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TEANSACTIONS

OF THK

PHILOLOGICAL SOCIETY

l855-

PUBLISHED FOR THE SOCIETY
BY GEORGE BELL, 186, FLEET STREET,

lontdiu

PRINTED BY TAYLOR AND FRANCIS, RKD LION COURT, FLKET STREET.

CONTENTS

Pages

On the Latin Verb mittere, its Origin and Affinities ;
and generally on Verbs signifying ' to go ' in the Indo-
European Family ; by T. HEWITT KEY, Esq., M. A. . 1-15

On Eoots mutually connected by reference to the term
Zig-zag ; by HENSLEIGH WEDGWOOD, Esq., M.A. . 16-28

Norfolk Words, collected by ANNA GUENEY . . . 29-39

On the Languages of Western and Southern Africa ; by

Dr. WILHELM BLEEK, of the University of Berlin . 40-50

On the Coptic Language ; by Dr. GAEL ABEL, of the

University of Berlin 51-61

On False Etymologies; by HENSLEIGH WEDGWOOD,

Esq., M.A 62-72

On the Kamilaroi Language of Australia ; by WILLIAM
RIDLEY, B.A. Univ. Coll. Lond 72-84

On certain recent Additions to African Philology ; by
E. G. LATHAM, Esq., M.D. Part I. ..... 85-95

On the Derivation and Meaning of the Latin Verb
wurpare ; by T. HEWITT KEY, Esq., M.A. . . . 96-103

English Etymologies; by HENSLEIGH WEDGWOOD,
Esq., M.A 104-118

On Greek Accentuation; by T. HEWITT KEY, Esq.,

M.A 119-145

On the Uncontracted Form of the Genitive Case Sin-
gular of Greek Nouns of the Second Declension ; by
HENBY MALDEN, Esq., M.A. .- 146-154

On the Ancient Languages of France and Spain ; by
JAMES KENNEDY, Esq., LL.B 155-184

IV CONTENTS.

Pages *

Oil certain recent Additions to African Philology ; by

R. G. LATHAM, Esq., M.D. Part II 185-206

On the Meaning of the Boot gen or ken ; by HENSLEIGH

WEDGWOOD, Esq., M.A r 207-209

On the Eaces of Lancashire, as indicated by the Local

Names and the Dialect of the County ; by the Eev.

JOHN DAVIES, M.A 210-284

On the Recent History of the Hungarian Language ;

by THOMAS WATTS, Esq 285-310

INDEX . 311-316

APPENDIX, List of Members, &c.

The Authors alone of the several Papers in these Transactions, and not the
Society or the Council, are responsible for the contents of the Papers.

NOTICE.— After Michaelmas 1856 the Society's Place of Meeting \\ill
be changed from The London Library, 12 St. James's Square, to the Rooms
of The Royal Astronomical Society at Somerset House j and the Society's
Days of Meeting from tjie second and fourth Fridays of every month from
November to June, to the first and third Thursdays.

TRANSACTIONS

OF THE

PHILOLOGICAL SOCIETY

1855.

NUMBER 1.

January 12.— THOMAS WATTS, Esq., in the Chair.

The Paper read was —

" On the Latin Verb mittere, its Origin and Affinities ; and
generally on Verbs signifying 'to go' in the Indo-
European Family ;" by T. HEWITT KEY, Esq., M.A.

It would probably conduce to etymological accuracy, if, in
the investigation of words, the attention were given separately
to the questions of form and meaning. At present, inquirers
are too apt to confine their views exclusively to one or other
of these considerations, more commonly slaves to form and
careless about the connexion of ideas. In the present paper
we propose to commence with an examination of the meaning
which primarily resides in the verb mittere. Now we believe
that f cause to go ' most closely represents the sense, whence
on the one hand is deduced the somewhat negative idea of
' to let go/ on the other the more active idea expressed in our
common translation f to send ' ; and we purposely give ' to let
go ' a precedence over ' to send/ as being on the whole of far
more frequent occurrence. As in a former paper we tested

the true power of the verb dare* by its compounds, rather
than by the use of the simple verb, and so claimed for it the
sense of the more general idea ' put/ rather than ' give/ rely-
ing for example on the power which belongs to condere, ' put
together, build/ abdere, 'put away, hide/ dedere arma, 'put
down one's arms, surrender/ indere nomen and induere vestem,
' put on/ &c., so here we give our first attention to the com-
pounds of mittere. Thus, amittere never has the meaning of
' send away ' ; but f to let go from you ' is no inaccurate me-
thod of expressing the idea ' to lose/ Again, demittere more
frequently signifies ' to let down ' than f to send down/ For
example, demittere barbam means ' to let the beard grow,' and
demittere se either physically < to let oneself down, to drop/
or figuratively ' to lower oneself, to become dejected/ while
demissus is an equivalent for our adjective 'low/ Remitter e
in its ordinary uses is the opposite to tendere, that is, ' to let
go again/ or ' to let go back what has been strained into some
unnatural position/ Emittere is rather ' to let go out what
has been pent up/ than ' to send out/ the exhibition of force
arising from the negative idea of no longer obstructing. Di-
mittere concilium, ' to break up an assembly/ contains in itself
permission to depart, rather than any act necessitating depar-
ture. Thus the idea tallies exactly with the power of ilicet,
' you may go/ the very word by which an assembly was dis-
solved. In per mitt ere the notion of ' to send ' never occurs,

* Sanskrit scholars tell us that dare is a different verb from that which
enters into the compounds, the simple verb corresponding, they say, to the
Greek 8t8a>pt, Sanskrit dadami, and the verb which enters into the com-
pounds to the Greek rcdq/u, Sanskrit dadhami ; and the cause which has
led to the apparent fusion of the two verbs into one Latin verb lies, accord-
ing to them, in the deficiency of aspirates which characterises the Latin.
We make three objections to this doctrine of Sanskrit scholars. First, the
archaic forms perduim, creduim, interduim, as well as induere, beside the
simple archaic form duim, plead strongly in favour of a connexion between
do and perdo, &c. Secondly, the root 0f- or 0eo-- of the words TI%ZI,
Gfo-fMos, corresponds in our view to the Latin se or ser of the verbs sero,
sevi or serui, satum, situm or sertum, * put/ Thirdly, do tibi in manum,
' I put into your hand/ leads most naturally to the more limited sense of
'I give/

whereas 'to let go entirely/ 'to leave altogether with others/
is precisely the meaning of the verb, as in the well-known
phrase Permit te dims cetera. In our English word ' permit/
there is something too positive for it to be a fair represen-
tative of the Latin verb. He who permits, gives a sort of
sanction, whereas permitto hoc tibi rather denotes that ' I leave
the matter wholly in your hands, so that with you will reside
all the responsibility for what may be done/ In committere,
' to entrust/ we find a similar union of ideas ; but there is a
peculiar use of this verb which may well be applied as a test
for trying its meaning. We refer to such phrases as non est
meum committere ut neglegens videar, ' it is not my habit to
run the risk of being thought negligent/ In this and such
passages, committere seems to attain the required meaning if
we start from the idea of a person letting a matter pass en-
tirely from his control ; and it is probably in this way that
c. helium, c. pugnam came into use. A general who once lets
his men commence fighting, has comparatively little power of
stopping the combat. Pr omit t ere we would translate ' to let
go forth/ Hence, on the one hand, promittere barbam, ' to let
the beard grow long/ and promissa barba, ' a long beard ' ;
while that other meaning which is represented by our own verb
' promise/ naturally flows from the idea of divulging an inten-
tion. To let it go forth that one will do so and so, often
constitutes with a man of character a promise to do it. ' To
let go by/ is the received translation of praetermittere ; and for
intermittere we will first point to a quotation in a recent paper
from Cato of intermittere ignem, ' to let the fire go out/ while
the more common uses of this compound agree precisely with
its German equivalent unterlassen. The verb omittere was also
noticed in the same paper, where it was hinted that the initial
element was possibly a representative of the Greek ava. At
any rate this verb is well represented in meaning by the
Greek avtevat. Of its form more anon. The use of admittere
in the sense of committing a disgraceful act, has been duly
explained by Forcellini on the principle that " quipeccat, scelus
in animum recipit" an interpretation confirmed by the frequent
use of in se in this connexion. Thus admittere scelus in se is

' to let the (moral) filth come to one/ and so ' defile or dis-
grace oneself/ The connexion between cleanliness or purity
and guiltlessness is frequent in Latin phraseology. Thus
castus, ' holy/ is but a participle of the verb carere, which,
though used in the limited sense of carding wool, had no doubt
at first the more general meaning ' to clean/ so that carere, in
accordance with the usual power of the second conjugation,
might well denote ' to be clean or clear 3 of what is expressed
by the accompanying ablative. We may also observe that cas
or car, which forms the base of these words, is the analogue
of the Greek base icad-, as seen in icadapos*. What has been
said above implies that the word scelus must have had for its
original notion ' dirt/ and it seems not improbable that it is
represented in the Greek vocabulary by o-Kcop (gen. cr/car-os),
or more nearly by that other form TO o-/earos which also got
into use. Had it been permitted to us to suggest the form
that a Latin noun scelus would have taken in Greek, we
should have fixed on oveeS-05, which we should have treated as
a derivative from %eS of %e£o>. The letters / of the Latin, 8 of
Greek, and t of English, not unfrequently go together, as in
lacruma, Saicpv-, and tear (tagr) \ and in the three verbs %«-,
£e-, and tie.

Of course it is not intended to deny that ' to send' is often
a fitting translation of mittere and some of its compounds.
' To send ' in fact is one of the ideas, only not the leading one,
which is included under the more general phrase ( to let go/
Another is fto put,3 and this also is visible in the Italian
met t ere and French mettre.

The form of the verb mittere next claims our attention. As
the study of Greek commonly commences at a later stage than
that of its sister tongue, it was but natural that a more philo-
sophical view of the former language should be presented in
grammars intended for a more developed mind. Hence it is
true for the most part that the genuine base of a Greek verb

* That 6 of the Greek often corresponds to a in Latin may be seen in
the example quoted in the preceding note. Another presents itself in the
comparison of the words aes-tus, aes-tivus, from an obsolete verb aes-, with
the Greek aid- ' burn.'

is exhibited in the grammars of German philologers with a
greater courage than the writers of the same country commonly
venture upon in dealing with Latin verbs. We are therefore
only claiming for the Latin a privilege already conceded to the
Greek, when we write fid-, rep-, die-, due-, scrib-, nub-, rather
than fid-, rep-, die-, due-, scrib-, nub-, as the bases of the verbs
which respectively denote ' trust, creep, say, draw, write, veil.'
By this step we gain an explanation of the quantity seen in the
derivatives fides, perfidus, fatidicus, malidicus, judex judicis,
redux reducis, educare, conscribillare, pronuba, connubium,
&c Secondly, we bring the several bases nearer to their
analogues in the Greek language, as seen in the Greek
(of Treido^ai) , epr- ( = €p€7r-)} 8e/c- (of the Herodotean
&e£ci), ypa(f)-y and ve<f>- (of ve(f>-6\r] and ve<£-o<?). On the other
hand, the length of the vowels in the imperfect tenses of the
same verbs finds its explanation in a principle long familiar as
a fact to the Greek philologer ; and the principle becomes an
intelligible truth, when we reflect that to lengthen the vowel,
in other words to dwell longer on the base-syllable, is the
simplest possible method of denoting the character of an im-
perfect tense, which is only another term for duration of time.
As a friend from whom we first heard this explanation truly
said, nothing can be more expressive than the phrase ( he came
creep ing along,' as opposed to the brevity of the act ex-
pressed by the aoristic form, ' he crept in again/ Thus in the
Latin we are right when we give in pronunciation a short
vowel to repsi, beside the imperfect repere or repo.

Similarly the final t which presents itself in the Latin verbs
plect- and vert- has its precise parallel in the Greek TVTTT- and
piTrr-, which are now habitually represented by the crude
forms TVTT- and pl$-. Thus the two Latin verbs just quoted
have for their base the syllables plec* and ver, the former of
which is seen in the Greek verb 7r\€/c-, and also leads to the
derived substantive plica-, whence the adjectives simplici-,
duplici- (nom. simplex, duplex] ; while ver has advantages for

* This must not be interpreted to signify that plec is an ultimate root ;
on the contrary we regard it as a compression of pal-ec-, of which the base
is pal, as seen in pal-ma, pal-am, or what is an equivalent, pad of pandere.

grammatical purposes over the lengthened form vert-, as ap-
pearing more clearly in the derivation of the words vermina,
vermis, versus, versura, &c., to say nothing of its modern repre-
sentatives in our own veer and wear (ship), the French virer,
and the German wirren. But we must also keep in view those
verbs of the Greek and Latin languages which distinguish the
imperfect tenses from the mere base by the appearance of a
doubled consonant, as (r<f>a\\a)} crK6\\a) of the one language,
fallo, vello, pello, tollo, verro of the other. If <r(f>a\ and o-/ce\
with a single liquid be accepted as the base of the Greek verbs,
then we are justified in setting down as the essential elements
of the five Latin verbs the forms fal, vel, pel, tol, ver, whence
we deduce with greater facility the derived forms falso-, vulso-,
pepuli and pulso-, tetuli and tuli, and the participle e-verso-,
' swept out/ The origin of the letters which are thus em-
ployed to strengthen imperfect tenses, involves an inquiry of
no slight difficulty. The writer is inclined to the opinion that
there lies at the bottom of many of the cases enumerated the
compression of a suffix, which may perhaps have had a form
equivalent to what is seen in our own verbs ramble, grumble,
whirl. A suffix el or some equivalent form is well known in
perhaps all the members of the Indo-European family, as
having the sense of ' little/ and the addition of it may well add
the idea expressed by the Latin paulatim, and so fitly denote
continued action. Such a suffix, el, would readily interchange
with its neighbouring liquids r and n, and in many languages
no less readily with the dental series, t of the Latin, r and 0 of
the Greek. In this way we would explain the secondary
forms above enumerated, as well as Xa/*/3ava>, iiavQavw, TTITVQ),
CL/caOct), eipyaOco, ve/jueBa) ; the German wandeln, wandern, &c.,
and the English welter, wander, open, reckon, burn, mourn, &c.
Of course to such forms as fidere, ducere, &c. above quoted,
and others, such as rumpere, tang ere, \a/jL/3 of \a/j,(3avco, &c.,
where no appended suffix presents itself, but rather a change
in the body of the root, what we have been saying cannot
apply. Here however through the mere mechanical length-
ening of the root by an increase of vowel or consonantal
sound, we have for the result that the voice dwells longer upon

the base-syllable, and so in the most direct manner denotes
an increased duration.

The application of what has been said to the verb mittere
brings us to a triliteral base mit with the sense of ' let go/

The next idea which presents itself is the recollection that
in the early condition of language, a large majority of verbs
unite in themselves the double sense of 'an act' arid 'the
causing such act/ Thus 'to fall' with ourselves expresses
what the Latin denotes by cadere and caedere, ' to fall oneself/
or f to fall a tree.' In a later stage of language it is found
convenient to have duplicate forms, as fall and fell, rise and
raise, lie and lay. But in the vulgar tongue, which with lin-
guistic inquirers is always entitled to respectful consideration,
there still linger traces of the older freedom, by which the
same verb was used in an active dnd reflective (miscalled
neuter) sense : ( He was laying on the bed,' ( help me to rise
this stone,' are phrases now condemned by the polite, but no
doubt well-founded in the early idiom of the language. In
the uncompounded verbs mere and stare of the Latin, the
intransitive translation is almost the only admissible one ; yet
some of the compounds of these verbs, as diruere, proruere,
and praestare, in the sense e to exhibit,' re- assert a title to a
transitive construction. But what we have said of the double
power of many verbs applies with special force to verbs which
signify 'to go.' The verb /Bawd) for example, in its first
aorist, and still more commonly the compounds of this verb,
exhibit the idea of ' cause to go*.' Again, in our own lan-
guage, what is more common than to attach an objective case
to such verbs as 'to walk (a horse), trot (him), gallop (him)?'
Nay, the vulgar phrase ' go it,' admits of justification as soon
as we regard the verb as capable of expressing the factitive
idea, 'cause to go.' In the French phrases 'je m'en vais,
nous nous en allons,' no other explanation can well be sug-
gested ; but they at once become significant in every element
when we assign to them the translation ' I take myself off '
(i.-e. from here), 'we take ourselves off,' for the particle en of

* See Veitch's Greek Verbs, sub v.

the French, like the hin similarly used in German with verbs
of motion, as hingehen, corresponds to the Latin inde or hinc
(when shorn of the enclitic ce). We say, or hin of hinc, in the
sense that this particle in origin is identical with inde, for as
regards the curtailment of the final letters, we have well-
known parallels in the double forms delude dein, proinde
proin, &c., and in utrinde, beside its derivative utrinque.
Lastly, the Sanskrit presents a very pertinent example for our
purpose in the fact that the verb ir (p. 210 ap. Wilson) sig-
nifies in the Vedas ' to go/ and in the Classic Sanskrit ( to
send/

The question then which we wish to ask is, whether a verb
mit in the sense f to go' be producible ? Before we answer
this question we would first observe, that as the verbs which
express the simplest and the most essential ideas are appa-
• rently for that very reason the most irregular in form, so
amid such irregularities the verb fto be' occupies the most
prominent place, and after that the verbs which signify ' to go.'
In the second volume of the Society's Proceedings (p. 143),
there commences a paper on this verb, go, &c., the whole
of which bears upon the present question ; and some parts
so directly, that we may be permitted to make one or two
quotations. After arguing for the identity of the Italian
andare and French aller, from the convertibility of the con-
sonants by which they are distinguished, we observed : —

" The identity of andare and oiler is strongly confirmed by
their similar position in the two tenses of the Italian and
French languages, viz. vado or vo, vai, va ; andiamo, andate,
vanno ; and vais, vas, va ; allons, allez, vont."

We further contended theoretically for a provincial vandere in
Latin as a variety for the ordinary form vadere, on the evidence
of such double forms as tang ere and tag ere, l to touch' ; and
then claimed the German verbs wander-n and wandel-n as deri-
vatives from our root*. We further contended for the sub-

* This argument derives much strength from the fact that a provincial
verb wad-en ' to go ' (Gothic watan) occurs in the ' Niederdeutsche geist-
liche Lieder und Spruche aus dem Miiusterlande,' edited by B. Hb'lscher of
Munster. See Kuhn's Zeitschrift, vol. iv. p. 227.

stantial identity of the roots in vais and allons of the French,
and in vado and andiamo of the Italian, arid accounted for the
loss of the initial digamma partly on the general tendency of
this sound in some dialects to disappear, as in Andalusia for
Wandalusia, the fuller form being still retained in the Arabic
name for the peninsula, Wandaluz ; and further we pointed
out that the longer forms, such as andiamo and allons, could
better dispense with the initial v than the shorter forms vais
and vo, &c. Attention was also drawn to the close resem-
blance between the stem va and fia of the Greek ficuvco, while
the n of the longer base /3av was so far paralleled by the Nea-'
politaii variety anare ' to go ' in place of andare.

In the same paper it was contended that the base ga, as ex-
hibited in the Old German verb^flm, gas, gat (Grimm, i. 868),
' I go/ &c., and in the Scotch gae, was an equivalent for the
Italian va and Greek @a. Neither would we abandon all
claim to the base /j,a, which appears to have had for an early
meaning ' seek/ and so in meaning agrees with the Latin pet,
of which hereafter ; nay, in avro/juaro- ( self-moving/ we have
precisely the meaning we desire to find. Again, not far
removed in form from^a is the Sanskrit verb hd 'go' (226,
Wilson).

But while we admit /3a rather than /3av to be the earlier
form of the Greek verb, we must not leave the forms which
have a nasal ending unconsidered. So by the side of the
base va we place the Sanskrit phah ' go' (185, Wilson) . If we
were correct in claiming the Greek pa ' seek/ with still more
certainty we may include the root men of the French mener,
in which the factitive form ' cause to come or go ' presents
itself, and as a consequence the reflective pronoun is required
in se promener. The Breton* infin. mont ' to go/ has in the t a
suffix of the mood, so that mon is the base. With an initial
guttural we have Sanskrit gam (172, Wilson), and the Scotch
gang, which is also seen in our own gangway and the Ger-

* Let not offence be taken at the introduction of this Breton verb, for
its affinity to the classical languages is established in a manner somewhat
startling when we find in its conjugation eat ' let him go,' eant ' let them
go,' and in the indicative (ez) eont 'they go.'

man ge-gang-en. Lastly, in the Neapolitan anare we have a
base an without any initial consonant, and something similar
in the diminutival amb-ulare.

We will next look to those varieties which end in a
dental mute t, df or th, still retaining the vowel a. We find
in the Greek language par and @a& for the base whence
%a\Ko-l3aT-€(T- ' with a floor of bronze/ and fiaO-fjbo- ' a step/
/3ad-po- (neut.) ' a base/ The Latin gives us vad in vadere,
the Sanskrit pad (233, 271, Wilson), while the Gothic has
wat-an, and, as before noticed, a provincial dialect still spoken
in Germany has wad-en. Lastly, the Sanskrit gives us, devoid
of an initial consonant, at (166, Wilson). In the French
mener we found the weaker vowel e in place of an a. Do the
forms ending in a dental also admit this vowel ? to which the
answer is, that we find sometimes an e, sometimes an i.
Thus a favourite variety with Plautus is bltere 'to go/ the
base of which may be either bet or bit ; and though it may be
difficult to produce many instances of the simple verb, yet
compounds as per biter e, adbitere, inter biter e, &c. are common.
The familiar change from the lip-letter b to the lip-letter m
brings us to met and mit, of which we have already spoken at
length in reference to the Latin mittere, Italian mettere, and
French mettre. In a similar way we are led to the consider-
ation of pet-ere, commonly translated ' to seek/ but as we
think more correctly 'to go/ It is true, that when an
accusative follows, the idea ' to seek ' is well established, but
then it is the case which supplies the idea of 'to,' and the
combination 'to go to' is closely akin to that of 'seeking/
But in the phrase ver appetebat, ' spring was approaching/ the
notion of 'to go' or ' come' is clearly seen. Again, oppetere
mortem is a precise equivalent for obire mortem. Repetere fon-
tem cannot be more idiomatically translated than by ' go back
to the source/ Competere is ' to go or come together/ ' to fit
exactly/ and so, as was to be expected, nearly an equivalent
for convenire ; while the simple petere can admit of no other
translation than 'to go' in such combinations as petere iter in
Cic. and Liv., and alium cursum petivit, ' he has gone another
road/ in Cic. Again, praepetere has anteire for its translation

in Festus. So far we have looked only to the verb petere and
its compounds ; but there are several derived forms, the con-
sideration of which will probably add strength to our assertion.
The adj. perpetuo- signifies 'going all the way/ and so ' con-
tinuous/ ' unbroken/ Praepet- ' going ahead/ ' going forward/
is a suitable epithet for a bird of good omen ; and we have a
word of kindred form and sense in propitio-. Our verb again
enters into the formation of hospet-, the first syllable of which is
identical with that which appears in hosti-, and probably no
other than the word os* (oris). We may here also notice the
substantive impetu- ' going against, collision, blow,' although
the t here rather belongs to the suffix tu than to the base of
the verb. As we closed our preceding series with instances
in which the root begins with a vowel, so here we have good
authority for a base et or it, in it-er ' a road,' and in the nu-
merous family of adjectives, corn-it- (comes), ped-it-, equ-it-,
al-it-, am-it-, &c., as well as in the substantives in-it-io-,
ex-it-io--\. But the weak vowels i and e are often found in

* A word or two may be useful in support of this assertion. As regards
form, os (oris) is of course akin to ostium, as proved by the equivalence of
the phrases os Tiberis and ostium Tiberis ; to say nothing of the parallel
relation between os (ossis) and oorreoi/. Now ostium appears at times
with an initial aspirate (see Wagner's Virgil and Gruter's Inscr.). The
French too has deduced from os and ostiarius the forms huis ' a door '
(a huis clos) and huissier. Then as regards meaning, the close intimacy
between words signifying 'a door' and those signifying fa mouth' has
been often noticed ; and the passage from the idea of ' a door ' to that of
being * abroad ' is also familiar, at any rate to the Latin scholar in the
phrases foras ire, foris esse. Nay, the words fora- (obsol.) smdfori- ' a
door/ it is well known, claim kin with the roots of os (oris) and ostium
(hostium), the interchange between/ and h being a matter of notoriety,
especially on Italian soil. This interchange in the present instance has also,
as has been often remarked, the support of the double forms in Old French
hors de combat and/brs de combat.

t We may here state that we are disposed to divide omit- of omittere by
placing a hyphen after the m, om-it-, so that om should represent av of
the Greek preposition am. This will be regarded no doubt by some as the
excess of boldness. In defence of the change thus exhibited in the first
syllable, we may notice that x&ov of the Greek x^v appears as hum in
Jiumus and humilis. So fav-ep- and uv-ep- ' man/ of which fav is the
essential base (and not, as Sanskrit scholars would insist, vep), correspond

representatives of our verb which are wholly devoid of a final
consonant. Thus we have bi in am-bi-re, am-bi-tu- ; me in
meare, commeare, remeare ; vi in vi-a (also ved) ' a way/ as
well as in the Sanskrit vi (218, Wilson), pe in the above-
quoted im-pe-tu-, i in the Sanskrit i (167, 209, Wilson), i (229,
Wilson), i or e in the Latin eo ire, in the Greek et/u tevcu.

As our root has already appeared in these lists with a final
n and a final d, we may naturally look for the combination nd
which should be regarded as only a strengthened form of one
or other of these consonants. Accordingly we have the
German wand-er-n and wand-el-n, Danish vandre, and Swe-
dish vandra 'to walk/ English wend (and went), Ital. andare.

But as d itself is freely convertible with /, so also is the
combination nd. Hence we find the Breton bal-a f to go/ the
German wall-en ' to go' (now nearly obsolete), our own wal of
wal-k (in which the k is evidently a mere suffix), the root /teX (?),
whence the aorist //.oXetv* and the compound avTOfj,o\o-, per-
haps also //,eXXo>, which used like our own phrase ' I am going/
might well become an auxiliary verb for the expression of a
future. In the Latin call-i- ' a path ' and the Italian galleria
' a long passage for walking/ we come again upon the gut-
tural ; and lastly, with an initial vowel, we have the French
aller and allee, whence our own alley.

We may observe too that a guttural suffix seems to present
itself in the German verb geh-en, and in the German sub-
stantive weg, whence, and not from via, our own way.

In the preceding series we purposely omitted the substan-
tives gait and gate from the list in which the base of the verb
takes a final dental, because t in these words is probably the

to uom and horn in the Italian and Latin uom-o and horn-on-. And again
in mem-or the first syllable seems to have replaced an older men-. Lastly,
it is not altogether foreign to our argument that a final m in Latin so ge-
nerally corresponds to a Greek v.

* The actual form /z*/i/3Xa>Ka and the theoretic P\a><rK<0 may be admitted
without detriment to what has been said. As our own know is a secon-
dary form of ken, so yvw- of yva>crKa> must be a compression of yev-n-, in
which ytv represents our ken. Similarly /SAw-oxco has in its first syllable
a compression of ftoXw-, itself well entitled to be regarded as a secondary
form or derivative of /xfA-.

remnant of a suffix, by virtue of which they become substan-
tives, as in our own gift, thrift, the German ankunft, schrift,
&c. Neither did we include TreSov and TreSiov, because in
these words, as in our own field, we see rather the notion of a
flat plain, and so prefer to connect them with pando, pateo,
and TreravvtT-a. But on the other hand we are possibly en-
titled to claim kindred for ped- and TroS- 'foot7; and more
certainly for vadum, which has often erroneously assigned
to it as its primitive meaning the idea of ' water/ when on the
contrary it means ' the bottom/ as will readily be seen in the
examples of Forcellini, notwithstanding his bias in the other
direction. Similarly the Greek irar-o-, Engl. path, and Germ.
pfad, seem to have in the dentals what belonged already to
the verbs whence they are derived, just as we see a dental in
the Sanskrit pad and Latin pet. The German bahn, on the
other hand, has probably a virtual suffix in its nasal. As for
the Latin words via and iter, they are evidently formed by
suffixes already familiar infug-a and tub-er.

In dealing with the phrase admittere in se scelus, we gave
to the verb mittere the notion of ' let come ' rather than ' let
go7 ; but this variety of meaning, so far as it may be fairly
called variety, is shared by the verb ire, and especially by some
of its compounds, as adire and redire. Thus the simple verb
is so used in the well-known passage of Terence : — " Aliquid
monstri alunt ; ea quoniam nemini obtrudi potest, itur ad me."
So in the Ad. II. 2. 24, we have ubi rediero (scil. hue), nihil est,
refrixerit res. On this principle it is but reasonable to ask,
whether in a series which already contains the Sanskrit gam
and Scotch gang, we ought not also to include our own come -,
and with come, if admitted, the Latin ven or veni will also
claim the right of entrance, which through the Gothic or Old
German quim-an, perf. qvam or quam, claims kindred with our
come.

From the strong tendency to interchange which subsists
between the sounds n, nd, d (t), and /, we are decidedly of the
opinion that the final letters of /3av (fiawa)), men (of mener,
FT.), wend, vad (vadere),bet (of biter e), pet (of peter e], mit (of
mittere), bal (of Breton bald), ^e\ (of yttoXe^v, &c.), wal (of

Germ, wallen, Eng. walk), have what is substantially one and
the same suffix. On the other hand, we also regard the crude
forms which end in a vowel a, viz. ba, ga, va, pa, ha, as equi-
valents to each other, representing the fundamental verb, from
which those which end in the letters n, nd, d, t, /, are deri-
vatives. Thirdly, we are somewhat inclined to believe that
those which seem to exhibit a radical verb ending in a weak
vowel i or e, are but corruptions from some of the secondary
verbs just enumerated, so that bi of ambire, for instance,
should be regarded as a degraded form of bit, and i of ire as
having also supplanted it-. Nay, in the derivation of bit or
bet from ba, the change of vowel is probably due to that prin-
ciple of attraction called ' umlaut/ by which the weak vowel
of a suffix modifies a preceding strong vowel. This it is true
presumes that bit or bet is itself a degraded form from biti or
beti. For such a theory we have some confirmation in the
cases of the Latin bases pet and ven, the former of which
distinctly exhibits an i in petivi, petitus, petitor ; and the latter
in the imperfect tenses venire, venio, veniebam, &c.*

As regards the initial consonants, the lip-letters of pa, va
and ma present no difficulty. Again, that ga and va should
interchange is also in accordance with well-known facts ; nor
is it a strange matter to find a v passing into a w (watan,
wandelri), or a digamma into a mere aspirate, as in the San-
skrit ha, or even disappearing altogether, as in andare, aller.
Hence the Greek verbs eipt ' I go ' and Irjfu ' I let go/ which
in their bases have no difference but that of the aspirate, may
fairly be regarded as substantially identical ; and this, com-
bined with what has been said above, leads to the result that
mitto and irjfii are equivalent in form (setting aside the redu-
plication of the latter) as well as in meaning.

We wish no difficulty to be concealed, and therefore at
once put forward an admission, that we claim as akin to each
other all the three varieties (usually attributed to separate

* In the same way the umlaut sound which occurs in quaer- of quaero
seems to imply an older base quaesi-, which would account for quaesivi,
quaesitus, quaesitor.

origins) which appear in the conjugation of the French verb,
aller, je vais, and/irai In like manner we hesitate not to
claim a common origin for the several parts, however dissimilar
to the eye, of the Breton verb, which has mont for its infinitive,
while the present tense of the indicative is ann, 6z, a, eomp, it,
eont. Thus we steadily adhere to the principles according to
which we held that good, better, best, and well, as also is, was,
and be, respectively belong to a common stock.

16
TRANSACTIONS

OF THE

PHILOLOGICAL SOCIETY.

1855.— No. 2.

January 26,
PROFESSOR KEY in the Chair.

The following Paper was read : —

" On Boots mutually connected by reference to the term Zig-
zag ;" by HENSLEIGH WEDGWOOD, Esq.

The sound of a blow is represented in Spanish by the syl-
lable zis \ or zas \ and the sound of repeated blows by the
compound ziszas \ in Portuguese zas-tras \ corresponding to
E. thwick-thwack \ The image fundamentally represented by
zigzag seems nearly the same as that belonging to the Sp.
ziszas, with perhaps a more general tendency to a conception
of the blows as being made by a sharp instrument. Then as
blows repeated in rapid succession are naturally given alter-
nately from right to left and left to right, the term is applied
to motion sharply alternating in directions transverse to each
other, to a line such as would be drawn by a succession of
strokes inclined to each other at an acute angle.

In support of such a view of the primary image represented
by the term zigzag, the directly expressive character of which
is universally felt, we cannot indeed in English produce the
very element zig or zag, signifying the ,kind of action in
which we suppose the idea of the zigzag form to take its rise,
but the corresponding root zick or zack is extant in German,
and a long series of neighbouring forms may be pointed out in

all the European languages in which the initial z is exchanged
for letters into which the former consonant readily passes.
Perhaps the most central form that can be taken is the E.
Jaff> which on the one hand passes (by the omission of the
sound of the Fr. j involved in our pronunciation of the same
consonant) into dag, tag, tack, stack, and on the other into
gag, kag, skag, shag ; and it will be the object of the present
paper to investigate the development of meanings originating
in the idea of sudden thrust, suddenly checked or rapidly
alternating action, represented by the foregoing syllables and
their immediate modifications. From these fundamental images
the train of thought will very generally be found to pass to
the representation of a bodily projection, of a point or pointed
object, an unevenness in a superficial or linear body, a tooth,
notch, cog; or again, the pointed object may itself be consi-
dered as the implement of stabbing or thrusting, stopping a
hole, supporting, propping. If the substance to which the
projection belongs be of a soft nature, the projection will hang
down instead of standing up, whence the notion of dangling,
swinging; of a dangling body, bob, cluster. It is not, of course,
to be supposed that the complete train of thought by which
any particular signification is connected with the original idea
will be found in the case of every form of the root, but the
evidence is of a cumulative nature, and the principal steps of
the process will be found repeated under so many forms, that
there can rarely be a difficulty in supplying any step that may
be wanting from a sister-form. The connexion of the forms
J*ffiJ0ff>J6ffi with zigzag, may be illustrated by the Polish pro-
nunciation of the theme, zygzag, i. e. jygzag (with a French./).
To jag is explained by Jamieson ' to job' (that is, to strike
with a pointed instrument), fto prick, to pierce/ Hence a
jag, a projecting point ; jagged, jaggy, having a slashed zigzag
edge, ragged, rough with sharp projections.
Or else the ground by piercing Caurus seized
Was jagg'd with frost.— Thomson in Richardson.
And on his backe an uncouth vestiment
Made of strange stuffe, but all to worne and ragged,
And underneath his breech was all to torne wiAjayyrd. — F.Q.

To dag is in like manner to stab, to pierce, to slash. A
dagger is a stabber, a weapon for stabbing ; Fr. dague, a
dagger, the sharp horns of a young stag. Dag, a small project-
ing stump of a branch, a sharp sudden pain [a stab] (Halliwell) .
In the diminutive form we have the prov. E. daglet, an icicle,
from its tapering shape, corresponding to the Icel. is-digul,
frost-dingul, other forms of diminutive from the same root.

To jag or dag was especially applied to the fashion of slash-
ing garments, which formerly afforded so frequent a subject of
ridicule or invective to our satirists and moralists.

Thy body bolstred out with bumbast and with bagges,
Thy rowles, thy ruffes, thy caules, thy coifes,

Thy jerkins and thy jagges. — Gascoigne in Rich.

So under the name of dagging in the Parson's Tale : — " But
there is also the costlewe furring in their gownes, so moche
pounsing of chesil to make holes, so moche dagging with
sheres forth."

In this point of view a jag or dag becomes equivalent to a
rag or tatter, bringing us to the notion of hanging loose, flut-
tering in the air, swaying to and fro. Thus from dag is de-
rived to dangle, as the Icel. dingla in the same sense from
digul, dingul, an icicle.

The same idea of dangling or hanging loose is exemplified
in the dag-locks, also called tag-locks or tag-wool, the matted
locks hanging about a sheep's tail ; as well as in W. tagel, a
dewlap, the wattles of a cock. The provincial G. zagel (iden-
tical with E. tail, as G. segel with sail) is in like manner used
to signify any wavering or dangling thing, the tail of a dog, top
of a tree, lock of hair. The corresponding PL D. tagel is ap-
plied to the lash of a whip, rope's end ; the Isl. tagl, to the
hanging extremity of anything, as reip-tagl, a rope's end, Jiull-
tagl, the skirts, of a hill, and especially to the tail of a horse,
whence Swed. tagel, with a singular contraction of meaning,
becomes simply horsehair, as Goth, tagls, the hair of the head.

From G. haar-zagel, a tuft of hair, we readily pass to Swiss
tschogg, a tuft on the head of a bird, a man's head of hair ;
It. ciocca, a tuft of fruit or of flowers ; E. shock, in the expres-

sion a shock-head, a bushy head of hair, shock-dog, a dog with
shaggy locks. In a shock of corn the same idea seems exhi-
bited in a magnified form, the signification probably being
only a bunch of sheaves.

To dig is essentially, like dag, to thrust with a pointed in-
strument ; to tig, to give a twitch, as in the proverb " Ower
mony masters, as the toad said to the harrow when every
tooth gave her a tig" With an initial s this form of the root
gives rise to the Lat. instigo, instinguo, to prick on, to insti-
gate, whence instinct, that which urges the animal on. To
extinguish is to put the fire out, the original meaning of put
being to poke or thrust. To distinguish is to point apart, to
mark by separate points or to arrange round separate points.

The syllables jig or jog are used in E. to designate various
kinds of roughly or sharply reciprocating action, as r&jig, a
quick dance, a trick (Halliwell) ; jigging, visiting about ; jig-
geting, jigling, jolting, shaking, moving unsteadily. To jog,
to give a momentary impulse to, to move unsteadily. Jogs,
hits, strikes (Hall.), illustrating the connexion of the Lat.
jacere, to cast, throw, and icere, to strike, stab, with our root.
Jogging, a protuberance on the surface of sawn wood (Hall.).
In Ly ell's ' North America ' he mentions certain remarkably
indented cliffs with corresponding zigzags on either side of an
estuary called the North and South Joggins, the meaning of
which was explained to him, " Why you see, Sir, they jog in
and jog out."

It is impossible to draw a distinct line between the forms
with an initial j and g. The identity of jag and gag is exem-
plified in Icel. gagr, projecting; E. gag-tooth, a projecting
tooth.

Her jaws grin dreadful with three rows of teeth,
Jaggy they stand the gaping den of death.

Pope in Richardson.

An exact equivalent of the E. jog appears in W. gogi, to shake ;
gogr, a sieve (from the jigging motion) ; ysgogi, to wag, to
stir, to shog; and in the Gael, gog, a nod; ^o^r-cheannach
(cean, a head), tossing the head in walking; ^o^r-shuil, a

c 2

goggle eye, a prominent restless eye, — " They goggle with their
eyes hither and thither " (Holinshed in Richardson) ; goigean,
a cluster; goigeannach, clustering, dangling; provincial E.
gog, a bog; gog -mire or juggle-mire, a quag-mire; — compelling
us to regard quag, and consequently quake, as modifications of
our root, and thus bringing us into connexion with an endless
series of forms derived from a root wag, which we must abstain
from touching.

With joggle, or juggle and goggle, in the sense of unsteady
motion, must be classed Sc. coggle, to rock; coggly, moving
from side to side, unsteady. Hence must be explained the
cogs of a wheel, viz. as jogs or unevennesses on the edge of
the wheel.

Three long rollers twice nine inches round,
In iron cased and jagg'd with many a cog.

Grainger in Richardson.

The expression to cog in the sense of cheating must be un-
derstood as signifying a trick or quick turn, a sense in which
jig and many other forms of our root are also used.

While cog is in E. applied as above to the projecting tooth
of an indented wheel, the corresponding It. cocca designates
the notch or re-entering angle. Hence with an initial s we
have to scotch, to notch, Bret, skeja.

The notion of a projecting tooth is carried on in Du. kegge,
a wedge, from its tapering form, and its diminutive kegel,
A.-S. gicel, an icicle. The Du. and G. kegel is also a ninepin,
in E. provincially called gaggles and also kayles or skayles,
Fr. quilles. In like manner in G. itself kegel is contracted
into keil, any longish tapering body, a wedge, as well as kiel,
the quill or hollow tapering end of a feather.

The forms jig and gig are still closer to each other than jog
and gog. We have gig, a top (an object distinguished by a
rapid circular, instead of reciprocating motion) ; gig, gigget,
gigsy, giglet, a flighty person, a silly romping girl ; G. geige,
PL D. gigel, a fiddle, from the rapid sawing action with which
the instrument is played. Hence too the PL D. yiyrln, be-

gigeln, to deceive, to lead by the nose, to beguile, — properly,
like diddle, to deceive by tricks played off before one's eyes.
The E. wile, formerly wigele (Ancren Rewle), A.-S. wigelung,
gewiglung, deceit, juggling, bewitching, and wigelere, a sooth-
sayer, are derived on the same principle from wag, waggle,
wiggle, expressive of unsteady motion. Possibly in Lat. pr<e-
stigiae, the syllable stiff, which we have already found as one
of the forms of our root, may supply the notion of the quick
turn or trick required to construct the actual meaning.

In like manner we are led from jog and its frequentatives
jogger, joggle, juggle, in the sense of moving to and fro, to
juggle, in the sense of playing tricks of sleight of hand, which
is in all probability essentially the same word with the fore-
going gigeln, begigeln, and with provincial E. guggle, to gull, to
cheat (Hall.), although the mid. ~Lat.joculator, a juggler, may
seem to point to a derivation from jocus. ~Butjocus itself,
like the Lith. jukas, sport (whence jukininkas, jukdarys, a
juggler), may probably be an early offshoot of our stock, having
originally signified a rapid trick. The Sc. jouk is applied to
a quick turn of the body, a shift or change of place ; to jowk,
to play tricks like a juggler ; yowAry-pawkry, trick, deception,
juggling (Jamieson). The G. gaukeln, to juggle, has little ap-
pearance of being derived from joculari, while it is related to
schaukeln, to roll as a ship, to seesaw, as gog to shog, which we
shall presently recognize as a neighbouring form of jog.

With an initial s from gag (in Icel. gagr, projecting), we
have Icel. skaga, to project, corresponding in form to E. shag,
shaggy, in some places pronounced scaggy, hanging in uneven
locks. So from W. gogi, to shake, ysgogi, to wag, to stir,
corresponding to E. shog, to shake roughly, to jog. 'The
sea was schoggid with wawis' (Wiclif), was jagged or rough
with waves. An \CQ-shoggle or shockle is a shag or hanging
shoot of ice, to which is related Du. schongelen, schonkelen, to
swing, in the same way as Icel. dingla is to digul, and E. dan-
gle to daglet, an icicle. As an equivalent to Du. schonkelen
may be mentioned Fr. chanceler, to totter, a frequentative, of
which the positive form is represented by O. Fr. jancer,
Yj.jaunce, jounce, to jog. The Fr. jancer is also to jaunt, to

make a pleasure excursion, to take a jog, Sw. fara ut att skaka
p& sig, Fr. aller se faire cahoter un peu.

From E. shog we easily pass to Du. schocken, to jolt, Fr.
choquer, to strike against, to shock ; and from them it is diffi-
cult to separate Sw. skaka, to shake, to jolt ; Icel. skakra, to
tremble, to stagger.

We have said that both the elements of the G. zick-zack
were extant as living roots in that language. We find zacken,
to jag, dent, notch, slash, explaining E. tack, to change the
direction in sailing to the opposite course, to sail in zigzag ;
zacke or zacken, a spike, prong, tooth, branch, &c. ; eis-zacken,
an icicle, and in PL D. (where an initial t regularly corresponds
to G. z) takk, a point, a branch of a tree or of a deer's horn ;
is-takel, an icicle. It. tacca, a notch, corresponds to G. zacken,
a tooth, just as It. cocca, a notch, to cog, the projecting tooth
of a wheel. Bav. zicken, PL D. ticken, to strike with a quick
short blow (Schmeller), to tick-, G. zucken, to shrug, to draw
with a sudden action, to tug ; den degen zucken, to whip out
one's sword ; den kopf zucken, to duck the head, to jouk
(Scotch), to shrink from a blow.

Sp. taco, an implement for thrusting, the ramrod or wad
of a gun, a peg, wedge, bung, a billiard-cue ; tocon, a stump,
stock of a tree ; It. tocco, a bit, a morsel (properly an end,
then a small piece). Sp. tocar, in which the meaning is
softened down into the idea of touching, but the original sense
of striking is preserved in the expression ' tocar el tambor/ to
beat the drum ; tocante, catching (of a disorder) .

The same softening down of the meaning seems to have
taken place in Lat. tangere, originally tagere, explained " to
touch, i. e. to strike, hit, beat," in the third sense given by
Andrews in his Dictionary.

Swed. tagg, a prickle, sharp point, sting ; taggar, the teeth
of a saw, of a comb, &c., like G. zacken. E. tag, the point at
the end of a lace, the jagged end of anything; hence fre-
quently joined with rag, to signify the rabble or unhonoured
appendages of a party. " Of the other two, one is reserved
for comely personages and void of loathsome discourse ; the
other is left common for tag und rag" — Holiushed in R.

The insertion of the nasal into tag, in the sense either of a
hanging rag or a projecting point, gives in the one case Isl.
tangr, a rag, and in the other tangi, a tongue of land project-
ing into the sea, a promontory ; Sc. tangle, an icicle ; Isl.
tangi is also the tang of a knife or prolongation of the blade
running up into the handle ; and as the tang is held fast in the
surrounding handle, an instrument consisting of two arms
for the purpose of seizing an object to be held as a tang or
tongue between them is, by a converse application of the term,
called tangs or tongs, Icel. taungr. In the same way, to stick
signifies to pierce or project into a solid substance, and to be
held fast in the substance into which the implement is stuck ;
to cleave is both to cut into and to adhere to, the complete
image being that of the instrument driven in between the
portions of the cloven object.

Again, we have Gael, tac, tacaid, a peg, a nail, a prop, a
sharp pain; E. tack, a small nail; to tack, to fasten as with
pricks or stitches, " I tack a thing, I make it fast to a wall or
such like " (Palsgrave in Way) . Bret, tach (with a Fr. ch),
a tack, tacha, to fasten with nails. Venet. tacare, Piedm.
tache, It. attaccare, to hang a thing up, to stick, to fasten,
to tie.

The way in which these Italian forms are used would seem
to explain the Icel. taka, Swed. taga, E. take, as originating
in the idea of fastening on, laying hold of; thus tache is ex-
plained to hang up, to stick to, to fasten on, to seize ; ' tache
la rogna ad un/ to give one the itch ; ' tache la rogna da un
autr/ to take it from another. In the same way, to take was
formerly used as well in the sense of delivering a thing to
another as receiving it from him. Tache, of plants, to take
root; tache V feu, to take fire; tachesse, to quarrel, dispute,
scold; It. attaccarsi di parole; just as the corresponding
reciprocal tagas of Swed. taga signifies to struggle, contend,
quarrel.

The prefix of an s to forms like dag, tag, tak, with the fun-
damental signification of a suddenly checked thrust, gives
prov. Dan. stagge, stagle, to stagger, to stumble to the right
and left in the endeavour to move onwards ; Gael, stac, a

false step, stacach, hobbling, limping; Swed. steg, a step;
Du. staggelen, to paw the ground as a horse ; Swiss staggelen,
stanggeln, stigeln, to stutter, to speak in sudden impulses,
with reference to which may be compared the Du. tateren, to
stutter, with E. totter, and stutter, again, with Du. stooten, to
thrust. Conversely, to stammer is used in the north of
England in the sense of staggering.

Other forms are, — Icel. stang a, to thrust, to prick ; sting a,
to prick, to stick, to sting, to touch; G. stechen, to stab, to
prick, to sting ; Bret, steki, stoki, to strike, to knock ; Prov.
E. to stock, to peck, as a bird; G. stauchen, to jog, to jolt, to
ram, to stow goods in a cask or in a ship ; E. stoke, to poke,
to stoach, to stab, to poach wet ground.

We have then in most of the European languages a variety of
forms, stac, stick, stock, stang, signifying an instrument of thrust-
ing, a bar, a pole, a bolt, a pillar, a support, or anything rising
to a point. Gael, stac, a stake, pillar, thorn, peaked rock,
stack of hay, wood, or the like ; Pol. stog, a stack ; Du. staeck,
a stake, stick, peg ; Lith. stokas, a stake ; Sp. estoc, a pointed
sword ; Gael, stoc, a trunk, post, pillar ; Du. stok, a stick or
stock ; Fr. estoc, the stock of a tree, used metaphorically, like
E. stock, for the stem or living root of a family on which the
successive descendants appear as branches. The same meta-
phor represents the public funds as stocks, or stems developing
their fruit and branches in the shape of annual dividends. A
stock of goods is a similar metaphor, in which the things
required for use are considered as the fruit or branches
detached from a permanent stem.

With a nasal, we have It. stang a, G. stange, E. stang, a
pole, bar, bolt ; and in Gael, also a pin, a peg. Without the
initial s, Langued. tanca, a bolt, tanc, the stump of a tree, or
the act of stumbling against it ; Finn, tanko, a pole.

Then, as driving a stake into the ground affords one of the
simplest and most obvious types of fixedness, we have next a
series of verbal forms signifying to fix or become fixed, to
stop, cease from action, to fasten, to tie, to choke.

We speak in English of sticking a pin into a cushion,
sticking a thing to the wall, sticking in the middle of a

sticking in the mud, sticking in one's throat. Du. staaken,
to stop, to cease ; Langued. estaca, to stick or stop ; estaca,
Bret, staff a, a leash or tie ; Sw. stocka sig, to stop, to clod,
to coagulate ; G. stocken, to stand still, to stop short, to cease
to flow; Prov. E. stogged, set fast in the mire; to stodge or
staw, to cram full, to bring to a stand in eating ; Prov. Fr.
estoque, fixed in wonder, also stodged or gorged with eating
(Hecart) ; G. stauchen, to cram, to stop the course of water.

The G. ersticken, to suffocate, may be illustrated by W.
tagu, to clog, to choke, ta^-aradyr (literally clog plough), the
plant rest-harrow ; ystagu, to choke, to suffocate ; Bret, stag,
a tie ; stag a, to tie, to fasten ; staguz, sticky. Langued. tanca,
to stop ; ' le gousie se tanco/ the throat stops up, chokes.

The Lat. stagnum, standing water, seems formed on an
analogous plan to Prov. E. stockened, stopped in growth,
brought to a stand. The derivative stagnare must be con-
sidered as collaterally related, and not as the direct ancestor
of Fr. etancher, E. to staunch, to stop the flow of liquid, which
comes directly from the notion of fixedness, firmness. Thus
we have W. ystanc, a holdfast, bracket, stanchion ; Fr. etanqon,
formerly in the same sense, also as the trunk of a tree, prop,
support, trestle; Bret, stank, thick, close (as standing corn,
trees in a wood, &c.), tight, stanka, to staunch, to stop;
E. staunch, firm, fixed; Sp. estanco, tight, sound, estancar,
to stop.

Parallel with the whole of the preceding series will be
found one with the same or very similar meanings, and differ-
ing in form only in having a labial instead of a guttural ter-
mination.

Corresponding to the forms jig, jag, jog, we have to jib, to
start suddenly back or on one side, whence the jib in a
ship is the triangular sail in front that traverses from side to
side. A jibby, giblot, a frisky gadding wench (Halliwell),
equivalent to gig, giglet, &c. Tojiffle, giffle (with the g hard),
to be restless ; a jiffy, an instant, the time of a single vibration.
To job, like jag, to strike or thrust with a pointed instrument;
the nutjobber is a provincial name for the nuthatch, a bird
which opens nuts with its beak. Pol. dziobac, to peck ; dziob,

a beak, bill, pock-mark ; dzioba, an adze. The Gael, gob, the
bill or beak of a bird, is manifestly the same word; also
applied ludicrously to the human mouth, whence gobair, a
talker, and hence probably the O. F. gaber, to lie, to jest,
and E. gab, jibe, jape. O. E. gobbet, jobbet, a lump, small
quantity of anything. Bohem. zob, a beak, zub, a tooth, as
of the mouth, a saw, comb, &c. A jub is a jog trot; to jump,
to start suddenly forwards ; to jumble, to shake up things
together.

With an initial d we have dab, a slight blow, a small lump ;
dabbet, like jobbet, a small quantity (Halliwell) ; to dibble, to
make holes in the ground with a pointed instrument ; a dib,
dimble, a narrow valley, a dimple, a pit in the cheek, like Pol.
dziob, from dziobac.

We find tap very generally running parallel with tack, with
a fundamental signification, as it appears, of ramming, thrust-
ing, striking with a pointed instrument, as in the words of
the song, " The woodpecker tapping the hollow beech tree."
Bohemian top, the beak of a bird, topor, an axe, tepati, to
strike ; E. nut-topper, another name for the nutjobber or nut-
hatch. Portuguese topar, to hit, to stumble, trip, strike a thing
by chance with the feet ; It. intoppo, an obstacle ; Fr. achoper,
to stumble, to strike against, answering to choquer of the
former series. Dan. tappe, to throb, to struggle, to pant ; Sp.
Port, tapar, to stop a hole, viz. to ram a peg into it ; Port.
tapado, tight in texture, Lat. stipatus, as Bret, stank above
mentioned. G. zapfen, a tap, bung, peg for stopping the hole
in a cask, or anything of similar shape ; eis-zapfen, Dan. iis-
tap, an icicle, answering to eis-zacken, is-takel of the former
series ; W. tap, tapyn, a projection, ledge or shelf; top, topyn,
a stopple, top, bush of hair; G. zopf, schopf, It. civffo, Fr.
touffe, toupe, E. tuft, answering to tschogg, ciocco, shock, of the
former series. E. tap-root, a spindle-shaped root ; to taper,
to assume such a form, to diminish in size towards the end ;
a taper (originally no doubt a dip-candle), so named from the
tapering form. Dan. /o/?-sukker, a sugar-loaf.

With an initial s we start again from the notion of a thrust
with a sharp implement in E. stab, leading to G. stab, a stave

or staff; Gael, stob, a thrust or stab, stump, thorn, prickle,
pointed stick. E. stub, stump, a projecting point, the cut-off
end of anything ; stubble, the sharp ends of corn left standing ;
stubborn, rugged in disposition, standing up like a stub, not
easily bent. Icel. stabbi, like stack, a heap or pile ; Lat. sti-
parej to ram or cram, stipes, a stake, stipula, a straw. Bohem.
staupati, to tread, to march ; staupa, a stamp, stupa, a step,
sltt/tka, a mortar, stopa, footsteps, traces ; stopka, the stalk of
a leaf, fruit.

N. of France, estope, a stake, also stable, firm, solid, corre-
sponding to Bret, stank, E. stanch. In the same dialect we
find both estoper and estocquier, to stop, to close, viz. by thrust-
ing a peg or object of appropriate shape into the hole; to stop
or come to a stand is the equivalent of the G. stocken, Du.
staaken, above mentioned. E. staple, like stanchion, a hook
fixed into something to hold by ; Du. stapel, like Gael. Icel.
E. stack, a heap piled up, a depot of merchandise; Swed.
klock-stapel, a steeple, the pointed tower of a church. As the
final b of stab passes into an / in staff, to stuff or cram
must be considered only as another form of stop, and stuff,
matter, substance, is the staff, stem, or stock, out of which an
object is produced. Household stuff is the stock of furniture,
&c. by which it is made habitable. The metaphor would be
but slightly altered by calling bread the stuff, instead of the
staff, of life.

Du. stippen, to prick, and like sticken, to embroider, stipsel,
sticksel, embroidery, stip-tujii, a stake-fence, paling ; stappen,
stippen, E. to step, the equivalent of Gael, stac, Swed. steg ;
E. stamp, to strike with the foot, with a pestle or the like ;
Swed. stampa, also to rock, to move from side to side like a
ship ; Bret, stampa, to stride.

Prov. Fr. s'etamper, to stand up ; etampo, an upright ; Fr.
estamper, to support, to prop, like estancer, etancher ; estam-
peau, estanqon, a prop, stay, trestle (Cotgr.).

From stamp must be explained the O. E. st amber, stammer,
Sw. stamma, titubare lingua; and stammer or stummer, to
stagger, stumble (Brocket), just as we saw the two ideas con-
veyed by the Swiss and Dutch staggelen, staggeren ; slavering

or staveling, wandering about in an unsteady manner, as in
the dark, stumbling (Halliwell).

The Lith. stambas, stambras, a stalk, indicates the loss of a
final p in G. stam, E. stem, which are thus brought back to a
root stap or stip, agreeing with Lat. stipes, stipula. A similar
modification would produce Lat. stimulus, a prick or goad,
from the same radical form. From stam or stem we have
G. stdmmen, to prop, to support, to stop the course of water,
to dam ; Swed. stdmma, to staunch ; Dan. stamme, the stock,
stem, or trunk of a tree, the stock or pack of cards.

Lat. stupere may be explained like Prov. Fr. estoque, brought
to a stand, fixed in wonder, ' etre etonne jusqu'k en perdre la
respiration ' (Hecart), to stand like a stock or stub. Gr.
crrvTrrj, tow, what is stuffed or rammed in, also a stock or
trunk, as Lat. stipes; awim/cos, styptic, having a tendency
to staunch or stop the flow of blood.

It is observable that the same series of meanings as above
developed appears in the Sanscrit stabh, stambh, stumbh,
fulcire, hnmobilem reddere, sistere, stupere; stambha, postis,
pila, columna, mons, manipulus, stupor (DiefFenbach).

29
TRANSACTIONS

OF THE

PHILOLOGICAL SOCIETY.

1855.— No. 3.

February 9,
THOMAS WATTS, Esq., in the Chair.

The Paper read was —

"Norfolk Words;" collected by ANNA GURNEY, of North
Repps Cottage, near Cromer.

The following Norfolk words have been gathered chiefly on
the north-eastern coast, and, either because they have not been
noted by Mr. Forby in his ( Vocabulary of East Anglia/ or
because they appear to admit of some further elucidation, are
now offered to the Philological Society, in consequence of the
Circular requesting that Members should collect peculiar words
current in their respective districts.

BANK, generally used for ( beach/

BEE-BIRD or BEAM-BIRD, or WALL-BIRD. — A fly-catcher.

BISHOP BARNABEE. — The Lady-bird: the Marien-kafir of
Germany; in heathen times sacred to Frigga. When the
Overstrand children catch one of these insects, they will let it

go, saying-
Bishop, Bishop Barnabee !
Tell me when your wedding be ;
If te* be tomorrow day,
Take your wings and fly away ;
Fly to the east, fly to the west,
Fly to those that love you best !

* Norfolk for "it."

30
But the more usual verse of manumission is —

Lady-bird, Lady-bird, fly away home !

Your house is on fire, your children must roam.

I should think that, like the cock, its red colour connected
it with fire.

BOKE of straw. — A bulk — up to the rim of the cart, but
not higher.

A BRABBLE, or a Brabbly sea. — A short swell ; little waves
in quick succession, very unpleasant in a boat.

BRADCOCKS. — Young turbots.

To BRAID. — Always used instead of ' to net/

BRANK. — Buck- wheat ; probably of Celtic origin, for Pliny
says that beer was made by the Gauls from the grain Brace :
see Bullet, Mem. Celt. Brank is of an intoxicating quality, as I
have seen guinea-fowls perfectly stupefied after feeding in a
field of it in wet weather, when the grain has become a little
fermented. It is however given freely to pheasants.

CARR. — Chiefly used for a low damp grove (as Alder-Carry
Osier-Carr] : Kiorr, a swamp, Icelandic.

COOMS. — High ridges, according to Forby. In most parts
of England, Coombe or Combe implies a valley (the curve
downwards), but High Combe is the name of a hill in Cum-
berland. D^lp, to arise, cumulus. The coomb of corn (and
formerly of coals in Norfolk, though now superseded by the
ton) seems to mean " a heap." The comb of a bird, its crest.

To COP.— To throw. " You cop it, I'll catch it :" connected
with kaupa, to sell ; also with Fp, hollow of the hand, Hebr.

Fishing by a jerk with " Chopsticks " is practised here and
in Norway.

COSH. — A covering of leaves; another form of "husk;"
(the glumes of corn, particularly wheat, Forby ;) pods of peas
and beans (Miss Baker) ; cosse^ Fr.

D ADD LED. — Said of ducklings allowed to go too young into
the pond, evidently " daggled/'

DAG. — Dew " A little dag of rain." We have " water-dogs"
for light watery clouds ; the " sun-dog," a light spot near the
sun, indicative of rain ; both probably from the same, dag.

To DAWL a cat. — To coax it.

DICKUP. — Formerly as usual as "Dicky/' the name for
the ass, probably Flemish Dik-kop, thick-head, similar to
donkey or duncy.

DINDEL. — Sow-thistle ; perhaps a corruption of dandelion.

DOTED. — Decayed, as wood.

To go DRIVING. — To go out fishing ; letting the herring or
mackerel nets drift.

EIRY. — Grand, and rather alarming. " What an eiry horse \"
said an old lady, of a tall handsome animal at which she was
somewhat scared. It is common to Norfolk and Scotland : —

" The eiry bloodhound howl'd by night." — Border Minstrelsy.

It seems connected with N""\>, Heb. fear, vereor, and with
the Germ, ehre, honour.

To ENVY. — To wish for ; (as the French) — " I envied my
church."

ERRIGLE or ERRIWIGGLE — ear-wike, ear-wrike, ear-narro-
wriggle, ear-wiggle', as poll-wiggle, a tadpole; A.-S. wigga, a
beetle, worm ; ear-wigga, an ear-beetle or earwig, — appears to
be the original rather than the derivative of the Latin eruca,
earwig; the double r gives a stronger sense of horror.
Hickes and Grimm have both printed a little Saxon poem on
the Eunic letters, wherein it is written —

"Ear is egle,— Ear is hateful."

The " worm is hateful " seems to fit the sense, and the word is
probably the same with ver and arjp — that which eareih or
turneth, — as to ear the ground is to turn up the soil.

The FALLS. — The cliff-sides ; elsewhere ' ' fells."

To FATHOM. — To spread or fill out —

"The wheat fathoms well."

Faftmr being a man's grasp, it should seem that the measure
' fathom/ six feet, was supposed to be a man's usual height,
to which the distance from tip to tip of the fingers ought to
correspond.
FILY.— Dirty.

Fis. — Decay in fruit; from effervescence or fermentation ?
to fizz ? to fiste, to poison.

To FISTE. — To find out (Dan. viste).

FOLKSAL, or FO'-SEL. — The forward part of the vessel, where
the sailors live ; fore-castle.

FOOL. — A pet. It was droll, under a burning sun, to hear a
Norfolk servant, toiling in keeping together the luggage of a
party on the road from the Piraeus to Athens, call out, " What
am I to do with your/oo/, Mr. C. ? it won't keep quiet! " the
fool being a land tortoise which had been picked up by the
way by one of the junior travellers.

FOWL. — Applied to all large birds.

GAIN. — Handy, convenient; Danish gavne ; and gavnligy
advantageous.

GANT. — Gannet or Solan goose. Forby gives the meaning
also of "fair" (a going together?, concourse) ; this may per-
haps explain the name of Ghent.

GLIES. — Blinkers. Though intended to darken the sight,
they seem a form of Icel. gluggr or gliggr, window, as indeed
fenestra is connected with finster.

GROUND-FIRING. — Explained by Mr. Forby as a perquisite.
Here, labourers have the roots of trees for clearing the ground
of them, also stubble cut after reaping.

HALMS or AWMS. — Beards of barley, also stubble-straw :
connected with Danish halm, straw, and with calamus.

1 1 A M M K it SPOTS. — The dappled appearance of a fine-coated
horse. The hammer-cloth means the skin-cloth, and it was
usually of bearskin. The Icel. lunur is skin, or covering, con-
nected with the term to " hap up," and also with hamus (the
encircling hook), and ham, home. The yellow-hummer thus
means yellow skin. But it may be from the likeness to ham-
mer-marks on a copper-kettle.

ll.MiNSEY. — A Norfolk critic would have known "a hawk
from a harnsey" — a heron.

HEFTY. — Rough; "lulu \uuthcr," a "hefty sea" ; Danish
and derm. //<;/////.

To HICK i, K up. — To gather your effects as in a little
heap.

HOBBY. — Used for a horse of any size; hojijtc is Danish for
rnarc generally.

KEDGB. — Lively; connected with D. kyck, quick, but not
with

KIDGER or K i DIM I-:K, a can-icr, which may come from keg,
as pedder from ped.

KINK. — A twist ; certainly connected with 'quick/ vitality
being tested by its turning and twisting. "The patient \\ill
kink up again," may thus mean ' quicken up/ ' brisk up/

To KIP fish : see (Cop and Chopsticks). I n Norwegian, tricep
is a little stick (not a mere chip), and in the west of Norway,
kippe denotes the same mode of fishing by line and chopsticks,
as "to kip" does with us (Ilallager's Norsk Ordsammlung).
In Icelandic, kippia is to seize ; kippi-lyckia, a lucky catch of
birds (Biorn Haldorson's Lex.).

KITTYWITCH. — A small crab that makes zigzag tracks on
the sand, a wigga (sec Errigle), so called like the vetch from
its twisting about. The "kitty" seems to denote a small
creature (chit). Kitty-wake, a small gull.

To KNOP. — To bud, as in the English Bible ; German knospe,
a hud.

KNOT. — A sandpiper; said to have been a favourite dish of
king Canute's.

LATCH. — To take; connected with Xay^avo), and ID1? and

rip1?.

I JOKE. — A shaded lane, a narrow pass, Mocked in'; "a
short narrow turnagain lane" (see Forby).

The LONDES. — Used for an extent or strip of land, like the
Landes of Poitou. We have the Londes, in a small way, at
Overstrand, a desert strip of land, now built into a street.

LOVE-COPE. — Name of an ancient right existing at Lynn
Regis, probably meaning legal tariff. In the Gulathing Laws
(Icelandic), the term lov-kaup is applied to the legal rate of
wages.

Low. — A loch left by the tide on the shore ; the same word
with the lowes of the South of Scotland, and cognate with
loke (above), ' the enclosed/

LUM. — The handle of an oar ; Icelandic hlumm. By no un-

usual interchange it is the same word with loof, the palm of
the hand, whence glove. In Scotch, lum is a chimney : — do
they regard this as the handle of the house ? or is the word
rather the clam, the lump of clay forming the fire-place ? " To
lum the oars/' to let the handles down into the boat, without
unshipping them.

MARDLE. — A gossiping talk; to mardle, to drawl.

The MAVISH.— We sound the aspirate. Burns speaks of
the "mavis mild and mellow," proving Mr. Forby right in
applying it to the singing thrush.

The ME ALES. — The name of sand-banks at Hunstanton,
from mtel, a boundary.

MOSHECKLE or MoLESHECKLE. — The bone within the cuttle-
fish, which may be rubbed into pounce. Is it from mylan,
to mill, to pulverize, and sheckle, that which is tossed up,
a waif? In icicle we have the same termination. Gawain
Douglas has — " grete yse-schokkilis lang as ony spere."

MULLY. — Mouldy, powdery.

MYRE BALKS — -low ridges of earth dividing the holdings of
tenants of common lands — are well known in these parts ;
A.-S. myre, a boundary, the balk meaning division; in the
Scandinavian laws there are balkir of separate subjects.

NIGHT-JAR. — The goat-sucker.

OLD SHOCK or SHUCK. — A spectre dog, much connected
with the Danes ; walks the coast road ; last imagined to be
seen at North Repps in 1853; A.-S. Scucca, Satan. There
is a Shock's Lane near Cromer.

ORRUCK- HOLES. — Oar-drawing holes, as distinct from thole-
pins, which are less used in our boats : rykke, to draw,
Danish. Compare English rullocks.

PAR- YARD. — Yard with cattle-pens. Par seems to mean
enclosure, and to be the root of A.-S. pearroc, park, or paddock
by mispronunciation.

FED. — Chiefly applied to lobster baskets.

PIKELET. — (Pikelet, a sort of muffin in London.) A glazy
kind of muffin, also called Leather-back. Bara-picklet in
Bailey, looking as if from the Welsh.

PINPATCH. — Mr. Forby is probably correct, for the mol-

lusk when withdrawn into the shell looks as if covered with a
patch.

PITLE, PICLE, or PIGHTLE. — A small 'piece' or field; if
not itself a form of ' piece/ must, I think, come from pynddn,
to pound, the gh being placed for nd.

To PLANNY. — To complain.

POTTENS. — Crutches; O.-E. potent-, Fr. potence.

PULKS. — Not dirty, as Forby says, for the pools of clear sea-
water on the sands are so called.

PUR-WIGGY or POLWIGGY, for tadpole ; A.-S. wicka, a worm,
pool-worm ; or j»o//-worm, worm with a large head ?

RACK. — Driving mist (Shakespeare).

" With cloudy gum and rak ouerquelmyt the are."

Gawain Douglas.

RANNY. — The shrew-mouse, probably from its long nose.
Rani, snout, Icel. ; for the same reason the snow-shoe is a
rani in Icel., unless that means 'runner.5

RAY of a cart. — Its rim or edge.

To REDD UP. — To clear up, prepare, also Scotch.

ROOM. — The space between thwarts ; the size of Scandi-
navian vessels was reckoned by rummir.

ROVING weather. — Uncertain weather.

RUSNS or REWSNS. — The splints or narrow bands of wood
running inside a boat, by which it is raised or lifted.

RUTHER. — For rudder.

SAFER or SEA-FARE. — A sea voyage : " What sort of a safer
have you made ? "

SANNYING.— Lasting, said of the wind. Isl. seinka, to linger ;
seinn, slow, late ; with O.-Fr. seins, late. " A pining, sannying
wind/5 is an expression I have often heard ; sannyking, lin-
gering.

SAUCE. — Fresh vegetables now, — though, it seems, formerly
a salt condiment for meat.

A SCHOOL. — For a shoal of herrings, &c.; (school of whales
is the common phrase in the whale fishery).

To SCORE out. — To scour, as, "the tide scores out the
beach :" in Suffolk the gangways to the sea are called scores,
and in Lincolnshire side lanes are called drawers.

D 2

A SCRAP, and SCRAP- NETS. — A place where small birds are
fed, and lured to scrap about, till a net falls and catches
them. I remember an eminent antiquary being much puzzled
at the woodcut of a scrap-net in a German book of ancient
customs, the motto being "net to catch fools instead of
fowls/'

SEAL. — Time : " I gave him the seal of the day," meaning,
I accosted him with civility. Preserved in haysell, haytime
(see Forby).

To SHACK, or to go to Shack. — Said of pigs and geese run-
ning loose after harvest ; not, as has been supposed, from their
gathering the shaken-out grain, but rather connected with the
Germ, zeche, a club ; the expression zur zeche gehen is used
for ' going shares/

SHALE. — The mesh of a net.

To SHOOT. — To throw in, contribute : "We shot a shilling
piece towards the frocks." The A.-S. scot, Germ, schiessen,
is used in the same sense.

To SHRAWL. — To screen.

To SHREPE. — To clear up: "the fog shrepes," "a little
shrepe of light," — crejousculum ? The Icelandic Lexicon has
" skreppa, dilabi."

SHRUFF. — Rubbish out of a hedge.

SILE, or SMALL SILE. — The fry offish ; Icel. sil or sili, a long
narrow herring; Icel. sile, a sprat; Danish slider, herring;
also the Scotch sillock. It may be worth noticing, that the
" small sile " of herrings and sprats, cooked like white-bait, is
scarcely distinguishable from that dainty.

SITH. — The length; A.-S. sid is 'large/ but Danish sid is
'long' ('ample' would be a more appropriate translation of
the Danish word) ; A.-S. wide and side, which is the Norfolk
sense of the word ; as we say, " the width and the sith" or the
sidth.

SKEP. — A basket; hence toadskep, a fungus, not pro-
nounced toadscap.

SLUG — is used of a heavy surf tumbling in with an off-
shore wind, or a calm ; slag, blow, Danish.

To SLUMP. — To fall: "The wind slumped-," is it con-

nected with slumber ? Gawain Douglas says, " on slummr
I slade full soon." —

"In Susquehaima's woods where timber brash

Slumps in the flood with many a hideous crash."
American Pastoral, printed in a periodical called the Honeycomb.

SMEE. — The fry of herrings, &c. used for bait; also wild
ducks in their first year's plumage, especially the immature
wigeon, are called smee (small things?).

SNUDGE. — Hurried, shuffling; A.-S. snude, quickly.
SPECKE. — Woodpecker (German specht), akin to spicken,
'peck/

SPINK. — Chaffinch.

SPOLT. — Brittle ; Germ, spalten, to split.
To SPORE up. — To prop, as with a spur or buttress ; com-
pare ' shore up/ (Forby).

SPOWE — is mentioned together with the curlew in Sir Roger
I/Estrange's Household Book, and seems to mean the whim-
brel. Spove is Icel. for whimbrel.

SPRAK. — Brisk; Icel. sprakkr; Scotch, sprag ; Eng. spry,
sprightly :—

" I will catch the butterfly,

Though he thinks himself so spry." — American Poet.
SPRAT-MOWE . — Herring-gull.

STAND. — A flower-stalk; stand, the same in Swedish.
STRAIK. — The tire of a cart-wheel.
STRINGS. — Shafts.

STUGGISH. — Stout, strong; Icel. styggr, powerful and violent.
SUMP. — Fossil wood, but not petrified, — swampy, it will
burn if properly managed.

SWALE. --The shade; evidently the Icelandic svala, cold.
A- SWASH . — A cross.
SWAY. — A carpenter's tool for boring.

TANGLE.— -The thick dark sea-weed beset with little blad-
ders. Icel. Thaungull.

Tow. — Used for fishing-tackle, as in the Germ, werk-zeug ;
Danish toi.

THITE. — Not only tight, but thick, as applied to a wood.
THURRUCK.— The lower flooring of the stern of a boat : is it

merely that which goes through the boat ?, or rather the Icel.
thurkr, dryness?

TILL. — The diluvial soil of the cliff, meaning, it seems, earth,
and connected with the verb " to till," not tellus, though per-
haps akin to it : the word has been adopted by geologists.
Compare Eng. tilth.

TRICOLATE. — Used in gardening; probably a confusion of
trig up and decorate.

To TRY or DRY (Dan. torre), fish livers for oil, that is, to
drain.

TWIFER. — Used of the fibres of a root ; another form of twig,
expressing a parting in two.

UNSTOWLY. — Unruly, not to be stowed, applied to children.

WHEATSEL BIRDS (se/=time) which arrive about Michael-
mas,— I think cock chaffinches.

To WHIMPLE. — To bore (= a whimble).

WIFFS AND STRAYS, or wipps and strays, not exactly
waifs and strays, for it seems to be the Danish phrase wipper
og straae, ' ears and straws ' of corn.

WILLOCK or WILLY. — A guillemot.

Wo ASH. — The call of the wagoner walking on the near side
of his team, to make his horses turn off to the right, while if
to the left he would say 'come hither/ yet the word itself
seems to be gauche. Does not this point to a custom which
may have been introduced by the Normans, and to a time
when the practice opposite to our present custom, but still in
use on the continent, may have been kept up on the road,
that of turning out to the left instead of the right in passing ?

WOOD-JAR. — A nut-hatch.

To WUNT. — To sit, as a hen; A.-S. wunian, to abide.

WURROW. — For burrow ; used for the holes of crabs, &c.

To WYNT. — To stand in lijie, as poles : is it the opposite of
squint ?

YARY. — Brisk. The r, as the letter expressive of rushing,
is frequent in the names of rivers : the main river of Norfolk,
formerly the Garienis, now the Yare, appears at Hartonl
bridges (near Norwich), with an aspirate, in every form
meaning the river of the district.

Amongst our surnames we have some of the proper names
of the Scandinavians, as —

Hague, Haco,

Kettle, Ketill,

Thurkettle, Thor-ketill,

Olley, Oleg, or Olaf.

Ulph, Ulfr.

In the names of places many might be found connected
with those of the north of Europe. Even North Repps, the
home of the collector of this list, directly reminds us of
the Hreppir, or districts of Iceland.

Probably many more relics might be found of a date when
our provincial dialect was so well esteemed, that at Bury St.
Edmund's, the abbot Sampson was considered worthy of a new
pulpit, because of the elegance of his addresses in the Norfolk
language, in which he had been educated. See the Chronicle
of Jocelyn de Brakelonde.

40
TRANSACTIONS

OF THE

PHILOLOGICAL SOCIETY.

1855.— No. 4.

February 23,
PROFESSOR KEY in the Chair.

The following Paper was read : —

"On the Languages of Western and Southern Africa;" by
Dr. WILHELM BLEEK, of the University of Berlin.

Having visited the coast of Western Africa, and being
about to leave Europe with the intention of making philolo-
gical researches in Southern Africa, I desire to draw the
attention of the Philological Society for a few moments from
their classical studies, to these barbarous regions, while I try
to point out some of the facts which seem to me to render
African philology of great importance to general philology.
These facts are : — 1, the classification of the nouns ; 2, the
formation of their plurals; 3, the affinities of some of the
African languages.

The languages to which the following remarks apply are
those of West as well as South Africa, namely : —

South African, —

1 . HererOj the language of the Damaras northward of the

Namacquas.

