children the tools of crafty neighbours in working out their own interests, has hitertho not taken her due place in the council of nations; and whose language is only now beginning to be appreciated and studied abroad. — This German language is an in- dependant branch of the Caucasian stock; after passing through the various stages of Gothic, old and Middle-High- German and throwing off many vigorous shoots, of which the English is by far the most important and flourishing, one of its dialects, High -German, has superseded, as lan- guage of the educated and of literature, the Low -German, 16 in direct consequence of Luther's translation of the Bible into that dialect. It is at present spoken in Germany, whe- ther called North-, South or Austrian, the greater part of Switzerland, in Alsace, Baltic Russia, Pennsylvania, New York State, Maryland, Virginia and numerous western sta- tes of North Amerika, in parts of Upper Canada, the Lo- wer British provinces and Australia by more thau 50 mil- lions of people. Rich in vocabulary, in forms and power of combination, though guttural in sound, richer in the pos- session of a galaxy of names of such radiant brightness as adorn the heaven of German literature, this tongue of a nation unsurpassed by any in the highest sphere of hu- man intellect as well as in patient and useful industry, per- severance and bravery; of a nation whose mercantile ma- rine is even now inferior in Europe only to that of Great Britain and whose future importance in the destiny of na- tions it would require a bold man to circumcribe with limits, this language, I say, even if it should not become widely prevalent to the extermination of other tongues, will never be superseded by English or any other form of speech. It remains, to add a few words about the languages of those Empires, that attract our regard by the immensity of their area or the number of their inhabitans rather, than by the importance of the languages when dissociated from those accessories, as they present no great historical past nor flourishing literature in the present. The Russian do- minions, but little inferior to those of England, of more than eight millions of square -miles, the recent sale of the American possessions being compensated by recent con- quests in Central Asia — cover a sixth nearly of the laud that forms the surface of the globe. But this immense ter- ritory contains a population of less than 70 millions, and after deducting from this number the millions that speak 17 the Polish, Finnish, Livonian, Lithuanian, German, and Daco -Roman tongues in Europe, and the various forms of barbaric speech prevailing among the multifarious tribes that people the Asiatic portion of the Empire, we arrive at the result, that of this number about 45 millions speak the Russian language, if we consider its four leading dialects, Russian proper, Little Russian, White Russian and Rus- niack as modifications of the same language. Like all Sclavonic idioms the Russian excells most other forms of speech in Europe in copiousness of vocabulary, richness of form and in euphony. Many impartial thinkers have ar- rived at the conclusion that the Russian nation, with its virgin energy, its immense, though undeveloped resources, will at no distant period play a leading part, or the lea- ding part, in the world's history; and that consequently its language will be spread far beyond the confines that now enclose it, for which purpose it does not seem ill adapted, though not presenting a rich literature to the stu- dent, or an easy task to the learner. — The Chinese Empire with its area of about five and a half millions of square miles, and its population of at least 350 millions of inhabitants, is with all its dependen- cies peopled by tribes of the Mongolian race and an over- whelming majority of its inhabitants, certainly more than one third of all men on earth use the Chinese language, which belongs to that section of Mongolian tongues, that like the languages of Further India, Bhotan and Tibet, are nonosyllabic, uninflected and ideographic i. e. not expres- sing the sounds but the sense of the words ; and it conse- quently employs for each word a separate sign or combi- nation of signs. These signs are originally only of the number of about twohundred, but their combinations amount to more than thirty thousand, which, of course, are no 2 18 more required for the intercourse of daily life, than the thirty or forty thousand words found in the dictionaries of several European languages. The acquisition of the written language is therefore so difficult, and such a work of time, that in that country, where education, such at it is, opens the road to every distinction, but few individuals are found who profess an entire mastery over it. This cause alone would prevent the spreading of the language out of the bounds of the Empire, and it is a difficulty that cannot be removed, because Chinese is one language only in its lite- rature and in its ideographic character; the spoken ton- gues exceed fifty in number all over the Empire and amount to nearly twenty in China proper. The differences we cannot say of dialact, are so great, that no native of one province can understand the speech of that of another, although they can converse by written characters; and it must be added besides, that even in the same locality a different tone of voice gives to the same combination of sounds, to what is phonetically the same word, the most widely different and incongruous meanings. If to these purely linguistic grounds be added the consideration of the peculiar character of the people, who have remained sta- tionary in their civilisation for thousands of years, who have invented printing-for ideologic wordsigns, the compass only to travel by land and gunpowder for fireworks , who in short have made great inventions and discoveries ages ago without being able to utilise them, like certain apes in Africa were said to build houses, imitating man, and then live on the outside of them, it will be conceded that the Chinese have but very little chance of extending their lan- guage by superseding the tongues of Europe. So we arrive at length at the subject of our enquiry, the English language. It is a branch of the Teutonic stock. 