The sun., 1888-02-26

enough Tor common folk, put the nigner ciesses
required higher range OF choice. such rs graz.
crimson purple, scarlet, rermiliori orange, ana
others. The English chapman and monoer now
withdrew into low life. making way for the
moro Rentlemanly foreign mdrchdnd Thus q
crowd OF words found their way into the Eng
lish vocabulary which. only modified by
fashion. are still notable part OF the
language, Halt Of the trades bear french
Names" This statement Prof.. Roemer pro
Goods to Justify BY the following sentence. OF
which the italicized words nre OF French ori-
gin. and had entered the language BY the date
OF which we speak: " Carpenters n,asons. pmno-
ers, joiners, painters always found good e''pton-
ment with tho rich Nor.mans who covered the
country with castles. palaces and mansions and
the furniture dealers made lots OF money in fur
nishino them with chairs. tables. comnodes. sofas,
curtains carpets elegantly embroidered pieces of
tapestry, generally imported from tho Continent,
together with such other articles OF pirtu and
objects Of curiosity as were used to ddorn the
sunptuous apartments in the residenoes OF the
Norman nobility. and calcnldted to charm the
fnstidious tastes OF their luxurious erfsfeace"
The author places the clergy next to the la
dies among the agencies which caused the
naturalization Of old French or Norman words
In the English language. Ho devotes several
pages to this branch OF the subject but we can
only reproduce q telling passage quoted
from Olphant. and which. OF course. re-
fers to the thirteenth century Few
OF U.S." he says, have An idea OF the
wonderful changes brought about by the
Franciscans. 1t was a many-sided brother
hood. being always in contact with the learned.
with the wealthy. and with the needy alike.
The English friar was equally at homo in the
school, In the bower in tho hoYel. He could
speak more than one tongue. thanks to the
caro- that had been bestowed on his education.
We may imagine his everyday lie. He spends
his morning In drawing up n Latin letter to tho
General Minister Mt Oxford or Paris. In the
afternoon he visits the lady OF the castle and
tells her the last news OF Queen Eleanor's
court, points a moral with some scrlptural quo
tation. and lifts up his voice against tho sad
freaks played by fashion in ladies' Dress In
the evening he goes to the neighboring hamlet
and holds forth on the green TO throng Of
horay-hnnded churls. A new link was thus
formed to bind all classes together in goody
fellowship. Nothing like this Franciscan move
ment had ever boen known in England
So mighty was tho spell at work that French
words found their way even into the Lords
Prayer and the Creed the last strongholds. 1t
might be thought. of pure native English"
In the third place among the channels
through which French flowed into tho English
vocabulary Prof Roemer would set the univer-
sites Of Oxford and Cambridge Their influ-
ence was particularly felt after 1928, whom a
students riot In the University Of Paris having
been quelled with great bloodshed by the mu-
| nicipal authorities. the English portion OF the
| undergraduates and most Of the eminent
| teachers migrated to the seats of learning on
| the Isis and the Cam. From this moment
| forward We find native poets writing French
| poetry, transating imported French ltera-
| ture, and filling their vernacular compositions
| with n mass OF foreign words, conformably to
| fashion and in imitation OF their migrating
masters, who carried with them their genius
| and their French from Paris" Then. too.
| toward the end OF the thirteenth century occur
| tho dawnings Of the national ballad poetry
and the vernacular romance OF ehivary. Tho
language Of chiyalry and war was exclusively
French, and brought In such words as honor.
GLORY. renoun, drrny host, champion, radiant,
feat actiereme,n courtesy. gentle. challenge. dc.
Many hunting terms, also. borrowed
| from the same tongue. may be found In the
Sir Tristram.' Several of the French words
then used In cookery may be read in the Lay
| OF Havelok.' nor Is the fashion OF having French
bills OF fare a modern invention" Prof. Roemer
cites tpage 446, one OF such bills prepared for a
feast at Oxford In 1852.
Lastly. the lawyer is credited with consid-
cradle influence in the enrichment OF the Eng
lish vocabulary with terms needed to express
new and complex relations OF persons and
things. With him came in such words as dduo-
cate. alliance. ayreara1e. chatels. demise. depise
demurrer. disclaimer. domain. estate, fef. Jealv.
homage lieoe, Loyaly manor. H,oietv. personally.
| pursuit. realty, rent. seisin. sergeant treaty.
toper. boucher" This influx OF words from the
barbarous jargon known as law Latin. in which
| Off rad En- 0l liah 10
or adjectives with Latin terminations began
under the great Angevin monarch. Henry H.,
but was particularly noticeable In the reigns OF
Edward I. and Edward III. Nor was II
only In law terms that the process Of amalga-
nation Was carried on without regard to homo
genstty. mot only was there a bnrbarous
mixture OF French and English words In the
same sentence, but the words themselves
were often heterogeneous compounds o
parts most dissimilar in their nature. Thus
We find English roots with French suffixes
IS love -dble. bondage, upheav-al forbear-ance
nigg- ard. starv- -ation trustee. fishery. latch
e whimsical whaf-i,9er. tru-isrn. odd-ity
acknowedg -ment. slumbr-ous righteous. 30
Then again French roots with English suffixes
as useful. really. false hood. nuse-ling. duke
dom. gentle man. cour,t,v- man. Jeper-ish, grace
less, neat-nsss apprentice ship. Qua,rel-some
DC. French verbs take English terminations
and are corrugated In the English manner
Most Of these changes took place in the thir
teenth and especially in the fourteenth cen
tury."
The rsador can now form some idea Of the
exhaustive way In which Prof. Roemer por
trays the transformation which tho Englist
vocabulary underwent between Alfred's time
and Chaucer's, at which latter date our Ian
Ruage is generally considered as substantial,
formed. But changes OF vocabulary represen
only one and perhaps the smallest part OF thu
metamorphosis. The moro radical changes o.
structure, as, for example. through the substi
tuition OF propositions for case-endings. had be
gun at least as early as the first Danish coloni
cations. This side OF the subject also is full,
considered In tho work before us. but review
Of tho authors researches and conclusions will
regard to structural variation must be left FOL
another time. n. W. II.
Yachts.
A book eminently worthy OF an interesting