2. Zulu, spoken from Natal to Delagoa Bay.

3. Tsuana, the language of the Bechuana tribes, in the

centre of the country, from 25° to 28° S. lat.

4. Kafir, the language of the Kosa Kafirs, adjoining the

Cape Colony.

West African, —

1. Wolofy spoken between the Senegal and the Gambia.
~a. Timneh, spoken by a tribe close to Sierra Leone, on
. the east.

b. Eullom, spoken by a tribe close to Sierra Leone, on
the north.

3. Odzi, spoken by the Ashantees, Fantees, Aquapim, &c.

4. Fulah, spread extensively, as mentioned in the text, p. 45.

I regard Southern Africa as the key to the whole central
portion of the continent, because I believe that the most
ancient types of African life have been best preserved here,
as well in respect to language as to religion, manners, and
customs. A scholar intimate with the Hottentot and Kafir
manners of thinking, will easily find his way through the
enormous bulk of different national and tribual distinctions
spread over the widely-extended area which the middle por-
tion of this continent contains. One of the main results of
the inquiries that I was enabled to make during a short
voyage along the coast of Western Africa*, was that the appa-
rently great variety of languages spoken near that coast,
seems reducible to one family; and this family is no other
than that to which all the different dialects of Southern Africa
—with the exception of those of the Hottentots and the Bush-
men— are acknowledged to belong. Those striking features,
indeed, which make it so very easy to trace the consanguinity
of the South African languages, have for the most part disap-
peared from the languages of Western Africa, in consequence
of the much closer contact of the more crowded population
there. However, where it was possible to get a full and accurate
grammatical view of any of the languages spoken near the
coast of Western Africa, there were evident traces of them to
be seen, showing that the present state of every such language

* I left England in the latter part of May 1854, to join the expedition
sent out to explore the Tchadda river, but having been taken ill on the
road from Sierra Leone to Fernando Po, I was obliged to leave the ex-
ploring party. Next month I hope to sail with the Bishop of Natal to
his diocese, for the purpose of compiling a grammar of the Zulu language.

is derived from an ancient structure, similar to that still pre-
vailing among the South African languages, and that the
Western languages agree with the Southern in such points as
it would be impossible to consider accidental.

The chief characteristic of the great African family of lan-
guages is known to be, the distribution of the nouns into
classes, which, with the exception of two, are restricted
to persons, and do not agree with any natural distinction,
but depend entirely on the use that is made of the derivative
prefixes to the nouns, such prefixes being pronouns, and being
considered as representatives of the nouns to which they are
respectively prefixed. Therefore, nouns with the same deri-
vative prefix belong, as represented by the same pronoun, to
the same class ; and there are, of course, in every language of
this structure, as many classes of nouns as there are different
derivative pronoun-prefixes agreeing with them. Thus, the
Herero language (more generally known as the dialect of the
Damaras of the plains) possesses eighteen classes of nouns.
Of these, sixteen, at least, are to be found in the allied lan-
guages, while two may perhaps be regarded as later sub-
divisions of other classes, — just as the fourfold gender of nouns
in the Danish language has sprung from a primitive threefold
division. Conversely, the Kafir language, which in general
must be acknowledged to have best preserved the ancient
features of the structure, has lost three even of the sixteen,
and is thus, in its present state, restricted to thirteen only.
But of two of these lost classes there are still undeniable
traces to be found. The Tsuana dialects agree in this respect
with the Kafir languages, while the more Northern tongues
preserve the whole of the original sixteen classes of nouns.

This rather perplexing structure is, however, easily explained,
if we suppose that every one of these prefixed derivative syllables
originally possessed the value of a noun. It is not at all
uncommon for us to use instead of a compound noun, as for
example 'steamboat/ the simple word 'boat'; but it would
seem strange to us, if in the case of derivative nouns, like
' kingdom,' \vc heard said, ' the dom is great/ ' I saw the coun-
tries of the dom.' But in former times, when this syllable

still maintained its value as a simple noun, and had not merely
that of a derivative suffix, such a construction could not have
been offensive. The only peculiarity in these derivative pre-
fixes of nouns in the Kafir, Herero, and other South African
languages, therefore is, that although they have lost their
value as simple nouns, they have retained the power of re-
calling and representing such nouns as are compounded with
them. It would certainly be very odd to hear the Herero sen-
tence ' o-u-hona \_o-~\u-nene' (=Kafir ubukosi [o]bukulu=
Tsuana bogosi yo 60#o/M = Bunda kifutsi #me'we=Kamba
utsumbe unene, etc.), translated literally, 'the kingdom, the
great-dom/ but it would not be thought strange if translated
by ( the king's empire, the great empire/ Suppose now, that
in the course of time, the word ( empire/ as a separate noun,
should cease to exist, but were to continue to be used as a
representative for the nouns compounded with or derived from
it, then you will have just the case of the Herero ' ouhona
ounene, the kingdom, the great-dom/ and ( omuhuka omua, the
morning, the fine -ning/ &c.

I have already mentioned that two of these classes of nouns
are so far coincident with a natural division that they are
restricted to personal nouns, including, in some languages, the
names of certain animals. Whether this has arisen from the
original signification of these nouns, or must be attributed to
a later combination of grammatical and logical classifications,
we are not yet able to decide. But an important use has
been made of the grammatical classification for distinguishing,
by the correspondence of different classes of nouns, the differ-
ence of Singular and Plural. To illustrate the distinction of
number, I again take the Herero as an example, and give the
following prefixes for the two numbers : —

Singular ; omu, omu, e, otji, on, oru, ou, oka, oka.

Plural; ova, omi, oma, ovi, ozon, otu, omau, ou, apa.
The obsolete nouns from which the pronominal prefixes are
descended must have originally formed their plurals by using
collective terms, just as in English we alter man to people,
tree to forest, soldier to army, &c., instead of the grammati-
cal plurals men, trees, soldiers, &c. This will explain why,

in most of the South African languages, the distinction of
number is not marked in the same way in all the classes
of the nouns ; why often one and the same plural class corre-
sponds to several singular ones, and not seldom one singular
prefix stands in opposition to two plural prefixes. Nor can
we wonder that, in some classes, the numerical value is not
fixed by the correspondence of any other class, and that in
several of these languages, one prefix has in some nouns a
singular, in others a plural value *. We find, besides, that in
some cases a plural prefix, instead of being put in the place of
a singular one, is placed before the full singular form with the
prefix. The latter method has prevailed in the Wolof lan-
guage, where one prefix only has a plural signification, and is
used with all the different singular forms, so that one plural
class corresponds to at least seven different singular classes of
nouns.

* Table of the derivative prefixes of the nouns, in their numerical corre-
spondence ; and a list of Zulu words in their singular and plural forms,
adding numerals to each word referring to the class to which it belongs.

In the Zulu Dialect (with the article). From Schreuder, Grout and

Bryant.

Sing. . .

1.
u-Mu-,u-
u-M-

3.
u-Mu-
u-M-

5.
i-Li-, i-

i-si-

i-S-

i-N-
i-M-

11.
u-Lu-, u-

Plur. . .

2.
a-Ba-, o
a-B-

4.
i-Mi-

6.
a-Ma-
a-M-

8.
i-Zi-
i-Z-

10.
i-Zin-
i-Zim-

6.
a-Ma-

14.
u-Bu-, u-

15.

u-Ku-

Singular (1) umuntu, man.
(3) umtini, adder.
(5) Hike, stone.
(7) isika, tub.
(9) inlu, house.
(11) utango, fence.

Plural (2) abantu, men.

(4) imitini, adders.

(6) amake, stones.

(8) izika, tubs.
(10) / -i n/ii, houses.
(12) izintango, fences.

Some of the West African languages got rid of this rather
troublesome variety in the formation of the plural of nouns,
by simply discarding almost every difference between the sin-
gular and plural forms of their nouns ; but a few have gone
still further with their complications. Amongst these is
chiefly to be remarked the Fulah, a language of great im-
portance; for it is spoken through nearly the whole extent
of the interior of Western Africa, from Sierra Leone to Ada-
maua and Mandara. I thought it, therefore, a great pity
that, for the use of the Tchadda expedition, I was not able
to take out with me anything about this language, except
a copy of a manuscript grammatical sketch (with a small
vocabulary) by the Rev. R. Maxwell Macbrair, and a few
words to be met with in different authors. On my return to
England, however, I was very agreeably surprised to find that
my friend Mr. Edwin Norris had, in the mean time, at the
request of Captain Washington, and at the cost of the Admi-
ralty, prepared an edition of Mr. Macbrair's manuscript, cor-
rected and enlarged from other sources. To these, I was then
able myself to add a manuscript vocabulary of considerable
extent, collected by the late Mr. W. Cooper Thompson, which
I had been so fortunate as to procure at Sierra Leone.

From an examination of these materials, the conviction I
have got, is : —

1. That in the Fulah language the nouns began formerly
with prefixes, which are now almost universally dropped, but
have often influenced the first radical letter.

2. That these prefixes of the nouns were originally used also
as pronouns of the nouns formed with them, and were suffixed
to their nouns as such, and with the force of an article*.

* With regard to these two points wherein the Fulah most particularly
agrees with the Wolof, a comparison of the two languages with each other
would probably be of great importance. It is most likely that the grammar
of the Wolof, which the Bishop of Dakar (Cape Verde) is about to
publish, will give a good deal of additional information and a more exact
description of the language than the old works of Mr. Dard and the Baron
Roger. His Catechism (Ndakaru, 1852) shows — at least by an application
of a more simple and consistent orthography — a great improvement.

3. That this use of the prefixes, which by their mutual
correspondence showed the distinction of singular and plural,
will serve to explain the double inflexion, which we find fre-
quently in the plural forms of nouns, affecting their first as
well as their last elements.

4. That as nearly all names of persons have -hi as their
plural termination, and most of them -o as their singular one,
these syllables must be considered as articles referring to
former prefixes of the nouns.

The bi may be recognized in the w-, with which many of
these nouns begin in the plural, and we conjecture that the
original form of o- was go-, from a comparison of some of
these personal nouns with their roots, as gainako ' keeper/ pi.
ainabij (cf. ainu ' to keep watch ' ;) gudso ' a thief/ pi. wubi ;
(cf. gudsu ' to steal/)

That we are right in this supposition, is shown also by the
forms of the pronouns, kan-ko ' he, she/ pi. kam-bi ' they/ and
o or mo fhim, her/ pi. be 'them/ which refer to rational
beings only.

Whilst this go or ko agrees very well with the South African
mu-, the prefix of the first class of nouns, which, used as a
pronoun, is found also in the form gu- (as Herero irigui ' this '),
the plural form bi is rather perplexing ; as generally in lan-
guages of this family, the prefix and pronoun ba (va, a) is
found to correspond to the mu (mo) as the pronominal prefix
of personal nouns, while the prefix mi- (me, &c.) is applied in
South Africa, merely as the plural prefix of such inanimate
nouns as in the singular take the prefix mu- (mo-) . The Tim-
neh and Bullom dialects, in and about Sierra Leone, and also
the Odzi, the language of the Asante country, agree, in this
respect, with the South African tongues. In the latter lan-
guage, the plural prefix a- (which is chiefly restricted to personal
nouns), and the pronominal -plural prefix vo-} are both to be
derived from an original form va-. The form of the corre-
sponding singular prefix is, in the Odzi, as well as in the
Timneh, o-, which mutilation of the ancient form mu- or mo-
is also frequently to be met with in Southern Africa.

But we find that the Ga or Akra quite agrees on this point

with theFulah, as is clearly shown by an extract from theMami-
script Grammar of the Basle Missionary, the Rev. J. Zimmer-
man, for which we are indebted to the Rev. F. G. Christaller of
the same society. In this language, with a plural value, mei
corresponds to the singular mo or o. Where these particles are
found suffixed, they cannot be regarded as derivative syllables,
but without doubt they originally stood as articles only, while
the derivative prefixes they have sprung from are mostly
dropped, as in gbo-mo 'person, man/ pi. gbo-mei, blo-fonyo, pi.
blo-fomei, &c. But still, by prefixing mo, pi. mei, adjectives
and numerals can be turned into personal substantives, &cv as
mo-kpakpa ' a good man/ pi. mei-kpakpa; mo-fon ' a bad man' ;
modin ' a black man'; motsaru 'a, red man'; mokome 'one
man' ; moko ' somebody/ pi. meikomei, &c. The same pro-
nouns are discernible in mone or mene 'this/ pi. meine-mei,
which only refer to persons, and to which the relative pro-
nouns mom, pi. memei, correspond.

Having thus found a coincidence between the Fulah and Ga
languages in a very essential point, I cannot but suppose that a
more extended comparison will show a closer alliance between
these two languages, than either of them will evince with
any South African dialect, or with the Odzi, Bullom, and
Timneh, although all these languages are to be regarded as
members of the same family. As a mere conjecture, I may
add my opinion, that the Wolof will prove more akin with the
Ga and Fulah than with the other West African branch of
this great family of languages.

The relation which such a language as the Odzi claims
with the Kafir and Herero tongues, may best be compared
with that existing between the French or English on the
one side, and the classical languages or the Sanskrit (or if the
example of a living dialect seems preferable, the Lithuanic)
on the other. It would be impossible for us to prove the con-
sanguinity of the Kafir and Odzi tongues, if we were not
able to trace the history of this family of languages by means
of a comparison of a great many of its variously developed
members. On the other hand, it is the apparent similarity
with the Odzi which makes us suppose that the Yoruba and

other languages, spoken about the lower course of the Kworra,
derive their still more broken and simplified structure from
the complex one of an originally great African type. Even if
every trace of the ancient classification of the nouns have dis-
appeared, we must not wonder ; for just the same is the case
with the modern Persian language, which evidently is to be
derived from the old Indo-European type possessing a three-
fold gender of nouns. I consider it, therefore, not at all as
yet proved that the Efik or Old Calabar language (which is
indeed very different from the adjacent dialects of the Isubu
and Dualla people) will not prove as nearly akin to them
as many of the South African languages. The Efik Grammar
and Dictionary, which the Rev. Mr. Goldie, a Scotch mis-
sionary, is just preparing for the press, will certainly afford
materials enough for deciding whether this supposition, derived
from a very imperfect knowledge of the tongue, has a real
foundation or not.

Still more uncertain is the position to be assigned to the
Mani and Mina families of languages. The scantiness of
the materials I have as yet been able to get access to, does
not enable me to give an opinion on the affinities of the
Mina family (which includes the dialects spoken by the
Krumen, the Grebo, Basa, Dewoi, &c.). We learn, indeed,
from the ' Brief Grammatical Analysis of the Grebo Lan-
guage' (Cape Palmas, 1838, pp. 36, 8vo), that there exists a
sort of classification of the nouns in the language, the pro-
nouns no and o, pi. oh and no, being used for large and
important objects, while eh and ne} pi. eh and ney refer to
diminutive objects. Little accurate as this statement may be,
it induces the supposition that the Grebo is a pronominal lan-
guage, and most likely one of the Great African family*.

Of the Mani family three members are already gramma-

* Upon the plural forms of nouns in Grebo we find the following
remarks : — " The plural form of nouns is generally made by a change of the
final vowel, and in some cases by the addition of a syllable. U final gene-
rally becomes t, i becomes e or £, e final becomes o, and o final becomes e ;
8 becomes 2. These changes, however, are not sufficiently uniform to con-
stitute general rules. In some cases the consonants, particularly the

tically described; the Susu by Brunton, the Mandingo by
Macbrair, the Vei by Norris and Kolle. But we must express
our disapproval of the manner in which the Rev. S. W. Kolle,
to whom African philology is indebted for many useful and im-
portant contributions, tries to make out affinities of the Vei
with the Indo-European and Semitic languages'*. The same
remarks refer, of course, not less to the comparisons to be
found in his most valuable Bo'rnu Grammar, although I do
not think it impossible that the Ka'nuri language may prove
to be a member of this other great family of pronominal lan-
guages, in which the pronouns do originally agree with the
derivative suffixes, — and not, as in the great African family,
with the prefixes — of the nouns, and the classification of the
nouns is brought into some reference to the distinction of
male and female, as seen in nature. That the present state
of the Bo'rnu language does not show any characteristics of
what is generally called the gender of nouns, is, as we men-
tioned before, no proof of their non-existence in former times.
With the Bo'rnu language we have already exceeded the
limits of our task, passing from the languages spoken near the
coast to the centre of the continent. Here the territorium of
Adamaua — from which we may expect that the Tchadda
expedition will bring home a large amount of valuable infor-
mation— seems to offer a very interesting field for philological
researches. Besides the Fulah, Bo'rnu, and Haussa (a Semito-
African language), this country, according to Dr. Earth's

second one, undergo a change, but this is rather to be ascribed to the ever-
varying nature of all their sounds, than to any established principle of the
language (?). A perfect knowledge of all the plural forms can be obtained
only by attending to individual cases."

* As to the native invention of the Vei syllabic alphabet, I am still con-
vinced that it sprung from a sort of pictorial writing, which certainly is to
be found in Western Africa no less than on the banks of the Congo river,
and in the caverns of the Bushmen in Kafirland. The Yoruba, at least,
possess pictorial records of the deeds of their ancestors, and I cannot con-
sider that Mr. Kolle's intercourse with the Vei people was sufficiently long
to enable him to be fully assured of the non-existence of such things among
them, as the aborigines generally take great care to conceal them from
the eyes of a missionary.

reports, is crowded with a great variety of different languages
and dialects. Probably one part of these, at least, will be
found to be members of the Great African family of languages.
Farther to the north-east, the Tumali language in Darfur has
still preserved some of the most striking characteristics of the
ancient great African type, although the vicinity of the sur-
rounding Semitic and sub- Semitic tongues has exercised an
undeniable influence upon the Tumali, as well as upon the
Engutuk Eloikob, the language of the Kuan nation, in the
interior of equatorial Africa, close to the supposed sources of
the Nile. We may compare that foreign influence upon this
Nilotic branch of the Great African family of languages with
the manner in which the Roman element has been introduced
into the English language. It has contributed principally to
the dictionary of the language and also worked upon the con-
struction ; but as to the grammatical forms, few, if any, can
have been derived from this source.

51
TRANSACTIONS

PHILOLOGICAL SOCIETY,

1855.— No. 5.

March 9,
Professor MALDEN in the Chair.

The following Paper was read : —

"On the Coptic Language/' by Dr. CARL ABEL, of the
University of Berlin.

The nature of ancient Egyptian institutions prevented the
composition of books, all science being deposited within a
closed body of sacred persons. Or if we are to believe
Clemens Alexandrinus, that there were forty-two books of
Thoth, and that they were learnt by heart, each by a distinct
class of priests, we, on the same ground, may suppose, that
only a very few copies of these books existed. At any rate
we have not received written documents of this oldest culture,
but only biographical records of kings or eminent individuals,
religious formulas, and some juristic transactions of civil life.
As many of these contain the same expressions or sentences,
the amount of language conveyed to us by them is but small
when compared with the number of documents, or estimated
with regard to its philological worth, lessened as it is by the
ambiguous way of hieroglyphical writing.

When Egypt was conquered by the Macedonians, the native
religion, which had been the basis of all study, declined, and
some few remaining industrious minds gave themselves up to
the Greek literature of Alexandria. It was not before the
introduction of Christianity that the popular mind was again

E 2

roused to intellectual effort, and that a literature was com-
posed, which has been handed down to us under the name of
Coptic. According to Eusebius, the Evangelist Mark entered
Egypt during the reign of Nero, and converted thousands of
the mixed Greek, Jewish, and Egyptian population of the lower
country. The Jews in these regions had become mystical
Platonists, the Greeks had exhausted their learned criticisms,
the Egyptians were a ridiculed and forlorn race, feeling all their
ancient religious wants. Thus Christianity was adopted by
the people with enthusiasm, and only seventy years afterwards
was found by Justin Martyr to be almost universally spread.
Those who remained heathens turned their adorations prin-
cipally to the god Serapis, the judge after death, thus exhi-
biting the same revival of an earnest hope of perfection.

Considering that the Egyptians were the first who may be
said to have been converted as a nation, and that the whole
framework of religious institutions with them had outlived its
soul and only waited for a reanimation, we may easily anti-
cipate the influence which they exercised on growing Chris-
tianity. We may expect them to be the ' Executive ' of that
kindred faith, which the scattered Jews could do nothing for
but to preach it. The Egyptians, who always had believed in
the immortality of the soul and a certain trinity of gods, whose
priests had always been a secluded, shaven and shorn, differ-
ently-clad, class of men;, at once became the leaders of the
intellectual world. Their voice dominated in all the councils
of the Church ; their separate African council of Hipporegius
became the model of that of Nice ; and an Egyptian deacon,
Athanasius, settled the consubstantiality of God and His Son
against the Arian heresy. A Jewish colony near Alexandria,
the Therapeutse, invented monastic life ; and the lost Gospel,
according to the Egyptians, contained the praise of celibacy.
Even before this, the Egyptians had been called Docetae, be-
cause they thought that the Saviour had been crucified in
appearance only. These and similar circumstances, together
with the testimony of the Fathers and the Coptic literature,
may induce us to conclude that the Egyptians had the principal
share in establishing the first dogmas of Christianity.

It is doubtful whether the preserved versions of the Coptic
Bible are older than the third century; but they certainly are
not of later date, evincing as they do in many instances so
genuine a character, that they are beginning to be made use
of as a means for correcting the Greek text. Round this new
centre of the Egyptian mind the Gnostical philosophy composed
its mystical writings as a combination of Egyptian dogmatical
subtlety with the simple pure spirit of the new religion. As
yet only known to us by the denunciations of the Fathers,
the first Coptic religious treatise was lately published from a
manuscript in the British Museum, and created a sensation
among learned theologians (Pistis Sophia, Opus Gnosticum
edidit, latine vertit, &c. G. A. Schwartze). A vast number
of similar religious works was written in the following cen-
turies down to the Arabian conquest. Many books on various
other subjects have been preserved, and the study that is now
being bestowed on them, will, we may hope, throw a new light
on the first development of Christianity, and the still older
culture of Egypt. As yet, nearly the whole of this literature
is manuscript. Very valuable collections are preserved in
London, Oxford, Paris and Berlin. By far the most remark-
able portion is in the library of the Vatican; and the Cata-
logue raisonne of the Coptic books which are deposited
there (Catalogus Bibliothecse Borgianse, ed. Zoega) shows
that the Pope possesses the most important part of the whole
Coptic literature. Much more, doubtless, may be still hidden
in the Coptic monasteries of Nubia, Abyssinia and Jerusalem.
The Hieroglyphic and Coptic literature together allow the
Egyptian language to be investigated through a compass of five
thousand years. This is the only instance of so lasting a vitality
all over the earth, — a a?raf Xeyo/jievov of philology. Chinese,
and even part of the Hindoo literature, may reach up to the
same age; but the Chinese dates are still unexplored by
European science, and the Hindoo chronology evinces most
strongly the characteristics of mythology. When the Arabs
conquered Egypt, those of its inhabitants who were forced
to turn Mussulmen soon forgot their native tongue. The
reading and copying of Coptic religious books being, how-

ever, a rule in the Christian monasteries, even Lower
Egypt, although more influenced by the Arabian dominion, is
proved by many MSS. of the tenth century not to have
entirely lost its language before the beginning of the eleventh.
The Arabic translations which we find added to many Coptic
MSS. may have been introduced from and after this period.
In Higher Egypt, according to the Arabian Macrizi's f History
of the Copts/ every man spoke Egyptian in the fifteenth
century ; in the sixteenth, Leo Africanus tells us, it had dis-
appeared ; at the present time, Arabic is the language of Egypt,
spoken by a Mahometan population principally of mixed Egyp-
tian, Arabian, and Berber blood. Not half a million of men
have remained of the ancient and unmixed Egyptian race. They
are called to this day Copts, adhere to the Monophysitic creed
(like the Armenians and Syrians), and are among the most
abject instruments of oriental despotism. Long ago, the
native name of Egypt (Chemi, the black) had given way to the
Arabic denomination of " Kebt" It may be considered, how-
ever, as a glorious indemnification, that this word (like the
Greek AiyvTrros) is not to be explained, except as a foreign
and abbreviated pronunciation of the oldest and holy name
given by the Egyptians themselves, " Kahi ptah" country
of Ptah, or of the spirit to whom Egypt was consecrated.

The writing began to change with the introduction of Chris-
tianity. It is not certain when the hieroglyphical shorthand
was utterly discontinued and the Greek letters now forming
the Coptic alphabet adopted. As the Egyptian Saint Anto-
nius, who lived about the middle of the third century, did not
understand any language but Egyptian, and knew very well the
contents of the Holy Scriptures in that tongue, these could not
have been translated long after the end of the second century ;
and, whatever the influence of the former Macedonian kings
might have been, the introduction of the Greek alphabet must
have been at least completed at the date of the translation of
the Bible, as that contained and quite adopted so many
Greek words. Six hieroglyphical signs, however, were pre-
served for original Egyptian sounds, representing, under the
pictures of & garden, a snake , a triangle with stick and crescent,

an eagle, a crocodile's tail, and a basket, the letters sh,f, kh, h,
dj, tsh ; and there was a seventh sign for the syllable " ti."

The Coptic separates into three slightly-differing dialects :
the Thebanic or Sahidic of Upper Egypt, -the Memphitic of
Lower Egypt, and the Bashmuric (so called from a region in
the Delta) . The Bashmuric being the most degraded, and the
Sahidic being but little known, the Memphitic is generally
called Coptic, to the exclusion of the others.

The roots of the Coptic language have not been proved to
be related to the Indo-Germanic or Semitic languages, accord-
ing to any regular and numerous change of sounds. Different
attempts have not yielded any more important result than that
of showing scattered instances of a remarkable likeness or
similarity with very different tongues. For instance, Sanskrit
" dschan," gignere, Coptic djo ; Sanskrit " hi" mittere, Coptic
hi, Arabic hui, Greek x€€iv '> Sanskrit " bid," separare, Coptic
ovot, Arabic bid; Coptic djadjo, durus, Turkish katy, &c.
Coptic, however, approaches the Semitic more closely than the
Indo-Germanic tongues in the nature and arrangement of its
forms and inflexions, and has a great likeness to Arabic and
Hebrew in some of those points which are considered to bear
a nearly-deciding witness to the unity of two tongues. Others
again, not less important, are utterly different ; for instance,
the suffixed pronoun of the first person, /, is alike in Egyptian
and Hebrew ; that of the second, in Egyptian, k, is formed in
Hebrew by another palatal with an underlaid vowel, cho, in
Arabic by the pure k; and those of the third person are
easily proved to be related, for the Coptic phei is an alter-
native of the sounds b or v of the Coptic letter b, and to this the
sound ou is very nearly related by theory, and is proved to be
the same by phei standing for the hieroglyphical ov. This is
the simple Hebrew letter vav. But most of the other pro-
nouns and the numerals escape every comparison.

It has been asserted, that a similarity in the mode of in-
flexions is more illustrative of international relations than a
likeness of sounds in the roots. We may say it is so in many
cases, at least in the present state of comparative philology.
Whilst neither Coptic nor Arabic etymology has proceeded

sufficiently far to enable us to decide on the relation between
the roots of either, the inflexions exhibit unmistakeable signs
of the way in which the nations viewed things and their com-
binations. The likeness between the Egyptian and Arabic
conjugations is indeed a striking one in many instances. The
original form of the verb (the asl of the Arabians) is in both
languages the perfect. The conjugation by means of suffixes
has been more or less preserved in the same tense both by
Coptic and Arabic. The pronominal prefixes in Arabic are
very similar to the Coptic forms of ei used for the present
tense. The auxiliary verbs for the perfect, the subjunctive
mood, &c. (Arabic kan, leitni, Coptic nei, nti, &c.), are arranged
almost in the same way. The present tense of the verb " to
be" is seldom expressed in either language, the present tense
in general being often used by both of them to denote future
time. Even the Arabic incha allah, which is sometimes added
to the present tense, if used instead of the future tense, may
be said to have its equal in the formation of a Coptic future
by means of the auxiliary verb tare, " to desire/' Almost the
only example of an internal and significant change of sound in
the Coptic language is given by the passive generally infixing
or adopting the vowel ee, instead of any other contained in the
root of the active form. The Arabic passive is formed in a
similar mode. Still, in Coptic a disinclination may be remarked
to use the passive at all. A circumscribed expression by means
of the active, with or without a relative pronoun, is mostly
preferred.

A proper scientific comparison of Coptic words with those
of other languages is rendered more difficult than in ordinary
cases by the uncommonly varying formation of the Coptic
roots. There are many of them formed on the ordinary
monosyllabic type, constructed by the different positions of
one vowel and two consonants ; but others with two or three
consonants and two vowels, are to be found in nearly equal
number ; and even many words of four consonants with apper-
taining vowels have not been shown to be compounds. Still,
we cannot reasonably account for polysyllabic sounds as roots,
except by their being later enlargements of an original and

more simple root. And, besides the present deficiency of
the Coptic Lexicon, there is a particular reason for such a
conclusion with regard to Coptic. This language exhibits a
strange disability, or, in other instances, disinclination, to ex-
press derivative ideas by derivative sounds. Coptic, therefore,
is under the necessity of using compounds, where more active
languages created new words. An Egyptian, for instance,
when greeting a friend, said, that he " called success," mataie
mouti, or " gave joy," toujo. He called a window " a place of
light," ma en eruoini, or "a place of looking out," ma en
djoushd ebol, — or, if he intended to express himself rather
poetically, "a breach, a canal," shatc. Nay, he was even
obliged to express "to sell," by "to give away," mai ebol,
or " to spend," ti ebol, ti echrei. And, what is perhaps the
most astonishing, he said " to draw water " for " to drink," sek
mou. We may infer from such simplicity, that the long
Coptic roots were produced in a similar way (which moreover
is corroborated by the hieroglyphical roots being almost all of
them monosyllabic ones ; and by two or more hieroglyphical
roots of a kindred meaning being frequently put .together in
Coptic times as compounds with scarcely any alteration of
the sense ; e. g. in Coptic muladg is ' owl/ whilst in hiero-
glyphics it is either mu or ladg] ; that, for the same reason,
the primitive sounds of the language had not to undergo any
considerable change in order to signify new ideas (even most
of the great number of prepositions are to be clearly traced to
full preserved and used substantives) ; and that, therefore, we
may look to the Coptic language as a peculiar means for pene-
trating into the onomatopoietic childhood of mankind.

It may be easily understood that in such a language the
compass of meanings attributed to any one word is a very
wide and seemingly indefinite one. One and the same root, for
instance, is still serving for "house" and "garment," hboc,
hapi ; for " to cut," " to sacrifice," and " to assassinate," shot ;
for "tail," "excrements," and "phallus," set; for "cane,"
"sword," "flute," and "loin," sefe-, for "to whiten," "to
shine," "to germinate," and "to bloom," pire. "To call
away," eshrou, denotes " to lament," or " to laugh," according

to the circumstances, &c. Again : besides the method of using
distinct particles for designating the different cases of a
noun, there is another in much more common use, namely
that of suffixing one letter (n, euphonically m) for all cases,
signifying in the genitive " part of" in the dative " towards/'
and in the accusative "against." An investigation into
Egyptian synonyms will prove a most wonderful psycholo-
gical research, as no other people of so deep and, at the same
time, so primitive ideas, has produced so extensive a literature.

The mere reduplication of a root in order to increase its
scope of expressing meaning, may be considered another token
of preserved native features. In this way the root ai, " to be,"
becomes aiai, "to be to be," meaning "to become;" bor, "to
dissolve," becomes borber, " to dissolve to dissolve," meaning
"to throw away;" besh, " naked," becomes beshbosh, "to un-
dress a man in order to kill him/5 or simply " to kill." Even
the root an} signifying very indefinitely "anything," and
forming nouns by being prefixed to verbal roots, when doubled
and made anan, may impart at the same time an increased
meaning; for instance, ro means "mouth," ananro "har-
bour," that is " mouth of a river," or (as the Nile does not
form a " harbour ") perhaps " mouth of the sea " itself, as they
chose to regard the matter.

In all compounds of different roots the French logical mode
is followed (tirebotte), not the German involving and com-
bining one (Stiefelknecht) . But if a particle is added to a
root in order to render it a substantive or adjective, the par-
ticle always precedes, and the root is left without any further
termination of its class. Many substantives, adjectives, and
verbs, (as in English) do not at all differ from each other
in form, all of them being the mere root, and only to be
distinguished by conjugation, declension, and syntactical
arrangement.

This was not the case with the old Egyptian tongue as
contained in the hieroglyphics. Pronominal suffixes, standing
as the termination of every substantive, formerly marked,
as it were, both the quality of a subject and its gender.
Any prefixed article, therefore, did not exist in hierogly-

pineal times. The Coptic dropped the suffix, formed a
substantive out of the mere root and an article out of the
pronoun, and preserved only in a very few instances the former
termination of s, i, e, for the feminine, and / for the masculine
gender. The numerals, which have been observed in many
languages to be of a particularly conservative nature, are
among these exceptionally preserved words. The feminine
article serves also for the neuter one, — a circumstance so much
the more strange, as the Coptic maintains the rare distinction
of gender in the pronoun of the second person, saying nthok,
" ihou," as addressed to a man ; ntho, " thou," addressed to a
woman. Hieroglyphics do the same even for the pronoun of
the first person.

The pronominal suffixes have been preserved most signifi-
cantly in the pronouns themselves. The personal pronouns,
for instance, are easily analysed, as being formed of the root
an, " thing/3 (with or without the interpolation of a demon-
strative t,} and different terminating letters as characteristics
of their respective person and gender. Thus are produced —

anak. ... I, characteristic suffix k.

enthok ~\ xl_

., ^thou, „ „ Arando.

entho . . J

entof ..he „ „ /.

entoc . . she „ „ c.

anon . . we „ „ n.

entoten. . you „ „ oten.

entoou . . they „ „ ou.

The suffix of the third person f was made an article under
the strengthened form of p, and then again combined with the
different suffixes in order to create possessive pronouns. Allied
to itself it became pef, that is to say "he he/' or, if we
acknowledge the promoted dignity of the p, " the he/' meaning
"his." In the same way are formed pec, "the she/' meaning
"her/' pen, "the we," meaning "our," &c. It is only ana-
logons to the want of an article in the hieroglyphics, that in
them there occurs no other mode of forming the possessive
pronoun than the mere addition of the personal suffix to the

substantive. Thus the words "her king" are rendered in
Coptic by pec uro, but in hieroglyphics by uroc. Still the
pronominal suffixes have been preserved in Coptic for the per-
sonal pronouns after a transitive verb ; for instance, efkash +f
= efkeshf, " he breaks him."

The Coptic and Hieroglyphic agree in declining the personal
pronouns by putting certain particles before the suffix ; nte,
for instance, means "of" and forms the genitive. It is
simply put before any substantive, as nte pi romi, "of the
man ;" but it coalesces with the suffix k, " thou," into ntak,
" of thou," instead of preceding the full pronoun nthok, " thou,"
as nte nthok, " of thou." In a similar way the ancient use of
the suffixes, instead of the full pronouns, has been preserved
with all the different prepositions, conjunctions, and some
adjectives of a particularly conservative character; for instance,
nem " with," forms nemf " with him," nemou " with them,"
&c. ; entere " when/5 forms enterek " when I," enterec " when
she," &c. ; teer "whole," naiat "happy," mauat "alone,"
nane " good/5 form teerou " all them," naiatf " happy he,"
mauatk " alone I," nanoten "good you," &c. Many other
particles are used to signify the different cases; the plural
being seldom marked except by the prefixed plural of the
article. In hieroglyphics again, a plural in ou, oui (the suffix
of the third person in plural " they"), was common.

It is known from the hieroglyphics that the old tongue had
formed a present tense by means of suffixed pronouns, as the
Sanskrit, Greek, Latin, German, &c. do. The rest of the
tenses were made up by different forms of the auxiliary verbs,
ai " to be," nei " to come," and mare " to intend," generally
being put before the root. The Coptic conjugates its verbs in
the same way, only dropping the suffixes, even for the present
tense, and supplying the want by ei, a weaker form of the
original auxiliary verb ai " to be." Thus, the present tense of
the verb kash, " to break," would rim in hieroglyphics and
Coptic as follows : —

HIEROGLYPHIC. COPTIC.

kashai .... I break eikash.

kashak .... thou breakest . . . ekkash.

kashaf .... he breaks efkash, &c.

kashac .... she breaks .... eckash.

kashan .... we break enkash.

kashten .... you break t enkash.

kasheu .... they break .... eukash.

In the same way ai, " I have been/5 forms the perfect ; nei,
" I come/' the imperfect ; and eie, " I am in order to " (made
out of ei, "I am/' + e, "to"), the future. The latter, eie, is
conjugated eke, efe, &c., the inherence of the suffixed pronouns
being stronger than the addition of the e, " in order to," which
produces with ei the idea of " shall be." Some other auxi-
liary verbs are allowed a similar, but rarer use. It may
likewise be worth observing, that the original conjugation by
means of suffixes has been preserved for the three verbs peje
" to say,55 thre " to do,'5 and mare " to give,55 all of them con-
veying such primitive notions, as have in fact produced so-
called anomalous* verbs in most languages (Latin inquit, aio,
cedo, Greek <£?7/u, tripi, &c.).

The zeal lately awakened for Egyptian studies may be
expected soon to produce an amount of interesting detail for
these principal features of the Coptic language.

* The above-mentioned anomalous forms of the Coptic verbs are ori-
ginally no presents, but perfects. The hieroglyphical and even the Coptic
perfect tenses being frequently used to signify present time, this tense has
been called prasens emphaticum.

62
TRANSACTIONS

OF THE

PHILOLOGICAL SOCIETY.

1855.— No. 6.

March 23,
The REV. T. OSWALD COCKAYNE in the Chair.

The Papers read were : —

I. " On False Etymologies ; " by HENSLEIGH WEDGWOOD, Esq.

II. " On the Kamilaroi Language of Australia ;" by WILLIAM

RIDLEY, Esq., B.A. Univ. Coll. Lond.

I. " On False Etymologies/'

The phenomenon known by the name of False Etymologies,
where a word or its meaning has been somehow modified from
association with an erroneous derivation, has long been an
object of considerable interest, partly in consequence of the
quaintness of some of the changes, and partly as exhibiting, on
however small a scale, an undoubted specimen of the influences
operating in giving rise to the actual condition of language.
Of such etymologies a considerable list is given in the notice
of the labours of the old Cambridge Philological Society,
printed in the fifth volume of our ' Proceedings/ comprising
however many questionable examples, some to be rejected on
linguistic grounds, some requiring the support of philological
proof to raise them above the rank of guesswork, while others
are mere corruptions of a foreign word introduced into En-
glish and spelt according to our pronunciation.

The expression heart of oak is explained from G. harte, as

signifying the hardest part. But it does not appear that
hdrte has ever this sense in German. It is used exactly as
the English ' hardness/ but no instance is given in the dic-
tionaries of such an application as the one supposed, nor is it
necessary to look for any recondite explanation of so very na-
tural a metaphor as the use of heart to designate the sound
and central part of the wood.

The derivation of Jew's harp from a supposed jeu harpe or
toy harp, is strikingly opposed to the idiom of the French
language, in which, if two substantives are joined together, the
qualifying noun is invariably the last.

If husband had ever been house-man, the very principle
which gives rise to so many false etymologies, the desire,
namely, for a meaning in every part of a word which can be
supposed or can be made significant, would have preserved
unaltered a word whose elements so directly and completely
express the meaning intended. His straightforward descrip-
tion as ' man of the house3 would never have been changed for
the metaphorical title of ' tie or band of the house.' Moreover,
the element band is extant as a substantive word in the Scan-
dinavian languages. The Icel. bondi, husbondi, Dan. bonde,
husbonde, the master of the household, paterfamilias, colonus,
ruricola, is commonly explained as from buandi, boandi, the
active participle of bua, hoc, to dwell, to till.

The favourite explanation of John Dory from Janitore, the
doorkeeper, from being supposed to have the mark of St.
Peter's thumb upon it, is an example of the way in which
philologists sometimes speculate, like king Charles's philo-
sophers, without the precaution of weighing the salmon in
the first instance. The preliminary objection is, not only
that it is the haddock, and not the dory, that has the thumb-
mark on its side, but that the Lat. Janitor does not appear
ever to have passed into an It. Giannitore, and certainly the
fish was never known by that name. The real designation in
It. is dorata, and in Fr. doree, from the yellow colour of the
fish, leaving no doubt of the significance of the English sur-
name at least. Why our fishermen should have thought him
worthy of a Christian name also I am not aware ; it certainlv

is not a blundering adoption of a supposed Yr.jaune, which
would have been a superfluous addition to the term doree,
gilded, and in fact forms no part of the French name.

The explanation of the expression soiling cattle, for feeding
them in the house, from Fr. saouler, to glut, to satiate, would
require it to be shown that the French verb is used in the
sense of feeding cattle, which does not appear to be the case.
But, in fact, the derivation supposed to be erroneous, from
converting the food into manure or soil, is perfectly satis-
factory: The term soiling is applied in the first instance to
the food itself. Our agriculturists speak of 'soiling turnips
on the ground,' as opposed to soiling them in the house (Agri-
cultural Journal, 1854). The cattle for the moment are
considered merely as manure-making machines, and the term
soiling is then elliptically applied to them instead of the food
which they consume.

The explanations of several signs of public-houses from
quaint alterations of phrases labour under the common diffi-
culty of a total absence of authority, without which they are
really worthless. They are, moreover, for the most part liable
to the fundamental objection that signs were, until of late
years, intended to speak to the unlettered eye, and none would
be adopted that could not be rendered in a pictorial form.
Now how should the chat fidele (the supposed original of the
cat and fiddle) be represented to an English public ? If the
portrait of the only faithful cat one ever heard of were exhi-
bited, the house would infallibly have been known as the Puss
in Boots rather than the Cat and Fiddle. For a like reason
we must regard with the utmost suspicion such interpretations
as the Bull and Mouth from Boulogne mouth] Bell and
Savage from belle sauvage-, Goat and Compasses from God
encompass us ; Axe and Gate from ax (or ask) and get. An in-
vitation of so liberal a nature would be far from suiting the
views of an innkeeper, who is always anxious to keep the
necessity of payment in view : —

This gate hangs wide and hinders none ;
Refresh and pay and travel on,

is now the restricted welcome of a tavern motto.

The simple truth appeal's to be, that a conjunction of the most
incongruous elements in the sign was often adopted as a means
of catching attention and attracting custom.

Among the mere corruptions cited as instances of false
etymology may be mentioned illiads from ceillades ; sandfine
from saintfoin ; dandelion from dent de lion ; verdigrease from
verdegris-, bellibone from belle et bonne. These are merely
the nearest English spelling of the French words, with no
reference in the mind of the writer or user of the word to
the Iliad of Homer, to sand, to the modern dandy, to grease,
or to either belly or bone.

In the case of the ranunculus sceleratus, or celery- leaved
ranunculus, the English term owes its origin to no erroneous
opinion as to the meaning of the Latin one, nor has it suffered
any modification whatever since it was first devised. It is
taken from a different feature of the plant, and is doubtless the
invention of a scientific botanist fitting English names to the
nomenclature of the Linnsean system. If it had been a
popular designation, it would have arisen in entire ignorance
of the Latin name, and therefore in neither case could have
served as a proper illustration of false etymology.

With these criticisms on the examples of the former list,
and observations on the proper limits of the phenomenon to
be illustrated, I shall proceed to offer an amended list, com-
prehending the instances of false etymology already known,
together with such as can be sufficiently established from any
other quarter, including several from Mr. Trench's valuable
little work on ' English Past and Present/

One of the most usual cases is when, in adopting a foreign
word into the language, some portion of it, usually the con-
clusion, is modified so as to designate a genus, of which the
thing signified may be considered as a particular specimen.
Of this class are

CRAWFISH, from Fr. ecrevisse, with which it is connected by
the old modes of spelling krevys, crevish, craifish (Trench),
Languedoc escarabisse (as in the same dialect escarabat, a
beetle) , from the scrabbling action of the claws ; Sp. escarbar,
to scrabble; Catalan fer escarabats, to scribble, to scrawl.

CAUSEWAY, from Fr. chaussee, via calceata, a shod way;
Port. collar, to shoe, to pave.

BAR-BERRY, from Lat. berberis.

SPARROW-GRASS, from asparagus, where grass is taken as a
generic name for green herb, as in Icel. gras-gardr, a herb-
garden.

GILLY-FLOWER, from Fr. giroflee, and that from caryo-
phyllus, a clove.

TUBE-ROSE, from Fr. tuber euse (polyanthes tuberosa).

ROSE-MARY, from Lat. ros marinus.

It must be observed that rose is in other cases taken as the
type of a flower in general, as the Christmas rose, which is a
species of hellebore ; and in Irish and Gaelic the water-lily is
called water-rose.

PENT-HOUSE, a sloping roof, from Fr. appentier.

CHARTER-HOUSE, from Chartreuse.

DORMOUSE, from a Fr. dormeuse, which may be supplied
from Langued. radourmeire, a dormouse, agreeing with Sleeper,
the name by which the animal is known in Suffolk.

JUSTACOAT, a waistcoat with sleeves (Jam.), from Yr.just au
corps.

CURTAL-AXE, from It. cortelazo, the augmentative of coltello,
Venet. certelo, a knife.

POLAND, formerly Polayn, from G. Pohlen (Talbot).

AMBERGREASE, as if a kind of grease, from Fr. ambregris,
although here also the spelling may be a mere representation
of the French pronunciation.

ISINGGLASS, formerly icing-glass, as if glass for icing or
making jelly, Fr. gelee, from G. hausen bias, the bladder of
the hausen or sturgeon, acipenser huso.

Sometimes the spelling only is affected, as in LANT-HORN,
Fr. lanterne, where in the spelling of the E. word there is a
manifest reference to the horn panes with which lanterns
were commonly constructed.

ABOMINABLE, formerly written abhominable, as if shocking
to the nature of man.

ISLAND, as if compounded of Fr. isle, from insula ; really
from A.S. iglond, eye-land (Philolog. Soc. Proc. vol. v. p. 37).

Sometimes the original expression is forced into English sig-
nificance with little regard to the sense of the resulting com-
pound. Thus we have —

BEEF-EATER, an officer in charge of the Crown plate and
jewels, from Fr. buffet, a court cupboard, a cupboard of plate
(Cotgr.), whence buffetier would be one in charge of the plate.

HUMBLE-BEE, from bomble-bee, Lat. bombilus. "I bomme
as a bee doth, or any flye, Je bruis." (Palsgr.)

WHEAT-EAR (a bird also called Whiterump]y from whittail,
Fr. blanche-cul (Cotgr.).

JERUSALEM ARTICHOKES (a kind of sunflower), from It.
girasole.

GUM BENJAMIN, from benzoin.

GUM DRAGON, from tragacanth.

MANDRAKE, MANDRAGON, from Lat. mandragora, which in
the Fr. version, main-de-gloire, affords a more complete ex-
ample of the phenomenon. The mandrake was supposed to
be employed in the magical rites used in the preparation of
the ' hand of glory/ by which treasure was discovered. See
"Thalaba."

The names of places are peculiarly liable to corruption,
either from being purely arbitrary in themselves, or from being
introduced by uneducated persons ignorant of the meaning,
and unskilful in the pronunciation, of the native term. On the
coasts of our North American colonies, the names given by
the French settlers have now to be chiefly used by English
sailors, and thus the Anse des Cousins or Bay of Mosquitoes
has become NANCY COUSIN'S BAY. So from Setubal our
sailors have made ST. UBES, a saint unknown to the Romish
Calendar.

Among domestic examples are — BRIDGEWATER from Burgh
Walter ; GRACECHURCH Street from Gracious Street ; LEADEN-
HALL from Leather-hall ; LEIGHTON BUZZARD from Leighton
Beau-desert, where the brazen eagle, formerly used for sup-
porting the Bible in the church, is shown as the buzzard from
whence the town was named.

In general, however, the erroneously modified word is
adapted to express some character of the thing signified, or to

satisfy some analogy which it calls to mind. Thus, MALE from
masculus, Cat. mascles, Fr. masle, mdle, and FEMALE from
femina, through Fr. femelle, have been brought by modifica-
tions in writing and pronunciation into analogy with man and
woman, as if female were derived from male, — an analogy of
which there was no feeling in the time of Piers Plowman,
when they were written maule and femelle.

The Fr. laniere, a thong, has become LANYARD in nautical
language, in apparent analogy with halyard, a rope for haul-
ing up the yards.

The name of the PORCUPINE affords an example of multi-
farious corruption. The original is the It. porco-spino, a spiny
pig, which would probably come to us through a Yr.porc-epin,
although the actual name in that language is pore-epic, from
spica instead of spina. The first translation into English was
pork-pin, whence, in Somersetshire, porpin, a hedgehog. The
third syllable in porpentine (which was Shakespear's word)
seems to have been added in blind imitation of the sound and
accent of the foreign word, at the expense of all etymological
significance. From pore-epic again was formed the popular
porcu-pig, in which the element signifying spine is made to do
duty as a reference of the animal to the genus pig, already
expressed in Latin in the first syllable': —

Had you but seen him in this dress,

How fierce he looked and how big,
You would have thought him for to be
Some Egyptian porcu-pig.

Dragon of Wantley (Halliwell).

RUNAGATE, as if ' run away/ but it is from renegade, It. rin-
negato, one who has renounced his faith or country.

SHAMEFACED, from shamefast.

RIGHTEOUS, from rightwise, and in Scotch WRONGOUS for
wrangwise, as used in Douglas's Virgil.

LIVELIHOOD, from life-lode, way of life ; O.-G. lib-leitj men-
sura victus (Schilter).

UPROAR, as if from roar ; really from Du. oproer, G. aujruhr,
sedition, from roeren, ruhren, to stir.

FRONTISPIECE, as if the piece or plate in front of the book ;

but really from Mid. Lat. frontispicium, the front of a church,
aspect of a man (Ducange) .

GOOSEBERRY, as if from being eaten with goose, or like
cranberry, crane-berry ; really a corruption of G. krause-beer,
Du. kruise-beer, hairy berry, berry with standing-out hairs.

FIELD- FARE, as if from frequenting fields ; really from A.-S.
feala-for, from the pale yellow colour of its plumage.

Vulgar Scotch POCK-MANTLE, as if from pock, a sack, in-
stead of the Fr. port manteau, from porter, to carry.

BED GUM, an eruption of infants, as if having reference to
the gums ; really from A.-S. gund, matter, pus ; " Redgownde,
sekeness of young children" (Promptorium).

To BRICKWALL at tennis, Fr. bricoler, to strike a ball so as
to strike against one of the side walls (Cotgr.). To bricoil
(Bailey), as if from recoiling.

AGISTER (one who takes in cattle to pasture, from giste,
gite, a lying place), a gist or guest-taker (Bailey) .

BLUE AS A RAZOR, for blue as azure (Bailey).

BAGGAGE, a worthless woman, as if a mere incumbrance,
from It. bagascia, Fr. bagasse.

COWITCH, an Indian seed producing itching, from the native
name kiwach.

FORCEMEAT, as if from being forced in, instead of Fr. farcir,
to stuff.

WAIST-COAT, as if from clothing the waist, really from Fr.
veste.

COUNTRY-DANCE; Fr. contre-danse.

CUTLET, as if a slice ; Fr. cotelette, from cote, a rib.

WISEACRE, as if ironically from wise-, G. weissager, a
soothsayer.

POSTURE-MAKER, a merry-andrew ; Du. boetsen-maecker ;
G. possen-macher, from possen, tricks.

TRUE LOVE, from Dan. tru-love, to plight one's troth, to
engage ; Isl. tru-loufut mey, an engaged maid.

CHAMOY LEATHER, as if from the chamois or wild goat;
Fr. sameau, chameau ; G. sdmisches leder, leather from Sam-
land or Samogitia, a part of Poland, as Russia leather,
Morocco leather. The chamois could never have been so

plentiful or easily obtained as to furnish the leather in any
quantity.

BOOT AND SADDLE, a military term, the signal to cavalry
for mounting ; Fr. boute-selle, put on saddle, one-half of which
is adopted bodily, and the other half translated in the English
version.

To BREECH or whip a boy, as if from striking him on the
breech : —

Kneeling and whining like a boy new breech' d.

B. &F. inNares.

Really from Du. bridsen, G. britschen, pritschen, to give sound-
ing blows with a flat board or a rope's end.

DEAD-NETTLE, the harmless nettle of our hedges, from deaf
nettle, G. taube-nessel, as, a ' deaf nut for a nut without a
kernel ; A.-S. blinde netel. In the cultivation of language the
tendency to living metaphor is constantly diminishing, and deaf
was silently exchanged for dead, as expressing more directly
the want of the stinging faculty which constitutes the one
important function of nettle life.

DOUBLET, a jacket, as if some part of the dress were
doubled; really from It. giubbetta ; Sp. jubon, the body of a
woman's gown ; Fr. jupon, a petticoat.

The old-fashioned DEMI- JOHN from Fr. dame-Jeanne, a
large kind of bottle fabricated near Arras (Household Words,
April 22, 1853), probably owes its form in the English version
to a reference to the ' black-jack/ a large leathern jug for
beer or the like.

In MINIATURE, from miniare, to colour with minium or red
lead, and thence to illuminate books, it is the meaning of the
word that has been affected by the false etymology. As the
pictures in books were necessarily of a small description, the
word seemed to signify a small picture, from minuere, to dimi-
nish, and is now applied with a constant sense of this deriva-
tion to a diminished specimen or resemblance of anything.

COVERLET or coverlid, — as if a diminutive from cover, or
a compound with the synonymous lid, — properly signifies bed-
cover', Cat. cobre-lit.

BELFRY, Fr. hcjfroi, O.-G. bcre-friet, a tower of defence;

Mid. Lat. bertefredum, berfredum, belfredum, applied to a
church tower. Hence in English, from an erroneous recog-
nition of significance in the syllable bel, the term has passed
on to a designation of the chamber where the bells are hung
or rung.

DECOY, is commonly used, and is explained in Richardson's
Dictionary as if from coy, to make coy or quiet, to tame, to
allure or entice away from : —

He n' ist how best her heart for to acoie. — Chaucer.

And oft eke him that doth the heavens guide,
Hath Love transform' d to shapes for him too base,
Transmuted thus, sometimes a swan he is,
Leda to coy. — Uncertain Authors in R.

The word however is properly a duck-coy, and is still so called
among the people in some parts, from Du. kooi, a cage ; ende-
kooi, a duck-cage, a wicker construction for catching ducks, a
decoy.

CARRIAGE, in the sense of a coach or conveyance of superior
order, is a corruption of Fr. caroche, It. carrozza, from carro,
a car.

No, nor your jumblings

In horse-litters, in coaches or caroaches. — O. Play in Nares.

COURT-CARDS, as if from the kings and queens, but really
coat-cards, from representing dressed figures, is fully esta-
blished by quotations in Nares, one of which, from a book
printed in 1681, shows the date at which the modern phrase
was coming into use: "The dealer shall have the turn-up
card if it be an ace or a cote-card (court card), — si sit monas
aut imago humana."

To CURRY FAVOUR, properly ' curry Favel,3 from the Fr. pro-
verbial expression ' etriller fauveau? to curry the chestnut horse.
A similar case is the expression in the New Testament, " to
strain at a gnat and swallow a camel," as if it signified having
to make an exertion, or making a difficulty at swallowing a
gnat, instead of straining it out from the wine previous to
drinking; 'cxcolare culicem' (Vulgate).

The reprobation expressed by MISCREANT, from Fr. mecrew,

to believe amiss, would probably in modern times, when the
feelings of hatred to those who believe otherwise than our-
selves have been so much softened down, have lost much of
its virulence, had it not been supported by an apparent deri-
vation from miscreate, as if it signified a person without
ordinary human feelings or principles.

The insertion of an r in the spelling of TARTAR, properly
Tatar, has probably arisen from an association with Tartarus
or Hell (called Tartary by some of our older writers), either
in consequence of the horror arising from the Tatars' cruel
devastations in the thirteenth century, or from regarding these
as a fulfilment of the prophecy in the Revelations concerning
the opening of the bottomless pit.

The general ignorance of Greek in the middle ages con-
verted Necromancer into NEGRO- or NIGRO-MANCER, as if from
niger, black, in accordance with the popular notion of magic
as the black art, the art performed in secresy and darkness.

We may conclude with a familiar example in the prepa-
ratory O YES ! O YES ! O YES ! in which the crier of our courts
of law preserves the memory of the Oyez \ Hear ! of his
Norman predecessor.

The second Paper was then read —

" On the Kamilaroi Language of Australia ; " by WILLIAM
RIDLEY, Esq.

To Professor Key, University College, London.

Balmain, Sydney, Nov. 30, 1854.

DEAR SIR, — The recollection of the dissertations on ety-
mology to which I used to listen with much interest in 1839,
suggests to me that a few specimens of a language which I
have lately been studying, and which I believe is quite unknown
to the literati of Europe, might be considered curiosities worth
adding to your museum of words. The language I refer to is
called by those who speak it " Kamilaroi : " it is one of the
most widely-spoken of the very numerous languages of the
Australian aborigines, and is in common use through the
upper part of the valley of the Hunter River; over Liverpool

Plains, along the Namoi River, and 100 miles of the Barwan ;
also on Mooni Creek and the Bollun ; that is, over a part of
the country about 400 or 500 miles long and 50 wide. There
is hardly a word in Kamilaroi which bears any resemblance
to the language spoken at Newcastle (the mouth of the
Hunter), of which the Rev. L. E. Threlkeld published a gram-
mar in 1834. Some of the neighbouring dialects bear some
resemblance to it, especially Wolaroij which is spoken on the
Bundarra and on the Narran ; but most of the nearest lan-
guages are very different. Where, however, the vocabulary is
quite different, there is a close analogy in the inflexions and
idioms. The languages are named generally after the nega-
tive adverb; thus, in Kamilaroi (or, as some colonists will
have it, Gummilaroi) kamil means ' no ' : in Wolaroi, wol is
' no' : in Wailwun, wail is ( no ' : in Wiralhere and Pikabul
(also neighbouring dialects), wira and pika respectively are the
negatives*. From a lecture delivered in Melbourne, I see that
the same plan of naming languages prevails in Victoria. I
have prepared a tract in Kamilaroi and English, to enable the
colonists settled in the district where that language is spoken
to give them some instruction in the elements of Christianity,
and this contains a list of roots. They have a tradition of
their own that all things were made at first by one being,
Baiame ; but in their " Boras " (assemblies at which, by my-
sterious rites, their young men are initiated to the privileges

* Compare the converse 'Langue d'Oc' and ' Langue d'Oyl.' Dante has
at least three allusions to the Italian st, and one to a provincial form of it,
sipa.

E non pur io qui piango Bolognese ;

Anzi n' e questo luogo pieno

Che tante lingue non son ora apprese

A dicer sipa tra Savena e '1 Reno. — Inferno, 18, v. 58-61,

Ahi Pisa, vituperio delle genti

Del bel paese la dove '1 si suona. — Inferno, 32, v. 79, 80.
Non e molto nmnero d' anni passati che apparirono priraa questi poeti
volgari. . . . E segno che sia picciol tempo e, che se volemo cercare in lingua
d' oco e in lingua di si, noi non troveremo cose dette anzi lo presente
tempo per CL ann^- Vita Nuova.

Nam alii oc, alii oil, alii st, affirmando loquuntur, ut puta Hispani,
Franci et Latini. — De Viilf/nri Klorjiiio, lib. 1. cap. 8.

of manhood), they pay much more visible homage to a being
called TURRAMULLUN, who is said to appear at the Boras in
the form of a serpent ; who is the author or inspirer of mischief,
cunning, and sorcery; in fact just such a being as we call
'devil3; and the blacks, after a little intercourse with white
men, learn to call Turramullun ' debil-debil.' Baiame is unseen,
but is heard in thunder ; so that the aborigines of Australia,
once said to be atheists, have still traditions handed down by
their fathers from Noah of One Creator, and of the author of
evil. The regularity of the language of this wild people is
astonishing ; and must, I think, be regarded as a monument
of a former state of considerable civilization.

In expressing the relation of nouns they use suffixes, not
prepositions ; and their declension is fuller and more regular
than Latin. For instance, mute= opossum, but there is a sepa-
rate nominative when the subject is the agent of some verb,
formed by subjoining -du. Mute simply names the animal, —
as in answer to the question What's that? Mutedu = ' the
opossum as an agent5; mutedu yindal tatulle='ihe opossum
grass will eat/ [N. B. Their syntax requires the following
order : nominative, accusative, verb. I use the vowels as in
French^]

1st Norn, mute, an opossum. Ace. & Voc. like 1st Norn.

2nd Nom. mutedu, an opossum (agent). Abl. mute-di, from an opossum.

Gen mute-ngu, of an opossum. mute-da, in an opossum.

(motion to)mute-go, to an opossum. mute-kunda, with an opossum.

I have not discovered any plural form of nouns ; they put
burrula (many) before the noun, or repeat the noun itself
several times, to express plurality ; but in the pronouns they
have both dual and plural.

PERSONAL PRONOUNS.
SINGULAR. DUAL. PLURAL.

1. ngaia, I. ngulle, thou or you, and I. \ ngeane, we.

nyai, my. ngullina, he and I. J ngeane-ngu, of us.

ngaiago, to me. ngulle-ngu, belonging to you ngeane-go, to us.

ngaiadt, from me. and me. ngeane-di, from us.

ngaiada, in me. ngullina-ngu, belonging to ngeane-da, in us.

ngaiakunda, him and me. ngeane-kunda, with

with me. ngulle-go, to you and me. us.

ngununda, me. &c. &c.

[There are other affixes of nouns and pronouns, such as
-ngunda and -kale, which I think mean ' going along with';
-kunda (derived from kundi, ' a house ') means only ' stopping
with/]

SINGULAR. DUAL. PLURAL.

2. inda, thou. indale, ye two. ngindai, ye.
inda-ngu, ~\ indale-ngu. ngindai-nyu.

or nginnuy f ?' &c.

inda-yo, to thee. indale-go.

&c. &c.

3. ngirma, he, she, or that. ngdrma, they.

DEMONSTRATIVES.
1 . numma or ngubbo, this. 2. nguruma, that (iste). 3' n9irma°r I that(ille).

TlfJUtvdy J

INTERROGATIVES.
1 . andi ? who ? 2. minnima ? which ? 3. mmwa or minyal what ?

INDEFINITE.
1. ngaragedul or ngarage, another. 2. kanungo, all.

ADVERBS.

i/o or ya, yes. ^Ir, verily (a common sign of indicative past).

kamil, no. murra, very.

yeal, merely (as ' why did you speak?' Answer, Ye'dl ngaiagoe, I just spoke).

ye'dlo, further, still, any more, again. ye'dlima, as,

(hence the adj. yealokwai, like, and) yealokwaima, in like manner.

ADVERBS OF PLACE.

ngowo, here. ngari or aro, there. beru, far, deep.

urribu, very far. uriellona or nguriellona, on this side.

urrigaltna or narrikollinya, on that side. bigundi, in midst,

wyari or ngurri, there, in front. tulla ? where ?

ngutta, there, on the right ; also meaning ' down there.' tai, hither.
ngurriba, there, on the left; also meaning 'up there/
murra, there, behind. urribatai, from above.

ADVERBS OF TIME.

yeladu or ilanu, to-day, now. ngurra, after.

ilambo or ngurribu, long ago. yalwunga, always.

nguruko, tomorrow. ngarageduli, then (at another time).

aoane, yesterday. mdllo or ngerido, for one day.

wiru ? when ? kaiabar, hastily.

Among the adverbs should be named the interrogative
yamma, used at the beginning of a question ; as, yamma inda
Kamilaroi goalda ? = do you speak Kamilaroi ?

The most striking feature in the languages of Australia is
the numerous and exact modifications of the verbs. Of this
a few examples : — buma is the root meaning ' to beat ' ; bumi
or gir bumi is past indie. ' did beat/

gir bumalnge, did beat to-day,
gir bumalmien, did beat yesterday.
gir bumallen, did beat some days ago.

Pres.bumalda, is beating. Imperat. bumalla, strike.

Fut. bumalle, will beat. bumallawa, strike (emphatic and

bumalnyari, will beat tomorrow. earnest).

bumalmia, strike (ironical — " if you
dare").

(This ironical imperative is a regular part of every verb.)

Subj. bumaldai, beat (as yelle inda Particip. bumaldendai, beating; bu-
bumaldai, if you beat). malngendai, having beaten ; bu-

Infin. bumallago, to beat. malmiendai, having beaten yester-

day ; bumallendai, going to beat.

There are many more shades of meaning which they express
by inflexions of the verb; causative, permissive, reciprocal
and reflective modifications or voices, more numerous than the
Hebrew niphal, piel} hiphil, hophal, and hithpael. The per-
missive voice of buma is bumanabille, which I learned from a
black fellow, who, at my request, was explaining his idea of
friendship: " Kamil Yarri ngununda bumanabille." = Harry
will not allow -any -one-to-beat me.

At present, however, I am not prepared to give with cer-
tainty the exact meaning of many other inflexions which I
hear. In Mr. Threlkeld's grammar of the Newcastle and
Lake Macquarie dialect, the following inflexions are given,
and will be examples of the minute shades of meaning ex-
pressed by inflexion of the verb : —

bunkillin, about to beat at any future time,
bunkillikin, about to beat tomorrow.
bunkillikolang, about to beat by and by.

In the reciprocal voice —

bunkillan, about to beat one another.
bunkillaikin, about to beat one another tomorrow.
bunkillaikolaiig, about to beat one another presently.

The regularity and exactitude traceable in their numerous

inflexions are surely evidence that the people whose language
is so flexible and systematic were once in a high state of
intellectual culture; great mental acumen still characterizes
the race, limited as the sphere of their thoughts has become.

Alliteration and other rules for euphony are remarkable
features in the Australian languages. In Kamilaroi, no word
(that I have heard of) ends in a mute ; though a liquid con-
sonant is as common as a vowel at the end of a word. When
they adopt English words ending in mutes, the blacks drop
the mute or add a vowel : thus, jimbugff, a slang name for
sheep, they sound jimbu ; and pigs they call piggu. This rule,
with the absence of the aspirate and hissing consonants, gives
a peculiarly soft effect to their speech ; while the rattling of
the r, and vehement intonation of the final vowels, give it a
strong character. Instances of alliteration : Walgerr (name
of a place) with the suffix -go is Walger-ro (not Walgerrgo)
to Walgerr; munmul (a stockyard) with -go is munmullo;
pirriwul (a chief) with the suffix -kako is pirriwullako.

Another peculiarity is the use of nouns, adjectives, and
adverbs, with the necessary suffixes, as verbs : from mil (the
eye) is milmil (to see). From binna (the ear) is binna (to hear),
having the regular inflexions binnange binnamien (past), and
binnalle binnangari (future).

The adverb yo is used as a verb, meaning ' affirm, believe ' :
ngaia yo = 'I yes it/ or ' I believe it.'

From andi ? ' who ? ' comes the verb anduma, ' say who.'
The words relating to hearing are also applied to thought :
binna (the ear) means also ' thought ' ; wlnungi (verb ' hear ')
means also ' think, believe' ; generally the form winungailun is
used for ' think.'

NOUNS.

Baiame, God.

wunda, spectre, angel, 8ai/xo>i>; the
common appellation of white men,
who were supposed to be spectres
or blacks risen from the dead.

Turramullun, the chief of the wunda ;
author of craft ; devil.

giwir, man.

iniirri, aboriginal of Australia.

ma, woman.

kai, child. [N.B. In the language of
the Newcastle tribe, kore, nukung,
wonnai, are the words for man, wo-
man, child.]

yarai, sun, day.

gille, moon.

mirri, star.

gunagulla or yuru, sky.

ngarran, light.

nguru, darkness.

yarddtha, daytime.

nguruko, morning.

burruwuddcla, noon.

bullului, evening.

taon, earth.

10?, fire.

kolle, water.

yuro, rain.

gua, fog.

durunmi, chief.

bubd, father.

ngumbd, mother.

gutter, husband or wife.

wurume or wurumungd, son

ngummungd, daughter.

kdmberri, orphan.

daiddi, brother.

ga or kaoga, head.
tegul, hair.
ngulu, forehead.
nguyin, eyebrow.
mil, eye.
dinmil, eyelash.
muro, nose.
muyuda, nostril.
ille or ngai, lips.
I ra or yira, teeth.
tulle, tongue.
yare, beard.
binna, ear.
tdl, chin.

wuru or dildil, throat,
mm, neck.

birri, breast (hence Wrri;>, in front of ).
ngummu, woman's breast or milk.
pilara, shoulder-blade.
wollar, shoulder.

NOUNS (continued).

boddi or burengdli, sister.

karodi, uncle.

wurumungddi, nephew.

ngummungadi, niece.

baindul, old (infirm) man.

diria, old (grey) man.

mdmmi*, old woman.

maredul, a childless woman.

burul, afull man.

kubbura, a young man who has at-
tended borat but is not fully ini-
tiated.

yiramurrun, great boy.

birri, boy.

birridul, little boy.

kirrigd, very little boy.

mie, girl.

miedul, little girl.

kaingal or kaindul, baby.

NOUNS : — Parte o/ #^e 5oc?y.
ngunuga, wrist.
murra, hand, fingers.
gunederba, thumb.
bumbugal, little finger.
6ie7, knuckle.
2/M/w, finger-nails.
numun, side.
turrur, ribs,
fci, heart.
Arao^ri, lungs.

mukkar or mogur, kidneys.
kdnna, liver.
mubal, abdomen.
milla, hip.

:, thigh.

, knee (compare f in = elbow).

, leg.

wuruka, calf of leg.
n^ror, ankle.
if in nit, foot.

guria or baoa, back (6aoq/e=behind).

bungun, arm.

pu^a, great muscle of arm.

tin, elbow.

tanga, heel.
gunederba, great toe.
burr a, bone.
buran, vein.

* I have reason to believe this is a true Kamilaroi word, and not taken
from the colonists.

NOUNS : — Quadrupeds.

yardman, horse. [With one consent
the various tribes call the 'horse' by
this name ; I know of no explana-
tion which satisfactorily accounts
for it.]

burrumo, dog.

purrowa, bustard.
burenjin, butcher bird.
warn or dumbal, crow.
biloela, cockatoo.
murgu, cuckoo.
kardga, crane.
urrung ada, diver.
kardngi, duck,
dinbun, emu.

mollion, eagle.

kulgoi, a black bird much like a barn-
door fowl.

mungaran, hawk.

gorraworra, kukkuburra, or kukkura-
ka, laughing jackass.

Reptiles.

yabba, nurrai, snakes. I gindurra, frog.

kian, centipede. I mungai, lizard.

Fish.

yuggi, murren, or mai-ai, wild dog.

nulka nulka, horns, horned beasts.

purged, cat.

buggundi, wild cat.

bunddrr, kangaroo.

mute, opossum.
Birds.

burrugabu, magpie.

buralga, native companion (a beau-
tiful crane).

bu-kut-ta or mungt, owl (which cries
bu-kut-ta !).

giddorigd, korugan, kobado, parrots.

gullawullil, crested pigeon.

tdmur, bronze-winged pigeon.

momumbai, kollemurramurra, other
pigeons.

btrumba, plover.

millimumbul, swallow.

barrianmul, swan.

ko or kao, egg.

guyao, common name " fish."
dukkai, the best fish for eating on the
Bar wan.

dungu, large black ant.
burudtha, large red ant.
gijd, a black ant.
muiin, green ant.
ma, fore-foot.

tulu, tree, timber, stick.
maidl, acacia pendula.
Icullaba, box (tree).
bibil, (white) box.
kubburu, black box.
yeran, gum (tree).

murgu, oak (a tree like a Scotch fir).
kitta, giirari, pine.
bumbal, sandal wood.
medtr, karui, yurar, three species of
tree like the acacia.

guddu, a freshwater cod.
kumbal, perch.
kaikai, jewfish.
Insects.

kdrlin, small sugar ant.
gunni, bee.
burrulu, flies.

mungin or mungul, mosquitoe.
baoa, fur. yuli, skin.

Vegetable Kingdom.

godror, yindal, grass.
yeremudd, grass (a larger sort).
ngurigul, an edible herb like sorrel.
berdn, an edible herb like mallow.
merir, a shrub like broom.
bendea, a prickly shrub.
durrimaogal, a yellow-flowering shrub.
burdra, sedge.
munnabucla, down of sedge.

kerran, ashes.
turn, blaze.
terrian, hail.
gungurrima, luilo.
taiyul, hill,
wz, lightning.
thuber, mist before rain .
kubba, mountain.
kunial or guriil, plain.
kunildul, small plain.
turrabul, path.
yulowirri, rainbow.
kumbogan or gerai, sand.

NOUNS : — Elements, fyc.
du, smoke.
ydrul, stone.

yurul, scrub (woody plain).
tuluml, thunder.
maier, wind.
warumbul, watercourse.
maian, waterhole.
yul, food.
waddel, honey.
tif meal.

melan, water potato.
kubbiai, yam.

NOUNS, abstract and miscellaneous.

yiili or ylli, anger.

ilambial, beginning.

bid, jealousy (hence Zw/-ara«=jealous).

ku'ia, gladness.

nirrin or yiribrai, edge.

ngulu or muru, end, point.

warun, butt-end.

ya/, falsehood.

uluge, play, delight.
tubbia, quietness.
ktraol or Arlri*, truth.
z/«we, war.
gurre, word.
kaiai, love.
nyerundama, friendship.

ADJECTIVES.

gial, afraid.

morun, nadrilon, alive.

warria, awake.

bdbi nguraru, asleep.

bului, black (or dark colour).

kagil, bad.

duda, brown, chestnut, bay.

butta, bitter.

muya, blind.

kaoaraoa, blue.

bullarr, clean.

killu, clear, shining.

karll, cold.

balluni, dead.

mugabinna, deaf.

/>/>»"/, deep or distant.

ballal, dry.

wommo, fat.

wurraia, first, chief.

</Ian, green.

cfiri, dtria, grey.

murruba or kuppa, good.

mundn, heavy.

kuduaittna, hot.

bao'irra, high.

beruge, hollow.

bularai, jealous.

burul, large.

gurar, long.

kubbonbd, light.

paiw, lame.

yealokwai, like.

-c?u/, like,-ly (a common suffix in

nouns diminutive).
wdrungul, mighty.
ku'inbu or kanaibo, near.
mungal, only.
guiyungun, own.
</Fn'a, old.
#Irw rfirra or nguriella, conceited (in

colonial phrase " too flash ").
-aroi, -brai, a suffix meaning posses-

ADJECTIVES (continued).

sion (yul-arai= possessing food =

full ; jimbabrai = sheep owners ;

millimbrai=li€ivmg milk).
-ngin, a suffix meaning want (yul-ngin

=hungry; kolle-ngin = wanting

water, thirsty).
mobulyal, pregnant.
kaiuburr, quick.
koimburra, red.
koiko'i, light red.
bungudul, short.
wibil, sick.
mullamulla, soft.
bullo, bullowa, slow, enduring.
kaindul, small.

nwi', stinking.

burel, stout.

warunguldul (dimin. of warungul),

strong.
nglpai, strange (ngipai goallago=tu

say strange ! i. e. to wonder).
mor or wungar, stupid.
kuppa, sweet.
kuddukuddu, tall.
woladul, thin.

weary.
pullar, bungoba, white.
mungamunga, wide.
0crir or gunaguna, yellow.
kubbura, young.

malt one.
bularr, two.
guliba, three.

tubbianmulle, allay.
korielle, answer.
^aiZ>M, appear.
baialdona, appoint.
klrulle, arouse.
taialle, ask, inquire.
wiullunni, barter.
waddelina, ginye, be.
yulalle, bind, wrap.
yildona, bite.
gutalla, boil.
gunni, break.
kdnne, bring or drive.
kangine, bring forth (young),
wurrimi, build.
wombi, carry.
kollie, climb,
rfiin, come (venio).
yanani, come or go (eo).
kundowalle, cover, shut.
kakuldona, cry out.
karile, cut.
ballubaiane, die.
morgi, dig.

NUMERALS.

bularrbularr, four.
bularrguliba, five.
gulibaguliba, six.

VERBS.

ngarugi, drink.
tali, taldona, eat.
taialdona, inquire.
bunddne, fall.
gurrigurri, fear.
karaoele, fight.
pardnz, fly.
wune, give.

bindelun, hang (neut.) .
bindemulle, hang (act.).
winungi, hear.
kunmulta, hold fast,
parn, jump.

dudunna or gigtrma, kick.
ballubumaHe, kill.
tlrune or winungailun, know.
ngaikaiala, kiss.
kindami, laugh.
ylrabaiane, learn, or taste.
tubbilun, leave off.
fr'ome, tiomulle, lift, raise, open.
wungurimi, lose.
gimbi., make.

murramulle, make by hand.
G

VERBS (continued).

baialda, make by chopping.

baraile, marubildona, make by split-
ting wood.

muggille, make or appoint.

nimmolU, pinch.

kuia durulle, be pleased.

karmille, plunder.

yeremulle, pour.

bukkanmulle, prepare.

maiabia, put.

maialdona, put up.

wtaldona, put down.

maiala, quietly to act.

baraine, rend.

karrbille, return.

bunnangunne, run.

yuianwaragil, save.

nyummi, see.

kirumegu, seek.

wddla, send.

bulumbuld, shake (as the surface of
water).

bungatailona, shine.