19 brought by the Anglo Saxons to its present location during the 5th and 6th century of our era; it enlirely superseded the Celtic speech that preceded it, as the Saxons extermi- nated or banished the entire population of the conquered districts. II underwent the changes that have befallen most languages of Europe, which however in this case were still increased by the constant inroads of the Norsemen (Danes) and by the Norman conquest. It would be an entirely erroneous supposition however, to consider English as a mixed language. The character of a language is determined by its grammar, not its dictionary; in the same manner as a building is called Gothic or Byzantinic, not after the material employed in its construction, but after the manner of arranging and joining those materials. And the grammar of the English language is entireley Saxon; of the words too, that are derived from foreign sources Latin particularly, partly by direct introduction and partly through the channels of the Norman and the modern French, a comparatively limited number only are required for the intercourse of common life; and those were even fewer in centuries gone by. After passing through the Anglo-Saxon, Old and Middle English periods we enter with Chaucer upon modern English. The different stages of the language are marked by loss of inflection and destruction of clear vocalisation, as well as by the admission of many foreign words. Modern English is characterised by the loss of cases for nouns and adjectives (except for the possessive case) the almost entire disappearance of different plural- terminations, which are supplanted by s, the reduction of flexional endings for the verb to ot in the (almost di- sused) second person singular of the present and past tenses, and the s in the third person singular of the pre- sent, and the absence of any form for infinitive, imperative 2* 20 and subjunctive moods, which are identical with the first person of the present. The language in its present state is expressive and graphic in character, but its sounds are harsh and hissing, its accent is anomalous to a high degree and its orthography is a bewilderuug maze (as I shall more fully show below). It has had in Epic and Dramatic Poe- try, in History, Natural Philosophy and Metaphysics, in Divinity, Medicine and Proseworks of fiction, representatives, some of them unequalled by any writer ancient or modern, and many successfully enteriug the lists against rival na- tions. The time of Queen Ann is by English writer fre- quently represented as the culminating point — the classic period of English literature, but when we consider that her two greatest Authors, that Shakespere and Milton flou- rished considerably before that period, we shall perhaps be justified in assigning its acme to an earlier era. Having thus glanced over the history we turn to the extension of the English language. The British and Ame- rican Empires number more than 260 millions of inhabi- tants; but not the fourth part of them speak English. Tur- ning first to the British Empire we find that even its Eu- ropean possessions harbour numerous distinct idioms. Of ancient Celtic speech we find the three distinct branches Gaelic in the Highlands of Scotland, Welsh in Wales and Erse in Ireland spoken by fourhundred thousand, eight- hundred thousand and three millions respectively; and if we do not consider Lowland-Scotch as a separate language, as some authorities do, but as a dialect, we still find French spoken in the Channel Islands, (Frisian) German in Heli- goland, Spanish in Gibraltar. Italian and spoiled Arabic in the Maltese group. Deducting these from the thirty mil- lions of inhabitants which Britain in Europe numbers, we have 25 millions left for the English speaking population. 21 To the African possessions of which only the Cape , Natal, Mauritius and a few smaller islands can be called colonies, the rest being dependencies rather, after making due allo- wance for the Dutch settlers in South -Africa, the French in Mauritius, and the natives that speak their own lan- guage, everywhere; we can not assign more than 200,000 people that speak English at the most liberal estimation. British America, in extent nearly one half of the Empire and about the size of Europe, contains, including the Bri- tish Westindias, little more than 5 millions of inhabitants, of which three and a half at most employ the tongue of England, as there ane nine hundred thousand French sett- lers in Lower Canada, that have preserved their native speech, German settlements in Upper Canada and some of the Lower Provinces, (Luueburg) while Celtic is heard in different localities , and there are besides the native Indians, though not numerous; in some of the West -Indian Isles Spanish is also still spoken. British Oceania , though at least 3 millions of square miles in extent, has an English- speaking population of 2 millions only. The native Au- stralians and the Maoris of New Zealand, even if added to the German settlers, are not sufficiently numerous to make a considerable reduction from this number. In the British dependencies in Asia, at last, with their million and a half of square miles and 185 millions of people, there are including Aden and Hongkong as well as the British Garrisons throughout Hindoostan and theTenasserim, 200,000 English at most. Summing up then we find that in the British Empire the English language is spoken in 22 Europe by 25 millions Africa . . 200,000 America . 3,500,000 Oceania . . 2,000,000 As ia . . 200,000 Total 30,900,000 About 31 millions, that is less than the seventh part of Queen Victoria's subjects speak her language. The United States have a population of 35 millions. But of these more than three millions, in the states pre- viously mentioned, speak German, a million in different localities use Celtic forms of speech, while the French in Louisiana, Missouri, Indiana, the Spaniards in Texas, Flo- rida and California and the independent Indians amount at least to another million, which leaves thirty millions for the English language. Adding this number to the total for the British Empire we arrive at the result that English is the speech of 61 millions of men; and on comparing this re- sult with the amounts obtained for other European nation — we omit China with its hundreds of millions, for rea- sons previously stated , from our consideration — we find that Russian |. . [45 millions of men (by about ) French „ 45 Spanish „ 40 „ „ „ German „ 52 „ „ „ English „ 