to Russondale. Alterations of this class must be considered late, seeing that they have not affected the orthography. They are, therefore, not destined to endure, and in all such cases the old form of the word will be restored from the written language.

The peculiar vocabulary of the Cumbrian dialect cannot be of much longer duration. Even now the rising generation, as far as it has been to school, begins to be ashamed of it; and words many have become obsolete in the memory of persons living. There is no doubt that with a little more extension of education, the dialect will become one of the things of the past. Yet a considerable portion of the people will continue for some time, with respect to the dialect, bilingues. Many persons have daily occasion to speak of a 66 ladder" to one class of people, and of a stee to another. Thus the dialect begins to resemble Homer's language of the gods. At the same time there is to be lamented an unwillingness to communicate on the subject, and an anxiety as much as possible to avoid Cumbrianisms. In such cases an angry or earnest temper is most favourable for bringing out the dialect, and it is this that children are most disposed to obey. A country lady was sending out a boy and girl to exercise on the same pony, and ordered the former to "get up behind.” This arrangement seemed to be objectionable, for they left the gate, and two or three repetitions did not induce obedience. "Get on ahint" followed in a more peremptory tone, and produced immediate compliance.

CHAPTER IV.

THE GRAMMAR AND IDIOMATIC PHRASES.

We have as yet no means of forming an estimate of what the grammatical laws of a mixed people should be. It is certain they are not dependent on the state of the vocabulary. Foreign words may be imported into a language, without the introduction of a single grammatical rule, as French and Latin into English, Arabic into Persian. On the other hand, the tendency of a mixed people to alter its language, is nowhere more visible than in the grammar, the abrasion of the most perfect state of flexion being an inevitable consequence of absorption. Particles and position of words take upon them the work of grammar, and the little flexion remaining appears only as a slender auxiliary to these. Cumbrian has had its changes; the ancient laws by which it was successively governed became gradually obsolete, English rules obtained an ascendancy, and left nothing but a stray phrase or idiom to tell of its former

state.

Amongst the terminations in the names of places are some that could not be classed with the compounds in the glossaries. In, as in Newbiggin (D. bygning), the new building, Talkin, is a participial ending eq. E. ing. We have also the later form ing in Workington, Helsington, Killington, Harrington, though some cases of this kind may possibly contain D. eng, a meadow. The original form of this ending, it must be observed, was ig, and it has frequently been added without any appreciable change in the meaning. En and on frequently occur. They appear generally to be a plural termination, to the formation of which there is a marked tendency in the dialect,

as in Souden Fell (N. saudr, a sheep), Duddon, Marron, Knorren. The provincial welkin (G. wolken, the clouds) is a plural of this kind. It is probable we have also plurals in er, in the names Waver, Cocker, Allerby (D. ell, an alder), Askerton (D. ask, an ash), etc. The ending et remains to be mentioned, as in Hesket, Arthuret, Hackett, Fawcett (Forcett), etc. Sparkhead, near Ullswater, is popularly pronounced Sparket, and this throws light on some at least of the above names, most, if not all, being compositions or corruptions to which we have now no satisfactory clue.

The derivation of isolated words from the allied languages is attended with a difficulty which may be mentioned here. The E. knee (pr. nee) may be compared with N. hnie, and G. knie. From the latter, as well as from the etymology, we learn that the k of knee was once pronounced,-from the former that it was aspirated before it became mute. The comparison of the pronunciation and orthography of knee shows that the word passed through the Norse stage, but that it did so in England. We have a word of this kind amonst the names of places, namely, Knock, for which there is C. cnoc, or N. hnukr; but the same reasoning applies, and Knock must be Celtic, having passed through the Norse stage in Cumbria. Hnukr is clearly borrowed from the Celtic, the ending oc (og) being a Celtic diminutive, and the root probably cen (cean), the head. "Knuckle" is a double diminutive derived from knock.