Tcundowalle, shut.
nguddela or ngurria, sit.
baoilttna, sing,
ftafo', babillona, sleep.
bullilana, slip.
nging-nge, sew with needle,
cftm*, spear, pierce.
wdrrumailun, spread.
warria, stand.
bumalla, strike.
dumulle, strip.
burunbulla, sweep.
goaldona, talk.
tdtulle or ytrabaine, taste.
winungailuna, think.
tamulle> touch.
taraoele, turn away.
wurgunbumulle, wash.
yunga, weep.
ngipai goalla, wonder.
nimmi, wound.
burrunbailun, work.

In the above list doubtless various inflexions are added to
the verbs : -ailun, -ailona, -dona, -mulle, are frequent suffixes ;
of which -mulle is (I think) the causative suffix.

There are no inflexions for comparison of adjectives that I
know of. Different degrees of intensity are expressed by into-
nations : — to make beru, f far/ mean 'very far/ they prolong
the sound of the last syllable and raise the key of the voice ;
the longer the sound and the higher the tone, the greater the
distance expressed. They also repeat the adjective or adverb
often enough to convey the idea of intensity meant by the
speaker ; and use adverbially the word burul, ' great/

The government of the accusative by an active verb is
evident in the case of the personal pronouns.

The accusative is generally put before the verb ; and when
more emphatic, before the nominative : as —

Yal inda goaldona = Lies you are telling.
KamiL Kiru ngaia goaldona = No. Truth I tell.

The arts of emphasis and irony they well understand, and
frequently employ to give animation to their flexible language .

There is a peculiar system of caste or social organization
which pervades the Australian tribes. There are four classes
of men and four of women ; every individual of a class bears
the common name of his class.

1. In some families (taking the word 'family' in its most
limited sense, including only one generation) every son is called
ippai, every daughter ippdthd.

2. In others all the sons are murri, all the daughters mat ha
(instead of murri some use baia) .

3. In others all the sons are kubbi, the daughters all kapota.

4. In others all the sons are kumbo, all the daughters butha.
These four classes of families include all.

On this classification are founded the following rules of
marriage and descent : —

I. An ippai may take for a wife an ippdtha (of another
camp) or any kapota ; but no other.

II. A mum may take butha only.

III. A kubbi may marry an ippdtha only.

IV. A kumbo may marry a mdtha only.

Any attempt to infringe these rules, except where the ab-
origines have learned from the colonists to make light of the
laws of their forefathers, would be unanimously resisted and
punished even with bloodshed; although within these rules
polygamy to any extent is allowed.

EULES OF DESCENT.

I. The children of ippai by ippatha are all kumbo and butha.

II. The children of ippai by kapota are all murrl and mdtha.

III. The children of murri are ippai and ippdtha.

IV. The children of kubbi are kumbo and butha.

V. The children of kumbo are kubbi and kapota.

By these rules descendants of every family come in the
course of a few generations, by turns, into the privileged class
of ippai.

Besides the above, they all have distinctive names, often
taken from natural objects (animals and trees, &c.).

In the hope that these "curiosities of an unwritten lan-
guage " may be regarded as a proof of grateful attachment to
alma mater, and of esteem for the Professors whose instruction
I formerly received,

I remain, an alumnus of University College,

WILLIAM RIDLEY, A.B.

85
TRANSACTIONS

OF THE

PHILOLOGICAL SOCIETY.

1855.— No. 7.

April 27,
Professor T. HEWITT KEY in the Chair.

The following Papers were read : —

I. "On certain Recent Additions to African Philology;" by

B, G. LATHAM, M.D.

II. "On the Derivation and Meaning of the Latin Verb

USURPARE ; " by T. HEWITT KEY, Esq.

I. " On certain Recent Additions to African Philology."

The chief works that supply the basis for the forthcoming
observations are the following: — (1.) Polyglotta Africana*",
by the Rev. W. S. Koelle; and (2.) Specimens of Dialects,
&c. and Notes of Countries and Customs in Africaf, by
J.Clarke. Both the authors are Missionaries ; the chief field
for the collections of the former being Sierra Leone, for those
of the latter the West Indies. Both worked in the same way ;
i. e. availing themselves of the opportunities of their respective
localities, they found out from the different Africans of the
district wherein they were themselves settled, the name of their
several native countries, the geographical relations of the same,
and the names of the languages, of which they took specimens.
It was in this manner the earlier collections of Oldendorp

* London : Church Missonary House, 1854.
t Berwick-upon-Tweed, 1848.

were made. It has the advantage of generally giving us the
native name, i. e. the name by which a given tribe calls itself,
rather than the name by which it is known to its neighbours.
On the other hand, it gives us particular districts rather than
broad philological areas, and dialects and subdialects rather
than languages. Upon the whole, however, there is so much
good in this plan, that the evil with which it is accompanied,
(viz. the tendency to exaggerate philological differences) being
easily guarded against, is of comparatively slight importance.
Nevertheless, it requires to be borne in mind.

We naturally expect, in vocabularies thus collected, a great
number of old languages under new names, and this is what
we find in each of the works before us. The distribution,
however, of these and their identification are points of detail
to which no great importance, in the present notice at least,
is attached. The broader question is the extent to which we
have either representatives of groups hitherto unknown, or
data for an improved classification.

Koelle's is the more important work of the two, both on
account of the greater length of its vocabularies, and the fact
of its attempting the most in the way of arrangement. Indeed
his instructions from the Church Missionary Society were
"to cultivate not only one particular language, but to give
information respecting the whole question of African philo-
logy." "It was usually supposed," he adds, "that there
were in Sierra Leone the representatives of about forty dif-
ferent tribes; but the searching examination amongst the
people, which the collection of this vocabulary demanded,
discovered individuals from more than two hundred different
tribes and countries.'5 Mr. Clarke's list amounts to three
hundred and eighty-eight. With such high numbers as these
before our eyes, we may safely say that the statement so
lately made, concerning the exaggeration of philological diffi-
culties engendered by the methods under notice, has a strong
prima facie appearance of being accurate.

Of the two primary groups of the Polyglotta Africana,
those of Parts I. and II., the order may conveniently be
transposed, at least for the purposes of illustration. This is

because, in order to understand the generic characteristic of
the very first subdivision of the first division, a certain amount
of information respecting the structure of the languages of
Part II. is necessary. Thus, Part II. contains the " South
African Languages distinguished by an initial inflection,"
whilst Order I. in Class I. gives us "North-west Atlantic
Languages distinguishing themselves, like those of South
Africa, by prefixal changes or an initial inflection/5 In this
way the South African structure is taken as a sort of standard
for the classification of the others. Of the South African the
Kaffre tongues are the type.

Let us consider, then, that South African means Kaffre,
and that, as the Kaffre peculiarities, besides being otherwise
known, have formed the subject of a late contribution from
Dr. Bleek, let us pass to Koelle's —

I. North-western Atlantic Languages. — They fall into four
groups, represented by the (a) Felup, (b) Papel, (c) Biafada,
and (d) Timmani languages, respectively, each falling into
dialects and subdialects. Certain additions will have to be
made to this group when we come to the Unclassified Lan-
guages. The value of the class itself will be considered when
three other groups have been noticed, i. e. the Mandingo, the
Woloff, and the Fulah. At present we may remember it as
the North-western Atlantic division.

II. The North-western High Sudan or Mandingo Lan-
guages constitute the second group.

III. The Upper Guinea or Middle-coast Languages the
third. This means, the forms of speech akin to (a) the Kru,
(b) the Dahomey, (c) the Yoruba.

IV. The North-eastern High Sudan Languages are spoken
inland, at the back of the Ashanti country, and along the
eastern range of the Kong mountains. They are akin to
the (a) Mosee, (b) Kouri, (c) Koama, and (d) Yula forms of
speech.

V. The Niger-delta group falls into the (a) Isoama, (b) Sobo,
and (c) Okuloma divisions.

VI. The Niaer-Tshadda languages are those akin to the
Nufi.

H 2

VII. The Central African division contains the languages
allied to (a) the Bornui, and (b) the Pika.

In Part II. we have the South African Languages distin-
guished by an initial inflection , as has been already stated.
It excludes the Hottentot, and includes the Old Calabar, Ca-
meroon, and Gaboon languages. Doing this, it coincides
with the so-called Kaffre class of tongues, in its latest form,
i. e. in the form it has taken since it was shown that the
Poongwe, the Isubu, the Efik, and other languages exhibit a
similar series of initial changes to those of the Kafre and
Bichuana. Upon the divisions and subdivisions of this class
the present writer gives no opinion. He merely remarks that
the value of its chief characteristic, the initial changes in
question, is a point upon which he unwillingly differs with
several excellent authorities; but this he will explain in the
sequel — passing, for the present, to Part III., containing up-
wards of forty unclassed languages and dialects. This is
done simply with the view of asking how far they are really
unsusceptible of classification? If they be not so, it is
asked how many, and what, can be transferred to Parts I.
and II.?

Of these unclassed forms of speech, the exact number of
which (plus a few subdialects) is forty-three, we may at once
dispose of (the numbers not in parentheses are Koelle's) the
following : —

(1.) A. a. 1. Which is Woloff.

(2. 3. 4.) B. 1. 2. 3. Asanti, Barba, and Boko, which are
Ashanti.

(5.) C. 1. Kandin, which is Berber.

(6.) C. 2. Which is Timbuctu.

(7.) C. 3. Which is Mandara.

(8.) C. 4. Which is Begharmi.

(9.) C. 5. Which is Hawsa.

(10.) C. 6. Which is Fulah ; — all recognized divisions.

(11.) A. b. 5. The Landoma is the same class with the
Timmani.

(12.) A. b. 4. The Limba — probably is in the same category.

(13.) A. a. 2. The Bissago is Felup.

(14. 15. 16.) A. b. 1. 2. 3. The Banyun, Nalu, and Bu-
landa are also Felup.

(17.) A. a. 3. The Gadsaga is Serawolli, or closely akin.

(18.) A. a. 4. The Gura.

(19.) The Yalo, which is Tapua or Nufi.

All the rest (with the exception of the Arabic of F.) are
evidently either members of Part II., or transitional to it and
Part I. Hence, laying out of the question the (1.) Bissago, (2.)
the Banyun, and (3.) the Nalu, every one of the other forms
of speech, either itself or in an allied dialect, has been consi-
dered by previous investigators and classed. Whence, then,
the present group of ^classified languages. In some cases
we must say that there has been an absolute oversight, e. g. in
the case of the Landoma, which is transparently allied to the
languages of 1. d. Generally, however, it seems that the
reason has been different. The majority of the languages
under notice, though they form classes, form classes without
many divisions or subdivisions represented in the work before
us. Some of them indeed are eminently simple, e.g. the
Begharmi and Mandara. The Ashanti, on the other hand,
overflows with dialects and subdialects. Of these, however,
only three were represented by individuals at Sierra Leone,
between such and such days of such and such a year. Had
this number been trebled or doubled, the result might have
been different, and the Ashanti might have taken a place in
Part I. A class is constituted by what it excludes, quite as
much as by what it includes.

This brings us to the most exceptionable part of an otherwise
valuable work. And even here, the exceptions lie less against
the laborious missionary himself than against the instructions
with which he was furnished. These were (as has already
been stated) to classify the languages of Africa as well as to
collect samples of them. Now these two duties involve two
different kinds of knowledge, differently applied. The collector
works upon the materials within the range of his own oppor-
tunities for observation, so that (so far as he is a collector
and nothing more) his information is limited by his personal
experience. But this personal experience may fall far short

of the conditions necessary for a systematic classification, inas-
much as the best opportunities enjoyed by a single individual
may be insufficient for a work of a given magnitude. And this
is what we find in the work under notice. Great as are the op-
portunities at Sierra Leone for studying the African languages,
they are insufficient for a systematic arrangement of the African
languages and dialects. The remedy to this is, of course, the
study of the remaining tongues in the works of the previous
writers on the subject ; works which form the complement to
any special researches. Now, however wide any special re-
searches may be, such a complement is necessary. It may,
of course, be either great or small. The smaller it is, the
more closely the system, based upon an individual collection,
will coincide with the system based upon the consideration of
all accessible materials. On the other hand, the list of omis-
sions may be a long one. If so, the foundation of the system
based upon individual researches becomes proportionably nar-
row, and (as such) faulty. Applying this observation to the
work before us, we shall find that the great extent of the
author's individual researches, although laudable in itself, has
been greatly prejudicial to the value of his work as a system ;
the data which it supplies being numerous enough to con-
stitute an apparent sufficiency of materials for an African
philology, but not numerous enough to constitute a real one.
To do this, a certain amount of extraneous matter was wanted
— matter which has unfortunately been overlooked. Such at
least is the conclusion to which the dictum de non appa-
rentibm, &c. leads us. For all that appears on the face of Mr.
Koelle's system, so standard a work as even the Mithridates
lias been either overlooked or ignored. Some recognition of
the partial character of the system is, perhaps, shown in the
choice of the term Polyglotta Africana instead of Africa Poly-
glotta, the former being suggestive of a more limited depart-
ment of study than the latter, which would, if valid, so well
match the Asia Polyylotta of Klaproth. At the same time,
the statement that the work was to be systematic and general,
is both prominent and unambiguous.

Whilst then the new materials due to the individual re-

search of Mr. Koelle are of sufficient importance to make his
work a highly valuable collection of data, the omissions are
so grave and numerous as to put it wholly out of the category
of systematic classifications, and it is only doing injustice to
the author to consider it as such. The fact of all the unplaced
languages of Part III. being capable of distribution and fixation
proves this. As to the omissions themselves, these are as
follows : —

Of the Hottentot dialects (important as they are) no spe-
cimen at all is given —

Neither is there any adequate representation of the lan-
guages spoken on the water-system of the Nile : — Coptic,
Bishari, Nubian, Galla, Agow, Amharic, &c. —

Neither is there any adequate representation of the lan-
guages of Darfur, Kordofan, and the parts to the east and
south-east of Lake Tshad.

Why there are these important omissions is transparently
clear. There was no one who spoke them at Sierra Leone.
Be it so. At the same time a Sierra Leone collection should
never have been made the basis of a general classification of
the African languages.

In respect to the classes actually represented, we need only
contrast the place taken by the languages akin to the Ashanti
and Fanti in the Polyglotta Africana, with the place they
take in the Mithridates, or in Bowdich's Embassy. In
both of these works they form a large class, with dialects and
subdialects inconveniently numerous. In the volume under
notice they are limited to the Asanti, the Barba, and the
Boko, and, thus limited, they form a class sufficiently simple
to be relegated to Part III.

The same applies to the representatives of the great Berber
group of tongues, which here appears as an isolated tongue
named Kandin. Additions then of new groups, orders, or
classes of languages, in the Polyglotta Africana, there are
none; the Woloff, Ashanti, Timbuctu, Bornu, Mandara,
Begharmi, Hawsa, Fulah, and Mandingo classes being already
recognized under either the same names, or names slightly
modified in form or spelling.

The Upper Guinea groups are, in like manner, recognized
as the Kru (or Grebo), the Whidah, and the Yoruba.

The Niger-delta is the Ibu.

The Niger-Tshadda the Nun.

Additions in the way of detail to groups already recognized
there are many. Of these, the most important are those of
the 1st and 4th divisions of Part I.

(1.) The North-western Atlantic. — It was this for which
data were most wanted. In the first place, the Papel, Bissago,
and Naloo vocabularies make good a want experienced in the
loss of the Senegal Vocabularies of the last century — a term
which we may conveniently use in a technical and specific
sense. It means that, previous to the first French revolution,
a series of vocabularies for the parts about the Senegal and
Gambia were collected, but not published. The MS., how-
ever, which originally belonged to a convent, subsequently
suppressed, having found its way to the Bibliotheque Royal,
has been published in the second volume of the ' Memoires
de la Societe Ethnologique/ but only so far as it is com-
plete, which is only partially. The heading runs as fol-
lows : — Dictionnaire des Langues Franqaises et Negres dont on
se sert dans la Concession de la Compagnie Royale du Senegal,
savoir : Guiolof, Foule, Mandingue, Saracole, Seraire, Bagnon,
Floupe, Papel, Bizagots, Nalous, et Sapi. Of these the last four
got lost, so that when the MS. in question was published, the
Bissago, Nalu, Papel, and Sapi had yet to be known through
their vocabularies. Let us call these the lost Senegal vocabu-
laries, and thank Mr. Koelle for having, in the case of the Bis-
sago, Papel, and Nalu, helped to replace them. Then there
were the Balantes, whose language was also stated to be pecu-
liar, but of which specimens (now supplied) were wanting.

Up, then, to the present time, the only languages of the first
three divisions of the North-west Atlantic group have been
the Felup and the Bagnon, concerning which the present
writer's statements in 1848 were, that the least that could be
suid of them was, that they were* "much more like each

* Report on Ethnographical Philology — (Africa) — Transactions of the
British Association for the Advancement of Science, 184/.

other than any other pair on the tables ; and that this likeness

seemed extended to the inflectional portions of their words

Lest this should seem an insufficient reason for placing them
in the same group rather than for treating them as languages
of separate classes, it should be remembered that, in the parts
in question, not less than five other languages — the Papel,
Nalu, Sapi, Bissago, and Balantes, — unknown to us by spe-
cimens, are spoken; and that the evidence of these may
hereafter make good the inconclusive part of the present
arrangement. It is, however, quite provisional."

He concluded with a short list of Bagnon and Felup words
more or less closely allied to the other languages of Western
Africa. It merely served to show that the tongues in ques-
tion had certain miscellaneous affinities, i. e. that they were
not absolutely isolated. Now this class, which in 1847 was
simply Felup, Bagnon, Felup-Bagnon, or Bagnon-Felup, forms
in 1855, through the labours of Mr. Koelle, the first three
groups of the first primary division of Part I., its arrangement
being thus : —

A. Felup, Filham and Filhol—

B. Bola, Sarar, Pepel —

C. Biafada, Padsade.

To which add, from the Unclassed Languages of Part III., the
Banyun and Nalu.

Of the Sapi tongue, eo nomine, a specimen is still wanting.
I say eo nomine, because it is probable that we may already
possess one under some other denomination. From I. of
Part I. we now pass to —

IV. The North-eastern High Sudan. — Here the additions
are important. The form this class takes in Koelle is as
follows : —

A, or the first division (one out of four) contains specimens
of the Mosee, Del ana, Guresa, Gurma, and Legba —

B containing the Legba, Kauri, and Kiamba —

C containing the Koama and Bagbalan ; and

D containing the Kasm and Yula.

All these are new names but three, viz. the Mosee, the Kauri,
and the Kiamba, which are, word for word, the Mosee of

Bowdich, the Kouri of Mrs. Kilham, and the Tembu (not
Tambu) of the Mithridates. For these three forms, the works
just named give samples — all, however, short, that of Bowdich
consisting only of the numerals. The Hio, Yngwe, and
Dagwhumba numerals of Bowdich belong to this division, being
in the same category with the Mosee. The back of the Ashanti
country is the area for this division, and as we find from the
preface that some of its dialects are conterminous with the
Ashanti, some with the Fot, some with the Fulah, and others
with the Hawsa tongues, we may reasonably suppose that it
is fairly represented, and that the philology for the parts in
question is now made out sufficiently fully. At any rate the
vocabularies before us carry us as far inland as the Hawsa
country.

Of these languages — according to the geographical accounts
procured along with them — the Gurma is most inland, the most
northern, and the most eastern; lying on the Kwarra, by
which it is divided from Hawsa, only six days' journey from
Sokatu.

The Mosee country lies west of the Gurma, and, apparently,
conterminal with it, inasmuch as there is a special Gurma
name for the Mosee people, viz. Bemba. Again, the Silmira
(i. e. the Fulas under their Mosee designation) call the Mosee
Gurmake (the same word as Gurma). On the other hand,
they approach, or touch, the Asanti frontier.

Guren is in contact with the Yoruba area.

The Yula and Koama groups lie noY\h-west, and in a direc-
tion where the philology is pre-eminently obscure. They are,
probably, conterminous with the Mandingo dialects of the
Kong range, a class of which we find no specimens in the
Polyglotta, but which are represented by the Kong and other
numerals of Bowdich, and by the Asokko of the Mithridates.

The Legba, Kauri, and Kiamba are spoken at the back of
the Ashanti country as far east as the Yoruba frontier.

The nomenclature now requires notice. I have little doubt
about not only Gurma, Gurmake, Guren, being the same words,
but also about their all being the same as Kaure (Kouri).
And this 1 hold to be the same as Goburi in Hawsa, also the

same as Cumbri in Yoruba. None of these names seem to
be native, but on the contrary foreign to the populations who
bear them, and indigenous only to the languages with which
they are in contact. Now at all, or nearly all the points
where we get a name of this kind, there is the contact of a
Mahometan and a non-Mahometan population. Hence the
suggested interpretation is, that the word is Kaffre, a Giaour,
under certain West- African — Fula, Hawsa, or Yoruba —
forms. That it has, however, in some cases been adopted by
the natives themselves, I by no means deny. Even words as
much altered as Yoruba and Yaouri may be in the same
category — the conditions under which this view is reasonable
being that they be originally other than native, and that they
appear where Mahometanism and Paganism either now come
in contact, or have once done so.

Again, the Mosee and Guren agree in calling the Ashanti
Kambonse, or Kambenga, i. e. gun-men, a fact which places
both on the Ashanti frontier, and suggests some points in
connexion with the ascendency of the latter.

The Kouri are subject to the Tern (are the Tern Maho-
metans?), Tern being a Kouri form of the name Kiamba, or
Dzhamba. The Hawsas also called them Tern, the Hawsas
themselves being called (by the Kouri) Asindse. This places
the Kouri on the Hawsa frontier — Tern being to the west of it.
This also accounts for the Tembu vocabulary of the Mithri-
dates being so like the Kouri.

In the notice of the Bagbalan, the plural of the proper name
Manunia is Bassunnina. This is an initial change, after the
fashion of the Kaffre, Woloff, &c.

A great part of the valley of the Niger between Yaouri and
the district visited by Park seems to be what we may call
Kouri — such being the generic name suggested for this class,
not only on the strength of the Kouri vocabulary of Mrs.
Kilham, but on account of the diffusion over its different divi-
sions of the root g-r. It is certainly a class wherein the Ma-
hometan influence is at a minimum.

[To be continued.]

96
The second Paper was then read —

" On the Derivation and Meaning of the Latin Verb USUR-
PARE;" by Professor KEY.

1. The word usurpare, as explained in existing dictionaries,
&c., has so great a variety of meanings, and those not only
receding far from each other, but almost contradictory, that
an attempt to fix the original power of the word at once by
etymology and authority, and thence deduce the chain of
meanings, may not be unacceptable. The only derivation
which presents itself on the part of lexicographers, so far as
the writer has observed, is "a contraction from usu rapere,
' to seize to one's use' " (see Freund and his translator An-
drews). This, it must be admitted, is thoroughly in accord-
ance with the idea now conveyed by the word ' usurp' ; but all
those etyma must be distrusted which rest upon a late use of
a word ; and it so happens that the Latin verb is never found
in this sense except in the very latest times of the Latin
language, as in the Justinian Code. We find indeed the
authority of Suetonius and Ulpian adduced in its favour, but,
as we think, without due consideration. The passage from
Suetonius (Claud. 25) is, "Peregrinae conditionis homines
vetuit usurpare Romana nomina, duntaxat gentilicia; civi-
tatem Romanam usurpantes .... securi percussit." After
gentilicia we have substituted a semicolon in place of the full
stop which appears in Baumgarten's edition, for it is clear that
peregrinae conditionis homines belongs to the second clause
as much as to the preceding. It will be seen then that
usurpare in this phrase signifies no more than ' to use/ the
illegality of the act being implied in the context. Again, the
passage of Ulpian (Dig. xlvii. 22. 2) runs : " Quisquis illi-
citum collegium usurpaverit, ea poena tenetur quae, &c."
Here the epithet illicitum expresses the idea 'contra jus/
which Forcellini finds in the verb usurpare ; and indeed the
presence of this epithet leads rather to the opposite conclusion,
that the verb by itself, as in the preceding passage, signified
only 'to use.' Thus Trajan too (ad Plin. x. 116) has "con-
suetudo usurpata contra Icgem."

2. As the study and practice of the law were duties with a
Roman gentleman almost as paramount as those of the mili-
tary profession, it was to be expected that legal terminology
would to no slight degree insinuate itself into the ordinary
vocabulary ; and of course where the great majority must of
necessity be strangers to the precise habit of the legal mind,
a certain vagueness or looseness would soon characterize the
usage of such words.

That usurpare was a technical term of Roman law is com-
monly admitted, and a consideration of the legal use of the
word seems to justify the assertion that it has a special refer-
ence to the law of usucapion, or ownership by prescription.
"Usucapion," says Gaius (we are quoting from Mr. Long's
article in the Diet, of Antiq. p. 1217), "in the case of move-
able things is completed in a year, but in the case of a
fundus or aedes two years are required, and so it is provided
by the Twelve Tables." Such a law must of course have had
its correlative checks, by which the legal owner could prevent
possession by another from thus ripening through usucapion
into a title. A formal act of ownership exercised in the pre-
sence of witnesses would be one and perhaps the simplest
mode of effecting the object, viz. the interruption of the usus.
So ' to break a usus ' was, we believe, the first meaning of the
word usurpare. Thus Paulus (Dig. xli. 3. 2) says: "Usur-
patio est usucapionis interruptio." Here we have distinct
legal authority for our proposition. But etymology also lends
support to it, if we consider usurpare to be a contraction of
usu-rup-are, where rup is the essential element of rumpere,
for we have as good a right to interpose a u between the r
and p as others have to interpose an a. Elsewhere we have
contended that in long Latin words which contained two or
more consecutive short syllables (exclusive of the last), it was
the general habit in pronunciation, and not a rare thing in
writing also, to suppress the second short vowel (counting
from the beginning of the word), as in publicus (poplicus),
reppuli, atatat for populicus, repepuli, atatat ; and accordingly
usurupare would be compressed to usurpare. Again, that this
verb is of the first conjugation, if to any it be a difficulty, is

one to which the other derivation from usu rapere is equally
subject. We believe it to have been deduced directly from
some adjectival form as usurupo- (usurupus) or usurup-
(usurups) ' usus-breaking/ or as a subst. ' usus-breaker/ so
that usurpare (perhaps originally a reflective verb usurpari)
should signify ' to perform the office of a usus-breaker.' We
say this under the belief that long verbs, of the first conju-
gation especially, when not compounds with prepositions,
owe their possession of an a to their being denominatives. Fa-
miliar instances of such verbs from substantives which denote
a person, and first of all from those ending in a consonant, are
aucupariy comitari, mancipare, remigare, militare, equitare,
indicare, vindicare, judicare, while the substantives peditatu-
and principatu- point to similar verbs. Then again from nouns
of the first or second declension we have medicari, dominari,
arbitrari, Graecari, ancillari, aemulari, belligerari or belli-
gerare, ministrarej and magistrate,- again points to a corre-
sponding verb. We dwell on this matter the more, to enter
a protest as it were against those who would pass in silence
over what they consider to be so trifling a matter as a change
of conjugation. Thus we do not like to see the Plautian verb
causificor simply explained by a parenthetic ' [causa — facio] ' ;
nor on the other hand are we afraid to assume in our own
process of derivation the previous existence of Latin words
for which we admit that no direct authority can be produced.
Thus causiftcari by its very form guarantees in our eyes that
there was once a noun causifico-, like causidico-. So again
we believe that nouns praedex ' a herald/ and edux or educa
' a nurse/ were in existence before the language developed
praedicare ' to proclaim/ and educare f to tend (a child) as a
nurse/ On the other hand, we may even venture to affirm
that a verb usurupere or usurumpere* would be a monster,
violating the principles of word-formation. These remarks seem
to justify us in assuming such a noun as usurupus , f one em-
ployed in breaking a usus/ or ' in asserting a title to property

* Usucapere is no exception to what has been said above, for it is pro-
perly two words, usu (abl.) capere. Compare parvt-pendere, agri-cult ur a,
and usus-fructus.

in the possession of another/ it might be the claimant himself
or some agent of his. In our own times we often hear of
persons so employed.

3. To legal authority and etymological argument we next
add passages from Latin authors of the best classical times,
and those too passages given by Forcellini himself, but not
occupying in his arrangement the prominent place to which
they are entitled. Cicero (de Or. iii. 28) employs a legal
illustration, as he well might in a dialogue between lawyers :
" non ut vi recuperare amissam possessionem, sed ut ex jure
civili surculo defringendo usurpare videantur," where the
breaking off a twig from a tree on the estate, accompanied no
doubt before witnesses by a declaration in words of the pur-
pose, was as mild a proceeding for attaining the end as could
well be conceived.

4. Again, if a woman lived with a man as his wife (matri-
monii causa) for one year, she became, we are told, his legal
wife by prescription, uxor usu ; she passed into his familia by
usucapion (velut aniiua possessione usucapiebatur) ; and being
now in manu of her husband, she lost all control over what
had been her property as well as over herself. The Twelve
Tables however here also provided a remedy. She could save
her independence by absenting herself from her nominal
husband three nights in every year (Gaius, i. 100. — See Diet,
of Antiq. ibid.). A woman so absenting herself was said
usurpari (as a reflective verb), fto break the usus in herself5;
and such going away and such absence was expressed by the
phrases usurpatum ire, abesse a viro usurpandi causa. We
have this on the authority of Cicero's own instructor in legal
science, Q. Mucius Scaevola. The passage to which we are
indebted for this information occurs in Gellius, iii. 2; and
we would refer to it the more, as Forcellini and Freund have
given a totally different translation of the phrase, making
usurpata mutter equivalent to usucapta mutter, a woman who
becomes a man's wife by prescription (but see the close of
this article).

5. So far we have seen usurpare employed in its strict
sense, ' the interruption of another's usus,' where the owner

100

saves his title from passing away to that other by exercising
some act of ownership, in other words by usus on his own
part. When usurpare is employed in reference to incorporeal
property, for example to an easement or other right, its
original sense is partly inapplicable; but there will still remain
much that is common to the new with the old relation. A
right of way, to take a particular case, is a right which may
be lost by desuetude. So long as A holds such a right over
B's land, the value of B's land to B is pro tanto diminished.
Now if A, by non-use of his easement, at last forfeits it, B is
the gainer. He cannot indeed be said to acquire the ease-
ment so forfeited by A, simply because the advantage is one
which merges in the general ownership; but he is substan-
tially a gainer, by having his estate relieved of the easement.
Usurpare servitutem then we hold to mean, by using an ease-
ment to save it from forfeiture ; and thus it expresses an idea
very nearly akin, though we admit not identical, with that of
amissam possessionem usurpare. Thus in Cels. Dig. (viii. 6. 6)
usurpare servitutem and jus servitutis usu retinere seem to
occur as equivalent phrases. Similarly usurpare jus is used
generally in the sense of ' using and so asserting a right,'
'saving it from lapsing through non-use/ As we just saw
usurpare and. retinere jus employed together in the Digests, so
Cicero too unites them in Verr. ii. 5. 20, where we cannot
but prefer with Lambinus and the MS. Lag. 29, the reading
jure quotonnis usurpato ac semper retento to the other reading
jure usurpatwm ac s. retentum*.

* In the first place, the two members of Cicero's sentence consist of
clauses carefully opposed to each other : turn recentibus suis officiis and
nunc nullo novo officio suo — turn nullis populi Romani difficultatibus and
nunc summa in difficultate navium — turn Integra re and nunc tot annis post
jure imperil nostri quotannis usurpato ac semper retento, ' at that time when
neither party was in any way committed, when no precedent as to right on
the one side or service on the other had been established ' ; ' whereas now for
some two hundred years the right of sovereignty in this respect has been an-
nually asserted and uninterruptedly maintained.' It may be further urged
that id in the phrase quod turn (Mamertini) assequi non potuerunt, id nunc
pretio assecuti sunt, is in no respect a word to which jure usurpatum (to
adopt that phrase for the moment) can be attached, for the id means

101

But to return to our subject, in the passage of Livy (xxvii.
8), the priest of Jupiter claims the right to a seat in the
senate, and the claim is disputed by a praetor who contends
that for two generations no Dialis Flamen id jus usurpasse,
1 had asserted that right/ Again, in Plautus (Bacc. i. 2. 41)
we have a comico-tragic address to a gulf, ' How glad should
I be to assert a right of entry or right of way down the abyss/
oh baratrum ut ego te usurpem lubens.

6. We take another step, and leaving the sphere of legal
action we still find the idea of 'saving something dormant
from desuetude/ ' keeping alive what might otherwise pass
away/ in such places as : Quis est qui Fabricii memoriam non
usurpet ? Cic. Am. 8 (28) ; and : rerum gestarum memoriam
usurpare, in the Post Red. in Sen. 15 (37).

7. There are also well-known passages in Plautus and
Lucretius, which depart not very widely from the idea
contained in jus usurpare, viz. those in which our verb
expresses the ' exercising the privilege' of eyesight, hearing,
or touch, upon an object, as : unde meae usurpant aures
sonitum? Plaut. Cas. iii. 5. 9. — quas (terras) neque oculis
unquam neque pedibus usurpavi meis, Ib. Trin. iv. 2. 3. — nee
frigora quimus Usurpare oculis, Lucr. i. 300. — ea sensibus
usurpare, Ib. iv. 975.

8. It may be admitted that in several of the passages
quoted under the sections 3, 4, and 5, 'to use/ though not
fully expressive of the idea as conceived by the writer, yet, so
far as it goes, is an admissible translation of our verb. Beyond
the legal sphere however there are undoubted and numerous
examples of this loose employment ; and thus we find Paulus
following up his legal definition of usurpatio by the words :
oratores autem usurpationem frequentem usum vocant ; where
we need not be surprised at the introduction of the epithet
frequens, for the idea which this word denotes is a natural
deduction from our original definition. An assertion of a
right is good for a time, but it must be repeated again and

* relief from the duty of supplying a ship for Roman service/ whereas what
had been^wre usurpatum was 'the enforcement of the said duty upon the
Maraertines/

102

again at due intervals to save the property or the right from
usucapion or desuetude.

9. We proceed next to the use of our verb in reference to
words, and this by the way is the meaning to which Forcellini
has allotted the first place : In frequente usu habeo sive
loquendo sive, &c. ; while Freund more judiciously reserves
" to name or call habitually" for his last section. The passage
from our first meaning to the one now before us, extreme as
it may appear, has its precise parallel in our own word assert,
the Latin asserere ; for the original legal use of this word was
in the form asserere aliquid manu, ' to lay one's hand upon pro-
perty' before witnesses, and so claim possession of it. As the
words which accompanied this act formed a very essential
part of the ceremony, they naturally attracted to themselves
the name of the act itself. So the word usurpare too, when
used of the tongue, probably at first carried with it some of the
solemnity which still adheres to our own assert. It must be
admitted however that it is also used, especially in late
writers, as a mere term for ( habitually calling ' (see Forcellini).

10. Lastly we repeat, what has been said above, that 'to
assert a title contra jus,' i. e. ' to usurp/ is a meaning of the
word which occurs in very late writers, as in the Codex*.

T. HEWITT KEY.

* The leading ideas of this paper were arrived at, and the substance of
the argument for the most part was put upon paper in the year 1850 or
1851. A friend to whom it was then shown stated that the interpretation
of usurpata mulier was precisely that which Savigny had given ; and we
now quote from his ' System des heutigen Romischen Rechts,' 4ter Band,
1841. p. 364, what concerns the present question : —

" Nach den zwolf Tafeln sollte durch jede gewohnliche Ehe, wenn
sie ein Jahr lang unterbrochen fortdauerte, die Frau in die manus des
Mannes kommen, und dieses wird ausdriicklich auf den Grimdsatz der
einjahrigen Usucapion beweglicher Sachen zuriickgefuhrt. Eine Unter-
brechung dieser Usucapion sollte nur dann angenommen werden, weiin
die Frau wenigstens drey vollstaudige Nachte jedes Jahres ausser dem
Hause des Mannes zubrachte. Scavola nun beurtheilt einen Rechtsfall,
der durch folgende Tafel anschaulich werden wird : —

28 Dec. 29 Dec.

V. Kal.
Jan.

IV. Kal.
Jan.

30 Dec.

III. Kal.
Jan.

31 Dec.

1'n.lie Kal.
Jau.

1 Jan.

Kal. Jan.

103

Die Frau war an einem 1 Januar in die Ehe getreten und am 29 December
desselben Jahres aus dem Iluuse gi-gsiiigiMi, in der Meynung dadurch das
trinoctium zu beobachten und die Kntstehung der manus zu verhindern.
Darin aber irrt sie, sagt Sciivola, denn das Usucapions Jahr ist schon
vollendet mit der Mitternacht, womit der nachfolgende 1 Januar anfangt,
also gehort die zweite Iliilfte der dritten Nacht nicht mehr dem ersten
Jahr der Ehe an, so dass sie nur drittehalb Nachte desselben abwesend
war, welches nach dem Gesetz nicht hinreicht. Sie hatte also (will Sca-
vola sagen) schon den 28 December* ausziehen mussen, um ihren Zweck
zu erreichen."

* Savigny affixes a note in which he observes that for Scaevola's own
time, December had but 29 days, which however will in no way affect the
substance of the argument.

104
TRANSACTIONS

OF THE

PHILOLOGICAL SOCIETY.

1855.— No. 8.

May 11,
THOMAS WATTS, Esq., in the Chair.

HENRY RAIKES, Esq., M.A. Trin. Coll. Camb., Registrar
of the Diocese of Chester; and COTTON MATHER, Esq., of
University College, London, and Benares, were elected Mem-
bers of the Society.

The Paper read was : —
" English Etymologies;" by HENSLEIGH WEDGWOOD, Esq.

ABOLISH. — Fr. abolir, from Lat. aboleo, to erase or annul.
The neuter form abolesco, to wear away, to grow out of use,
to perish, when compared with adolesco, to grow up, coalesce,
to grow together, shows that the force of the radical syllable
ol is growth, progress. Pl.-D. af-oolden, af-olen, to become
worthless through age ; de Mann olet ganz af, he dwindles
away. But the primitive idea seems that of kindling, giving
birth to, as exemplified in the O.-Sw. ala, A.-S. alan, to
kindle or light a fire, whence A.-S. aled, aid, Icel. eldr, a fire,
and the Lat. adolere, adolescere, to burn up ; adolescunt ignibus
ara, Virg. In like manner the verb ' to kindle ' is used both in
the sense of lighting a fire, and giving birth to a litter of young.
The analogy between the duration of life and the burning of
a fire is obvious, and a spark of life is a common expression.
In accordance with such analogy, the O.-Sw. ala is also used
in the sense of begetting, giving birth to; whence alder,
ulster, progeny, explaining Lat. soboles for sub-ol-es, and

105

in-d-ol-es, that which is born in a man, natural disposition :
and next, as the duty of nourishing and bringing up is inse-
parably connected with the procreation of offspring, the
O.-Sw. ala is applied in precise agreement with Lat. alere , to
signify to rear, to bring up, to feed, to fatten ; alen uxe, a
fatted ox. (See Ihre, v. ala.} In the same way the Swed. foda
signifies to beget, to bring forth, and also to rear, to bring
up, to feed, to maintain ; Gael, alaich, to produce, bring forth,
nourish, nurse; whence al (corresponding to Lat. soboles),
brood or young of any kind, generation, and oil, to rear,
educate, nurse. From nourishment to growth is an easy step,
which may be illustrated by an expression of Pliny ; alere
capillos, to let his hair grow. In alere flammam we see a
close connexion with the A.-S. (elan, to kindle.

AFRAID, AFFRAY, FRAY. — Immediately from Fr. effraier, to
scare, appal, dismay, affright. Effroi, terror, astonishment,
amazement (Cotgr.). Frayeur, fright, terror, scaring, horror.
The Proven9al forms esfredar, esfreidar, have led Diez to refer
it too positively to the Latin frigidus. Prov. freior, he says,
like Lat. frigus or gelu, is properly, shuddering; effrayer,
to cause to shudder. But the d is an exceedingly moveable
letter, and is so easily inserted between vowels, that the Pro-
vencal form seems by no means decisive. Whatever may
have been the original sense of f riff us, the adj. frigidus, from
whence the Proven£al forms must have proceeded if they
really belonged to this root, had simply the sense of ' cold/ and
esfreidar would be ( to cool/ — far too tame an image to ac-
count for the violent agitation implied in effrayer. The course
of language, it must be recollected, is always to keep softening
down the features of the original image, which is apt to appear
as a gross exaggeration of the ideas finally represented. Now
faire effroi in O.-Fr. is to make an outcry, to give an alarm : —

"Toutefois ne fit oncques effroy jusqu'a ce que tous les siens
eussent gagne la muraille, puis s' eerie horriblement." — Rabelais.

" Saillirent de leurs chambres sans faire effroi ou bruit." — Cent
Nouvelles Nouvelles in Diet. Etymologique.

A distinct reference to noise and violence was preserved when

106

the word passed into English, an affray or a fray conveying
the notion of a disturbance, conflict accompanied with vio-
lence, hurly-burly. Thus in 'The Flower and the Leaf/
Chaucer calls the sudden storm of wind, rain and hail which
drenched the partisans of the leaf to the skin, an affray —

" And when the storm was clene passid away,
Tho in the white that stode under the tree,
They felt nothing of all the great affray,
That they in grene without had in ybe."

To affray was to produce the effect of a crash or sudden
noise, and was used even in cases where terror formed no part
of the effect, as awaking one out of sleep or out of a swoon : —
" Me met thus in my bed all naked
And loked forthe for I was waked,
With small foules a grete hepe
That had afraide me out of my slepe,
Through noise and swetenesse of her song."

Chaucer. Dream.

" I was out of my swowne affraide*
Whereof I sigh my wittes straide,
And gan to clepe them home again." — Gower in Rich.

" As when a griffon seized of his prey,
A dragon fierce encountereth in his flight,
Through wildest air making his idle way,
That would his rightful ravine rend away,
With hideous horror both together smight
And souce so sore that they the heavens affray." — F. Q.

It is obvious how inappropriate in all these cases is a deri-
vation from frigidus to convey the meaning expressed. Lat.
fragor is a crash, from frag, an imitation of the sound of a
thing breaking, whence frango, fractus, to break. From the
same root is It. fracasso, Fr. fracas, a crash, a disturbance, a
fray, and hence effroi.

To ALLOW. — Two words seem here again confounded;
allow, from Lat. laudare, to praise, and from Lat. locare, to
place, to let. From the Latin laus, laudis, was formed Prov.
lam, lau, praise, approval, advice; hence lauzar, alauzar,
O.-Fr. loer, loner, alouer, to praise, to approve, to recom-

107

mend. In like manner the Lat. laudo was used for appro-
bation and advice : —

"Laudo igitur ut ab eo suam filiam primogenitam petatis duci
nostro conjugem," I recommend.

" Et vos illuc tendere penitus dislaudamus" We dissuade you. Due.
"Et leur demanda que il looient a faire et li loerent tous que il
descendist — et il li dirent que je li avois lot bon conseil." — Joinville
in Raynouard.

In the same way in English : —

" This is the sum of what I would have ye weigh,
First whether ye allow my whole devise
And think it good for me, for thee, for you,
And if ye like it and allow it well."

Ferrex and Porrex in Richardson.

Especially Ictus was applied to the approbation of a lord to
the alienation of a fee depending on him, and to the fine he
received for the permission to. alienate : —

" Hoc donum laudamt Adam Maringotus de cujus feodo erat."

"Et quia ipsum castrum cum adjacenti terra de casamento nostrse
diseceos noscitur esse per laudamentum nostrum concedit S. Manuti
commutationem prsedictse terrse."
Hence to allow, in the sense of permitting.

From consenting to a grant, the word came to be applied
to the grant itself: —

" Comes concessit iis et laudamt terras et feuda eorum ad suam
fidelitatem et servitium. — Facta est haec laus sive concessio in claustro
S. Marii."

Here we come very near the application of allowance, to
express an assignment of a certain amount of money or
goods : —

" And his allowance was a continual allowance given him by the
king ; a daily rate for every day all his life." — 2 Kings.
In this sense, however, to allow, and allowance, are from Lat.
locare, to place, to set; It. allogare, to place, to fix; Prov.
alogar ; Fr. louer, to put out, to hire, to assign :—

" Le seigneur peut saisir pour sa rente les bestes pasturantes sur
son fonds, encore qu'elles n'appartiennent a son vassal ains a ceux
qui out alloucs les dites bestes." — Coutumes de Normandie in Rayn.

108

" To allow in rekeninge — alloco. Allowance — allocacio."-
Promptorium parvulorum.

AVER. — A beast of the plough. The Fr. avoir (from habere
to have) was used, as well as Sp. haber, in the sense of goods,
possessions, money. This in M.-Lat. was written avera or
averia.

"Taxata pactione quod salvis corporibus suis et averis et equis
et armis cum pace recederent." — Doc. A.D. 1196 in Due. " In istum
sanctum locum venimus cum averis nostris." — Chart. Hisp. A.D. 819.
" Et in toto quantum Rex Adelfonsus tenet de rege Navame melioret
cum suo proprio avere quantum voluerit et poterit." — Hoveden in
Due.

Averii or Averia was then applied to cattle in general as
the principal possessions in troubled times : —

" Hoc placitum dilationem non recipit propter averia, i. e. animalia
muta, ac (ut ?) dm delineantur inclusa."-— Regiam Majestatem.

" Si come jeo bayle a un home mes berbits a campester, ou mes
bceufs a arer la terre et il occist mes avers"— Littleton.

We then have averia carruca, beasts of the plough, and the
term finally came to be confined to the signification of cart
horses.

AVERAGE. — Average was the duty work done for the lord
with the avers or draught cattle of the tenant. " Sciendum
est quod unumquodque averagium sestivale fieri debet inter
Hokday et gulam Augusti." — Spelman in Due.

Average, from the G. haferei, is a totally different word
from the foregoing. The primitive meaning of haferei seems
to be sea-damage, damage suffered on the conveyance of
goods by sea, from the Scandinavian haf, hav, the open sea ;
pointing to the shores of the Baltic, where so many of our
nautical terms took their rise, for the origin of the word.
This in Fr. became avaris (Cotgr.), decay of wares or mer-
chandise, leakage of wines, also the charges of the carriage or
measuring thereof; avarie, damage suffered by a vessel or
goods from the departure to the return into port; Diet.
Etym. marchandises avariees, damaged goods. But when
goods were thrown overboard for the safety of the vessel, it
was an obvious equity to divide the loss amongst those who

109

profited by the sacrifice. Hence haferei was applied to the
money paid by those who receive their goods safe, to indem-
nify those whose goods have been thrown overboard in a
storm so as to distribute the loss equally among the shippers
(Kiittner). It. avaria, calculation and distribution of the
loss arising from goods thrown overboard (Altieri) ; hence,
finally, in the modern sense of the term, an average is an
equal distribution of the aggregate inequalities of a series
among all the individuals of which it is composed. The
origin of average in the latter sense became much obscured
by the practice of assurance, when the nautical average
came to signify a contribution made by independent in-
surers to compensate for losses at sea, instead of a con-
tribution by those who received their goods safe, to make
good the loss of those whose wares were thrown overboard
for the general safety.

BARETOR, BARGAIN. — It must be premised, that the same
word is often used to express the splashing or dabbling in
water and the confused noise of persons talking. Thus the
G. waschen signifies as well to wash as to prattle or tattle.
In the same way the Icel. skola and thwatta are used in both
senses; and E. twattle, which was formerly used for tattle, as
well as the modern twaddle, to talk much and foolishly, seem
but the frequentatives of the Sw. twcetta, to wash. We shall
find the same analogy largely developed in a numerous class
of words descriptive of the bubbling of water, the noise made
by a brook, or by the waves, or by the wind ; also applied to
the hum of many voices talking together, and thence passing
to the notion of uproar, contention, dispute, chaffering, cheat-
ing, overreaching.

Syllables formed from the consonants b-r, b-l, m-ry have
been taken as peculiarly adapted to represent sounds of the
foregoing description, and a numerous class of words has been
formed by the repetition of the syllables bar, bor, bur, mar,
mor, mur, bal, bol, bul, or by combining them with the ordinary
terminations of the frequentative form, or even with appa-
rently unmeaning syllables, for the mere purpose of giving
length to a word intended to express continued action.

110

In the series bal, bol, bul, we have Sc. balow, representing
the unmeaning sing-song by which an infant is set to sleep —
' Balow my babe, lie still and sleep/ Fr. balbutier, to stam-
mer ; Lat. bullire ; It. bollire, to bubble up, to boil. No one
can doubt the imitative origin of the Lat. murmur, represent-
ing the sound of broken water, of air moving among leaves,
or the confused voices of a multitude. Hence G. murren, to
murmur, mutter, grumble. Sp. mormullo, murmur; mur-
mugear, to grumble ; Fr. marmoter, to mutter, grumble. The
most striking instance of the use of the syllable bar in the
representation of indistinct sound, is the Greek and Lat.
/3ap/3apo$, barbarus, which seems to have signified merely
one whose language is not understood, as in Ovid's
" Barbarus hie ego sum quia non intelligor ulli."
In like manner is formed the Fr. baragouin, gibberish, jargon.
The imitative character is evident also in the Gr. ftopfiopv^ew,
to rumble as the bowels, whence /Bopfiopvy?), noise, rumbling,
and avaftopftop^G), exclamo. Port, borborinha, a shouting of
men. A simpler form is seen in Du. borrelen, to bubble or
spring up, and in Flanders to vociferate, to make an outcry.
Barrel, a bubble, a glass of liquor fresh poured out; bor-
relen, to pour out, to drink; explaining A.-S. byrel, byrle, a
butler; byrlian, to draw drink, to birl. The Sw. porla, to
simmer, boil, murmur, wheeze, rumble, purl as a brook, is the
same word. Lith. burbeti is said of any interrupted noise, to
plash, to stutter, to gurgle ; burbuloti, to gurgle, to rumble ;
burblenti, to mutter; burbulas, a water-bubble; in O.-E.
burble. Sp. borbotar, borbollar, to boil or bubble up, of
which the last corresponds to mormullo among the forms in
m, while the former, as well as Fr. barboter, to boil, to dabble
in. the mud, to mumble or mutter, correspond to marmotter.
Sp. barbulla, a tumultuous assembly. Port, borbulhar, to bub-
ble or boil up, to gush out. It. borboglio, a rumbling, uproar,
quarrel ; barbugliare, to stammer, stutter, speak confusedly ;
barbogio, stammering (comp. Sp. marmugear). In Fr. bar-
bouiller, to jumble, confound, smear, scribble, we see the
notion of confusion transferred from the sense of hearing to
that of sight.

Ill

From being thus used in the construction of words signi-
fying a continuance of confused sound, the syllable bar has
acquired the character of a root signifying confusion, contest,
dispute, — giving rise to It. barufia, fray, altercation, dispute;
Prov. baralha, trouble, dispute; Port, baralhar, Sp. barajar,
to shuffle, entangle, put to confusion, dispute, quarrel; It.
sbaragliare, to put to rout ; Port, barafunda, Sp. barahunda,
tumult, confusion, disorder; Port, barafustar, to strive, to
struggle (compare Fr. tarabuster, to trouble, to teaze one) ;
It. baratta, strife, squabble, dispute; barattare, to rout, to
bubble or cheat, (in which sense also barare) ; also to
exchange, chop, swap, to barter. Barratiere, a deceiver,
cozener, cheat. The E. barretor has a somewhat different
meaning, being applied to one who stirs up strife ; while
barratry, agreeing with It. barateria, is when the master of
a ship cheats the owners by embezzling their goods or run-
ning away with their cargo (Bailey). Nor is the root con-
fined to the Romance languages, having formed in Icel. baratta,
strife, contest ; bardagi, battle ; and beria, to beat ; in Lith.
barti, to scold; barnis, strife, quarrel.

The O.-Fr. barguigner, to chaffer, bargain, or more pro-
perly (says Cotgr.) to wrangle, haggle, brabble, in the making
of a bargain, is formed in a similar manner to Fr. baragoin
above-mentioned. The E. form bargane was formerly used
in the sense of fighting, battle, contention.

To BEHAVE, BEHOVE. — It will be convenient to treat these
two words together, though their meanings are very different.
Behaviour is carriage, bearing, deportment, as in Lat. bene,
male se gerere, to behave well or ill, or in the Du. gedrag,
behaviour, from drag en, to carry. The same meaning was
currently expressed in E. by the synonymous verb to bear :
" Ye shall dwell here at your will,
But your bearing be full ill." — Warton.

The element have, in behave, may either be explained as
the Swed. hafwa, to lift, to carry, the equivalent of E. heave,
or it may be the ordinary have, Sw. hafwa, habere ; for, in
fact, the two words seem radically the same, and their senses
intermingle. Thus from the former we have tucfim in seed,

112

to carry corn into the barn ; hcef tig bort, take yourself off,
begone : from the latter, hafwa bort, to take away, to turn
one out ; hafwa fram, to bring forwards ; hafwa sig, evenire,
to happen, to turn out; that hafwer sig w&l, that goes on
well, behaves well. So in Lat. ita se res habuit, the business
was conducted so, the thing happened so.

It is this application of the verb to the sense of ' happening '
that seems to connect the significations of behave and behove.
From habere is formed habitus, the deportment or condition
of things, and elliptically a right or perfect condition. In
the same way from Icel. hafa, to have, hafi, behaviour, habit
[mores et gesta, Gudmund] ; then a right condition, right
measure, right, lawful [congruentia, proportio, jus, meta,
scopus, Haldorsen] . Hafilegr, haefr, as Lat. habilis, and Du.
hebbelyk, fit, convenient. Thad er ecki mitt hafi, that is not
within my competence ; thad er ecki hcefi, that is not right.
A somewhat different form of the word is Icel. hof, Sw. hofwa,
originally apparently habit, behaviour, then the proper con-
dition, just measure, moderation; det er ecki mm hofwa (the
precise counterpart of the Icel. phrase above quoted), that is
not my (proper) behaviour, it is not for me to do so ; han's
hofwa er at tiga, his (proper) condition, what is required of
him is to be silent. Hence hofwas, to be fitting, to be required
or wanted, to behove.

In a similar manner probably has been formed A.-S. behefe,
necessary, advantage, behoof (corresponding to Icel. Juefi, hcefa,
congruentia, jus, fas), and behofian, to be fit, right, or neces-
sary, to stand in need of, to behove.

BESEEM, BETEEM. — The G. has ziemen, geziemen, to be
becoming, beseeming, seemly or decent. The original sense
of the word must have been to fall, to happen, as in the
O.-Swed. tima and A.-S. getimian, to happen. The Icel. has
tilfallinn, apt, fit; and in E. to fall was used in the sense of
being suitable : —

"It nothing/a/fo to thee,

To make fairc semblant where thou mayest blame." — R.R.
Now the German z being equivalent to ts, ziemen corresponds
on the one side to the Goth. gatiman, to suit, Swed. fama, Du.

113

tcemen, betaemen, to be fitting; and on the other to Sw. s&ma
decere, to beseem; samiHc, seemly, decent. To beteem is
essentially the same word, though it has acquired an appli-
cation in E. which has misled the commentators.

It is very common to see words acquire a causative mean-
ing without any modification of form, and from Du. taemen,
betaemen, to be suitable, the word beteem was used in E. for
to make suitable, to deem or allow to be suitable, much in
the same way that from dignus, worthy, is formed dignari, to
deem worthy, to deign, which is very much the sense in which
we find beteem in our older writers : —

" Yet could he not beteem

The shape of any other bird than eagle for to seem."

Golding in R.

" Although he could well have beteemed to have thanked him of
the ease he offered, yet, loving his own handywork, modestly refused
him."— Milton.

"So loving to my mother,

That he might not beteem the winds of heaven
Visit her face too roughly." — Hamlet.

Here it may perhaps be explained more directly as a causa-
tive, from the original timan, to happen, to allow to happen,
to permit. So in the following passages : —

" So would I said th' enchanter glad and faine
Beteem to you this sword, you to defend." — F. Q.

— vouchsafe it to you, allow it to fall to you.

" Belike for want of rain which I could well
Beteem them from the tempest of mine eyes." —

Mid. Night's Dream.

— which I could permit them to have, allow to fall to them, to
vouchsafe to them. The Icel. tima is used in the same sense :
a se impetrare (Haldorsen) : Jarl timdi aldrei at launa, the
earl could never endure to return presents; nunquam a se
impetrare potuit, he never beteemed a return to presents.

BIGOT. — The beginning of the thirteenth century saw the
sudden rise and maturity of the mendicant orders of St. Francis
and St. Dominic. These admitted into the ranks of their fol-

114

lowers, besides the professed monks and nuns, a third class
called the tertiary order or third order of penitence, consisting
both of men and women, who, without necessarily quitting
their secular avocations, bound themselves to a strict life and
works of charity. The same outburst of religious feeling
seems to have led other persons, both men and women, to
adopt a similar course of life. They wore a similar dress,
and went about reading the Scriptures and preaching Christian
life; but as they subjected themselves to no regular order or
vows of obedience, they became highly obnoxious to the hier-
archy and underwent much obloquy and persecution. They
adopted the grey habit of the Franciscans, and were popularly
confounded with the third order of those friars under the
names of Beguini, Beghardi, Beguttae, Bizocchi, Bizzocari;
in Italian beghini, bighini, bighiotti, all of which are appa-
rently derived from It. bigio, biso (Venet.), grey. " Bizocco"
says an author, quoted in N. and Q. vol. ix. p. 560, " sia quasi
bigioco o bigiotto perche i Terziari di S. Francisco si veston
di bigio." So in France they were called les petits freres bis
or Insets (Ducange). From bigio , grey, was formed bigello,
the dusky hue of a dark-coloured sheep and the coarse cloth
made from its undyed wool, and this was probably also the
meaning of Bighino or Beguino, as well as bizocco : " E che
P abito bigio ovver beghino era comune degli uomini di peni-
tenza," where beghino evidently implies a description of dress
of a similar nature to that designated by the term bigio.
Bizzocco also is mentioned in the fragment of the history of
Rome of the fourteenth century, in a way which shows that
it must have signified coarse dark-coloured cloth, such as is
used for the dress of the inferior orders, probably from biso,
the other form of bigio. " Per te Tribuno," says one of the
nobles to Rienzi, "fora piu coiivcnevole che portassi vesta-
menta honeste da bizuoco che questi pomposc," translated by
Muratori ' honesti plebeii amictus.' It must be remarked that
bizocco also signifies rude, clownish, rustical, apparently from
the dress of rustics being composed of bizocco. In the same
way, bureau in Berri, according to G. Sand, is the colour of a
brown sheep and the coarse cloth made from the undyed wool.

115

Hence the O.-E. borel, coarse woollen cloth, and also un-
learned common men. In a similar manner from biyello,
biyhelloney a dunce, a hlockhead. From biyio would natu-
rally be formed biyiotto, biyhiotto, and as soon as the radical
meaning of the word was obscured, corruption would easily
creep in, and hence the variations biyutta, beyutta3 biyotto,
beyhino, beyardo.

We find Boniface VIII., in the quotations of Ducange and
his continuators, speaking of them as —

"Nommlli viri pestiferi qui vulgariter Fraticelli seu fratres de
paupere vita, aut Bizochi sive Bichini, vel aliis fucatis nominibus
nuncupantur."

Matthew Paris with reference to A.D. 1243 says, —

" Eisdem temporibus quidam in Alemannia praecipue se asserentes
religiosos in utroque sexu sed maxime in muliebri habitum religionis
sed levem susceperunt, continentiam et vitse private voto profitentes,
sub nullius tamen regula coarctati, necadhuc ullo claustro contenti."

They were however by no means confined to Italy. —

" Istis ultimis temporibus hypocritalibus plurimi maxime in Italia
et Alemannia et Provincise provincia, ubi tales Begardi et Beguini
vocantur, nolentes jugum subire verse obedientise — nee servare re-
gulam aliquam et Ecclesia approbatam sub manu preeceptoris et ducis
legitimi, vocati Fraticelli, alii de paupere vita, alii apostolici, aliqui
Begardi, qui ortum in Alemannia habuerunt." — Alvarus Pelagius in
Due.

" Errores Beguinorum et Beguinarum, quorum secta detecta fuit
circa A.D. 1315, et multi ex eis inventi sunt qui se dicunt Fratres et
Sorores de Pcenitentia de tertio ordine S. Francisci, et fuerunt com-
busti." — Guido Carmelita in Due.

" Secta qusedam pestifera illorum qui Beguini vulgariter appel-
lantur, qui se fratres pauperes de tertio ordine S. Francisci commu-
niter appellabant." — Bernardus Guidonis in vita Joh. 22.

" Capellamque seu clusam hujusmodi censibus et redditibus pro
septem personis religiosis, Beguttis videlicet ordinis S. Augustini
dotarint."— Charter, A.D. 1518.

"Beghardus et Beguina et Begutta sunt viri et mulieres tertii
ordinis." — Breviloquium in Due.

116

They are described more at large in the acts of the council
of Treves, A.D. 1310: —

" Item cum quidam sint laici in civitate et provincia Trevirensi,
qui sub pretextu cujusdam religionis fictse Beghardos se appellant,
cum tabardis et tunicis longis et longis capuciis cum ocio incedentes
ac labores manuum detestantes conventicula inter se aliquibus tem-
poribus faciunt, seque fingunt coram simplicibus personis expositores
sacrarum scripturarum, nos vitam eorum qui extra religionem appro-
batam validam mendicantes discurrunt," &c.

" Nonnullse mulieres sive sorores Biguttse apud vulgares nuncu-
pates absque votorum religionis emissione." — Chart. 1499, Bp. of
Tours.

From the foregoing extracts it will readily be understood
how easily the name by which these secular aspirants to
superior holiness of life were designated, might be taken to
express a hypocrite, false pretender to religious feeling, Tar-
tuffe. Thus we find in It. bigotto, bizocco, a devotee, a
hypocrite ; Piedmontese, bigot, bisoch ; Fr. bigot, in the same
sense; Sp. bigardo, a name given to a person of religion
leading a loose life ; bigardia, deceit, dissimulation; G. beghart,
gleischner (Frisch), a bigot or a hypocrite, a false pretender
to honesty or holiness (Ludwig).

' Biff in f bigot, superstitious hypocrite5 (Speight in Richard-
son). In English the meaning has received a further develop-
ment, and as persons professing extraordinary zeal for religious
views come to attribute an overweening importance to their
particular tenets, a bigot has come to signify a person unrea-
sonably attached to particular opinions, and not having his
mind open to any argument in opposition.

To BLOAT, BLOATER. — I do not believe that to puff out, to
swell, is the primary meaning of this word, nor yet to smoke,
as it is often explained : —

" I have more smoke in my mouth than would blote a hundred
herrings."— B. & F. in N.

" You stink like so many bloat-herrings newly taken out of the
chimney." — B. J.

The fact is that there are two ways of preserving herrings ;
one intended to last for a comparatively short time, when the

117

juices of the animal are allowed to remain, and it is subjected
to a single smoking only; the other, when the process of
drying is thoroughly carried out, and the smoking process is
repeated three times. Fish prepared in the former way are
properly called bloaters or blote-herrings, while those which
have undergone the more complete process are the true red-
herring. The name is derived from the Sw. blot, Dan. blod,
soft, moist ; blod fisk, fresh, undried fish, opposed to tor fisk,
cured fish. As the slightly-cured fish, as long as it remains
fresh, is much the better of the two, the name blote-herring
seems to have spread to all cured herrings, and the first syl-
lable was naturally supposed to have reference to the smoking
process as the most important part of the curing. It may
however have arisen from the practice of soaking some kinds
of salt fish, as cod and the like, before drying.

From blot, soft, is formed in Sw. biota, to soak; lagga i
blot, to put into water to soak. Sw. blot-fisk, soaked fish,
salted fish which is soaked and plumped out in water before
being dressed. Hence E. bloated, having a swollen unhealthy
look, as of flesh soaked in water.

BOOBY. — The character of folly is generally represented by
the image of one gaping and staring about, wondering at every-
thing. Thus Fr. badaud, a fool, dolt, ass, gaping hoyden
(Cotgr.), from badare, to gape. A gaby, a silly fellow, look-
ing about with a vacant stare (Baker's Northamptonshire
Gloss.), from gape ; gawney, a simpleton (ibid.), from gawn-
ing, staring vacantly ; A.-S. ganian, to yawn. So from ba !
representing the sound made in opening the mouth, babaiet
a booby, one who stares with open mouth (Hecart); baia,
the mouth, figuratively a booby, as babaie (Hecart) ; baiou
in the same sense. Walon. bdber, boubair, a simpleton, a
booby. Ir. bobo \ an interjection of wonder, like Gr. /3a/3ai !
Sp. bobo, foolish; It. babbeo, babbano, babbaleo, babbaccio, a
simpleton, blockhead.

BOOR; Bown or Bound ; Husband ; Build. — Boor, a peasant,
countryman; G. bauer ; Du. bouwer, boert from bouwen-, G.
bauen, to till, to cultivate, to build, to inhabit. Hence also
neigh-^owr, one who lives nigh or near ; G. nach-bar for nach

118

bauer. Icel. bua ; Sw. boa, bo, to prepare, or set in order, to
dress, to till, to inhabit. Bua til bord, to set the table. Bua vel,
to live plentifully. From the past participle boin, prepared,
comes E. bown, prepared, bent in a certain direction, com-
monly corrupted into bound, as we speak of a ship f bound for
London/ properly bown for London, bent for London; as
Sw. far-boen, bound on a journey, ready for a journey. To
boun in Sc. is to get ready, to prepare.

The primitive meaning seems simply to bow or bend in a
certain direction, — the notion of ' preparing' arising out of the
image of bending the thing in the direction it is intended to
take. The notion of clothing arises out of that of preparation,
dress being a necessary preparation for everything. The word
' dress ' itself arises from the same notion, being formed from
dirigere, to direct. Cultivation of the ground is another example
of preparation, and from cultivating probably arises the sense
of habitation, as Lat. incola, an inhabitant, from colere, to till.

From the participle present, buandi, boandi, arises Icel. bondi,
the master of the house, possessor of the farm, hus-BAND.
Other derivatives are — bo, a household; by, an inhabited
place, a village or town, whence the termination so common
in the names of places in Lincolnshire and other parts of
England where the Danes had permanent settlements ; bol, a
home, a farm; Icel. byli; O.-Sw. byle, a habitation, whence
bylja, to raise a habitation, to BUILD.

From bua arose a secondary form bygga in the same senses,
giving rise to the verb to big, commonly used in the sense of
building in Scotland and the north of England. In like
manner we find pairs of synonymous forms in the Sw. bro,
brygga, a bridge; so, sugga, a sow; A.-S. buan, to till, to
inhabit, bugian, bogian, to inhabit ; O.-Fris. buwa, bowa, bogia,
to inhabit; so to bow (or bend) takes a g in the German
biegen, A.-S. bugan.

119
TRANSACTIONS

OF THE

PHILOLOGICAL SOCIETY.

1855.— No. 9.

May 25 (Annual General Meeting).
The REV. T. OSWALD COCKAYNE in the Chair.

The Paper read was : —
" On Greek Accentuation;" by Professor T. HEWITT KEY.

The position which Greek scholars in this country occupy
in reference to the accentuation of that language, appears to
be not a little unsatisfactory. On the one hand, it is practi-
cally considered to be a sort of high misdemeanor to print
or write a line of Greek prose or verse without those little
marks called acute and circumflex; on the other, the very
persons who rigorously exact the addition of the symbols,
quietly ignore the object for which they were invented. The
accents live indeed for the eye, but are nonentities for the ear,
although one might have expected that spoken language would
have been thought entitled to priority of respect over that
which is expressed in writing.

One of the most recent writers on the subject in this coun-
try was a member of this Society, whose decease we had to
lament a few years back ; and while condemning the incon-
sistency between the theory and practice of other English
scholars, we are bound to admit that Mr. Pennington zealously
contended for the adoption of a pronunciation in accordance
with the accentual marks ; and in one respect he had a great
advantage over the majority of writers who preceded him, in
having witnessed with his own ears the modern habit of pro-
nunciation on Grecian soil in familiar intercourse with natives,

120

It may seem an imprudent step on the part of the present
writer to take up a matter in which his own special studies
give him no right of speaking with authority, and when he,
never having visited Greece, presumes to maintain a very
different theory. But, in the first place, it is of the essence
of Mr. Pennington's views that he deems it a duty to unite a
strict observation of the accentual marks and of the long and
short syllables, although he himself informs us in as many
words, that the modern Greeks in their pronunciation attend
to accent alone, without any regard to quantity. Thus he
may be called as a witness against his own cause. Now it is
almost entirely on evidence drawn from the writings of Forster
and Primatt, that is, on the evidence adduced by Mr. Pen-
nington himself, that the present argument is founded. At
any rate, a careful and repeated perusal of his Essay on the
Pronunciation of the Greek Language*, has had for its sole
result, a confirmation of the views which the writer expressed
on this subject more than twenty years agof. Further, it
may be urged in reply to any charge of intrusion within the
domain of Greek scholars, that a looker-on often sees errors
to which those constantly engaged on a subject become blinded
by routine and familiarity.

The subject of course is one of old standing, and in fact
has been so often debated, that it may be difficult to gain
attention to a reopening of the argument. The hope of
attaining this object on the present occasion is chiefly founded
on the feeling that a few pages may be enough for the state-
ment of the essential points, which have been spread out into
whole volumes under the pens of Forster, Gaily, Primatt,
and our lamented member.

The position here asserted is, that the system of accentual
marks which appear in Greek books is an anachronism when
applied to the writings of Homer, Aeschylus, Thucydides,
Aristophanes, &c., as those marks were invented to denote
the altered pronunciation of a much later date. There occurs

* London: John Murray, Albemarle Street, 1844.
t Journal of Education, Oct. 1, 1832. Some passages from this paper
are here repeated.

121

in Mr. Pennington's book (p. 84), a quotation from Mont-
faucon, which with him we may readily accept as the evidence
of a competent witness : — " Haec omnia [the accentual marks]
ante septimum saeculum a librariis neglecta prorsus videntur :
nam codices vetustissimi quinti sextive saeculi iis prorsus
carent : quae ante septimum saeculum, in solis grammaticorum
libris observata fuisse videntur/' The earliest manuscripts
are admitted to have 110 accentual marks, except perhaps the
celebrated Alexandrian MS. of the New Testament; but here
too the fact that accents are found only in the first page,
seems to lead to the conclusion that they were a subsequent
addition.

In the twelfth century all parties are agreed that Tzetzes
wrote his iambic tetrameters catalectic in full observance of
the pronunciation denoted by the accents and utter disregard
of quantity, as in the line : —

'OTTOOW Svvairo \a(Belv ctce\eve
that is, in pronunciation, something like —
'OTTQXTOV fivvdro \aftelv etce\\v€
The same principles are apparent in the writings of Constan-
tinus Manasses, who lived about the same time : —
fO yap TOI irals rov KaWravro? apri \a(Ba>v ra
(Tovvoaa 8e TO* J3a<n\el /3pe(f>6dev KawaravrtVo
Sro\&) ffapel TTJV ^i/ceXwv tcara\aa/3dv€i, vfjaov
Kal vravra? TOL/? avro^eipa^ KOI rou9
ToO ySacriXeo)? Kal Trarpo? eV8tVa)9 a
Kat <rvv aurot? Mtft^ov rbv rervpawTj/cora,
(quoted by Mr. Pennington in p. 295 from Mitford on the Har-
mony of Language, ed. 1774, p. 247). In these lines, if read
with a careful observation of the accents as marked, and an
equally careful disregard of what we commonly consider to be
long vowels, diphthongs, &c., a metrical result is produced which
cannot be mistaken : and the only wonder is, how the writer
could have persisted in such a metre through the 6733 verses
of his Suvo-v/rt? io-Topiicr), unless it be the additional wonder
how his readers or hearers could have survived the infliction
of so much monotony. The metre itself was of course fami-

122

liar to Aristophanes, but it is only an exceptional case that
iii his writings we find a line where an attention to the
marked accents is not fatal to his verse ; such as the instance
quoted by Mr. Pennington from the Lysistrata (v. 310) : —

K.av fj,rj /caXovvToyv rou? fto^Xoi'? ^aXwo'tv al yvvai/ces.

In the comic writers of Rome it would be perhaps easier to
find duplicates of such a line as —

Salutant ad cenam vocant adventum gratulautur.

But before we proceed to a detailed consideration of the facts
upon which we would found our conclusions, let us first attend
to some general principles which may serve to guide us.

The rudest nation has still some perception of harmony,
and though an uneducated ear may not be able to analyse the
feeling which is excited, or determine any law in the causes
which produce that effect, it is still qualified to ascertain the
fact, whether any given combination of sound is pleasurable
or the reverse. And it is not a very strong position to assume,
that if in any age or any country any form uf melody has
been highly gratifying to a considerable portion of a nation,
that same form of melody would also be appreciated to a con-
siderable degree by any other people of any other period. It
is true that the ear may be so highly educated as to under-
stand and take pleasure in a species of music that to vulgar
ears is without meaning or beauty ; but a national taste for
music cannot depend upon the few that are so favoured. If
this doctrine be true, it seems to follow that in nearly all
questions affecting the metrical laws of the Greek and Latin
poets, one of our best guides, if not the very best, is our own
notion of what is pleasing. On the other hand, if this prin-
ciple be disputed, then we shall not only be deprived of every
satisfactory criterion that can be applied, but we are con-
fessedly engaged upon a subject that can lead to no useful
result. If the melody of ancient verse is no longer melody
to our ears, if its life has fled from it, we are only digging for
a skeleton, or rather, a number of scattered bones, which if
not actually disgusting, at least can give no feeling of plea-
sure. But in fact the laws of melody, as of everything else

123

that depends on physical causes, are the same for ever. What
was ^ratifying to the hearers of Homeric verse would in ge-
neral be gratifying to ourselves, if the true pronunciation were
preserved ; and we may be perfectly sure that we have made
but a very slight approach to that true pronunciation, until
there results from it a melody which is pleasing to the un-
tutored ear. For in a point of this kind more reliance may
be placed upon the natural feeling of a clown than on the
taste of a Hermann, which is easily deceived for the very
reason that it is educated.

One of the chief reasons which has impeded the correct
solution of the problem before us, appears to be the oblivion
of a principle which shows itself more or less actively in the
history of every known language, viz. that time is always
effecting changes of pronunciation. A careful reader of
Chaucer, Shakspere, or even Milton, becomes fully aware of
such differences, when he compares the mode of accentuation
which their verses demand with that which now prevails.
Even within our own memory such changes have established
themselves, as advertisement and revenue, in place of adver-
tisement and revenue. In Latin again, with every century
between Ennius and Juvenal, to go no later, words exhibit
what is called a variety of quantity. Hannibdlis and Hamil-
cdris in the oldest heroic poem of Rome, shock one whose
ideas of Latin pronunciation are obtained from the Asdrubale
interempto of Horace. 'Acheruns, miliius, larua, gratiis, are
trisyllabic words commencing with a long syllable in Plautus,
but either lose this quantity or are reduced to disyllabic
words — "Acheruns, milvus, larva, gratis — in later writers. But
if such changes are visible in our own and in the Latin lan-
guage, what was to be expected in the Greek language, in
which there now exist a series of writers extending over a
space of nearly three thousand years ? It may also be ob-
served, that these changes are subject for the most part to
certain general laws, the most important being a tendency to
abbreviation of sound; and this again is but a particular
instance of the general law, that man is always striving to
economize his labour. Thus consonants get omitted, long
vowels shortened, and by the contraction of short vowels, whole

124

syllables disappear. Trace, for example, the five-syllable form
mea domina through the Italian madonna, the French ma-
dame, the English madam, down to maam, mam, mum, and
in the pages of Dickens the still shorter form mim. To say
that in process of time the accent of words is gradually re-
moved farther from the end, is only another way of expressing
the same result. But while this is the prevalent direction of
change, there are instances that run counter to this course.
Not unfrequently some provincial language, hitherto buried
in obscurity, all at once by some freak of fortune obtains a
victory over another dialect, which, spoken in the capital, had
till then held undisputed supremacy. Such an invasion would
probably supplant an abbreviated language by forms of broader
and fuller sound, for it is especially in cities that men, feeling
the* value of time, have the stronger disposition to rapidity
of utterance. Thus in the preceding passage of Manasses, the
word /8ao-fcXea>9, written with an c and o>, but accented on the
penult, virtually substitutes for the Attic genitive that other
form which belongs to the Ionic dialect, j3a<n\7)o<;. Again,
in avro^eipa^, we have a somewhat clumsy mode of desig-
nating what might have been more suitably expressed by
avTov%epa<;, in the first element of which we see a genitive,
while the %e/> with its simple vowel appears to be a more
legitimate form than %«/?. The existence of the oblique cases
X€P0<*> X^y &Ct *s familiar to all, and if the nominative occurs
only with a diphthong, it is because the original %e/>9 (for
such is the form which analogy leads to) was first assimilated
to x€PP) an^ on tne omission of one of these liquids, the vowel
received the usual compensation. On the other hand, the
diphthong in x€LP> by a very natural error, led to the use of
the same in several of the oblique cases, but not to the dative
plural, where the presence of two following consonants made
it more difficult to introduce a diphthongal sound*. In

* In supposing xflP°s> &c- to hftve been formed from the nominative x«*p
by a false analogy, we are supposing precisely what has occurred in the past-
perfect tense of many verbs, where -«/*«»/, -etrf, are entitled to some long
vowel or diphthong, as being contractions from f<ra^v, co-are, but fTfru$-
ttrav, not having undergone any similar compression, ought not to have
been replaced by trtrvfaitrav.

