M- B Cornell University ^' 'j Library The original of tliis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924026448203 PROGRESS IN LANGUAGE — Of the Studier over Engelske Kasus, the Academy (2nd January, 1892) said : " Mr. Jespersen has long ago gained a high reputation as a phone- tician. The introductory essay will secure for him a distinguished position among philological thinkers. It is long since we read so brilliant a performance of its kind. ... It seems strange that this powerful and suggestive essay should be published as a mere introduc- series discussions English Grammar tion to a of on ; probably the author will at some time re-issue it in a riper form, and we hope in some language more widely known than Danish. [The body of the work] contains an extraordinary amount of acute and highly probable reasoning, and not a few observations of facts hitherto overlooked. We shall certainly look with keen interest for the succeeding instalments of his work." PROGRESS IN LANGUAGE WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO ENGLISH OTTO ]^ESPERSEN, Ph. Dr. PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH IN THE UNIVERSITY OF COPENHAGEN AUTHOR OF *'THE ARTICULATIONS OF SPEECH SOUNDS" " CHAUCEr'S LIV OG DIGHTNING," ETC. LONDON SWAN SONNENSCHEIN & CO. CO. NEW YORK : MACMILLAN & 1894 ABERDEEN UNIVERSITY PRESS. PREFACE. This volume is to a certain extent an English translation of my Studier over Engelske Kasus, med en Indledning : Fremskridt i Sproget, which was submitted to the University of Copenhagen in February, 1891, as a dissertation for the Ph. D. degree, and appeared in print in April of that year. In preparing this English edition I have, however, altered my book so materially as to make it in many respects an entirely new work.'' In the first place, what was originally only an introductory essay has been enlarged and made the principal part of the book, as already indicated by the altered title. Conse- quently, I could only retain those chapters of the special investigation on the history of English cases which had some bearing on the central idea of " Progress in Language," viz., chs. vi. and vii. (formerly i. and ii., on "the 1 The small numbers in parentheses refer to the paragraphs of the Danish book ; they will enable the reader to judge of the changes made in revising the work for this edition. PREFACE. English Case-Systems " and on " Case-Shift- ings in the Pronouns "), while the last chapter, dealing with the history of voiced and voiceless consonants, was of too special a nature to be inserted in this volume. I shall probably find an opportunity of reprinting part of this inves- tigation in the introduction to the edition of Hart's Orthograpkie, which I am preparing for the Early English Text Society ; and I may here provisionally refer the readers to Dr. Sweet's New English Grammar, §§ 731, 861, 862, 863 (cf also §§ 810, 813, 997, 999, looi), / where I am glad to say that the eminent author \ has accepted even those of my results which I run counter to his own previous views.^ By \ leaving out this chapter I have found place fori the last two chapters of the present volume, of which one (viii. " The English Group Genitive ") is entirely new; while the other, on the " Orio-in of Language," was read in a somewhat shorter form before the Philological Congress in Copen- hagen, on the 2ist of July, 1892, and printed in the Danish periodical Tilskueren, in October of the same year. ^§§1076-87 of the same Grammar will be found to nearly the cover same ground as my ch. vii. (ii. in the Danish edition" PREFACE. Secondly, I have left out whatever seemed to me little likely to present any interest to English readers, especially the numerous instances of Danish developments parallel to those mentioned in chapter vii. ; in the new chapter viii. I have refrained from giving such parallel cases, but I hope some day to find an opportunity of publishing my Danish collections separately. Thirdly, I have taken due notice of those reviews of my Danish book in which reasons were given for dissenting from my views ; I must especially thank Professors Herman Moller and Arwid Johannson for opening my eyes to some weak' points in my arguments, even if I have not been able to make their opinions mine ; on the contrary, a consideration of their objections has only strengthened my belief in the progressive tendency of languages at large. In the linguistic literature which has appeared since my Studier, I have found little to learn with regard to my own subject ; if G. von der Gabelentz's Die Sprachwissenschaft (Leipzig, 1 891) had appeared before instead of after my Studier, it would probably have in- fluenced my exposition, as