61 „ that the difference between the two lastnamed languages in particular and between English and any one of them in fact, is not sufficiently considerable to warrant the as- sumption that it could supersede any, much less all of them, unless indeed it be shown, that it possesses in a high de- 23 gree the power of absorbing- the speech of the nations, with which it is brought in contact. That such is, howe- ver, not the case; that it has not hitherto spread so ra- pidly as to let us arrive at the conclusion of its early fu- ture greatness from its lately past insignificance, may already have been gleaned from some of the previously made sta- tements ; and I will endeavour to justify the refusal of that opinion by a few additional facts. Except Italian, the ol- dest of modern languages in its present shape, the Eng- lish language has been developed to the highest degree of perfection, served as the vehicle for deepest thought and the most eloquent expression of every feeling that pervades the human mind, nearly three hundred years ago. Yet nearly the one half of Ireland's sons, notwithstanding that country has been subject to the English Grown ever since Henry I, well nigh seven centuries, have preserved the language of their fathers in spite of ages of systematic efforts to suppress it as well as their nationality in general, and even now they carry it rather across the ocean, than learn the hated accents of the Saxon. Little more than a century after, Wales was finally conquered and annexed to England by Edward I; and six centuries have not been able to make the English language supersede the Welsh with three quarters of a million of the aborigines. In the Highlands of Scotland Gaelic is spoken by fourhundred thousand clansmen, though Scotland has been under one crown with England since 1603, and though the influence of the English — or, what is nearly the same, the Low- land Scolch — had been brought to bear upon them for ages previously. But, more to the point still, the Chan- nel Islands, a possession of the British crown since the conquest , and the only remnant of the duchy of Normandy, preserve their native French intact, as do nine tenth of a 24 million of „habitants" in Lower Canada, subject to Eug- land since 1761, and surrounded by English settlers; as do the Dutch at the Gape, which became a British possession in 1806, after having been restored to the Dutch at the piece of Amiens; so do the French in Mauritius and the Spaniards in Gibraltar. That in America the increase of the language, like that of the population has been exceptional and unexampled finds its explanation in exceptional causes. These causes are of a political and social nature. The number of in- habitants amounted to about three millions at the Establish- ment of the Republic, and five millions and a half at the beginning of this century, all speaking English except a limited number of Dutch and French settlers, the former of whom have been unable to preserve their nationality in that whirlpool of nations, New York. In these figures no account is, I think, taken of the Indians within the terri- tory of the States. This number has increased sixfold during the last six decads, not so much by natural aug- mentation, as by immigration. Not only the Negroes, then slaves, (now, fortunately, a slave cannot breathe in the United States) whose descendants amount to nearly five millions, had to learn the speech of their masters, a con- stant tide of immigration also swelled the ranks of the in- habitants; and as during the first thirty years of our cen- tury this current mainly flowed from England (the number of emigrants from Great Britain amounted to 2,700,000 from 1821 — 1860, of whom if we follow the analogy of the British Islands five sixths spoke English) the English had become so thoroughly established, that later, when Irish and German immigrants arrived in greater numbers, they found themselves so completely surrounded by the ru- ling element, so isolated, that a great number with the 25 loss of national consciousness forgot their mother tongue. The number of immigrants arriving in the United States during the fifteen years ending in 1858 amounts to upwards of 3,900,000, or 260,000 a year, nor has this sum de- creased since that period. A change however has taken place in this, that the immigrants belonging to the German nationality, which seems to be destined to play a great part in America, have been attracted towards each other, like the disintegrated portions of a liquid , and are now in a process of recombination that has already filled several of the states almost exclusively with members of their own race. Political causes, therefore, have given to the English language its preeminence and rapid spread in America and some of her colonies, not a natural fitness to supersede the speech of other men, nor the alleged easiness of its acquisition. For the English language is not an easy one to acquire by any means; both the written and the uttered speech opposing to the learner formidable obstacles to sur- mount. To substantiate this proposition I will not confine myself to pointing out the difficulties that English children experience in learning some of the sounds of their mother- tongue, nor to the mutilated speech of the Negroes, those children of a larger growth, and even of their descen- dants ; to the difficulties the foreigners of most nations ex- perience in acquiring the „English accent" or losing their own; but I will give a synopsis of the sounds and the or- thography of the English language, and point out its pe- culiarities as compared with the other leading languages of Europe, particularly with German, French and Italian, if the system be contrary to some preconceived notions and different, nay opposed to systems usually employed, it has, I think, the advantage of being perspicuous and based upon facts. 