125

claiming a genitival origin for the first syllables of
we are guided partly by the sense, partly by the conviction,
that such is the just explanation of many compound words.
Thus He\,o7rovvrjcro<t, as a friend observes, appears to be a cor-
ruption of ITeXoTTo? V77<ro9, where the final (7 of the genitive is
assimilated to the following liquid. 'AXovv^tro? is another
instance. This passage of one consonant into the other, has
its complete parallel in the formation of certain adjectives
from neuters in 09, as from epeftecr-* (better known in the form
of the nom. 6/j6/5o?) comes epeftevvos-, from (fraecr-, </>aevvo9, sub-
sequently modified to <£aetvo9; and from a\j€cr-} Seea- (through
a lost a\y€vvos9 Sevvos) a\<yewos, Seivos. Thus we hold the
German mondenlicht to have in its middle syllable a suffix of
genitival power, and so to be more complete than our own
moonlight, in which the suffix en probably once existed, and was
afterwards absorbed in the preceding liquid, just as our word
iron, used as an adjective, may have been originally pro-
nounced iron-en, like leaden, golden, brazen-\. A case still
more in point is the name Sevastovol (Sebastopol) — for so is the
word pronounced by Russians and Greeks — and this repre-
sents an older 2e/3a<7Tou-7roXt9. KcovcrravTwovTroXis again is
the orthography still prevailing in modern Greek, and so jus-
tifies the accent which we ourselves assign to Constantinople.
In the same way agricultura by its quantity asserts the
genitival character of the first element.

Another instance where the shorter form of the Attic dialect
appears to have been replaced by one broader and earlier,
occurs in OTTOO-OV (see the line from Tzetzes). Now the Greek
7rocro9 and ro<709 correspond in power to quantus and tantus ;
and if the t in these Latin words had passed into an s, as we
know historically was the case in pulsus, mersus, &c., then we
should have had for the Latin qudsus and tdsus, for the n
before an s would have been silent J, and the vowel by com-

* The soft breathing is purposely omitted, as being utterly useless itself,
besides that the omission leaves to the aspirate a more prominent character.

t Compare the still stronger case of Oxford from Oxenford.

J It is no doubt in this way that we are to explain the assertion of Gel-
lius, that the i of insanus (i. e. tsanus) was long, whereas the t of inclitus
was short.

126

pensation lengthened. These would have been in agreement
with the words TTOO-O? (TTOXTO?) and rocro? (TOXTO?) . What has
just been said, may be compared too with the relation subsisting
between twoa (cf. rpiaKovra) and viginti (cf. vicensumus and
viciens or vicies). To return for a moment to avr6^€ipa<; or
avTov%6pa<; : we would add that this adjective was probably
formed from the phrase avrov %e/w, ' with his own hand,5 much
as pro consuls, pro praetore, and in later times vice regis,
pro portions, were united to form the declinable words pro-
consul, propraetor, vicerex, proportio.

In tracing the changes of pronunciation down a series of
writers, we would put inquirers on their guard against what
appears to us as a grave error. A word is often said to have
such a quantity in epic poetry; another form they say is
preferred by the tragedian ; and again in comedy it is laid
down without any pretence of explanation, that a third form of
pronunciation is prevalent. It is no doubt true that in the
more elevated strains of poetry a fuller expression is probable
than in the familiar and therefore shortened language of
common life ; but the main differences we believe to be inde-
pendent of the particular kinds of literature; and the pre-
valent error, as we hold it to be, in this respect, we would
attribute to the accident that certain periods are often fertile
in some peculiar form of writing. Again, we are ready to admit
that the fame of the Homeric writings, as also of the Attic
tragedians, was such that they found imitators in their pecu-
liarities, long after great changes in the spoken language had
established themselves. But if the writings of the Alexandrian
school, for instance those of Apollonius of Rhodes, were tho-
roughly intelligible to any of his countrymen, it was only to
the educated, that is, to those who were familiar with the
Homeric and other celebrated productions of earlier times.
Yet so deeply fixed in the minds of the Greek rhetoricians
was the idea that the language of Homer was only the lan-
guage of epic poetry, that poor Herodotus is charged by
Longinus with the heinous offence of writing in a style too
Homeric and poetical. Thus the simple-minded historian had
even a worse fate than Moliere's Monsieur Jourdain — writing

127

poetry all his life without knowing it. However, when late
writers amused themselves with composing epics or tragedies
after the fashion of Homer, Sophocles, &c., they were not
writing for the great public, but doing very much what is
now done more or less well by those who contend for the
Porson and other prizes at our Universities. Those, on the
other hand, who wished to make themselves intelligible to the
masses, and endeavoured to work upon their feelings, followed
the idiom of their own day ; and their compositions, from their
popular character, obtained the appropriate title of versus
politici. Such were the lines above quoted from Tzetzes and
Manasses.

But while language is changing in pronunciation, the im-
perceptible and unnoticed character of the change is a reason
why the alteration in orthography does not proceed with it
pari passu, and thus, in perhaps all written languages, what
is presented to the eye is in arrear of the spoken sounds. The
words boat, meat, in our own tongue, for example, were once
disyllables, as they still are in the mouths of many rustics —
me-at, bo-at ; but the diphthongs, if so they can be called,
now perform the office of what is merely a long syllable.
Again, health, stealth, breadth, bread, the preterite read, and
the substantive lead, have two vowels as written, when on the
ear there falls nothing but what we usually represent by a
short e, as in red, led, &c.

To apply this to the Greek language will, it is believed, go
far to explain away the difficulties which have beset the present
question. When Eucleides as archon introduced into public
records in the year 403 B.C. the new vowel-symbols H and O,
he no doubt did good service; but the benefit was not per-
manent ; and were he now to come out of his grave, he would
be surprised to find the same letters not unfrequently per-
forming the office of the short e and o. Thus 1^77X77 and
of oldei\ time have acquired the pronunciation
rj and dvOpoTros, though still written with a long vowel in
the penult, v^fr^rj and avOpwjros.

We cannot expect any large amount of historical evidence
as to changes in Greek pronunciation, simply because such

128

changes take place for the most part without much observation
being attracted to them, and at any rate without any written
record of the fact. Still there are found occasional notices
to our purpose in the grammarians and scholiasts, and, in
addition to this, the best assistance may be obtained from
a consideration of metrical principles. When Homer wrote
o<£t? at the end of an hexameter (II. xii. 208), he had no
choice but to use the vowel o, as the symbol afterwards appro-
priated to a long o had not in his day obtained currency.
We have reason then to find fault with the — carelessness
shall we call it — of those editors, who, substituting the o> in
other passages, omitted to do so here. Again, Hermann has
noticed that OtXev? is always trisyllabic in Homer, of two
syllables in Euripides, and written with a single vowel I\et> ?
in Lycophron. Another example of changed pronunciation is
in the Greek form of the god Aesculapius. It so happened
that in the days of Demosthenes the popular ear required that
the word should be pronounced as an oxyton, Acr/eX^Tivo?,
although the orator for a time persisted in what was then an
offensive peculiarity, throwing the acute accent on the long
vowel Acr/eXrJTrto? (see Plutarch, Lives of the Ten Orators, ed.
Wyttenbach, iv. 390). The well-known line of Homer com-
mencing Ape?, Ape? (II. v. 31), naturally attracted the attention
of the grammarians, and though 'Ape?, "Ape? is the accentua-
tion now established in editions, we learn from Eustathius
that one of the grammarians, Ixion, thought it more correct
to write *Ape?, 'Ape?. The words ep?7//,o?, eVot/zo?, 0/40*0?,
a/cparos, rpoTTcuov, are repeatedly the subject of remark, as in
Eustathius, Suidas, and the Etymologicum Magnum. These
words, it is true, eventually had an acute accent on the
antepenultimate, but in older writers had a circumflex we
are told on the penult, which would agree with the pronun-
ciation now commonly prevailing in England. Thus Suidas
says that rpoTralov was the accentuation of the 7ra\cuoi
h.TTiicoi, viz. Eupolis, Cratinus, Aristophanes, and Thucydidcs ;
whereas Menander preferred TpoVaiov. Again, ep?)/xo? is more
than once ascribed to Homer by Eustathius (pp. 258 and 748,
ed. Basil), and also by Etym. Magn. (sub voce) ; but, says the

129

latter, Trapa rot? 'ArTY/eot? TTpoTrapogvveTcu. Now how did
Suidas know that Aristophanes pronounced rpoTraiov? above
all, how did Eustathius know that Homer pronounced eprj^to? ?
Assuredly it will not be contended that a statement to this
effect had been handed down from the time of the poet by
tradition, much less will any one have the hardihood to assert,
that accentual marks were already affixed in the days of
Homer. How then, we repeat, did Eustathius arrive at the
knowledge? Common sense answers: from his own consi-
deration of the poet's metre, precisely as Grimm makes
similar inferences as to the pronunciation of old Teutonic
poets from their verses. In the same way Suidas drew his
inferences as to rpoTralov, from an actual perusal of the old
comic poets, and no doubt extended his inference to Thucy-
dides, from a belief that living at the same time and in the
same city, he would naturally follow the same pronunciation.
Thus Suidas and Eustathius at any rate cannot justly be
included among the ancient writers on grammar to whom
Mr. Pennington would attribute the unqualified doctrine
that "accent and quantity are entirely distinct from each
other" (p. 169). But if the accentual system as found in the
pages of Homer rests solely on the authority of grammarians
who lived many centuries after him, we also are, on the same
principle, entitled to criticize their proceedings. Thus when
we find OV/JLOV in the text of Sappho (Dionys. Hal. Trepi
2vv#ecr. 23), although the common dialect required Ovpov, we
may claim OV/JLOV for Homer also. Again, when we find the
grammarians divided as to the accent of avrap (II. ii. 1), Cal-
limachus making it an oxyton, others a baryton, we may
perhaps be allowed to incline in favour of the latter for
Homer's time.

But besides comparing one dialect with another, or the Greek
of one age with the Greek of another, it may be useful to ob-
serve the way in which words were transferred from Roman
to Grecian orthography, or the converse. Now the Latin
comiteSy becoming a title, was written at Byzantium in the
form Ko/jLijTes, which would never have been tolerated had the
77 then denoted only a long vowel. On the other hand, it

130

was long ago noticed by Scaliger, that Latin poets, in bor-
rowing Greek words, adopt that metrical value which is
implied in the accents, giving these a preference over all
claims on the part of what would seem to be syllables long by
nature or position. Thus Plautus (Cur cul. i. 1, 2) in adopting
the Greek name <&aiSpa)fj,o<?, uses Phaedromus always with a
short penult. Again, frequent reference is made in his plays
to the Macedonian coins, in all which cases the second syl-
lable of Philippus (^tXtTrTro?) is short (see three examples in
a single scene of the Bacchides, iv. 8. 27, 38, and 41). Ovid
again (Met. viii. 207), having his eye on 'H/5tWo9*, writes :
Strictumque Orionis ensem. In the hendecasyllabics of Sido-
nius, we find the following instances of the same principle :
l&vpnrlSrjs : Orchestram quatit alter Euripides ; Mapcrvas :
Marsyaeque timet manum ac rudentem ; "Aparos : Diversas
Arato vias cucurrit. In Ausonius the accents of Tptycovos
and rerpdycovos have led to such lines as : Per totidem partes
trigonorum regula currit, and Fulgur tetragono aspectu vitale
cucurrit. Lastly Prudentius invariably shortens the penults
of idola (e&wKa] and eremus (e'p^o?), the latter word pre-
paring us in some manner for the utter disappearance of the
middle vowel in our own hermit. But it is unnecessary to
produce more instances. Servius indeed, (de Accentibus),
boldly affirms universally : Latini eundem accentum quern
Graeci habent efferunt in Graecis nominibus. We hesitate
however in following his authority when he asserts that Si-
moeis (Aen. i. 100) and Periphas (Aen. ii. 476) in Virgil, are
to be accented on the penult (SU/ioet?, Heptyas).

But the difficulty which here stops us, Mr. Pennington would
ascribe to a defect in our own organs, for he and many other
scholars contend that the Greeks of olden time found it practi-
cable to fulfil the requirements of both accent and quantity in
words where they appear to be repugnant; for example, he asserts
that we may pronounce av6pu>Tros with an acute accent on the
initial syllabic, and at the same time with the long quantity
of the penult. Thus Matthiae too observes (Trans, p. 953) :

* It is true that Qptovos is somewhat contrary to analogy in Greek ;
cf. Kpoj/lfcoi/of and K.povluvost /ir/u/i«>rov and fj.(fj.aoTos,

131

"These two considerations [accent and quantity] must be
combined in the pronunciation, and it is equally incorrect to
pronounce merely according to accent, e.y. avOptoTros/'Opripos,
as anthropos, Homer us, or merely according to quantity."
" In German" he adds, " the pronunciation is nearly the same
as in Greek, with accent and quantity both; " and he then
represents with musical notes what he conceives to have been
this pronunciation. The English editor however honestly
observes : " Whether this musical diagram may accord with
the inflexions of a German voice in common conversation, I
cannot say, but we have nothing akin to it.3' And indeed it
may be strongly suspected that the author's imagination
misled him, for we find one of his countrymen (Dr. B.
Thiersch) in a little essay on the nature of Greek accent,
explicitly declaring : <( Mihi quidem invenire hucusque non
contigit qui secundum accentum pronunciantes syllabarum
mensuram servarent." Zumpt again (Gr. § 35) says : " In
our own language accent and quantity coincide." Hermann
lastly and Buttmann lend the sanction of their names to the
doctrine we are controverting.

Now, as to possibility of combining both accent and quan-
tity, we at once answer that it is possible, but we admit no
more. In all such questions, the only safe course is to reason
from the known to the unknown. Now the modern Greeks,
it is admitted on all hands, strictly observe the accentual
marks,* but utterly disregard the power of the tj and o>, &c.
Their authority therefore, so far as it is entitled to weight, is
against the doctrine we are combating. But wre need not
tie ourselves down to the observation of any one particular
language. Let an Englishman or a German look to that
language with the sounds of which he is most conversant, and
it is believed that upon trial he will find the following prin-
ciples to be true : first, that every word has an accent, and
secondly, that the accented syllable possesses at once three
distinctions — greater height of tone, greater volume of sound,
and greater length of time. Again, a word may have several
long syllables, as invented, forecastle, Eng. ; arbcitcn, ver-
orossert, Germ. ; clamabant, dolores, Lat. ; TreiOeaOai, ypa-

132

, Gr. ; but among these one will predominate and be
heard above its neighbours, which then losing their import-
ance, are often compelled to serve as short syllables, especially
in those languages which, like the German and our own,
abound with consonants, and consequently with syllables long
by position. But Englishmen and Germans, taught by the
necessity of the case, acquire a wonderful power of scrambling
over the most fearful combination of consonants. The Latin
too, compared with the Greek, stands in the same unfavour-
able position ; thus the senarii and other metres of Terence are
weighed down by consonants, so that they rarely bear compa-
rison for beauty with the iambics of the Greek tragedians.
Still it is highly probable that we pronounce many consonants
in the Latin language which were slurred over in pronunciation
by the natives. But this is a subject we have discussed else-
where. We will here only observe on this head, that we find
in the Latin language many examples of syllables which were
once long, eventually losing such length of quantity beside an
accented syllable. The final syllables of clamat, damabat,
are known to have been originally long, in agreement with
the power of the same vowel in the other persons of the same
tenses, clamds, clamamus, &c., and with the passive forms
deduced from them, clamdtur, clamabdtur. Scripserunt again
was soon reduced to scripsere. And on the other hand, the
initial syllables appear to have suffered from a similar cause
in molestus, curulis, ofella, mamilla, lucerna, profecto (adv.),
these words being closely akin to moles, currus, offa, mamma,
lux lucis, pro facto.

But our opponents throw in our teeth such words as 0-7 pa-
roTreSov, aya6o$, epi$, familia, aperit, facit, cano, honesty, &c.,
and defy us to accentuate them without doing violence to our
own principles. In replying to this challenge, we would first
notice, that in accentuating the first syllable of honesty,
although from the shortness of the vowel and the presence of
but a single consonant, we require but little time for the pro-
nunciation of hon, yet after the effort we cither pause awhilr,
or what in this case is equivalent, dwell upon the nasal liquid.
We have taken the word honesty because it happens to be the

133

•

word selected as a test by Mr. Pennington. Had he pro-
posed the word faculty, then the syllable fac taking up as
short * a time as any syllable well can, our practice is to eke
out the time which the importance of the syllable demands by
a mere pause. Nor are we arguing any new point in saying
that the presence of an acute accent has a natural tendency to
lengthen a syllable. We will not appeal to the scholiast (see
Primatt, p. 69), be he Longinus or otherwise, whose note on
Hephaestion begins with a statement most suited to our purpose,
for we admit that the extravagance of what follows wholly
destroys the authority of the witness. Already the words r»}<?
of eta? fjiriicvvovaris TO 5, as used by him, would be more satisfac-
tory if not applied to the special case of ocj)i,<; in Homer; but when
we find our witness contending that the presence of an acute in
one syllable has the power of lengthening either a preceding or
following syllable, we feel that he is wanting in one of the first
requisites for the character of a witness, common sense. But
it will not be out of place to quote from Primatt' s work the
authority of Dionysius Thrax (p. 71) : rovo? Trpo? bv aSofj,ev KOI
TTJV (frcovrjv evpvTepavrroiov^ev; of Hermogenes (p. 76) : TOVTO
yap ecrTW rj rdo-is, TO aTTOTeTaaOai eVt- fjua/cpoTepov T) %pr)
TO TTvev/jLo, ; and of Hesychius (Pref. p. xv.), where he interprets
eTTiTewai by fjueyaXvi/at,, naicpvvai, and eVtretVerat by eVt T&>
OVTL TrXeovafet, rj av%ei, r) et? CTriSoaw dyeTai. Dionysius
too of Halicarnassus (ibid. p. 146), gives a practical sanc-
tion to the doctrine that accent carries with it lengthened
time, when, commenting on the passage of Thucydides — 'fl?
ica\ov eVt rot? e/c rcov Tro\e^wv 6 'O-TTT o yu-evot? ayopevecrOcu avTov
— he says, ap^eTat JJLGV CLTTO TOV fcprjTiKov 77-0809 : for if 'H?
/caXov before eTrt is to be a cretic, the last syllable of icaXov
must of course be long. Then as regards the Greek and
Latin words just enumerated, there is reason for believing
that in many instances they were curtailed in pronunciation
by one of their syllables. Hermann, in some measure fol-

* Mr. Pennington seems to have thought that it takes a longer time to
utter a syllable such as fac than fa without a final consonant. His eye
seems here to have deceived him ; for a mute final consonant after a vowel
is no sound, only the stoppage of a sound.

134

lowing the footsteps of Bentley, has shown for Plautns and
Terence that such words as miseria, familia, are to be pro-
nounced much as mis'ria, fdm'lia ; and thus we get over two
difficulties at once, for the accent falls on what is virtually a
long syllable, long by position ; and we are no longer violating
the rule which limits the position of an accent to one of the last
three syllables, as the syllable receiving the accent is virtually
" an antepenult. Further, the principle practically exemplifies
the oft-repeated doctrine that one long equals two short syl-
lables. What we have said of the Latin word familia, &c., is
also applicable in no slight degree to the Greek words of like
form. Although a-rparoire^ov and words of the same metrical
power might occupy any place in a Greek trimeter iambic,
if we are only to obey those laws which define the feet admis-
sible in each place, yet practically it is far otherwise, for the
word is only admissible where the pronunciation o-T/oarVeSov*
falls in with the requirements of the verse, that is, the syl-
lables (TTpdrTre must always occupy the position of a trochee.
And this law, though rarely noticed in our metrical treatises,
was well known to Hermann, who has specially commented

* We do not consider the position of such a word at the outset of a
trimeter as violating the principle, for Greek iambics agreed with our own
in the occasional admission of what was virtually a trochee in this place.
As we, for example, in a series of iambic lines readily admit a verse which
has an accent on the first syllable, e. g. ' Breathes there a man with soul
so dead/ and ' This is my own, my native land ' ; so also in Terence there
abound such lines as — * Sic me Di amabunt ut me tuarum miseritumst/ &c.
(Haut. iii. 1, 54) ; * I'd sibi negoti credidit solum dari ' (Andr. prol. 2) ; * De-
hinc ut quiescant porro moneo et desinant' (ib. 22). But they are also of fre-
quent occurrence in the Greek tragedians. We cannot have more distinct
examples than the iambic senarii beginning with ILapdcvoiraios (Sept. ad
Theb. 553) ; 'ITVTTO^OVTOS (ib. 484) ; AX$eo-i/3oiai> (Soph, fragm.). But if it
be objected that here a licence was excusable in favour of proper names, we
appeal to such a line as — n TTOTC ircrrovOas ; OVK tpfis, aXX' a>8 ecr«, Soph.
Phil. 740, for TL TTOTC is only another way of writing what Homer puts in
the shape rnrrf. So again in the same play rlnrf 914, t\fre 789, airobos
932 and 981, a^iAoi/ 1018, dfare 1054, "EXevos 606, 86\ios 608, n&ayog
636, all of which closely approach to trochees. We would claim too, as
of the same character, Aor pot o-eavrov' Kara rov \ourov xpovov 84, and lines
beginning fv vvv 1240, ira>s ovv 110, <rv ptv 123.

135

on a violation of the principle in the Philoctetes in the case
of 7roXe/uo?* (v. 1307). Similarly we hold that aperit is
often to be pronounced ap'rit (compare the Italian aprire,
Fr. ouvrir), and ayaOos as dyOos. Of the shorter words 6/3*9,
facity cano, something will be said below.

We have just said that every word has an accent, but in
so doing we did not forget the important family of particles
called enclitics, or those to which Hermann has given the not
well-invented name proclitics. The fact is, that inquiries of
this nature are much damaged for want of a precise definition
of the term ' word/ Instead of leaving our printers to supply
the definition for us by inclosing what they are pleased to
consider a word between two little spaces of white paper, let
us rather define what we mean by referring, not to printed
matter, but to articulate sound. We hold then a word to be
so much of discourse as is clustered round one accented syl-
lable, and divided by a short pause at either end. Thus an
enclitic goes to form a word with what precedes it, a proclitic
with what follows it ; and under these terms we would include
many particles not commonly classed with them. Hence in
Greek we would claim as enclitics all those particles to which
the first place in a sentence is denied, as fj,ev, yap, £e, and for
this, in despite of our grammars, we have the authority of
Choeroboscus (see Hermann de emend, rat. Gr. Gr. p. 77).
Many a line in Greek poetry will be found much improved by
such treatment of these particles. Again, we would include not
merely what falls under the last-named condition, but also
those words, which, commonly entitled to the first place,
occasionally surrender the privilege to some important word.
Thus, for example, the conjunctions ut, si, quam, &c., when
postponed, are to be treated, we think, as enclitics; and
especial attention is due to the weakened power of the relative
under like circumstances. Hence Bentley, we cannot but
think, would have done better in the introduction to his
Terentian Metres, had he marked the last half of Virgil's line

* arvyeis TToXep-tov dvapevrj ff f)yovp.cvos, where his note is : Observa
Tro\ep.iov, ictu numeri in secundam, non, ut in antiqua tragoedia solebat, in
primam incidente.

136

Troiae-qui primus ab-6ris. This position of the relative at
the end of the fourth foot is very common in Virgil, and we
doubt whether there are many such lines in which it fails to
occupy the humble character of an enclitic, and so to add
weight to the word to which it is appended. In ingens-cui
lumen ademptum, for example, it has been long ago observed
that ing ens* has no connection with monstrum. In the Ger-
man language, as contrasted with our own, it is soon noticed
by the learner that the reflexive sick often tries to hide itself
as it were after the first emphatic word in a clause. So se
and other pronouns in Latin, when supporting, as they often
do, a subordinate part, take post behind some important word,
especially behind the first word in a clause, as Ilia se jdctet
in-aula Aeolus, Multum ille et terris jactdtus et alto. Nay,
even a substantive so placed should often be attached to the
preceding word, and so slurred over in pronunciation as to
have no accent, as dea in the passage — Hie illius arma, Hie
cumis fuit, hoc regnum-dea gentibus esse. Further, it is a
common remark in the Greek grammarians, that a preposition
placed after its noun is liable to a change of accentuation.
Probably the right view is to attach it to that noun as an
enclitic, as in Latin — Et soror et conjunx, una-cum gente tot
annos; and a little below — magno-cum murmure montes.
But if it seem a bold step to treat the relative and other
pronouns as well as substantives as not very rarely enclitics
in poetry, what will be thought of our daring, when we ven-
ture to claim the verb itself as occasionally so degraded both in
verse and prose ? Dr. Carey, in his ' Latin Prosody made Easy/
proposes that in the line — Caeruleo per summa levis volat
aequora curru, — the verb volat should be pronounced in imme-
diate connection with levis, ' levis-volat.' To this proposition
we give a cordial assent. Indeed whenever a Latin verb leaves
what is, so to say, its natural position at the end of its clause,
it does so either on account of its own emphasis, in which

* Thus the line should be printed : Monstrum, horrendum, informe,
inge'ns cu'i lumen ademptum. Ingens is again applied to the eye a few
lines below, and though the organ was gone, it was well to speak of the
vast cavern which had once held it.

137

case it seizes the first place in the same clause, or else because
it is unimportant in itself and so sneaks into some corner
behind an emphatic word. And this is a matter which seems
to admit of explanation from first principles. As the verb in
the logical view of a sentence commonly constitutes an im-
portant part of the predicate, so it has a natural tendency to
combine closely with any leading element of the same pre-
dicate, and so lend it importance. Thus the very line of
Virgil which Mr. Pennington selects as irreconcileable with
the doctrine that accent and quantity are compatible, we are
willing to accept at his hands, for we would read it thus :
Quadrupedante putrem sonitii-quatit ungula campum. The
words quadrupedante sonitu contain the most important part
of the predicate, and accordingly they become prominent, the
one by occupying the place of honour at the commencement of
the line, the other by preceding the verb and having it attached
to it. Thus volat and quatit having in these lines no accents on
themselves may in some sort be entitled enclitics. Examples of
what is here said we hold to be abundant in Latin poetry, as
Cte/sa-sedet Aeolus arce, crebris-rmc&t ignibus aether, rapidus-
vorat aequore vortex, £o£o-videt aequore classem. At other times,
although the verb may have an accent of its own, yet still combi-
ning with the preceding word, it often affects the accent of that
word. Thus in the same book we have (v. 134), Tantas-audetis
tollere moles? where the very peculiarity of the accent oftantds,
as in celsdj crebris, rapidus, toto, throws an emphasis upon it.
We believe it was Hermann who first drew special attention
to the principle which accounted for the non-accentuation of
such Greek words as 6, 17, ov, ev, e/c, €i and o>9, viz. that they
are to be pronounced with the word following. But we are
tempted to enlarge the number. Quintilian tells us for
example that in Latin circum littora was pronounced with
but one accent, and undoubtedly there is so close a connection
between preposition and noun, that they may be well regarded
as constituting but a single word. Thus, in our own lan-
guage, against him, before us, behind me, however written or
printed, are pronounced together ; and it is hence perhaps that
our disyllabic prepositions have the accent on the last syllable,

138

contrary to the general habit of our own, as of every other
language, with other words. So also in Latin, inter-nos, inter-
se must invariably be pronounced in verse as here written, if
we value the metre ; and therefore no doubt also in prose.
Perhaps then we have here the true key to the fact that
Greek disyllabic prepositions are commonly accented on the
final syllable. Nay, in the fragment of Herodian published
by Hermann (p. 309), we find part of a line quoted from Cal-
limachus, where Trapa seems to have the last syllable long,
Trapa TWOS ijpiov tVrare TOVTO ; and indeed Trapai is only Trapa
so lengthened.

When we said above that every word has its accent, we
purposely expressed the proposition with unqualified gene-
rality, under the feeling that proclitics and enclitics are not
themselves words. It must have been in the same sense that
Diomedes, de Accentii (lib. 2), says : Ut nulla vox sine vocali,
item sine accentu nulla est.

In some of the preceding remarks we have assumed that
the Latin language was not without oxytons, and have even
ventured to affix an acute accent in one passage to the final
syllable of putrem, but we are ready to admit that the final
syllable of this word, as also the final o in arma virumque
canOf were not pronounced with a well-marked acute, for they
terminate the first portion of the hexameter, where there is a
sort of pause. But this it will be said is a direct defiance of
the authority of Quintilian. This is true, for he says most
distinctly : Est autem in omni voce utique acuta, sed nun-
quam plus una : nee ultima umquam : ideoque in disyllabis
prior. But at any rate he admits, a few lines above, that
quidam eruditi, nonnulli etiam grammatici insisted on giving
an acute to the last syllable of some words, and if they are
said to have limited this privilege for the most part to adverbs
and pronouns, the qualification ' for the most part' (adverbiis
fere solis, &c.), is of some service to us. Besides, it has been
observed by others (Camerarius and Primatt) that Quintiliau
was in the habit of limiting his rules somewhat unduly by
reference to the particular cases before him. Thus, after saying
that the Latin grammarians Olympo et tyranno acutam mediam

139

syllabam dederunt, he adds the reason: quia duabus longis
sequentibus primam brevem acui noster sermo non patitur.
Now we have here one if not two inaccuracies. The rules
he himself has laid down a few lines above, tell us distinctly
that the quantity of the last syllable is no element in the
question of Latin accent, all depending on whether the penult
syllable be long ; and for a similar reason the words primam
brevem have no application. But, as his commentators ob-
serve, he was improperly led to introduce these additional
qualifications, because he happened to have the words tyranno
and " Olympo before him. His language, to be correct, ought
to have included such forms as seducit. Probably then his
mind, in dealing with the accents of verbs, had before it the
infinitive mood, and then undoubtedly amdre, monere, regere
(pronounced perhaps rehre, comp. the French lire from leg ere],
and audire, — would fall in with the laws of accent as laid
down by him. Nay, we find it asserted by Zumpt, that Mae-
cenas and other words in as, whose genitive is similarly formed,
had an acute on the final ; but, not able at the moment to
find his authority, we are afraid to rely on such evidence. On
the other hand, it is admitted that the metres of Plautus and
Terence were guided by accent alone ; and if so, their pages
furnish abundant examples of disyllabic words, which, having a
short penult, accentuate the final, as volo, putd, par 6, sitds, velis,
in the first seven lines of the first scene of the Andria ; and if
it be objected that these words occur all of them at the end of a
line, so as to suggest that some peculiarity of pronunciation
belonged to the close of a Latin senarius, we will point to
examples in the same scene where there is no such limitation,
as metus v. 2, canes v. 30, amdns v. 49, bond v. 92, rogo v.
97, morae v. 139. And further be it observed on the other
hand, that not a single instance occurs of words so formed
having the accent on the penult. Such a fact we regard as
infinitely outweighing the authority of a single passage in
Quintilian. Perhaps too Quintilian, relying on his ear,
may have thought of words like bonus, tibi, male, as mono-
syllables— bon, ti, mal — for such we believe they generally
were in common discourse, a question we have discussed at
length elsewhere.

140

But we find what we believe to be another powerful argu-
ment in the fact, that ancient writers themselves, Greek and
Latin, did not draw that broad line between quantity and
accent which modern writers assert in their behalf. We have
already made references to passages which go far to prove
this. But we have some little matter to add. In the first place,
prosody and accent are two words which are precise trans-
lations one of the other. Again, Priscian in his treatise ' De
Accentibus/ after giving the rules for what our existing
grammars call the quantity of substantives and adjectives,
says : Regulis accentuum nominis expositis, tractandus est
accentus qui in verbis consideratus certis definiendus est
regulis; and then he proceeds to give the quantity of the
different parts of the Latin verb. Thus Roman writers, where
the sole object is to define the quantity of this or that syllable,
often, like ourselves, apply the terms of accentual language.
Quintilian, for example, in dealing with the Virgilian line
ending pecudes pictaeque volucres, has the words — Evenit ut

metri quoque conditio mutet accentum Nam volucres

media acuta legam : quia etsi natura brevis, tamen positione
longa est, ne faciat iambum quern non recipit versus heroicus.
Gellius also says, iv. 7 : Valerius Probus Grammaticus. . . .
Hannibalem et Hasdrubalem et Hamilcarem ita pronuiitiavit
ut paenultimam circumflecteret, and this on the authority of
Piautus and Ennius, from the latter of whom he quotes the
line (apparently wanting some syllable, as hi, at the beginning) :
— qui propter Hannibalis copias considerant ; and secondly,
vii. 7, Annianus poeta .... affatim, ut admodum, prima acuta,
non media pronuntiabat ; atque ita veteres locutos censebat.
Itaque se audiente Probum Grammaticum hos versus in

Plauti Cistellaria, legisse dicit Aliorum est affatim qui

faciant. Sane ego, &c. ; causamque esse huic accentui dicebat
quod, &c. We are aware that our opponents will tell us that
to define the accents of the words is in these instances from
Quintilian and Gellius indirectly to define the quantities of
the penults. Be it so; but this reminds us that we have yet
to ask them a question, the solution of which on their theory
M vi i is never to have been attempted. If accent be so utterly
different from quantity, if it denote solely the height of the

141

note without any reference to its duration, how is it that the
position of the accent in a word is in any way dependent on
the quantity of the syllables which compose the word ?

How far the preceding arguments have succeeded in esta-
blishing the point that the system of Greek accentuation, as
taught in our grammars and practised in printed books, is
not applicable to the writings of the Greek poets or prose
writers from Homer down to Aristophanes, if not lower, is a
matter about which others must form a judgement. It may
be useful however to protest against some arguments which
have been produced to encourage the study of the existing
system. Porson, for one, dwells on the advantage which they
offer for distinguishing words of like form in other respects.
To this Mr. Peimmgton himself has replied, in a manner we
think unanswerable : " As to the use of them in distin-
guishing words which are written alike, these are few, and
there can be no need to encumber with marks all the rest of
the book : nay, the very fact of our observing a mark upon
those words alone which require it, would better direct our
minds towards their true meaning in those very few passages
where it does not necessarily result from the context." A
second argument which we have heard in its favour, is that
they constitute an important aid towards distinctions in
grammatical formations; for example, when we know that
eX?rt9 and ^Xa/w are oxytons, we may also fix upon our
memory that their accusatives must be formed in a, e\7ri&a,
X\afjLv$a, whereas e/w and opvis, though forming two accu-
satives, give a decided preference to epiv and bpvw over eptSa
and opviOa. But how are we to recollect that eXTrt? and
XXa//,i>9 are oxytons ? Surely there can be no gain here for
the memory, for it is a task of precisely the same severity to
remember at once which substantives of this declension form
their accusatives in a, and to remember which have an acute
on the final of the nominative'34'. Buttmann however puts for-

* It has been contended however, that the accented pronunciation of
the final syllable of f\7ris may be the very reason why the 8 was retained
in the accusative. This, if true, has its value ; but as a mere menwria
technica the principle is worthless.

142

ward another claim in behalf of accents. In his Grammar
(11. 8. Ann. 7), he says: "It will be at once seen how the
beginner who uses accurate editions may, by the help of
accents, learn the quantity of many syllables ; " and why can
he do so ? simply because the quantity to a certain degree
determines the accent, so that here again we have a sort of
reasoning in a circle. At any rate, it would be a much more
-simple, and incomparably a much more effective way of at-
taining the object, at once to mark the quantity of all the
doubtful vowels.

A recapitulation of our arguments might be of service, but
want of space forbids this. We may however observe, that in
our argument we have throughout given the same idea to the
word accent, and have endeavoured to explain metrical laws
on one consistent principle ; and moreover that we have used
the term accent always in that simple sense which an English-
man adopts in speaking of his own language. All again admit
that the modern Greek employs the system of accentual
marks in the sense for which we contend, and we have seen
in the Roman comedians that accent was the governing prin-
ciple of all their metres. Further, we have seen, that so early
as Plaut us, and so late as Prudentius, it was the practice, in
borrowing a Greek word, to take it with the pronunciation
which the accent denoted. Thus we contend for one uniform
principle of accentuation, as governing pronunciation, subject

M0005 TOV 'PoMTO-OV TTOl'TJTOV

H 0HAEIA TOT KOTKOT

'H UO-TCITOS f) o~v£vyos TOV KOVKOV eV) K\OVOV
'ireas TTOT* e/cu$t<re KOI yotpots f6pr)V(C

'H ycirav TTJS ntpiO'Tfpa TO ainov TOV irovov
TTJI/ tpwTq, KOI Start Kpovvovs SaKpvav \vv(i ;

143

of course to what is a law of all languages, that individual
words from time to time modify their accent, and that ortho-
graphy is too often in arrear of orthoepy. Our opponents, on
the other hand, have constantly to shift their ground. Accent
in Homer and Sophocles, according to them, means some-
thing very different, not only from accent in English and
Latin, but from accent in modern Greek. Another problem,
which must cause them we fear no little trouble, is to explain
away the fact, that the grammarians of Greece and Rome are
constantly employing the terms which belong to the category
of accent in speaking of what is vulgarly called quantity.
Lastly, we must again remind them of the fact with which we
set out, that their own habit of practically ignoring the very
marks on which they set so high a value is a standing evidence
against their theory.

As a specimen of modern Greek poetry, we give the follow-
ing from a periodical*, where we recommend to special notice
the short penults of eptora, /cvvrjycov, OprjveZs, rjyaTrrjo-a,
avoifyv, epao-TOV, <yen6vicro-a, dyava/CTeis, yvcopi&v,
ptyao-a, e/juefjL(f>ovTo, &c. ; and no less the long penults of Irea?,
Saicpvcov, 0ea, (f)L\rdrrj9 evXoya)?, ryeirovcw, TWOS, //,e<yaA/?7v,
dSiKcos, avyd-fjbov ; and the long finals of (7K\'rjpd, Kaupov, //,e.
The fact of the verses being in rhyme is partly obscured to
those who are not aware that the vowels i, rj, v, and the
diphthong e^, have all of them now the sound of ee in our
word feet.

Fable of the Russian Poet Krilloff.
THE FEMALE CUCKOO.

Th' unsettled one, the cuckoo's mate, had perched herself one morning
Upon a branch of a willow tree, and mournfully was wailing ;
A neighbour bird, the turtle-dove, the cause of all this trouble
In pity asks, and why the springs of tears she sends a-gushing.

* AHOGHKH TGN GfcEAIMQN KAI TEPHNQN TNQ2EQN.
ET02 B'. 1848 *EBPOYAPI02. 'API0. 8. EN SYPGt.

144

Xvrreto'at ;
Tot) fpacTTOV crov p.r} Oprjvf'is terms rr)V drrtOTtav ;

rjv riva T£>V Kvvrjywv </>o/3etcrat ;
"H fj,rj7ra)S TrepieTreo-es1 fls TTJV o~K\rjpav ^rjpeiav ;

— *O\i ! 7roXi> (TK\rjp6Tepoi TTOVOI p.€ Tvpavvov(ri !

Tyv avoi£iv rjydirija-a, Kal p-f}Trjp fl\ov yeivei,
HXrjit TO. (TK\r)pa ra TfKj/a p.ov p.e (pevyovv, pe

Toi/ Qavarov fm6vp,a> ! 6 Koo-pos pe fiapvvei !

"Orav rpiyvpw 6fa>pS> irovXaKla. aXXa vea *

Na KpvnTwvT els ras irrepvyas rr/s evrvxovs firjrpos ra>v,
Me Kara^aivei rrjv ^ni^v TJ rpvfpcpd rtoi/ 6ea,

Kal eK TOV (pOovov r^fco/iai r' d6<oov epcords TG>V !

Ravels op.a>s 8ev ywbpifev e^ oXa>i/ TW
O(/re TTWS *Xfts ^^Xeav, ovre Trois fj.r)Tr)

K.0\ 7TOV TTjV €<Tl<TfS J CIS TiVOS bevdpOV K\OVOV ;

Kal TOV Kaipbv ore ycvvovv, o~v /LidXtora TrXai^rts,

K' 17 icapaK.d£a f) y\(oo~crov) K^ 6 (p\vapos o~iropyiTr)s *
TJV Too-rjv o~ov papiav Kal

— Aez> flfjLai TOO-' dvorjTOS Std v' a7ro(pao-io-a>
T' avdos TTJS f)\ucias pov d&iKas va

Atd va KTifco ^)coXedy, /c* eKe! dfa
'A.K.ivr)Tos GMTO.V vfKpa, T avyd /iov

Ge'Xovo-a Se r^s p.rjTpiK^s (TTOp-yrjs va

To ej/ avyov p,ov ycvvrjo-a fls (po)\fdv o-nopyiTov,

'ETTiTT^Seicos ptyaara TO IdiKov TOV e£a>,

Kai T* aXXo els TTJV (pwXeav y\avKOS T^s dvofjTOV.

— A.OIITOV, Xey* 17 rrepKTTfpa, d<pov ToiavTrj eto-at,
AiKat'coj /cat TO re'/ci/a O-QU o-ex (pevyovv, ve /uto-ouo-f

OiJr' ex*4? &€ SiKai'wfia /tav p-fjTtjp va KaX^o-ai.

K' at XuTrat o-ov TO o-TrXdy^va /zov ets OIKTOV dev Kivovffi.

* The inverted t with a circumflex below it, as found in these lines, is
the modern symbol of the sound y, as heard in yes.

145

D. Is it, fair neighbour, that thou 'rt grieved for spring so quickly flitting ?
Or dost lament perchance the guilt of some unfaithful lover ?
Or hast thou cause to tremble at a sportsman's machinations ?
Or into wretched widowhood, that worst of griefs, art fallen ?

C. No, no, kind friend, distresses much more horrible oppress me,
The spring-tide I like others loved, I too have been a mother ;

But now my wicked children, oh ! they shun my sight, they hate me ;
I long for death, I long for death, the world to me 's a burden.

Whenever looking round I cast my eye on other pullets,
As into a happy mother's wings so lovingly they hide them,
The sight of all that tenderness, it rends my heart to pieces.
I pine away for envy of their innocent affection.

D. Reason indeed thou hast, my dear, for broken-hearted sorrow ;
And yet not one among us knew, not one of all thy neighbours,

Or how thou didst possess a nest, or how thou wert a mother. [chosen ?
When didst thou build that nest, and where ? what tree, what branch was

And when the rest were breeding, thou, engaged in nought but gadding,
Didst whirl about, bereft of care, an idle bird of pleasure ;
And e'en the magpie-chatterer, and e'en the prattling sparrow
Cried, Fie on such a silly life, on such unthrifty doings !

C. Pooh ! pooh ! I'm not the dolt you think, to pass on myself the sentence,
That for my sins the bloom of youth must droop and wither idly ;

That I must build a nest and then sit in that nest a-moping,
Still as a corpse, and all to keep two or three eggs from chilling.

But wishing still t' enjoy a share of a mother's kindly feelings,
One of my eggs within the nest of a heedless sparrow dropping,
I cleverly threw out an egg of hers to make it even.
A second egg that wiseacre the owl had taken charge of.

D. Enough, enough ! exclaims the dove, since such thine own behaviour,
Truly have e'en thy children cause to shun thee and to hate thee ;

Nor canst thou justly claim to be so much as call'd a mother.
Such griefs as thine will never move my bowels to compassion.

The Meeting was adjourned till the 8th of June.

146
THAN S ACTIONS

OF THE

PHILOLOGICAL SOCIETY.

1855.— No. 10.

June 8.
Professor T. HEWITT KEY in the Chair.

Adjourned General Annual Meeting.

At the suggestion of the Council, a few alterations were
made in the Rules of the Society, bringing them into accord-
ance with the method of carrying on the Society's business
found most convenient in practice.

The following Paper was read —

" On the Uncontracted Form of the Genitive Case Singular
of Greek Nouns of the Second Declension;" by
Professor MALDEN.

It is acknowledged in theory, that in nouns of the second
declension, that is, in nouns of which the nominative case
singular ends in 05 or ov, and the stem of which ends in o, the
suffix of the genitive case singular is o ; and that the ordinary
termination of the genitive, ou, results from the contraction
of the o of the stem with the o of the suffix : that 0eoO, for
example, is contracted from Oeb-o, \6yov from \6yo-o. In
the old epic genitives in oio, in which the final o of the stem
is lengthened by the addition of i, the o of the suffix appears
as a separate syllable, as in Oeol -o, 7roXe/*ot-o ; in the genitive
proper names ITerew-o (II. A, 337, &c.), and Hr)ve\eco-o (H.
489), from stems in which the final vowel is made CD in all

147

the cases ; and likewise in the analogous forms of the genitive
in the first declension, in which the final a of the stem
becomes long, such as 'Arpe&a-o. But there are many
passages in Homer which appear to me to require that the o
of the suffix should remain as a separate syllable, even though
the final vowel of the stem is short ; and that we should admit
the existence of genitives in o-o and restore them to our text.
In the two passages which I will adduce first, the vulgar
text retains a vestige of the true form. In B. 325, we read,
roB' efave repas //,ey<z p^riera Zev$,
^ireKeo-roV) oov /c\eo<i ovrror o\eircu :

and in Odyss. a. 70 : —

avriOeov Tio\v<f>r)/jLOVy oov /cpdros earl p&yiGrov.

Now oov for ov is a form not sanctioned by analogy ; and I
believe that we ought to read 60, the final o in each case
being lengthened by the two consonants beginning the next
word.

There is a large number of passages in which I would apply
my proposed correction, in all of which we have the same
phenomenon, though in different forms, viz. nouns or ad-
jectives, which in other cases have the penultimate short,
appearing in the genitive case, and in the genitive case only,
with the penultimate long. Thus in II. O. 66, <£. 104, and
X. 6, we have lines beginning with 'IXtW rrporrdpoi6e : the
last passage is —

*I\lov rrporrdpoiOe, 7rv\do)v re 2<Kaida)v.

The name elsewhere is always "IXfo? ; and I believe we ought
to read 'IXtoo rrporrdpoiOe.

In X. 313, the genitive of the adjective aypios appears as

dyplov : —

'A^A,6i>9, //,eveo<? 5' e/jLTrXtjcraro Ov^ov
rrp6o-0ev Se &dico<s crrepvoio /cd\v\jre.

I would read dyptoo, the final o being lengthened by the two
consonants of the following word.

In O. 554, we have — ov&e vv a-oi rrep

evrperrerai <f>L\ov rjrop, dve-fyiov

148

the nouii elsewhere is always avetylbs ; and here we ought to
read dve^Loo fcrafjuevoto.

In like manner, in E. 21, we have —

ovS1 erX?; 7T6pi,f3r)vai, dSeXfaiov KTa
and in Z. 61, H. 120, and N. 788, we have—

Now the noun is aSeX<£eo9 ; and no doubt it may be said that
e is lengthened into et, by the ordinary Ionic change, as
^/3ucr€09 becomes %pva€io$, and it would be hard to show why
this should not be. But in fact we find in Homer aSeXc/>eo9
and aSeX<£eov and aSeXfaol in sixteen passages; and in no
case do we find the penultimate lengthened except in the
genitive singular. We do not find aSeXc^etwv, aSeX<£etot9,
aSe\<f>€iovs, forms which might seem to be convenient for the
verse. Hence I conclude that neither in the genitive case
is the e lengthened, but that the true Homeric form was
tt8eX</>eoo ; aSeXt^eoo KTa/juevoio ; o-SeXc^eoo (f)peva$ ijpws.
In B. 731 we read

TWJ> avO1 r)yel(70r)v ' Ao-KXrjTrtov Svo TralSe.
The healing hero elsewhere is 'Acr/cXT/Trto?, with the iota short,
even in the genitive case ; as in

A. 194, </>WT', ' Aa-K\r)7TLov vlov
and, A. 518, ftalv 'Acr/cX^TTtoi) vlos d/j,vfj,ovo<; li

In B. 731, therefore, I think that we ought to read
'AoveX^Trtoo Suo TralSe. The final syllable is lengthened by its
coincidence with the ictus of the verse (by ctesura, according
to the language of the old prosodies) ; but in this there is no
difficulty, as two short syllables precede it.

In II. I. 440, N. 358, 635, O. 670, 2. 242, <£. 294, and Od.
<r. 264, a). 542, we have lines ending with the words opouov
TToXeyu-ow), with the penultimate of opouov long. Now it
would be sufficient for our purpose to show that the adjective
occurs in other cases as o/tWto?, with the penultimate short.
In II. A. 315, we have —

aXXa ere yijpa<; relpei OJJLOUOV to? oc^eXev rt?

dvS&v aXXo<?

1 I!)

and in Od. 7. 236—

aXA' f) TOL Odvarov pev OJJLOUOV ovSe Oeoi Trep, &c.
and in the Hymn to Venus, v. 215 —

vvv £e ere JJLGV rd^a yrjpas bpoiiov dpfyiKaXv-fyei.
But it is as well to examine the form of the word a little more
deeply. fO//,o£o? (as the word was accented in the older
Greek*), of the same sort, is derived from the old adjective

QS, same, in the same way in which d\\olo$ is derived from
, and erepolos from erepos, and roto? and oto? from the
pronouns o, rj, TO, and 09. These adjectives have the suffix
£09, by which adjectives are formed from substantives, as
iTTTrios from MTTTOS, and also secondary adjectives from pri-
mary adjectives, as ^ifXto? from <pi\os, and e\ev6epios from
€\evdepo<;. They differ, however, by the stem of the primary
word not being reduced to the root, but keeping its final
vowel o, which in the later form of the language coalesced
with the t, and made the diphthong ot. Originally, however,
the vowels must have been distinct, and our word was o/xok>9 :
but in this form, by the necessity of the metre, the second
syllable, which coincided with the ictus of the verse, was
lengthened, and this lengthening was expressed by the addi-
tion of i to the o, as in such dual genitives as 'LTTTTOUV for
tTTTTotV, afterwards ITTTTOW.

It follows, therefore, that in the lines which have been cited,
we must read 6//,ou'oo, with the antepenultimate short; and
we need not have recourse to the ictus for the lengthening of
the last syllable, if we substitute for 7ro\6jj,oio the epic form
7TTo\e/jiow, and read O/JLOUOQ

In Od. K. 493, we read—

fjbdvrio^ d\aovy rov re
and in p. 267,

/judvTios d\aovy ®ij{3ai
Now here there are two departures from the ordinary quantity
of syllables : for the first syllable of a\ao9 is short as well as
the second; and to lengthen by coincidence with the ictus
the first syllable of a spondee in a word of only three syl-

* np07rep«r7rarni eVt T&V f7ra>v, Etym. Mag.

150

lables, is a rather rare license. But if we read d\aoo, the
second syllable is short, as it always is ; and the lengthening
of the first syllable, when two short syllables follow, is
according to the usual epic license ; and so is the lengthening
of the last syllable in caesura.

In the lines which have been cited hitherto, the penultimate
syllable of the genitives, which is apparently lengthened, is an
open vowel; but the same phenomenon occurs where the
syllable is closed by a consonant. Thus in Od. K. 36 and 60,
the genitive of A £0X09 occurs with the middle syllable long : —

Scopa Trap Alo\ov /jueydXiJTOpos 'iTTTrordSao,
and /3i)v et? Alo\ov K\VTCL Sca/juara" rbv 8' e/cfyavov.
In both lines we must read
In II. B. 518, we find-
ing 'I(j>iTOV /jueyadv/jiov
Now the name elsewhere is "I^tro?, even in the genitive case.
In P. 306 we have, at the end of a line —

— fjLeyaOvftov 'Itylrov vlov.

In B. 518, therefore, we must read 'I<£tVoo, the last syllable
being lengthened in caesura before the liquid //,, as very fre-
quently happens (cf. Od. K. 36) . But a further correction is
to be made. The proper name "I<£m>9 is derived from the
adverb Ifa. But l$i, and the derived adjective ifaos, and
the old noun fo — of which l(f>i is originally a case, and which
is the same as the Latin vis, — and all the words of that stock,
seem to have begun with a consonant, that is, van. In P. 306,
fjbejaOvfjLov 'l<f)iTov VLOV, the last syllable of /jbeyaOvpov would
not remain long in the weak part of the foot, if the next word
really began with a vowel. In B. 518, therefore, we must
substitute vies for u/ee?, and read —

we? Yifylroo /jLeyaOvpov Navj3o\lSao.

There are two passages in which the forgetfulness of the
old formation of the genitive in oo has generated a peculiar
corruption. In II. Z. 344, Helen thus addresses Hector: —

Saep €/jt,elo9 KVVOS Ka/cofjurj^dvov, otcpvoeo-o-rjs :
and in II. I. 64, Nestor testifies his indignation against the
man,

09 7r6\€fjLov eparai ^Tn^^iov o/cpvoevros.

151

Now, in the first place, we must distinguish these adjective
forms, oKpvbevros and oKpvoecrcrr)?, from the forms oKpibevri
and oKpwevra, from a nominative bicpibeis, which occur in II.
A. 518; ©. 327; M. 380; II. 735; and Od. i. 499; and
which are everywhere epithets of a stone, \i0os or Trer/oo?, and
signify merely rugged, plainly and unmetaphorically ; the
adjective bicpibeis being derived from a noun 6/cpk. The ad-
jective occurs also in the Prometheus of JSschylus, v. 282 : —

OKpioeaa-rj ^6ovl rfjSe TreXw :

and the noun occurs, though used adjectively, in Prom. v.
1016*. But otcpvoeo-ar)? and bicpvoevros in the lines first
cited are manifestly used, as the forms of tcpvoeis are used in
II. A. 740: —

eV 8' "Ept?j ev 8' 'AXicrj, ev 8e Kpvbeo-cra ^Ico/crj :
and I. 2. Oeo-Treo-lrj e^e &v£a, <&6/3ov Kpvbevros eralpr) :
and in Hesiod, Theog. 936, eV 7roXe//,a> KpvbevTi, and Scut.
Here. 255, Tdprapov e? Kpvbevra: and as the synonymous
adjective Kpvepbs is used in the expressions Kpvepolo (/>o/3oto,
/cpvepolo 700^0 : and the old grammarians taught, that Kpvbei?
was made otcpvoew by the prothesis of of.

Now, if we admit that such a double form is possible, it is
remarkable that it should be found only in one derivative
adjective, and not in the primitive substantive rcpvos, or any
other derivative form ; and it becomes still more open to sus-
picion, when we observe that it is confined to the genitive
singular : and I believe that the lines in question should be
read,

Saep efjueloy KVVOS fca/cofjurj^dvoo, Kpvoeo-o-rjs,
and 09 7ro\€fjLov eparai eVtS^/xtoo Kpvbevros.

In Od. f . 239 we find a line ending with the words
r 8' e

* Etym. Mag. 621. 6. 'OKpioeis, 6 rpa^us \i6os- uKpias 6e ray nerpas
<f)T)(rlv "Op.r)pos, di' oicpias ^i/e/ioeVo-ay. In the passage cited, Od. t. 400,
the common text of Homer has aKpias, and so in TT. 365, and £. 2, and
elsewhere ; but some critics would restore the other form.

t Etym. Mag. ibid.*H napa TO Kpvns icpvueis, KOI o/cpvoeiy, TrAf 01/00710)

TOV O, 6 KpVOVS Kdl (p6@OV TTOirjTLKOS.

152

Now it appears from observation, that where the epic poets
admitted a spondaic verse, the fifth and sixth feet were not
contained each in a separate word of two syllables, but either
in a long word of four or more syllables (and this was the
most frequent form), or in a trisyllable or polysyllable and
monosyllable, or in a monosyllable and trisyllable. The ap-
parent exceptions to this rule are several lines which end with
the words ijw Slav, as —

II. I. 240. aparai Se rd^ara (fravtjfjievai, rja) 67av,
and Od. TT. 368. vrfi Oofj TrXetWre? eplfjuvopev rjw Slav,
and II. K. 238, which ends with

— av $e %elpov oirdoraeai, al&ol et/ccov.

In these lines we ought to restore the uncontracted forms,
and read 9700, Slav, al&oi FeUwv, as (I believe) was pointed
out likewise in the paper of Professor Ahrens, a translation of
which was communicated to the Society by Professor Key ;
and in the line before us we ought to read, in like manner,

I consider that this accumulation of instances shows con-
clusively, that in these passages some correction of the form
of the genitive is required, by which two syllables shall be
substituted for the termination ov ; and that we must reject
such partial alterations, as that by which in Od. K. 493, and
IJL. 267, Hermann (Elem. Doct. Metr. p. 219) proposes to read
fjiavrrjos aXaoO, a reading which Dindorf has adopted in his
text. We may note in passing, that though TroXt? in the old
Greek sometimes changed the final vowel of the stem to 77, as
71-0X7709, 7r6\r]i, 7roX77e<?, there is no evidence that any other
noun in i did the same. But a question may still be raised,
whether these two syllables ought to be the simple uncon-
tracted form oo, or some other formation. Mr. Brandreth, in
his edition of the Iliad, substitutes the terminations o</>t or
O$LV ; and, in fact, our common text of Homer gives us in
II. 4>. 295-

irplv Kara 'IXtoc^t K\vra reject \abv ee\a~at :
and Thiersch (Gram. § 148. 2) would introduce this form at
least in the passages, O. 66, 4>. 104, X. 6, where I have pro-

153

posed to read 'Du'oo. But I would observe that in no passage,
of which I am aware, except in the line cited, is the form in
<f>i or <f>Lv used for a mere possessive genitive. It is more
often equivalent to a dative than a genitive; and when it is
used as a genitive, it is commonly with the notion of motion.
Thus we have in II. A. 350, 351—

ica

a/cpTjv tcaK/copvOa- 7r\d<yx6rj S' CLTTO
in ®. 300. 17 pa, KOI a\\ov olarov UTTO vevp7)(f)w I'aXXev :
in Od. 6. G7 and 105,

/cdS & etc Tracrcra\6<f)i Kpepaaev (fropfjuyya \iyeiav.
Nor do I remember this form to be used in a genitive abso-
lute. But in many of the lines which I have adduced as
requiring correction, the genitives are possessive genitives;
and I believe that the form in o<f>i, or ofyw is not applicable to
them. In 3>. 295 itself, I would read—

Trpiv /card FtXtoo /cXvrd rei^ea \abv eFeXcrcu"*.
In the lines which in the common text begin with 'IX/ou
TrpoTrdpoiOe, any scholars who are not prepared to admit the
genitive in oo, had better read *IX«50& TrpoTrdpoiOe, like ovpa-
vodi TTpo in P. 3. But this formation is not a panacea; they
will have to find other remedies for other irregularities.

I cannot claim the credit of originality for my suggestion ;
for Mr. Payne Knight, in his edition of Homer, printed all
the genitives which I have enumerated, and all the genitives
which commonly appear in the form oto, with the termination
oFo, making the penultimate short or long as the verse
requires. His principle is the same as mine ; only I cannot
find sufficient ground for believing that the suffix of the ge-
nitive case originally included a vau, and was Fo ; although
Thiersch also holds the same doctrine (Gr. Gram. § 178. 23,
and § 183. 1). So far as I know, the evidence of compa-
rative grammar does not sanction this opinion. The oidy
monumental evidence in favour of it, of which I am aware, is
contained in an inscription, which is said to have been found

* R. Payne Knight rejects vv. 293-297 as spurious ; and cf&crai for
fe\<rai is a questionable form.

154

in Corfu, and which was communicated to this Society by Dr.
Hawtrey. In this certainly occurs the form TXao-taFo, as the
genitive of TXacrta? ; but I have never been satisfied of the
genuineness of this inscription (see Proceedings of the Philo-
logical Society, No. XIV. vol. i. p. 149).

The forms which I propose to introduce with the short
open vowel in the penultimate, may be compared with the
pronominal genitives creo and eo, the original uncontracted
forms of (7ov and ov, which occur very frequently in our
common text of Homer. Even eyu,eo is found in II. K. 124, —
vvv 8' e/Lteo irporepos fjid>J eTreypero, icai poi eVecm;.

It is possible that some persons may defend the form oot»,
for the genitive neuter or masculine of the relative in II.
B. 325 and Od. a. 70, by the analogy of £779 as a genitive
feminine, which occurs in our vulgar text in II. II. 208 : —

vvv Be ire^avrat,

<£uXo7u&>5 yLteya epyo v, £'779 TO irpiv y epdaaOe.
But €779 is no word at all, and we must read oo with reference
to epyov. Mr. Payne Knight and Mr. Brandreth agree in
discarding 6779, and read, the one 6Fo, and the other o$Wy
after their usual fashion.

I may observe in conclusion, that I believe very many
forms, which in our ordinary text of Homer are written with
contractions, ought to be written uncontracted ; and scholars
will be more ready to admit this, if they are once convinced
that even the genitive in ov may appear as oo.

156

TRANSACTIONS

OF THE

PHILOLOGICAL SOCIETY.

1855.— No. 11.

June 22,
The Rev. E. J. SELWYN in the Chair.

The following Paper was read : —

"The Ancient Languages of France and Spain;" by JAMES
KENNEDY, Esq., LL.B., late Her Majesty's Judge in the
Mixed Court at Havana.

One of the earliest lessons taught us in our boyhood has
left it indelibly impressed upon our recollections that ancient
Gaul was divided into three parts, differing from each other
in language, institutions and laws. Of these three parts, we
were then taught that the Belgse inhabited one, the Aquitani
another, and that a people who called themselves Celts, but
who by the Romans were called Gauls, inhabited the third.
" Gallia est omnis divisa in partes tres, quarum unam incolunt
Belgae, aliam Aquitani, tertiam qui ipsorum lingua Celta3,
nostra Galli appellantur. Hi omnes in lingua, institutis, le-
gibus inter se differunt."

From this commencement of his Commentaries, we might
have expected that Caesar would have next proceeded to in-
form us in what respects more especially these nations differed
from each other. But in this expectation we are left disap-
pointed, as whatever further particulars are given of them
respectively, are given incidentally, so that it is from scattered
and obscure notices of them only, we are enabled to form any
conclusion as to the distinctions between them. True it is

156

that we have no just reason to complain if we do not find all
the precision of a philosophic historian in the narrative of a
soldier recounting his exploits, especially as others who were
professedly authors, Pliny for instance, and even Strabo, in
giving us the same tripartite division of Gaul, enter still less
explicitly into these particulars. But as the interest of the
question is one more peculiarly of our times, it becomes the
more requisite for us, from their omissions, to seek its solu-
tion from other considerations, — how far the inhabitants of
the countries known to Caesar as Gaul, may be connected
with any people of the same nationalities representing them
now.

I am not aware of any writer having entered at length into
this inquiry. Yet it is certainly one of much greater interest
than the commentators on Caesar have seemed to attach to it,
as they have either passed over the subject altogether, or
made such observations upon it as only served to show what
little attention they had thought proper to give it. Thus, at
length, we find one even accusing Csesar of an error in the
passage above cited, stating that his assertion of the difference
of language was " not correct as regards the Belgse and Celts,
who merely spoke two different dialects of the same tongue,
the former being of the Cymric, the latter of the Gallic stock.
The Aquitani," it is added, " appear to have spoken a lan-
guage of Iberian origin." Such are the views enunciated by
the last commentator on Caesar, Dr. Anthon, who has con-
densed in his notes the observations of previous writers ; and
as his edition seems now extensively admitted into our schools,
it becomes so much the more important for us to examine the
question whether this opinion may be considered correct.

The country occupied by the Belgse, we are informed, was
separated from that of the Celts or Gauls proper, by the
Marne and the Seine. It consequently comprised, not only
the modern kingdoms of Holland and Belgium, but also
Flanders, Picardy, and a small portion of Normandy, with
other provinces of modern France to the East. The inha-
bitants of these districts were the most powerful of all Gaul,
as being on the one side the furthest removed from the Roman

157

territories, they had been the least subjected to the evil con-
sequences of a contact with them, and 011 the other being
nearest to the Germans with whom they wrere always at war,
they had their warlike habits kept in constant exercise. But
we learn, moreover, that they were themselves of German
origin, having, not long before Caesar wrote, themselves in-
truded into their then possessions, after driving out thence
the Gauls who were their former occupants. They were,
therefore, clearly a different people from the Gauls, as being
Germans, and consequently we may conclude that Caesar was
not mistaken respecting them and their language, inasmuch
as we may well suppose them to have spoken one kindred to
that of the Germans from whom they had sprung, and distinct
from either the Cymric or Gaelic. Of that language, however,
we have unfortunately scarcely any traces, or indeed any but
the scantiest notices of the people themselves, but such as
they are, they lead irresistibly to the conclusion which we
should in reason deduce from the account of their origin, and
from the subsequent history of the country they occupied.

In the earlier ages of the human race, when their numbers
were yet few, and the whole world was before them where to
choose the most eligible places for habitation, we may have no
difficulty in imagining that many families might wander away
so widely from their fellow men as to become completely
isolated, growing up eventually into nations with languages,
institutions, and social habits peculiar to themselves. As
they so grew up into nations, the whole course of history
shows us that they would become divided into minor sections,
into opposite parties and contending factions, bearing upon
one another in their own community and pressed upon by
other branches of their family, or by other families which had
also grown up into nations in like manner in adjacent coun-
tries. So long as the world afforded ample room enough for
them to have places of refuge where to retire from more pow-
erful parties, it was no great hardship for any weaker tribe to
wander on, if thus pushed forward to the furthest confines of
the habitable world. But in the course of such events, all

158

the more eligible situations on the several continents would
in no great length of time become occupied and eventually
objects of contention, so that as the tide of population pressed
on, the weaker parties would be compelled to retire to what
would be otherwise ineligible situations, occupied only as the
most inaccessible to their enemies.

At the time of Caesar's conquest of Gaul, we learn that
Britain had already become densely populated : " Hominum
est infinita multitude, creberrimaque sedificia;" and this must
have been occasioned by the pressure of advancing population.
At the same time the tribes on the main land who had not
been able to cross the seas in search of securer abodes, were
obliged to seek protection in such fastnesses as they could
find, whether of mountainous districts or others. One tribe
in that age amongst the Batavi thus seems to have already
settled on the dubious lands since designated as the Low
Countries, and given them the character they have ever since
held as rescued from the ocean. It must have been the direst
necessity alone that could have driven them into such abodes,
and into adopting such means as even so early in their history
the inhabitants had recourse to in their perilous situation for
banking out the sea and constructing their habitations beneath
its approaches. Pliny, who wrote so shortly after Caesar,
describes their country in almost the same terms as we might
employ in the present day, as a land where the ocean pours in
its flood twice a day, and produces a perpetual uncertainty
whether it should be considered a part of the continent or of
the sea (Hist. Nat. lib. xvi.). The whole passage is so graphic
as to deserve a full citation : — " Sunt vero in Septemtrione
visae nobis Chaucorum qui majores minoresque appellantur.
Vasto ibi meatu bis dierum noctiumque singularum intervallis,
effusus in immensum agitur oceanus, aeternam operiens rerum
naturae controversiam, dubiumque terrae sit an parte in maris.
Illic misera gens tumulos obtinet altos, aut tribunalia structa
manibus ad experimenta altissimi aestus, casis ita impositis ;
navigantibus similes cum iritegant aquae circumdata, naufragis
vero cum recesserint : fugientesque cum mari pisces circa

159

tuguria venantur. Non pecudcm his habere, non lacte all ut
finitimis, ne cum feris quidem dimicare contigit, omni procul
abacto frutice."

Such were the people in that age who, already pushed for-
ward undoubtedly by others, whether to be called Teutonic or
Germans, had entrenched themselves in the alluvial shores at
the mouth of the Rhine, while others had been driven away to
Britain or elsewhere. Some of the frontier tribes had perhaps
amalgamated with, or settled down amicably among the
neighbouring Gauls, keeping up however their national cha-
racteristics, as we find now for instance in the same country,
at Brussels, people of different origin and speaking different
languages living together. But already the inhabitants of
that region seem to have belonged to the first tide of German
population, pushed on by others of the same family, who had
dispossessed the Gauls, the primitive inhabitants, and seized
first the more eligible situations, and afterwards having sec-
tions occupying situations less desirable.

Among all nations we may observe that in the bordering
districts of their respective countries there is an approximation
of dialects, which some writers have imagined to be con-
necting links in the great social circle of the human race;
but which, if they are so in reality, probably only originated
from the meeting of different families after long separations,
with the increase of population. The word ' races/ as applied
to the different families of mankind, has been so misused by
some writers, that it seems to me preferable to adopt the
latter term only in advocating the theory that different fami-
lies, as the Celtic, the Teutonic, the Scandinavian, and the
Slavonic, having originally grown up into different nations in
distant lands with different languages, afterwards approached
each other so intimately as to imbibe many of their respective
peculiarities, sometimes mingling together in a friendly manner,
and sometimes hostilely as conquerors and conquered. The
main bodies of the several families might diverge, while
branches of them converged so as to become the connecting
links between each other. Tribes of outcasts and fugitives or
other offsets might be found separating from each principal

160

trunk and meeting the like of other nations, so as to give rise
to a variance of languages, which again would become divided
into dialects, all showing more or less the connection ori-
ginally existing.

Of such a nature seems to have been the mixture of people
in Belgic Gaul in the time of Caesar, which had been going
on perhaps for many centuries previously. But the pre-
ponderating class then was clearly German, as being the
conquerors, so that, according to the statement of Celsus,
cited in Oudendorp, they refused to be called Gauls, and
were indignant when they heard the name assigned them : —
" Ut jam se Gallos dici nesciant, si audiant indignentur."
The testimony of Caesar, both directly and indirectly, in va-
rious parts of his Commentaries, and other ancient writers to
the same effect, that the Belgians were of German origin, is
so express and concurrent, that it becomes a matter of sur-
prise to us to find it disputed. If however doubted by
English writers, those of the country itself have no hesitation
on the subject, and they seem to be unquestionably in the
right. Whatever might have been the earlier divergences in
the Teutonic family of nations, that branch of it settled in
Belgic Gaul in the time of Caesar, may well be expected to
have retained substantially the language of their ancestors.
When the Belgians first dispossessed the Gauls of those dis-
tricts, they might have found them thinly populated, so that
a new language might be easily introduced. But after they
became more densely peopled, the language would be less
affected by any new inhabitants. In such a case, the lan-
guage grown up in any well-peopled country clings to it
tenaciously. That which was learned in childhood cannot
easily be erased from the memory of the adult population,
and thus even conquerors have often had to adopt the language
of the conquered.

We have no notices left us by which to form any sure con-
el usion as to the language of Belgic Gaul ; but as far back as
it can be traced, there seems to be no doubt of its having
been nearly, if not entirely, the same as that existing at
present, represented by the different Dialects of Dutch, Fricsic,

161

Flemish, or Anglo-Saxon. That it did exist there in the time
of Caesar is clear, from the fact that there is no trace of its
having been introduced subsequently, and as far as history or
tradition reaches, it has always been the language of the coun-
try. Having no remnants of it in former times given by any
ancient writer, we can only have recourse to the names of
places, of rivers, and such like, as then designated, and from
these we can positively conclude them to originate from the
same language to which their affinities refer at present. The
names of towns are the least satisfactory of any, as there may
be a doubt of the site of any one in the country. But the names
of the rivers recorded by the Roman writers prove them to
have then borne substantially the same names as those now in
vernacular use. Thus the Rhenus or Rhein, the Scaldis or
Scheldt, the Vahalis or Waal, the Mosa or Maese, the Visurgis
or Weser, the Amisia or Ems, the Isela or Yssel, the Luppia
or Lippe, the Albis or Elbe, the Granna or Gran, are, with
scarcely an exception, names which the present inhabitants
recognize as proceeding from or connected with their own
language, while they present no indications of a Cymric or
Gaelic origin. In the same manner we notice the names of
some places connecting the former inhabitants with the pre-
sent, distinct from the supposition of any Celtic origin. The
Batavi seem to have left an indubitable trace of their name in
Batawe, the Grudii in the Land Von Groede, the Bructeri in
Broekmorland, and above all the Erisii, whose name as Freize
is yet borne and recognized as their own by so considerable a
portion of the people in the countiy.

Influenced no doubt by some such considerations, the con-
tinental writers, as already mentioned, have not hesitated in
at once acknowledging the ancient Belgic language and nation
to be represented by the people who now occupy their coun-
try. Malte Brun says (vol. i. p. 344), " The language of the
Friesians never felt the shock caused by migrations. From
the time of Caesar to this very day, among the endless revo-
lutions of nations, they have never changed their name or the
place of their residence." In conformity with this also, Dr.
Bosworth informs us that the most learned Dutch authors, as

162

Erasmus, Junius, Dousa, Grotius, Scriverius, and others unite
in the opinion of their nation being descended from the
Batavi. Grotius asserts " that the ever-succeeding invaders of
Insula Batavorum were swallowed up in the bulk of the Ba-
tavian population, and thus that the present Dutch are the
genuine offspring of the Batavi/' Dr. Bosworth adds, that
" the Friesic, Dutch, and Flemish dialects were originally the
same language. The Flemish is so allied to the Dutch, that
it may, especially in its earliest forms, be considered the
same." (Bosworth' s Dictionary, p. xcvi.)

In opposition however to the opinions he had cited, Dr.
Bosworth observes, that the Romans had, in the course of
their usual policy, drafted away the males from the country
to be engaged in foreign wars, and that their place had to be
filled up with strangers who he thinks must have varied the
character of the people. Granting this in some measure to
have been the case, still it may be considered very probable
that the new comers were only people of the neighbouring
tribes, speaking the same or some cognate language. Or
even if they were others, yet it may be a question whether the
language of the country could be materially changed unless
the women had been taken away also. Cicero well observed,
that the language of a country depended on the women, DeOrat.
iii. § 12, as also did Plato before him, Crat. § 74, and thus all
history shows, that in a densely peopled country the completest
conquest scarcely ever changes the language. That is only
effected by an extermination of the former inhabitants, or by
separating them into small sections in subjection to their
masters. Whether the modern Dutch are the genuine de-
scendants of the Batavi or not, is not the question for us to
maintain. It will be sufficient for our purpose if it may be
conceded that the language now spoken in Holland is the re-
presentative of that spoken in Belgic Gaul in the time of Caesar,
making due allowances for the different circumstances of the
country at the respective epochs, influenced by the former state
of barbarism contrasted with their present civilization.

Proceeding with the same line of argument, in the belief
that where a language has once become firmly established in

103

a fully peopled country it remains permanently established,
purely or recognizable in its derivatives or dialects, except
under very peculiar circumstances, we can have little difficulty
in next assigning to the nation whom Ca3sar terms Celts or
Gauls, the language now spoken in Brittany. In main-
taining this opinion, the first difficulty we have to encounter
is with regard to the name, as the people of that district who
call themselves Bretons or Brezonec, do not recognize the
name either of Gauls or Celts, the latter being that which,
according to Caesar, they acknowledged. In this, however, the
difficulty is perhaps more apparent than real, and may be
easily explained by referring to the relationship of what we
may here for once call the Celtic nations one to another.
This is in accordance with the common acceptation of the
term, though there may be some doubt as to its strict correct-
ness ; inasmuch as these Celtic nations, generally understood
as divided into two principal branches, the Cymric and Gaelic,
have languages entirely different from each other in their
main characteristics, and in the construction of nouns and
verbs, with a reservation to which I shall have afterwards to
refer. In other respects they have their vocabularies remark-
ably similar. Whether therefore they ought to be considered
of the same national origin appears to me somewhat ques-
tionable, but there can be no dispute of the fact of some very
considerable admixture having taken place between them at
some period of which we have no record.

That branch of the Celtic nation settled in England
acknowledge the name of Cymry, but the Bretons of France
ignore it, though their dialect is substantially the same as the
Welsh. It follows hence that this nation had been also
?ubdivided into two or more sections, the one in France
calling themselves Bretons, who had probably sent colonies
into England, to the shores adjacent, while the others, calling
themselves Cymry, had had their dwellings elsewhere. Where
that locality was we may reasonably conclude, from the
account given us of the Belgic Germans having driven away the
Gauls from the northern parts of Gaul, when their most
obvious course was to take refuge in England, on the shores

164

opposite. In corroboration of this assumption, we find accord-
ingly, that though driven away from that locality, they still
left their name attached to what is yet recognized as the Cim-
bric Chersonesus (Ptol. ii. c. 2 ; Tac. de Mor. Ger. c. 37) ; and
even remnants of their population are said by Welsh writers to
be yet traceable among the Wends of the North of Germany.
If this be correct, they are probably a tribe of the same people
as the Veneti mentioned by Caesar, as they are said yet to speak
a language having an affinity to those of Wales and Brittany,
though so long separated from their brethren in those regions
as to have adopted a different phraseology, in which the Sla-
vonic element has become predominant. See Pughe's Welsh
Dictionary.

