— 3—

We have made it our object to investigate the changes of the English vowels, reserving the task of entering into researches concerning the consonants for another time.

Previous to setting about the investigation of the state of vowels in the„Canterbury Tales“, the best work of Chaucer, this Homer of England, who— with the exception of Shakspeare— has not been reached by any other poet in the entire assemblage of his various powers, we give a list of the vowels used in the times, called the Anglo-Saxon and Old English period.

Chapter I.

§. 1. The pure-Anglo-Saxon period extends from the arrival of the German settlers in the middle of the fifth century up to the death of Canute and the settlement of the Normans, 1060; the Semi-Saxon period extends from the middle of the XIE to the middle of the XIIIE century.

The Old or Early English period embraces the reign of Edward I, of Edward II and of Edward III, a space of time of 105 years(1272— 1377).

Every language in existence has adopted foreign words and experienced changes of pronunciation. Though a language may, through commerce, conquest, a superior civilization and other causes, be almost overburthened with foreign terms, it clings with great tenacity to its own grammatical forms, and rejects, with obstinacy, those which are not of home- born growth; but the vowels and consonants suffer variations, since the pronunciation of foreign words is introduced, or partly modified by the very mixture with the native language. The groundwork of the English language was the Anglo-Saxon, and every foreign word has been obliged to conform to the genius of its grammar; but many Saxon forms dropt away not suiting the new roots; the genius of the language, from having to deal with the newly- imported words in a rude state, was induced to neglect the inflfexions of the native ones. The Anglo-Saxon had different dialects: the North-Anglian, the Frisian or South-Anglian, and the one of the midland parts. The same process of alterations in vowels and consonants made itself felt in the first centuries of its existence in England; one dialect exchanged forms with the other, e. g. we find„on loft“ which is the North-Anglian form, instead of„on lyft“(Anglo-Saxon), aloft(in modern English); blosm(Anglo-Saxon), bloem(Frisian or South- English), which means„to bloom.“

The chief dialect in which Alfred the Great(871— 901) published his„General Laws“, and after him the kings Edward(† 924), Aethelstan(f† 940,) Edmund(† 946), Edgar(† 975) and Aethelred(† 1016), was the South-English partly mixed up with the Midland-English (See„my History of the English language, p. 20 and 21*). Alfred's Proverbs, which are collections of moral institutions in versified form date, no doubt, from the 12 century and not from the time of Alfred. The best Anglo-Saxon author after Alfred is Alfric, archbishop of Canterbury, who died in 1006.

This great grammarian wrote, besides his eighty„Homilies“ and„Treatise on Trinity,“ a translation of the latin grammar by Donatus and Priscianus, together with a Glossarium

1*