26 NB. In the following remarks the sounds are throu- ghout expressed by capitals, the written characters by small letters. The vowel sounds, expressed in capitals, are equi- valent to their German or Italian representatives unless otherwise specified. Other peculiarities will be explained below. — 27 Vowel -Sounds. Diphthongs Simple Vowels is. 2L22 < 2 S SLcL O ft SSSg>£ o S £^0 o a. Or QO CD +++ + + ++++++ + + ++++++ + + -| 1 (- l>S b* b* -| \~ 28 The cross in one of the first three columns indicates the non - occurrence of the sound in the language, whose name heads it, in the last that, occurring in neither, it is peculiar to English as for as the languages of civilisation are concerned. I have classified all those vowel sounds, which occur both short and long, as simple vowels; those which are long only, as diphthongs. The latter all are composed of two simple vowels in close juxta-position, so as to produce one syllable. The primary vowels call for no comment, except that short A (2) in many words, or perhaps it would be more correcet to say in many districts, is modified by a slight addition of an E sound. We find a corresponding sound dialectically in Germany, the Brunswick pronuncia- tion of the letter a exactly resembling it. — This pecu- liarity is not now so prevalent in England as formerly. The same sound, when preceded by a W (u. w. qu.) [see below] becomes modified in the opposite direction in words like: what, squab etc. This is called by some grammarians „the short broad A", evidently a contradiction. Secondary vowel sounds I have called those, that ori- ginally are composed of two of the primary vowels, but in which these two vowels are so blended and fused together — chemically combined, as it were that their component parts can in no way be distinguished by the ear. This absolute and entire amalgamation of the sounds into one I have in- dicated by enclosing the component elements in brackets. In such a manner E has originated from A + I and from A -f- U. I do not here refer to historical origin, in which the influence of consonants and the accent bear per- haps a greater share in the change than the modification by other vowels and assimilation, but of phonetic origin only, as relating to the organs of speech. Lastly, the ter- 29 tiary vowels, as 1 have called them, (11 and 12) appear to me to be the result of a similar fusion of the three pri- mary vowels into one neutral sound, equally remote from either, though local pronunciation, the influence of the fol- lowing* aud preceding consonants and the everchanging habit produce minute variations and differences in its utterance, that have caused such varieties to be treated as different and independant sounds. The neutral character of this sound is most strikingly brought under the observation of our senses, by noticing the different letters that are used to represent it, long in : murder, learn, bird, word, fern and short in the last syllables of: sailor, soldier, nature, nation, altar, Arthur, vengeance, martyr. By English grammarians it is generally called short U or or E, according to the character employed, an evident misnomer in more senses than one, for it is as truly long in: word or bird, as AU is in pound or fowl. It ought to be stated however, that there is a tendency among the best speaker to pronounce such words more in conformity whith the written character; but the actual pronunciation of the two classes of words I have given is, with the distinction of length and short- ness, identical A sub-division might be made between the accented and unaccented form of the short neutral vowel sound, but even there, I consider the sounds identical and the apparent difference explained by the evanescent character of the latter form. In the diphthongs, always long, I have indicated the component parts by prefixing to thera the simple sounds (according to my previous definition) and it remains only to be added, that whith the exception of 17 and 18 the first of the two vowelsounds is not only uttered first, but also predominates considerably over the latter; it is accen- ted as it were. 17 and 18 consist of the same elements 30 but in different proportions, for if in the other diphthongs the second (in 17 the first) sound forms about one fifth of the whole combination, in such words as new (18) the I amounts to one half. 19 may also be expressed by the same simple sounds inverted, and so indeed may 13, with this difference that in that case the latter would have to be classed with 17 and 18, as the E decidedly predominates. On referring now to the columns that indicate the non- occurrence of these sounds in German, French and Italian respectively we find that, whithout mentioning such slight shades of difference as have already been incidentally al- luded to, and which might easily be multiplied, the Eng- lish language possesses 19 vowelsounds, of which 8 (that is .421 of the whole) do not occur in French or Italian, 5 (or .263) do not occur in German and are, as far as the great languages of Europe are concerned, altogether pecu- liar to it, while the average for the same three languages amounts to 7 sounds or .368, more than one third. The sound marked 19 occurs in Danish (aa) Swedish (a) and some German dialects, Bavarian for instance, 17 is found in Dutch (eeu) and 18 in Danish (io). Thurning next to the Consonant-Sounds, I have arran- ged them on a similar principle, though their number for- bade me to give a synopsis as easily comprehended at a single glance. 31 Consonant Sounds. 1. Simple Consonants. Examples initial | final |Germ.| Fren. } ltal. Tuta! 7 | 6 J 4 (8pecul.) 1 one II. Compoung Consonants. Composed of. 2 consonants. \ 5 * f 1- SN snore + 2. SK skill task + 3. SM smite + 4. fS smiths + + + 5. dZ lathes + + + 6. DZ buds + + 7. BZ tubs + + + 8. GZ flags + + + 9. ST wished + + + 1 L 1 + + 2 + + + 32 Compound Consonants (continued) Examples Compo- sed of 2 conso- nants. initial. | Pinal Germ. Fren. Ital. 10. GD flogged + + + + 11. ND hand + + + + 12. LD held + + + ' 13. BJ) robbed + + + + 14. MD hemmed + + + + 15. RFD hard + + + + 16. ZD raised + + + + 17. VD lived + + + + 18. ZM chasm + + + + 19. HW what + + + + 20. (NG)f length + + + + 21. Rf> through + + + + 22. Df> breadth + + + + 23. (NG)D longed + + + + 24. (NG)Z lungs + + + + 25. KW quake + + 2 26. Pf> depth + + + + (27. £M rhythm + + + + 28. SL slave + + + + 29. SW swallow + + + + 30. LZ toils + + + + 31. FS laughs + + 2 32. NT want + + 2 33. Nf> month + + + + 34. Lf> health + + + + 35. Rf> worth + + + + 36. NZ cans + + + + 37. NS dance + + 2 38. vz loves + + + + 39. R n M harm + + + + 40. R n L hurl + + + + 41. R"F turf + + + + 42. R n V carve + + + + 43. R I][ Z hears + + + + 44. R n S hearse + + + + 45. R n B herb + + + + Total 42 41 38 35pecul. 