Chapter XLIX: Appendix: G

LANGUAGE AND ORTHOGRAPHY

The language of the _Bruce_ is Northern English, the dialect spoken north of the Humber. Barbour himself calls it “Inglis” (Bk. IV. 253), and Scottish writers down to the sixteenth century do the same. The name “Scots” is therefore a term of pure convenience, signifying the English spoken within the political borders of Scotland, which continued to be an independent literary medium after the Northern English of England had ceased to be such, and had yielded place to the standard dialect of Chaucer and his successors. But the language of the Aberdeen Barbour is substantially that of the Yorkshire Richard Rolle.

The most obvious characteristic of the northern tongue is that in development it was far ahead of its southern contemporary, in so far as it had absolutely got rid of inflections, not even retaining the final _e_ which casts its shadow over Chaucer. Where the final _e_ occurs in the _Bruce_ it is non-significant and unsounded. Like the variable spelling, it is the result of the writing of English by scribes accustomed to the sounds and orthography of contemporary French, which was rich in final _e’s_[179]--a process which had seriously complicated the straightforward phonetic spelling of Old English. A peculiar Scots fashion, however, was the representation of the long vowels by a combination with _y_ or _i_, sometimes in addition to a final _e_, which came to be regarded as the sign of a long vowel. Thus we have such groups as _mar_, _mair_, _mayr_: _done_, _doyn_, _doyne_. In these and similar cases _y_ is simply an alternative form of _i_; at first it would be written before letters like _m_, _n_, _u_, where _i_, having no dot, might be mistaken for a part of the succeeding letter; then in practice the two would become interchangeable according to the caprice of the writer. In this matter the scribe of C is rather more regular than that of E. Now, such a diphthong as _ai_ was in time reduced to a simple sound, when the _i_ became superfluous, and came to be looked upon as a sign of length. With this function it was afterwards, at the pleasure of the writer, transferred to the company of other long vowels where there was no original diphthong. Thus we have the long vowel sound represented in three ways--simple, with following _i_ (_y_), or with terminal _e_. In cases like _tais_, _gais_, however, the _i_ is part of the termination of the present tense of the verb, of which Barbour is particularly fond.[180]

[179] Sounded as yet, like those of M.E., but in time to become silent. Anglo-French is Norman-French developed in England; it was closely related to Old French, familiar to the scribes through the romances.

[180] Buss, _Anglia IX._, pp. 505-507. _Cf._ also Murray, _Dialect of the Southern Counties_, p. 53.

But while Scots--in the sense indicated above--had thus early parted with its inflections, it was, on the other hand, more conservative than the southern dialects in its treatment of the vowel sounds. It retained, for example, the Old English _ā_, which in Southern English was rounded into broad _o_ (_oa_)--_cf._ _ga_, _stane_ (O.E. or A.S. _gan_, _stan_) for _go_, _stone_. In the _Bruce_ (X. 199; XII. 299) the rhyme _more_, _before_ may show the rounding influence of _r_.[181] Vowels in words of French origin show slight modification. Anglo-French nasal _a_ before _m_, _n_ tends to become _au_, whence _daunger_, etc., and _o_ or _u_ to become _ou_ as in _baroun_, _felloun_. _Ai_ and _ei_ incline to merge in long _e_ as _feble_ (O.F. _faible_), and _sesyt_ (O.F. _seisir_); but _ai_ may also become _a_--_e.g._, _tratour_ for O.F. _traitor_.

[181] Buss, p. 509.

Aphæresis occurs in such shortened forms as _stroy_ (destroy), _semble_ (assemble), etc.

The following peculiarities may be noticed among the consonants:

_ch_ sometimes = “tch” in middle and end of word--_e.g._, _fech_ = fetch (II. 532).

_h_ is silent in _hoost_, as in all Anglo-French words of Latin origin, and sometimes drops out--_e.g._, _ost_ (II. 559, etc., O.F. _ost_), also in _ayris_ (heirs, V. 520).

_b_ in combination with _m_ is dropped both in pronunciation and spelling. _Cf._ _chamyr_ (II. 97), _tumlit_ (IV. 182, etc.). C _Hummyr_ for Humber; E _Humbre_ (XV. 538).

_d_ usually dropped after _n_--_e.g._, _henmast_ = hindmost (XII. 268, etc.); sometimes intrusive--_e.g._, _suddandly_ (VI. 11), but _suddanly_ (VI. 220). In _avantage_, _aventure_ from French the English _d_ is intrusive.

_f_ represents final _ve_ in _pruf_ or _preif_, _leiff_, _driff_, _knaf_, _haf_, etc., retaining the voiced sound (_v_) which it had in A.S. between vowels, and _r_ _l_ and vowels.

_g_ in words of French origin has before _e_, _i_, the English sound = _da(j)_, which was also then the French one--_e.g._, _liege_, _jugis_.

_l_ as indicating merely a long vowel is unsounded in _walknyt_ (VI. 296), _walk_ (wake, VII. 179, etc.). So we have also _falt_ (VI. 345, etc.) and _fawt_ (III. 298); _realte_ and _reawte_, etc. Skeat holds that the _l_ in the first case represents but a way of writing the first _k_, so that the words should be _wakk_, etc., but this does not cover the second case.[182]

[182] S.T.S., I. lxxxix., and Glossary.

_m_ and _n_ are often interchanged, as in _confort_, _manteme_, etc.

_ng_ becomes _n_ before _th_ as _lenth_, _strenth_, etc. _Cf._ also Grammar. The nasal _ng_ may take the place of the liquid _n_, as in _ryng_ (I. 78, etc.) for “reign” (Fr. _regner_). The French nasal _nce_ is represented by _ng_ or _nch_--_e.g._, _Vallang_ (II. 201) or _Vallanch_ (V. 472) for “Valence.”

_r._ Metathesis of _r_ is very characteristic of the Northern dialect--_e.g._, _fryst_ (first), _brist_ (burst, A.S. _berstan_), _tursit_ (O.F. _trusser_), etc.

_s_ is changed to _sch_ in _schir_, _isch_ (issue), etc.; but on the other side we have _sall_, _suld_ (shall, should) and _Inglis_.

_z_ has in _Fiz_ the Anglo-French sound _ts_, as in _rats_.