HEBREW AND ARABIC WORDS.

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relative numbers and proportions, which these languages have severally lent us; as well as the character of the words which they have thrown into the common stock of our tongue.

Suppose the English language to be divided into a hundred parts; of these, to make a rough distribution, sixty would be Saxon, thirty would be Latin (including of course the Latin which has come to us through the French), five would be Greek; we should thus have assigned ninety-five parts, leaving the other five, perhaps too large a residue, to be divided among all the other languages from which we have adopted isolated words. Thus, just to enumerate a few of these latter; we have a certain number of Hebrew words, mostly, if not entirely belonging to religious matters, as 'amen,' 'cabala,' 'cherub,' 'ephod,' 'hallelujah,' 'jubilee,' 'manna,' 'Messiah,' 'sabbath,' 'seraph.' The Arabic words in our language are more numerous; we have several arithmetical and astronomical terms, as 'algebra,' 'cypher,'* 'zero,' 'zenith,' 'nadir,' 'talisman,' 'almanach;' and chemical, for the Arabs were the chemists, no less than the astronomers and arithmeticians of the middle ages; as 'alkali,' 'alembic,' 'elixir,' 'alcohol;' add to these the names of animals or articles of merchandize first introduced by them to the notice of Western Europe, as 'giraffe,' 'gazelle,' 'saffron,' 'lemon,' 'orange,' 'sherbet,' 'lute,' 'syrup,' 'artichoke,' 'mattrass,' 'jar,' 'assegai,' 'barragan,' 'coffee,' 'sugar,' 'amber,' 'mummy,' 'jasmin,' 'crimson;' and some further terms, 'assassin,'

* But see Grimm's Mythologie, p 985.

vizier,' 'divan,' 'sultan,' 'admiral,' 'arsenal,' 'carat, 'tarif,' 'sofa,' 'caffre,' 'Magazine;' and I believe we shall have nearly completed the list.-We have moreover a few Persian words, as 'bazaar,' 'lilac,' 'pagoda,' 'caravan,' 'azure,' 'scarlet,' 'taffeta,' 'saraband;' of 'scimitar' it can, I believe, only be said that it is Eastern. We have also a very few Turkish, as 'tulip,' 'turban,' 'chouse,' 'dragoman,' or as it used to be spelt, 'truchman'-this last having hardly a right to be called English.

The new world has given us a certain number of words, Indian and other-' tobacco,' 'chocolate,' 'potato,' 'maize,' (Haytian), 'condor,' 'hamoc,' 'cacique,' 'wigwam;' and if 'hurricane' is a word which Europe originally derived from the Caribbean islanders, it should of course be included in this list.

เ

To come nearer home-we have a certain number of Italian words, as 'bandit,' 'charlatan,' 'pantaloon,' 'gazette.' We have some Spanish, as 'musquito,' 'negro,' 'duenna,' 'punctilio,' 'alcove,** alligator,' 'gala,' 'cambist,' 'palaver.' A good many of our sea terms are Dutch, as 'sloop,' 'schooner,' 'yacht.'Celtic things are for the most part designated among us by Celtic words; such as 'bard,' 'kilt,' 'clan,' 'pibroch,' 'plaid,' 'reel.' Nor only such as these, which are all of them comparatively of modern introduction, but a considerable number, how large a number is yet a very unsettled question, of words

* On the question whether this ought not to have been included among the Arabic, see Diez, Wörterbuch d. Roman Sprachen, p 10.

ANALYSIS OF ENGLISH.

21

which at a much earlier date found admission into our tongue, are derived from this quarter.

Now, of course, I have no right to presume that any among us are equipped with that knowledge of other tongues which shall enable us to detect of ourselves and at once the nationality of all or most of the words which we may meet-some of them greatly disguised, and having undergone manifold transformations in the process of their adoption among us; but only that we have such helps at command and within our reach in the way of dictionaries and the like, and so much diligence in their use, as will enable us to discover the quarter from which the words which we meet have reached us; and I will confidently say that few studies of the kind will be more fruitful, will suggest more various matter of reflection, will more lead you into the secrets of the English tongue, than an analysis of a certain number of passages drawn from different authors, such as I have just now proposed. For this analysis you will take some passage of English verse or prose-say, the first ten lines of Paradise Lostor the Lord's Prayer-or the 23rd Psalm; you will distribute the whole body of words contained in that passage, of course not omitting the smallest, according to their nationalities—writing, it may be, A over every Anglo-Saxon word, L over every Latin, and so on with the others, if any other should occur in the passage which you have submitted to this examination. When this is done, you will count up the number of those which each language contributes; again, you will note the character of the words derived from each quarter.

1*

Yet here, before I pass further, I would observe in respect of those which come from the Latin, that it will be desirable further to mark whether they are directly from it, and such might be marked L', or only mediately from it, and to us directly from the French, which would be L', or L at second hand-our English word being only in the second generation descended from the Latin, not the child, but the child's child. There is a rule that holds pretty constantly good, by which you may generally determine this point. It is this,-that if a word be directly from the Latin, it will not have undergone any alteration or modification in its form and shape, save only as respects the termination-'innocentia' will have become 'innocency,' 'natio' will have become 'nation,' 'firmamentum' will have become 'firmament,' but nothing more. On the other hand, if it comes through the French, it will generally be considerably altered in its passage. It will have undergone a process of lubrication; its sharply defined Latin outline will in good part have departed from it; thus, 'crown' is from 'corona,' but through 'couronne,' and itself a dissyllable, 'coroune,' in our earlier English; 'treasure' is from 'thesaurus,' but through 'trésor;' 'emperor' is the Latin 'imperator,' but it was first 'empereur.' It will not at all uncommonly happen that the substantive has passed to us through this process, having come through the intervention of the French; while we have only felt at a later period our want of the adjective also, which we have proceeded to borrow direct from the Latin. Thus, 'people' is indeed 'pop

DOUBLE ADOPTIONS.

23

ulus,' but it was 'peuple' first, while 'popular' is a direct transfer of a Latin vocable into our English glossary. So too 'enemy' is 'inimicus,' but it was first softened in the French, and had its Latin physiognomy to a great degree obliterated, while 'inimical' is Latin throughout; 'parish' is 'paroisse,' but 'parochial' is 'parochialis.'

Sometimes you will find in English what I may call a double adoption of a Latin word; I mean that we have many Latin words which now make part of our vocabulary in two shapes, in both these forms (doppelgängers' the Germans would call them); directly from the Latin, and mediately through the French. In these cases it will be particularly noticeable how that which has come through the French has been shaped and moulded, generally cut short, often cut a syllable or two shorter (for the French devours letters and syllables), than the Latin. I will mention a few examples; 'secure' and 'sure,' both from the Latin 'securus,' but one directly, the other through the French; 'fidelity' and 'fealty,' both from the Latin 'fidelitas,' but one directly, the other at second-hand; 'species' and 'spice,' both from the Latin 'species,' spices being properly only kinds of aromatic drugs; 'blaspheme' and 'blame,' both from 'blasphemare,' but 'blame' immediately from 'blâmer;' add to these 'granary' and 'garner;' 'tradition' and 'treason;' 'regality' and 'royalty;' 'hospital' and 'hotel;' 'persecute' and 'pursue ;' ;' 'superficies' and 'surface;' 'faction' and 'fashion;' 'particle' and 'parcel;' 'redemption' and 'ransom;' 'potion' and 'poison;' 'oration' and 'ori