5 tvice 3 once 33 Composed of 3 con- sonants. + Compound Consonants (continued) Examples | initial. | final. Germ. Fren. Hal. ( * NGKS! shanks + 1 2. (NG)KT shanked + + + + 3. DJD fledged + + + + 4. ZMZ chasms + + + + 5.PST lapsed + + 2 6.SKT asked + + + + 7 NDZ lands + + + + 8.LDZ holds + + + + 9.R"DZ herds + + + + 10.FTS clefts + + 1 2 ll.SPS lisps + + t + 12.NTS wants + + 2 13.NST dauced + + 2 U.DST lhadst + + + + 15. LST jkillst + + 2 16.TST mightst + + 2 17.TST 'hatched + + + + 18.SKS tasks + + + + 19.R n TS ihearts + + + + <20.LTS 'quilts ifirst + + 2 21.R n ST + + + + 22.R I, tS | hearths + + + + 23.LZD i repulsed + + + + 24.SPT lisped + + + + 25.KST taxed + 1 26.(XG){>S lengths + + + + 27. MST jComest + + 2 28. R"NZ | earns + + + + 29,R n ND 'warned + + + + 30.JNDJD sponged + + + + 31.NJ>S months + + + + 32.RMf> warmth + + + + 33/DfS widths + + + + 34.NDJ orange + + + + 35.NTS wench + + + + 36.ILKS hulks + + 2 37. ! R"KS works + + + + 38.L|>S {healths + + + + (39.;MPS jlimps + + + + belo ngs to t le ne xt class. 34 Compound Consonants (continued) Examples initial. final. Germ. Freo. Ilal.| [40. R"DJ forge + + + + 41. LDJ bulge + + + + 42. R n BZ herbs + + + + ' 43. R n PS harps + + + + 44. R n MZ storms + + + + 45. R n KT worked + + + + 46. R n LD world + + + + Compo- 47. PJ>S depths delves + + + + sed of 3 J 48. LVZ + + + + conso- "(49. LMZ helms + + 2 nants. 50. R n VD carved + + + + 51. RnVZ carves + + + + 52. RnFS serfs + + 2 53. R n MD warmed £ + + + 54.|R n LZ 55.R n PT hurls + + + harped + + + + 56JSKR scribe •+ 1 57. SPR sprat + t 58. SKW squall + + 2 r i. R"NST learnst + + + + 2. R n TST searched + + + + 3.iR n DJD urged + + + + 4.RSTS bursts + + + + < 5J.LDJD bulged + + + + 6.NTST crunched + + + + 7.SKST askest + + + + 8.LPST helpst + + + + { 9JNTST pant'st • + + 2 Total 52 64 64 50 pecul. 13 twice 4 once. In this synopsis of the consonant sounds I have indi- cated the occurrence of a sound as initial or final only, or in both positions by the examples added; every other case is, of course, noticed among the compound sounds. — Like the vowel-sounds I have divided the consonants into 35 simple and compound, classing under the former all those that the ear can not dissect into their component parts. Of those „which I have called primary consonants" first stand the semivowels to which I giwe this name, not be- cause, the same letters (w, y) with two of them serve some- times to express a vowel, sometimes a consonant; but be- cause their sounds really have a close affinity for vowels. W closely resembles a short U, and when followed by h, the H precedes it in pronunciation. It has no equivalent in the great European languages. Y is so nearly akin to the German J and peculiar sounds in French icaillou) and Ita- lian (signor) that I have not treated it as a peculiar letter R 11 is a soft, guttural R, which at the close of a word so strongly resembles long A, that, were rhymes judged by the ear only such a combination as: „Jeremiah, blow the fire" would cease to be ridiculous. To draw a broad distinction R n , a guttural, is used after the vowel of the syllable of which it forms part, R, a lingual, classed, among the liquids, precedes it. The liquids call for no remark. Among the spirants S represents the sharp, Z the soft hissing sound which the letters s and z respectively express in French also, and for both of which the German and Italian lan- guage employs one sign-s-only. V is the same in French and Italian. J is a rare sound in English, only occurring between two vowels, represented in French by g before i and e. S is expressed by sch in German and ch in French ; perhaps it belongs to the secondary consonants, of which I now, as the mutes may be passed over in silence, shall say a few words. They are usually called aspirates, and considered as having been produced by the addition of the sound H to S, B or P, T and D respectively, while (Ng) is treated as a compound letter. This is Grimms view. Mo- dern English grammarians on the other hand (Latham e. g.) 3* 36 treat them as simple sounds, such as for the sake of di- stinction I have called primary. I venture to suggest a theory for their phonetic origin, similar to that which I have brought forward with regard to secondary and tertiary vowels; namely, that they have been produced by to close an amalgamation of their component parts (whether h is one of them or not) that a really new sound is the result , differing in all its characteristics from either of its elements. I am confirmed in my opinion by the widely diverging orthography of those sounds in the different lan- guages in which they occur. (I have used a new charac- ter for the one, the Anglo-Saxon ones for two others, and bracketed what are generally considered the component parts of the fourth while F required no new sign.) }) in: thin , through (not existing in French, German or Italian) corresponds to the Greek #, the Spanish z and c before i and e; the Polish c z, and the Hungarian cs ; while $ with its close relation to D, that children and foreigners so often substitute for it, is expressed both in Danish and Dutch, where its occurrence is frequent enough, by d (between two vowels). Ng is in most languages written ng and consi- dered to be a compound of the vowels those letters repre- sent; this view is however erroueous, as N is produced by contact of the tongue with the teeth or upper gum, while (NG) in long is entirely originated by palate and throat. This sound was expressed in Greek by the letter y before another y. x. %. §. not by double r, as frequently stated, the second letter keeping its own sound. In Greek, Ger- man or Italian it does not occur final as it does in English. Besides noticing that of the double consonants DJ is the Italian g before E and I and that this sound does not occur in French or German , that T& also of common oc- currence in Italian (ci) and written in German tsch, is not 37 to be found in French either, there remains little to be said, after the remarks made on the Simple Consonants* about the compound sounds, whether formed by double, treble or quadruple combination, except that I might have increased the list materially by adding such endings as: tie, ntle, rtle, die, cle, sle, zle, stle, mble, ndle, ere, gle, fle, ble etc., which although monosyllabic in theory, in reality always take the short neutral vowel sound 12 (v. s.) not indeed after the last consonant but before it. I have also excluded several treble and