uA TROBE UNIVERSITY UBRARY A SHORT HISTORY OF ENGLISH CONTINENTAL BOOKSHOP 7th floor 300 Little Collins Street MELBOURNE BY THE SAME AUTHOR THE GROWTH OF ENGLISH. An Elementary Account of the Present Form of our Language and its Development. THE PLACE OF THE MOTHER TONGUE IN NATIONAL EDUCATION. A SHORT HISTORY OF ENGLISH WITH A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF RECENT BOOKS ON THE SUBJECT, AND LISTS OF TEXTS AND EDITIONS BY HENRY CECIL WYLD AUTHOR OF ' A HISTORY OF MODERN COLLOQUIAL ENGLISH ', ETC LONDON JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET, W. Oct. 1914 Apr. 1921 Sept 1923 Rep, Dec. 1924 Reprinted . Jan. 1926 THIRD EDITION revised and enlarged Oct. 1927 Reprinted. Oct. 1947 Reprinted. Nov. 1949 LA TR3BE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 420. q grj-Q Made and Printed in Great Britain by Butler & Tanner Ltd., Frome and London PREFACE TO THE REVISED EDITION IT is now thirteen years since the first edition of this book appeared, and the revision of it, first contemplated six or seven years ago, has been delayed by the urgency of other work. It is a satisfaction to me to feel that whatever the drawbacks of procrastination, which in this case has entailed repeated re­ printing of the book in almost its original form, this new edition has gained considerably by the delay. I refer in particular to the completion of two considerable pieces of investigation with which I have been associated, carried out by former pupils— that on the West Midland Dialects of Middle English, by Dr. Mary Serjeantson of Lady Margaret Hall, and that on the History of the Early London Dialect (including that of the adjacent areas) by Miss B. Mackenzie, B.Litt., of Somerville College. A brief abstract of the former has appeared during the present year (1927) in the Review of English Studies, while the latter is being prepared for publication and will, I hope, appear shortly. Both of these monographs are attempts to answer questions which confronted myself and my pupils in the course of our work on the innumerable problems of M.E. Grammar. Although I have, as I believe, always specifically acknowledged the help derived from the work of others in the course of the present book, I wish to record here how much I owe to both the afore-mentioned ladies, in respect of minute details and more general pieces of information drawn from their copious stores of material, and for the many references to texts and monographs with which they have supplied me. Miss Mackenzie's work on the London dialect carries the con­ clusions obtained by Heuser in his Alt-London several stages farther, and the general result, which I have attempted to summarize in the proper place below, is I believe to clear up much that was formerly obscure. I only wish that minute surveys on the same scale as these two on West-Midland and on the London-Middlesex area vi Preface were available for the other great dialect areas of Middle English. Quite apart from the debt already acknowledged, I owe special thanks to Miss Serjeantson for generous practical help of many kinds in the work of revision. Not only has she copied out many paragraphs from my handwriting, at the best a tedious task, and one trying to the eyesight, including the new list of M.E. texts, arranged with some minuteness according to their assumed district or county—all of this so far as the West and Central Midland areas are concerned being based on her own investigations—but she has also rendered me invaluable assistance in determining the re-arrangement and re-numbering of paragraphs, and in indicating precisely what was to be cut out from the old, and where the new matter was to be fitted in. Any one who has undertaken to revise, and partly to re-write, a book of this kind knows how troublesome this work is. The re-statement of the genealogical grouping of the M.E. dialects which appears in the present volume was greatly facilitated by the admirable maps showing dialect boundaries, and comparative tables of dialect forms, with which Miss Serjeantson supplied me. Last but not least, Miss Serjeantson has read all the proofs and suggested many corrections and improvements. In conclusion let me express the hope that this book may at least serve the purpose of provoking further investigation in the many fields of inquiry here touched on, but too often, alas, left unharvested. HENRY CECIL WYLD. MERTON COLLEGE, OXFORD, July, 1927. PS.