In accordance with the same hypothesis, all our best writers
on British antiquities, from Camden to the present day,
show us that the Cymry evidently once inhabited all the
eastern parts of England and Scotland ; and it seems probable
that they left their name finally in Cumberland, if not also
elsewhere, when afterwards driven into Wales. When they
settled upon this emergency in their present abodes, they pro-
bably met and amalgamated with their kindred tribes of
Bretons, who were in like manner receding before the Saxons.
It is certain that some Belgic Germans had also settled in
England in the time of Caesar, bringing with them, according
to our argument, a dialect of that language, which was after-
wards termed the Anglo-Saxon. But the greater part of the
people then inhabiting England came no doubt originally
from Gaul, and were of the nation whom Caesar describes as
calling themselves Celts. The appellation of Gauls, which he
says the Romans gave them, was one of very extensive appli-
cation to a great number of tribes in different parts of Europe.
Though he restricts the name to comparatively narrow bounds,
other ancient writers speak of the Gauls as spread over the
northern parts of Italy, as well as over France and Spain, and
even Germany. Caesar not only excludes, as it would seem, the
Cisalpine Gauls from his enumeration of this people, but many
of the Transalpine, and also those of that part of France de-
signated The Province, while Otherwise they appear to have

165

been considered only cognate tribes. Without seeking to
distinguish the notions entertained of them by different writers,
it is the purport of this argument to show that Caesar was
correct in declaring those of the centre parts of France to have
been distinct from those of the south-western or Aquitani, inas-
much as the former were of the Cymric family, and the latter
of the Gaelic.

Originally distinct from each other, these two nations evi-
dently seem to have passed through Europe by different routes,
the Gaels through Greece, Italy, and the southern parts of
France to Spain, while the Cymry came in a more northerly
direction. If such were the case, the first tribes with whom the
Romans came in contact were those of the Gaelic branch,
whom Caesar probably knew by their local names rather than
by any general one. When these were asked respecting their
neighbours and themselves, they would probably then, as their
descendants now, return an answer which to Roman ears
might be the cause of the confusion. In Gaelic the word
Gall signifies a foreigner or people generally, and if used by
them respecting their neighbours, the inhabitants of mid-
France, the Romans would take it as Galli; but applied to
themselves, they would probably then, as now, use a word of
almost the same sound to strangers, Gael, or as they please
to spell it, Gaoidhiol. Thus the designation might easily be
confounded by the Greek or Roman writers, who would there-
fore call them all alike Gauls, though the Cymry would be
ignorant of the appellation applied to them.

In the same way respecting the term Celtic, which neither
the Cymric nor Gaelic people acknowledge; the latter, speaking
of the country of either the one or the other, would probably
use the word " teach," habitation, thus Galteach or Gaelteach,
whence the Greek and Roman writers could only make out
a sound of Galtic or Celtic, and so apply that term to the
people as if it were their national appellation. The general
derivation of the term, however, is from the Cymric celt,
ceilt, for covert or shelter, whence celtiad, or a dweller in
coverts, or inhabitant of the woods ; and this might also have
given rise to the name applied to themselves, or both, as from

166

both it would obtain a larger comprehension. But nothing is
more confused in ancient history than the application by dif-
ferent writers of the names Gauls or Celts, evidently showing
they had no distinct knowledge of the people, and that they
used the names only as generic appellations. In a special
inquiry as to the Celtic nations generally, it would be an
interesting subject to enter into those various notices of the
people who are sometimes spoken of as Celts and sometimes
as Gauls ; but that would lead us far beyond our present
object, which is only to distinguish between the several nations
of Gaul referred to by Caesar.

Before proceeding to inquire into the differences between
the Aquitani and the Gauls of mid-France, it may be neces-
sary to revert to the difficulty already mentioned in making
the discrimination as between the Cymry and the Gael, on
account of the great similarity in the names of common
objects in their respective languages. Thus then, where this
similarity exists, it becomes impossible to refer to the one
idiom or the other for the origin of the names of places and
rivers, by which in ordinary cases, in the absence of any
vocabulary, we might hope to trace their character. A great
number of the names of rivers have thus a sound and meaning
in common of Cymric and Gaelic origin, and the names of
places also, whence it becomes very difficult sometimes to
discriminate between them. Yet even here we are not
entirely without some means of discrimination, as there
are some variations sufficiently marked to guide us in our
inquiry. The rivers of modern France, unlike those of Belgic
Gaul, now bear names very different from their ancient names,
which fact is a proof that the present inhabitants are a dif-
ferent people from those who dwelt there under the Romans.
Thus the Marne and the Seine, called formerly Matrona and
Sequana, seem to have in them compounds of the word pro-
nounced Aon, both in Cymric and Gaelic, for a river, and the
same with several others. On the other hand, several seem
to have a reference only to the Cymric. The principal river
of France, the Liger, now the Loire, appears to have its name
derived from this language. Llig, 'what shoots or glides/

167

and aw, ' water.' The Arar, now the Saone, is described as
" a very slow and smooth running river/' and Ara, Araf in
Cymric, signifies " slow, soft, mild, still." The Atar, now the
Adonr, and the Duranius or Dordogne, with the Durance and
some others, show combinations of the Cymric word dwr,
' water/ which though inserted in the dictionaries as Gaelic also,
is not however in general use. In like manner several others
might be judged to be Cymric, though I do not feel suffi-
ciently decided respecting their probable derivations to claim
them as of this language only.

The names of tribes afford less satisfactory means of judging,
but a few instances may be found, as in the appellations
Morini and Armorica, for the people or province on the sea-
coast : the word for sea in Cymric is mor, in Gaelic muir,
whence we may conclude they derived their names from the
former language, in which they have a signification of ma-
ritime, rather than from the latter. The names of several
individuals among the different nations of Gaul are also given,
some beginning with Ver or Vir, which may be explained
from one language or the other ; but as we are not generally
informed what the names signified, all etymologies attempted
respecting them must partake of the character of surmises
only. One name however is defined, that of Vergobretus, as ap-
plied to the " chief magistrate" among the jEdui. This people,
residing in the southern part of Gaul, according to the theory
above set forth, were probably Gaelic, and in accordance with
that theory, the chief magistrate or judge, " man for judg-
ment," is clearly traceable in that language, f ' fear-go-breith,"
but not in the Cymric. The only other word which Csesar
has repeated is Soldurii, the name given to the band of war-
riors specially devoted to their chieftain (lib. iii. § 22). This
word may be considered common to both the Cymric and
Gaelic languages, Sawdior in the former, Saighaider in the
latter, and both pronounced so much like the English word
soldier, as to lead me to the conclusion of the latter being
taken from one or both of the former, as so many other words
have been derived from those sources of which our lexico-
graphers seem to have no knowledge. Thus in the case of

168

this same word soldier, different derivations have been
given, while this early application of it has been entirely
overlooked.

We must not however pass over another word, Ambacti,
mentioned by Caesar, without a direct intimation of its being
Celtic, but which Festus says was a Gallic word for a hired
servant, on the authority of Ennius : SoiAo? /ucr&wTo? w?
Evno?. — Gloss. Ambactus. Caesar, after speaking of the
Druids among the Celts, refers to their Equites, and says,
"atque eorum ut quisque est genere copiisque amplissimus,
ita plurimos circum se ambactos clientesque habet" (lib. vi.
§ 15). For this word then various derivations have been
assigned by Celtic scholars ; but passing them by as unsatis-
factory, I would suggest, in consonance with our argument,
that it should be sought in the Cymric, where accordingly we
find still amaeth, ' a husbandman/ Caesar, by the context
entirely, and by the juxtaposition of dientes, clearly referred
to the vassals generally of the Celtic nobles, probably as
prsedial or personal, and with this explanation the modern
Cymric word perfectly agrees.

The French language itself is much more Celtic or Cymric
than is commonly supposed. Many of its particles can only
be properly understood by a reference to those idioms, and it
contains many words taken from them. Those idioms, how-
ever, the Cymric and Gaelic, entered very largely into the
composition of the Latin also; and when we find this the
parent of so many existing modern languages, it becomes a
somewhat interesting question to inquire how far that cir-
cumstance operated in spreading the Latin language itself.
Systematic and unscrupulous as was the plan of colonization
carried on by the Romans in connexion with their conquests,
it may be a question whether they could have succeeded so
completely in forcing their language upon different countries
unless they had also found there languages with which their
own could coalesce. We shall have to refer to a particular
instance of this commingling of idioms hereafter, but at pre-
sent return to what notices are left us of Gallic words, which
are unfortunately very few.

169

Servius, in his Notes on Virgil (lib. ix. v. 743), mentions a
circumstance from Caesar's lost work ' E^hemerides/ that he
had on one occasion been made prisoner by the Gauls, and
being hurried away by his captors was met by one who knew
him, and seeing him in that state called out in an insulting
tone, Caesar ! Caesar ! This word, according to Servius, in
Gallic signified dimitte, and the persons who held him prisoner,
mistaking it as an order to release him, allowed him to escape.
Dr. Anthon seems to consider this story apocryphal, and
Celtic scholars have in vain attempted to find a word like
Caesar equivalent to dimitte. But it surely can be no valid
reason for doubting the fact, because no such equivalent can
be found. It is unreasonable to suppose that Servius would
have repeated such a statement unless it had been first given
by Caesar, or that he would have deliberately recorded such
an adventure unless it had really occurred, especially when we
may remove all difficulty respecting .the word used, by under-
standing it somewhat of Cwswr or Cyswr, which in Cymric
are terms of contempt. If those who held Caesar prisoner
understood one of their chiefs to say that he was a worthless
captive, they might thus allow him to escape as undeserving
of their trouble. This explanation seems to me more reason-
able than to pronounce the anecdote apocryphal, and certainly
the manner in which the circumstance is recited carries to
the mind a full conviction of its truthfulness. "Hoc de
historia tractatum est: namque Caius Julius Caesar cum
dimicaret in Gallia et ab hoste raptus equo ejus portaretur
armatus, occurrit quidam ex hostibus qui eum nosset et insul-
tans ait Caesar, Caesar ; quod Gallorum lingua dimitte significat;
et ita factum est ut dimitteretur. Hoc autem ipse Caesar in
Ephemeride sua dicit, ubi propriam commemorat felicitatem,"
as he had good right to do.

Having already referred to the names of some rivers in
mid- Gaul as deducible from the Cymric, it would be advise-
able also, if feasible, to point out some of the towns or other
places to whose names we might assign a similar origin.
Knowing however the ridicule too often justly bestowed on
etymologies, for which we have no clue or authority, and

170

which are founded only on a fancied similarity or aptitude of
meaning, I will confine myself to two instances, those of
Novidunum and Lugdunum. These I take, not on account
of their being more clearly explicable than several others, but
because there were so many places called by each name as to
indicate their origin from some particular local cause more
than others. There were, in fact, three different places appa-
rently of some importance bearing each of these names, and
to one of them, Lugdunum, we have an explanation given us.
Plutarch, or the author of the Treatise on Rivers, says, —
M.c0fj,opos KCLI AreTTojjiapos VTTO ^eo-rjpovecos TT;? apX1!?
0evT€9 619 TOVTOV KCLTO, 7rpo(rTa<yrjv TOV \o<f>ov iro\iv
0eAovT69* TWV Se Oepekiwv opvadopeva^v ai<l>vi$i(t)S
e7ri<£avevT69 KCLI SiaTrrepv^a^evoi TO, irepi,^ eTrXqpaxrav ra
SevSpa. M&)yLtopo9 S' otwvoer/coTTta^ e/ATreipos vTrap^cov TIJV TTO\W
AowySovvov Trpoo-rjyopevo-ev, \ovyov <yap TTJ <r<f>cov Sia\€KT<p
TOV Kopa/ca /ca\ovcn, $ovvov 8e TOV efe^ovra. From this we
learn, that on the foundation of what is now the city of Lyons
an augury was taken from a flight of crows, in accordance
with which the city was called Lugdunum, for that long or
lougos in their language signified a crow, and doun or dunum
an eminence. Now it is the case that dun in Gaelic, and din
in Cymric, may be explained as stated, but no word like
\ovyo? in either at all approaches the appellation of any bird
of the crow species. Had there then been only one town in
Gaul so designated, we might have supposed that its name
had been given from such a cause, and the original word
become lost in either language, without being compelled to
believe the cause assigned a mistake. But when we find
three towns bearing that same name, we cannot possibly
believe them all called after any crows, and would rather ima-
gine the author had mistaken his information. He had heard
of the augury having been taken, as usual in such cases, and
he too hastily concluded that the word \ovy signified a crow.
He had heard that the name was taken from two Gallic words,
as loug and doun, and being correct with regard to the one,
might easily fall into an error respecting the other. If it had
not been for the direct statement of this author, and consi-

171

dering the position of the several places, we should have had
no difficulty in deducing the name from llwch or loch, a lake
or morass, and the common termination dun, signifying to-
gether a hill fastness in a lake or morass. Such we know to
have been the places of security chosen by the Gauls for their
towns or villages, and from such causes they would probably
take their names. In the same way with regard to Novi-
dunum, by which name three other cities were called, together
with the usual termination dun, we might understand the
Cymric nodfa, a sanctuary, a place of refuge and protection
from their enemies, or even a city of refuge, if Celtic scholars
will insist on the Druids having such sanctuaries.

The Druids seem to have been an institution of the Cymric
rather than of the Gaelic people, though undoubtedly their
tenets had also spread extensively among the latter. Though
Csesar supposed them to have originated in Britain, their
remains prove them to have nourished in an equal degree on
the western shores of mid-France, as found especially in Brit-
tany in our day. They had not advanced into Belgic Gaul,
nor to any extent into Aquitania or Spain, and their deities
may thus be understood by the Cymric rather than by the
Gaelic language. Thus their god of eloquence, Ogmius, whom
the Romans assimilated to Mercury, has his title explained by
Irish scholars from their Ogam, ' ' a secret letter," or " the
secret of letters." If I might venture a suggestion, it seems
to me better explicable from the Cymric Ogmi, from Og,
<{ what is apt to open or expand, what moves or stirs, or is full
of motion and life," and mi, the pronoun, or " what is identic."
See the Welsh Dictionaries. Taranis, in like manner, is evi-
dently from the Cymric taran thunder, taranu to thunder,
taranydd the thunderer. In Gaelic torrun.

Suetonius has informed us of another Gallic word which
appears to me to have been also unsatisfactorily explained.
He says that Csesar raised a legion in Transalpine Gaul which
he named Alauda, from a Gallic word, the meaning of which
however he has not given. "Ex Transalpinis conscriptam,
vocabulo quoque Gallico Alauda enim appellabatur" (lib. 1.
§ 24). Pliny, in a notice of this legion, also refers to this

172

name Alauda as a Gallic word, but seems to connect it at the
same time with the Latin name of a bird supposed to be the
crested lark, as if from the crest of the helmet worn by the
soldiers. "Paro volucris ex illo galerita appellata quondam
postea Gallico vocabulo etiam legioni nomen dederat Alaudse"
(Hist. Nat. lib. ii. § 37). But Pliny's etymologies are gene-
rally bad, and in this instance, if he has not been misunder-
stood, it seems absurd to suppose that Caesar would give such
a name to his new legion. Looking at its composition, as
raised of foreigners, I would suggest that it was probably taken
from the Cymric word allaid foreign, to signify, therefore,
the foreign legion, The word equivalent to this in Gaelic is
allmharach.

In connexion with this, though wandering a little from the
subject, I venture to suggest an explanation of the name Ale-
manni (Allemans in modern French), applied to the Germans,
the derivations of which hitherto given seem very unsatisfac-
tory. Without discussing them, however, I should pronounce
it left from the Cymry, who might then have termed strangers
and foreigners, as they now do, " Allmaon," a foreign people;
whence the name might have become applied as a national,
though at first it was only a general appellation. In the same
manner we may explain the term Belgse applied to the Ger-
man intruders in the north of Gallia, who seem never to have
acknowledged that name, and who, therefore, must have had
it applied from some extraneous source. If we consider, then,
their relative position to the Cymry, whom they drove from
their possessions, we find its meaning in Cymric, where, from
the roots belg a breaking out, beli havoc, devastation, we
have Belgiad, still signifying a "ravager, or destroyer."
Such was then, evidently, the name applied to their national
enemies by the Cymry of old, as their descendants have after-
wards, under similar circumstances, spoken of the Saesonaid.

Returning to our argument : it is thus our purport to show
that the people of Gaul, termed by Caesar Celts, were of the
same nation as the Cymry, which conclusion has been also
come to by Thierry and other principal writers of France,
though from other considerations. Our next task is to argue

173

that the southern part of Gaul, or Aquitania, was inhabited
by a Gaelic people.

It has already been stated, that though the Cymric and
Gaelic languages, judging from their vocabularies merely,
were kindred languages, yet in their essential particulars, as
in their structure and framework, they are very different.
At the same time, I reserved to myself the occasion for an
important observation on this point, and it is this : though
the Cymric and Gaelic languages are so entirely different in
such essential particulars, — as between the natives of Wales
on the one hand, and those of Scotland and Ireland on the
other, — yet the Breton of the present day is an intermediate
one between them, and has many of its inflexions similar to
the Gaelic. This is a very suggestive fact in the history of
the language, and is such a one as serves well to explain the
history of a people, where written records fail us. It has
been already pointed out by Professor Duncan Forbes, in his
interesting letters on the subject, first addressed to the ' Gen-
tleman's Magazine/ though the cause is still left unexplained
how this affinity should exist, after so many centuries have
passed since any communication between the several countries
could have possibly been had.

The modern Welsh have written records of acknowledged
antiquity ; and their Triads certainly seem to me entitled to
credit. They are consistent with probability, and are free
from all those extravagances which are the usual concomitants
of fiction. They state expressly, that " the Cymri first settled
in this island, and that before them no persons lived therein ;
but it was full of bears, wolves and bisons." They state, also,
that " they consisted of three tribes, the Cymri, the Lloeg-
rians, and the Brython, who were all of the same primitive
race, and were of one language." — Williams' s ' Ecclesiastical
Antiquities of the Cymri/ p. 7. We learn further, from the
same authority, that " the first came with Hu Gadarn (the
mighty), because he would not possess a country and lands by
fighting and persecution, but justly and in peace;" which
seems to acknowledge, that he had been driven out of some
former possession, and sought an uninhabited country for

174

refuge. With these statements, so consistent with probability
in themselves, we find all other authorities to concur. Tacitus
says, " In universum tamen sestimanti Gallos vicinum solum
occupasse credibile est; eorum sacra deprehendas, supersti-
tionum persuasione; sermo haud multum diversus." (Yit.
Agr. cap. 2.) And the Venerable Bede : " Hsec insula Britones
solum a quibus nomen accepit incolas habuit, qui de tractu
Armoricano ut fertur Britanniam advecti, australes sibi partes
illius vindicarunt." (Hist. Eccles. lib. i. cap. 1.) See Note.
These tribes, then, must have come to the eastern and
south-eastern coasts of Britain, whence they would in due
course proceed to the interior as their population increased.
That such a people did once inhabit those coasts is deducible
from the remnants of local names still remaining in England
and Scotland. Of the Isle of Wight we find mention in
Nennius, cap. 2 : " Quam Britones insulam Guied vel Guith
quod Latine divortium dici pot est ." There is no word like
this that I can find with the same signification, except the
Cymric Gwaheniaeth, which, pronounced quickly, has the
sound of Guith. The names of rivers on those coasts also
appear to be Cymric ; and the application of the term Aber
for the mouth of a river, prevalent on the east of Scotland,
has been noticed by Professor Newman in his ' Regal Rome/
as unknown in other parts, where the Gaelic equivalent is
Inver. While they were thus peopling the island on the one
side, the Silures, whom Tacitus judged to have come from
Spain, and other Gaelic tribes, also probably from Spain
originally, were settling on the south-western and western.
This will account for the evident traces of a Gaelic people
having inhabited Wales previously to the Cymry, as Lloyd
and other Welsh antiquaries have long since pointed out, and
as also Prichard and other writers in our day agree. Thus,
even now, " the inhabitants of North and South Wales are
clearly two different races. Besides the distinction of dialect,
there- is a physiological difference" (Jones's 'Vestiges of the
Gael in Gwynedd/ p. 72). And thus even "the natives of
the extreme north and extreme south of Cardiganshire are not
always mutually intelligible" (ib. p. 14) ; while the natives

175

of North and South Wales respectively have dialects almost
totally unintelligible to each other.

If, then, under these considerations, we suppose the Cymry
to have been originally driven from the north of Gaul into
Britain, before the more intimate communications arose that
afterwards existed between their brethren in mid-Gaul and
the Gael of Aquitania, we may easily account for the Cymric
and Gaelic languages in these islands remaining comparatively
distinct. But the Cymry in the centre of Gaul, associated
more with the Aquitani, became more commingled with them,
and adopted many of their inflections for nouns and verbs, as
well as many of their primitive words, so as to make the
Breton, as before observed, an intermediate language. Hence
it happens in the present day, a Welshman and Irishman
speaking their vernacular tongues cannot understand one
another in the least; but the former can understand the
Breton with little difficulty, and the Irishman can understand
him also, though with greater difficulty. This circumstance
shows there has been a great commingling of the two nations
at some former time ; and we know historically it cannot have
occurred within at least a thousand years, so that occurring
so long since, and remaining so distinctly to be noticed, it
must have been of the most intimate character. This can
only be accounted for by the hypothesis of the two families
having lived close to each other in Gaul for a very long period
of time ; which consideration leads us to the next question,
whence we draw this conclusion, that the Aquitani, their
neighbours of the South of France, were Gaelic.

The language of the Aquitani is as much a matter of dis-
cussion as either of the others. Had we any considerable
data respecting any of them from which to deduce a decided
opinion, these would necessarily form a part of their history,
and not leave us any question for argument as a problem to
be solved. As it is, we must be content with what few
hints have been afforded us, combined with the probabilities
of the case to support our theory. Of Gallic or Celtic words
we have many notices in ancient writers to have them iden-
tified with the living languages ; but the real question is, how

176

to connect them with any particular part of Gaul. The names
of rivers or places here assist us as little, on account of the
number of words, as above mentioned, common to both the
Cymric and Gaelic languages. Hence it is we find so many
of the rivers of the Peninsula, Abono or Avono, the Douro,
the Duero, and others apparently of the same common origin.
There is, however, one termination connected with different
divisions of the country deserving of our notice, — Tan or Tania,
common to the Aquitani and many of the tribes of Spain ;
Lusitani, Laretani, Cosetani, Varetani, Edetani, Contestani,
Bastatani, Orretani, Turdetani. This termination seems to
have been unknown in mid- Gaul, with the exception, perhaps,
of Pliny's ' Britanni/ and it has no meaning in Cymric, But
it has a significant meaning in Gaelic, tan, tana, tania signi-
fying a district or country ; so that Aquitania may thus be
understood as the country of the Aqui, whatever might be the
origin of that name. This, however, like most national names,
must remain a conjecture merely, for the explication of which
we have no clue ; as that given by Pliny, evidently from the
Latin aqua, seems to me altogether unsatisfactory. Of the
language of the Aquitani I know of only one word left us, that
given by Suetonius, who says that at Tolosa Bee signifies the
beak of a bird : t( Cui Tolosse nato cognomen in pueritia
Becco fuerat ; id valet gallinacei rostrum" (lib. viii. § 18). This
word is Gaelic, not Cymric, where the equivalents are pig,
gylfin, gylfant-, nor is it Basque, in which language the
equivalent is ontzia.

This is unfortunately only one word to guide us. But even
if we could adduce a number of words, the conclusion would
be little conformable with the views we have maintained, as
we have observed that the Gaelic and Cymric vocabularies
have many equivalents in common, while the framework of
the two languages proves them to be essentially distinct.
Thus, in the modern languages of France and England, their
vocabularies might be made to show them to be essentially
the same, while the grammars would prove them to be of
entirely different origin. Such conclusions, then, are very
unphilosophical, as often leading to error ; though still, in the

177

absence of fuller proofs, we may take them as evidences in
our favour, so far as they are worth it, to support our assump-
tion, even if they are not considered sufficient to prove them.
This assumption is, that the Gaelic tribes having come at
different periods from Spain into Ireland, whence a colony of
them afterwards went into North Britain under the name of
Scots, the language now spoken in Ireland and Scotland, and
known as Gaelic, is the representative of that formerly spoken
in Aquitania and Spain.

The accurate and judicious Strabo has taken care twice to
inform us explicitly, that the Aquitani resembled more the
Iberi, or people of Spain, than they did the other Gauls ; not
in language only, but also in personal appearance : Tov 9 yu,ev
AKVITCIVIOVS reXeo)? efi/XXo^evoy? ov rrj y\a)rrrj /JLOVOV a\\a
/cat rots dw^acriv e/x^epet? \ftrjpa-i pa\\ov rj FaXarat? (lib. iv.
§ 1). And again, AvrXo)? yap einreiv ot KKVITCUVOI $ia<f>€pov(ri
rov Ta\aTifcov <f>v\ov /cara re ra? rcov crwfJbaTGW /cara/cvas Kai
Kara TTJV y\a)rrrjv eot/cacn, Se yu-aXXov I/3r}p(rw (ib. § 2). This
being our guide, the next question arising for consideration is,
to inquire what was the language of Spain at that period.

In the passage first above cited, Strabo further gives us to
understand, that among the Gauls, distinct from the Aquitani,
there were several dialects, or slight differences of language.
But even without this information, only from the probability
arising from what we observe in all countries, we might have
judged that such would have been the case. The same with
regard to the people of Spain, of the original inhabitants, in-
dependently of the various foreigners that had settled there,
Greeks, Romans, Phoenicians, Carthaginians, or any others,
including the Persians, according to Varro, as cited by Pliny.
What people were referred to as Persians, it is unnecessary
here to conjecture, as our inquiry is only directed to ascertain
the character of that large and warlike body of wandering
tribes whom the more civilized nations of antiquity found in
Spain, as recorded by their writers. These tribes, spoken of
by them under different names, were, as far as we can judge,
of the same origin in Spain ; though not, as Gibbon has said,
all the same as those of Gaul and Britain. When, therefore,

178

we read of the people of Spain under so many different names
as Gauls, Celts, Scythians, or Iberi, with the compounds Cel-
tiberi, or Celto-Scythians, independently of the local names, or
those of individual tribes, we must not imagine them to have
been of distinct nationalities. Strabo has expressly informed
us, that these were all only general terms ; and his observa-
tions respecting them are deserving of our careful considera-
tion : (/>r)/jLi, jap Kara TIJV TMV ap%cua)v EXX^vwv So£av wairep
ra 7T/309 Boppav ftepr] ra yvayptfjua evi ovofjuart ^icvOas e/ca\ovv
TJ NoyLtaSav a>9 Ofjbrjpos vcrrepov 8e KCLI rcov TT/JO? eaTrepav
<yv(0a0evTa)V KeXrot Kai I/ifype? vj o~VfJi,fj,i,KTa)$ KeXrj/ifype? /cat
Ke\roo-Kv0aL TrpocrTjjopevovro vfi ev ovo/jua rav /caOe/cacrTa
€0va)i> TaT7o/j,evcov Sia rrjv ayvoiav (lib. i. cap. 2) .

From the above passage we may conclude, that Strabo
understood the term Scythians to signify Nomades ; and such,
literally, seems to be the true meaning of the word, whether
applied to the wandering tribes known to the ancients as
Scythians, or those known later as Scots, the word Scuite in
Gaelic still signifying a wanderer. We have already seen
that the word Celt seems to have been applied with the same
meaning as a bushranger, or dweller in the woods ; and cor-
responding to these, though certainly a new suggestion, I feel
persuaded that the word Iberi had the same signification, and
was applied to the same people by the Phoenicians, from whom
it came to the Greeks and Romans. The word ^O^ which
we have in our version translated Hebrew, appears originally
to have signified one who had no fixed habitation: DOW>
" inhabitants of the desert, nomades." Thus the phrase in
Genesis, ch. xiv. 13, in our version translated " told Abram
the Hebrew," is rendered in the Septuagint Afipa/j, rp Tre/oar^;
and thus also, in other parts of the same version, by other
terms of equivalent signification, as e/c/Satvovre? and SiaTro-
pevopevoi, in the 1st book of Samuel. From this,, then, we
may judge, that the same general term which had been
applied by the Phoenicians to the Israelites, and to the wan-
dering tribes of the country now known as Georgia, had been
also applied by them to those they found in Spain, and had
come to the Greeks and Romans as a national appellation.

179

However this may be, it is certain that the name Iberi was
applied by Greek and Roman writers to the people inhabiting
Spain in their times, and that these Iberi were not any former
class of inhabitants, but essentially the same people who were
by others of those writers also called Gauls, Celts, Scythians,
or Celtiberians.

The Irish histories and traditions are mixed up with so
many palpable fictions, that it is impossible for us in reason
to rely on them as authorities. Still, so far as they may be
received, they show us that the first inhabitants of Ireland
came from Spain ; and certainly that important branch of
them, the Scots, who first gave their name to that island, and
afterwards to North Britain, as in the present day. The
traditions and histories of Spain on this point coincide with
the Irish, and so also do the English (see Nennius, § 13), so
that we have both authority and probability in support of our
assumption. We have already cited Strabo as noticing the
personal resemblance of the Aquitani to the people of Spain;
and Tacitus, for the same reason, judged the Silures of Wales
to have been of Spanish origin. Such national resemblances
are well worthy of remark ; and thus, even now, after the
lapse of 2000 years, there may be traced an extraordinary
similarity of personal appearance between the lower classes of
the Irish and those of Galicia in Spain, whence the colonists
are said to have proceeded. To that province the Gael left
their name, and there the coast is yet designated Brigantina.
Thence, also, the slightest observation of the map will show,
that any vessel, sailing even at random, would as easily get to
Ireland as to the south-western parts of England, where others
of their family had no doubt settled in the same manner.
This being allowed, the conclusion necessarily follows, that
the original colonists took their language with them ; and as
they have ever since remained a distinct people in Ireland,
have thus been able to retain it.

Spain itself was subjected so relentlessly to the systematic
colonization of the Romans, that the original inhabitants of
the country seem to have been soon completely absorbed in
the communities of their conquerors. Thus, then, their Ian-

180

guage seems soon to have become obliterated, so that, even in
the earlier periods of the empire, Latin had entirely superseded
it. But still some traces of that ancient language are yet to
be found in modern Spanish, — words such as garzon, a boy ;
nada, nothing ; casaca, a coat, and a few others, which, having
no affinities in Latin, Basque, or Cymric, are purely Gaelic.
In like manner other traces are to be found in the pronuncia-
tion of a still larger class of words, which appear to have first
come to the Latin also from the Gaelic. Thus a thief is not
latro, but ladron, which is Gaelic and Cymric ; and the wall
of a house, in like manner, is pared, not paries. Terra becomes
tierra, from the Gaelic tir ; planus is llano, pronounced liano,
Gaelic, leana ; plenus is lleno, pronounced liano, Gaelic lianum-,
mel is miel, Gaelic mil; ferrum is hierro, Gaelic iarrun, with
many others.

Several words, said to have been taken from the ancient
Spanish language, have been handed down to us ; but they are
not easy to be identified with any living language : briga, a
town; buteo, a bird of rapine ; cetra, a shield; cusculia, a kind of
oak ; dureta, a seat in a bath ; falarica, a kind of spear ; gurdus,
stolidus ; lancia, a lance ; necy, a name for the god Mars, and
perhaps a few others. Of these lancia and cetra appear to be
certainly Gaelic; dureta, from dwr or dur, may be Gaelic
and Cymric ; gurdus is the same as the Cymric gordew ; the
others I cannot trace satisfactorily to myself in either of those
languages, nor yet in Basque. Perhaps further researches may
afford some explication of them, or the statements made re-
specting them may have been made erroneously, or the words
themselves may have become lost in the languages as now
remaining.

In conclusion, we have it still left us to consider the question
whether the singular language now generally known as the
Basque or Biscayan, can be supposed to have been the preva-
lent language of Spain in the time of Caesar or Strabo. William
Humboldt and many other writers have held that the people
six -;iking it were the original inhabitants of Spain prior to the
arrival of the Celts, and that they had probably come from
Africa. The modern Basques have also some traditions or

181

belief to the same effect, maintaining that their ancestors
had come direct from the plains of Shinar, at the time of the
dispersion under Tubal Cain, In this absurdity they have per-
suaded several others of the Spanish writers to concur, though
Mariana and the most judicious of the Spaniards have dissented
from them. On the other hand, M'Culloch in his ' Geogra-
phical Dictionary' and Borrow in his ' Bible in Spain/ say that
some of the Basques believe themselves to be the remnant
of some Phoenician colony. Beyond these assertions, I have
never met with any Basque to assent to this supposition,
though I have conversed with many intelligent persons of
their country on the subject ; nor have I found any such
suggestion in the principal works written on their language ;
of which I believe I have nearly all that have ever been pub-
lished. I have never met with the one purporting to explain
the celebrated passage in Plautus, generally considered Phoe-
nician, by means of the Basque language, but feel confident,
from the consideration I have given it, that however inge-
niously the attempt might have been made, it could not have
succeeded in proving any connexion between the Basque and
the language of that passage.

It seems to be an opinion almost universally admitted that
the Phoenician language was nearly identical with the Hebrew.
If this opinion be correct, though wishing to be understood
as not altogether agreeing with it, we may positively assert
that the Basques cannot be supposed to be any remnant of
the Phoenician colonists, as there are very few traces indeed
of Hebrew to be found in their language. Still it appears to
me very probable that they are the descendants of some
colony from the East planted in the districts which they now
occupy, the traces of which are clearly to be seen, and are
well deserving of being investigated. They certainly give
no indications of being descendants of the original inhabitants
of the Peninsula. They speak of their neighbours, the French
and Spaniards respectively, by appellations merely signifying
people of the country, or natives (Erdederac) ; and of them-
selves as people of their respective provinces, without any trace

182

of hostile feeling such as might be expected if they had ever
in reality been driven from other possessions. They call
themselves Euscaldunac, and their language Euscara, totally
ignoring the name of Basques, by which they are generally
known. On the contrary, they rather understand the term
as applicable to other people, the word basa in their language
signifying a wood, and basacoa a dweller in the woods. This
term they applied to the people now known as Gascons, who are
descendants of people who formerly lived in their neighbour-
hood, but were afterwards driven into France. These Gas-
cons have no affinity whatever with the Euscaldunac, but an
unmistakeable affinity with the Gael, so that the application
of the name to them is strictly appropriate, while the reflex
of it on the Euscaldunac themselves can only be considered a
striking example of the perversity with which national appel-
lations are sometimes conferred.

William Humboldt has further attempted to show that this
people had formerly been spread very extensively over Spain,
from the names of places that may be explained by means of
their language. In this, however, he appears to me over-
straining his facts for the sake of his theory, as in reality
there are but few such names that can be allowed to be so
derived, and those principally on the sea-coasts. In fact the
original location of the Basques can scarcely be traced beyond
their present limits, the provinces of Biscay, Guipuzcoa, and
Alava in Spain, and the sea-coast of France from the Pyrenees
to Bayonne. If they ever extended further, it appears to me
that it was not in the interior but along the sea-coasts; as
further on in Spain there is another Bayona, which is one of
the most certain of their appellations, from ibaya river, and
ona good.

There is no nation in the world more remarkable for in-
dustry and enterprise than the Basque, combined with such a
pure love for their country and their free institutions, while
crime seems almost unknown in their provinces. A. cele-
brated modern Spanish writer, Lista, has recorded of them
that he resided upwards of three years among them, and

183

never heard of any offence committed there during that time
beyond an assault from motives of jealousy. Thus a brave,
frugal, sober and industrious people, spreading themselves over
Spain and Spanish colonies, we may decidedly pronounce
them to be an increasing rather than a decreasing people.
Yet in the present day they are in their native provinces
only very few in number, — under half a million of souls al-
together. From these considerations, and from their whole
history, they appear to me to have increased to that number
from some small colony rather than to have decreased from
a larger nation. Their history and language, which is quite
distinct from any other in the neighbourhood, deserve a
much more careful investigation than has yet been given them,
and perhaps the former can now only be elucidated by means
of the latter. This investigation, however, would require a
lengthened inquiry, and is entitled to form the subject of an
entirely distinct notice. At present, I content myself with
saying that I agree with those of the Spanish writers, Florez
and others, who consider them to have been a different people
from the Cantabri. These were probably of the same tribe
as the Cantii, the primary inhabitants of our county of Kent.
Of the other settlers in Spain it is unnecessary here to
speak, as the purport of this essay has been only to discuss
the question of the language spoken by the original inhabit-
ants of the country in connexion with the Aquitani. They
undoubtedly spoke among themselves, as we are also told they
did, a variety of dialects such as we find the case in all countries
and all ages. Among the Basques there are seven, and among
the Gael and Cymry full as many. This, however, is not in-
consistent with our argument, that the ancient inhabitants of
Spain were Gaelic, of the same family of people as the Aqui-
tani of France, who were distinct from the inhabitants of what
Caesar calls Celtic Gaul, from the latter being of the Cymric
family, while both were distinct from the Belgae, inasmuch as
these were Germans.

Note, p. 20. — I pass over, as inadmissible, the later suppo-

184

sitions of the Armoricans having come originally from Corn-
wall when driven away by the Saxons. A few refugees might
have then settled there among a kindred people, but we
cannot suppose them to have been the first of their family
settled in that district.

185
TRANSACTIONS

OF THE

PHILOLOGICAL SOCIETY.

1855.— No. 12.

Nov. 9 ; HENSLEIGH WEDGWOOD, Esq. in the Chair.

Nov. 23; SIR JOHN F. DAVIS, Bart, in the Chair.
The Rev. A. Lowy was elected a Member of the Society.
The following Papers were read : —

I. "On certain Recent Additions to African Philology;" by

R. G. LATHAM, M.D.

II. " On the Meaning of the Root gen or ken -" by HENSLEIGH

WEDGWOOD, Esq.

I. " On certain Recent Additions to African Philology."

Since the paper upon Certain Recent Additions to African
Philology* (a paper of which the present is the continuation)
was laid before the Society, the writer has received from his
friend Dr. B. Baikie, of the Tshadda Expedition, two fresh
notices, viz. : a very short sample of a language called the
Bati, and a longer one of a language called the Baiori.

Of the Bati men, occupants of a district to the back of the
Cameroons, Dr. Baikie saw but one individual. He was not
only jet black himself, but stated that all his countrymen were
the same. Attention is drawn to this, because in a recent
work it has been asserted that the Bati people are white or
approaching to white. The words themselves were got
through the medium of a Baiori interpreter, as the Bati man
spoke only his own language. The Bati and Baion countries
* In pages 85-95 of this volume,

186

join, and Dr. Baikie remarks that the two languages have
strong affinities and very probably belong to the same class,
as is doubtless the case.

In the following lists n=*ng in king, only somewhat more
nasal ; o = a in all.

BATI VOCABULARY.

ENGLISH.

One
two . . .

BATI.

bankale.
basamgu.
bashit.
bangubia.
badumbonshori.
bandoh.
bando.
bafiilim.
bamtamba.
bambantu.
balingsa.
banjiwo.
balemfehosho.
bankit.
banwurkam.

BAION VOC

ntshi.
iba.
l&,
ikwa.
ita.
'nt6wa or 'nt6ko.
samba,
fam or mfam.
bti or mbu.
wum.
tshamtshi.
tshakpa.
tslmpte.
tshamkwa.
tshapta.
tshamtoko.
tshabsamba.
tshamfam.

ENGLISH.

sixteen ....

seventeen . .
eighteen . .
nineteen . .
twenty ....
God

BATI.

bakwa.
bungbla.
baga.
baba.
bamandjo.
Minbua.
teia.
ma.
'ny6.
'ndjemtshi.
monki-ntshi.
ndap.
fawanki.
kb.

tshabu.
gumba.
ikumbo or nkum-
ndambo. [bo.
nsi.
mula.
mungwe.
m6n.
gong6i.
taiam.
mawa.
tu.
djigeda.
nu.
ntshii.
ntshadina.
tokodjum.
bil.

three ....
four
five .

six

seven ....
eight

father
mother ....
sun
moon. .....

nine ....

ten . .

eleven ....
twelve ....
thirteen . .
fourteen . .
fifteen ....

One

river ....

house ....
water ....
yam

ABULARY.

nineteen . .
twenty ....
one hundred
one thousand
God . . . .
man

two
three ....
four . .

five
six

seven

woman ....

boy .

eight
nine . . .

airl

ten
eleven ....
twelve ....
thirteen . .
fourteen . .
fifteen ....
sixteen ....
seventeen . .
eighteen . .

father ....
mother ....
head .

eve

hair
mouth ....
nose
ear

arm

187

ENGLISH.

hand

BAION.

leribo.

finger ....

ofumbo.

thumb ....

melogwa.

leg

demku.

foot

ntshiku.

king

mf6n •

master ....

tawon.

slave. .

nkwam .

house ....

nda.

war

bi.

salt

ngwa.

water ....

ntshi.

bread ....

ntshan.

fish .

ntsha.

bird

mosin .

fowl . .

goat mbi.

wood nkwi.

spear .... nkon.

sword .... nyi.

bow ntshet.

arrow . . rikoritshet.

ENGLISH. BAION.

hat tshatu.

cloth ndi.

river montshmko.

town la.

road mandji.

mountain . . kokol6ndji.

rain beng.

wind fulmbu.

thunder . mfambe.

lightning . . ndjim.

good bonke.

bad ka!6ng.

hungry .... ndji.

thirsty .... faminyumakwe(?)

tired mafum.

tree . .
white
black
blue . .

red . .
yes . .
no. .

gum.

efuko.

sue.

ibang.

nu.

gariya.

Dr. Baikie compared his list with the Bayon of the Poly-
glotta Africana, and came to the conclusion that they both re-
presented the same language though in different dialects. Out
of thirty Baion towns, twenty-eight began with the letter B.

In the Polyglotta Africana we find a Pati vocabulary, —
"Pati," writes Kolle, "is the Bayon capital, and is a town*
which cannot be traversed from end to end in one day/' &c.
To this statement, however, Dr. Baikie takes an exception,
denying that the Bati country has any distinct capital. He
remarks, too, that his own Bati numerals are distinct from
Kolle's Pati; as, indeed, according to the following Tables
they are —

BAYON PATI ORDINARY BAYON

ENGLISH.

BATI OF BAIKIK.

OF KOLLE. OF KOLLE

one ....

£«-nka,le

mo m'mo.

two ....

£»#-SJimgu ....

mba .... iba and m'ban.

three. .

W-shit

ntat Ttat and ntat.

* Query " district."

P 2

188

BAYON PATI ORDINARY BAYON

ENGLISH. BATI OF BAIKIE. OF KOLLB. OK KOLLE.

four .... 6«-ngiibia .... h'koa .... mi-nkoa.

five .... ia-dumbonshon n'tan .... mi-ntan.

six £0-ndori nto'o .... nto*.

seven. . . . ia-ndo koatet .... sa'mba.

eight .... 5«-fulim fom fam.

nine .... 6a-mtamba . . sibo bo'o.

ten .... 5«-mbantu. . . . u'wom. . . . gum.

The class in which the Baion and Pati of Kb'lle stand is the
Moko ; a word upon which Dr. Baikie remarks, that there is
some confusion between it and Baion which he has yet to
clear up.

It is safe to say that the two Bayon vocabularies along with
the Pati of Kolle represent one language, from which the
Bati of Baikie differs in its numerals, at least; though not
even in these altogether, as may be seen when we subtract
the prefix ba- compare ba-ndon ( = six) with nto.

If we turn fyom Kolle to Clarke we find (most especially
under the letter B) numerous notices, which (fragmentary as
they are, and by no means accurately coincident), upon the
whole, confirm each other. Thus Clarke's —

Bayung is a district of great extent, south of the Jebel-el-
komri and east of the mountains of —

Bakumkum, which is a mountainous country east of Diwalla,
i.e. the Cameroons' country. Then —

Bati (of which a sample is given) is near to Banking, which
is near to —

Ban'king, which is near to Banin, which is, again, near the
Diwalla (Cameroons' country) and in the direction of Bayung.

The miscellaneous affinities of the two tongues in question
are as follows : —

1. BATI.

English. . . . one.

Bati ba-nkale.

Kasm kalo.

Yula kalo.

Mandingo.. kele.

Jallunku . , kelen.

English. . . . three.

Bati ba-shit.

Nki be-dsiat.

Undaza. . . . mi-satu.

Bumbete . . mi-tat u.

Babuma , . ba-tet.

1H1)

Ntere

bi-tet.

Bagba .... no.

Mbamba . .

bi-tate.

Kum nyam.

Bascke ....

bi-tats.

Pati nyu.

Param . . . .

pi-tet.

Bayon .... nyum.

English. . . .

six.

English. ..." God.

Bati

ba-ndon.

Bati mimbua.

Pangela . .

pandu.

Baseke .... anyambe.

English. . . .
Bati
Undaza.

moon.
ndjentshi.
noondsi.

Nhalemoe. . nyama.
Melon .... nyama.
Ngoten. . . . monyama.

Murundo . .
Basunda . .

ngondo.
ngonda.

Kabenda, &c. nzambi.
Baburna,&c. ndsambe.

Nyombe . .
Bumbete . .
Mbamba . .
Musentandu

ngonde.
ngondo.
ngont.
ngonde.

Pika ...... yamba.
Isuwu .... nyamba liwinke.
Dualla .... nyambe.
Orungo. . . . anyambe.

Membona. .

ngonde.

English. . . . yam.

Kabenda . .

ngonda .

Bati ko.

Isubu ....

ngonde.

Man dingo, &c.ku.

Dualla . . .

ngonde.

Gadsaga . . ku.

English. . . .

sun.

English. . . . house.

Bati

nijo.

Bati ndap.

Ngoten. . . .

enya.

Mbe nab.

Papia ....

nyam.

Nso ndaw.

Monenya . .

no.

Murundo . . ndawo.

Bamorn. . . .

nyam.

Dsarawa . . nda.

2. BAION.

English. . . .

one. i

Akurakura . of a.

Baion ....

'ntshi.

Mbe . . . ibe.

Ekamtulufu

edsi.

Mfut be.

Udom ....

dsidsi.

Hawssa . . . biu.

Eafen ....

dset.

English. . . . three.

English, . . .

two.

Baion .... ite.

Baion ....

iba.

Ekautulufu. esa.

Ekamtulufu

eba.

Udom .... besa.

Udom . . .

beba.

Eregba .... it a.

Eregba ....

ifa.

Yala eta.

Anan ....

iba.

Anan .... ita.

Yala

epa.

Mbe itat.

Koro ....

abe.

Wolof . . yat.

190

English. . . . four.
Baion .... ikwa.
Mbe . . ikue.

Nso
Bayon, &c. .

English. . . .
Baion ....
Nso
Mbe
Bayon ....
Pate, &c. . .

English. . . .
Baion ....
Nso ...

buu.
boo.

ten.
wum.
vum.
wum.
gum.
uwom.

mouth.
ntshu.
su.
etsou.
ndsu.
dsi.

arm.
bh.
abo.
bog.
ebo.
abo.

head.
tu.
ke-to.
a-tou.
nto.
tu.
esi.
ta.

hair.
nu.
nun.
nyou.
nyun.
nyu.
nnu.

of the
represe
MS. i

Kuin . . . ikoa.

— — — , ,. .. Jfoct

Balu kea.
Ngoala .... koa.
Papiah, &c. koa.

English. . . . five.
Baion .... it a.
Mbe itan.

Basa, &c. . . tana.
Kamuku . . ta.
Eregba .... ithu.
Balu, &c. . tan.

Mfut

Bayon, &c. .
Kanuri ....

English. . . .
Baion
Mbe
Dsawara,&c.
Udom, &c. .
Adampi,&c.

English. . . .
Baion ....

"\Tcrk

Ntere,&c... bitani.

English six.
Baion .... 'ntowa.

Nso . . ntunfie.

English . . . seven.
Baion .... samba.
Nso samba.

Ndob, &c. . . sambe.
Isubu .... samba.
Udom .... asamma.

English. . . . eight.
Baion fam.

Mbe

Mfut

Bayon, &c. .
Udom, &c. .
Whida, &c.

English
Baion ....
Nso

Nso woame.

Ngoten, &c. woam.
Papeah. . . . fomo.
Bay on, &c. . fam.

English. . . . nine.
Baion .... bu.

mbu

Mbe

Bayon ....
Kum, &c.. .
Udom, &c. .

So much for the two new vocabularies
Bayon. The following is also new. It also
guage of Adamowa, of which we have a

191

forwarded to the Geographical Society by Dr. Earth,
called the Batta.

A Vocabulary of the Batta Language.

It is

ENGLISH.

sun
heaven . . .
star
wind .

BATTA.

motshe.
. kade'.
motshe kan.
kod

ENGLISH. BATTA.

milk pdmde.
butter .... mare.
ghussub . . Idmashe.
ghafuli . . kakashe

rain . . .

bole'

dry season
rainy
day .

piia.
bole basi.
motshe.

baseen .... dabtshe.
honey .... mdratshe.
salt fite.

nioht. .

motsheken.

meat lue.

yesterday

zodo

fruit. . nawa do kade

to-day ....
to-morrow. .
water
fire

fido.
tua.
be.
die

shirt urkute.
spear .... kube.
sword .... songai.
bow rie

people ....
man ....

manope.
mano.

arrow .... galbai.
quiver .... kossure.

woman . . . .

metshe.

boat damagere.

mother ....
father

nogi or noi.
baffir.

hut, house. . finai.
nat kaje.

child, boy . .
daughter . .
brother . . . .
sister

""&" •
labai.
jetshe.
labenno.
ietshoiio

cooking-pot borashe.
basket .... shilai.
horse duai.
mare dometshi.

friend

dawai

ox nakai.

enemy

kawe

cow .... metshe nakai

sultan, king
slave
female slave
head

eye .

homai.
keze.
kezarnetshe.
bddashi.
bashi.

camel, donkey do not exist.
sheep .... bagamre.
goat bagai.
dog barashe.
lion turum.

nose .

ikilo.

fish . rufai.

ear ....

kakkilo

bird yaro.

mouth ....
tooth. . . .

bratshi.
nesudabtshe

a plain .... yolde.
mountain faratshe.

tongue ....
arm

ateazido.
b(5ratshe.

valley .... kadembe.
river . . . be-noe, faro.

heart ....
lea

teleshe.
bora.

river over-} .
„ . > be-bake.
now mo \

192

ENGLISH. BATTA.
garden .... wadi.
well ...'... biilambe.

ENGLISH.

thou
one

tree . . kade ?

grass .... 1
herbage . . j tsham«-
small .... keng.
large baka.

three
. four
five

far, distant bong.
near abong.

seven

good izedo.
bad azedo.

ciyni, ,

nine

ff>n

warm .... tenibo.
/ hear .... hakkeli.
I do not hear takeli.
I see hille.
I do not see tale.
I speak. . . . nabawata.
/ sleep .... bashino.

eleven ....
twelve ....
thirteen . .
twenty ....
twenty-one .
thirty ....
forty . .

/ eat nazumu.

fifty

eat, imp. . . zuazum,zuengosso.

sixty

I drink. . . . nasa.
drink, imp. zuabasa.
Z go nawado .

seventy. . . .
eighty ....

go, imp. . . joado.
/ come .... nabasi.
come, imp. sua.
give, imp... tenigo.
take, imp.. . zuangura.
J . h&mebo.

ninety ....
one hundred
one thousand

Forms <
hdk
yalj

mano.

hido.

pe.

makin.

fat.

tuf.

tokuldaka.

tokulape.

farfat.

tambido.

bu.

bu umbidi hido.

bu umbidi pe.

bu umbidi makin.

manobupe.

manobupe hido.

manobumakin.

manobufat.

manobutiif.

manobutokuldaka

maonbu tokulape.

manobu farfat.

manobu tambido.

aru.

debu (Hausa).

f Salutation.
ida yo.
yalabare bide.

The Batta* of Earth is liker to the Bati and Pati in name
than in words. It has the following miscellaneous affinities : —

* The preliminary remarks of Dr. Barth on the Batta language are as
follows: — "The Batta-ntshi is spoken from Garrua, a place three days E.
of Yola, in the district of Kokorni, as far as Batshaina, three days E. of
Hainrnarua. To this language belong the names of the two large rivers of
Adamawa, Faro ' the river,' and Benoe, ' the mother of waters.'

" The other languages are the following : — the Buma-ntshi, spoken by
the Umbum arid in Baia ; the Dama-ntshi, the language of Bobaujidda ; the
Buta-ntshi ; the Tekar-tshi ; the Munda-ntshi ; the Fala-ntshi ; the Mar-
ga-ntshi j the Kilba-ntshi ; the Yangur-tshi ; the Guda-ntshi, spoken by a
very learned people, the Gudu, living on a plain surrounded by mountains.

193

English. . . .

one.

Mbe

ibe.

Batta

hido.

Nso

ba.

Hausa ....

ddia.

English. . . .

three.

Barba ....

tia.

Batta ....

makin.

Begharmi. .

kede.

Hausa ....

uku.

Mano, &c. .
Basa, &c. . .
Whida, &c.
Afudu ....

do.
do.
ode.
do.

English. . , .
Batta
Hausa ....

four.
fat.
fudu.

ka-do ,

English. . . .

five.

Anan ....

k-et.

Batta ....

tuf.

Nlri

ke-oone*

Fula

dsowi.

1> HI

Kum, &c.. .

mo.

English. . . .

ten.

Ntere ....

kemo.

Batta ....

bu.

Buduma . .

ke-ta.

Konguan . .

biu.

Bode

ga-di.

Tiwi

puo.

Doai

gu-dio.

pue.

English. . .

two.

English. . . .
Batta

man.
mano.

Batta ....

pe.

Meto ....

mbana.

Hausa ....

biu.

Mandara . .

bua.

English. . . .

people.

Yala

ipa.

Batta ....

mano-pe.

Anan ....

iba.

Fulah ....

wor-be*.

Koro

abe.

English. . . .

woman.

Muranda . .

bewa.

Batta

metshe.

Ndob ....

be.

Hausa ....

mat si.

Tumu

mbe.

Undaza. . . .

moatu.

be.

Mandingo, &c . m usu .

Mfut

be.

Isuwu

moito.

Ngoten. . . .

eba.

Diwala ....

muto.

Afudu ....

mbe-fei.

Ngoten, &c

. moad.

near Song ; the Tshamba-ntshi ; the Kotofa-ntshi, spoken by the Kotofo,
whose large river, the Dewo, comes from Koutsha and joins the Benue ;
the Wera-ntshi; the Dura-ntshi; the Woka-ntshi; the Toga-ntshi; the
Lekam-tshi ; the Parpar-tshi ; the Kankam-tshi ; the Nyangeyare-tshi ;
the Musga-ntshi ; the Mandara-ntshi ; the Gizaga-ntshi ; the Ruma-ntshi ;
the Gidar-ntshi ; the Daba-ntshi ; the Hina-ntshi ; the Maturna-ntshi ; the
Sina-ntshi ; the Momoyee-ntshi ; the Fani-ntshi ; the Nyega-ntshi ; and
finally the Devva-ntshi ; all these languages being so widely different from
each other, that a man who knows one of them does not at all understand
the others."

* Given to show the (?) phrase form (-pe = -be).

194

English. . . .

mother.

Marawi. . . . s. tsiso.

Batta ....

nogi.

Orungu . .

ngiyo.

Meto .... s. nito.

Ngoten, &c.

ne.

English. . . .

child, boy.

English. . . . bone.

Batta

labai.

Dsekiri. . . . esu.

Karekare . .

lewi.

lubu ese.

English. . . .

king.

Bumbete . . s. resi.

P/JO-J

Batta

omai.

Kanuri

mei.

Mbamba . . s. eeze.

PJf00&0

Munio ....

mae.

. neeze.

Pika

moi.

Basunde . . s. pisi.

Mende ....

maha.

7 • 7 • •

p. oinisi.

Timne ....

bai.

Bulom ....
Mampa. . . .
Kisi

be.
be.
maha.

English. . . . rain.
Batta .... bole.
Kabinda,&c. mfula.

Landoma . .

abe.

English. . . . dry season.

English. . . .

slave, male.

Batta .... pua.

Batta ....

keze.

Kabinda,&c. zivu.

Ngodsin . .
J)oai

gusep.
ousef.

English. . . . horse.

y c*ocy •

Batta .... duai.

English. . . .

head.

Pika do, doso.

Batta ....

bddashi.

Karekare . . do, doro, doku

Orungo. . . .

ebontso.

Ngodsin . . duk, duka.

Ntere, &c. .

mot sue.

Doai duwok.

Babuma, &c.

motsue.

Nupe,&c.. . doko.

Muntu,&c. .

mutue.

Mandingo,&c. so.

English. . . .
Batta
Kabenda . .

eye.
bashi.
s. liezu.
p. mezo.

Kru, &c. . . so.
Whida, &c. eso.
Aku, &c. . . edsi.
Hausa .... doki.

Mimbona . .

s. dizo.

English. . . . mare.

p. mezo.

Batta .... do-metshe.

Ntere

s. dsis.
p . mis.

Mandingo,&c. so-musu.

Pangela . .

s. eso.

English. ... ox, cow.

p. owaso.

Batta .... nakai.

Keriman . .

s. lito.

Ngoten, &c. nyaka.

T). meto.

Mende, &c. . nika.

195

English. . .
Batta . . .
Ndob . . .

English. .
Batta . . .
Ham

English. .
Batta . .
Ham. . . .

English. .
Batta . .
Aku, &c.
Alege . .
Murundo

Ndob .

Tumu

English.
Batta .
Hausa .

English.
Batta .
Pika..

. goat.
. bagai.
• pog.

. good.
. izedo.
, . ki-set.

. bad.
. azedo.
. ki-baset.

. bow.

. rie.
oru.

. . urop.
. . s. boro.

— p. maro.
. . s. le.

— p. bile.

. . s. ele.

— p. yele.

. . arrow.
. . galbai.
. . kibia.

. . hut, house.
. . final.
. . bon.

— bin.

Karekare . . benu.

— bien.

Mandingo. . bon.

Dzhallunka. bon.

Bambarra. . bon.

Kabungo . . buno.

Tere . . ... ban.

English. . . . fire.
Batta .... die.
Mandingo, &c. ta.

Barba . .
Boko . .
Mfut. ..

English. .
Batta . .
Aku, &c.

English. .
Batta ..
Isubu . .
Dualla . .
Muntu . .

English. .
Batta . .
Baseke . .
Ntere . .

Mutsaya

do.
te.
diu.

water.

be.

omi.

day.

motshe.

muese.

moese.

musu.

night.
mot she ken.
medsu.
s. botsuh.

• p. matsuh.
s. bodsuk.

• p. madsuk.

Another African language, concerning which even the
slightest information is valuable, is the Tibbu. Respecting
this, I am only able to supply a short contribution made by
Mr. Norris, from a Tibbu vocabulary, hitherto unpublished,
and described by the writer last named as being written in
badly-formed Arabic characters, and without vowels. He
adds, that it has many close coincidences with the Bornu
verbs, but more differences.

TIBBU.

. iugablu. .
. samu

BORNU.

ingubnl.
shim.

196

ENGLISH. TIBBU. BORNl'.

elephant kumagin kamagin.

father ab aba.

lion duguli? kurguli.

liElu lifella.

kasagu . . . . . kasugu.

burai bumi, you eat.

there is found .... fandi fandi.

go round darini darini.

merchant burbay burba.

year

silver
market
eat .

Another is the Budduma, or the language of the Islanders
in Lake Tshad, from a MS. of Barth, belonging to the Geo-
graphical Society. This is, perhaps, somewhat more like the
Affadeh than the ordinary or standard Kanowry or Bornu
proper.

English. .
Budduma
Affadeh

English. . .
Budduma .
Affadeh .

English. . .
Budduma .
Affadeh

sun.

moon.

kia.

tede.

people.

man.

sauai.

belo.

woman.
ingerim.
kerim.

father.

ba.

aba.

mother.
yai.

ii/ft.

English. . , . son.
Budduma . . igenai.
Affadeh

English. .
Budduma
Affadeh

English. .
Budduma ,
Affadeh .

English. . .
Budduma .
Affadeh .

English. .
Budduma .
Affadeh

daughter.
digger am.
wulogu.

head.
ku.
go, ko.

eye.

szanko.

ear.

surnmdn.

szemmanko.

nose.

tshanai.

demulzungenko.

tongue.

telam.

essienko.

197

English. . . . hairs.
Budduma . . njiygo.
Affadeh . miszigge-sziggo.

English. . . . foot.
Budduma . . kairetshu.
Affadeh . enszih.

The languages of Bornu, like those of so many other parts
of Africa, are counted by tens rather than by units ; it being
a current statement that as many as thirty different tongues
are spoken in Bornu. This we get from a statement by
Lucas (whose informant was a Sherif of that country), in the
' Magazin der Reisen/ Th. v. p. 330, referred to in the ' Mith-
ridates/ Seetzen (ibid.) throws a little light upon this; his
informant having been a negro of Affadeh. The first lan-
guage enumerated by him is —

1. The Mana Birniby, or speech of Bornu itself; this very
word Mana reappearing in the Budduma vocabulary before
us as manna =woYd, language. Then follow —

2. The Amszigh Mpade, a country six days' journey
northwards.

3. The Mszam mkalone Kamma, or the speech of a country
seven days east of Affadeh, called by the Arabs Kalp hey.

4. The Amszigh Affadeh.

Towards our knowledge of the other twenty-six, the fol-
lowing is, probably, a contribution. Seetzen obtained it from
a negro of Mobba, with whom he met at Cairo. Now Mobba
(the Barghu of the Furians or people of Darfur, and the
Dar-saleh of the Arabs) is sufficiently connected with Bornu,
both in its geography and its political relations, to be con-
sidered as the source of some of these numerous Bornu forms
of speech. The list is as follows : —

5. The Kajenyah. 6. The Upderrak. 7. The Alih. 8.
The Mingon. 9. TheMararet. 10. The Massalit. 11. The
Szongor. 12. The Kuka. 13. The Dadshu. 14. The Ban-
dalah. 15. The Masmajah. 16. The Njorga. 17. The
Dembe. 18. The Malanga. 19. The Mime. 20. The Ko-
ruboih. 21. The Gonuk. 22. The Kabka. 23. The Gur-
ranguk. 24. The Dshellaba.

From remarks which have arisen out of the fact of their
being new data, rather than out of their revelancy to the main
investigation, we proceed to the consideration of the Specimens.

198

The first table gives us the words for man, woman, father, mo-
ther, fire, water, sun, moon, star, and fowl, in 294 languages,
dialects, or subdialects — forms of speech differing from each
other in other in different degrees, sometimes not at all;
in which case we have the same tongue under different
names.

In the second we have the numerals ; the forms of speech
in which they are given being 388.

The names of the languages in the two tables, as far as the
smaller number is contained in the larger, coincide pretty
closely, though by no means absolutely.

Thirdly, we have, to follow the tables, shorter specimens of
a variety of miscellaneous languages, some of which have
appeared in the tables themselves, but others of which are
new. The lists of words are also more or less new (i. e.
different from those of the tables), though unfortunately they
are much the same in respect to their length, or rather in
respect to their brevity.

Finally, after some grammatical paradigms for certain
Kaffre languages, we find, at the end of the work, several geo-
graphical notices of the same kind with those of the Polyglotta
Africana.

The work of Mr. Clarke is altogether a compilation of less
extent and pretension than that of M. Kolle's; indeed, it is a
pamphlet of about one hundred pages.

In lists so short as the ones under notice, the selection of
the words is of great importance. The best of them are fire,
water, sun, moon, and star. The terms father and mother
are, for the purposes of comparative philology, nearly useless ;
inasmuch as they are, generally, more or less alike, all the
world over, and that independently of any connexion between
the languages in which they occur. Man and woman are
generally ambiguous, the names for them being often the
names for man and wife as well. Hence, unless we have the
terms for all four (man, husband, woman, wife), we have but
half the requisite information. It may also be added, that
along with the name for sun, the names for sky (heaven),
light and day, should be given.

L9S

The numerals, when selected as specimens of any language,
are always of value, because, whether they be of little or
great use for the purposes of comparative philology, they
have always a value in the history of the arithmetic. For
reasons, however, too long to be given here, the pure and
proper philological importance of the numerals is inconstant.
Sometimes the numerals of two or more languages shall be
alike whilst the rest of the vocabulary differs. Sometimes
the similitude between the words other than numeral shall
be great, the numerals themselves being unlike. In many
languages it happens, that if some of the numerals are alike,
the others will be so also. In others, on the contrary, it by
no means follows that because (say) one and two are alike,
three and/owr, &c. should be equally so.

These remarks have been made, less because they are
essential to the present paper than because the selection of
words, representative of rude and unknown languages, has
commanded 110 small amount of the attention of philologers
and ethnologists, and many lists, ready prepared, are in cir-
culation— in India and North America more especially. They
are none of them unexceptionable ; and the reason for their
being so lies in the fact of the choice being made on a priori
views of what words are fundamental and what not. The
present writer grounds his opinion as to what words are
better than others, entirely on what he has observed • the result
of his observations being, that the words which the collation
of vocabularies shows to be the most permanent parts of
languages, are by no means the words that a priori specu-
lations indicate.

Upon the shortness of Mr. Clarke's lists, it may be re-
marked that, though insufficient when they contain no coin-
cidences to prove two or more languages unlike each other,
they are sufficient when coincidences are presented, to
indicate affinities. This, however, is only an example of the
rule that common sense dictates, viz. that short lists are
sufficient to indicate likenesses, whereas long ones are needed
for the exhibition of differences, — a rule of general appli-
cation.

200

With these preliminaries, I lay before the Society the fol-
lowing lists.

No. I. contains the names of the languages, dialects, and
subdialects, in which the collector gives us the African for
man, woman, father, &c.

A.*l Fula.

36 Houssa.

71 Beseki.

2 Fulah.

37 Bugimbinour.

E.F.72 Diwalla.

3 Filatah.

38 Houssa.

73 Bumke.

4 Filani.

39 Kano-Houssa.

74 Bayung.

5 Poula.

(?)40 Brinni.

*75 Isubu.

B.*6 Yolof.

E.*41 Yarriba.

76 Moko.

7 Joloff.

42 Yabu.

77 Moko. »

8 Wolof.

43 Ako.

78 Batonga.

9 Wolof.

44 Ayo.

79 Bongo.

C.*10 Mandingo.

45 Kotshi.

80 Kumbe.

11 Mandingo.

46 Okkiri.

81 'Mwanjo.

12 Mandingo.

47 Yarriba.

82 Batangga.

13 Mandingo.

48 Popo Akoko.

83 'Ndiang.

14 Mandingo.

49 Nago.

84 Abunggen.

15 Susu.

50 Bidjie.

85 Bobia.

16 Mendi.

51 Uu.

86 Ekunukunu.

17 Serere.

52 Ueiri.

87 Papiak.

18 Divama.

53 Ufruda.

88 Efik.

19 Kossa.

54 Eya.

89 Otam.

20 Kossa.

55 Benin.

90 Moko.

21 Vy.

56 Iggari.

91 Moko.

22 Pessa.

G.*57 Borno.

92 Efik.

23 Matiga.

58 Borno.

93 Efik.

24 lAgissi.

(?)59 Ozuzzu.

94 Moko.

25 Timmani. E,

.F.&E.6Q Tapua.

95 Moko.

26 Timini.

*6l Nun.

96 Ebiappa.

27 Ibribu.

62 Tappa.

97 Ipe.

28 Susu.

63 Biyanni.

98 Otam.

29 Bangullan.

64 Jappa.

99 Tsbamba.

30 Susu.

65 Batanga.

100 Berikan.

(?)31 Guoni.

66 Benin.

101 Appa.

32 Movidi.

67 Appa.

(?)102 Mahiohonjro.

33 Kangga.

68 Appa.

103 Popo.

34 Timbu.

69 Bengga.

104 Nago.

D.*3f) Houssa.

70 Otam.

105 Popo.

201

i06 Ehpehmi.

147 Bati.

188 Kongo.

107 Amitsh.

148 Grata.

189 Maiidongo.

108 Bonjo.

149 Gold Coast.

190 Gaboon.

109 Bakoko.

150 Bazit.

191 Rungo.

110 Fernandian.

151 Balap.

192 Kongo.

Ill Ibo.

152 Ibo.

193 Kongo.

112 New Calabar.

153 Asango.

194 Kongo.

113 Oss.

154 Agua.

195 Orunggu.

1 1 4 'Nkissi.

155 Eple. E.

196 Kissi.

E.I 15 Iswama.

*156 Fanti.

197 Grou.

116 M0Az.

157 Ashanti.

198 Kanga.

117 Ibo.

158 Pandan.

199 Bendov.

118 Ibo.

159 Grabwa.

200 Bendov.

119 Ibo.

160 £w£ra.

201 Mose.

120 Ibo.

161 Baipa.

202 Bukra.

121 Ibo.

162 Lomlom.

203 Grand Drewin.

122 Ibo.

163 Bakumkum.

204 Friesco.

123 Iboe.

164 Maninga.

205 Tshambo.

124 Ibo.

165 jB« Yung.

206 Tana.

125 Loopa.

166 Ba'Nking.

207 Tshamba.

126 Aru.

167 2Vwfo.

208 Tshamba.

127 Bonny.

168 Moko.

209 Maninga.

1 28 Koromanti.

.169 Warsaw.

210 Yabumbum.

1 29 Bretshi.

170 'Ndogingene.

211 Appa.

130 Bonny.

171 Boutuku.

212 Iddah.

1 3 1 Gruma.

172 Enishi.

213 Fot.

132 Warsah.

173 Umowo.

214 Egarra.

133 Koromanti.

174 Kosse.

215 Bauda.

134 Otam.

175 Paquot.

216 Da^f.

135 Bakumkum.

176 Otam. E.F.&E

.217 'Mpungwe.

136 Bassa.

177 Bayaka.

218 Bayung. ,

137 Ibo.

178 Itofc.

219 Numbe.

138 Koromanti.

179 Sego.

220 JKMe.

139 Koromanti.

F.I 80 Angola.

221 £am'».

140 Koromanti.

181 Yindongo.

222 Bansabit.

141 Balumbi.

182 Kanga.

223 J^am'Tz.

142 Banene.

183 Mandonga.

224 Tshamba.

143 Basa.

184 Kongo.

225 Debba.

144 Quako.

185 Kongo.

226 Bunking.

145 Bonny.

186 Mongolo.

227 JStftfvm.

146 New Calabar.

187 Mongolo.

22cS Appa.

202

229 Ojunga.

251 £%w.

273 'Mboma.

230 Pwe.

252 Kong.

274 Kongo.

231 Kimbo.

253 Warsaw.

275 Dalagoa.

232 Igberra.

254 D*M>*.

2/6 Bechuana.

233 'Mpumbu.

255 Grow.

277 Kosah.

234 TVwfo-.

256 Angola.

278 Jawifulu.

235 OAon.

257 Mandongo. E.&E.

F.279 Kissi.

236 Kimbo.

258 Anang.

280 Karu.

237 iflrffl.

259 £wuft.

281 Nago.

238 Bakumkum.

260 Aro.

282 Popo.

239 t///-wrfw.

261 Nago.

283 Kitta.

240 Fa^ia.

262 Bobia.

284 Kongo.

241 Pwe.

263 Ida.

285 Wirimose.

242 .EViwA*.

264 Igbera.

286 Baru.

243 'Ndogingene.

265 £emw.

287 'Ndoto.

244 Appa.

266 Amfuy.

288 Timbrum.

245 Popo.

H.267 Siwahan.

289 Dagamba.

246 Sundi.

268 Shelluh Lybian.

290 Oyo.

247 M£o.

269 Lancerotta.

291 Kabenda.

248 Morundu.

F.270 Monjou.

292 Abungkin.

249 ^ro.

271 Sowauli.

293 Bandue.

250 Iswame.

272 Malembo.

294 Bakumkum.

No. II. contains the names of the languages, dialects, and
subdialects, in which the collector gives us the African for
the numerals.

31 Kossa.

32 Mendi.

33 Pessa.

34 Kossa.

35 Kissi.

36 Timini.

37 Timini.

38 Kissi.

39 Vy.

40 Vei.

41 Barka.

42 Yana.

43 Tshamba.

44 Tshambo.

45 Kossa.

1 Felatah.
2 Fula.
3 Poula.
4 Felata.

16 Mandingo.
17 Mandingo.
18 Maninga,
19 Bambara.

5 Filani.

20 Bambarra.

6 Foulah.

21 Susu.

7 Felups.
8 Joloff.
9 Yoloff.

22 Susu.
23 Bangullan.
24 Manua.

10 Woloff.

25 Tshamba.

11 Yaloff.

26 Rio Nunes.

12 Mandingo.
13 Mandingo.
14 Mandingo.
15 Mandingo.

27 Dwama.
28 Serawuli.
29 Jallunkan.
30 Meudi.

203

46 Mampa.
47 Houssa.
48 Houssa.
49 Houssa.

87 Akripon.
88 Akkim.
89 Agouna.
90 El Mina.

128 Bornou.
129 Nufi Tappua.
130 Nufi.
131 Shabee.

50 Houssa.

91 Fanti.

132 Nufi.

51 Houssa.

92 Ghah.

133 Kakandi Shabi.

52 Houssa.
53 Malaba.
54 Sego.
55 Cashna.
56 Timbuctoo.

93 Ghah.
94 Aquimbo.
95 Warsaw.
96 Koromanti.
97 Whidah.

134 Nupaysee.
135 Nufi.
136 Kakanda.
137 Tappa Anuba.
138 Ibo.

57 Kissour.
58 Kissour.
59 Sokko.

98 Papah.
99 Popo.
100 Mahi.

139 Ibo.
140 Ibo.
141 Ibo.

60 Susu.
61 Ballom.
62 Kanga Kru.
63 Bassa.
64 Nabwa Kru.
65 Barboe.

101 Popo.
102 Popo.
103 Popo.
104 Uu Ogalli.
105 Nago.
106 Benin.

142 Owa.
143 Ibo Owa.
144 Ibo.
145 Ibo.
146 Ibo.
147 Akrika.

66 Kru.
67 Grebo.
68 Barboe.
69 Tabu.

107 Fot.
108 Bidji.
109 Igberra.
110 YebuYarriba.

148 Bonny.
149 Akrika.
150 Bonny.
151 Oss Ibo.

70 Barboe.
71 Grand Bereby.

72 Sigli.
73 Grabwa.

Ill Eyo.
112 Aku.
113 Ako.
114 Uhobo.

152 Okkulabur.
153 Loopa.
154 Aru.
155 New Calabar.

74 Bukra.

115 lao.

156 Efik.

75 Kotrahu.

116 Kotshi.

157 Okori.

76 Andone.

117 Idda.

158 Amitsh.

77 Friesko.
78 Agua. •
79 Ashanti.
80 Fanti.

118 Appa.
119 Avikum.
120 Appa.
121 Yaruba.

159 Numbe.
160 Tshamba.
161 EbiappaEfik.
162 Grata.

81 Amina.
82 Egua.
83 Trubi.

122 Yaruba.
123 Appa.
124 Neiri.

163 Egarra.
164 Igarra.
165 Moko.

84 Koromanti.

125 Bornou.

166 Bumke.

85 Ahanta.
86 Ghah.

126 Bournou.
127 Bnlaqua.

167 Bayung.
168 Moko.
Q2

204

169 Efik.

170 Moko.

171 Jimmy ah.

172 Moko.

173 Bongo.

174 Karaba.

175 Kikke.

176 Kanga.

177 Andnki.

178 Batonga.

179 Lorangga.

180 Papiak.

181 Beseki.

182 Ufruda.

183 Aya.

184 Bimbian.

185 Bengga.

186 Isubu.

187 Isubu.

188 Otam.

189 Isubu.

190 Diwalla.

191 Basa.

192 Abo.

193 Ebo.

194 Bassa.

195 Ebongi.

196 Akuongo.

197 Fernandian.

198 Bateti.

199 Baliwati.

200 Baappa.

201 Bililipa.

202 North W. Bay.

203 Binin.

204 Otam.

205 Otam.

206 Anuba.

207 Kangga.

208 Bendov.

209 Bayung.

210 Bakumkum.

211 Bassa.

212 Balumbi.

213 Serrere.

214 Darrunga.

215 Begharmi.

216 Mandara.

217 Dagombo.

218 Egarra.

219 CapeLohou.

220 Banda.

221 Angola.

222 Gura.

223 Kouri.

224 Mondumbu.

225 Asanggo.

226 'Mpongwe.

227 Hottentot.

228 Bechuana.

229 Kaffir.

230 Kosah.

231 Dalagoa Bay.
2? 2 Mosambique.

233 Suhaili.

234 Kosah.

235 Berber.

236 Shillah.

237 Tibbo.

238

239 Coptic.

240 Badrabra.

241 Amhara.

242 Vulgar Arabic.

243 Galla.

244 Mandinga.

245 Guoni.

246 Banene.

247 Kongo.

248 Kongo.

249 Mongolo.

250 Sundi.

251 Kongo.

252 Bondi.

253 Mono.

254 Kongo.

255 Mooidi.

256 Tshamba.

257 Mwanjo.

258 Banin.

259 Bamba.

260 Kongo.

261 Rungo.

262 Orunggu.

263 Bobia.

264 Bunking.

265 Maneboki.

266 Banking.

267 Tombuktu.

268 Sansangdi.

269 Kashna.

270 Guber.

271 Hausa.

272 Bornowy.

273 Bornowy.

274 Yarriba.

275 Malemba.

276 Kongo.

277 Loango.

278 Sonho.

279 Banda.

280 Kongo.

281 Mandonga.

282 'Mpougwe.

283 Batongga. .

284 Bati.

285 Barihoh.

286 Banin.

287 Bansabiit.

288 Bazit.

289 Bakoko.

290 Bonjo.

291 Alugieka.

205

292 Mose.

293 Baru.

294 Gingbe.

295 Popo.

296 Nago.

297 Sandu.

298 Koromanti.

299 Houssa.

300 Papau.

301 lawiFulu.

302 Oboya.

303 Romby.

304 Olugu.

305 Bakumkum.

306 Abungkin.

307 Lumlum.

308 'Ndiang.