quadruple consonant com- binations such as shown in the words heldst, heardst, that belong to the second person singular of the verb, a form now rarely used except in religions addresses and in poetry, and then the words are pronounced as dissyllables: foundest, holdest; nor have I noticed some rare consonant combi- nations used only in scientific terms derived from classic languages, as FT (initial), in phtisis SKL etc. I have taken no notice of consonant combinations that are found only between two vowels, because their sound is necessarily divided, and lastly I have left out all those consonant combinations that are of not unfrequent occurrence in other languages. Ast the first glance it might appear, as if many of the compount? consonant sounds were of common occur- rence, in German particularly, but closer examination con- vinces us that our eye is mislead by the orthography. The German words: tanz, Gans, land's, Kant's are pronounced with the same ending sound TS, while the four English words: lands, pans, pants, pence have four distinctly dif- ferent sounds DZ, Z, TS and S respectively as termi- nation. * On summarising now the results obtained by a com- parison of the English consonant sounds with those of the French German and Italian languages we find that of the 38 simple consonants 1, of the double 4 of the treble and quadruple 3 occur only in two of these languages, 7 double and 13 treble combinations are wanting in 2 of them, and that 4 single 37 double and 50 treble and quadruple com- binations, in the English language, in as far as these ton- gues are concerned, are altogether peculiar to it, which with the previously mentioned 5 vowels gives a total of 96 altogether peculiar to the English language 106 not existing in German, 116 wanting in Italian and 119 in French. These results are sufficiently startling to make comment superfluous, but it remains still to be remarked that in ad- dition many of the consonants and some of the combinations, that are found in other languages do not in them occur both as initials and finals, as they do in English, that some of the consonant- combinations between two vowels, such as finger, where the last syllable begins with a distinct G sound in addition to (Ng) are peculiar to English, and lastly, that there is a very great prevalence of consonants sounds, simple and compound, after the vowel, which are not met with in that position elsewhere. Another difficulty, not equal certainly to that of the sounds, yet perplexing enough at times, not only to the foreigner or ignorant native, but even to an educated Eng- lishman, is the accentuation. — Generally speaking, in Ger- man the accent rests on the stem, in Italian it is governed by rhythmical considerations, in French equally divided over all the syllables of a word, in English it is drawn back to the beginning. Originally the same rule obtained in English as in German, and does so still with regard to Saxon words; but those words do not increase in number, and in all the elements adopted from foreign tongues, the accent, if employed correctly at first, soon becomes corrupted, while the words in which that process has not 39 yet taken place create additional confusion. The old maxim, that the tone cannot rest further back from the end of the word than the antepenultimate, seems to be set utterly at defiance and orthoepical treatises contain long arrays of words accented on the last syllable but three and even on the last but four. This seeming anomaly is explained by the rapid utterance with which the syllables following are blurred over as it were, and which causes them to occupy in being pronounced the same time only, that is usually employed for two syllables; or in other cases there is a secondary accent nearer the end of the word. In the following words for instance, that have the accent on the last syllable but three, the vowel sound of the antepenulti- mate is almost silent: January, literary, exemplary, cu- riously, accuracy, particularise, corroborative, contemporary r , while in characterise and similar words the penultimate is shortened. Of polysyllables accented on the first some shorten the vowel sounds of two of their syllables to such an extent, as to be practically reduced to trissyllables ; such are: costumarily, dilatoriness , solitarily, necessarily, in which the vowels of the second and fourth syllables are so treated; while others have a secondary accent on the penultimate as: masticatory, lachrymatory, laboratory etc. This explains the difficulty but does not diminish it, while the discrepancy of the highest authorities on the accent of a considerable number of words of this nature serves greatly to augment it. Of words of doubtful accentuation the most important are verbs and verbal derivatives, be- cause the tendency of the English language to draw the accent back to the beginning of a word is counteracted to some extent by the fundamental rule that verbs have the accent at the end (the root-syllable in Saxon being either the ultimate or the penultimate) and this double action has 40 caused a doubtful condition with many verbs derived from classical sources. The accentuation of the following among numerous others is doubtful: confiscate, contemplate, ener- vate , extirpate, acceptable, commendable, disputable. The peculiarity of English accentuation exercises an especially unfavourable influence on a very great number of words that are either borrowed from the Latin or Greek un- changed and also on still greater number of derivatives from such words. The impression produced upon a conti- nental , unaccustomed to hear English spoken, when hearing such words as sdnator, orator , mdnument , history, oases, plethora, antmone etc., with the indistinct and hurried pro- nuncation of the final syllable is, that they are utterly strange to him, although he may write the word with almost the same letters in his native tongue. I cannot conclude my remarks on accent, without alluding to that most impor- tant class of words, containing more than one hundred, which , although composed of ablolutely the same sounds, become different parts of speech by different accentuation, being verbs, if accented on the ultimate, nouns or adjectives if not. I can only instance a few examples: absent (adject;) absent (verb) produce (noun) produce (verb) consort (noun) consort (verb. Having thus at some