ACCENT influences spelling by sometimes necessitating the lengthening of a syllable which receives an accent, and by lightening the syllable which loses the accent. Thus conseil, counsel; suffaucare, súffocate; ordino, ordáin; crevasse, crévice. Venison in English is nearly ven'son: hence it is spelled venison, instead of Fr. venaison.

Climb from cli-man,

ADDITION AFTER M AND N FINAL.
A.-S., sound from soun, yond from yon.
bethan English vild from vil (Fr.), gownd for gown.

Compare in Eliza

31. Liquid Changes. The insertion or omission of a vowel is particularly common with -re and -er, -le and -el. Thus render, and the whole class of French-derived verbs in -er, from rendre (Fr.), etc., and table, fable, etc., from the Latin tabula, fabula, etc. Here sometimes a vowel is omitted, as in passing from Lat. reddere to Fr. rende(e)re. Then the former e is reinserted, and the latter omitted in passing from Fr. rendre to Eng. render(e). So (1) Lat. tabula, (2) Fr. tab(u)le, (3) Eng. tab-el (in sound). This is easily explained by the fact that a kind of burr or half-vowel accompanies the effort to pronounce a liquid. Thus there is a half-vowel concealed before in jugg(e)ler, and after any strongly pronounced r. So sirrah, the emphatic form of sir. Sometimes this looks like transposition, as in (Lancashire) brid for bird. Illustrate by entertain, troop, purpose, crimson.

32. Assimilation of Vowels.-There is a tendency to assimilate the vowels before and after liquid or light combinations of consonants. Hence, when a preceding vowel is changed in the passage from one language to another, the following vowel is often similarly changed. Thus smaragdus, Lat., becomes esmeralde, old Fr., emerald, Eng.; mirabilia

becomes maraviglia, It., merveilles, Fr.; bilancia, Lat., comes balance.1 So -ren, being more distinct than er, for assimilation in brother, brethren, and in the pronunciation child, children, woman, women.

33. It was shown above that it is not always possible deduce the exact meaning of an English word derived fro the Latin-e.g., oppress· from a knowledge of the meani of the Latin original. The changes of meaning which a wo undergoes in passing from one language and from one a to another are too various and subtle to admit of classific tion that shall be at once exact and brief. But a few gener laws may be specified.

34. (1) The Law of Change.-It is almost impossib that a word should retain precisely the same meaning for a lon time together. The name of a definite object-e.g., cherr pear, plum, fig-may be handed down unchanged; but the will probably be some changes in the associations suggeste by the word, as in prune, raisin, and still more in beef, por and mutton. As thought and circumstances change, som changes in the meaning of a word are almost inevitable Some words that were once vulgar become respectable others that were once recondite become popular; but in any case a change of some kind is probable, and especially wher the word passes from one language into another, where it ha to fight for its existence, and acquire a province of its own after a struggle with the native synonyms. Illustrate by

bowl (bulla), ark (arca), cease (cessare), chalk (calx, not creta), chivalry (caballus, not equus), chair (cathedra), mop (mappa), cash (capsa), chant (cantare), claim (clamare), couch (collocare), a count (comes), desk, dish (discus), fail (fallo), fan (vannus, not flabellum), frock (floccus), frown (frons), glaive (gladius), juice (jus), lace (laqueus), noise (noxia), pain (pæna), pay (pacare), place (platea), praise (pretiare), preach (prædicare), rest (restare), scent (sentire), spice (species), sue (sequor), sure (securus), taint (tinctus), tense (tempus), test (testis), toast (tostus), try (terere), void (viduus).

35. (2) The Law of Contraction.

This law is natural

in civilized society. As a nation develops, the national
thought is developed, and becoming more definite and com-
plicated recognizes more distinctions, and requires new words
to express them.
Hence as the number of words increases,
the province of each word diminishes.

This is especially exemplified by words denoting measure-
ment. In the early stages of language, a stick, an arm or
foot, a bag, a furrow's ordinary length, an ordinary field,
were sufficiently definite measurements. In course of time
the measurements were more closely defined, and the words
which expressed them for the most part lost their original
and general meaning, and were narrowed down to their new
technical meaning of measurement. Thus, though foot and
stone still have their double meanings, yard no longer
wand" or "stick;" acre no longer means
66 a field,"
nor furlong "a furrow-long," nor peck (or poke) "a bag,"
nor bushell a "little box."

means

66

We may naturally expect that Latin words denoting very common things and actions will find their meaning contracted when introduced into English. Having the word "sing,"

we have no need of the Latin "cantare;" but we can use it for a special meaning, "chant." We do not want " prædicare" for "declare "preach." Having the English "follow," we do not want or "state," but we can sequor;" but we can use it for a legal kind of following, "sue." It may be added that all these Latin-derived words conveniently use it for in very common use (which are mostly monosyllabic) come to us through the French, from a very early period. During the dark ages which followed the overthrow of the Roman empire by the barbarians, the Latin language was debased. The polite language was forgotten, and the colloquial talk of peasants and slaves became the ordinary vehicle of expression. Hence caballus, not equus; pacare, not solvere or pendere; bulla or cupa, not poculum, -originated our modern chivalry, pay, bowl, and cup.

But the same law of contraction also holds good with respect to classical Latin words introduced later into English. And here we have the advantage of being able to trace the process of contraction in our own language. Amid the influx of Latin words during the sixteenth century, many were introduced to express ideas that either could be or were already expressed in the existing English vocabulary. These words were at first used by English authors in their Latin sense. Thus, speculation (watching, looking out), in a well-known passage of Shakspeare, is used for "the power of seeing." But there was no reason why our native word "sight should be expelled by the Latin intruder. What was to be done in such a case? In some cases the intruder was pelled as useless: in others, and in this parti native word "sight" retained its

me

finding the broader room which it had once filled in Latin preoccupied in English, contented itself with retiring into a narrow meaning, "the sight, or looking after gain," or else "the looking after truth." In the same way extravagant, though used by Shakspeare in the sense of "wandering," now means a particular kind of wandering, a wandering beyond the bounds of economy. Exorbitant in Latin meant "out of the way," in Elizabethan English "uncommon: now it is only applied, in a narrower signification, to that which is an uncommon and excessive demand.

Illustrate this law by advertise, aggravate, capitulate, claim (clamare), corroborate, fable, ferocious, immunity, journal, mansion, modest, travel, vulgar, table, vision, camp.

دو

36. (3) The Law of Metaphor. When a foreign word implying a simple idea as videre," to see stands side by side with the native word, it is natural, as has been shown above, that the native word should retain its ordinary meaning, and that the foreign word should be forced to seek for some side-meaning. Thus Latin compounds are often used to express (a) abstract and philosophical terms, as vision, "the of seeing;" or else (b) some extraordinary sense, as vision, "a spiritual revelation through the sight;" or (c) some metaphorical use of the word, as "pro-vident." The metaphorical use of Latin-derived words is very common indeed. It may be illustrated by extra-vagant, ex-orbitant above, also by regimen, circumstance.

power

37. (4) The Law of Extension. Though the law of contraction is the prevalent law in derivation, yet there is a class of words that extend instead of contract their meaning. These are mostly technical words; and, as might be expected