History of English: A Sketch of the Origin and Development of the English Language with Examples, Down to the Present DayMacmillan, 1893 - 414 pages |
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Common terms and phrases
accent adjective already altered Anglo-Saxon Authorised Version become borrowed Celtic Chaucer Chronicle consonant course Danes Danish dative declension derived dialect of English early East Midland dialect East Midland English England English Bible English Etymology English Sounds English words example express French words genitive Gothic grammar Greek High German Historische Grammatik Indo-European language inflexions instance King Kington Oliphant later Latin Latin words Layamon literary Lowland Scotch meaning Mercian Middle English Midland English Modern English neuter Norman Conquest Norman-French Northern Northumbrian Old and Middle Old English ordinary original Ormulum past participle past tense Peterborough Chronicle plural poem poetry Principles of English probably pronounced pronunciation Robert of Brunne Sanskrit seen Shakespeare singular sixteenth century Skeat sometimes Southern dialect speak specimen speech spelling spoken standard style subjunctive substantive syllable termination Teutonic language translation verb vowel West Saxon writing written þæt þat
Popular passages
Page 378 - Where there is much desire to learn, there of necessity will be much arguing, much writing, many opinions ; for opinion in good men is but knowledge in the making.
Page 339 - This music crept by me upon the waters, Allaying both their fury and my passion With its sweet air : thence I have follow'd it, Or it hath drawn me rather.
Page 338 - Then certain philosophers of the Epicureans, and of the Stoics, encountered him. And some said, What will this babbler say ? other some, He seemeth to be a setter forth of strange gods : because he preached unto them Jesus, and the resurrection.
Page 373 - The potent traditions of childhood are stereotyped in its verses. The power of all the griefs and trials of a man is hidden beneath its words. It is the representative of his best moments, and all that there has been about him of soft and gentle, and pure and penitent and good, speaks to him for ever out of his English Bible. . . . . It is his sacred thing, which doubt has never dimmed, and controversy never soiled. In the length and breadth of the land there is not a Protestant with one spark of...
Page 378 - Truth, than there be pens and heads there, sitting by their studious lamps, musing, searching, revolving new notions and ideas wherewith to present, as with their homage and their fealty, the approaching reformation: others as fast reading, trying all things, assenting to the force of reason and convincement.
Page 290 - And if ther dide, certeyn, so wrooth was she, That she was out of alle charitee. Hir coverchiefs ful fyne were of ground ; I dorste swere they weyeden ten pound That on a Sonday were upon hir heed.
Page 326 - Some fell upon stony places, where they had not much earth: and forthwith they sprung up, because they had no deepness of earth : 6 And when the sun was up, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away.
Page 356 - A thousand ages in thy sight Are like an evening gone ; Short as the watch that ends the night Before the rising sun.
Page 377 - God is decreeing to • begin some new and great period in his church, even to the reforming of reformation itself; what does he then but reveal himself to his servants, and as his manner is, first to his Englishmen...
Page 204 - There are twenty of Roslin's barons bold Lie buried within that proud chapelle; Each one the holy vault doth hold— But the sea holds lovely Rosabelle. And each St Clair was buried there, With candle, with book, and with knell ; But the sea-caves rung, and the wild winds sung, The dirge of lovely Rosabelle ! XXIV.