The Cooperstown courier. (Cooperstown, Griggs Co., N.D.) 1902-1913, 1904-12-29
THE TRICKS OF TIME

THE TRICKS OF TIME
CURIOUS CHANGES THAT HAVE BEEN
WROUGHT IN OUR OlcTioN.
1oos Striking Examples Of the DIFF.
ference In the Use or Meaning Of
words That. 0aee Of High Estate,
Are New Locked UDen ~ ssSlaaey."
1t is now some 200 years since Dean
Swift proposed to establish in England
an academy, such as that of France,
for correcting and ascertaining" the
English language. Are many people
aware what exactly would be the re-
suit Of an institution of this kind?
Probably not, for it's effects would
be mainly negative, and hence not
likely to attract attention, and few
men are philologists or even sufficient
" interested in the history of language
to realize that words are born aud
live and die as we do, and that in the
interval they are subjected to insidious
changes of misunderstanding them
where they can be affected in meaning
and spelling and pronunciation-and
that British academy would put an
end to all this.
But as yet fate or chance or what
ever the god Of dictionaries may be
called has free hand. And to the fact
that time plays such unkind pranks
upon poor harmless words, making
them vulgar, perhaps, or ridiculous, we
owe the lighter side Of philology. So
that when we take up an old version
OF the Bible-Wyclif, say, or Cover
dale, or Tyndale-we may read, with
feelings, perhaps, not of unmixed rever-
ence, that the Lord ''trounced" Sisera
and all his host or that he snubbed his
people, or, looking a little further,
we may see the beloved Of King Solo
mon hopping among the mountains,
and the apostles, or the long skirted
elders Of Israel. rending their clothes
and skipping out among the people.
TO-" says Wyclif, "he shall not nappe,
neither slepe that kepth Israel" And
in translating Hebrews XII, e. but
ye are come unto an innumerabls
company Of angels" Tyndale. in per
feet confidence Of ito fitness, uses the
unhappy expression, - sight Of an
gels" But indeed we do not need to
80 20 far back. Look at the seven
teenth verse Of the Seventh Psalm Of
our modern Bible. His mischief"
says David, ''shall return upon his
own head, and his violent dealing shall
come down upon his own pate"
= Some strange discoveries we make,
too, among the poets. Eye sacred 1mps'
that on Parnasso dwell" sings Spenser
In an ardent invocation to the Muses..
And let us look at the opening lines Of
another poem long forgotten:
o Abraham's ''brats!" o brood Of blessed
. seed!
Brats and brood! Could we better this?
But poor Gascoigne intended neither
Jest nor profanity, and Milton. great
er than he, writes thus Of Christ's
temptation on the mountain, when Sa-
tan, having shown him the kingdoms
OF the world, bears him back to the
wilderness:
Our Saviour. meek and with untroubled
mind,
After his aery 5aunt though hurried sore.
Hungry and cold betook him to his rest.
Strange that words which have been
applied with reverence to the highest
should fall so low.
But the hand Of time moves ever
slowly and touches gently, and these
changes. we may be sure, grotesque as
they seem to US, came very gradually.
We have but to think moment to see
that something Of the kind is going on
now. Take the case Of pronunciation,
where we are dealing with what is
relatively obvious and simple. for ten
men can tell how a word IL pronounced
for one who can say what 1t means.
Have not many OF US heard old people
talk OF revenue or committee instead Of
revenue and committee, the first word
following the rule Of change in English
pronunciation-that the accent should
b thrown back to the beginning-ths
second being rare exception2 And
did not Samuel Rogers complain that
the newfansled pronunciation balcony
made him sick? He. good man, had
been brought up to call Il balcony, and
that 10 not 90 very long ago. So that
whether It goes by rule or by exception,
whether we are governed BY law or
chance, we have to face the certainty
that our pronunciation Of many words
will sound az old fashioned to our
grandchildren 40 committee does to u.s.
But whether It makes 10 feel young
Or whether It makes 10 feel old the
habit Of noticing words and Of inquir-
ing into the origin Of common phrases
u an excellent one and unfortunately
not common Take some Of the stock
political expressions one ands in ev-
Fry Newspaper, for example. The IMAM
In the street" whom thu Peer war