ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 104 ENGLISH LITERATURE.
- with the vocabulary. Ever Sim
beginning of this period the language aa hot in many foreign sources. As a result of the influence of the Italian Renais- sance at the beginning of the sixteenth century many Italian re introduced, and in spite f Ascham's I them they increased rap- idly. Contact with Spain on the Western Con- tinent led to the borrowing of many Spanish and the commercial relations with Holland are responsible for the introduction of not a few Dutch words, especially maritime terms. In the seventeenth century political and literary con- nections with France helped to augment, the French element, and the advances of science have d an immense number of classical terms, either borrowed or formed from the Latin and Creek. herever Englishmen have gone they have ,1 into their language words describing local objects and ideas. The British conquest of India rough! in such words as bangle, chintz, loot, mahout; the war in South Africa has Anglicized I Hitch words, as trek, outlander; commercial us with China have given Chinese words, na and the names for the different kinds of tea. Of especial interest is the large class of In- dian words, brought from North and South America, borrowed either directly or through the Spanish or Portuguese. Many of these come under the head oi 'Americanisms.' During the jour centuries of the modern period the English vocabulary has gradually assumed the composite ter which is one of its most striking fea-
the Germanic languages, indeed, show
tendi ncy to assimilate foreign words. nlj point of inferiority that the modern English vocabulary -hows as compared with the tlary of the oldest period is in the power If explaining compounds, in which An- on was as rich as modern German. This iiu of modern English is not so great. i r. as would appear, since many words that ill pounds are written as separate words, as insurano ipany, life insurance. Many writer- have at. different times deplored ismopolitan eh; iter of the English vo- tnd have urged the exclusive use of na- tive words in all possible cases. This extreme purism, however, ignores entirely the value of a varied vocabularj for purposes of literary ex- pression, without which the language of Shake- and Milton would lack no. eh of its beauty and force. The wise man selects from this rich . of words those that best express his ■Ids. Bibliography. Anglo Saxon: Bosworth 'roller, Dii try (0 :ford, L882 98), the only complete recenl work of the kind; The Student's Dictionary of Anglo-Saxon I. 1897 ' . a mm enieni li-l . but « d hout Sweet. I n Anglo-Saxon Reader (Ox- ford, 1889) ; Id ight, In 1"'//" Saxon Reader (3d ed., New York. 1894 i : Sievers, Lti Old 1 Oram n lated by ( look I 3d ed. Boston,
- i ; ..ii he tibji i
in En| ". i'i inn r i ( lx- ch, i ' v. i , , ammat of I New .ilk. 1S7U I , -t ill useful for 1 1 Sweet, I St cond A n- fjlo 8a ord, 1**7 ) . contains 1 Mid. lb- Engli h: Strntmann, I Dictionary of tht w ed bj Ida. II. (Oxford, 1S91) ; Mayhew and Skeat, A Concise Dictionary of Middle English from 1150 to 1580 (Oxford, 1888) ; Sweet, First Middle English Primer, with grammar and glossary (Oxford, 1884) ; Second Middle English Primer. Extracts from Chaucer (1880); Morris, Specimens of ly English, 1150-1300 (Oxford, 1886) ; -Morris and Skeat, id., 1298 1394 (Oxford, 1S8G) ; Skeat, The Vision of . . . Piers the Plowman, by Wil- liam Langland (Oxford, 1867-73). Shakespeare: Abbott, .4. Shakespearian Gram- mar (London, 1870), an excellent treatment; Schmidt, Shakespeare-Lexicon (3d ed., Berlin and London. 1902). History and Grammar: Skeat, Principles of English Etymology, two parts (London, 1887 and 1891), treats the native and foreign elements separately, and, although not always in agreement with the latest results of philological investiga- tion, is nevertheless an excellent introduction for the general student; Emerson, The History of the English Language (New York, 1894), the most scientific text -book on the subject ; a more ele- mentary work was published in 1890, corrected edi- tion in 1897; Lounsbury, History of the English Language, revised ed. (New York, 1894), a well- considered book, but with slight treatment of the phonetic side; Toller, Outlines of the History of the English Language (New York, 1900) . connect- ing the development of the language with the lit- erature. A technical treatment of the history of the language is given by Kluge in Paul, Grundriss der germanisiht n Philologie (Strassburg, 1896); Morris, Historical Outlines of English Accidence (London, 1872) : Kellner, Historical Outlines of English Syntax (New York, 1892). a useful in- troduction to the study of the subject; Jesperscn. Progress in Language (London. 1894). containing a suggestive study of the English pronoun; Sweet, A Short Historical English Grammar (New York, 1S92), a condensed treatment of phonology and accidence; Sweet, A Neiv English Grammar, Logical and Historical (New York, 1892 and 1898), vol. i. containing phonology and accidence, and vol. ii. syntax, this being an admi- rable treatment from the historical point of view ; Bain, .1 Higher English Grammar (London, 1879), containing the earliest use of logical an- alysis, and in its treatment of the parts of speech marking a distinct advance: liaskervill and Sowcll. I n English drain mar ( New York, 1895), one of the best recent works, based upon actual usage. For an account of dictionaries of the modern period, sec Dictionaries. ENGLISH LITERATURE. The literature produced by the English people, amid the varied course of their national development, and in the vernacular tongue, whether purely Teutonic, or the I'u-ion of that element 1 with the Norman- French, or the splendid and highly organized language, rich in it- double inheritance, which modem times have raised to such a pitch of power, flexibility, and grace. Il musl be treated as substantially one under all these various aspects, though its beginnings arc to its present maturity as the weakness of an infant to the rich endowment of a full-grown man. On the other hand. f..r convenience, if for no radical or ..I distinction, the literature produced in practically the same language by daughter peo- ple an..-- the seas will not come into this sur-