length treated of the difficulties of an organic nature, that oppose the acquisition of the language even if constantly conversing with natives, or having the best masters, I must now turn to the artificial difficulties retarding and often preventing success in ob- taining a mastership over the language without those auxi- liaries. I allude to the extremely irregular, intricate and capricious orthography. I believe I am within the mark in saying, there is not in England, in the upper and middle classes , one person in a hundred , who can spell correctly 41 all the words of his own language ; when I say , all the words, I mean all the words in daily use. Children at school spend a sonsiderable portion of their time in ^ear- ning spellings" and remain most lamentably insufficient, and foreigners, who have acquired the language from books often surpass educated Englishmen, in what is justly con- sidered an accomplishment. In most grammars, whether written for foreigners or natives, the reader is informed that the letter a has 3, 4 or 5 sounds,' the letter e 3 sounds etc.; but that arrangement does not convey a just notion of the difficulties to be encountered, and I shall therefore give a comprehensive view of the different ways in which the simple and compound sounds enumerated in the previously given synopsis are expressed by letters. Refering first to the vowel sounds and taking them in the same order we find that these sounds are expressed in the following manner: NB. I have taken no notice of any consonants here, though some of them exercise a great influence e. g. r and 1. Sounds Letters by which expressed with instances. A long a, father; aw, law; au launch; aa, bazaar; e, clerk A short a, hat; ai, plait I long i, invalid; ee, thee; ea, thea; *e-e here; ie believe ; eo , people ; ey , key ; uoi, tur- quois; oe, sub poena; ae, aphaeresis ; e, me; ei, receive. I short i, hit; ui, biscuit; u, busy; y, hymn; o, women; ey attorney; ie, cronies U long o, do; oo, boon; ou group; o-e, lose; wo, two ; oe , shoe U short u, pull; ou, could; oo, good *) This indicates the followiug of a silent e in the next syllable. M.of ways. 12 7 6 3 42 Sounds. Letters which express them and instances Jtoof ways. E long E short long short Neutral Vowel (AJU; long. Neutral Vowel (AJU) short. EA Al AU 01 IU 11 AO a, vague ; cy obey ; ai, again ; ay, clay ; ei, eight; ea, great; a-e, state; ao, gaol; au, gauge e, hen; ai, said; ea, bread; eo, leopard; a, Thames; ay, says; ue, guest, o-e, note; oa, boat; oe, sloe; ow, know; ou, though, o, not. u, murder; e, fern; ea, learn; i, bird; o, word; ou scourge accented: u, but; o, dove; ou, rough. unaccented: a, altar; e, alter; i, cousin; o, actor; u, sulphur; oa, cupboard; a-e, ad- vantage; i-e, subtile; eo, surgeon: ei, sovereign; our, parlour etc. a-e, bare; ea; bear; e, there; ai, hair; ei heir i, title; ai, aisle; ie, die; y, ally; uy, buy; oi, choir; ui guile ou, house; ow, owl oi, foil; oy, boy; uoy, buoy u, thruth; u-e, use; ou, through; ue, true; eau, beauty; oeu, manoeuvre; ui, suit; eu, rheumatism. ew, new; iew, view; ieu, lieu. oa, broad; aw, raw; au haul; ou, bought; and a (before r et e) war, fall. 14 5 7 2 3 19. 109 Thus we learn that the 19 vowel -sounds can be ex- pressed by 109 different letters, or combinations of letters, in which number no account is taken of silent letters (to any extent), nor of any consonants whatever, as both con- sonants and silent letters will be spoken of presently. This gives an average of 5.736 methods of expressing each vowel sound, if long and short vowels are treated as altogether di- stinct; but if they are considered as really one sound, the 43 average amounts to 9.083 and to 12.83 for the six simple vowel-sounds alone. In turning next to the consonants, I have taken no notice of their gemination, which exists in most languages and which where it has any effect, influences the quantity of the preceding consonant rather. (This remark applies also to the table of consomnt-sounds.) We find then, that L, M, K, P, B, D, G, H, W are never expressed by any but their proper letters, that (Ng) is written ng final only, as the combination ng within the word reads (Ng) g. e. g- longer. Ng, R 11 , {), D, S, J though simple sounds, have no separate simple signs to express them; R and R n , are ex- pressed by the same letter r, a circumstance of not much importance, if it be taken into consideration that the pro- nunciation of that letter as a guttural or a lingual is to a great extent, not only in England, but elsewhere also, a matter of individual habit of fashion, and of local custom. f and £ also are expressed by the same combination; and the learner finds it difficult to remember the due sound of I is expressed by z and s before , sheep; su, sure; ti, nation; ci, th in different words. u, and S is written : s social. The following consonantsounds are expressed in more ways than one: S Z F T K Y * DJ s, sat; c, cell z, zeal; s, lease f, fat; ph, philosophy; gji, enough t, trot; d, fetched: th, Thames jk, king; c, cat; ck, cock; qu, casque (ch, christian. y, yet; i, million g, gem; j, jewel; dg, fudge. (2) (4) *) With the comhinations of consonants I have noticed anomalous ways of spelling a sound, even if they be the only ones in use. The intervention of the silent e in writing is not noticed. 44 SK sk , skull ; sc, scull j sch, school dZ ths, lathes GZ gs. flags ST shd, wished. ZD zd, buzzed, sd, raised ZM sm. chasm HW wh, what (NG)Z ngs, lungs (NG)KT nkd, thanked KW qu, quaker LZ Is, toils FS ghs, laughs; fs, chiefs; phs, triumphs NZ ns cans VZ vs loves DJD gd, engaged; dgd, dodged TST chd, reached; tchd, fetched SKS sks, tasks; ques, casques ZMZ sins, chasms NST nst, canst; ncd, danced NDZ J LDZ, RDZ, RBZ, LMZ, etc. have s lislhiaT Sounds Letters Instance. LZD lsd: repulsed ; SPT spd: liped ; KST xd: laxed NDJD ngd: sponged NTS nch: wench NDJ nge: orange RDJ rge: urge LDG; lge: bulge RKT rkd: worked NTST nchd: crunched RTST rchd : searched RDGD rgd: urged LDGD lgd: bulged. Before summing up I ought to add the remark, that the letters c, q, j, x, occurring in the English Alphabet are redundant, as c is either an equivalent of K as in cock, or of S as in cell or in conjunction with h expresses someti- mes the sound TS as church, sometimes a K, as Christ; q is alirays K, j DJ, and x, KS. In the compound conso- 45 iiants 1 have not repeated any irregularities resulting of necessity from an anomalous way of expressing the simple consonant, nor in those consisting of combinations of three and four consonants, any irregularity that is the necessary result Of a previous irregularity in the method of expressing the compounds consisting of two consonants. — We find then that (simple consonants are j correctly represented by are unrepresented except by combination , two of which have 4 super- fluous combinations . . are expressed by . . . And there are superfluous 9 signs 4 19 1 4 23 Average: 2 nearly. 