The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1882-05-28


mology would conform 10 80 much of this rule
as is concerned with consonants. But such is
| far from being the case Mr.. Skeat dates on
| tho extraordinary fact that while the conclu-
| sions oil comparative philology are familiar To
! numerous students In Germany and America.
they are far from being vol known In England.
SO that IL Is easy 10 meet even with classical
scholars who have no notion of what Grimms
law really means. and who are at n loss 10
understand why English words, having nm an
parent similarity to certain words in Greek and
Latin. should be totally unrelated to the latter.
For the understanding OF these things nothing
more is needed than knowledge Of the relative
| phonetic values OF tho letters OF the English.
Latin. and Greek alphabcts. Tho study.
however. of these fundamental matters Is
strangely neglected at English public schools.
although n boy OF sixteen who understood
them would be- in Mr.. Skeats opinion. more
than match in etymology for man Of fifty
who did not.
Take for instance. the common decisions
| under which the English woSd care is con-
nectod with the Latin c1rd. our word t1hOle
with the Greek ho'os and our word charity with
the Greek charts. Now. the English word
care, from tho Anglo-Saxon ceoru meant orgi
nally sorrow. which is only a secondary mean
| ing OF the Latin word; 1t never meant prima-
riy attention or painstaking. But this is not
the point at present under consideration,
| which has reference to tho observed rules OF
consonantal change. Pnoneticaly. the Anglo
| Saxon and the Latin c, when used lnitially.
do not correspond; for where the latter wrltos
at the beginning OF word. the former has h.
as in the Latin celare. which is the phonetic
equivalent OF the Anglo-Saxon heldn. to hide.
| Again. the Anglo-Saxon ca before following
stands for an original a. the word cearu answer
| ing TO an older cdrm But the Latin ctra
| told Latin coiru lie spelt with long
u. originally n diphthong OF. which cannot
| Of course answers to an original a. 1t romans
| that these words both contain tho letter r in
| common. but this Is a slight ground indeed for
| the proposed equivalence OF words OF which
| the primary senses were different.
Turning to the Greek ho'os. we find that the
aspirate. as usual, represents an original S. so
that the Greek word corresponds to the old Latin
sollns. and means whole" in the sense of on
tire or total. But the AnGlo-Saxon hal (which
| is the old spelling OF whole has for its initial
/ letter an h. answering to the Greek l.. ard
| the original sense 10 in sound health or
hale and hearty" Our word who's"
may therefore more reasonably be com
pared with the Greek kaos than with
hoios the resemblance with the latter being
| purely artificial. Next. as to the Greek word
charts. the initial letter is Of course the Greek
/ CHI. q cultural sound answering to the Latin
70. But in charity the Ch Is French. due to
! peculiar pronunciation OF the Latin c. and the
French Charts is unluestionably derived from
the Latin accusative edritdten whence also the
/ Italian corUd's or cdritd and the Spanish carl
dad all coming from the Latin ca,'us with long
a. When we put the Greek charts. and the
| Latin cdi7,s side by side. we notice that the
initial letters are different, the novels different,
and Just rs in the case Of cenru and C'rd the
sole point OF similarity Is that they both contain
| the letter..
! So fur IA regards the blunders made in
! the identification Of radically different con-
sonants. Mr.. Skeat does not think it worth
! while to pursue the subject further such errors
| being wearsome TO those who have acquired
any pathological knowledge. But an important
| feature of his book lie the emphasis with which
he insists upon a thorough knowledge OF the
| laws observed to govern the procession and re-
| latonship of vowels as well ms Of consonnnts.
In his opinion modern philosophy will in flu
ture turn moro and more upon phonetics. and
the truth now confined to q very few will at last
become general. that the vowel is commonly
| the very life and most essential part OF a word:
and Just as pre scientific etymoloGiss' frequent
! ~ went wrong because they considesed the con-
sonants as being Of small consequence. and the
vowcls Of mono at all, 80 the scientific student
of the present day may then only hope 10 go
right when he has learned to look upon conso-
nants US Of great moment, and upon vowcls as
! OF supreme importance. In connection with
/ this topic. Mr. skcat points out that even when
| comparing two words belonging to the same
| language. and consisting Of the same number
| Of syliables. the older form can usually be-
! distinguished by observing the sound of
! the principal vowel. This canon. requiring
/ us to compare vowel sounds in study
/ inc aFv 10 in,
many dictionaries. although few things are
more striking than the occasionally complex
! yet often decisive manner in which. especially
| in the Tcutonic languages. one vowel sound Is
. cduced from another. The very fact that the
| Anglo-Saxon is a mobilization of o tells us at
once that J5d1n. to feed, is Il derivative OF J1d
food, and that to derive inyersely food from
feed. as many photographers do is simply i'm
possible. In the same way the vowel 2 in tho
verb to set owes its existence to the vowel in
the past tense Of the verb 10 sit; and so on in
! countless instances.
As regards the various sources from which
words have been borrowed TO enrich the vo-
. cabulary inherited from our old English an
| cestors. Mr.. Skeat has appended TO his Diction-
| AIRY an extremely valuable list, In which he I'M
| dcrtnkCs to distribute the words Of primary
| importance according to their chronological orr
/ gins. In this list our dervations from the
Latin are separately classified according AS
they have come directly from tho Latin. or
have been filtered through French. Italian
Spanish. Portuguese, Low Latin. and other
languages Of medieval and modern Europe
Our English words Of Greek origin are
also placed in distinct groups according as
they have been drawn directly from Hellenic
authors. or constructed for the purposes of
modern science from Hellenic roots. or have
been transmitted 10 US from Greek through
Latin French, and other European languages
| Peculiarly interesting features in this list are
the tables OF words derived from the Old Low
! German and from the Dutch. The term Old
Low German is applied to a not very large class
Of words, the precise origin of which is wrapped
in some obscurty. Either they belong to
| Old Tristan. and were introduced by
the Frsians who came over TO England
with the SaIons. or to some form of
old Dutch or old Saxon brought over by subse-
| nuant arniprnnts from ia low const lands NJ