Growth and Structure of the English Language |
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adjective adopted adverb alliteration Areopagitica authors back-formations belong Ben Jonson Beowulf borrowed called Celtic century Chaucer classical classical elements consonant corresponding Danes Danish derived dialect Dictionary distinction elements England English language English words especially Euphuism everyday expression fact Fitzedward Hall foreign words formation French words genitive George Eliot German Germanic languages give greater number guages ideas important influence instance later Latin words learned less linguistic lish literary loan-words loans manner meaning mentioned Middle English Milton names nation native words natural Norse noun number of words Old English Old Norse ordinary originally perhaps period phonetic phrases plural ending poetical poetry poets preposition pronoun pronunciation prose rime Scandi Scandinavian sense sentences Shakespeare signification Similarly singular sometimes sound speak speech stress survived syllable synonym taken Tennyson tense Thackeray things thou tion tive tongue verb vocabulary vowel writes
Popular passages
Page 68 - And one of theym named sheffelde, a mercer, cam in-to an hows and axed for mete; and specyally he axyd after eggys; And the goode wyf answerde, that she coude speke no frenshe. And the marchaunt was angry, for he also coude speke no frenshe, but wolde haue hadde cgges and she vnderstode hym not. And thenne at laste a nother sayd that he wolde haue eyren.
Page 47 - England that there were very few on this side of the Humber who could understand their rituals in English, or translate a letter from Latin into English; and I believe that there were not many beyond the Humber. There were so few of them that I cannot remember a single one south of the Thames when I came to the throne.
Page 80 - I talk to thee For thou art worthy, Thou unassuming Common-place Of Nature, with that homely face, And yet with something of a grace Which Love makes for thee!
Page 149 - to sink from inanition into nonentity." Sir Isaac Newton is "the developer of the skies in their embodied movements;" and Mrs. Thrale, when a party of clever people sat silent, is said to have been "provoked by the dulness of a taciturnity that, in the midst of such renowned interlocutors, produced as narcotic a torpor as could have been caused by a dearth the most barren of all human faculties.
Page 7 - Joseph, journeying brought To Glastonbury, where the winter thorn Blossoms at Christmas, mindful of our Lord. And there awhile it bode ; and if a man Could touch or see it, he was heal'd at once, By faith, of all his ills. But then the times Grew to such evil that the holy cup Was caught away to Heaven, and disappear'd.
Page 149 - I HAVE no ear. — Mistake me not, reader — nor imagine that I am by nature destitute of those exterior twin appendages, hanging ornaments, and (architecturally speaking) handsome volutes to the human capital.
Page 206 - Theirs is the language of the heavens, the power. The thought, the image, and the silent joy : Words are but under-agents in their souls ; When they are grasping with their greatest strength. They do not breathe among them : this I speak In gratitude to God, Who feeds our hearts For His own service ; knoweth, loveth us, When we are unregarded by the world.
Page 130 - We are descended of ancient families, and kept up our dignity and honour many years, till the jack-sprat THAT supplanted us.
Page 151 - One of those omnipresent characters who, as if in pursuance of some previous arrangement, are certain to be encountered in the vicinity when an accident occurs, ventured the suggestion. He died. He deceased, he passed out of existence, his spirit quitted its earthly habitation, winged its way to eternity, shook off its burden, etc.
Page 68 - And that comyn englysshe that is spoken in one shyre varyeth from a nother.