—The greater part of this book was already in proof when I received Professor Zachrisson's new book, English Pronunciation at Shakespeare's Time, As Taught by William Bullokar. It will take some time to estimate the full bearing of this most important work, which presents fresh matter in the nature of ' occasional spellings', and a new critical examination of the statements of the early Ortho- e"pists, together with some weighty palaeographical evidence. While Professor Zachrisson agrees in the main with the views expressed in Preface vii Chap, vii of the present volume, he differs from some of them in detail, and from others in principle. I think it probable that, as a result of his new investigations, we shall have cause to modify some of the opinions which have prevailed hitherto concerning the pro­ nunciation of the age of Shakespeare. In the present volume I have, unfortunately, only been able to make a few changes in deference to some of the new facts brought to light by Professor Zachrisson. H. C. W., September, 1927. CONTENTS PREFACE ...... c . v BIBLIOGRAPHY ....... i CHAPTER I INTRODUCTORY. SCOPE, OF THE INQUIRY. GENERAL CON­ SIDERATIONS ....... 15 CHAPTER II POSITION OF ENGLISH AMONG LANGUAGES. DIALECTAL AND CHRONOLOGICAL DIVISIONS .... 22 CHAPTER III THE SOUNDS OF SPEECH ...... 28 CHAPTER IV GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF THE HISTORY OF LANGUAGE . 44 CHAPTER V HISTORY OF ENGLISH SOUNDS. I. THE OLD ENGLISH PERIOD ....... 54 CHAPTER VI HISTORY OF ENGLISH SOUNDS. II. THE MIDDLE ENGLISH PERIOD ....... 81 CHAPTER VII HISTORY OF ENGLISH VOWELS IN THE MODERN PERIOD . 144 CHAPTER VIII HISTORY OF ENGLISH CONSONANTS IN THE MODERN PERIOD 207 CHAPTER IX HISTORICAL SKETCH OF ENGLISH INFLEXIONS . 222 INDEX ........ 289 BIBLIOGRAPHY i A. Historical Grammars and Histories of the English Language. Bradley, H. The Making of English. London, 1904. Emerson, O. The History of the English Language. London, 1894. Jespersen, O. Growth and Structure of the English Language. Kaluza, M. Historische Grammatik der englischen Sprache. I. (Introd., Phonetics, Phonology, and Accidence of O.E.), 1900. II. (Phonol. and Accidence of M.E. and Mod. Engl), 1901. Kluge, E. Geschichte der englischen Sprache. Strassburg, 1899 (in Paul's Grundr.2, pp. 926, &c. Also published separately). Lindelof, U. Grundziige der Geschichte der englischen Sprache, Teubner, 1912. Luick, K. Historische Grammatik der englischen Sprache. (Leipzig, 1913-21; to p. 548. Contains valuable bibliographical information relating to texts and monographs.) Morris, R. Historical Outlines of English Accidence (Revised Kellner and Bradley), 1897. Sweet, H. A New English Grammar, Logical and Historical. Part I. (Introd., Phonol., and Accidence.) Oxford, 1892. Part II. (Syntax.) 1899. History of English Sounds. Oxford, 1888. Wyld, H. C. The Historical Study of the Mother Tongue. An Intro­ duction to Philological Method. John Murray, 1906, &c. WORKS DEALING CHIEFLY WITH DEVELOPMENT OF VOCABULARY. Greenough, J. B., and Kittredge, G. L. Words and their Ways in English Speech. London, Macmillan, 1902. Skeat, W. W. Principles of English Etymology. Oxford. 2 Vols. Pearsall Smith, L. The English Language. Williams & Norgate. To this category also belong the works of Bradley and Jespersen cited above. The New English Dictionary. Ed. Sir J. Murray, Henry Bradley, William Craigie, and C. T. Onions. Oxford. SHE. B 2 Bibliography B. The Old English Period. {For List of O.E. Texts and Editions see Chapter Von O.E. Sounds!) I. DICTIONARIES AND GLOSSARIES. (See also under IV below.) Bosworth-Toller. An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary. Oxford, 1882-98. Supplement, 1908. Napier, A. S. Old English Glosses. Oxford, 1900. Sweet, H. A Student's Dictionary of Anglo-Saxon. Oxford, 1897. II. GRAMMARS, Biilbring, K. Altenglisches Elementarbuch. I. (Lautlehre.) Heidel­ berg, 1902. Dieter, F. Altenglisch. In Dieter's Laut- und Formenlehre d. altgerm. Dialekte: Lautlehre, Pt. I, Chaps. 4 and 10; Formenlehre, Pt. II, Chaps. 16 and 22. Leipzig, 1898-1900. Sievers, E. Angelsachsische Grammatik. (3rd Edition.) Halle, 1898. Sweet, H. Grammatical Introduction to Anglo-Saxon Reader. Oxford. (Though merely a sketch, this is an original and reliable work.) Wardale, E. E. An Old English Grammar. Methuen, 1922 Wright, J. and E. M. An Old English Grammar. Oxford, 1908. III. GRAMMARS AND MONOGRAPHS OF THE VARIOUS O.E. DIALECTS. I. West Saxon. EARLY W.S. Cosijn, P. J. Altwestsachsische Grammatik. 's Graven Haag, 1888. (Deals with the language of Alfred's Cura Pastoralis and of the Parker Chron.) LATE W.S. Briill, H. Die altenglische Latein-Grammatik des ^Elfric. Berlin, 1904. Dunkhase, H. Die Sprache der Wulfstanschen Homilien. Jena, 1906. Fischer, F. The Stressed Vowels of ^Elfric's Homilies. (Publ. of Mod. Lang. Assoc, of America, Vol. I.) Baltimore, 1889. Schiiller, O. Lautlehre von iEIfric's ' Lives of Saints'. 1908. Trilsbach, G. Die Lautlehre der spatwestsachsischen Evangelien. Bonn, 1905. Wilkes, J. Lautlehre zu ^Ifric's Heptateuch und Buch Hiob. Bonner Beitr. xxi. Bonn, 1905. 2. Saxon 'Patois'. Boll, P. Die Spr. d. altenglischen Glossen in MS. Harley *«6. Bonn 1904. Hardy, A. K. Die Sprache der Blickling-Homilien. Leipzig, 1899. The Old English Period 3 3. Kentish. Williams, Irene. Grammatical Investigation of the Old Kentish Glosses. (M.S. Vespas. D. VI.) Bonner Beitr. xix. Bonn, 1906. Wolf, R. Untersuchung der Laute in den kentischen Urkunden.