13 This ratio, 1 think, would have remained about unal- tered, if all the compound consonant sounds had been taken in, the majority of which are omited in the list of sounds. Many of the compound sounds written down, are only re- presentad by one group of letters. It has to be well ob- served, that this group always forms an anomalous way of expressing the sounds. From the list of sounds we arrive at the remark that the English language exceeds others in the abundance of its (final) consonant combinations, while the averages we have drawn, show that the vowels have by far the most numerous deviations in their orthography. Mention remains still to be made of the silent letters as a numerous and important part of the written language. Like dried up riverbeds they show, where streams of living water once were wont to flow; most important they are for the study of etymology, as a means of distinction, between 46 different words of equal sound, so common in English , but a sad stumbling block to the illiterate and the student. Many of the vowel combinations, which I have pre- viously enumerated, contain examples of silent letters such as o in people; e and u are frequently silent but in that case generally affect the immediately preceding consonant as guide, guest, where the sound of G is by those means expressed, though other words have the same sound even before E and I without the u, as get girdle; while scourge, surgeon intimate the J sound by the addition of e, the c (S) is similarly affected by e, as truce. Such combinations as gu, ge, ce, though not consisting-of consonant-signs might perhaps very properly be classed under the consonants, as they are combinations for producing a single consonant sound. In the same manner the silent e at the end of words affects the preceding vowel, lengthens it in and changes it into a diphthong in other cases, a — e = EA fate; i — e = Al, life; o -f- e = U, move; u -f- e = IU, use. Table of silent consonants. 1 in could, calf, chalk, alms etc. n „ autumn, hymn, kiln etc. s „ aisle, viscount, etc. p „ psalm, emty, raspberry (before S. T. B.) b „ climb, doubt, (after M before T.) k „ knave, knock (before N.) g „ gnat j sing (before N.) h „ heir, hour, rhyme, Sarah. w „ wrap, sword (before R.) c „ scent, indict (before T and after S. ch „ drachm, yacht. gh„ high, through, ought. All these silent letters, ch alone excepted, are of very common occurrence, gh perhaps most so. 47 I have thus pointed out some of the leading difficulties in the spoken and wrilfen language of England, which will always militate strongly against its easy acquisition and rapid extension, especially as the anomalies pointed out are by no means of rare occurrence, but in many instances form the rule. I have drawn attention to the qualitatively and quantitatively equally important irregularities in the vo- wel and consonant sounds, the peculiarities of the accen- tuation and the many and strangely inconsistent methods of expressing these sounds. We arrive then at the conclu- sion that the English language does not owe the undoubted preeminence, which it at present enjoys among the languages of the world, and the numerical superiority of the people that employ it, either to a natural tendency to supplant other civilised languages with which it comes in contact, or to its alleged easiness and simplicity; nay, we might even say, and not without cause, that the greater development it has obtained in the simplification of its grammar is the commen- cement of its dissolution, the beginning of the end ; and that its extraordinary tendency to degenerate into slang of every kind is the foreshadowing of its approaching dismemberment. We find the slang of the School and the slang of the Turf, slang military and slang naval, slang mercantile and manu- facturing, and last but not least the slang of the lower or- ders in general and of the dangerous classes in particular. I might speek of the slang of the Yankee with its nume- rous subdivisions, perhaps corresponding in kind to, but individually differing from, the slang of Great Britain, the slang of the Indian, the Australian, the settler on the Cape. I might advert to the great want of education among the lower classes, when even now nearly 40 per cent, of the adult population are unable to write and 25 to read, as a material obstacle to the spread of the language, as 48 emigrants here belong as a rule to the lowest stratum of society, and might reply, if reminded of the great improve- ment that in late years have been effected in that particu- lar, that at present there is but little prospect of making education compulsory and that, unless that be done, it can never become general, and just those portions of the com- munity will be bereft of its blessings, that most require them. But passing over those subjects with the most cursory no- tice, I must say a few words on the probable aspect ot the British and American Empires in the future and the pro- gressiva political, commercial and social importance of those nations. The English are the masters of the Sea. True — but so have others been before them, and so may others be after them. The men of Tyre and Sidon who „went down to the sea in ships" and their still more powerful colonists, the Carthaginians, have been the masters of the Sea; yet their language is lost utterly and irrevocably. The Vikings or Norsemen were very kings of the ocean, as their name implies, but where is now their speech? The Italian Re- publics, the Hanse towns, the Spaniards and the Dutch have successively been the rulers of the main, without powerfully affecting the languages of Europe; Britannia rules the wa- ves to day, but will her language exercise a greater in- fluence, and will she rule them tomorrow? 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