309 Wakki.

310 Iswama.

311 Elugu.

312 Bwanda.

313 Okori.

314 'Mpumbu.

315 Yabumbum.

316 Brinni.

317 Kangga.

318 Warsaw.

319 Popo.

320 Deba or Lemas

321 Bullom.

322 Bimbian.

323 Ibo.

324 Obagwa.

Long as these lists are, the criticism of them is by no means
complex; and the following contrivances (somewhat mecha-
nical it must be owned) are intended to facilitate it.

1 . The names in the ordinary type are the names that were
known to African philologues anterior to the publication of
the Specimens, the forms of speech which they represent
being known also.

325 Iswama.

357 Danakil.

326 Mandongo.
327 Lomlom.
328 Wawi.

358 Koldagi.
359 Kensy.
360 Nouba.

329 Timbu.
330 'Nkresi.

361 Dongolawy.
362 Arabic.

331 Kimbo.

363 Arabic.

332 Pwe.

364 Arabic.

333 Kosse.

365 Ibo.

334 Omowo.

366 Ida.

335 Appa.
336 Lada.

367 Igbera.
368 Diwala.

337 Mondongo.
338 Ufruda.

369 New Calabar.
370 Pori.

339 Yagba.
340 Bakumkum.

371 Morondu.
372 Aro.

341 'Mfot.
342 Kimbo.

373 Kong.
374 Warsaw.

343 Sundi.

375 Aro.

344 Ogi.
345 Tshari.
346 Nago.
347 Angola.
348 Bretshi.

376 Fanti.
377 Oyo.
378 Bayaka.
3/9 Barikan.
380 Kabenda.

349 Mahi.
350 Tshamba.
351 Birni.

381 Vy.

382 Biengga.
383 Nibulu.

352 Birni.

384 Elugu.

. 353 Birni.

385 Amharic.

354 Abadja.
355 Otam.

386 Hebrew.
387 Arabic Moroco.

356 Sumali.

388 Bechuana.

206

2. The names in italics are either new names, or names with
which the language which they indicate, is now, for the first
time, corrected. They stand in italics, even when the language
is known by previous specimens. So they do when the name
itself has been known. Hence, it is only where we have, at
one and the same time, a name and a sample of language, the
conjunction of which is new, that the italics are resorted to.
Several of the names they give us are old, and so are several
of the forms of speech. The statement, however, that such
and such a form of speech is that of such and such a particular
district, is treated as new.

3. In each group the chief language is marked *.

4. Where any remarks will be made upon, any particular
form of speech (?) is prefixed.

5. The groups, as ordinarily recognized, are marked A. B. C.
&c., all the names between A. and B. (e. g.} belonging to A.

6. The names of the classes or groups expressed by the
letters are as follows : by —

A. The Fulah.

B. The Woloff.

C. The Mandingo.

D. The Haussa.

E. The Ibo-Ashanti.

F. The Kaffre.

E.F. A group of unascertained value, but with characters
common to E. and F. ; a group to which special attention will
be drawn in some future paper, inasmuch as its actual position
is a matter of uncertainty. All that is said at present is, that
it is the one which contains the languages north of the Kongo
tongues (the most northern of the Kafire group in its old
form) and south of the Slave Coast.

G. The Bornu.
H. The Berber.

[To be continued.]

207

IT. "On the Meaning of the Root gen or ken;" by HENS-
LEIGH WEDGWOOD, Esq.

Few points in the pedigree of languages afford a topic of
wider interest than the root gen or ken, which has left so
large a progeny in almost all the languages of the Indo-Eu-
ropean race. The object of the present notice, however, is
not to trace the numerous offshoots of the stock, which for
the most part are generally acknowledged, but chiefly to
investigate the primitive idea in which the very different sig-
nifications of the root appear to have taken rise.

The meaning of the root 7ev in the Gr. yiyvofjuai,, <ywofj,at,
to come into being, to be born, to be, is manifest from the
corresponding Lat. gigno, to beget, give birth to, originate,
formed from geno, gigeno, in precisely the same way as the
Gr. yiyvofjLcu from ^evo^ai, ryiyevopcu. The future yevriaopat,
and perfect genui point to a conjugation of the root with e as
a subsidiary vowel (^eveo^ai, geneo) ; the Greek yevvaa), to give
birth to, to procreate, as well as the Latin pr&gnans for
prcegenans, preparing to give birth to ; nascor, natus, to be born,
indicate in like manner a conjugation with a subsidiary «.
From the last of these forms spring a numerous race of de-
scendants, as nature, natal, &c., in which an initial n is the only
rudiment of the original root, the evidence of the lost g being
preserved in the compounds agnatus, cognatus, pragnans.

With a subsidiary o the root assumes a widely different
meaning in Gr. yiyvwcrKa), to discern, to know (from yevow,
yevcocr/ca), ^/i^evwo-Kw}, and Latin nosco ; and here also we
find a similar reduction of the root to a rudimental n in notus,
nomen, nobilis, narro (for gnarigo, Festus), to make known,
while the evidence of the lost g is preserved in the compounds
ignotus, ignarus, agnosco, cognomen, and sometimes in the
corresponding words in other languages, as in the Bohem.
znamien, a mark or sign, from znati, to know.

In Sanscrit the original form of the root jan has the sense
of begetting, giving birth to, while the derivative jna is used
in the sense of knowing. Thus jajanmi and the causative
janaydmi, to beget, give birth to; jdndmi (forjndnami, Bopp),
to know, although other examples are given by Dieffenbach

208

in which the two forms are confounded, as in jndna, scientia,
intellectus, jndti, cognatus, propinquus ; Hindustan jdnnd, to
know, understand ; jannd, to produce young.

In the Teutonic languages the signification of the root has
been extended over a wider field. We have not only A.-S.
cennan, to beget, bring forth; Sc. ken, to know, E. ken, the
power of distinguishing, but can in the sense of being able ;
G. kennen, to know ; konnen, to be able ; Dan. kunne, in both
senses; O.-H.-G. archennan, irchennan, gignere, agnoscere,
cognoscere (Dieffenbach) . As in Greek and Latin as well as
Sanscrit the root appears changed into the form of gno or
gna, jna, no, na, we must consider Icel. knd, to be able, as
parallel with English know. To this the Icel. nd, Dan. naae,
to get, to reach, to attain, correspond, as Lat. nosco to agnosco,
natus to gnatus. Hence we are led to conclude that the Lat.
nancio, nanciscor, nanctus, nactus, to obtain, to hit on, are
forms in which the same root is somewhat further disguised
by nasalization, in an analogous manner to that in which
from the Icel. fa, to get, to take, to beget, is formed the
perfect feck arid participle fengid, or from Dan. gaae, the
perfect geek, and participle gangen, to go or gang. The form
and meaning of the Pol. gniazdo, a brood, breed, litter, nestx
incline us to regard the word nest itself as an offshoot from
the same root, somewhat analogous to the Gr. yeveO\ov, or
W. cenedL For a like reason we should include Pol. gnida,
a nit, in the same class.

The sense of beginning is too intimately connected with
that of giving birth to, to let us doubt that the word begin
itself, Ulph. duginnan, A.-S. anginnan, onginnan is also a mo-
dification of the same root ; Lapp, alge, a son, algo, beginning ;
Swed. bbrd, birth, borjan, beginning.

When we seek for the central notion among the foregoing
significations we are led to the idea of seizing, or taking hold
of, passing on the one hand into the notion of acquisition,
possession, ability, power ; and on the other to that of mental
acquisition, apprehension, knowledge.

In support of such a filiation of ideas, numerous examples
may be pointed out in which similar metaphors have been

209

employed to express the same meanings. The procreation of
children is commonly expressed by the same word as the acqui-
sition of property. Thus we speak of getting children and
getting rich. The A.-S. strynan, streonan, is used in both
senses, whence strynd, race, strain, pedigree, and gestreon,
riches. Icel. fa, Dan. faae, to get, acquire, to produce young ;
Icel. fang, acquisitio, captura, and also foetus, conceptus ; Lith.
turreti, to have, to possess, and also to bear young ; and the
Lap. tarjet, to be able, seems to be the same word. So also
Finn, saada, saaha, to catch, to take, to get, to beget, to begin,
to be able. From prehendere, to seize, we 'have apprehend
and comprehend, to seize with the mind, to hold in mental pos-
session, to know. Again, the same verb which in E. get has
the sense of acquiring or of procreating, in A.-S. ongitan
signifies to know, perceive, understand. To forget is to lose
mental possession of a matter. From Lat. capere, to seize, to
take, are formed concipere, to conceive, to originate a living
being in the body, or an idea in the mind, and incipere, to
take up, to begin.

The sense of being able is intimately connected with the
idea of material possession on the one side, and with mental
capacity or knowledge on the other. Possideo and possum
are compounds of the same word potis (Sanscrit patis, the
master, I sit as master, I am master, as in Fr. vous etes le
maitre, you may do as you please) with verbs of the same
essential meaning. What we are able to do depends in great
measure upon the means at our command, either in material
appliances or in skill and knowledge. Savoir nager is to be
able to swim. The word kraft is in G. applied to strength,
force, power, but in E. is used in the sense of cunning, know-
ledge of a trade, skill ; while the primitive sense of seizing,
holding fast, is preserved in the W. craff, a cramp iron, pair
of pincers. In the same language dyn craff, a man of under-
standing.

210

TRANSACTIONS

OF THE

PHILOLOGICAL SOCIETY.

1855.— No. 13.

December 7. — Professor MALDEN in the Chair.

Edward Steane Jackson, Esq. M.A., of Totteridge House,
Enfield, Middlesex, was elected a Member of the Society.

Dec. 21. — Professor GOLDSTUCKER in the Chair.
The following Paper was read, part on each evening : —

" On the Races of Lancashire, as indicated by the Local
Names and the Dialect of the County;" by the Rev. JOHN
DAVIES, M.A.

It will not be necessary to offer an apology for introducing
to the Philological Society the examination of a dialect, for all
philologists are now well aware of the importance of such
forms of a language, both in determining historical questions,
and in the examination of the structure and progress of the
language to which they belong*. The dialect of Lancashire
is one of considerable importance for both these purposes,

* And also for the right interpretation of its early literature. Thus, in
the ' Anturs of Arther at the Tarnewathelan ' (Three Metrical Romances
published by the Camden Society), Dame Gaynor is said to "gloppun"
and "greet:"

" Alle glopuns and gretys Dame Gaynor the gay."

The poet meant to say, that Dame Gaynor was amazed and wept ; but the
editor interprets the first word to mean " to wail," " to lament," making
the author utter a simple tautology. These romances belong to the
Border Line, along the counties of Lancaster and Westmoreland, und in
the Lancaster dialect to be "gloppened," is to be greatly amazed or
ftttomsbtd.

211

and has not hitherto, I believe, been made the subject of a
scientific analysis. I propose in this paper to determine, by
an examination of it, some historical questions concerning
the various races that have peopled this part of the north of
England. In the discussion of this subject, some light will
also be thrown on an obscure period of our national history.

The first point to which I would direct the attention of the
Society is connected with the Celtic races that peopled the
whole, or nearly the whole, of Great Britain at the time of
the Roman invasion. The question has been much discussed
among antiquarians, who these races were ; and of their sub-
sequent fate it has been assumed by almost all our historians,
that they were either exterminated by the ruthless swords of
the Anglo-Saxon conquerors, or driven into Wales and the
county of Cornwall. The well-known historical fact, that a
nation has never been wholly destroyed by its conquerors,
would offer, however, an immediate contradiction of this state-
ment, which has been evidently made from pure ignorance of
the large Celtic element still existing in the English language.
An examination of this subject (which may fitly be commended
to the notice of an English Philological Society) would show
that many of our most common and necessary words may be
traced to a Celtic origin. The stoutest assertor of a pure
Anglo-Saxon or Norman descent is convicted, by the language
of his daily life, of belonging to a race that partakes
largely of Celtic blood. If he calls for his coat (W. cota,
Germ, rock), or tells of the basket of fish he has caught
(W. basged, Germ, korb), or the cart he employs on his land
(W. cart, from car, a dray or sledge, Germ, wageri), or of the
pranks of his youth, or the prancing of his horse (W. prank, a
trick, prancio, to frolic) , or declares that he was happy when
a gownsman at Oxford (W. hap, fortune, chance, Germ, gluck;
W. gwn, Ir. gunna], or that his servant is pert (W. pert, spruce,
dapper, insolent), or, descending to the language of the vulgar,
he affirms that such assertions are balderdash, and the claim
a sham* (W. baldorddus, idle prating ; siom, pr. shorn, a deceit,

* " In that year (1680), our tongue was enriched with two words, mob

212

a sham), he is unconsciously maintaining the truth he would
deny. Like the M. Jourdain of Moliere, who had been
talking prose all his life without knowing it, he has been
speaking very good Celtic without any suspicion of the fact.

These instances, which might be multiplied, may justly
cause us to doubt whether the Celtic stock was either
wholly destroyed by the Anglo-Saxons, or banished from
the country. Mr. Kemble was led to question this assumed
fact, from finding in our earliest historical records many
names which he could not interpret from Teutonic sources.
"In the earliest period/' he writes, "when our docu-
mentary history first throws light upon the subject, there
are still found names unintelligible to the Teutonic scholar,
not to be translated or explained by anything in the Teutonic
languages ; nay, only to be understood by reference to Cymric
or Pictish roots, and thus tending to suggest a far more general
mixture of blood among the early conquerors than has generally
been admitted to have existed." And again, " I will not close
this paper without observing, that a strict application of Celtic
philology to the names which occur in our earliest history,
would probably supply unlooked-for evidence of a much closer
and more friendly intercourse than we at present anticipate,
between some classes of the Britons and their Saxon invaders.
I earnestly recommend this inquiry to such members of the
Archaeological Institute as are capable of undertaking it;
for the real position of the aborigines during the Saxon rule is
a most important element in the induction as to the growth
and tendencies of our national institutions*." The names

and sham, remarkable memorials of a season of tumult and imposture"
(Macaulay's History of England, vol. i. p. 256, from North's Examen).
This is a mistake as to the word sham. It is an old Celtic word, and was
only brought at that time into common use from the language of the
vulgar. Mr. Carlyle, in our day, has made it famous. The word means
properly, a void or emptiness, a seeming to be something when there is
nothing, and hence baulking, disappointment.

* " On the Names, Surnames, and Nicknames of the Anglo-Saxons,"
a Paper read before the Archaeological Institute, Sept. 1845, pp. 5, 22.

which Mr. Kemble was unable to explain, confirm the surmise
which his sagacity had prompted. They may easily be inter-
preted from Celtic sources, and can only have been brought
into common use from a mingling of the Celtic and Teutonic
races.

Let us now inquire whether an examination of ancient
Celtic literature will throw any light on this obscure subject.
The Welsh historical Triads have come down to us; and, though
cast in a fanciful form, and containing much respecting the
pre-historical period that is evidently fabulous, their evidence
on this subject has the advantage of being contemporaneous,
or nearly so, with the establishment of the Anglo-Saxon rule.
We have also the poem, called Y Gododin, written by Aneurin
about A.D. 570, after the disastrous battle of Cattraeth, in
which he himself had taken a part. From the Triads we learn
that Lloegria (England) was peopled by various tribes at the
time of the Saxon invasion, and that these tribes had arrived
in the country at different periods. The sovereignty of the
whole was claimed by the race of the Cymry, or Cambrians,
either through conquest or a prior occupation of the land.
" There were three primary divisions of the Isle of Britain :
Cambria, Lloegria, and Albaii (Scotland), and the rank of
sovereignty belongs to each of the three. And under a mon-
archy and voice of the country they are governed, according
to the regulation of the Prydain, the son of Aedd the Great ;
and to the nation of the Cambrians belongs the right of esta-
blishing the monarchy, by the voice of the country and the
people, according to rank and primaeval right*." This appears
to mean, that the right of appointing the Pendragon, or Com-
mander-in-chief, rested with the Cambrians, who exercised
also other rights of sovereignty. " There were three refuge-
seeking tribes that came to the Isle of Britain, and they came
under the peace and permission of the tribe of the Cambrians,
without arms and without opposition. The first was the tribe
of Caledonians in the north ; the second was the Irish tribe,

* ' Welsh Historical Triads,' No. 2, edition of Probert. Though Lloegyr
is still the Welsh name for England, there can be no doubt that the ancient
Lloegria was much less extensive than the present kingdom.

214

who dwell in the Highlands of Alban; the third were the
people of Galedin, who came in naked vessels to the Isle of
Wight, when their country was drowned, and where they had
land granted to them by the tribe of the Cambrians*." Other
tribes or races are mentioned, who came to the land in a less
peaceful manner, and subsequently left it, or were expelled.
Among these are enumerated Scandinavians, "who were driven
back, at the end of the third age, over the sea into Germany ;
the troops of Ganval, the Irishman, who came into N. Wales,
and was driven into the sea by Caswallon (Cassivellaunus),
the son of Beli ; and the Csesarians (Romans) ." Other in-
vading tribes came into the country and established them-
selves there, before the invasion of the Saxons. These
were, however, evidently subject to the authority of the
ruling tribe of the Cambrians, and appear to have borne
their inferior state with reluctance. They threw the weight
of their arms into the scale against the Cymraic race, and
contributed, in a considerable degree, to the final success of
the Teutonic invaders. There was treachery, too, and a spirit
of revolt among the chiefs of the ruling tribe, and some of
them went over, with their followers, to the Saxon cause.
The nation was divided against itself. The Welsh literature
of that age shows that nearly the whole brunt of the long and
desperate struggle against the Teutonic races was borne by the
single tribe or race of the Cambrians. They were fearfully
slaughtered ; their heroic gallantry availing them little against
the fierce courage of the invading tribes, and the treachery of
their kindred races. But the contest was boldly maintained
until the whole of the race was either reduced to the condi-
tion of slavery, or driven to the mountain fastnesses of Wales.
Of this single race, therefore, the popular idea is partly true
(allowing that many of the Cambrians remained in the country
as slavesf), though wholly false with respect to the other tribes,

* Welsh Triads, No. 6.

f Bede mentions slaves as living among the Saxons. v (Eccles. Hist,
lib. iv. c. 13.) These were most probably Britons. Camden makes a
quotation from an old record, which establishes this fact, with regard to
the county of Lancaster : " Egfrid gave to St. Cuthbert the luud called

2 I ;")

which were, for the most part, certainly Celtic. " There were
three invading tribes," say the Triads, " that came to the Isle
of Britain, and who never departed from it. The first were
the Coranians, that came from the country of Pwyl. The
second were the Irish Picts, who came to Alban by the North
Sea. And the third were the Saxons. The Coranians are
settled about the river Humber and the shore of the Ger-
man Ocean, and the Irish Picts are in Alban, about the
shore of the Sea of Denmark. The Coranians and Saxons
united, and, by violence and conquest, brought the Lloegrians
into confederacy with them, and subsequently took the crown
of the monarchy from the tribe of the Cambrians. And there
remained none of the Lloegrians that did not become Saxons,
except those that are found in Cornwall, and in the commot of
Carnoban in Deira (Yorkshire) and Bernicia (Northumberland
and Durham) . In this manner the primitive tribe of the Cam-
brians, who preserved both their country and their language,
lost the sovereignty of the Isle of Britain, on account of the
treachery of the refuge-seeking tribes, and the pillage of the
three invading tribes." Among the traitorous Cambrians are
mentioned Gwrgi Garwlwyd, who joined himself, with his men,
to Edelfled, King of the Saxons ; Medrod, who united with
the Saxons that he might secure the kingdom to himself,
against Arthur ; and, ' ' in consequence of that treachery, many
of the Lloegrians became as Saxons;" and Aeddan, "the
traitor of the north, who, with his men, made submission to
the power of the Saxons that they might be able to support
themselves by confusion and pillage under the Saxon pro-
tection*."

The poem of Gododin confirms these statements. The

Carthmell (Cartmel, near Ulverston), and all the Britons in it (Britannia,
vol. hi. p. 380)."

* Triads 7,22,45 and 81. In the 15th Triad, the Csesarians, or de-
scendants of the Roman colonists, are said to have joined the Coranians and
the Saxons in opposing the tribe of the Cymry. This does not seem to ac-
cord with the statement of some historians, that Ambrosius, the celebrated
Pendragon, was of Roman descent ; but probably he was so only on the mo-
ther's side, as chieftainship was rigidly confined among the ancient Britons
to certain ruling families. Gildas says only " forte Rouiana? gentis."

216

brave but ill-fated warriors, whose loss the poet laments with
deep pathos, are of the Cambrian race. Their spears had
beforetime broken the ranks of " the horde of Lloegrians,"
and of the Gael. On the Saxon side are the men of Deivyr
and Bryneich (Deira and Bernicia). The son of Ysgyran
makes a fearful slaughter of these traitorous bands.

" Five battalions fell before his blades,
Even of the men of Deivyr and Bernicia, uttering groans."

The wrath of the poet flames forth against the tribe of Bry-
neich; not "the phantom of a man" would he have left alive
of the hated race; and Bryneich (Northumbrian) remained
from that hour, in the language of the Cymry, a term of
bitter and indignant scorn as the name of a traitor*.

From these testimonies it is evident (1), That the tribe of
the Cambrians, or Cymry, was only one of many tribes or
races in England at the time of the Saxon invasion. (2), That
it was the ruling tribe, exercising an undefined sovereignty
over the rest. (3), That the other tribes offered little, if any,
resistance to the incursions of the Teutonic races, and in part
coalesced with them against the tribe of the Cambrians. (4),
That, besides the Cambrians who remained in the country as
slaves, a large Celtic population was blended with the Teutonic
stock, and became " as Saxons." It is a necessary inference,
that a Celtic element would gradually penetrate into the lan-
guage of the conquering race, and affect it in proportion to
the numbers and influence of those who adopted the Saxon
cause, and became mingled with the Saxon population.

It is scarcely possible to determine with certainty what the
races were that are said by the Triads to have leagued with
the Saxons against the tribe of the Cymry. The Coranians
are called in one of the Triads Scandinavians, and are said to
have come from Pwyl (Poland). They united themselves to the
Saxons at once, probably through the sympathy arising from
an identity of race. They were, in all probability, of the tribe
of the Carini, classed by Prichard with the Burgundiones,
Varini, Guttones, and other tribes inhabiting the north-cast of

* See the notes to the edition of ' Y Gododin,' edited by the Rev. J.
Williams, pp. H}> and 94.

217

Germany, on the shores of the Baltic, and along the banks of
the Vistula. The origin assigned to them in the Triads is
therefore apparently correct, for the Carini are connected by
Pliny with the Guttones, whose territory extended along the
Vistula to the modern kingdom of Poland. " Vindili, quorum
pars Burgundiones, Varini, Carini, Guttones." Prichard
gives no other information of the Carini than that " they are
entirely lost"*." We may infer, that they were compelled to
migrate by their more powerful neighbours, and that they
settled on the banks of the Humber. — The Lloegrians were
probably a kindred race with the Cambrians; a different
branch of the Celtic stock. It is evident that they were Celtic,
from their connexion with Medrod, the nephew of Arthur,
and from the circumstance that the Cambrians, in opposition
to them, are said to have preserved their language, implying
that the Lloegrians had gradually adopted the language of the
Saxons f. It is reasonable to infer, however, that the lan-
guage was not precisely the same, as the races were distinct ;
and since Edward LhuydJ has shown that some names of
places in England may be best interpreted from the Irish
branch of the Celtic stock, it is probable that they were
related to the Irish tribes. The difference between the
Irish and Welsh languages was doubtless less than it is
now. These views receive some confirmation from the
following facts: — (1.) Asser, in his 'Life of Alfred/ has
recorded the British name of the town of Nottingham.
"Eodem anno (A. D. 868) paganorum exercitus Northanhym-
bras relinquens in Merciam venit, et Scnottengaham adiil.
quod Britamiice Tigguocobauc interpretatur, Latine autem.
speluncarum domus : et in eodem loco eodem anno hyema-
veruiit." Now in Gael, and Ir. tigh means a "house," and
uaiffh (uagaidh in Gael.) a "cave" or "den," uagidheach,
"cavernous ;" in W. the corresponding forms are ty and off of.
(2.) In the ballads of Robin Hood and Sherwood Forest (in
the same locality), and in the Vision of Piers Ploughman,

* Prichard's ' Researches into the Physical History of Mankind,' vol. iii.
p. 361. t Triad 7-

J Archseologia Britannica.

218

written probably near Malvern, the word used for "horse" is
capull. This is the Gael, and Ir. capull. The W. form ceffyl
is found in the Craven country. (Carres Glossary, v. kephyll.)
(3.) Pomponius Mela (de Britannis, lib. iii.) has given us the
British name for a chariot. "Dimicant bigis et curribus,
Gallice armati, . . . covinos vocant." This is the Gael, cobhan
(a coffer, a car or chariot), Gr. icbfywos. This word is not
found in the modern Welsh language, (see Armstrong's Gael.
Diet. s. v. cobhan.} — The tribes that inhabited Deira and Ber-
nicia were probably of the Cambrian race. This would account
for the extreme bitterness with which their treachery was
denounced, as being treason to their own kindred. The word
"bryneich" became a term of reproach in this very sense.
It is the appellation of a traitor to his kindred or race.

If we proceed to inquire into the evidence which the local
names and the dialect of Lancashire offer with regard to these
historical statements, it will be found that it confirms them
in two particulars : — (1.) That a large Celtic population must
have been left in the county after the establishment of the
Anglo-Saxon rule, and — (2.) That this population was of the
Welsh or Cymraic race. Very few words are found that
belong exclusively to the elder or Gaelic branch of the Celtic
stock, and probably even these were common to both divisions
of this class of languages at the time of the Saxon invasion.

Celtic Names of Natural Objects and of Places in the County
of Lancaster.

MOUNTAINS AND HILLS.

PENDLE HILL*. W. pen, head or summit, a common name
in Wales for a lofty summit, as Penmaenmawr, Penbryn, &c.,
Gael, ben, binnear, hill. This word is written in our old
records "Penhull," and is an instance of three parts of a
single name, all having the same meaning, and marking three
successive changes of language: W. pen-, A.-S. hull; E. hill.

* It will assist the reading of Welsh words, to say that "u>" is pro-
nounced as the English " oo " (bwg=boog) ; si as sh ; dd as soft th j y as
the Eng. u, except in monosyllables, when it is pronounced as y in " pretty" ;
u as t in " sin," and sometimes with a longer sound, as Eng. ee.

Hfl

CONISTON OLD MAN. A corruption, as Dr. Whittaker has
pointed out, of alt maen, lofty hill*. The word " alt" is not
retained in the Celtic languages as an adjective, but that it
was originally so used may be inferred from the W. allt, a cliff,
and Gael, alt, a hill. The word is retained in Allt Hill, a
rising ground not far from Oldham.

Bivington PIKE. W.pic or pig, a pointed end, a beak ; Arm.
picq, Tfr.pic, as in the Pic du Midi-f. There are other hills
so called in the county, as Warlow Pike, on the borders of
Derbyshire, and Thieveley Pike, near Todmorden.

HENTOE. The name of a high hill near Coniston: W. hen,
old, and twr, a pile. The old name of this hill was Hentor.
The word " tor," a lofty pile, either hill or tower, is found in
almost all the Semitic and Indo-European languages.

Thorn CRAG and Long CRAG. Two high hills near the great
chase of Bowland. W. craig, a rock; Gael, and Ir. craig.

SHOLVER. A hill not far from Oldham. W. siol (pr. shol),
head, and vawr, great.

TANDLE Hills, near Middleton. W. tan, flat, low, con-
tinuous, or tan, fire, and He, a place.

BRYN. The name of a place in South Lancashire. W. bryn,
hill. There was an old family (now extinct) of this name,
the Bryns of Bryn Hall, now the seat of the Gerard family.

BUERSILL Hill, near Rochdale. W. bwr, an entrenchment,
and sul (pr. sil), what extends round, circular.

CRIMBLES, in the north of Lancashire. W. crimell, a sharp
ridge. The word is written in the Domesday Book, crimeles.

TOOTER Hill. This is the local name used by the country
people, though the name given in the county maps is Horn-
blower's Hill. W. twdd (pr. tooth), that which juts out, or
from the name of the Celtic god, TaithJ.

* Journal of the Archaeol. Association, vol. vi. p. 26.9.

f Gael, peac, pcic, any sharp-pointed thing.

J " Tumuli of a lofty character, sacred to Mercury, were the Teuts or
Toot-hills of our country," according to Mr. Bowles, from the identity of
Mercury or Teutates. Cleeve Toot, co. Somerset, is capped hy a mass of
rocks, which from below has nil the appearance of an altar. Tothill Street,
Westminster, says Morden, a topographer of Elizabeth's reign, " taketh

220

DURN, or, as the lower classes call it, TV Durn. W. duryn^
a beak or snout. It is a projecting point or ledge of land
near Blackstone Edge.

Other Celtic names of hills would doubtless be found if the
names used by the country people were carefully collected,
but these will suffice to show that many have been derived
from a Celtic source, and that they belong to the Cambrian
division of the Celtic class of languages*.

RIVERS AND VALLEYS.

The names of the rivers and brooks of Lancashire are
chiefly Celtic.

The IRWELL, on which the city of Manchester stands. W.
7r, fresh, vigorous, and gwili, a name for river, as the Gwili
in Caermarthenshire ; properly, that which turns or winds, a
winding stream. In composition, gwili loses the initial "g"t-

The IRK, a tributary of the Irwell. W. Iwrch, the roe-
buck. Lhuyd in his f Adversaria,' says there are many
streams so called in Wales. Probably from bounding along
a hill-course.

The MEDLOCK, another tributary of the Irwell. W. med,
complete, full, and llwch, Gael, loch, lake or pool.

The DOUGLAS, flowing into the estuary of the Ribble. W. du,
black and glas, a greenish blue, or sea-green, so called from
the colour of the stream.

The KIBBLE. The name of this well-known river has much

name of a hill near it, which is called Toote-hill, in the great feyld near the
street." (Fosbroke, Encyc. of Antiquities, vol. ii. p. 582.) This, however,
is not the Tuisco or Teut of the Germans, but the Celtic Taith, the god of
travelling. Livy refers to Mercurius Teutates (in Welsh Duw Taith) in
his twenty-sixth book. (Prichard, vol. iii. p. 186.)

* Dr. Whitaker found that a hill between Lancaster and the great chase
of Bowland was called by the peasantry Gloufagh or Cloufagh, and he sug-
gests the W. glawog, rainy, as the origin of the name. I prefer the Gael.
globachy from 5^0, a veil or hood, as Beinn-glo (the cloud-capped mountain),
near Athol.

t The root gwili was transferred to Anglo-Saxon. " JSrest of Turcan-
wyllas heafde" (first from the source of the Turcaii stream), is found in
Kemble's A.S. Charters (i. 109).

221

perplexed antiquarian philologists. I can only venture to
suggest that it may be compounded of rhe (active, fleet), and
bala (a shooting out, a discharge, the outlet of a lake), and
may refer to its rapid course as an estuary.

The CALDER, a tributary of the Ribble. Mr. Baxter de-
rives the first part of this word from calai, muddy. In W.
llai (pr. somewhat like the Eng. clay), signifies " mud " and
also " gloom," but this is not, I think, the origin of " cal " in
Calder. More probably from W. call, what goes or turns
about. The latter part is doubtless from the W. dwr, a
stream.

The DARWEN, another tributary of the Bibble. W. dwr,
and gwen, white, beautiful.

The LUNE, on which the town of Lancaster stands. This
word is probably the same as the Alun in Wales, from W. a/,
chief, and aun, un, a contraction of afon, a river *. This con-
traction of tf afon " is not uncommon. It is found in Corn-
brook, near Manchester, (Cor-aun, narrow stream).

The WYRE, a river that flows into Morecambe Bay. W.
gwyr, pure, fresh, lively.

The rivers Irwell, Ribble, Lune and Wyre are the chief
rivers in Lancashire, the Mersey being a boundary stream
between the counties of Lancaster and Chester. Other
smaller streams in the county are the NADIN, W. nad, a
shrill noise ; nadu, to utter a shrill cry. (The termination
" in," is either the Celtic name for river, In or Inn, as the
INN in the Tyrol and in Fifeshire : or formative, as geli, a
shooting owt,gelmj what shoots out f ;) BEAL, W. bel, tumult,
belu, to brawl ; DERWENT, W. dwr, river, and gwent, a level

* On referring to the Itinerary of Antoninus, I find that the name of the
station where Lancaster now stands was Ad Alaunam. The name of the
river was therefore Alauna.

f Mr. Bamford, in his Glossary of South Lancashire Words, a work
equally unworthy of the subject and the author, derives the name of this
stream from «a,"no," and din, "noise," "the silent stream." Unfortunately,
however, for this attempt at etymology, the Nadiu is not a silent stream ;
and if Mr. Bamford had ever heard it rushing in winter along its narrow,
rocky channel, he would scarcely have been lured by the " fatal facility "
of such a derivation.

222

country ; LEVEN, W. llefn, smooth ; TAME, W. Taw, anciently
Tarn, quiet, still, Gael, tamh, stillness; Go?T,W.gwyth, a chan-
nel, a drain ; CRAKE, W. crec, a sharp noise ; LOUD, W. llwth,
glib, slippery; and KENNET, pronounced by the country
people Kunnet, a river on the north shore of Morecambe Bay.
This last word is a compound of the W. cyn, head, chief, and
nedd (pr. neth)j a river, properly that which turns or whirls, a
whirling stream.

To these may be added the Bay of MORECAMBE, W. mawr,
Gael, mor, great, and cam, crooked, winding; and WINANDER,
or WINDER Mere, W. gwyn (fair, beautiful), and dwr (water,
stream).

VALLEYS.

DOLDERUM or DOLDRUM, a valley near Rochdale. W. ddl,
a dale, and trum, in comp. drum, a ridge, primarily, a back.

CRAG Valley, a long irregular valley near Blackstone
Edge. W. craig, a rock. This valley is also called the Vale
of TURVIN. W. terfyn (pr. turvin), a boundary, terra finis.
This valley was probably in old time the boundary in this
part between the Sistuntii of Lancashire and the Brigantes of
Yorkshire.

NAMES OF PLACES.

MANCHESTER, ancient British name Mancenion, or Man-
ceinion. This metropolis of the north can boast of the most
remote antiquity. Its name would indicate a Celtic origin,
for " man " is undoubtedly the W. man, a place ; but the
meaning of the latter part of the name has given rise to some
controversy. Dr. Whitaker says, after Baxter, that the word
means " the place of tents*," but " cenion " in Welsh means
" skins," and the secondary meaning of " tents " is purely a
conjecture. In Spurrell's W. Dictionary the Celtic name is
written Manceinion, and " ceinion " is the W. word for
"ornaments" or "delicacies." It is scarcely possible to
determine more than that the name is Celtic. In this
instance, as in many others, the Saxon conquerors retained
* Hist, of Manchester, vol. i. p. 5.

223

only the first part of the ancient name, adding Chester to
mark that it had been a Roman station.

MELLOR, near Blackburn. W. maelawr, a mart or market.

CATTERALL, near Garstang. W. cad or cat, war, and rhail,
a fence. There was doubtless a British encampment here.

TORVER, near Coniston Water. W. twr, a pile or tower,
and vawr, great.

TROWS, a village in the township of Castleton ; and Trawden,
near Colne. W. traws, a mountain pass. There is a place
called Trawsfynydd (mountain-pass), in Merionethshire.

CLEGG, Clegg Hall, in the parish of Rochdale. W. cleg, a
rock, a cliff. This word, as a personal name, was as common
in very ancient times as it is in Lancashire at the present
day. Syr Clegius was a famous knight, according to old
legends, at King Arthur's court, and, as such, he figures in
the Morte d' Arthur and the Three Metrical Romances, pub-
lished by the Camden Society.

PEEL, on the Roman road from Manchester to Blackrod.
W. pill, a small fortress, a stronghold. This word is common
in the county as a local name. There is an ancient British
encampment near Stockport (the moat of which is still vi-
sible), which the country people call the Peel. The rude
towers to which the northern borderers brought their prey
after a foray are still called by this name *.

LEVER. This is a name occurring three or four times in

* Mr. Williams, in his edition of Prof. Leo's work on Anglo-Saxon
names, has the following note (Preface, p. x.). "A recent anonymous
writer in the Times remarks, that with the exception of Charles Fox, Gil-
bert a Becket — and his mother was an Arab — and the late Sir Robert Peel
(qu. whether even this be not the French pelle, a baker's shovel. — ED.),
our history does not record one great or illustrious name of Saxon origin.
Bruce, Wallace, Chandos, Audley, Talbot, Fitzvvalter, Langton, Blake,
Hopton, Falkland, Chatham, Pitt, were as purely and unmixed Normans
as Wellington himself. Cecil, Glendower, Vane, the good Lord Cobham,
Cromwell, and in general the leaders of the Calviuistic party, sprang from
the Ancient Britons. Milton was half Norman, half French." This
however is overstrained, and the writer has fallen into an evident
confusion between names and family descent, as some of the nanu-s he
mentions are pure Saxon. Peel is not from the Fr. pelle, but is the
Celtic pil (peel).

224

the south of Lancashire. There are Darcy Lever, Great and
Little Lever, and Lever Edge. It is probably compounded
of W. lie, a place, and vawr, great.

WERNETH. W. gwern, a watery or swampy meadow. The
word also means the alder tree, from its preference of a
swampy spot. Hence the name of the hill in Yorkshire,
Whernside, near the boundary line of the two counties, on
whose north side the alder still grows in profusion.

ROSSALL, on the moorland near Fleetwood. W. rhos, a
moor.

CARNFORTH and SCOTFORTH, in the north of the county.
W. earn, a heap of stones, and fordd, a road. The Celtic
word " fordd," now appropriated to a road over a stream,
means simply "road" or "passage*." The word "Scot"
may be a sign of the ancient Irish Scoti, of whose permission
to dwell in the country the Welsh Triads have given us an
account.

BRINSUP, not from Blackrode. W. bryn, hill, and swp, a
heap or cluster.

CINDERLAND. There are at least three places in the county
with this name. There is also Cinder Hill in the north. As
the English word " cinder " offers no reasonable explanation
of this name, we may assume, without rashness, that it is the
W. cyndir, principal or head land.

PENKETH, PENDLETON, PENWORTHAM. Here the first
syllable is the W. pen, head or summit.

There are some other names of places which may probably
be referred to a Celtic origin, as HESKIN, HESKETH (W. hesg,
sedge, rushes) ; GIGG, W. gwig, a retreat or opening in a
wood, and afterwards, hamlet, fortress f; SARNEYFORD or
SHARNEYFORD, W. sarn, stepping-stones, a causeway ; but

* The word " forth," as the A.-S.fyrhthe, may be, as Prof. Leo of Halle
admits, after Kemble, from the W.fridd (pr. frith), a plantation, a tract
of ground enclosed from the mountains, a sheep-walk.

t " Cognoscit non longe ex eo loco oppidum Cassivellauui abesse sylvis
paludibusque munitum ; quo satis magnus homiuum pecorisque numerus
convenerit. Oppidum autem Britanni vocant, quum sylvas impeditas vallo
atque fossa munierunt." — Caesar, De Bell. Gall. lib. v. c. 20.

225

the number of Celtic names of places is much less than of the
names of natural objects or of the Celtic words found in the
dialect*. The Saxons or Danes gave their own names to the
town or village of which they took possession, while the river
that flowed by, or the hill that rose above it, retained its
original Celtic appellation. Thus the river Cam (crooked,
winding) retains the name which the Celtic tribes had given
it, but "Caer Bladdon" has given way to "Cambridge;"
and the Thames is in name Celtic still, while " Caer Ludd "
has been changed into "London;" the Avon, too, is yet as
purely Celtic in name as when the Celtic tribes roved along
its banks, but " Caerodor " has left no trace in " Bristol,"
nor " Amwythig " in " Shrewsbury," though the Severn is as
Celtic as the hill Plinlimmon, from whose side it springs. The
number of Celtic names of towns and villages in Lancashire
that have survived the great torrent of Saxon invasion,
is a proof of the strength and extent of the barrier that
opposed it.

The Celtic local names of the county are conclusive evi-
dence of the fact that a Celtic race once inhabited it, but the
Celtic words still existing in the dialect show more decisively
that a portion of the aboriginal race remained on the soil
after the Anglo-Saxon and Danish conquerors had taken pos-
session of it. They furnish also data for an approximate cal-
culation of the ratio which this element bears to that of the
races with which it was mingled in process of time.

* There axe, however, many names which are utterly inexplicable by any
of the Teutonic languages, and invite conjecture, on this account, in an-
other field. Thus Breighmet Fold, near Bolton, would suggest, in name
at least, the Bremetonacum of the Itineraries. We know from Fortunatus
(Prichard, vol. iii. p 127), that "nemet" was a Celtic word for temple,
and " breigh" may be the W. brig, top or summit, implying that a high or
chief temple was there in the pagan times. So Camel Hill may be referred
to the Celtic god of war, Camulus ; and Eccles, near Manchester, may be
from the W. eglwys, Lat. ecclesia, and may indicate that a Christian temple
was built there before the time of the Saxon invasion. These, however,
are little more than conjectures. It can only be certainly affirmed that
such names are not Teutonic, and are therefore most probably Celtic.

226

Celtic Words in the Dialect of Lancashire*.

ADDLE, rotten, decayed, as an addle egg. W. hadlu, to
decay, to grow rotten ; " addle " is also used as a verb, and
means to earn, to get by labour. In this sense it is derived
from the A.-S. edledn, a reward, a recompense.

AGOG, eager, desirous. W. ysgogi, to stir, to wag. There
is a burlesque French word gogues, " etre dans ses gogues,"
to be in a merry mood, which is probably from the same
root.

AWSE or Oss, to offer, to attempt. W. osi, to offer to do, to
attempt. Fr. essayer.

BADGER, a provision-dealer. This word may be from the
Fr. bladier, as sodger, from soldier; but as the Fr. term is
from the Celtic blawd, meal, it is possible that the Lan-
cashire word may be derived as directly from a Celtic
source as the French. Mr. Carr (Craven Glossary) derives it
from Teut. katzen (discurrere) .

BALDERDASH, nonsense, idle talk. W. baldorddus (prating,
talking), from bal, what jets out, and tordd (a din, a tumult),
according to Dr. Owen Pughe. The word is undoubtedly
Celtic, though found in the Isl. baldur and the Fris. bulder.

BAM, a false mocking tale, a gibe. This word has not been
retained in Welsh, but it is found in the Armor, bamein, to
deceive, and the Gael, beum, a cut, a taunt or sarcasm.

BAWTERT, dirty, soiled with mud or filth. W. baw, dirt,
mire; budro, to make dirty.

BERR, rapidity, force. To run a berr, is to run headlong ;
a run-a-berr leap, is a leap taken after a quick run. W. bur,
violence, rage.

BITTER-BUN or BITTER-BUMP, the bittern. The Welsh name
for the bittern is adar-y-bwn, or bwmp-y-gors. Bwmp means
a hollow sound, and is expressive of the peculiar sound or cry,
the boom of the bittern.

BODIKIN, a bodkin, anciently a spear or dirk. " Od's
bodikins," by God's spears, an allusion to the death of

* I mean by this title ' dialectic words spoken in Lancashire,' whether
forming part of other dialects or not.

227

Christ, was formerly a common oath. W. bidog, a small
hanger or dirk; Gael, biodag (Ir. boidigin, dim. oibidog, dirk. —
Dr.Whittaker).

BOGGART, an apparition, a hobgoblin. W. bwg id. bwgwth,
to threaten, to scare ; Gael, bochdan, a bugbear.

BOGGLE, to hesitate, to be afraid, to do anything awkwardly.
W. bogelu, to affright, intrans. to hide one's self through fear.

BOTHER, to stun, to perplex. Corn, bothar, deaf; Gael.
bothar -, W. byddaru, to deafen.

BRAGGOT, ale spiced and sweetened. W. bragawd (in
the poem of Gododin, A.D. 570-580, bragawt], "a liquor
made anciently from the wort of ale and mead fermented
together,"— Dr. O. Pughe.

BRAT, an apron, a cloth. W. brat, a piece, a clout. Gael.
brat, a mantle, a covering.

BRAWSE. (W. Lane.), brambles, furze; Gael, preas, a
brier, a bush ; W. brwyn, rushes, sedge ; brasses*, dialect of
Berri.

BRAWSEN, stuffed with food, gorged. W. braisg, gross,
thick.

BREE, to fear. W. braw, terror ; A.-S. bregean, to frighten.

BREWIS, a dish made of oat-cakes soaked in broth. W
brywes. Bos worth, in his A.-S. Dictionary, has briw, brewis,
on the authority of Somner, but the word is certainly Celtic,
from briw, that which is broken in pieces.

BRODDLE, to assume, to boast, to swagger. W. brolio, to
boast, to swagger. Du. brallen. Germ, prahlen.

BROG, a bushy or swampy spot. W. brwg, a forest, a brake.

BROGGIN, fishing for eels with a pole, or by thrusting a
twig, furnished with hook and worm, into the holes where the
eels lie. Gael, brog, to spur, to goad. W. procio, to thrust,
to push in.

BRUIT, to talk of, to publish; Bruited, talked about. W. brut,
brud, a chronicle ; brudio, to record, to publish ; Fr. bruit Lf.

* ' English Etymologies/ by H. Wedgwood, Esq., Philol. Soc. Trails,
vol. iv. p. 250.

t My antiquarian readers will be reminded of the Brut of Layamon, the
Brut of Tysilio, and other ancient chronicles.

228

BURLEYMON, a person appointed at courts-leet, to examine
and to determine about disputed fences*; W. bwr, a fence,
an enclosure.

BURR, the flower of the large water-dock, the head of a
thistle. W. bar, a hunch or tuft. Gael, borr, a knob (as a
verb, to swell, to grow big). A.S. burre, the burdock.

Buss, a kiss. W. bus, the human lip ; Gael, bus, a lip, a
kiss ; Lat. basium ; Fr. baiser.

BYES, beasts. W. buw, kine ; Gael, bo, a cow ; Arm. bu ;
Gr. /Sofc; Lat. bos.

CAM, to make crooked or awry ; Camm'd, crooked, ill-tem-
pered. W. cam, crooked; camu, to bend, to curve; Gael,
and Ir. cam.

CANNELL Coal, a kind of coal that burns with a bright flame.
W. canwyll, a candle, a lamp; canwy, a bright glare, from
can, bright, white ; Lat. canus ; Ir. and Armor, can.

CECKLE, to retort impertinently, to speak insolently. W.
cecru, to wrangle, to brawl ; Germ. keck.

CLEAW, a flood-gate in a water-course. W. clwdd, a dyke, an
embankment.

CLEAWSE, an enclosure, a field, a close. W. claws, a small
field, a yard or court; Gael, clomsadh (pr. and sometimes
written clos) . The Germ, klause, a cell, a narrow pass, and
the Lat. claudo, clausus, are probably from the same root,
expressing that which is fenced off, or enclosed.

COB, to beat, to strike, to fling, also to surpass. A word
in very common use in Lancashire. That cobs aw, means,
it surpasses all, and give o'er cobbin, give up striking or
flinging at me ; W. cobio, to beat, to thump, to form a top or
tuft; Gael, cobh, victory, conquest.

COCK-BOAT, a small boat. W. cwch, a round vessel, a boat ;
Ir. coca.

COCKER, to indulge, to fondle, W. cocru. (id.)

* Among the entries in the records of the courts-leet held at Hale,
near Warrington, is the following : —

ixr TT \T i5 i / Adam de Coldecotes "1 jurati in termiuum

IV Hen. V. Burelamen | Winielmus de Thorneton }J

In another entry the word is spelled " Burelagmen."

229

COGS, the projecting parts of a toothed- wheel. W. cog, a
lump, a short piece of wood ; cocos, cogs.

COLLEY-WEST. When a Lancashire man is altogether un-
successful in his schemes, he says that everything goes colley-
west with him. This appears to be a compound of the W.
coll, loss, damage; Gael, coll, destruction, and the root in
the W. gwestwng, to decline, to go down ; implying a con-
tinuous loss by which he is going down to ruin.

CONGEL, a stick or staff'. W. cogel, a truncheon, a cudgel.

COSTRIL, KESTRIL, a small barrel. W. costrel, a jar or
flagon.

COSY, comfortable, snug. W. cws, a state of quietude or
rest. Mr. Wedgwood refers to the Gael, coiseag, a small
nook, a snug corner; coigeasach, snug, cosy*.

CRADDY, CRODDY. ' To set craddies ' is a phrase among
Lancashire school-boys for proposing some dangerous leap, or
other feat, as a trial of daring or dexterity. W. crad, heat, vi-
gour; certh, awful, dangerous; certhain, to contend. Gael.
crodha, brave, active ; crodhachd, bravery, prowess.

CRAP, money, means. W. crap, a grapple or catching;
crob, a heap. Gael, cearbh, money.

CRATCHINLY, feebly, weakly. W. crach, scabby, also puny,
petty.

fCREEAs, measles.

\CREAWSE, amorous, lascivious. These words are both, I
think, from the W. cres, heating, inflaming; cresu, to parch,
to inflame ; crest, scurf.

CRIB, to steal, to filch a small part of anything. W. cribo,
to comb off, to card.

CRIMMET, an obscene word, and other words of a coarse or
vile meaning, are of the Celtic stock. This circumstance
shows very probably that the words belonged to an inferior or
conquered race.

CROGHTON-BELLY, one who has eaten too much fruit. I
give this word on the authority of H alii well. It is probably
from the W. croth, what swells or bulges out, a rotundity ;
croten, a plump little girl.

* Philol. Proc. vol. iv. p. 252.

230

CROO, a crib for cattle. W. crwy what tends to close or
curve together. Gael, cro, a fold for sheep, a stall.

CUDDLE, to fondle, to embrace, to press to the bosom, to
lie closely. W. cuddio, to hide, to cover.

CUTS. Among Lancashire school-boys, to draw ' cuts,' is to
draw lots. This was usually done, in my boyhood, by draw-
ing one of several pieces of paper, cut into different lengths.
The word may be derived from the verb to ( cut/ but more
probably from the W. cwtws, a lot *.

DAD (W. Lane.), to move a heavy substance by turning
it on its end. W. daddro, a turn or twist (Lewis).

DADE, to hold a child suspended by the arms, while learn-
ing to walk. W. dodi, to put, to place, to set. The Sanscrit
dadh (ponere, tenere, sustentare), is much nearer the Lanca-
shire word both in form and meaning. Another close con-
nexion with the Sanscrit is found in the word " char," which,
as a verb, means " to go out to work for the day," " to take
occasional jobs." Sans, char, to go, to do, to arrange. (Bopp.
Comp. Gr. p. 1105, Eng. Ed.)

DOSSUCK, a dirty, slovenly woman. W. dosawg, speckled.
Gael, das, a tuft, froth, scum.

DUBBIN, a kind of paste used by shoemakers. W. dwb,
mortar, cement.

DUNDER-HEAD, a blockhead, a silly fellow. W. dwndro,
to prate, to babble ; dwndrwr, a prater, a tattler.

FAG-END, a remnant, a refuse piece. W. ffaig, the extre-
mity or end of a thing. This word which, though not pecu-
culiar to Lancashire, is used by all classes in the county, is
an instance of that curious connexion of words with the
same meaning, which is always found when different races
have been blended together. Cock-boat has been already
mentioned. The contemptuous use of such words as " cock,"
" fag," and others of the same class, shows also very clearly
on which side lay the superiority of racef. The common word

* Philol. Proc. vol. i. p. 174.

t The same inference may be drawn from the words, dapper, knave,
boor, churl, &c., compared with their Teutonic relatives. They bear the
mark of the Norman scorn for the Saxon serf.

231

" salt-cellar " is an instance of this kind of juxtaposition.
Fr. sellier, salt-dish.

FARRANT, decent, respectable, worthy. This word is derived
by Mr. Brockett from the A.S. far an, to go, and the meaning
attached to the word in his Glossary of North Country
Words, is, " equipped for a journey, fashioned, shaped." In
Lancashire the word is not used in this sense, though the
meaning is evidently retained in owd-f arrant, precocious, old-
fashioned. It is not improbable that the idea of behaviour
or course of life may have been derived in this instance from
the primary idea of motion or progress, as in the common
English "way," and the Germ, "auffuhrung;" but I am
inclined to prefer the Gael, f arrant a, stout, brave, generous,
from /ear, a man. If the A.S. verb "far an" be preferred as
the root of this word, it may be compared with Old Goth.
fuari, aptus, prosper; fuara, behaviour; Fris. fere, useful,
healthy ; and the Bavarian unfuer, misconduct.

FASH, the tops of turnips, waste, trouble. Gael, fasach,
stubble ; fasan, refuse of grain.

FATTLE, to trifle about business, to dangle after a female.
Perhaps from W. ffattio, to strike lightly, to pat*.

FILE, a cunning person, generally used of old persons.
This word has no reference, I think, to the common English
tool, a file ; but is connected with the W. ffill, a writhe, a
twist ; ffillio, to writhe about. Gael, fill, a fold, a plait •
fillte, folded, plaited, deceitful.

FLASGET, a shallow basket. W. fflasged, a vessel of straw
or wicker-work, a basket. Gael, flasg, id. In this instance,
as in "bragot," we have the stronger sound "t" for the
W. "d;" but as the modern W. "bragawd" was anciently
"bragawt," we may infer that Lancashire has retained the
primitive sound of the wrord, and that my fellow-countymen
are in some respects like the Irish-English of a former time,
" ipsis Hibernis Hibemiores."

FOG, grass left on the ground unmown; long, withered
grass. W. ffwg, dry grass; ffwgws, dry leaves. Ducange

* Old Norse, fitla, befingern; Dieff. s. v.fetjan.

232

has " fogagium," winter fodder, which, Mr. Carr thinks, does
not express the meaning of the provincial word ( ' fog." He
is however mistaken, if he supposes that they are not from the
same root. The W. ffwg means primarily "what is dry or
light," and " fogagium " means dry food, as hay, in opposition
to the fresh grass. The Craven farmer has retained the pro-
per meaning of the word, when he says, " he is boun to fog
his cattle," that is, to take them out of the pasture at the
beginning of winter, and to feed them on dry food.

FOOMART, the pole-cat. W. ffwlbart.

FRUMP, to sulk, to take offence. W. ffromi, to chafe, to be
in a pet. The Belg. frumpelen, to reproach, to revile, offers a
probable parentage for this word; but the root is, I think,
Celtic. W. ffrom, fuming, violent ; ffro, a violent motion or
impulse.

GAM, GAME, crooked; as a gam or game leg. W. cam,
crooked.

GARTH, a hoop, the belly-band of a horse. W. gardd (pr.
garth], an enclosure. The primary idea is that of encircling,
enclosing, and hence the Fr. jardin, Eng. garden, Old Germ.
gard, a town ; Buss, gorod, town ; and the many forms of the
same root, signifying " town " or " enclosed place " in the
Semitic languages. From the softening of the guttural comes
the Eng. " yard," an enclosed space near a house.

GIN, a machine for separating and cleansing the fibres of
cotton. W. ginio, to pluck wool ; gwlan gin, plucked wool.

GINNEL, a narrow passage, a small channel formerly made
in the centre of narrow streets for the passage of water.
A.rm.ffanol, a channel; Corn, gannel; Gael, grinneal, the bed
of a river, a pool, a channel.

GLUR, the softest kind of fat. W. gw&r, tallow, suet.
Gael, geir, id.

GOLTCH, to eat or drink ravenously, to be gluttonous.
Gael, gollach, gluttonous. W. golch, immersion, washing.

GORBELLY, one who has a large belly or paunch, a glutton.
W. ffor, a particle signifying large, excessive, as goradain,
great velocity; goraddo, to promise too much; goraddfcd,

233

over-mellow, too ripe; and bol, holy, belly, primarily, that
which is round.

GREECE, GREESE, a slight ascent; also stairs, steps.
W. gris, a step or stair.

GRIG. As merry as a grig. This word means the grey-
hound; A.S. grig-hund. It belongs to the Celtic languages ;
Gael, gregh, hound, probably this particular kind of hound ;
the Vertagus of Martial, which was of a Gallic, i. e. Celtic
breed : —

Non sibi, sed domino, venatur Vertagus acer.

GRUMMIL, small coal. Perhaps from W. gremial, to crash;
Gael, greim, a bite, a morsel.

GRY, to be in an ague-fit. W. crynu, to shake, to quiver ;
cryn, shaking, shivering. Gael, crith.

GULLION, a soft, worthless fellow. W. gwill, a vagabond,
(as an adj. fickle, apt to stray).

GYRE, to purge. A gyred calf is one purged by having too
rich milk. W. gyru, to thrust forward, intrans. to run ;
Gael, sgur, to scour, to purge.

HAP, chance, fortune; mayhap, perhaps. W. hap, id.,
hapus, fortunate, happy.

HARED, an obit or mortuary. Dr. Whittaker (Hist, of
Mane. vol. i. p. 359) is my authority for the word. He states
that in Anglesea, the word h&red was used in this sense;
derived without doubt from the Lat. hares, as our O.-Eng.
word, heriot.

HAWK, to cough, to bring up phlegm. W. hochi, to throw
up phlegm.

HEALO, YEALO, modest, shy. W. gwyl, modest, diffident.
Gael, eagal, ail, fear, timidity.

HIG, a fit of pettish anger. W. ig, a sob; igio, to sigh, to sob.

HOG, v., to carry on the back ; also, to put potatoes into a
hole or pit. These not very similar meanings find their point
of union in the W. hwg, a bend, a hook, and also a nook or
corner. The "hog" was the nook where the potatoes were
put and covered over, and the word was afterwards transferred
to the more convenient pit.

234

HOOANT, flesh swelled and hard from inflammation. W.huan,
the sun.

HOPPER, a receptacle for corn in a mill, a basket.
W. hopran, id.

HOWSE, to stir up, generally used of the fire. W. hoewi, to
render alert or sprightly.

HUFF, HUFT, to treat scornfully, to attack with scornful
reproofs. W. wfft, a scorn, a slight; wfftio, to push away
with disapprobation, to cry shame. Mr. Brockett gives the
Isl. yfa, irritare, as the origin of the word.

HUTCH, to lift up the shoulders uneasily, to move the
body with an uneasy motion. W. hicio, to snap, to catch
suddenly.

IMP, to deprive of, to rob. W. imp, a scion, a graft;
impio, to engraft. The Lancashire meaning is an amusing
secondary sense of the Celtic word ; taking a slip from one
stock to graft on another being a delicate expression for rob-
bery. The Welsh have never used the word in this sense.

JIMP, neat, spruce. W. gwymp, smart, trim, fair.

KEEN, to burn. W. cynnen, to kindle, to set on fire;
cynne, a fire-blaze. — Pughe.

KIBBLE HOUNDS. Beagles were formerly so called in Lan-
cashire. Dr. Whittaker, who is my authority for the word,
suggests the Ir. cuib, greyhound, as its source.

KIPPLE, to lift a weight off the ground to the shoulders
without help or stoppage. W. dp, a sudden pull or effort ;
cipiOj to snatch, to take off suddenly. The author of the
Cheshire Glossary, has the phrase Kibbo Kift, and explains
that it means standing in a half-bushel, and lifting from the
ground to the shoulders a load of wheat. " Why," he adds,
' ' I do not know ; but I have some idea of having seen some-
where the word kibbo or kibbor used in the sense of strong*.
Should it not rather be kibbow gift? and the feat above
mentioned will be a gift of strength." This explanation,
which is almost as happy as the derivation of the English
surname Peel (a rude town or fortress), from the Fr. pelle, a
* Perhaps the Hebrew gibbor.

235

baker's shovel, is not an unfair specimen of the guesses in
etymology, made by writers wholly ignorant of the Celtic class
of languages. The Welsh name for a half-bushel measure, the
traditional foot-place for this effort of strength, is cibyn, and
dp means a sudden effort. The cibyn cip, or, as our Cheshire
neighbours have corrupted it, the kibbo kift (" c " is always
hard in Welsh), is simply the half-bushel feat.

LAKE, to idle, to play truant. Perhaps from W. Uechu, to
skulk, to lie hid; but more probably from A.-S. ldct play,
sport; Goth, laiks.

LITHE, v. to thicken broth or soup with meal. W. llith,
meal soaked in water. Gael, leite, water-gruel.

LOBB, a heavy, clumsy fellow. W. Hob, a heavy lump, a
blockhead. Gael, liobar, a lubberly or awkward fellow*.
The word, when used as a verb, means, to run with a long
step ; perhaps from the W. llofan, what branches or shoots
out.

LURCH, to lurk, to lie hid. W. llerchio, to loiter about, to
lurk, derived by Dr. O. Pughe from llerch, a fit of loitering or
lurking, and this from Her, what is stretched or drawn out.

LUTCH, to pulsate strongly and painfully, as an angry
tumour. W. lluchio, to fling, to throw violently, to cast snow
into drifts. Gael, luath, luathaich, to hasten, to mill cloth by
rapid and violent beating.

LUVER, an open chimney, originally a hole in the centre of
the roof for the escape of smoke. W. Iwfer, pr. loover, a
chimney, Lewis. This word is not in Dr. O. Pughe's Dic-
tionary-)-.

* The Dutch have lobbes in the same sense, and the root may belong to
both classes of languages ; but the root-idea — heaviness — is found only, I
think, in the Celtic.

t In an article in the Quarterly Review, vol. Iv. written, I believe, by
the late Mr. Garnett, this word is said to be " plainly the Icelandic liori
(pronounced liowri or lioori); Norwegian, liore; West Gothland, liura;
described in the statistical accounts of those countries ns a sort of cupola
with a trap-door, serving the twofold purpose of a chimney and a sky-
light." Perhaps, however, the Gael, luidheir (dh in Gael, is either silent,
or, before a vowel, is pr. nearly as the Eng. y), a chimney, a vent, a flue,
may be the true etymon. W. llwyf, a frame, a loft.

236

As my design is not to give a complete list of all the Celtic
words in the Lancashire dialect, but only to show how large
and important this element is ; and since, moreover, to discuss
the whole, per seriem liter arum, would extend this paper to an
immoderate length, I will only add a few more instances to
complete the proof.

MINT, a large sum, especially of money. This word may
be from the common Eng. word "mint," implying a large
exchequer, but more probably from the W. maint, a large
quantity; Fr. maint.

MOG, to move off, to depart quickly. Scot, mudge.
W. mwchy swift, quick ; mwchio, to hasten, to be quick.

MUGGY, damp, dirty, used of the weather. W. mwci, bog,
from mwg, smoke ; or it may be from the Old Norse mykia,
mollire, stercorare, myki, fimus, Du. muyk, soft, [Dieffenbach,
Worterbuch der Gothischen Sprache, s. v. muks,~\ and related
to "muck," "mucky*."

MULLOCH, dirt, rubbish. W. mwlwch, refuse, sweepings.
Gael, mulach, dirt, a puddle.

MYCHIN, MICHIN, out of humour, pining, dissatisfied.
W. miCj spite, pique ; micio, to be piqued.

NATTER, to gnaw, to nibble. W. naddu, to hew, to chip.

OANDURTH, afternoon. W. anterth, the forenoon, morning,
according to Dr. O. Pughe, from an and tarth, literally, with-
out vapour, the time of the day when the vapours are dis-
sipated. Armor, enderv, afternoonf. (Philol. Proc. i. 173.)

* The W. migen, & boggy or swampy place, seems to be related to these
words.

f In the Anturs of Arther, the expression, " between undur and none"
occurs, and the editor, in explanation, quotes from the Quarterly Review,
vol. Ivi. : " The true form is undorn or under, i. e. unter, inter, between,
and means the intervening period ; it therefore sometimes denotes a part
of the forenoon, or meal taken at that time, and sometimes a period be-
tween noon and sunset. Ulphilas translates apicrrov, Luc. xiv. 12, by
undornimat ; Lane, oandurth." I think, however, that " oandurth " is
Celtic, from the Old Gael, indir, now eadar, between, connected with the
Goth, undorn and the Sans, antur. In Gaelic, eadarthrath, lit. between-
time, is the equivalent of the Lane. " oandurth " and " yeandurth," fore-
noon ; this would be formerly, indir-thrath, and by contraction, indirth, of
which the W. anterth is perhaps only another form.

237

ORRIL, mad, frenzied. W. rhull, apt to break out, rash,
hasty.

PANTLE, (W. Lane.), a snare for snipes. W. pant, what
involves or hems in. Gael, and Ir. peinteal, a snare.

PASH, a sudden gush of water or tears. W. pasio, to cause
an exit, to expel, from pas, what expels, an exit.

PEDDLE, PIDDLE, to do anything slightly, to trifle, to work
ineffectually. W. pid, what tapers to a point; pitw, very
small, petty.

PEE, to look with one eye, to squint. W. py, what is in-
volved or inversed or turned inwards. Mr. Brockett refers to
a ludicrous anecdote of a person called Peed Dalton of Snap,
that is, the one-eyed Dalton.

PEIGH, to cough. W. pych, a cough. — Lewis.
fPELT, to fling, to throw at. Also to move or run quickly.
\PELTER, to batter, to beat.

These words are from the W. pel, a ball ; peled, a ball, bul-
let ; Eng. pellet ; pelre, beating of a ball to and fro ; peledu,
to throw a ball.

PICK, to push sharply, to fling.

PICKING-STICK, the stick by which weavers throw their
shuttles. W. picio, to dart, to fling.

As high as I could pick my lance.

Coriolanus, act i. sc. 1.

PILDER, PILTHER, to wither, to shrivel, to fade away. W.
pydru, to rot, to putrefy; pallder, failure, abortiveness, a
perished state.

PINC, a finch. W. pine, id. The W. word " pine" means
also " brisk," " fine ;" and, as a subst., is probably applied
to the bird from this sense ; all appellatives being originally
expressive of form or quality.

POWSE, POWSEMENT, dirt, refuse, offal. They are also very
expressive terms of reproach, implying a high degree of con-
tempt. W. pws, what is expelled. This is very probably the
true etymon of the Lancashire " powse" and " powsement,"
though the "W. word does not express foulness : it means
simply "that which is violently expelled or sent forth," and,
in a secondary sense, " a violent utterance, a loud outcry."

238

PUNSE, to kick. W. pawen, a paw or hoof; pawns, a
bounce, a blow, a thump.

PURR, id. Gael, purr, to push, to thrust, to butt with the
head.

RE AWT, a way, a route. W. rhawd, a way or course, a
race, a rout; rhawden, a footstep/ from rha, what forces or
drives onwards. I think it more probable that the Lanca-
shire peasantry have derived this word from their Celtic fore-
fathers than from the Fr. route. The W. rhawd enables us
to connect together the words " rout" and " route," the radi-
cal signification being an onward and rapid movement.

REEAK, to scream, to shriek. W. rhech, a report, a loud
noise.

RICK, to make a noise, to jingle, to scold. W. rhoch, a
grunt, a groan ; rhochi, to grunt, to growl.

RIGGOT, a channel or gutter. W. rhig, a groove ; rhigol, a
furrow, a drain.

ROCK, ROCKET, a frock. I give these words on the au-
thority of Dr. Whittaker. He says they were used, in his
day, in the neighbourhood of Manchester. W. rhuch, a coat ;
Corn, rochet, a shirt; Fr. rochet-, A.-S. roc-, Germ. rock.
The Lancashire words may very probably be assigned to a
Teutonic origin ; but the fact that the Fr. rochet (Corn, rochet]
must be assigned to a Celtic source, and the existence of the
form " rocket," not found, I think, in the Teutonic languages,
may favour the assumption that they were in use before the
time of the Saxon invasion.

SAFE, sure, certain (often pron. sef ) . " He's sef to be
hanged," applied to a good-for-nothing fellow, means that
such a fate will certainly be his. W. sef, certain, truly .*
SCUT, the tail of a hare. W. cwt, ysgwt, a tail or rump.
SLAT, to spill, to dash water about. W. yslotian, to paddle,
to dabble.

Sow, the head. W. siol, the top of the head, the skull.

* The glossaries of Messrs. Brockett and Carr have shown that much
light may he thrown on obscure passages of Shakspere from provincial
words and phrases. The Lauc. use of the word "safe" will cxplam :i pas-
sage in Macbeth that has hitherto perplexed nil the editors of our great

239

Formed as the name of a high hill between Cheshire and
Staffordshire, Mow Cop, formerly written Moel Cop. W.
moel, a bare conical hill.

SPREE, a wild, mischievous frolic. Mr. Brockett suggests
the Fr. esprit, but I agree with the late Mr. Garnett*, that it
is from the W. asbri, trick, mischief; also fancy, invention.

TACKLE, v. to equip, to set in order, to take a person in
hand with the intent to subdue him, or set him in order. W.
tad, an instrument, a tool; taclu, to accoutre, to dress, to
repair or set to rights.

TANTRUM, a fit of passionate excitement. To be in his
tantrums, means, in Lancashire, to be in a nighty passionate
mood. W. tant, a stretch, a sudden start, a gust of passion or
whim.

TED, to spread abroad new-mown hay. W. teddu, to
spread out ; tedd, a spreading out, a range, a row.

TREDDLES, TRADDLES, the part of the loom which is moved
by the feet. W. troedlen, id. from troed, foot.

TREST, a strong bench, a butcher's block. W. trawst, a
rafter. The similar word " tressel" or " trestle" is from the
W. trestl, a stretcher, a frame ; root, tres, what is on the
stretch.

TURNIL, a long oval tub used for scalding pigs. W. twrnel,
a tub or vat ; from twrn, what is round, a turn.

WHOP, s. a smart, sharp blow; v. to beat. W. wab, a
slap, a blow ; wabio, to cuff, to beat.

WITHERIN, large, powerful. W. uther, awful, terrible.

WYZLES, the stalks of the potatoe-plant. W. gwjjdd, small
trees, shrubs.

There are some words in the Lancashire dialect which may

dramatist. (See Mr. Knight's Ed. of Shakspere.) Macbeth says, with hypo-
critical homage, to Duncan :

" Our duties

Are to your throne and state, children and servants,
Which do but what they should, by doing everything
Safe (that is, certainly, truly,) toward your love and honour.'*

Macbeth, act i. sc. 4 ,
* Philol. Proc. vol. i. p. 173.

240

be equally referred to the Welsh or the Anglo-Saxon. A few
examples have already been given of this kind. In some in-
stances the root is common to almost all the languages of the
Indo-European class ; and in others, it would seem to have
been derived to the Anglo-Saxon from one of the branches of
the Celtic stock. There is, undoubtedly, a Celtic as well as a
Danish element in the Anglo-Saxon language, as it has come
down to us; and the proof of this would confirm Mr.
Kemble's remark, that there was probably more intercourse
between the Anglo-Saxons and some of the conquered tribes
than is usually supposed.*

I subjoin a few additional examples of the kind referred
to:—

BERM, BARM, yeast. W. burym ; Gael, beirm ; A.-S.
beorma ; Germ, berme ; Dan. bcerme. In W. we have berw,
boiling, seething; berwi, to boil, to bubble; and this is the
origin, probably, of the Eng. " brew" and " barm." These
are connected also with the Gael, breo, fire, flame, which
brings us into contact with almost every language of Europe.
(See Dieffenbach, Wort, der Goth. Sprache, s. v. Brinnan.)

COP, a reel of spun yarn, formerly a ball of spun thread.
W. copa, cop, top, summit, head, tuft or crest; Gael, ceap,
Armor, cab, A.-S. copp, Germ, kopf, Old Fris. kop, Sans.
kapdla, Gr. /ee</>aX^, Gat. caput. In all these the radical idea
is " top " or " summit," and thence " head." It is preserved
in the word " coping-stone," and in the Lancashire " cob,"
to surpass, to beat. The present Lancashire sense of the
word is probably drawn from the round balls of thread that
were formerly made ; the name of which is retained, though
the modern " cop " is of a long, oval shape.

* There is, beyond doubt, a derived Celtic element in the Anglo-Saxon,
but the investigation of this subject will require much caution, and an ex-
tensive acquaintance with both these classes of languages ; for, though the
Teutonic and the Celtic differ widely in their development, they have radically
a close relationship. Dieffenbach's elaborate " Worterbuch der Gothisc-lu-n
Spnichr," oll'rrs drcisivr testimony on this point. See also Radlof's " Neue
Untcrsuchungen drs Krlu-nthumes, zur Aufhellung der Urgeschichte der
Teutschen." Bonn. 1822. (Prichard, Researches, &c., vol. iii. p. 136 note.)

241

CARK, v. to be careful or anxious; s. care, anxiety. W.
care (id.), carcus, solicitous, anxious; Gael, car, twisting,
bending, care, carach, deceitful, cunning ; Germ, and Sw.
karg (tenax, avarus) ; Old Norse kargr (tenax, contumax) ;
Old Germ, karag (lugubris), kara (passio, poenitentia, la-
mentum)"*; Sans, kdrd (moeror, aerumna), Pers. id., Armen.
kari, karikh (mo3ror, aerumna, penuria). The Gaelic gives the
primary idea of the root, that of "bending," "twisting,"
from which have sprung the secondary meanings of " care,"
" carefulness," " poverty," " deceit," under which forms the
root is found in almost all languages. I think the word has
been derived in Lancashire from the Cymric race, though
Bosworth has A.-S. care (care), on the authority of Somner.

CARL, a clown, a rustic fellow. Probably from the same
root as Cark, from the secondary meaning, " labour." W.
early a clown, a covetous man; A.-S. ceorl, Germ, kerl, Old
Du. caerl, Modern Du. karel, kerel, Old Fris. tserl. The
Lancashire form of the word is nearer the W. than the A.-S.
ceorl.

DRAB, a prostitute, a vile, dirty woman. DRAFF, grains of
malt after the process of brewing. I have joined these two
words together, as they belong to the same root. Gael, drab,
a spot or stain, drabag, a dirty female, a slattern, drabh,
refuse, draff; Sw* draf, Du. drqff (feex). A.-S. drabbe, dregs,
lees. The origin of these words, with regard to Lancashire,
is most probably Teutonic.

GABLOCK, an iron bar, a gavelock. W. gaflach-, A.-S. ga-
veloc, a javelin. This word is most probably Celtic. W. gafl,
a fork or angle ; gaf, a reaching out, or divaricating. The
gavelock appears to have been a kind of bill, a lance with a
curved barb. Bosworth has A.-S. gaflas, forks, a gallows, on
the authority of Somner.

RIDDLE, a coarse sieve. W. rhidyll, a sieve, from rhid,
what drains or oozes out; A.-S. hriddel. Bosworth has this
word in his A.-S. Dictionary, on the authority of Somner.

* The origin of the Lancashire term, ' Care Sunday/ the Sunday
before Palm Sunday, from the penitential rites formerly practised at that
time.

242

It belongs to the Celtic class of languages. Gael, and Ir.,
rideal.

RHUTE, passion, a paroxysm of anger. W. rhuthr, a sudden
gust or rushing, an assault or onset, from rhuth, a breaking out,
a rush; Gael, ruadhar, digging, stirring up, an onset; A.-S.
hruth, commotion, raging. [Bosworth, again on the authority
of Somner.] It belongs to the Celtic element of the Anglo-
Saxon, for the root is found only in the former class.

WAMBLE, to stagger from weakness, to move the body to
and fro. Wamblyy faintly, weakly. W. gwammalu, to waver,
to wamble; Dan. vamle, to ramble, also to feel squeamish
or sickly ; North Fris. wommelen.

It is evident, from these instances of Celtic words, still
existing in Lancashire, that a considerable population of this
race must have remained in the county after it had become
subject to the Anglo-Saxon rule. On no other supposition
can the fact be accounted for, since there has been little in-
tercourse between Wales and the lands north of the Mersey,
until a very recent period ; and the words are of a kind not
usually borrowed from a neighbouring country. We may
assume then, with certainty, that the assertion so often made
both by historians and philologists, that the Celtic race in
England was either wholly destroyed or expelled by their
Saxon conquerors, is untrue ; at least, as far as the county of
Lancaster is concerned *. History does not ofier a decisive
testimony on the subject, but the language of the Lancashire
peasantry gives unexceptionable and sufficient evidence by
which we may determine the question. And this evidence
proves, beyond doubt, that a large Celtic element is one of
the constituents of the race by whose activity and enterprise
the wealth and the power of England have been raised to so
marvellous a height.

It is not easy to form even an approximate estimate of the
ratio which this element bears to the rest; but from an ex-
tensive glossary of the dialect now in my possession, I infer
that about one-sixth part of the dialectic words may be traced

* See note (1) at the oiul.

243

directly to a Celtic source; and since the circumstances
affecting the language of the county would all tend to
strengthen the Anglo-Saxon element, and proportionately to
weaken the Celtic, it is not an extravagant assumption that
one-fourth of the population, at the time when the Saxon
authority was established, had derived its origin from Celtic
ancestors*. I am inclined to think that the mental charac-
teristics of the race favour this assumption. All deductions
with regard to distinct races, drawn from such considerations,
require, no doubt, a cautious examination of the subject, and
some marked peculiarities in the compared races. It is, how-
ever, undoubtedly true that some well-defined characteristics
have belonged to every distinct family of the human race, and
those of the Celtic tribes have been described in the same
terms by all who have written on the subject, from Julius
Caesar and Strabo to the ethnologists of our own day. And
who that knows thoroughly the Lancashire people — their love
of poetry and music — their keen relish for fun and frolic —
their creative ingenuity — their restless activity of mind and
body — their occasional turbulence — their strong passion for
liberty, sometimes degenerating into an impatience of just
authority — will fail to admit that to the stubborn perse-
verance and self-reliance of the Teutonic stock have been
added some qualities that belong to a more excitable and
mercurial race ?