I should have been PREFACE. able from that admirable work to draw many- arguments in favour of my hypothesis ; but as it is, I have thought it the wisest plan to leave the main structure of my work as it was, and only once for all refer the reader to Gabelentz's great work, which no one can read without great profit. My attention was not drawn to Misteli's Charakteristik der hauptsdchlichsten Typen des Sprachbaues (Berlin, 1893) tiH nearly the whole of my book was ready for print in its English shape ; the reader will there find good, if some- what abstruse and rather too "philosophical" summaries of the distinguishing features of many languages. Such of my readers as are not specially interested in the history of the English language will perhaps do well to read of chapters vi.-viii. only those sections which deal with problems of a more general character (§§ 138-J50, 209-215, 216-218, and 240-247); I myself look upon these three chapters as specimens of the manner in which I hope, by- and-by, to treat the most important points in the development of the English language ; a few more chapters of the same description are nearly ready, dealing chiefly with the relations PREFACE. between adjectives and nouns (or first parts of compounds) and those between nouns and verbs (cf. § 65). As che term " Old English " is still sometimes used in different senses by different authors, it is not superfluous to remark that throughout this book it means the English language till 1 scholars "Anglo- about 1 50, called by many Saxon ". In the very few places where I have used a phonetic transcription, the sign • indi- cates that the preceding vowel is long. I shall conclude this Preface by mentioning the difficulty I have often felt in expressing my thoughts adequately in a language which is not is not too awkward my own ; if my English and clumsy, this is to a great extent due to my friend G. C. Moore Smith, M.A., of St. John's College, Cambridge, who has been kind enough to read my manuscript very carefully and to 1 seize emend my style in not a few points ; this opportunity of thanking him most heartily for his extremely valuable assistance. I must also thank Cand. E. Lennholm, of this city, who translated most of chapter vi. for me from the Danish original. Otto Jespersen. Copenhagen, July, 1894. CONTRACTIONS USED IN THE QUOTATIONS IN CHAPTERS VI.-VIII. Alford, Quern's Engl. = The Queen's English, 8th edit., London, 1889. - Ancr. R. or A. R. = The Ancren Riwle, edited by Morton (Camden Society, 1853); cf. also Kolbing's collation in Jahrbilcher fiir Romanische und Englische Literatui'l vol. XV. % Bale, Three L. = A Comedy concerning Three Lawes (1538),! edited by Schrber in Anglia, vol. v. ( Beitr. = Beitrdge zur Geschichte der Deutschen Sprache und Literatur (Halle). Blanch, or Blanchard. = Caxton's Blanchardyn, ed. by Kellner (Early Engl. T. Soc). Carlyle, Her. = Heroes and Hero-Worship ; Sart. or S. R. = Sartor Resartus (London, Chapman & Hall). Ch. or Chauc. = Chaucer ; Morr. or M. = the Aldine edition, by R. Morris ; the Canterbury Tales (C. T. or Cant.) are generally quoted according to Furnivall's groups (A, B, C, etc.) ; Skeat's editions in the Clarendon Press Series have generally been used ; M. P. = Minor Poems, edit, by Skeat, ; F. = The Fame, in 1888 Hoas of Hous of the same edition ; L. G. W. = The Legend of Good Women, edit, by Skeat, 1889. Chron. = The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (edit, by Plummer, 1889 and 1892). Cura P. = King Alfred's Version of Gregory's Pastoral Care, edit, by H. Sweet, 1871. Dickens, M. Ch. = Martin Chuzzlewit (the Charles Dickens edition. Chapman & Hall) ; Christm. Books = Christmas Books (Macmillan). ; CONTRACTIONS. Einenkel, Streifz. = Strdfziige durch die mittelenglische Syntax (Miinster, 1887). G. Eliot, Mill = The Mill on the Floss (T.) ; Life = Life of G. E., by W. Cross (T.). Ellis, E. E. P. = On Early English Pronunciation, i,-v., 1869-89. Engl. St. = Englische Studien, herausg v. E. Kolbing. Fielding (Field.), T.J. = Tom Jones, i.-iv. (London, 1782). Greene, Friar B. = Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay, edit, by A. W. Ward (1887). Lay. = Layamon's Brut, edit, by Madden. Malory (Mai.) = Le Morte Darthur, edit, by O. Sommer (1889). Marlowe (Marl.), Jew = Jew of Malta; Tamb. = Tamburlaine, edit, by A. Wagner (Heilbronn, i88g and 1885). M. E.'= Middle English (ab. 1150-1500). Meredith, Trag. Com. = The Tragic Comedians (T.) ; Eg. = The Egoist (i vol.. Chapman & Hall). Milton, P. L. = Paradise Lost ; S. A. = Samson Agonistes. Murray, Dial. = The Dialect of the Southern Counties of Scotland (1873). N. E. D. = A New English Dictionary, by J. A. H. Murray and H.