If we examine the Celtic portion of the Lancashire dialect,
to determine the amount of information it may give on the
social position, or the habits and acquirements of the ab-
original race, it will appear that some light is thrown on these
subjects by the words that have come down to us. It has
been already mentioned that many low, burlesque or obscene
words can be traced to a Celtic source, and this circumstance,
together with the fact that no words connected with law, or
government, or the luxuries of life, belong to this class, is
distinct evidence that the Celtic race was held in a state of
dependence or inferiority. The use of such words as tedding,

* This must be understood to refer chiefly to the country south of the
Kibble.

244

garth, kipple, piggin, tackle, and the carter's cry to his horse,
wo, woa (W. wo, stop), would lead also to the assumption that
the race to which they belonged occupied the position of
servants. It is also within the limits of a legitimate inference,
that the abundance of such words as express violent passion,
or an impetuous spirit (as orril, rhute, hig, tantrum, rampage,
reeak, berr, spree, &c.), and the words most frequently used
for supernatural appearances (as boggart, bogle, hobgoblin),
are facts indicative of the excitable and superstitious cha-
racter of the race. The terms connected with hunting, such
as kibble, scut, like the Shaksperian brack, and the Latin ver-
tagus, are signs of that fondness for the chase which we
know was common to all the Celtic tribes; and the word
braggot remains to show that they were able to make an
intoxicating liquor from barley.

Of their skill in the arts of life, we may infer from the
words cleaw, hopper, goyt, miln (equally Celtic and Anglo-
Saxon), that they knew how to construct water-mills ; which,
whether derived from the Romans, or of indigenous origin,
we know, from other sources, were in use among the Britons
before the Saxon invasion. The words basket, flasget ; crock,
costril, piggin ; treddles, gin, and other terms connected with
weaving, will show that they knew how to form articles of
earthenware and wooden vessels, and also that they had looms
for the weaving of woollen stuffs. There is no evidence in
the Lancashire dialect that they were skilled in the use of the
bow, but the words gavlock, pikel (originally a dart or javelin,
frompicio, to dart or fling), and probably bill, though also an
A.-S. word (W. bilan, a lance or pike, bwyell, an axe; Gael.
biail, axe), and the Norman glaive, from the Celtic element
of the French language (W. glaif, a sword, properly a crooked
sword or scimitar), are proofs that they were familiar with
the use of warlike weapons, and with the arts of smelting and
forging iron ore. The Lane, eyurn (iron) is an exact counter-
part of the W. haiarn. The Teutonic names for the imple-
ments used in agriculture may show that the Anglo-Saxon
was a better or more systematic farmer than the Celt ; but
the existence of such words as byes, woo, garth, keffyl (horse,

in the adjoining part of the county of York), and perhaps the
word bull also (W. bwla, not in the A.-S.*, though in the
Germ, bulk], may add some slight evidence of the correctness
of Caesar's account of the ancient Britons : " Their houses are
very numerous, and their cattle are in great numbers f." The
word marl, derived from a W. root signifying marrow, a soft
unctuous substance, together with the words lithe (to soak
meal in water ; W. llith, soaked meal) and braggot, are proofs
that they were not unskilled in the art of agriculture ; as the
words bard and crowd (a fiddle), which these ancient tribes
have bequeathed to our language, attest their skill in poetry
and music.

The Celtic element of the Lancashire dialect having
been examined, there remain for consideration the Anglo-
Saxon and Scandinavian elements, and the slight infusion
of Norman- French which it presents. The largest element
is the Anglo-Saxon, as in our classical or standard English;
but the Scandinavian, represented either by the modern
Danish or the Old Norse, enters largely into its composition,
— more extensively, in fact, than in common English — while
the Norman-French has contributed only a few words of
little importance.

The Anglo-Saxon, as the most important element of the three,
may properly come first under consideration. But here a diffi-
culty presents itself, in attempting to trace the different tribes
or nations that have peopled the county. It is easy to connect
certain provincial words with their Anglo-Saxon predecessors,
and if it were proposed to show merely that a majority of the
words have a Teutonic or German base, and that therefore
the bulk of the people came originally from Germany, this
would be enough for the purpose. But if we ask from what
particular tribes of the numerous hordes that peopled Ger-
many in the fifth or sixth century, the population has sprung,
we must attempt to determine the separate parts of the com-
pound Anglo-Saxon race and compare the local names and

* Bosworth, on the authority of Lye, has bulluca, a calf, a young bull,
t De Bello Gall. lib. v. c. 12.

246

dialectic words of the county with words belonging to these
separate divisions. Otherwise we shall have only a vague
idea of an undefined German origin, or must accept such
general assertions as that of Bede, that the North of England,
including Lancashire, was peopled by the Angles, — and sup-
pose the Saxon element to have penetrated exclusively the
western, and part of the midland counties. But is this sup-
position true with regard to Lancashire ? We have no means
of answering this question from any historical records of the
county; the notices of it contained in Bede's Ecclesiastical
History or the Saxon Chronicle are of the most meagre kind.
A casual notice of a battle at Whalley or Winwick, or an
accidental allusion to the fact that Edward, the Saxon king,
while occupying the town of Thelwall in Cheshire, "com-
manded another force also of Mercians, to take possession of
Manchester in Northumbria, and repair and man it*," is
almost the whole of the information which history has given
of the county from the fifth to the thirteenth century. The
riches that lay beneath its wild moorlands were yet unknown ;
its ports were not convenient either for the Saxon or the Danish
marauder, or for the Norman baron ; it was not an object of
ambition as the more-frequented south ; the people were rude ;
a great part of the soil was either barren heath or swampy
lowlands ; and accident had not made it the theatre of any of
the great battles by which the fate of the country was deter-
mined. For ten centuries it seems to have been the most
obscure and unimportant of all the counties of England.
From their secluded position the people became almost as wild
and barbarous as the Irish kernes of a later date. Camden,
so late as the reign of Elizabeth, honestly confesses his reluc-
tance to visit them, and devoutly commends himself to the
care of Divine Providence, when he had determined to under-
take a task so perilous f.

* Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, A.D. 923.

t " Whom I feel some secret reluctance to visit, if they will forgive me the
expression. But that I may not seem to neglect Lancashire, I must
attempt the task, not doubting but Providence, which has hitherto favoured
me, will assist me here." — Camden's Britannia.

247

From these causes we can derive no help from history in
attempting to determine the races that have peopled the
county. Our only source of information is the dialectic
speech of the people, and the names of its towns and natural
objects. This last class has been already referred to a Celtic
origin, but the names of the towns and the dialectic words
are chiefly German or Scandinavian, showing that these races
succeeded the Celtic in the possession or government of the
county. A large majority of these words may be found in
our Anglo-Saxon dictionaries; but do they belong to the
Saxon or the Anglian division of this compound speech? and
were the Germanic conquerors of the Saxon or the Anglian
race ? To determine these questions we must inquire whether
there are any means of ascertaining with more precision than
has usually been attempted, their respective geographical
boundaries, the languages they spoke, and their relationships
with other tribes or nations.

Of the Saxons, Dr. Pritchard tells us that they were a
single tribe, whose abode was opposite that of the Cauchi, on
the neck of the Cimbric peninsula, and that they reached
from the mouth of the Elbe to the river Chalusus, supposed
to be the Trawe. This would limit their territory to the south
of Holstein, between Hamburg and Lubeck. He adds, that
Ptolemy mentions three islands belonging to the Saxon race
in the mouth of the Elbe, probably Nordstrand, Fohr, and
Silt ; and that this was the tribe whence came the followers
of Hengist*. But this statement, if intended to imply that
the Saxons, who invaded England, were exclusively of this
single tribe, or that the Elbe was the southern boundary of
the tribes that followed the banner of Hengist, is contradicted
by many unquestionable facts. There can be no doubt that
the Friesic and Batavian races contributed very largely to
swell the warlike hordes that invaded England from the fifth
to the seventh century. They are not mentioned by Bede
in his account of the invading tribes, and apparently from
this omission they have been generally left out of consi-
deration by our historians. But it may be safely assumed that

* Researches into the Physical History of Mankind, vol. iii. p. 360.

248

they were among the races that took possession of England
at this time, and that they were numbered among the Saxons :
it is also highly probable that these tribes spake very nearly
the same language, and that the Old Friesic is the best repre-
sentative of the speech of the Saxon tribe that dwelt on the
right bank of the Elbe. These views are confirmed by the
following circumstances : — 1. The Friesic language is still
spoken in the islands at the mouth of the Elbe, which,
according to Ptolemy, belonged to the Saxons. We have no
evidence that there has ever been a change of race or language
in these islands. 2. We have the testimony of Procopius
that the Friesians were among the races that invaded England.
He does not mention the Saxons : " BptrTtav 8e rrjv VTJCTOV tdva
rpia 7ro\vav6pco7r6raTa e^owi, j3aai\6vs re els avr&v e/cdo-TO)
€<j>ecrTr)Kev3 ovo/juara Se Keirat, rot? eOveat, TOVTOI? *A<yyl\oi re
/cal <&pi<rcroves ical rfj vrjva o^wvv^oi ~BpiTTO)ves*." We can
only reconcile this statement with that of Bede by supposing
that the Saxons and Friesians were at this time so nearly re-
lated that they were often classed under the same name. As
Procopius lived about two centuries nearer the time of these
transactions than Bede, his testimony is at least of equal au-
thority with that of the latter writer. 3. The traditions of the
Friesians and Dutch bear testimony to the fact, that their
ancestors bore a considerable part in the Saxon invasion.
They even claim Hengist as their countryman, and assert,
from tradition, that he was banished from the country.
Maerlant, a Dutch or Flemish poet of the thirteenth century,
speaks of him as being a Friesian or a Saxon : —

" Een hiet Engistus, een Vriese, een Sas,
Die uten lande verdreven was."

Or, as translated by Dr. Bosworth, —

* Quoted by Dr. Latham in his work on the English Language from
Zeuss : — " I believe for my own part," he adds, " there were portions
in the early Germanic population of Britain, which were not strictly either
Angle or Saxon (Anglo-Saxon), but I do this without thinking that it bore
any great ratio to the remainder, and without even guessing at what that
ratio was, or whereabouts its different component elements were located —
the Frisians and Bataviaus being the most probable."— Third edit. p. 73.

249

" One a Saxon or Friesian, Hengist by name,
From his country was banish' d in sorrow and shame*."

The words of Maerlant would rather imply that, in his day,
the terms Saxon and Friesian were synonymousf. 4. Ver-
stegan quotes some old German verses that embody a tradition
of the fact that Saxon and Friesian were formerly synonymous
terms : —

" Oude boeken hoorde ic gewagen
Dat al het lant beneden Nuemagen,
Wylen neder Sasson hiet ;"
and —

"Die neder Sassen hieten nu Vrieseii|."

Without questioning the fact, as stated by Pritchard, that in
the time of Valentinian, and probably earlier, many tribes
were included in the Saxon league, and bore the Saxon name,
who were different in race and language from the tribe which,
in the days of Ptolemy, was seated on the north bank of the
Elbe, it is evident that a tradition lingered in Germany till
the middle ages, that a close connexion existed originally
between this tribe and the Batavian or Friesic races. The
tradition is in an imperfect form, but it implies that the term
Saxon was used at a very early period as a generic word
including the Friesian, and that the relationship between
these tribes was so close, that the names of Saxon and

* King Alfred's version of Orosius, Bosworth's ed. note,
t Occa Scarlensis, who lived in the ninth or tenth century, and was
himself a Frieslander, states that Hengist and Horsa were the sons of
Udulf Haron, duke of Friesland. The historical statements of this writer
are riot to be thoroughly relied on, but his assertion makes it evident that
according to the tradition of his day, these warriors came from the country
to the south of the Elbe. Another assertion of this writer, that the Frie-
sians and Saxons were descended from two brothers, Friso and Saxo, is
evidently a mere myth, which indicates however that there was a close
family relationship between these tribes. See Verstegan, Restitution of
Decayed Intelligence, pp. 18, 130.

I " Old books I have heard affirm,

That all the land below Nymegen
Was once called Lower Saxon."
and — " The Lower Saxons are now called Friesian."

Verstegan, p. J)0.

250

Friesian were given at different times to the same people.
5. The words of the English language are more closely related
to those of the Old Friesic, especially North Friesic, than to
any other branch of the German stock. The following list
of words, taken at random from Richtofen's Altfricsisches
Worterbuch, will show how much nearer it is to modern
English than the present German language.

OLD FRIESIC. GERMAN. ENGLISH.

hervst, N. Fries, harvst herbst harvest.

harkia horen, horchen . . hark.

halt lahm halt.

half . . . . halb half.

hors ross, pferd horse.

renda reissen . . . . rend.

rida reiten ride.

song, sang gesang song.

strete strasse street.

thenne dann then.

there da there.

thiaf, tief dieb thief.

this, dis dieser this.

wid weit wide.

wif weib wife.

wane sich verringern . . wane.

warand gewahre warrant.

werka arbeiten work.

wet nass wet.

weter, water wasser water.

fridom freiheit freedom.

field feld field.

Saterdi Saterdag (prov.) . . Saturday.

sella, N. Fries, selle . . verkaufen sell.

sitta sitzen sit.

To which may be added that the word from which the Saxons
derived their name* — Sax or Seax, a short curved sword —
is found in the Old Friesic Sax (messer, kurzes schwert).
Our modern English sign of the infinitive mood, "to," in

Quippe brevis gladius apud illos Saxa vocatur,

Unde sibi Saxo nomen traxisse putatur. — Verstegan, p. 24.

251

connexion with the Anglo-Saxon and German termination in
"an" or "eii/J is found in this language alone of all the
Teutonic stock. The most ancient remains of the Old Friesic
are the ' Leges Frisiorum/ written in the time of Charlemagne ;
and in the law relating to the clergy, it is provided that each,
in a watery country, shall have a ship, and in the elevated
land, a horse, that he may ride to visit the sick : in the Old
Friesic, " is hit aen wetterlande, een schip toe habben, is hit

an gastland een hinxt to habben, deer hi mede ride

toe fandiane dae siecka*." The word ' hinxt ' (horse), is also
found in the form ( hengst/ and is the name of the celebrated
warrior that brought his warlike followers to the help of the
unfortunate Vortigernf.

The conclusions we may draw from this varied evidence are :
1. That the Saxons who invaded England came not only
from the limited territory between the Elbe and the Trawe,
but were rather a mixed race living chiefly to the south of the
Elbe. 2. That the Friesic race was closely related to the
proper Saxon tribe, and was often called by their name ; or
rather, that the terms Saxon and Friesian were used indiscri-
minately, one always involving the other ; so that Procopius,
for this reason, speaks only of Friesians, and Bede only of
Saxons, just as in our day we use indifferently the words
Britons and Englishmen, though originally distinct. 3. The
Old Friesic language will assist us in determining the pure
Saxon element in the Anglo-Saxon tongue, and therefore we
may infer a Saxon or Friesian immigration where words of
this class are found.

The dialect and the local names of Lancashire offer some
remarkable illustrations of these facts. There are two Friese-
lands, or Friesian-lands in the county ; one near Blackrod,

* The author of Piers Plowman's Vision uses both the Friesic and the
present English form. This marks a period of transition : —

" And thus bigynnen thise gnomes to greden ful heighe,

Sciant presentes," &c.

" And Favel with his fikel speche feffeth by this chartre,
To be princes in pride and poverty to despise,
To backbite and to host en."
t See note (3) at the end.

252

and the other in the south-east. It is possible that they may
have drawn their name from settlements of Friesians, out
of the Friesic cohort that garrisoned for many years the city
of Manchester, when a Roman station*. I will not attempt
to determine whether these Friesians first occupied the lands
which bear their name, under the Roman or the Saxon rule.
The latter is the more probable, as we have no instances of
legionary cohorts giving names to places near any other
Roman station. If this instance should be supposed doubtful,
we have other proofs of the connexion of the Friesians with
the Saxons in our local names ; as for instance in Wigan, the
town of battles ; Old Friesic wich (strife, combat), Old Saxon
wig, North Friesic wigh, Anglo-Saxon wig (war, battle).
Local tradition asserts that in the neighbourhood of this town
the renowned Arthur fought three battles against the Saxons
on three successive days, and that the river Douglas ran red
with blood to the sea. From some event of this kind, with
which the name of the half-fabulous Arthur has been con-
nected, the town may have derived its name. We have
another instance in the town of Over, near Leigh. Old
Friesic overe (sea-shore or bank of a stream) ; German ufer ;
Anglo-Saxon ofer; North Friesic over; and in the towns,
Bold, near Warrington, and Parbold ; Old Friesic bold (house) ;
Anglo-Saxon bold. The local termination wick, is also a
mark of our Friesic colonists. " It is pronounced veihs in
Gothic," says Prof. Leo, ' ' wich in Old High German, wik in
Friesian." It is common in Holland. The Friesic form is
the only one found in Lancashire ; as in Winwick, Fishwick,
Elswick, Salwick ; except in Horwick, sometimes written Hor-
wich. To these may be added the Saxon Recedham, now
called Rochdale; A.-S. reced, O. Saxon rakud, a baronial seat
or mansion. Tradition still speaks of it as the residence of
a Saxon thane. Ham, as distinguished from ham, heim, though
sometimes found in Upper Germany, is also a Friesic word.
According to Prof. Leo, " names of places with ham are not,
like those with tun, peculiar to the Anglo-Saxons ; however,
they are only elsewhere found among the Friesian stock, from

* Dr. Whittaker's History of Manchester, vol. i. p. 62, M.

253

North Friesland along the whole coast of the North Sea."
In Lancashire we have Cheetham, Downham, Cockerham,
Bispham, Lytham, and a few other places with this ending.
(See also p. 45.)

The Friesic language will also explain a peculiarity in the
Lancashire pronunciation of a large class of words, and will
show that in this, as in other instances, the peculiar form is
not a corruption of the language, but simply an archaism.
For stand, land, sand, man, pan, can (aux. v.), the Lancashire
form is stond, lond, sond, mon, pon, con-, and this is pure
Friesian*. Thus in the ' Leges Frisiorum/ — the Fresa and
sine ain frilike lond (the Friesians, and their own free land), —
hwersa ma nimth tha mentre falsk gold inna sinre hond (who-
ever takes to the minter false gold in his hand), — otheres
monnes wif (another man's wife), — sa skilun hiara lif opa thes
ena hals stonda (so shall their life stand upon this one's
neck), — thes etheles wives werthmond stont bi viii pundon
(the marriage price of a noble wife stood by [consisted of]
eight pounds) f. Grimm, in. his Deutsche Grammatik, has
noticed this peculiarity of the Friesic. " O is of a double
kind : — 1, representing the pure a-sound, e. g. hond, brond,
lond, stonda, gonga, long, thonk, sponne, monna, ponne,
bonnar (interdicta), &c., sometimes in the fourth case of
the a-, e. g. lorn (claudus) [Lane, lorn], noma (nomen), homer
(malleus) [Lane, hommer], homelja (debilitare), fona (vex-
illum, bona (occisor) [retained in the almost obsolete " boned,"
destroyed, ruined], hon (gallus), fovne (femina, A.-S. famne),
nose (nasus), onkel (talus) [Lane, onkel] . 2. The common o
in God (Deus), boda (nuntius)J/J &c.

* I need scarcely remind my readers that this form is common in Old
English literature. Thus Chaucer —

" I saw his sieves purfiled at the hond
With gris, and that the finest of the lond."

Canterhury Tales, Prologue.

f In Lancashire it is still a current phrase, that such a thing has stood
a person in so many pounds, i. e. it has cost him so much.

J Altfriesische Vocale, vol. i. p. 271. The form land, &c. was also used
hy the Friesians, though the Lancashire form was apparently more common :
" da spreeck di koningh Kaerl, halm, dat land is myn, ende hlakade "

254

Other instances will be given subsequently of the agree-
ment of Friesian and Lancashire words, when we come to the
discussion of separate dialectic words.

Our next inquiry must be into the nature of the Anglian
division of the Anglo-Saxon speech. Who, then, were the
Angles? Historical or ethnographical records give an in-
distinct reply to this question. There is scarcely a trace of
this tribe, which yet has given its name to England, and has
exercised a powerful influence on her destinies, in any records
we possess of the ancient Germanic races. Tacitus numbers
them among the Suevi, a race that included many distinct
tribes. He classes them with other obscure tribes, of whom
he had no distinct information, or of whom nothing could be
said. "Reudigni deinde et Aviones et Angli et Varini, et
Eudoses et Suarones et Nuithones, fluminibus aut silvis
muniuntur. Nee quidquam notabile in singulis, nisi quod
in commune Herthum, id est, terrain matrem colunt*."
Ptolemy tells us that the Angli inhabited the left bank of the
Elbe. They appear however to have migrated northwards at
an early period, and to have established themselves to the
north of the Saxons and below the Jutes, probably as far as
Engelsholm, in the south of Jutland. Professor Leo, of
Halle, believes that they formed a part of the mixed race
called the Allemanni, and asserts that in the mediaeval times
the country south-west of Heidelberg, east of the Rhine, in
the neighbourhood of Karlsruhe and Miihlburg, was called
the Angladegau. He affirms also, that " names answering to
the Anglo-Saxon stud so thickly at least one part of the land
of this latter people (the Allemanni), that a connexion
throughout must be entertained. It would be no remote
explanation of the phenomenon to infer that the Romans
located detached colonies of Allemannic captives in England,
similarly to Vandal and other German prisoners; but it
seems much more imperative to assume that the Allemannic
colonization in South Germany and the Anglo-Saxon in

then spake Karl the king (Charlemagne), Haha, that land is mine, and he
laughed). — Richtofen, s. v. haha.
* Germania, c. 40.

255

Britain partially issued from a common source, but in the
one case at an earlier period than the other*." The name,
Angladegau, would certainly lead us to infer that the Angles
migrated to the south as well as to the north of their former
territory on the Elbe, but the comparison of words which Prof.
Leo adduces in support of his assertion, heim — ham, lach —
leah, stein — stane, brunn — burne, &c., would rather show a
relationship of language than a positive identity. One suffix
in this list, ham, is found only in this form in the proper Friesic
and Anglian territory; Fries, ham-, Old Sax. hem-, Germ.
heim • Old Fries, hama (heimen, wohnen), probably connected
with the O. Fries, hemma, to enclose, to hinder. Prof. Leo has
himself quoted from Dahlmann's edition of John Adolfis,
known as Neokorus' c Chronicle of the Province of Ditmar-
schen :' — " Whatever obstructs or is obstructed, hems in or is
hemmed in, is called hamm or hemme, whether it be a forest, a
fenced field, a meadow, a swamp, a reed-bank, or isolated low-
lands, won by circumscribing with palisades an area in the bed
of a river ; indeed, even a house or a castle was so called by the
Friesiansf." Outzen also tells us that " in the country of the
Angles, as well as here (in North Friesland), every enclosed
place is called a hamm.3' It is more probable therefore that
the words mentioned by Prof. Leo are due to an admixture
of the Angli with the races that spoke a High-German dialect,
and that they gradually assumed the language of these races.
Their ready admixture, however, with the Allemanni on the
one hand, and with the Saxon or Low German tribes on the
other, is an argument in favour of the theory, that their
language was intermediate between the two. It is moreover
very probable that the speech of all the Germanic races at
the time of the Anglo-Saxon invasion, was nearer the Low
than the High German type; or, in other words, that the
languages of Southern Germany were a development from
those of the races inhabiting the countries on the northern
part of the banks of the Elbe. It is also probable that a
part of the Anglian race may have migrated to the south-

* Treatise on the Local Nomenclature of the Anglo-Saxons, p. 129,
Eng. ed. t P. 3.9.

256

west of Germany, for in the days of Ptolemy they extended
along the Elbe almost as far southwards as to the Lower Saale
or the Ohre*.

It is certain, however, that the Angles who united with the
Saxon tribes in the invasion of England, were from that part
of the Anglian race that had migrated to the north of the
Elbe. We have the express testimony of Bede and of king
Alfred to this effect. Bede tells us that their territory lay
between that of the Jutes and Saxonsf, and Alfred, in his
version of Orosius, confirms the statement : — " On the west
of the Old Saxons is the mouth of the river Elbe and Fries-
land, and then north-west is the land which is called Angle
and Sealand, and some part of the Danes." And again, in
speaking of this country and the Danish isles : " On that land
lived Angles, before they hither to the land came." The
modern district of Anglen is bounded by the Schlie, the
Flensborger Fiord, and a line drawn from Flensborg to Sles-
wick; but we may assign, from the statement of Alfred, and
from the testimony of Etherwerd in the thirteenth century —
that Sleswick was the capital city of the ancient Angliaf — a
much wider district to the Angli in the fifth century. This
latter writer informs us that Sleswic was the Saxon name of
this city, and that it was afterwards changed by the Danes to
Hathaby. We may infer from this that the Anglian speech
resembled that of the Saxons, or that it was substantially
a Low- German dialect ; while from their geographical con-
nexion with a Scandinavian race, we may draw the additional
inference that it would contain some words that properly
belonged to the Danish or rather to the Old Norse dialect.

The conclusions we may draw from the whole of this evi-
dence are these two: — 1. That the Anglian speech was pro-
perly a Low-German dialect, but approximating more than
the Saxon or Friesic to the language afterwards developed in
the Old High German. 2. That it was affected, in some

* Pritchard, vol. iii. p. 360. f Ecclesiastical History, c. 15.

t "Anglia vetus sita est inter Saxones et Giotos, habens oppidum
capitale, quod sermone Saxonico Sleswic nuncupatur, sccunduin vero
Danos, Hathaby." Quoted by Dr. Latham from Zeuss, p. 65.

257

degree, by their connexion with Scandinavian or Old Norse
races, but more in the matter or words of the language than
its grammatical structure.

We shall find some confirmation of these views in the Lan-
cashire dialect and local names. In the middle of the county
we have Anglezark. The first part of the word is, without
doubt, from the name of this tribe ; the second is found also
in Grimsargh, Kellamargh, Mansargh, and Goosnargh, all
names of places not far from Anglezark, and is probably the
Old High German haruc*, Old Norse horgr, A.-S. hearh,
gen. hearges, a heathen temple or altar. The Old Norse
hbrga (aspretum editiusf) shows that it meant primarily a
lofty grove, and thence a temple encircled with groves
(according to Bede's description of a heathen temple, " fanum
cum omnibus septis suis"), and lastly, a temple. It answers
therefore to the Danish lund (a sacred grove) . We know from
Tacitus J, that all the Germanic races were wont to celebrate
the rites of their dark and cruel worship in the gloomy
shade of forests or groves, and the word teaches us, as Wed-
neshough (Wodensfield), Satterthwaite (Ssetere), and Lund,
that the Angles were worshippers of the old Teutonic deities,
when they took possession of Lancashire. The name was
probably given by the Angles themselves, and if so, it indicates
that the Anglian speech approached, in some words, to the
High German form. The word does not belong, I think, to
the Old Friesic, or to the modern Dutch ; but to the Scandi-
navian and the High-German dialects.

We have also an Old High-German form in the word Parr,
found simply in the village of Parr, near St. Helen's, and in
Parbold. The Anglo-Saxon bearo is translated by Bosworth,
" a high or hilly place, a grove, a wood, a hill covered with
wood ;" but it would seem to be connected with the verb beran
(to bear, to bear fruit), and to mean especially a wood that sup-
plied mast for fattening swine : " Hsec sunt pascua porcorum,

* Grimm, D. G. vol. iii. p. 428.

t I think Biorn means by this phrase, " a woody hill," from his trans-
lating holt, Germ, holz, "aspretum."
} Germania, c. 40.

258

quae nostra lingua Saxonica denbera nominamus*." Grimm, in
his ' Deutsche Mythologie/ tells us that the Old High-German
form of the word was paro, and that it often signified a con-
secrated grove, like the Danish lund. If bearo or beru was
the Saxon form, then paro must have been Anglian, and in
this instance the latter is more Upper German than Saxon.
The following are other instances of the same kind : —

Hurst, O. H. Germ, hurst t.

Bootle, house or mansion ; Modern Germ, biittel, in Ritze-
biittel, Brunsbiittel, &c. The Friesic and Old Saxon form is
bold or bodel, found in Bolton, written in Domesday Book
Bodelton.

Worth, a very common local name in the county. There
are nearly as many places with this word as the final
syllable, in Lancashire, as in the whole of the list of Anglo-
Saxon names in Kemble's Charters; South German worth,
North German wuurt. According to Prof. Leo, ' ' it has pro-
bably the same meaning as the Low Germ, wort he, a protected
enclosed homestead." Sonne, in his description of Hanover,
says that worth means in Low Saxon " a place without trees."
From an expression in the Laws of Ina, it would seem to have
been connected with the " churls " or serving-men in his time,
" Ceorles weorthig sceal beon wintres and sumeres betynedj."
This word is common to all the German dialects, but is found
more frequently in the Lancashire form in Upper Germany ;
as Donauworth and Grafenworth, in Bavaria ; Konigsworth in
East Saxony, and Schlarkenwerth in Bohemia.

Sal in Salford, Salwick, Crumpsall, Becensall, Halsall, &c.
O. H. Germ, sal, A.-S. sele; the Old Saxon form halla,
A.-S. heal (hale), is not often found as forming part of a
local name in Lancashire. These instances are not given to

* Quoted by Professor Leo from Kemble's Charters, No. 288.

f Holt is common to the Old Friesic and the High-German dialects.
Hyrst, or hurst t is properly a wood that produces fodder for cattle, and
answers to the Old High German spreidach (fruticetum, spinetum).

t The worth was, I think, an out-lying homestead, usually on the banks
of a stream, for the " churls " or serving-men, such as would be necessary
in the large farms that must have been common in Lancashire from the
nature of the soil.

259

show that the Anglian division of the A.-S. speech was closely
related to the Upper German, for it is certain that it rather
belonged to the Low German type ; but simply that some
words have been retained that can be best referred to the
former class, and as indicating that there is an element in the
A.-S. local names that is more German than Saxon or Friesic.
My own conviction is, that there was much less divergence
between the different forms of the Teutonic languages in the
fifth and sixth centuries, than at a later period, but that
where there is any divergence in the Anglo-Saxon from the
Low German type, it may very probably be referred to the
Anglian race. These views are confirmed by such words as —

Gawm, to give heed to, to consider, to understand; gawmless,
being in a state of vacant heedlessness, foolish, silly. This is
the Gothic gaumjan (to perceive, to give heed to) ; Old High
German goumen ; Old Saxon gomian ; Anglo-Saxon geomian
(to take care of); Old Norse gey ma (servare, custodire). The
Lancashire word has retained the Gothic, and evidently the
primary, meaning of the word, — to look at, to give heed to,
to understand. The ordinary Anglo-Saxon sense, to take
care of, coincides with the Old Norse geyma-, though this
language has retained the primitive meaning in gaumr (at-
tentio), gevsi gaum at (curare, attendere).

Glum, sour, sullen, moody ; German glumm, gloomy ; A.-S.
glom, gloom.

Grub up, to dig up; Goth, graban; Old High German
graban; Old Saxon bigrabhan; Anglo-Saxon grafan; Old
Friesic greva ; Du. graven ; and other words of a similar kind.

The plural ending of the Lancashire verb, " en," we loven,
ye loven, they loven, is also an intimation of the same
divergence to an Upper German type. The Anglo-Saxon
ending, i. e. the Anglo-Saxon as written in the works that
have come down to us, is " ath," lufiath, we, you or they, love;
and this is the Old Friesic form ; " tha afretha ther alle Hrio-
stringa haldath" (all the Hriostringa hold their courts of law
there); " thesse kiniiigar hebbath ewesen" (these kings have
been). The Lancashire form is more nearly allied to the
modern German, differing only in this, that the Lancashire

260

verbal-ending is the same in all the three persons. I need
not remind you that this form is used by Chaucer and other
early English writers : —

" Sche was so diligent withouten slouthe
To serve and plese ever in that place
That alle hir loven that loken on hir face."

Man of Lawes Tale .
Both forms are found in Piers Plowman's Vision : —

" Thanne telleth they of the Trinitd a tale outher tweye,
And bryngen forth a balled reson, and taken Bernard to witness."

There can be no doubt that both forms were used in England
from the time that the Anglo-Saxon tribes took possession of
the country, and while it is certain that the written A.-S.
form is pure Friesic, it is highly probable that the form still
used in Lancashire was brought there by the Anglian race.

It is a disputed point whether the Scandinavian or Danish
element, which undoubtedly exists in our standard English,
and more evidently in our dialects, is due to the Angles, that
were joined with the Saxons in the earlier invasion of the
country, or to the fierce Northmen who afterwards ravaged
the country from the Thames to the Solway Frith. The late
Mr. Garnett and Dr. Latham have maintained that the Scan-
dinavian element is properly Danish, and has been brought in
by the Danes in the later invasions from the north of Europe.
Mr. Guest, however, is of opinion that there are no traces
of the Danish, either in our MSS. or our dialects*; and
that the peculiarities of the northern dialects may be explained
by the fact that the Angles had been the neighbours of the
Danes before they invaded this country. It would be erro-
neous to argue the question on the supposition that the
Scandinavian languages were as distinctly separate from the
Teutonic in the fifth century as they are now. Many words
are found in the Old Friesic which have been retained only
by the Icelandic or Old Norse, but these must have been
common even in the ninth century to all the races that
occupied the countries that lay between South Friesland and

* English Rhythms, vol. ii. p. 186-207.

261

Norway. There was however certainly a difference between
the languages spoken in Frieslaud and Denmark, though we
cannot lay down precisely the boundary lines that divided
them. How then are we to decide the question ? We may
establish a high probability, at least, on one side or the other,
if we examine the words of a dialect to discover a Scandi-
navian element, and then inquire whether there are any traces
of Danish settlements in that neighbourhood. Lancashire,
and the dialect of the county, offer some advantages in the
prosecution of such an inquiry. There are no signs of a
Danish occupation of the county from Manchester to the
north-east, as far as Todmorden, and along the middle of the
county as far as a line drawn from Kirkby to Balderstone.
We know too that the Danes were worsted by the Anglians in
the battles which were fought on the south, and in the eastern
parts of the county. The Saxon Chronicle has recorded one
that was fought at Tattenhall in Cheshire, between the Danes
and the Angles, in which the Danes were defeated*, and
tradition still speaks of another near Rochdale, where on
Camp-hill the Danes had taken up their position, and of the
fearful slaughter that followed in the valley below, still called
Kill-Danes. The Northmen were evidently unable to take
possession of this part of the county, and yet there are many
words spoken in the dialect of this part that belong now to
the Danish language. If the number of these words were
small, it might remain doubtful whether they had not been
part of the common inheritance of all the races from the Ems
or Weser to the Sound, but their number is such as to make
it much more probable that this is properly a Danish element,
and the facts already related make it almost certain that it
had been imported by the Angles. There is also a Danish
element in the Anglo-Saxon, as it has come down to us in
writings of an early date, and this may confidently be ascribed
to the same race. But in the north and west of the county,
there are many local names that were certainly Danish even
in the twelfth century, and the Scandinavian or Danish
words therefore peculiar to these parts may be attributed to

* Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, A.D. 910.

262

the Danes themselves. The proper Scandinavian or Old
Norse element, existing in the dialect, contains some words
that are not now found in the Danish language, and from this
we may infer that the Northmen, who so often ravaged the
eastern shores of England, and penetrated even to the west
coast, were drawn from every part of the Scandinavian ter-
ritory. This is one of the many instances in which philology
confirms the records of history.

Additional Remarks on Anglo-Saxon Names of Places.

It is perhaps worthy of notice that few local names in Lan-
cashire end with terms expressive of the union of unrelated
families in the formation of what we now call a " town," or
"municipality," such as borough (A.-S. by rig, burg, a fortified
town) ; thorpe Old Norse, thyrping, (congregatio) ; thorp
(oppidum), Fries, thorp (id.) ; or byr, by, properly the town or
village, as distinct from the castle ; Dan. by ; Old Norse byr.
They are usually formed from words expressing objects in
natural scenery, as wood, shaw, lea, mere, hill, law (Goth.
hldw, tumulus; O. H. G. and O. Sax. hleo, id.); holt (wood,
Friesic holt, Germ, holz) and moor ; or of words indicating a
single homestead, with its enclosure, such as ham, worth,
bodel, sail, cote (cot, a poor man's house) and ton, originally
an enclosed place or homestead. (Old Norse tun, pratum do-
mesticum, viridarium ; Dutch turn, sepes, hortus, vertuinen, to
hedge about; O. H. G. zun, sepes, the root being in all the
Teutonic languages, as in the Lane, tan, a twig, a word
expressing simply a branch or bough, and thence a hedge.)
Bilborough is the only instance I know in the north of the
county; a few are found in the south, Bury, Duxbury, &c.
Thorp and Byr do not occur, I think ; By marks the Danish
towns, and is found about six or seven times. This fact
indicates that Lancashire was but thinly inhabited in the
Anglo-Saxon age. There were few towns, in the modern
sense of the word. Separate farm-houses, with their out-
offices, and a few huts for the " churls" or servants, were the
chief features in the scene, and in the wild moorlands, of
which a large part of the county consisted of old, these woidd

263

appear only at distant intervals. We are not surprised therefore
to read in Domesday Book that in the hundred of Amoun-
derness, there were only sixteen villages, " quse a paucis inco-
luntur," adds the record : " reliqua sunt wasta."

There is a considerable number of places ending in " ing,"
as Chipping, Melting, Pilling, &c. implying the residence of a
clan or family. This form does not teach us anything of the
German or Scandinavian locality from which these colonists
came, as it is common throughout Germany and Denmark,
but especially on the west coast, from Jutland to the south of
Holland.

One local name (Broughton, in Domesday Book Brocton),
which occurs three or four times, is apparently Germanic, but
may have existed in the Old Saxon. The only etymon I can
find is the O. H. G. bruoc (terra aquosa*).

Danish or Scandinavian Local Names.

The track of the Northmen, as permanent landholders in
the county, is in the north-east, near the point where the great
high road from Yorkshire leads to Colne, and thence across
the county and along the whole of the west. In the north-
east we find Balderstone, Osbaldistone, Elstone; and Ulver-
stone, in the west. Stone is used, I think, as the German
stein in the middle ages, and denotes a house of stone or
a castle f. It is connected chiefly with Danish names,
and implies that the Danes, like the later Normans, were
obliged to protect themselves by building strongholds. Laund,
which is the same as Lund, near Sephton, and is often
found in the wild hilly country in the north-east part of the
county, suggests dark pictures of the barbarous and cruel
rites by which the Teutonic deities were propitiated. It is
the Dan. lund, Old Norse lundr, a grove, properly a con-
secrated grove, such as the Teutonic races, like the idolaters

* The position of some of these places, as Broughton, a suburb of Man-
chester, is against the supposition that the word is connected with the
A.-S. broc (badger).

t As the Old Fries, stins, translated by Wiarda (Glossary to the Asega
Buch), ein steinernhaus.

264

of the East, used to set apart as the scene of their "dark
idolatry." The well-known Danish termination " by," is found
along the whole of the west part of the county, from Kirkby
to Nateby (not far from this place is Lund Hill), and thence
to Hornby. Other instances are Roby, Westby, West Derby
(which has given its name to one of the hundreds), Sower by,
Formby, Crosby, and Ribby. Speke also, near Liverpool, is
Scandinavian. It signifies a place where mast was obtained for
fattening swine, and answers to the Saxon Bearo, and the Old
German Parr ; Old Norse spika (to feed, to fatten), spik (lard,
bacon) ; German speck. Another Norse word brecka (a gentle
acclivity), is found in Norbreck, Warbreck, Swarbrick, Tow-
brick and Kellbricks, all in or near the Fylde country. The
appearance of so many names with the same ending, in one
particular part, would suggest the idea of related colonists
from some place or territory in Scandinavia, but I have not
been able to find any place with a similar ending in any
country of the north. The word does not now exist, I believe,
in Danish. Other Scandinavian names are Ormesgill, near
Furness, Ormskirk, Tarnsyke (Icelandic Horn, a pool or lake),
and Bearnshawj near Cliviger*.

The records of Domesday Book confirm the evidence of the
local names. We learn from them that in the north-east of
the county f, Ketel had four manors and eighteen carucates of
land. In Hoogon (Lower Furness) Earl Tosti had four caru-
cates. In Aldringham Ernulf, and in Vlarestun Turulf had
each six carucates. These are all Scandinavian names.

There are one or two peculiarities in the grammatical struc-
ture of the Lancashire dialect which resemble some Scandi-
navian forms. Thus the sign of the infinitive, which is
usually 't, simply, as " hoo went 't bring it," is as near the
Old Norse and modern Danish " at," as to the Friesic " to."

* Fell (O. N. fiall, mons) ; gill (O. N. gil, hiatus, fissura montium).
Hauyh, Hag in Ilaggate (O. N. hagi, pascua) are also Scandinavian.

f In this part the sword dance, the old military dance of the fierce
Vikings, has not yet been forgotten. I remember meeting with it, a few
years ago, in an obscure village in the eastern part of the valley of the
Lune.

265

The word for "must," also, which is mun in all the persons
of both numbers, is probably the Old Norse man, mant, man
(Eng. will), in the Eddas mun ; and the pronoun and conjunc-
tion " that," is generally " at," as in the Norse. In the mo-
dern Icelandic mun answers to our Eng. " will," but formerly
it seems to have bcemnore allied in sense to the Eng. " may,"
and probably also to " must*." It is not peculiar to the Lan-
cashire dialect, for it is found in Lawrence Minot (A.D. 1352) :

" Listens now and leves me
Who so lives thai sail se
That it mun be full dere boght
That their galay men have wroght."

Poem iii. Ritson's Edit.

Dialectic Words.

Examples of these will be given under five heads : — 1 .
Anglo-Saxon and Friesian (Saxon). 2. Anglo-Saxon and
Danish (Anglian). 3. Scandinavian. 4. Words common to
these classes. 5. Anglo-Norman. The words Saxon and An-
glian must be understood as indicating not so much absolute
certainty as a high degree of probability, and as including
only the extreme points of the Anglo-Saxon: there was a
large middle element common to both Saxons and Angles, and
also, in a great degree, to all the Scandinavian races.

1. Anglo-Saxon and Friesian.

(a.) Differences of pronunciation.
breeost, breast, A. S. breost ; O. F. briast\.

deeop, deep, A. S.'diop; O. F. diap.

dyel, deal, many, A. S. dal-, O. F. deil; Goth, dailjan.

fet, fat, A. S.fat-, O. F./e/; O. Sax./e/.

fest, fast, A. S.fast; O. ~F.fest-, O. Sax. /as/.

fower, four, A. S.feower; O. ^.flower.

* See extract from the Fareyinga Saga in Latham's Eng. Lang. (p. 29),
where Thurir says to Sigmundi, " thir munt ratha hljota" (thou mayst give
counsel).

t O. N. Old Norse ; O. F. Old Friesic ; N. F. North Fries, ; O. S. Old
Saxon : Du. Dutch ; Sw. Swedish ; Dan. Danish ; A. S. Anglo-Saxon ;
O. H. G. Old High German; Fr. French; N. Fr. Norman French.

266

O.Y.goud-, T)Vi.goud; a&saut (salt);

O. F. sauty and others.
A. S. grand-, O. Y. grund', O. Sax. id.
A. S. cristnian; O.F. kerstena.
A. S. laitan ; O. F. kta [let, to hinder,

is in A. S. lettan, O. F. letta].
A. S. feo^ ; O. Sax. leoht ; O.F. liacht.
O. F. /(w«, lana, a way ; Du. laan, a

way with trees on each side.
Du.retf; A. S. rat (Lye); Germ.ra^e.
A. S. smoca; Du. smook.
A. S. streow, streaw; O. F. sfr-e;

Mod. F. s^e.
A. S. tacan; Du. tacken.
A. S. TYwes c?<e^, the day of Tiw, the

god of war; O.F. Tisdei; North F.

Teisdi.
A.S. water; O.Y.weter, wetter, watir.

Dialectic words : —

blain, a small boil or sore, A. S. blegen ; Du. blein.

blare, to make a great noise,

gowd, gold,

grund, ground,
kersten, christen,
leet, to let, to allow,

leet, light,
lone, lane,

rot, rat,
smook, smoke,
strey, straw*,

tack, take,
Tiseday, Tuesday,

weatur, waytur, water,

to bellow,
brabble, to quarrel, to wrangle,

Du. blaaren, to bellow.

Du. brabbelen, to jabber, to

rattle.

breeod-flake, a corded frame A. S. breod; O. F. flo k, a peg-
hung up for oaten cakes, or stake ; Du. vlaak, a hur-
dle for wool.
cloof, a ravine, a hollow place

among hills,
cockers, stockings without feet,

worsted gaiters,
crill, to shiver with cold,

A. S. dough; Du. kloof, a
split, a crevice.

A. S. cocer, quiver, case; Du.
koker, case, sheath.

The nearest approach in A. S.
is die, cold ; Du. gril, shi-
vering, griller, to shiver.

* And in Piers Plowman's Creed —

" Ne bedderi swich brothels (the friars) in so brode shetes
But sheten her heved in the stre, to sharpen her wittes."

267

crinkle, to bend under a weight,

to rumple,
crookle, to make crooked, to

bend,

doesome, dowin, healthy, pros-
perous,

A. S. crincan, to cringe; Du.

krinkelen, to bend, to wrinkle .
A. S. cry c, a crooked staff; Du.

kruikelen, to make crooked,

to rumple.
A. S. dugan, to profit, to be

good for; O.F.duga-, O. S.

fend, to seek a livelihood, to
provide the means of living,

fettle, to repair, to set right, to
put in order ; s. state, con-
dition (in a good sense),

A. S.fandian, to try, to seek

for; Q.^.fandia.
O. F. fitia, to adorn ; Goth.
fetjan, to adorn, to trim, to
arrange; M. H. Q.feiten, to
form, to adorn.

flinders } small pieces, fragments, Du. flenters, rags, tatters.

flyte, to scold, to jibe, A. S. flitan, to dispute, to

quarrel; O. S. flit, conten-

tion ; O. F. flit, diligence (Richtofen), probably rather con-

tention, rivalry.

O. F. frowe, a female, a wife ;

Du. vrow, Germ. frau.
Either from A. S. gal, roomy,
spacious, or galan, to sing,
and the O. F. kore, a tub or

vessel. If the name be taken from the humming of the wort,

we have in the O.N. gal (cantus), and ker (vas). The last

syllable is found in the (< bowking-kier " of the bleachers ; Du.

beuken, to beat ; Germ, beuchen.

gank, a narrow passage or foot- A. S. gang, a journey, a way

freawzin, gossiping (W. Lane.),
galker, a tub for wort,

or passage; Du. gang-,
Germ. gang.

O. F. glupa, to look, to peep,
to look sullenly; N.F.^/wpe,
to give stolen looks; Du.
gluipen, to sneak; Germ,
look with a sullen or malicious countenance*.

way,

gloppen, to amaze, used chiefly
in the part, gloppened, ama-
zed, astonished, awed,

glupen, to

* In the Old Norse we have glapa, to look at ; glepia, to fascinate, to
infatuate.

u 2

268

To be gloppened, is to be confused with a sudden surprise of
wonder or awe, as Dame Gaynor (in the Anturs of Arthur),
when she met the apparition of her mother in the woods of
Tarn wathelan .
gloor, to stare, Du. gloor, lustre, gluuren, to

leer, to ogle.
A. S. gerad, ready, skilful ;

gradely, properly, skilfully,

completely,
groop, the gutter or channel

in a shippon.
hainridge, haining, a separate

space for cattle (W. Lane.),

heddles, the small cords through
which the warp is passed in
a loom.

faith, to invite, especially to
a funeral,

Du. gereed] Germ, gerade.
N. F. group • Du. groep.

Du. heining, hedge or wooden
partition. Kilian has heyn
(sepes) and heynen (se-
pire). Mr. Brockett ex-
plains the word, to save, to
preserve.

O.F. hede, tow; O. S. hede.

tarn, to learn, also to teach,

preem, a comb used by weavers
to loosen the yarn,

prowt, poor
stuff,

runge, a long
handles,

A. S. lathian, to invite, to send

for ; O. F. lathia, to invite,

to summon.
A. S. leornian,to learn, to read,

O. F. lera, to teach; Du.

leeren, to learn, to teach ;

Germ, lehren.
A. S. preon, a clasp, a bodkin ?

(Bosworth) ; Du. priem, a

pin, a spike ; Germ, pfriem.
Du. prut, poor food, as curdled

milk. The word is retained

in the A. S. preowt-hwit, an

insignificant space of time,

a moment,
tub with two LowG. range (trabale, furcale,

virga); Belg. ronghe ; Goth.

hrugga, a rod, a wand;

(Dieff. v. hrugga.)

food, trumpery

269

scale, to stir, to clear, esp. the
bars of a grate,

A. S. scylan, to separate, to
discharge ; O. P. skala (un-
dad ietta skalin, wounded

or struck, implyiug perhaps the loss of a limb) (Leges Fris.).

Grimm supposes a lost verb of the strong conjugation skilan,

skal (separare). llichtofen, Altfries. Wort. v. skala.

sh we, a slice, a round cut off a A. S. scyftan, to divide, to

loaf,

side, long, ample, applied to
garments.
t, a sarcasm, a lampoon,

order; O. F. skifta; Du.
schijf, a round slice.
A. S. Sid-, O. F. sidy deep.

A. S. scitan, to dart; O. F.

skiata (jaculari).
Du. krieken, to peep; 't kreiken

van den dag, break of day.
This word is more nearly re-
lated to the Du. slop, a blind

alley, a cul-de-sac, than to the A. S. and N. F. slop, a frock or
upper garment.

A. S. stifian, to be firm or stiff;

O. F. steva, stiva.
A. S. stela, a stalk (Junii

Etym.) ; Du. steel, a stalk,

a handle.
A. S. trendel, a circle; O. F.

trind, round.
A. S. waeg, a wave ; O. F. weg,

wagi, water : O. Sax. and

O. H. G. wag.
A. S. wunian ; O. F. wona,

wuna-, Germ, wohnen; O. S.

wonon.
In A. S. we have cwic-feoh,

living property, cattle, as in

the O. N. gvik-fe (pccora) ;

skrike o} day, break of day,
slop, a pocket,

stever, sound, strong,

stale, steyle, a handle for a
broom or tool,

trindle, the wheel of a barrow,
iveeky, moist, wet,

won, woan, to live, to dwell,

wycawve, a female calf; Mr.
Carr (Craven Glossary) has
why, a heifer ; a why calf, a
female calf,

but the word is more nearly
connected with the N. F.

guei, quie (juvenca, bucula), and the Dan. qvie, heifer. It is
probably derived from some old root, signifying female (re-

270

tained in our Eng. quean), which may have some relationship
to the O. N. qvia (secludere). Biorn (Icelandic Diet.) distin-
guishes between qvik-fe, cattle, and qvi-fe (oves lactarise).

2. Anglo-Saxon and Danish (Anglian).

ashelt, properly, as helt, pro- This is the Icelandic or O. N.
bable, likely ; elder, sooner, helldr (potius) ; Dan. heller,
rather, rather; Upper Austr.M/efer,

halter-, A. S. hald, bending, inclining; Suab. halden, a decli-
vity, holden, to slope; O. N. adr (prius, antea). This form is
also found in Heligoland, edder, sooner; O. F. edre; A. S.
cedre, immediately.

A. S. bearm, barm, lap or bo-
som; Goth, barms; Dan.
barm.

A. S. betan, to amend, to re-
medy; Dan. betiene, to
serve; Germ, dienen.
A. S. byggan; Dan. bygge-,

O. N. byggia.

A. S.brastlian, to make a noise,
to swagger; O. N. brutla
(prodigere) ; Upper Germ.
brazeln, brotzeln, to revel;
Sw.protla; Swiss brdtleken.
A. S. breord, a brim; O. Germ.

barm, bosom, barm-skin, a lea-
thern apron,

beetneed*, a helper, one ap-
plied to in distress,

bigg, to build,

brattle, to spend money fool-
ishly or ostentatiously, to
squander,

bruart, the rim of a hat,
bryed, to spread abroad,
clem, to starve for want of food,

prort, brort; Dan. bred.
A. S. brcedan, to spread ; Dan.

brede ; O. N. breida.
A. S. clam, clay, a poultice, a
bandage; root-idea, tight-
ness or adhesion ; Dan. clemme, to squeeze, to pinch ; O. N.
klemma (angustia, res arctae).

Ccocket, lively, vivacious, related to quic, quec, kec, (ani-

J mosus) in O. H. G.; Dan.

kiek, hardy, pert; Germ.

[.keck, lively, pert, insolent. keck-, A. S. cue, cucen, alive,

quick.

* " He botneed a thousand." — Piers Plowman's Vision.

271

crib, a pen, a manger or rack,
dateliss, foolish, silly, weak in
body and mind,

ding, to strike or knock about,
to reiterate an accusation,

dree, long, tedious, wearisome,

eddercop, a spider,

fleet, to take the cream off the

milk,

fleetins, curds of milk.
fleet-time, break of day,

flooze,fleeze, small particles of
wool or cotton,

frist, trust, confidence,

gawster, to boast, to swagger,

ylead, a kite,

glendur, to stare, to look in
amazement,

haust, a cough,

kibboes, long sticks or wands,

A. S. crib-, Dan. krybbe.

Dan. dyd (valor, vis); O. N.
dad (virtus, robur), dddlaus
(cassus virtute animi et cor-
poris) ; A. S. dad, a deed.

A. S. dencgan, to strike; O. N.
dengia (tundere) ; Dan.
dange.

A. S. dreogan, to suffer; Dan.
droi, lasting ; Sw. droja, to
delay.

Dan. edderkop ; A. S. after -
coppa (alter, poison).

A. S . fliete, flet, cream ; O. N.
fleyta (supernatantem li-
quorem demere) ; fleet-time,
from the clearing off of va-
pours or gloom ?

A. S. fleos, flys, fles, a fleece,
down; O. Germ, floza;
O.T$.flos,flosi.

A. S. frithian, to protect?
Swiss frist en, to protect, to
deliver ; Dan./mfe, to per-
suade, to entice.

O. N. geistr (vehemens) ;
Germ. (Bav.) gaustern, to
act with precipitancy or
rashness.

K.S.glida; O.N.ffledra.

A. S. glendrian, to swallow, to
devour ; O. N. glenna (dis-
tendere, pandere).

A. S. hwosta; Dan. hoste;
O. N. hosti.

A. S. cyp, abeam; Dan. kiep,
a stick ; O. N. keppr (fustis,
rudis) .

272

lant, stale, urine,
lite, a few, little,

menseful, decent, managing,
thoughtful,

mottey, a club for uniting small
deposits of money,

neb, an edge or rim, the peak of
a bonnet, a piece broken off,
neeze, to sneeze,
reawp, hoarseness from cold,

Simlin, Simblin(Simne\), a rich
cake used on Midlent Sun-
day, hence called Simblin
Sunday.

snidge, a greedy, sordid person,

suite, to blow the nose,
steigh, a ladder, a stile,

swill, v. to wash or rinse a ves-
sel ; s. scraps for pigs,
Csye, to drain milk through a
< syle, sieve, to rain continu-
[^ ously.
tan, a twig*,

teagle, a crane for winding up

goods,
teend, to light a fire,

A. S. hland, \\T\I\G; O.N.hland
A. S. lyt, little, few; Dan. lidt,

lit.
A. S. mennisc, human; O. N.

mennskr (humanus, capax

moralitatis).
A. S. mot, an assembly;

O. N. mot (concursus, con-

ventus).
A. S. neb, beak or nib ; Dan.

nab, neb ; O. N. nebbi.
A. S. niesan-, Dan. nyse.
O. N. hrop, clamour; O. S.

hropan; Goth, hropian.
A. S. Symel, Simbel, a feast;

O. N. Sumbl (compotatio,

sorbillum) ; Dan. simle, a

cake.

A. S. snid-, Dan. snedig, cun-
ning, sly ; Germ, schnitt (?).
A. S. snytan', O. N. snita.
A. S. stager, stair ; Dan. stige,

ladder; Germ, steigen.
A. S. swilian, to wash or rinse;

O. N. sval (eluvies).
A. S. sihan, to strain or filter ;

O. N. sija (colare) ; Sw.

sila ; Dan. sile.
A. S. tan ; Goth, tains ; O. N.

teinn; Dan. tcene; O. H. G.

zeinna.
A. S. %/; O. N. tigill (funi-

culus) .
A. S. tyndan; Dan. t<snde\

O. N. tendra (excitare, ac-

cendere) .

* This word belongs rather to Class 4, as we have iu Du. tuin, a hedge,

273

threap, to argue with pertina-
city, to reiterate, to contend,

tore, to labour hard for a liv-
ing, to get a bare livelihood,

wakes, the extremities of the
lips, the corners of the
mouth,

wherken, to breathe convul-
sively, as from some ob-
struction in the throat,

tift, order or condition for the
performance of a task,

fey, to do anything cleverly,

fleak, a hurdle made of twisted
hazels,

gimmer, a two-year old sheep,

spur, a prop in building,

A. S. threafian-, O. N. threfa
(sublitigare).

A. S. teorian, to rub away, to
wax faint ; O. N. tor a (mi-
sere vitam trahere) .

A. S. wic, a dwelling, a bay or
creek; S. Goth, wik (au-
gulus) ; O. N. vik (recessus).

Goth, quark, throat; O. N.
qverk, qverka-mein (angi-
na); O. H. G. irquepan
(suffocari) ; Dan. qvalen,
stifling.

For this common and express-
ive Lane, word I can find
only the Goth, teva, order,
arrangement, disposition ;
gatevian, to put in order.

O. Germ, feihan, crafty; O. S.
fegni.

Germ, flechte, basket of wic-
kerwork; Dan. flette, to
twist.

S. Goth, gimmer (Mr. Brock-
ett) ; Dan. gimmer-lam, an
ewe-lamb.

O. H. G. sparro (tignum) ;
O. N. sperra (repagulum).

3. Scandinavian Words (partly Anglian),
barkle, to stick to, to adhere ; O. N. barka (cutem induere,

trans, to cover over,
beawn, bown, prepared, ready

to set off, going to a place,
brangle, to quarrel,
bunt, to take home work,

obstringere).
O. N. buinn (paratus, vestitus,

maturus) .

Q.N.branga (turba, tumult us) .
Dan. bundter, to pack up, to

make into a bundle.

274

clapcake, a cake rolled
and baked hard,

clatch, a brood of chickens,
cleg, a clever person, an adept,

creel, aframeto wind yarn upon,
cronk, the note of a raven,
dab, a blow,

thin Dan. klap, a blow; klappebrdd,
thin cakes beaten out with
the hand.
Dan. klekke, to hatch; O. N.

klekkia.
Dan. klog, prudent, skilful ;

Germ, king ; O. N. klokr.
O.N. krila (nectere, texere).
O.N. krunk (id.).
Dan. dabe, a paving beetle, a

rammer.

As an adj. this word signifies clever, skilful; a dab hond, a
skilful ready workman. In this sense I know no nearer
etymon than the Lett, dabba (ars, indoles), or the Lithuanian
dabnus (pulcher, lepidus).

O.N. ddffff (pluvia),efe^a(ma-
defacere) ; Dan. dugge, to
bedew.
O.N. elti, elta (insequi, agi-

tare) ; Dan. celte.
O. N. fudla (inconsiderate

tractare).
O. N. flaki, planities; Dan.

doage, wet, damp,

elt, to stir oaten dough before

baking,
faddle, nonsense, trifling,

fleak, to bask in the sun,

flit, to remove from one house

to another,

forelders, seniors, ancestors,
frum, tender, delicate, easily

broken,

flak, flat.
Dan. flyte, to change one's

abode; Q.N.flytia (vehere).
Dan..for<eldre', O.N.forelldri.
O. N. frum (prioritise, prima

proles).

(In Cheshire " Mm," applied almost solely to young tender
grass.)

gain, gainer (a gainer way is a
shorter way),

gar, to make, to do, to compel,
gawby, a clownish simpleton,

Dan. gienvei, a shorter way, a

cross cut ; gien, contr. from

igiennem, through.
Dan. giore ; O. N. gora.
Dan. gab, a simpleton, from

gaber, to open the mouth;

gab, to yawn.

275

yeck, a jest, a mocking sarcasm, Dan. giek, id.; O. N. yickr

(audaculus) .
gillers, lines of twisted hair for Sw. giller, a snare ; O. N. gil-

fishing, dra (laqueos tendere).

glide, to squint, O.N.#feicfa(distendere),#/e^/*

(varus) .
hanch, to bite, to snap at, O. N. hacka (iterato nixu de-

glutire) ; Dan. hakke.
hanch-appo, the game of 'snap-
apple/
hetter, keen, eager, as a dog in O. N. hcetr (prseceps).

fighting,
hippin-stones, stones at the O. N. hipp (saltus) ; Dan.

crossing of a stream, hop.

kench, a twist, a strain, O. N. kingia (cervicem rotare

vel incurvare), kengr (cur-
vatnra) .

kick, fashion, mode: aw th' O.N.skick (mos, consuetude);
kick/ all the fashion, Dan. skik, custom, fashion.

kind, to light a fire, O. N. kind (ignem alere).

kipper j amorous, lascivious, Dan. kippe, a brothel; kippe,

to pant.

laith, a barn, Dan. lade,

lam, to beat soundly, to chas- O. N. lemia (ferire) ; hlomm

tise, (fastis) .

lane, to conceal, O. N. leyna (occult are).

late, to seek, O.N. leyta (quserere); Dan.

lede.

lither, idle, lazy, Dan. lad, idle ; liderlig, de-

bauched, careless.

lopper, to boil slowly, O. N. lopi (tumor aquosus).

lurgy, idle. The lurgy fever, O. N. lur (ignavia) ; lurgr
sometimes thurgy -lurgy, a (defectus virium).
cant word for idleness.

mooc?, satiated,filled to repletion, Dan. made, to feed.
neeve, neyve, a fist, O. N. hnefi (pugnus) ; Dan.

nave.

276

plucher, to pilfer, to steal slyly,
ratey, rough weather, N. Lane.
rostle, to ripen,
scar, a steep bare rock,

sowl, whatever is eaten with
bread,

skellut, crooked, awry,

skyme, skyoyme, to look scorn-
fully, to be cold and distant
in manner, as a purse-proud
parvenu to his old friends,

sley, the reed-hook of a loom,

slood, the track of wheels,
slunt, to be idle,

sny, to turn up the nose in
contempt, to affect dislike,

whack, a heavy blow,

Da,n.plukke,p/ukker, to pluck,

to gather.
O. N. rat a (incuriosus ferri,

irruere).
O.N. rusla (prodigere), roskna

(maturescere) .
O. N. skur (projectura) ; Dan.

skier, a rock, a cliff.
Dan. suul, id.

O. N. skaela (detorquere).

O. N. skima (oculos circum-

ferre) ; skimp (cavillatio, ir-

risio) ; Dan . skiemte, to mock,

to scoff.
O. N. sledda (harpe, ensis fal-

catus).
O. N. slodi (callis) ; slodr (cal-

lis, depressio rei, lacuna).
Dan. slunt, negligently, drow-
sily ; sluntore, idleness ;

O.N. slundi (servus infidus) .
Dan. snoe, to turn, to twist;

O. N. sny, snua (vertere,

flectere) .
O.N. vaka (glaciem perforare,

perfringere).

O.N. Awj0j0(saltus,celer cursus) .
Dan. hvalle, to arch over.

O.N. reka (pellere, agere*).

whip off, to go off quickly,
whoave, to cover over, to over-
whelm,
yark, to strike hard,

* To these may be added a word I have occasionally heard in my boy-
hood, though now obsolete, thumb-finger. This is perfectly correct : O. N.
thumal-fingr ; thuma, iucisio in res molliores pro manu apprehendentis ;
thuma, talem incisionem facere. The thumb-finger is therefore the finger
of impression, or by which we take hold of a thing, and the separate parts
of this compound word, though long divorced, properly belong to each other.

277

4. Words belonging to all the Classes, (1), (2), (3).
A few only of these \\ill he subjoined, as they d<> not serve
to determine any specialty of race. A complete list would
show that there was a closer relationship between the lan-
guages to the north and south of the Elbe at the time of the
Anglo- Saxon invasion, than now exists.

botch, to mend clumsily,

cant, to raise up a barrel, to
set it. on edge,

frame, to set about a thing, to
show capacity in beginning
anything, as "hoo frames
weel," she begins or offers
well.

fremd, strange, not belonging
to the family,

grit, sand,

gull, a fool, one easily cheated:
a common word throughout
England,

greet, to weep, to lament; pret.
grat,

kittle, ticklish, difficult, un-
certain,

mack, race, family, sort.
mack, a wife,

Sw. bdta, to patch; O. S. bo-
tian; O. H. G. buazen.

Du. kant, side, edge; Germ.
kante, kant en; O. N. kant a
(marginare) ; kantr (ora,
latus) .

A. S. fremman, to form, to ef-
fect; O.F. frema; O. N.
fremia (patrare, facere).

A. S. fremth ; O. F. fremed,
framd; Germ, fremd ; Dan.
fremmed.
O.F. gret, sand; A. S. gryt,

mill-dust ; O. N. griot (saxa,

lapides) ; Dan. grytte, to

bruise, to grate.
O. N. gall, a fool ; Dan. yall ;

O. F. gull (mitis, liberalis) ;

Du. gul, soft, good-natured.
O. F. gret a, to accost, and also

to make a complaint; Mseso-

Goth . gret an, to weep ; O . N .

grata (plorare, lacrymare).
Du. kitlig, ticklish; O. N. kitla

(titillare) .
A. S. maca, mate, husband ;

O. N. maki (par, conjux) ;

maka (ambire conjugem) :

Du. makker (socius) ; Dan.

mage, a mate.

278
nag-nail, a sore at the root of A. S. ang-nagl; O. F. ongneil-,

a finger-nail (W. Lane, an
ill-tempered person),

Dan. nag, gnawing, also
animosity, spleen; O. N.
nag a (mordere, rodere).
A. S. notu, use, utility; O. F.
not (id.) ; O. N. not (id.).

note : a cow is said to be of
good note, when she gives
milk a long time,

speer, a boarded partition, a O. F. sper, spier (tignum) ;
screen, O. H. G. sparro (tignum) ;

O. N. sperra.

A. S. watd, wedd, a pledge;
O. N. ved (id.) ; Dan. vade ;
O. F. wed, pledge, forfeit ;
also a promise, a compact;
Eng. to wed.

5. Norman French,
boyern, to rinse, to wash, N. Fr. buer, to wash.

wad, a pledge, a forfeit,

N. Fr. cule, time, season.

N. Fr. cancan, loud talking,

noise.
N. Fr. chevance, goods, riches,

Fr. achever.
Fr. galimafree, hodge-podge.

cale, time, turn,
cank, to talk, to chat,

chieve, to prosper,

gallimaufry, hodge-podge; a
person whose dress is ill-
assorted,

guess, sort, kind, Fr. guise.

hog-mutton, mutton of a year- N. Fr. hogetz, a young sheep,
old sheep,

kales, keles, the game of nine- Fr. quilles, pins to play with,
pins,

The word, and probably the game, is due however to the

Northmen. Dan. kegle, a nine-pin,

larjus, bounty, Fr. largesse.

langgt, lingot, a shoe-string, N. Fr. linge, a line.

law* ; in making a running- N. Fr. laie, relief, ease ; the

* This word may be from the Old Friesic lawa, what is left behind;
A. S. laf.

279

match one boy is said to give
as many yards' law as he al-
lows his competitor to be in
advance.

manchet, a small loaf of white
bread,

maslin, flour of wheat and rye
mixed,

mits, gloves without fingers,
used for hedging,

muse, mews, a gap in a hedge
through which hares or rab-
bits pass,

nyfle, a trifle, a delicacy,

pow, to cut the hair of the
head,

ratcher, a rock,

tick, a kind of vermin,

trewil, a trowel,

variety a good-for-nothing fel-
low,

N. Fr. laie signifies also the
aid or tax demanded by the
king; Eng. lay.

Fr. manger.

N. Fr. mesle ; mesler, to mix.

Fr. mitaine.

Fr. moue ?

N. ~Fr.nifle, a thing of no value,

a trifle.
Fr. poil.

Fr. rocher.
Fr. tique.
Fr. truelle.

N. Fr. varlet, a valet, a ser-
vant.

From this survey of the dialect of the county, we may draw
the following conclusions : —

1. That before the Anglo-Saxon invasion the county was
inhabited by a Celtic population of the younger or Cambrian
branch of the Celtic stock ; and that a considerable number
of families, belonging to this race, remained on the soil after
the Teutonic invaders had taken possession of it. From a
comparison of the Lancashire dialect with the dialects of other
counties, and from historical records still extant, we learn
that this race, having probably come from the Cimbric Cher-
sonesus over the German Ocean, held the southern part of
Scotland, the counties of Northumberland, Durham, Cum-
berland, Westmoreland, the West Riding of Yorkshire, Lan-
cashire, Cheshire, and the north part of Wales, with an

280

undefined boundary to the east, but extending certainly
beyond the Severn. The races in the middle and south of
England belonged apparently to the elder or Gaelic branch
of the same stock; it may be confidently affirmed at least
that there were some tribes of this race in England at that
time, and that the Lloegrians, related to the Cymry and yet
distinct, belonged to it. It appears from historical traditions
that the tribe of the Cymry held sovereignty over the rest, most
probably by conquest. It is also certain, from the concurrent
testimony of the Welsh records, and of the words belonging to
this race, still spoken in the county, that they were not
altogether rude barbarians, but were moderately well skilled
in the arts of life. A race that can forge iron, and build a
water-mill, has taken at least the first step in civilization.

2. It is evident that among the Teutonic invaders of
the district there were some from the south of the Elbe, and
that they belonged to the race now inhabiting the north of
Holland. The Friesic language is now only a dialect, and is
confined within narrow limits ; but at the time when the
warlike bands of this race joined themselves to the Saxon
banner, it is certain that both the language and the race
occupied a much larger part of the country between the Elbe
and the Rhine. The invaders of England, then, in the fifth
and sixth centuries, did not come only from the narrow
territory usually assigned to the Angles and Saxons, but from
the whole country between the Ems and the territory of Jut-
land. We know also that the assertion of Bede — that the
Angles peopled the north of England — is not true, in an ex-
clusive sense, of the county of Lancaster, and was probably
only designed to express a numerical superiority in the north
of England generally on the part of this race.

3. The divergence of the dialectic words from the main
Anglo-Saxon stock is greater on the Danish or Scandinavian
side than on the Friesic ; and from the evidence drawn from
local names and tradition, we infer that this was due to a
preponderance of the Anglian rather than of the later Danish
element. This class of words is too large, I think, to be
assigned to the influence of the Northmen, and it is found in

281

districts where we have not only no trace of the Dane, but
all the evidence we have is against the supposition that the
pure Scandinavian races made an extensive settlement there.
If this be true, we have an additional testimony to the fact of
the Angles forming the main body of the inhabitants of this
part of England; and the statement of Bede is correct, if
understood in this sense. We may infer, therefore, that the
language of the Angles approximated at first more nearly to
the Danish than did that of the Saxons, or that their greater
nearness to the Danish territory had had an influence upon
the language. It is most probable that both these suppo-
sitions are correct.

4. The local names of the county show that the wave of the
later Danish invasion flowed from the north-east corner of
the county to the west coast, and then diverged both to the
north and south. It is also evident from the dialect that
these invaders were not Danes exclusively; for even allowing
that the Danish language was then nearer to the Icelandic or
Old Norse than now, we can hardly suppose that it contained
all the words which only the Old Norse can now supply. The
most probable supposition is, that the fierce warriors who so
often ravaged the whole country from the Thames to More-
cambe Bay were gathered from all the territory held by the
Scandinavian races. We may also infer that they were at
this time idolaters, and that the awful rites celebrated in
their dark groves in the north were repeated in Lancashire
during the ninth century. Perhaps no county in England could
offer scenes more in harmony with the wild gloomy religion
of the old Vikings than those which its bold bare hills and
bleak moorlands would supply.

5. There is scarcely the slightest trace of the Norman
baron in the local names of the county, and only a faint
evidence of his race in the dialect. I am inclined to think,
that upon the whole, no county in England felt the effects of
the Norman conquest less than Lancashire. The old records
of the county give additional evidence of this fact. The
names of the families recorded are almost universally pure

282

Anglo-Saxon with a slight sprinkling of Celtic. There is a
trace of the Norman in the south*, but along the whole of the
east and north of the county the Saxon or Danish landholder
seems to have held in peace the ancestral manor-house he
had dwelt in before the conquest, and the haughty insolence
of the Norman was comparatively unknown. We may infer,
therefore, that the race whose genius and energy have swelled
the resources of England to so great an extent is not much
indebted to Norman influences. It is chiefly of Anglian
blood, with a considerable mixture of Saxon and Scandi-
navian, and, blended probably in an equal degree, with that of
the Cambrian race.

ADDITIONAL NOTES.

(1.) The Celtic races in England have unfortunately been made the
subject of many groundless theories, by persons utterly unacquainted with
the Celtic languages or Celtic literature. 1. It has been denied that the
races inhabiting England at the time of the Anglo-Saxon invasion were
Celts at all. 2. It has been maintained, that though called Celts, they
spoke a language resembling that of the Anglo-Saxons, or in other words
that they were a branch of the great Teutonic stock. 3. It has been
asserted, that the race which opposed the Anglo-Saxons so gallantly, though
unsuccessfully, was simply a mixed race of Roman colonists and legion-
aries, the original Celtic races having been almost annihilated during the
time of the Roman occupation of England. The first opinion has been
maintained by Schloetzer, Gatterer, and other writers, both in Germany
and France. The second rests chiefly on the authority of Pinkerton, and
is supported by a writer in the Edinburgh Review (vol. !.)• The last has
lately been maintained in a Paper read lately before the British Association
at Glasgow. Unfortunate Celts ! whose foes, not content with having
subjected them to all the indignities of conquest, seem determined to deny
their very existence, or at least their historical existence. Happily for them,
their ancient literature and the remains of their language, both in our

* As in Dunham Massey, Darcy Lever, and a few other places.

283

standard English and the dialects of the country, prove beyond all doubt
their position with regard to the great families of the human race, and
their right to a place in the history and among the populations of England.
There is not a dialect in the kingdom that does not bear testimony to the
ethnographical position of their race, and to the fact that they remained in
large numbers on the soil after the Anglo-Saxon conquest. If the authors of
some of these idle theories would only make themselves acquainted with
the Celtic languages still spoken by a large part of their fellow-countrymen,
and then compare them with the language of their daily life or with the
dialects of the country, we should be spared the exhibition of much learned
ingenuity and folly. I will venture to recommend to their attention the
scientific labours of Legonidec and De Villemarque in France, and of
Grimm and a host of " scholars " in Germany, who have carefully studied
the languages of their country before offering an opinion on the races that
have peopled it. What opinion would they themselves give of a writer
who should pronounce a dogmatic theory on the Teutonic races, though
utterly ignorant of Teutonic literature, or of any of the languages belonging
to the great Teutonic stock? A sound philology is one of our best
media for determining obscure questions of history. Its value in this
respect is not yet sufficiently acknowledged in England, though well under-
stood by the scholars of France and Germany.

(2.) The local termination den or dene must also be added to the list of
Celtic derivatives. It is written in Anglo-Saxon dionu or denu; but
according to Prof. Leo, of Halle, " this word is wanting in all other German
dialects, and is thereby in some degree stamped as foreign.... Dion signifies
in Gaelic and in Erse, every sheltered neighbourhood, whether protected
by the earth or capable of affording covert in a storm — a valley, or what-
ever is sheltered from illegal practices by any fence. The Anglo-Saxons
have adopted the word from their Celtic neighbours in both acceptations ;
denu denotes vallis, an enclosed grove (like bearo), and the compound
denbearo is a tautologous term, contributed by two languages " (p. 106,
Eng. ed.)- It is common in Lancashire, chiefly on the eastern side of the
county : Todmorden, Haslingden, Marsden, Trawden, Walsden, and Dean
are instances.

(3.) The Old Friesic will throw light on the formation of our infinitive
form ' to help,' in Old English 'to helpen' j a form which has not hitherto
been explained by our grammarians. In the Friesic it appears first as a
gerund, ' to helpande,' ' to haldande,' &c., apparently a contracted form
for "to be helping," "to be holding," &c.; as in the 'Leges Frisiorum,'
" sa hwer sa en mon tha otheron sin god to haldande deth " (when one
man gives another his goods to hold, or to be holding) ; it is then con-
tracted into the form " haldane," the d being omitted, as, " thise riucht te
(to) hebbane and te haldane " (this right to have and to hold), and in this
form it corresponds nearly to the O. H. G. and A. S. forms in enne and

284

unne\ as O. H. G. " 1st ze sagenne das " (that is to say), and A. S. " hit is
tiina to raedanne " (it is time to read, or the time for reading) ; and lastly,
this form is further contracted into " halden," as " dat riucht bibiutht us
to halden keyser Rolf" (that law the Emperor Rolf (Rudolf) commanded
us to keep). The infinitive form to halden, as distinct from the proper
mfiii. halda, means therefore "to or for holding," or "to be holding," and
expresses a more concrete state, or the action in connexion with the sub-
ject, than the more abstract " halda."

The Old Friesic will also enable us to trace other Old English forms.
Thus the use of "to " in our Old English literature, in the sense of "tho-
roughly," " utterly," corresponding to the German " zer," as in " to-
breken" (to break in pieces), "to-rende" (to tear up), &c. in Piers
Plowman's Vision, is found in the O. F. tobreka, torenda, &c. The Old
English participial form " yclept," has also a parallel in the O. F. emakad
(made), erent (torn). It is highly important, for the purposes of English
philology, that this language should be more carefully studied by us, as it
is, above all others, the 'fons et origo ' of our own.

285

TRANSACTIONS

OF THE

PHILOLOGICAL SOCIETY.

1855.— No. 14,

April 13, 1855.

JOSEPH HUNTER, Esq., in the Chair.
The following Paper was read : —

" On the Recent History of the Hungarian Language ; " by
THOMAS WATTS, Esq.

In 1845 Dr. Moritz Bloch published a dictionary of the
Hungarian and German languages. Two years afterwards
appeared a second edition by the same author, improved and
much augmented. " It was my original intention," he says
in the preface, " in accordance with the wish of my publisher,
not so much to increase the extent of the work as to complete
and correct what had already been given in the first edition ;
but I was soon convinced that, owing to the great mass of
matter with which our language (the Hungarian) had been
enriched in the course of the last two years, this plan would
not satisfy the just demands of the public. I was therefore
compelled to resolve on an entire remodelling of the work,
in which I exerted myself to do all that could well be done,
considering the present state of the language, and the rapidity
with which it was requisite the book should pass through the
press."

A language in which it is necessary to remodel the dic-
tionary at the end of two years, is a somewhat new phe-
nomenon in the history of philology. That such a language
should belong, not to some insignificant tribe in a lately
discovered island of the Pacific, but to a nation which occu-

286

pied centuries ago a distinguished position in the continent
of Europe, and which counts its population by millions,
renders the phenomenon still more worthy to be examined.
Indeed the whole history of the Hungarian language for the
last three-quarters of a century is rich in points of interest
and instruction, and certainly deserves more attention than
it has hitherto received in England.

Amid the numerous ineffectual projects of the emperor
Joseph the Second, one of the most ineffectual was that for
the introduction of the German language as the public and
official language of Hungary. In his time, as in our own,
that country was distinguished for the number of different
and mutually unintelligible dialects spoken by its inhabitants,
amounting it is said altogether to no less than seventeen.
Of these the Latin and Hungarian were decidedly the most
prominent ; the one was a dead language, but had been for
centuries the language of public affairs; the other, though
still the vernacular language of the majority of the nation,
was apparently dying. The signs of this were very strong.
There is a valuable bibliographical work, the "Magyar
Konyveshaz," or ' Hungarian Library' of Sandor, published
at Baab in 1803, in which a list is given in chronological
order of all the books issued in the Hungarian language.
The whole number for the year 1784 was but twenty-nine,
and of these the greater part consisted of funeral sermons.
The only works of any pretension, or of any extent, were
three translations — the 'Cyropsedia' of Xenophon, the 'Zaire5
of Voltaire, and a forgotten German tragedy by Cronegk.
"Who would then have imagined that sixty years later, in
1844, Hungary would be able to show six-and-forty periodicals
in Hungarian — one of them a bibliographical record, like our
'Publisher's Circular/ to register the titles of new publi-
cations?

It was in 1784, on the 6th of May, that the emperor Joseph
issued his edict. " We appoint," says the document, " that
after the lapse of three years (which term however we shall
not be disinclined to extend under peculiar circumstances, if
they are represented in proper time), throughout the kingdom

287

of Hungary and all its dependencies, in all courts of law, sub-
ordinate as well as superior, all causes whatever, either on first
hearing or in cases of appeal, shall be treated in the German
language and no other, and that the advocates shall make
their statements in that language only." In connexion with
this decree there were others to the effect that all public
business in the county and provincial meetings, and all military
affairs, should be transacted in German, that no one should
be appointed to any office, ecclesiastical or secular, who was not
conversant with that language, and that finally no one should
be admitted as a pupil to the Latin schools who was not able
to show that he could read and write German already.

There were numerous petitions from numerous Hungarian
counties against the carrying into effect of this decree. But
it is remarkable that the protests against the attack on the
Latin were as fervent and almost as frequent as those against the
attack on the national language. " If the old, the customary,
the legal Latin language is to cease from among us," said the
petitioners from the county of Bacs, " and the foreign and to us
the novel language of Germany is to be introduced in its stead,
it is impossible to say what a fearful convulsion of all things,
the state included, must ensue." <( The idiom to be destroyed,"
said another body of petitioners, " is the Latin language, the
language of the learned, the universal tongue; the tongue which
for eight centuries up to the present time our beloved kings
have studied, have used, have made their common speech, — in
which from the very cradle of the kingdom all our laws, de-
crees, charters and privileges have been drawn up and so
handed down to posterity*."

No protest could well be stronger than this, and yet from
the day of the emperor Joseph's decree, the Latin language
has been gradually disappearing beneath the Hungarian ho-
rizon. Whatever efforts have been made to restore it to
vigour, it has always relapsed into decay. On the other hand,
just as constantly as the Latin language has been sinking, the
Hungarian has been rising. The drug which was intended to
give it its quietus, proved its elixir of life. The reaction

* Katona, Historin critica return Hungarian, vol. xl. p. 3/9, 384, &c.

288

which showed itself on the part of the Hungarians in general
was so strong, that the will of an emperor was compelled to
give way before the will of a nation. Joseph the Second
himself, broken-hearted on his death-bed, in 1790, called
together the Hungarian diet in a proclamation couched in
the Hungarian language — the very first occasion of its being
deemed worthy of such an honour since the house of Austria
had ascended the Hungarian throne.

The diet assembled in a mood not to forego its triumph.
On a former memorable occasion when Joseph was present,
an infant in arms, the halls of Presburg had rung to the
enthusiastic cry of the armed magnates, at the sight of his
mother the empress-queen, "Moriamur pro rege nostro,
Maria Theresa/5 Their cry was now not less inspiring:
" Vivat lingua materna nostra." Gruber, the historian of the
Hungarian language, wrote in Latin, and this shout, which he
records, appears to have been uttered in Latin, but the feeling
it expressed was not the less real. Before the diet broke up, it
voted that the protocols, the official records of its proceedings,
should for the future be drawn up in Hungarian ; and there
was even some contest before it would allow, at the suggestion
of the Croatian deputies, that a Latin translation should be
officially made. It also appointed a committee to consider
the best means of promoting the cultivation of the Hungarian
language. The committee recommended two measures, — the
establishment of a national theatre at the public expense, and
the foundation of a national academy. Neither was carried
into effect at the time, yet neither fell to the ground ; they
were both destined to be revived at a subsequent period, and
with no small effect.

One of the first who endeavoured to promote the inten-
tions of the Diet in favour of the drama was Francis
Kazinczy, who turned into Hungarian Shakspere's Hamlet,
and some of the best dramas of Moliere, Goethe, and Lessing.
For the next forty years Kazinczy occupied a prominent
place in Hungarian literature. It seems singular at first to
find so distinguished a position in any literature assigned to
one whose principal works were merely translations, — the

289

Sentimental Journey, the Sorrows of Werter, the Poems
of Ossian, and MarmontePs Tales, — and whose poetry, chiefly
imitations of the epistles of Horace, showed but too often
that from epistolary poetry to prose there is hut a step.
But whatever may be Kazinczy's matter, there is always a
charm about his manner; like our own Goldsmith, what-
ever he touched he adorned. The high appreciation of his
merits by his countrymen is due, not so much to the ser-
vice he rendered to their literature, as to their language.
Though the Hungarian appears never to have sunk to the same
state of corruption as was at one time the lot of the German
and the Polish, yet from its long disuse as the language
of refined conversation or of light composition it had con-
tracted rust — it was cumbrous and clumsy. From this state
Kazinczy redeemed it.

The most attractive portion of all his works, as they have
been collected and published since his death, is his private
correspondence with his friends Kis and Szent-Gyorgyi,
which extends over a period of not much less than half a cen-
tury. In these letters there is much agreeable gossip on the
events of his own life ; with however an ominous silence on
the most remarkable one, his confinement for many years as
a state prisoner on account of his share in what was called
the Jacobin plot of Martinovics. The staple of the whole,
however, is a running commentary on the progress of the
literature of Hungary, and in particular on the progress of its
language, of which Kazinczy was a close observer, and not
an observer only. He was an untiring counsellor and ad-
viser, an eager proposer and seconder, a restless critic. Few
men have ever had so large a share as Kazinczy in the forma-
tion, it might almost be said, in the manufacture of a
language. In fact, if the dictionary of modern Hungarian
which is now in preparation by the Academy be compiled
before too many contemporaries of the early part of the pre-
sent century have disappeared from the scene, many thousands
of the words may be accompanied with what may be called
biographical anecdotes ~of their birth, parentage, and edu-
cation.

290

Kazinczy 's main principles of language-making appear to
have been taken from the example of the Germans. " Base-
dow," he observes, in a letter to Szent-Gyorgyi in 1804, " said
to Klopstock, when Klopstock gave him the manuscript of
the Messiah to read, ' People won't understand you.' ' Let
them learn to understand me then/ replied Klopstock, feeling
his own value ; and it came to pass as he predicted." When
Szent-Gyorgyi on another occasion remonstrated that he was
ruining the language by his innovations, Kazinczy was not at
all shaken : " Let us ruin away, my good friend," he wrote to
him ; " there is plenty in it that wants ruining ; according to
his contemporaries Pazmany ruined it." Pazmany was a
cardinal-archbishop of Gran, in the earlier part of the seven-
teenth century, who, finding that the Protestants made way
by using the national language, adopted it himself in his con-
troversial writings, and established a reputation as an author
which was used by even the Protestant purists of Kazinczy 's
time as a bulwark against the innovators. He has sometimes
been quoted, it may be remarked, as an instance in disproof
of a curious but not unfounded boast of the Hungarian Cal-
vinists, that only Calvinists knew Hungarian well ; yet, singu-
larly enough, Pazmany was born of Calvinistic parents, and did
not change his faith before the age of thirteen.

When Kazinczy talked so coolly of ruining the language,
what he appears to have meant was, that he would, in cases
of necessity, where there was an ' aching void' to fill, disregard
even the instincts of the language in order to fill it. The
Hungarians were long without a word for a friend belonging
to the female sex, — a want which has long existed and still exists
in English. Why we have not years ago introduced the word
friendesSy it would perplex a Kazinczy to imagine. In Hun-
garian the way of remedying the defect was far more beset
with difficulty than with us. The Hungarians have the word
barat for friend, and they have also the feminine termination
ne, answering in some degree to our ess, but with this differ-
ence, that it used to be taken to denote a wife. The word
baratne would not, in the year 1800, have conveyed to a
Magyar ear the notion of a friend belonging to the fair sex,

291

but of a male friend's wife; and kiralyne, from kiraly, 'a
king/ bore the signification of a queen-consort only, an
idea which followed the Hungarians even when they spoke
in Latin, since they called the empress-queen rex noster.
Kazinczy however resolved, in order to do a great right to do
a little wrong, and he succeeded. Baratne is the term he
boldly applied in a letter of the 9th of August 1805, to the
unmarried friendess who had just stood godmother to his
daughter, and baratne we find forty years later in Bloch, as
the unquestioned equivalent of the German freundinn. One
of the best hotels in Pesth now bears the sign of " A.' Kira-
lyne Victoria."

Kaziiiczy's principal innovations however were not of so
daring a character as this. Many of them were the sub-
stitution of terms derived from Hungarian roots for others
of foreign origin. He had been preceded in this kind of
labour by a writer of the name of David Szabo, to whom he
often refers in his correspondence. " Szabo," he says, " made
some useless words and some ridiculous ones. But among
two hundred bad, disagreeable, and useless words, are perhaps
forty good, and these must be taken. Let Debreczin say
what it will, a secretary will be a titoknok in Hungarian for
ever and ever, a counsellor a tanacsnok, and a page lap or
oldal" The critics of Debreczin were Kazinczy's great oppo-
nents, and it is a remarkable proof of the correctness of his
judgment as to the effect of a new word on the Hungarian ear,
that all the words in this passage on which he stakes his
opinion against theirs have decidedly become classical Hun-
garian. The word titoknok, fa secretary/ made from titok,
' a secret/ appears to be a particular favourite, though to a
foreigner the superabundance of &'s might seem far from
a recommendation, — a superabundance which is still more
striking in the nominative plural titoknokok and in the dative
plural titoknokoknak.

Some of the foreign words for which it was thought
necessary to coin a Magyar equivalent, were of a very pri-
mitive character. " Herder says," remarks Kazinczy, in a
letter of the date of 1813, "that when a nation has not a

292

word, it has not the idea or the thing that the word repre-
sents. This saying is a paradox — it seems to be false and
is not. It is a shame to our language that we have no word
for virtus. Raday made one, but fearing, as he knew my
fiery vivacity, that if he whispered it to me I should shout it
out, and by using it out of season make it ridiculous (which
might indeed have been the case), he never would tell me
what it was. When Count Francis Puky offered a reward of
fifty florins in the ' Hazai Tudositas ' (a newspaper), for a word
for 'spiritus/ and Anthony Balla another for 'universum/
Paul Szemere persuaded me to write a competitive essay to
propose the word szel, which was known centuries ago to
Zrinyi and Ladislaus Batori, and the word egyetem, which
was" manufactured by myself. I wrote the essay, and extended
the subject to the word for ' virtus ' also. I owned that to
make a word without a root was not what everybody had a
right to do. David Szabo, the ex-jesuit, had proposed ereny ;
I proposed csdny. My friends wrote to me from Pesth that
csdny was too near in sound to a provincial word of an im-
proper signification. At last, as we saw that Szabo's word
ereny might mislead a hearer, who might think from the
sound it came from er, ' & vein/ and meant 'artery,' we
agreed to knock off the first vowel."

The new words mentioned in this passage have not all
become denizens of the language. In Bloch's dictionary szel
is explained by ' wind,5 and ( spirit ' is represented by szellem,
a word of recent coinage, evidently formed from the same
root; egyetem it appears now denotes both f universe' and
' university/ Reny seems to have met with a strong oppo-
sition. The poet Berzsenyi, finding it too troublesome to alter
his stanzas throughout, adhered to 'virtus.' Reny however
succeeded so far as to be in general use till just before Kazinczy's
death in 1831, when Count Szechenyi, in his popular volume on
' Credit/ gave the preference to ereny, and in coiiseqiience that
came into fashion. In Bloch's German- Hungarian dictionary,
both reny and ereny will be found placed opposite to tugend,
with the derivatives renyes and erenyes for tugendhaft, and
renyteli and erenyes for tugendreich, and no intimation that

293

the whole tribe owes its origin to a private philological society
of the nineteenth century.

Kazinczy however was not always content with merely
inventing words to answer to those which already existed in
other languages. He aspired at novelty. Thus on one occasion,
in mentioning to Szent-Gyorgyi a preacher whom he had heard
at Vienna, he remarks, — " Ha Becsben laknam, en volnek a
legtemplombajarobb ember ." — ' If I lived at Vienna, I should
be the churchgoingest of men/ The English expression ex-
actly renders the Hungarian one ; indeed an expression of the
kind is not entirely novel in our language. In a clever
article by Sheil or Curran in the New Monthly Magazine, it
was said of Dublin that it was " one of the tea-drinkingest,
sea-bathingest places in the world." The words are of a ludi-
crous cast, but it would not be easy to convey the same mean-
ing in any others without losing the point and spirit.

There are many other words of recent Hungarian coinage
which might as readily be reproduced in our language as they
have been produced in theirs. One of the most fruitful
principles which they have adopted is that of forming a sub-
stantive, not only from the positive degree of the adjective,
which is a process common to most languages, but also, when-
ever it is found convenient or needful, from the comparative
and superlative degrees. There are several words of this
kind in English, and all of them exceedingly useful, but all bor-
rowed, and somewhat capriciously, from the Latin. We have
borrowed the adjective senior and the substantive seniority, and
the adjective junior, but not the substantive juniority ; we have
borrowed prior and. priority, and. posterior, but not posteriority ;
and we have also inferiority, superiority, majority, minority, &c.
But it seems unaccountably to have escaped us, that from the
compactness of our comparatives we have advantages for the
formation of substantives of this kind which few other lan-
guages possess in an equal degree. From the wTord elder,
exactly answering to ' senior/ we might easily have formed
elderness, which is intelligible the moment it is heard, and has
the advantage over ' seniority ' of being, from its shorterness,
easier to manage. The word youngerness, which is often

294

wanted, would have been appropriate on many occasions where,
from its longerness and its strangerness, juniority would have
been out of place and pedantic. The richerness of Hungarian
in this respect may be partly ascribed to the laterness of its
cultivation — the word laterness is surely preferable in English
to ' posteriority/ — but it may also be ascribed to the wiserness
of its cultivators. And though we have lost the opportunity
of gaining the honours of firstness in the path of improve-
ment, it may still be worth our while to escape the reproach
of lastness.

Another class of words in which the Hungarian is prolific,
and in which the English might be, is that of adjectives
formed from the combination of a substantive and a prepo-
sition. We speak of a ' post-mortem examination :' why
should we not say "an after-death examination?" Here
again the foreignness of the phrase that has been adopted
limits it not only to technical use, but to technical use in very
few combinations, and even then invests it with a pedantic air ;
while, if the English equivalent were sanctioned, the largeness
of its signification would make it useful, not only to the
medical writer, but in a hundred cases to the orator and the
poet. We have the adjective underground : why should sub-
aqueous be preferred to underwater ? We have inland : why
should we not frame by analogy on-sea ?

How much richer our language would have become if en-
couraging its native growths had been preferred to extending
its importations, is shown to demonstration in almost every
case in which both the systems can be seen in action. Donne
uses the word ' motherhood/ Locke uses ' fatherhood / they are
surely quite as expressive and euphonious in English as ' mater-
nity' and ' paternity/ Wordsworth speaks of 'a bond of
brotherhood/ where he might have used, if he had thought
it preferable, the term ' fraternity / but if he had wished to
speak of 'a bond of sisterhood/ he would have found no
expression corresponding to ' sisterhood ' in the Latin part of
our vocabulary. Can it be said that it is less required ? That
simple suffix ' hood ' has furnished us in every generation with
words entirely fresh, and embodying a fresh idea, yet from

295

the first moment of their use conveying their meaning at
once to every hearer and every reader, and taking such strong
root as in a few years to seem coeval with the language.
We had ' manhood' before we had 'womanhood/ and ' boy-
hood' before we had 'girlhood;' and which of them could
we now dispense with ? Perhaps in time to come, ' husband-
hood' and 'wifehood' are destined to be equally familiar.
Each of these words, as it is added, guards against the decay
of the others, — the younger members of the family nourish
the old.

The principle of not importing a word when it is not re-
quired, by no means implies that, when a word of foreign
growth is excellent of its kind and cannot be produced on our
own soil, we should refuse to receive it. The word f parent,'
for instance, is one for which we could not easily find or coin
an equivalent in the Anglo-Saxon portion of English. We
have done well to take it, — it is now a part of the language, —
and being so, we should do well to construct from it, when-
ever it is found advisable, the word 'parenthood,' for which
there is no equivalent in the original Latin. By the judicious
adoption of a single foreign prefix where our own is not well
adapted for compounds, we might often introduce, as we
have already done in some instances, not a single new word,
but a hundred. Such a compound as ' again-build' would be
clumsy, — by taking the Latin ' re ' we form l rebuild ' with
very good effect. So the fex' of 'ex-king' and 'ex-queen/
the 'vice' of 'vice-president' and 'vice-chairman,' have done
the English language excellent service. Again, there are some
foreign words that must be had by other languages at any
price, — words that are struck out in some phase of language
by a happy accident, and that the world may be glad to get
just as they are. The Portuguese are without a word corre-
sponding to the English ' disappoint,' and one of their poets
has expressed very forcibly his sense of their want of it by
putting it in the mouth of the devil in his dialogue with a
Portuguese friar : —

"Fiquei desapontado, — como dizem
Os Ingleses ; — nao ha na vossa lingua

296

Com que o dizer — e venha ou nao do diabo
Tomein-na que hao mister d'essa palavra."

f< So I was disappointed, — as they say

In English, — 'tis a word you never had ;
But reach you through the devil though it may,
Don't let it go — you want it very bad*."

A story is told, that when some one related to Coleridge,
respecting certain Sisters of Charity, that it had been found
they were impelled to their angelic task by a belief that for
every act of charity they performed, they should receive a
specific recompense in heaven, Coleridge remarked, — "I do
not call that religion — I call it other- worldliness." The depth
of meaning and of wit in this short but most pithy remark,
can hardly be conveyed in any other phraseology than in the
new word so felicitously coined for the occasion, and no lan-
guage that can imitate or borrow it ought to deny itself the
treasure.

Kazinczy was far from being a purist — he was indeed an im-
purist on principle — with respect to the introduction of a cer-
tain amount of foreign words. In a phrase of his composition
which has been already quoted, legtemplombajdrobb ember, it
does not require to be said, that templom for ' church ' is not a
word of Hungarian origin. The Hungarians have another to
denote the same meaning — anyaszentegyhdz, which wears a
much more national appearance. It is curiously constructed.
Hdz is fa house/ egyhdz 'a meeting-house/ szentegyhdz 'a holy
meeting-house/ and anyaszentegyhdz a ' mother holy meeting-
house/ that is 'a church/ Kazinczy might therefore have
said, if he pleased, leganyaszentegyhdzbajdrobb for ' church-
goingest/ but, as we have seen, he did not. The Hungarians,
unlike the English, are fond of long words, but he probably
shrunk from a word of nine syllables. He was also of course
aware that szent for 'holy' is just as little Hungarian as
templom — that the any a for ' mother ' at one end of the word
might be claimed as Turkish, and that the hdz for ' house *
at the other might be claimed as English or German; — in

* Almeida Garrett's poem of Dona Branca, canto vi. stanza 21.

297

short, that out of the five syllables, one was certainly bor-
rowed, and three were not beyond suspicion. Under such
circumstances he was not solicitous to inquire too minutely
into the parentage of words that he found useful.

Others have been of a different way of tliinking, both in Ka-
zinczy's time and since. A strong effort was made at various
times to effect radical reforms of this character, in which it
was occasionally discovered, after some experience, that the
remedy was worse than the disease. One instance is very
curious. There is certainly much to be said with justice
against the Latin names of the months made use of both in
English and Hungarian. They are mere names and nothing
more, they convey no significance, and are, some of them, in
English at least, very ill-chosen for sound. ( January' and ' Fe-
bruary' are two of the most unmanageable vocables we have.
In addition to modifications of the Latin list which the
Hungarians have in common with the rest of Europe, they
have a list of their own which seems to be the only one in
Europe formed on a Christian basis. In grammars and in
official documents we find a year commencing with Boldog-
aszszony hava, or ' Virgin Mary month' (literally ' Happy
Lady month'), and ending with Karatsony hava, or ' Christmas
month,' while all the intermediate ones take their name on
the same principle from the festivals or fasts of the Church.
This is surely at first sight a pleasing novelty, but unfor-
tunately these appellations have the common Hungarian fault
of being too long, and from their length and their formation
they are incapable of acting as roots of derivatives. We find
it convenient in English, in some cases, to be able to say of
a day that it is ' Octobery ' or ' Novembery,' and very incon-
venient that we can take no such liberty with the impracti-
cable January or the still more impracticable February. The
Hungarians appear to have found that, with all the flexibility
of their language, Boldog aszszony hava and Karatsony liara
were too hard to manage. The Christian names of the
months went out of use, and an effort was made, about 1840,
to bring into fashion a new string of appellatives, formed on
the principle adopted by the old Germans, and by the French

298

republicans of the eighteenth century, whose 'Brumaire/
'Frimaire/ &c., were so happily parodied by the English
wag into ' Freezy/ ' Breezy/ ' Wheezy/ f Sleezy/ and so
on. There is an objection to the introduction of such
names in English and Spanish which does not exist in the
case of less fortunate languages confined to one side of the
Ecliptic. In English, the language in which an Australian
poet sings that

" Hot December's sultry breeze
Scarce moves a leaf upon the trees," —

sufficient confusion and merriment have been produced by the
altered applicability of ' Midsummer-day ' at Sydney and Mel-
bourne, to act as a caution against the introduction of a whole
host of similar misnomers. In Hungarian the season-names of
the months had a very short reign — in one case they did not
last for the circle of the seasons. Kossuth's newspaper, the
"Pesti Hirlap," was commenced in January 1841. In the first
number, instead of ( Januarius' or ' Boldogaszszony hava/ the
date was given as Telho or ' Winter-month/ Then followed
Teluto ' Winter-ender/ Tavaszelo ' Spring-beginner/ Tavaszho
1 Spring-month/ and so on, at the rate of three to each season ;
but before ' Summer-ender' came in regular course the system
came to an end. ' Julius' and 'Augustus' led off the second
half-year ; and when the next year began, old Januarius made
his appearance in the usual place, nor does it appear that he
has been dethroned by any subsequent outbreak.

The names of the months, therefore, like many a feeble
ministry, retain their places, not on account of their own
merits, but of the difficulties in the way of finding a sub-
stitute. There are some other words of almost equal currency,
and which might be styled ' European/ were it not that to call
them ' European' merely, is in these days to limit much too
narrowly their domain. Such are ( poetry/ ' genius/ and
many others, which, with slight differences in termination,
are as much English as Hungarian, and are or were as much
Hungarian as English. In the case of such words the lan-
guage which produced them is sometimes even at a disad-

299

vantage, compared with the language which adopts them, for
the conventional meaning stands out more distinctly when
there is no other with which it can be confused. The name
for the twelfth month, December, is surely not worse in
English than Latin, because to an English car it has no con-
nexion with the numeral ten ; arid though at one stage of our
language we called a poet a ' Maker/ it would scarcely be
held a gain to lose the distinction now. Against many of
these phrases, however, some ardent Hungarians made a
crusade, and Kazinczy's success in defending them seems to
have been far from invariable. The Radicals in language
were sometimes too strong for the moderate Whigs. After a
contest of some length between zseni, the Hungarian form
of ' genius/ and eszldny, ' mind-fire/ Idngesz, 'fire-mind/
and so on, ' genius' seems for the present to be exiled from
Hungary ; but perhaps, as with the months, the wheel of time
may once more bring it in the ascendant.

Some of the persons who proposed these changes professed
to be desirous of expelling from Hungarian every word that
was not derived from a Magyar root, but in making such
a proposal they only showed their unacquaintance with the
histoiy of languages in general and their own in particular.
Even in the most primitive languages, in the most primitive
state in which they are known to us, some extraneous admix-
ture is always to be found — there are foreign words in the
Hebrew of Genesis and in the Greek of Homer. But Hun-
garian, like English, is pre-eminently a compound language.
The main difference is, that ours is

"sprung

Of Earth's best blood— has titles manifold,"

one parent being of the great Teutonic, and the other of the
great Romanic family; while the Hungarian, beautiful and
prepossessing as it is, can only point for its ancestors to the
Ugrian and the Sclave. In our own language the amalgama-
tion of its different elements is so close, that the most familiar
phrases have often, like the most familiar beverages on our
tables, been brought together from different corners of the

300

world. "God bless you" is pure Saxon; but there is an-
other phrase of opposite meaning, reputed to be more common
in English mouths — so common, indeed, that centuries ago
the name used by Joan of Arc for the English was taken from
it, — and in this phrase, though the substantive is Saxon, the
verb it governs is from a Latin root. In Hungarian there
are words in daily use connected in meaning, but so remote
in origin, that one is perplexed to imagine how they can ever
have come together. The words for ( father' and ' mother/
atya and anya, are pure Turkish. There is, as in Turkish,
and also in Chinese, no expression for ' brother ' simply ; and
the word for ' elder brother/ batya, bears an odd resemblance
to the Russian batyushka, which is used for ' father/ while
that for ' younger brother,' ocse, bears also a resemblance to
the Russian otets, ' father/ of which there is a vocative otche.
All this does not prevent the dullest Hungarian peasant-boy
from knowing sufficiently well the meaning of atya and any a,
batya and ocse, while the most ardent zealot for pure Hun-
garian who had made himself acquainted with their affinities,
and was indignant at their foreign origin, could hardly pro-
pose, with a hope of success, to turn the words for ' father '
and ' mother ' out of the language.

There was yet another class of opponents to Kazinczy's views
of innovation, — those who wished the language, without any
consideration of what it sprung from, to stop at a given point
when they assumed it to have reached its full stage of growth.
A similar view has had its advocates in many languages.
Three centuries ago Erasmus directed the shafts of his piercing
ridicule against the body of contemporary Latinists who called
themselves Ciceronians, and would not make use of any word,
however useful, that had not been used by Cicero. Among the
Italians of the nineteenth century, Cesari has gained a reputa-
tion by contriving to express himself in the exact phraseology
of the fourteenth ; and Fox, though not over-scrupulous as an
orator, laid it down as a rule to himself, when he wrote his
History, to avoid any word or phrase that had not the sanction
of Dryden. A pretension of this kind in Hungarian was,
however, little less than absurd. Its supporters had no

301

Cicero and no Dante — they had not even a Dryden to appeal
to. Iii this branch of the contest, therefore, Kazinczy's suc-
cess was complete — his principles, like those of many other
men, have been carried even further than he would himself
have proposed to carry them. The whole aspect of Hun-
garian literature for years past bears witness to the triumph
of Kazinczy and his grammatical fellow-combatant Revai,
while the opposition of Verseghi and others has become mere
matter of record,

A revolution, or rather a reform of the same kind, though
not to the same extent to which Kazinczy carried it in Hun-
garian, is, as we have already seen, by no means an isolated
fact in the recent history of European languages. In almost
all of them, except those of the Romanic stock, some pro-
cess, similar in principle though less in degree, has been
going on in the course of the last century, — a century
that has seen as many new languages brought into culti-
vation as it has new sciences. There have been two main
principles at work — that of purifying the languages from
heterogeneous elements, and that of bringing their latent
powers into play. The maxim of Horace, that usage is the
sole arbiter of the laws of language, has been virtually ab-
rogated in regard to half the idioms of Europe. A court of
analogy has been established, like a court of equity, with a
concurrent jurisdiction.

It is a question that must again and again force itself on
the consideration of the English inquirer, if it would not
have been well for the English language to have been less
bound by the law of usage — which is often, in other words,
the law of caprice — and to have claimed for itself a larger
magna chart a of regulated freedom. Kazinczy and others in
Hungary called for an academy to occupy itself with the lan-
guage, and at last an academy was founded, with so much
success at least, that while the revolution and reaction of
1848 have shivered to atoms the ancient constitution of
Hungary, the growth of centuries, they have left the new
academy standing, and such of its members as have not
perished on the field or the scaffold, busily engaged in weigh-

302

ing words and compiling a dictionary. To English notions
an academy does not seem likely to be so congenial. Dr.
Johnson indeed affirmed that every English author would
make it a point to resist its decisions. But Dr. Johnson's
own career afforded the strongest proof, that if English authors
would oppose the acts of a constitutional authority, they were
not always certain to resist the usurpations of a dictator. He
was powerful enough, by the influence of his own individual
example, to bend the language into what is now almost uni-
versally admitted to have been a wrong direction. Even one
single copious and forcible and popular writer, who should be
as zealous for pure English as Johnson was for Latinity, as
eager to coin new words in accordance with English precedents,
as he to introduce phrases of classic stamp and authority,
might yet do much indeed to make our future language sur-
pass in strength and compass the language of our own times ;
as the modern languages of Germany and Hungary surpass
the comparatively imperfect instruments of thought which
Germany and Hungary possessed before the time of Klopstock
and Kazinczy.

It may be said, that for an attempt of this kind it is now
too late, — that the English language is settled, — that we are
in possession of a literature so glorious that nothing should
be encouraged which might tend to render a part of it obso-
lete,— that as our language is spoken already by many com-
munities thousands of miles asunder in the five great divisions
of the globe, it would be inconsiderate rashness to incur any
risk of interfering with so magnificent a future, and of breaking
up into dialects the idiom which is otherwise likely to become
in a few generations the great central speech of civilized man.
But these views may admit of question.

Can a living language ever stand still ? It may well be
doubted. The English of Addison is not the English of
Dickens, and a foreigner who understands the language of the
' Spectator ' may be perplexed by much that he will find in
' David Copperfield/ though the foreigner who understands the
novelist will never be at fault with the essayist. It is natural to
suppose that in a hundred years the most brilliant and popular

303

author of that day will have many phrases and turns of language
which would be new to us ; but if the reader of the twentieth
century is not cut off from the enjoyment of the best writers
of the eighteenth and nineteenth, who will be damaged ? It is
not the increase but the decrease of the treasures of a language
which does harm : — if Addison were to become obsolete, and if
to read the ' Spectator ' it were necessary to consult a glossary,
it would be a loss indeed. Of this there appears at present to
be little chance — a few phrases may have gone out of vogue,
but that is all, and even these may perhaps be revived.
Macaulay still talks of "parts" in the sense of abilities, and
to a man of such " parts" as his, it may be quite possible to
bring the expression into use again. Much of the language of
the Elizabethan period that was unintelligible to our grand-
fathers is intelligible enough to an ordinary reader of Walter
Scott.

The language, then, goes on increasing much as the great
metropolis goes on increasing. Queen Elizabeth and King
James issued proclamations to stop its growth ; but they were
not obeyed. If they had taken measures instead to secure
parks and breathing-places as the vast mass expanded, and had
issued proclamations to regulate the width of streets, to ensure
good approaches on all sides, and for similar objects, it seems
probable that they might have succeeded, and that we might
now see around us not only the richest and most populous,
but the most regular and magnificent city in the world.
Many invaluable opportunities have been lost, but it is not
even now too late to begin, and the future historian of London
may possibly date a new era from the establishment of the
recent ' Metropolitan Board/

Let us take a lesson in the management of our language
from the history of our capital. Instead of prohibiting the
addition of new words or new buildings, let us endeavour to
provide that when they come they shall be an ornament in-
stead of a nuisance. We shall not grow ashamed of our lan-
guage for becoming better. This too is the surest and most
liberal way of providing against that disruption of the language
into dialects of Europe, of America, of Africa, of Australasia,

z 2

304

which may perhaps be destined to arrive, but which there are
nevertheless good hopes of escaping.

America and England were never more united in language
than they are now, when they have been for three-quarters of
a century politically asunder. This good has been partly
effected by the close intercommunion of the two nations — by
the fact that our books have always largely circulated among
them, and that their books have of late years largely circu-
lated among us, — many an American author owing, in fact, his
warmest welcome to the English public. It has been pro-
moted also by the freedom from prejudice with which we have
adopted words of American parentage, — words for which we
had to acknowledge our " indebtedness" to them, — so that not
a few good Americanisms of the beginning of this century
had become parts of the general language before the middle.
It would be still further promoted by a care on the part of the
leading writers on both sides of the Atlantic to keep their
writings free from the mere vulgarisms in use at either
London or New York. Homage to analogy and principle in
matters of language will be our best security that the glorious
destiny which seems to be in store for the language of Shak-
spere and Milton will actually come to pass — for our benefit
and that of mankind.

To return to the subject of Hungary, from which this
digression has perhaps kept us too long : it was fortunate for
the success of the reformers of language that some reformers
of literature arose at the same time or immediately after,
whose productions, by thrilling the popular mind, prevented the
whole question from degenerating into one of mere grammar
and philology, and brought it home to the heart and feelings.
In even the slightest sketch of the progress of the movement
there are two names which cannot be passed over, and they
are the names of two brothers, Alexander and Charles Kis-
faludy, of whom the elder stood at the head of Hungarian
literature till the younger displaced him.

The first signs of the revival of Magyar literature had come
from a political body, almost the next were to come from a
regiment of horse, Alexander Kisfaludy was a lieutenant in

305

the Leopold regiment of hussars, and not the only officer in the
body who cultivated the national language and feeling while
mounting guard on the person of the emperor whose prede-
cessor had proscribed it. " One morning, before twelve/' we are
told by Kisfaludy's biographer, Dobrentei*, ' ' he was engaged
in his room at the barracks, or rather the palace of the Hun-
garian guard at Vienna, when Lord Spencer and Lord Gran-
ville, at that time envoys extraordinary from the English to
the Austrian court, were brought into the apartment by Prince
Nicholas Eszterhazy, the colonel of the regiment, who was
taking them over the establishment. The English noblemen
were not a little surprised to find that the occupation of an
officer of the Hungarian guard, in the midst of all the bustle
of the imperial court, at which he was to be on duty at noon,
was that of quietly translating Tasso into Hungarian, as he
smoked his pipe in deshabille.'5 The English noblemen on
that occasion saw before them, not indeed the Tasso, but one
who was destined to be hailed as the Petrarch of Hungary.
A few years later Alexander Kisfaludy was sent to Vaucluse
as a prisoner of war. ( ' In the springtime of my youth," he
says in the preface to his most famous poem, " I was a soldier
and a prisoner on the very spot where the sweet and melan-
choly songs of Petrarch filled the heart with love, among the
fiery good-natured French." Here and hence the thought
arose of embodying in verse the history of his own joys and
sorrows in the love of a lady, not like Laura a wedded dame,
but who had not permitted herself to be won to be a soldier's
wife. The thought was carried out in another foreign country,
in Wirtemberg, where the poet, who had been freed from
captivity by exchange, was serving in an Austrian regiment
which contained not a single Hungarian but himself, and
where consequently he had none near him who could com-
prehend a syllable of his poem. The book was published in
Hungary in 1800, under the assumed name of " Himfy." It
produced a sensation such as no Hungarian poem had ever
excited before. The author's real name was concealed, and
for seven years he was the ' Great Unknown' of the Magyars.
* Magyar Esmeretek Tara, vol. vii. p. 233.

306

The second part of Petrarch's sonnets records the lover's sen-
sations after the death of the beloved ; his Hungarian imitator
was more fortunate, and the second part of his poem records
his sensations after the wedding. His "Lisa," who had
hitherto been obdurate, could not continue deaf to the voice
of a charmer whose language had roused a nation. The part
entitled ' Happy Love' was published in 1807, and with it
the author's name, which was at once placed highest by uni-
versal suffrage in the rolls of Hungarian fame. The subject
of wedded love was a novel one to treat at length, but not on
that account the less pleasing. A living English poet has
recently adopted the same unhackneyed theme in his ' Angel in
the House/ and, if we may form an augury of the continuation
from what has already appeared, with every prospect of a suc-
cess worthy of the subj ect . Kisfaludy, like all other Hungarian
poets, had an annoying difficulty to contend with in a singular
defect of the language — that the same word "0" signifies
(he,' 'she/ and 'it/ — a defect beyond the art of any
Kazinczy to cure. The poet's marriage was simultaneous
with his retirement from the army. "I am not a learned
man," he says in one of his prefaces, " I am not a literary
man : my fate, my circumstances, my inclinations, made me
first a soldier, and afterwards a farmer." Schams, in his
scientific work on the vine cultivation of Hungary, f Ungarns
Weinbau/ returns his thanks to " Mr. Alexander Kisfaludy
for the obliging information by which he had testified his
knowledge and love of the subject." It was on his estate of
Siimeg on the Balaton lake, that the poet pursued for many
years this somewhat unpoetic mode of devotion to Bacchus.
He did not however forget the Muses. "In a pretty
little press-house, standing amid the vines, and almost hid by
trees," as he told Kohl the traveller, he wrote much of
his poetry. He sent forth several volumes from his retire-
ment ; but though most of them received a cordial welcome
at the hands of his countrymen, in particular his ' Legends
from Old Times' (llegek a' Magyar Elo'idobol), none of them
found such favour in the eyes of the public as his first-born.
Kohl visited him at Siimeg in 1841. "He received me

307

kindly," says that animated and most attractive writer, the
Herodotus of modern Europe, "as I came in the name of
the Muses, to whom he had devoted himself. He said
visits of this kind were rare in this remote corner of the
world. Three years before an Englishman had called upon
him, since which time I was the only visitor of the sort
he had seen." Kisfaludy asked him to his house, where,
the observant traveller remarks, "unhappily the hand of
the directing housewife, who had preceded her husband to
the long repose, was wanting." Kohl does not remark that
the directing housewife of that household had been, in her
youth, the inspirer of songs which had made her charms
immortal. The poet-husband was laid beside her in 1844, at
the age of seventy-two.

Alexander Kisfaludy was not always in accord with Ka-
zinczy in matters of language. Kazinczy, indeed, wrote a
review of the 'Himfy/ in which, amid much praise of the
poetry, he said, that though the language of the poem was
rich and pleasing, it was not classically pure, nor always even
grammatically correct. The criticism was originally published
in German in the Vienna "Jahrbiicher der Litteratur," and
without a name, but in consequence of the observations which
this elicited, Kazinczy republished it in Hungarian in the
" Erdelyi Muzeum," with his name attached ; other dissensions
arose, and the poet and critic were friends no longer. In
ardent attachment to Magyar, Kisfaludy yielded to none;
he could not speak with more enthusiasm of his ' Lisa y in the
sonnets, than of his language in the prefaces. " In short,"
he exclaims in one of these passages summing up, " in short,
the language of a nation is a nation's soul. First and foremost
therefore we must carry our language to the highest possible
pitch of perfection, unless we are willing to remain for ever
and aye in a state of contempt, a spiritless, disunited, fractious
— not nation, but heap of men torn asunder by our different
hopes and passions, our different faiths and languages, puffed
up with a ridiculous pride at the very time that we are the
scorn of really great and spirited nations."

In the year of the publication of ' Himfy/ Charles Kis-

308

faludy, the brother of Alexander, was twelve years old.
Alexander was the eldest, and Charles the youngest of a some-
what numerous family. The giving birth to Charles had cost
his mother her life ; his father could never look with affection
on the son who had made him a widower, and the sorrows of
the boy's life but formed too sure a presage of the man's.
He too became a soldier, to escape worse than warfare
at home, and the stripling carried to the wars of Italy his
brother's poem and no other book. Like Alexander, he left
the army before the conclusion of the war, and with a matri-
monial project in view, but he was not born to his brother's
good fortune in affairs of love. His father, who was never
favourable to him, disapproved of the lady he had chosen, and
disinherited him for wooing her ; the prudent lady discarded
him because he had been disinherited for her sake. Charles
Kisfaludy, left to his own resources, became first a painter
and afterwards a dramatic poet. His comedies have the repu-
tation of being lively and ludicrous, though the repeated
checks in his career had made his character gloomy and
reserved, while his brother, who was of an easy cheerful dis-
position and had met with good success in life, was always
serious with his pen. But his tragedies have been valued as
highly as his comedies, and, if an individual opinion may be
expressed, with better reason. Their language is lofty, brief,
and spirited, their action rapid and clear. He is considered
as the founder of the modern Hungarian theatre, while Alex-
ander, though he wrote several plays, is hardly looked upon
as a dramatic poet. Charles Kisfaludy died unmarried in
1830, at the age of forty-two, fourteen years before the elder
brother whose fame in literature had first aroused his emu-
lation. To do honour to his memory his friends and admirers
founded the Kisfaludy Society, of which Alexander was
chosen one of the first members.

Charles Kisfaludy was originally very careless in matters of
language, and as a proof of it, he had up to 1819 hardly
looked at the works of Kazinczy. In that year, a friend,
Bartfay, chanced to lend him a volume of Kazinczy's trans-
lation of Ossian; not long after, the poet, according to his

309

friend's description, " burst into his room " to ask for more.
He said that the book " opened a new world to him/' mean-
ing, it must be supposed, a new world of language; for, as we
have already seen, Kaziiiczy's works were, in almost every
instance, translations of famous works, and consequently in
most cases, to all who, like Kisfaludy, were acquainted with
French and German, the reverse of new. He wrote a letter
to Kazinczy, to whom he was personally a stranger, to solicit
his friendship and his criticisms. " Deign/' he said, " to
communicate to me your observations, and the first sign of
my gratitude shall be that I will follow them in every par-
ticular. As to language, I acknowledge that I am now only
beginning to learn, for after spending eight years abroad, I
could hardly read a Magyar book." In reply, Kazinczy ex-
pressed his delight that he should now at all events be able to
boast of being the friend of one Kisfaludy, and of course gave
advice in accordance with his well-known principles. " Your
knowledge of the French and German languages/' he re-
marked, " will enable you so much the more to ennoble ours.
It has not long been cultivated, and every language may learn
something from the example of others. This is sure to happen
sooner or later, whatever pedants may say. Custom and
grammar must have due reverence, and woe to him who does
not know the laws of language ; but after all, taste is a neces-
sary guide, and a safe one"*/' From that time Charles Kis-
faludy was a disciple of Kazinczy' s, and like him a bold and
generally a successful innovator, though some accused him of
inventing too many new words, and others of reviving too
many old ones.

The phase of language which Kisfaludy thus succeeded in
producing has called forth an enthusiastic eulogium from a
writer in the North American Review, in an article on his
works which appeared in April 1850. " It is not easy," says
the critic, " for those who are familiar only with broken and
irregular languages, marred and defaced in the crowded and

* The letters are printed in Schedel's ' Life of Charles Kisfaludy/ pre-
fixed to the edition of his works in the ' Nemzeti Konyvtar,' or ' National
Library.'

2 A

310

hurried life of civilization, or originally formed by the sudden
and disorderly mingling of heterogeneous materials, to con-
ceive the charm possessed by a primitive language like the
Magyar, yet fresh as it were from the childhood of the world"
This critic, and Dr. Bloch, whose statement was given at the
commencement of this paper, have views which it would be
difficult to reconcile.

These observations have now extended to such a length,
that it is time, for the present, to bring them to a close. Pos-
sibly, if the subject be considered to possess sufficient interest,
it may be resumed on a future occasion.

COEEiaENDA.

P. 221, lines 7 and 6 from bottom, dele from a to author.
224, line 18, read Brinsup not far from Blackrode.
234, — last, — Peel (a rude tower or fortress).
253, — 4, — (See also p. 255.)

282, — 11, — and blended, probably in an equal degree.
— — 28, — a Paper read before, — omitting lately.

INDEX.

ABEL, Dr. CAELJ on the Coptic
Language, 51-61.

Accented syllables, the distinctions of,
131.

Accentuation, Greek ; Prof. Key on,
119-145.

Africa, Western and Southern, on the
Languages of, by Dr. Wilhelm
Bleek, 40-50.

African Philology, on certain recent
Additions to, by Dr. Latham, 85-95,
185-206.

, list of 294 languages, dialects,

or subdialects, in which Clarke and
Koelle give the names for man, wo-
man, father, &c., 200-202; list of
388 languages, &c. in which they
give the African for the numerals,
202-205.

Agent, separate nominative case in Ka-
milaroi when the noun is the agent
of some verb ; mute — opossum, mu-
tedu = opossum as an agent, 74.

Angles, the, and the Anglian division
of the Anglo-Saxon speech, 254-260;
in Lancashire, 256-263, 270-276.

Anglo-Saxon conquerors of England,
of what tribes they were, and whence
they came, 245-251.

Anglo-Saxon names of places in Lan-
cashire, 251-260, 262; dialectic
words in Lancashire, 265-273.

Aquitania formerly inhabited by a
Gaelic people, 173 &c.

Australia, on the Kamilaroi Language
of, by Wm. Ridley, B.A., 72-84.

Baioii and Bati languages (of South
Africa), vocabularies of, 186 5 affini-
ties of, 188-190.

Basques not the aborigines of Spain,
or Phoenicians, 180 ; probably of
the same tribe as the Cantii, 183.

Batta Language, Vocabulary of, 191 ;
affinities of, 193-195.

Belgse, the district inhabited and lan-
guage spoken by the, 156, 160-162.

BLEEK, Dr. WILHELM, on the Lan-
guages of Western and Southern
Africa, 40-50.

Bloch, Dr. Moritz ; his statement on the
increase of Hungarian words, 285.

Bornu, the languages of, 197.

Breton intermediate between the
Kymric and Gaelic, 173.

Budduma, or language of the islanders
in Lake Tshad, 196.

Cambrians or Cymry in England at the

Saxon invasion, 216, 279.
Caste-system of Australian tribes, 83.
Changes of pronunciation and quantity

of words effected by time, 123.
Clarke's Specimens of Dialects &c. in

Africa, noticed by Dr. Latham, 85

&c., 185 &c.
Coleridge's new word otherworldliness,

296.
Coptic Language, Dr. Carl Abel on the,

51-61.
Coranians, probably Carini, 216.

Danish element in English, 260.

Danish or Scandinavian Local Names
in Lancashire, 263-265; dialectic
words in Lancashire, 273-276, 281 ;
in Norfolk, 39.

DAVIES, Eev. JOHN ; on the Kaces of
Lancashire as indicated by the Lo-
cal Names and the Dialect of the
County, 210-284.

Disyllabic prepositions, why accented
on the last syllable, 137.

Derivations of words : —

ENGLISH.

abolish, 104 5.
addle, 226.
adolescence, 104.
afraid, affray,

105.
agister, 69.

alley, 12.
allow, 106.
ambergrease, '
assert, 102.
arer, 108.
average, 108.

2x2

312

INDEX.

Derivations of English words continued —

baggage, 69.
bar-berry, 66.
baretor, baratry,

crq/*, 209.
cro#, 222.
crawfish, 65.

^^w Benjamin,
67.
^wwi Dragon, 67.

pert, 211.
pock-mantle, Be.,
69.

109.

to curry favour,

Poland, 66.

"bargain, 109.

71.

Aap, happy, 211,

porcupine, 68.

barm, 240.
barter, 111.

curtal-axe, 66.
cwtfZe*, 69.

233.
Aear* of oak, 62.

posture-maker,
69.

ftasfotf, 211.
Basque, 182.

daJ (adj.), 274.

humble-bee, 67.

prank, prance,
211.

beef-eater, 67.
be-gin, 208.
be-guile, 21.
behave, behove,

do*?, dagger, dag-
let, 18.
dangle, 18.

in-stinc-t, 19.
ising-glass, 66.
island, 66.

pregnant, 207.
promise, 3.
pttrZ, 110.

111.
ieZ/ry, 70.
beseem, beteem,

-• i r*

decoy, 71.
demi-johns, 70.
o%, dimple, 26.

jag, jagged, 16.
jaunce, jaunt, 21.
Jerusalem arti-

g'wo^, quake, 20.
£i«#, 20.

112.
%o£, 113-116.
iZoa£, bloater,
bloated, 116.

<%, 19.

dis-ting-uish, 19.
dormouse, 66.
doublet, 70.

chokes, 67.
j^ Jog, 19.
Joggins, 19.
Jofyfi Do'F'i/ 63

red ^MTW, 69.
righteous, 68.
rosemary, 66.

JZwe a* a razor,

f*Q

drab, 241.

./ow&, 21.

runagate, 68.

oy.
booby, 117.
floor, 117.
5oo£ <f* saddle,*7Q.

dress, 118.
dwc&, 22.

ex-tino-uish 19.

juggle,joggle,2\.
jump, jumble, 26.
justacoat, 66.

to schock, shake,
22.
£co£, 178.

bother, 227.

-ffeZ#, 165.

5CO*C^, 20.

bound, 117.

/a<7~end 230.

#ew, kn-ow, 208.

scw£, 238.

oreecA, 70.
to brickwall, 69.

female and male,

f\Q

lant-horn, 66.

sham, 211.

Bridgewater, 67.

DO.

lanyard, 68.

shamefaced, 68.

bruit, Brut 227.
owiZd, 118.

field-fare, 69.

/J7 OQ1

Zaw (in racing),
278.

*&oc&(head,&c.),
18.

osm, 228.
%, 118.

/Ze, 231.
forcemeat, 69.

Leadenhall, 67.
Leighton Buz-

shog, 21.
s&^, 269.

/ a^» up'

zard, 67.

soiling (cattle),

caw, 208.

•^ w^ece, -DO.

livelihood, 68.

64.

caw£, 277.

jrump, &&&.

soldier, 167.

carriage, 7l.
car*, 211.

gal, jibe, 26.

madam, mam,
124.

sparrow-grass,
66.

causeway, 66.
chamoy leather,
69.

gaby, gawney,
117.
G'aeZ, 165.

mandrake, man-
dragon, 67.
miniature, 70.

spttr (a prop),
273.
*/ai, 26.

Charter-House,

gag-tooth, 19.

miscreant, 71.

stack, 27.

66.

gaggles, kayles,

mun (must), 265.

**«# 27.

chaste (Lat. cas-
*w«), 4.

or skayles, 20.
^ai£, gate, 12.

Nancy Cousin's

stammer, 27.
stanch, 27.

coa*, 211.

gallery, 12.

Bay, 67.

stang, 24.

cockboat, 228.
co^, coggly, 20,
229.
cowte, 13.

gang, gangway $.
get,for-get, 209.
^y'j ffifflet, 20.
gilly-Jlower, 66.

nature, natal,
207.
negromancer, 72.
neighbour, 117.

staple, 27.
staunch, 25.
stavering, 27.
steeple, 27.

coo/w, combe, 30.

W> 20.

we**, 208.

.v'< ///, ^.S.

co*y, 229.

goggle, 20.
gooseberry, 68.

O Fe* / OFc* /

*#ep, stamp, 27.
xlil>l>le, 27.

69.

&r ace Church-

f A

court-cards, 71.

Street, 67.

path, 13.

stodge, 24.

coverlet, 70.
cowitch, 69.

//"/////<J, 21.
//"//, 277.

pent-house, 66.

permit, \\.

«MK stoach, 24.
v/((««, 24.

INDEX.

313

Derivations, English, continued.

Derivations, Latin, continued.

strain, 209.

£r«e £ove, 69.

Lwgdunum, 170.

pr&-stig-ice, 21.

stub, stump, 27.

tube-rose, 66.

prater-, pro-,

stubble,stubborn,

ta/£, 26.

we-are, comme-

mittere, 3.

27.

fc^r, 22.

are, 12.

stuff, 27.

mitt ere, 1-15.

remittere, 2.

$£. TTbes, 67.

Mor-ini, 167.

tack, take, 23.
tack, tick, 22.

uproar, 68.
tow?, 96-103.

murmur, 110.

scetus, 4.
#ero, 2 n.

tag, 22.
tag -locks, 18.

veer, wear (ship),

na-n-ci-o, na-c-
tu-s, 208.

soboles, 104.
Soldurii, 167.

tail, 18.
tantrum, 239.

na-rr-o (gna-
rig-o), 207.

stagnum, stag-
nare, 25.

top, 26.
toper, 26.

wo?, 20.
ivaistcoat, 69.

Wa2*07° r'

-*%-, 19, 21.
stipatus, 26.

Tartar, 72.
ted, 239.
thumb-finger,
276 n.

thivick- thwack,
~i f*

wal-k, 12.
way, 12.
wewd, we?&£, 12.
wheat-ear, 67.
wiggle, 21.

no-men, no-bi-
li-s, 207.
Novidunum, 171.

Ogmius, 171.

stimulus, 28.
stipes, stipula,
27, 28.
stupere, 28.

lo.
%, 19.

to- = thoroughly
(G-er. z<?r-),284.
tongue, tongs, 23.
nut-topper, 26.
towcA, 22.

wife, 21.
wise-acre, 69.

y-clept, 284.
zig-zag, 16.

-o£-, adolesco,
104.
omittere, 3.
05, ori*, 11 n.

pal-ma, pal-am,
5n.

-tow-, -tania (A-
quitani, &£.),
176.
tangere, 22.
Taranis, 171.

usurpare, 96-

TJ A nPT"W

pando,pateo, 13.

103.

JJA J.IJN .

permittere, 2.

abdere, 2.

dedere, 2.

perpetuo-, 11.

vadere, 10.

de-,di-,mittere,2.

pet-ere, 10.

oadum, 13.

adire, redire, 13.

plec^, plect-, 5.

tf<m-, wewi-, 13.

admittere, 3.

educare, 98.

^rce-^w-aw-5,207.

uer-, fl<?r£-, 6.

adolescere, 104.

emittere, 2.

prcepete-, propi-

Vergobretus,\Ql '.

a-^wa-tu-s, 207.

eo, i-re, 12.

tio-, 11.

m-a, 12.

alauda, 171.

Alemanni, 172.

fori-,fora-, lln.

afere, 105.

OREEK.

ambacti, 168.

^e»-, gigno, &c.,

am-bi-re, -tu-,1.2.

207.

av-ep-, fav-ep-,

!?//£(, 14.

amb-ulare, 10.

lln.

I^iros, 150.

amittere, 2.

hos-pet-, hos-ti-,

avTo-p,a-TO-, 9.

appetere, 10.

11.

ai/ro-/noXo-, 12.

Ka9-apos, 4.

Ar-wor-ica, 167.

asserere, 102.
barbarus, 110.

ZAere, 178.
i-^wo-tu-s, \-gna-
ru-s, 207.

(Baivo), 9,
/3a0-juo-, /3a0-

uoXetv, ueXXw,
12.

Belgce, 172.
iztere (to go), 10.

im-pe-tu-, 11.
incola, 118.

/3ap/3apos, 1 10.

6/iotos, 149.

call-i-s, 12.

castus, 4.

indere, induere,2
in-d-ol-es, 105.
instigo, instin-

yev- or ^en, 207.

O\ OAQ
y6f6t7AOV, ^UO.

ytvi'oj^/cw. &C.j

iredov, Tredio v, 13.
TreTavvvfu, 13.

OU tjll'tli III D,

guo, 19.

TTO^-, 13 ; 7rar-o-,

co-^rao-men, 207.
committere, 3.

intermittere, 3.
i£-, e^- (go), 11.

207.

13.

competere, 10.

tY-er, 13,

ei^ii, tevat, 12.

aicwp, (TKar-oSj 4.

condere, 2.

(TTVTTIJ, (TTVTTTl-

dare, 2.

/act-re, /cere, 19.

Oe-, ri0>;/*i, 2n. i fos, 28.

314

INDEX.

Derivations of words (continued).
FEENCH.

fracas, 106.
gaber, 26.

achoper, 26.
allee, 12.
alter, vais, 8.
avarie, 108.

badaud, 117.
barboter, barbou-

iller, 110.
barguigner, 111.

chanceler, jan-
cery 21.

», 105-106.
estampeaU) 27.
esfoc, 24.
estope, 27.
e"tamgon, 25.

15.

ire, 166.
, 106, 107.

marmoter, 110.
mener, se prome-
ner, 9.

, 20.

, 26.

ty and w, introduction of, into Greek,
by Eucleides, A.D. 403 ; their quan-
tity subsequently, 127, 129.

•el, the diminutival suffix, and its re-
presentatives, in verbs, 6.

enclitics and proclitics, accents on, 135.

English, the Saxon sources of, dis-
cussed, 245-262; Keltic element
in, 211.

, some new words proposed, by

Mr. Watts, juniority, posteriority,
elderness, shorterness, youngerness,
293, longerness, strangerness,richer-
ness, laterness, wiserness, firstness,
lastness, underwater, onsea, 294,
husbandhood, ivifehood, 295.

too much bound by the law of

usage and caprice, 301.

, a plea for its wise enlargement,

302-304.

France and Spain, on the ancient lan-
guages of, 155-184.

Friesic ; the Old-Friesic is above all
others thefons et orlgo of English,
284 ; is much nearer to it than
Modern German, — list of the three
compared, 250 ; spoken on the Elbe,
248.

Old-Friesic names of places in Lanca-
shire, 251 ; words in the dialect,
265-270, 280.

gen or ken, on the meaning of the root,
207-209.

genitives in o-o in Greek, 147.

go, — on verbs with this meaning in the
Indo-European Family, from the
root mit, met, bit, bet, pet, et, it, bi,
me, m, pe, i, e, wand, and, bal, wal,
fie\, call, gall, all, geh, ga, ped, irod,
or TTO.T, &c., 1-15.

Greek accents an anachronism when
applied to the writings of Homer,
./Eschylus, Thucydides, Aristo-
phanes, &c., 120.

Modern- Greek poetry in rhyme, spe-
cimen of, 142-145.

Greek Nouns of the second Declen-
sion ; on the uncontracted form of
the Genitive Case Singular of; by
Prof. Maiden, 146-154.

GUENEY, ANNA; list of 'Norfolk
Words' coUected by, 29-39.

hin- of G. Mn-aehen, &c., corresponds
to the Latin in-de or hin-c, 8.

Hungarian language, on the recent
History of (its great increase, the
manufacture of words in, &c.), 285-
310 ; has only the same word 6 for
'he,' 'she,' and 'it,' 306; Hunga-
rian pre-eminently a compound lan-
guage, 299.

infinitives in -en, — to helpen, halden,

—explained, 283.
Ireland, first inhabitants of, 179.

jag, dag, tack, stack ; gag, kag, skag,
shag ; on words derived from these
syllables, 17-28.

Kamilaroi language of Australia; W.
Ridley 011 the, 72-84 ; named from
the negative, 73 ; two nominatives,
no plural form, 74; numerous in-
flexions of verbs, 76 ; list of nouns,
77-80, adjectives, 80, 81, verbs, 81,
82 ; no degrees of comparison, 82 ;
system of caste, 83.

Kazinczy, his translations and wri-
tings, 288, 289, 307, 309 ; his ma-
nufacture of Hungarian words, 289-
293, 296-302; his equivalent for
churchgoingest, 293,296; his op-
ponents, 299, 300.

Kelts in France (Kymry) and England,
163-165 ; in Spain, 173-180; of the
Gaels and Kymry, 165, 166 ; nn%an-
ings of Gael and Kelt, 165 ; of Mo-
ri ui, Armorica, Vergobretus, Sol-
durii, 167; Ambacti, 168; Lug-
(luiunn, 170; Novidunuin, 171; Og-

INDEX.

315

raius, Taranis, Alauda, 171 ; Ale-
manni, Belga, 172 ; -tan- or -tania,
176; bee, 176; Scot, 178; Iberi,
178 ; Basque, Bayona, 182.

Keltic races in Britain at the Roman
invasion, 211-218 ; after the Anglo-
Saxon conquest, 218, 242 ; social
position and habits of, 243-4, 280.

words in common use, 211.

names of Natural Objects and

Places in Lancashire, 218-225, 283.

words in the Dialect of Lan-
cashire, 226-242.

KENNEDY, JAMES ; on the Ancient Lan-
guages of France and Spain,155-184.

KEY, T. HEWITT ; on the Latin Verb
mittere, its Origin and Affinities; and
generally on Verbs signifying ' to go'
in the Indo-European Family, 1-15.

, on the Derivation and Meaning

of the Latin Verb uturpare, 96-103.

, on Greek Accentuation,119-145.

Kisfaludy, Alexander, 304 ; his ' Him-
fy,' 305 ; subsequent writings and
pursuits, 306, 307.

Kisfaludy, Charles, 307 ; Kazinczy's
influence on him, 308.

knowledge, power, birth, &c., relation
of the ideas of, and their origin, 208.

Koelle's Polyglotta Africana, account
of, 85 &c., 185 &c.

Lancashire, the Races of, as indicated
by the Local Names, and the Dialect
of the County, by the Rev. J. Davies,
210-284.

, characteristics of the peo-
ple of, 243.

LATHAM, Dr. R. G., on certain recent
additions to African Philology, 85-
95, 185-206.

Latin, decrease of its use in Hungary,
287.

Lloegrians were Keltic, 217.

Low- Countries, old inhabitants and
state of, 158.

Macaulay, and sham, 212 n. ; and
'parts,' 303.

MALDEN, Professor; on the Uncon-
tracted Form of the Genitive Case
Singular of Greek Nouns of the
Second Declension, 146-154.

Members elected : — JACKSON, E. S.,
210 ; LOWY, Rev. A., 185.

mittere, to cause to go, let go, send ;
its Origin and Affinities investi-
gated, 1-15.

months, the Latin names of, bad, 297 ;
Kossuth's attempt to change them
in Hungarian, 298.

no ; Australian languages named after
the negative adverb, 73.

Norfolk Words, list of, collected by
Anna Gurney, 29-39.

Norman-French words in the Lanca-
shire dialect, 278, 279.

Norman Conquest not much felt in
Lancashire, 281.

North- American Review and its notion
of Hungarian, 309.

o-o, genitives in, should be substituted

for many now printed ov, lov, &c. in

Homer, 147-154.
o for a, forms in, as stond, lond, mon,

for stand, land, man, are pure Fries -

ian, 253.

Pennington's, Mr., arguments for
Greek accents discussed, 119 &c.

Portuguese, their importation of our
'disappoint,' 295.

RIDLEY, WM. ; on the Kamilaroi Lan-
guage of Australia, 72-84.

Saxons, extent of their territory, 247,
251 ; origin of their name, 250.

Spain and France, on the Ancient Lan-
guages of, 155-184.

Tibbu language (South Africa), Voca-
bulary of, 195, 196.

' to ' the sign of the infinitive, found in
no other Teutonic language than the
Old Friesic, 250.

usurpare, on the derivation and mean-
ing of, by Prof. Key, 96-103.

verbs uniting the double sense of ' an
act ' and * the causing such act,' 7.

Wales, the traces of Gaels before
Kymry accounted for, 174.

WATTS, THOMAS ; on the Recent Hi-
story of the Hungarian Language,
285-310.

WEDGWOOD, HENSLEIGH ; on Roots
mutually connected by reference to
the term Zig-zag, 16-28.

; EnglishEtymologie8,104-118

(abolish, 104 ; afraid, affray, fray,

316

INDEX.

105 j allow, 106; aver, average, 108 ;
barretor, bargain, 109 ; behave, be-
hove, 111 ; beseem, beteem, 112 ;
Ugot, 113-116 ; bloat, bloater, 116;
booby, 117 ; ioor, bown, or bound,
husband, build, big, 117, 118.)

WEDGWOOD, HENSLEIGH ; on False
Etymologies, 62-72.

; on the Meaning of the Root

gen or ken, 207-209.
a " word," the definition of, 135.

Printed by Taylor and Fruncis, Hcd Lion Court, Fleet Street.

APPENDIX.

PHILOLOGICAL SOCIETY.
1855.

THE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING of the SOCIETY was held
at the LONDON LIBRARY, on Friday the 25th of May,

THE REV. T. OSWALD COCKAYNE IN THE CHAIR.

The Report of the Council having been read and approved
of, the following Officers were appointed for the ensuing
year : —

PRESIDENT.^
The Right Rev. the Lord Bishop of St. David's.

VICE-PRESIDENTS.

The Right Rev. the Lord Bishop of London.
The Right Hon. Lord Lyttelton.

E. Guest, Esq., LL.D., Master of Caius College, Cambridge.
H. H. Wilson, Esq., Professor of Sanskrit, Oxford.

ORDINARY MEMBERS OF COUNCIL.

The Rev. J. W. Blakesley.
Nathaniel Bland, Esq.
E. H. Buiibury, Esq.
Philip J. Chabot, Esq.

R. Gordon Latham, M.D.
The Rt. Hon. Sir G. Corne-

wall Lewis, Bart.
H. Maiden, Esq.

The Rev. T. O. Cockayne. ! The Rev. F. D. Maurice.
Sir John F. Davis, Bart. The Rev. R. Scott, D.D., Mas-

Edward B. Eastwick, Esq.
Theodore Goldstiicker, Ph.D.
Joseph Hunter, Esq.
John M. Kemble, Esq.
James Kennedy, Esq.

ter of Balliol Coll., Oxford.
The Rev. E. J. Selwyn.
The Rev. Arthur P. Stanley.
W. S. W. Vaux, Esq.
Thomas Watts, Esq.

TREASURER.
Hensleigh Wedgwood, Esq.

HONORARY SECRETARIES.
T. Hewitt Key, Esq. | Fredk. J. Furnivall, Esq.

MEMBERS OF THE PHILOLOGICAL SOCIETY.

1855.

HONORARY MEMBERS.

Professor Immanuel BEKKER. University, Berlin.

Editor of " Anecdota Gr&ca" &c.
Bernardino BIONDELLI. Milan.

Author of " Saggio sui Dialetti Gallo-Italici" &c.
Professor Franz BOPP. University, Berlin.

Author of the " Verglefahende Grammatik," &c.

Jacob GRIMM. Berlin.

Author of the " Deutsche Grammatik" &c.
Wilhelm GRIMM. Berlin.

Author of the " Deutsche Runen," &c.

Montanus de Haan HETTEMA. Leeuwarden, Friesland.
Editor of (( De Vrije Fries," &c.

Professor Christian LASSEN. University, Bonn.

Author of the " Indische Alterthumskunde" &c.

Professor Johan N. MADVIG. University, Copenhagen.

Author of the " Latinsk Sproglcere" &c.
Professor Christian MOLBECH. University, Copenhagen.

Author of the « Dansk Ordbog," &c.

ORDINARY MEMBERS.

Ernest ADAMS, Esq. University College, London.
Dr. ALTSCHUL. 9, Old Bond Street.

John F. von BACH, Esq.
Archibald BARCLAY, Esq.

The Rev. J. W. BLAKESLEY, B.D. Ware Vicarage, Ware.
Nathaniel BLAND, Esq.

The Right Rev. C. J. BLOMFIELD, D.D., Lord Bishop of
London. St. James's Square.

Beriah BOTFIELD, Esq. Carlton Club, Pall Mall

Edward BULLER, Esq. Dilhorn Hall, Cheadle, Staffordshire.

E. H. BUNBURY, Esq. Jermyn Street.

The Venerable Archdeacon BURNEY. Wickham Bishops,
Witham, Essex.

P. S. CAREY, Esq. Condie House, Guernsey.

The Rev. W. CARTER. Eton College, Eton.

W. H. CASE, Esq. University College, London.

Philip J. CHABOT, Esq. 41, Claremont Square, Pentonville.

Captain CHAPMAN. Athenaeum.

W. G. CLARK, Esq. Trinity College, Cambridge.

Campbell CLARKE, Esq. British Museum.

The Rev. T. Oswald COCKAYNE. King's College, London.

Sir Edward COLE BROOKE, Bart. Park Lane.

The Rev. R. CONGREVE. Wadham College, Oxford.

The Rev. C. U. DASENT. 68, Guildford Street, Russell Square.
The Rev. John DAVIES. Small wood Parsonage, near Lawton,

Cheshire.
The Rev. J. Llewelyn DAVIES. Parsonage, St. Mark's Street,

Alie Street, Whitechapel.
Sir John F. DAVIS, Bart. Athenaeum.

F. H. DICKENSON, Esq. Upper Harley Street.

The Rev. J. W. DONALDSON, D.D. Bury St. Edmunds.
W. F. DONKIN, Esq. University College, Oxford.

Professor EASTWICK. East India College, Haileybury.
The Rev. John EDWARDS. College, Durham.
T. Flower ELLIS, Esq. Elm Court, Temple.

The Rev. W. FARRER. Belsize Road, St. John's Wood.

O. FERRIS, Esq.

The Rev. R. W. FISKE. Harmer Street, Gravesend.

Danby FRY, Esq. Poor Law Office, Whitehall.

F. J. FURNIVALL, Esq. 3, Old Square, Lincoln's Inn.

The Right Rev. Turner GILBERT, D.D., Lord Bishop of Chi-

chester. Chichester.

Francis GOLDSMID, Esq. Portland Place.
Sir Isaac Lyon GOLDSMID, Bart. St. John's Lodge, Regent's

Park.

Professor GOLDSTUCKER. University College, London.
John T. GRAVES, Esq. Poor Law Office, Whitehall.
J. G. GREENWOOD, Esq. Owens College, Manchester.
The Rt. Hon. Sir George GREY, Bart., Governor of the Cape

of Good Hope, &c. &c.

The Rev. J. H. GROOME. Earlsham, Woodbridge, Suffolk.

George GROTE, Esq. Savile Row.

Edwin GUEST, Esq., LL.D., Master of Caius and Gonville

College, Cambridge.
Miss Anna GURNEY. North Repps Cottage, Cromer.

Henry HALLAM, Esq. Wilton Crescent.

J. T. V. HARDY, Esq., Principal of the College, Huddersfield.

The Venerable Archdeacon HARE. Hurstmonceux, Sussex.

The Rev. Dr. HARRIS. New College, St. John's Wood.

The Rev. Dr. HAWTREY. Rectory, Maple-Durham, Oxfordshire.

The Rev. Lord A. HERVEY. Ickworth, Suffolk.

John Power HICKS, Esq. Lincoln College, Oxford.

The Rev. H. A. HOLDEN. The College, Cheltenham.

The Rev. H. J. HOSE. Dean's Yard, Westminster.

Joseph HUNTER, Esq. 30, Torrington Square.

Dr. William HUNTER, Rector of the Academy, Ayr, N.B.

The Rev. Robert HUSSEY. Christchurch, Oxford.

Martin H. IRVING, Esq.

Edward Steane JACKSON, Esq. Totteridge House, Herts.
The Rev. John JEBB. Peterstow, Ross, Herefordshire.
The Rev. Dr. R. W. JELF. King's College, London.
The Rev. Henry JENKYNS. University, Durham.

John Mitchell KEMBLE, Esq. 94, Mount Street, Grosvenor

Square.

The Rev. Dr. KENNEDY. Shrewsbury.
James KENNEDY, Esq. 7, Stone Buildings, Lincoln's Inn.
Professor KEY. University College, London.
The Rev. Dr. KYNASTON. St. Paul's School.

Dr. R. Gordon LATHAM. Upper Southvvick Street, Hvde
Park.

Dr. LEE. Doctors' Commons.

G. Cornewall LEWIS, Esq. Kent House, Knightsbridge.

The Rev. W. LINWOOD. Birchfield, Handsworth, Birmingham.

The Rev. A. LOWY, Phil. Doc. 2, Southampton Street, Fitzroy
Square.

Professor LUSHINGTON. The College, Glasgow.

The Right Hon. Lord LYTTELTON. Hagley Park, Worcester-
shire.

The Right Hon. T. B. MACAULAY, M.P. Albany, Piccadilly.
The Rev. Dr. M'CAUL. King's College, London'.
Professor MALDEN. University College, London.

Mr. Serjeant MANNING. Serjeants' Inn.

C. P. MASON, Esq. Denmark Hill Grammar School.

The Rev. F. D. MAURICE. 21, Queen Square, Bloomsbury.

The Very Rev. H. H. MILMAN, Dean of St. Paul's. Deanery,

St. Paul's.
Lord Robert MONTAGU. Cromore, Port Stewart, Coleraine.

The Right Rev. Alfred OLLIVANT, D.D., Lord Bishop of

Llandaff, Llandaff Court.
John OXENFORD, Esq. 16, John Street, Bedford Row.

The Rev. J. J. S. PEROWNE, M.A. King's College, Strand.
T. Lloyd PHILLIPS, Esq. St. Aidan's College, Birkeiihead.
J". G. PHILLIMORE, Esq., Q.C., M.P. Old Square, Lincoln's
Inn.

Henry RAIKES, Esq. Chester.
W. RAMSAY, Esq. The College, Glasgow.
John ROBSON, Esq. Clifton Road, St. John's Wood.
The Rev. Joseph ROMILLY. Trinity College, Cambridge.
R. W. ROTHMAN, Esq. London University, Maryborough
House.

The Rev. E. J. SELWYN. Blackheath.

The Rev. Robert SCOTT, D.D., Master of Balliol College,

Oxford.

Daniel SHARPE, Esq. Soho Square.
The Rev. Philip SMITH. Grammar School, Hendon.
Ph. Anstie SMITH, Esq. St. Wei-burgh's Chambers, Bristol.
The Rev. Arthur Penrhyn STANLEY, Canon of Canterbury.
Sir George STAUNTON, Bart. Devonshire Street.

H. Fox TALBOT, Esq. Laycock Abbey, Wilts.

The Rev. J. J. TAYLOR. Woburn Square.

Richard TAYLOR, Esq. Red Lion Court, Fleet Street.

Tom TAYLOR, Esq. Board of Health.

The Right Rev. Connop THIRLWALL, D.D., Lord Bishop of

St. David's. Abergwili Palace, Carmarthen.
The Rev. Professor W. H. THOMSON. Cambridge.
The Venerable Archdeacon THORP. Kinnerton, Tewkesbury.
The Hon. E. TWISLETON. Isle of Wight.

A. A. VANSITTART, Esq. New Cavendish Street, Portland

Place.
W. S. W. VAUX, Esq. British Museum.

Jacob WALEY, Esq. Devonshire Place.

The Rev. C. W. WALL, D.D. Trinity College, Dublin.

H. WARBURTON, Esq. Cadogan Place.

Thomas WATTS, Esq. British Museum.

Hensleigh WEDGWOOD, Esq. 17, Cumberland Terrace, Re-
gent's Park.

R. F. WEYMOUTH, Esq. Portland Villas, Plymouth.

The Rev. W. WHEWELL, D.D., Master of Trinity College,
Cambridge.

The Rev. R. WHISTON. Grammar School, Rochester.

J. W. WILLCOCK, Esq. Stone Buildings, Lincoln's Inn.

The Rev. R. WILLIAMS, D.D. New College, Oxford.

The Rev. R. WILLIAMS, Vice-Principal of St. David's College,
Lampeter.

Professor H. H. WILSON. Oxford; Upper Wimpole Street,
London.

Cardinal WISEMAN. Golden Square.

James YATES, Esq. Lauderdale House, Highgate.
J. B. YATES, Esq. West Dingle, Liverpool.

PR1NTKD BY TAYLOR AND FRANCIS,
ItBO UON COURT, KLKET STREKT.

p
11

1855

Philological Society, London
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