The et of Dunmallet I supposed in my former essay on this subject to be the Danish neuter article, affixed to a foreign (Celtic) word that was not quite intelligible; but any other explanation must be more satisfactory, as this is the only example we have of the kind. On the subject of the article with proper names, Rask (Old Norse Grammar) says: "The article is not used in composition with proper names, unless it be that the word was originally a common appellative which by custom has been used as a proper name, e. g. Vik-in, the fjord at Christiana in Norway, Logr-inn, Lake Mälar; but Danir, the Danes," without an article. Very little consideration satisfies us of the truth of this; we can understand the bay, because it is the great bay, or the only bay of the district. The force of demonstratives has always been as it is now, notwithstanding that in modern times they are more frequently used. The supposed name L'Ulf, the wolf, from which Lyulph's tower is believed to take its name, could never have arisen as the name of a baron. We can understand the bay among bays, and the wolf among wolves, but not the wolf among men.

The Celtic cnoc, notwithstanding its orthography, retains the accent on the root, and is pronounced in two syllables cunnuc. By the removal of the accent, the root sound has been lost in E. knock, and know. Our dialect stands opposed to English in the latter word, which it has as ken. Very great discrepancies are, however, observable in accent: C. nae mair has retained the correct accent and form; G. nimmer (nie mehr) altered the accent and with it the form. Late Cumbrian has likewise altered the forms of word in consequence of accent: we find praps for perhaps, pode for uphold, mappen for may happen.

The most characteristic affix of modern Cumbrian is ment, though it cannot be supposed ever to have been intelligible: it forms a kind of collective, as dirtment, roughment, a heap of dirty or rough things, and a kind of abstract, as bitterment (bitterness), preachment. Generally speaking, it carries with it a feeling of contempt. Some appears also in frequent use: growsome (D. grue, to dread), grim, fewsome (see few, page 84), are examples. The ending y is still used to form diminutives, etc.; in sweeties its plural is equivalent to "things." Lin, once very common, is no longer current. We find it in gawrlin, from gawp (gorp), hawflin, from half, a half-witted person, kitlin, a kitten. Madlin, a person of bad memory, mafflin, mazelin, a simpleton, may contain either lin or in, according as they are to be derived from mad, maf, maze, or from maddle, maffle, mazle. The former is the more probable. Lin is G. ling, which is scarcely distinguishable in meaning from ing. We have at least one example of kin (G. chen), used for contempt, in maislikin, and under the euphonic law of the German, namely, following a liquid. Geslin (gosling), which has the root vowel modified, is still in use. Double, and apparently superfluous, derivations are common in Cumbrian, as they are in all languages. We have satisfise from satisfy, spelder (see page 75), churchwardner, from spell, churchwarden, and belder to bellow, from beel; and likewise many such words as attackded, drownded, which is simply a derivation from the participle, the same that modern languages have followed so extensively in making roots for themselves from Latin. Probably in this we have an explanation of the d in belder and spelder.

DERIVATION AND COMPOSITION.

95

There are a few peculiarities to be noticed here: fadge, E. fag, which contrasts with brig, E. bridge. Collership-hoos (Borrowdale Letter) certainly contains E. scholarship, which has lost its initial, and from this we may perhaps connect cowl, to scrape the street, with D. scovel, a shovel. Changes of this kind must by no means be regarded as corruptions.

The dialect still retains the power-which English has lost-of forming an unlimited number of compounds: stairfoot, townhead, instead of foot of the stairs, etc. The accentuation of these words demands some explanation. English laws would require the accent on the first syllable, the language regarding both parts as uninflected; the Cumbrian dialect, on the other hand seems to look on the first part of the compound as a genitive case,— for which it has no sign,—and consequently places the accent on the second syllable. Grammarians may object, that the words are then not real compounds, but practically, in my opinion, they are so. Amongst the compounds appear a few remarkable assonances: ham-sam, havey-scavey, hay-bay, kerley-merley.

The strong pluralising tendency is not to be overlooked, neither in the local etymology, nor in the modern dialect. We find it in names as old as Helvellyn, the mountains of the lake, but plurals of this character are difficult to trace. The plural ending er is probably the oldest Gothic form-Birker fell (D. birk, a birch)and as in German, was originally e, to which it assumed an r. This was followed by the plurals in en: Oxenholme (D. oxe). Older plurals, however, gave way to the modern English in s: the Scaws (D. skov, a wood), near Penrith, Ellers, Raynors. Most of the plurals thus used are, strictly speaking, unnecessary, and the linguistic purpose appears to be that of making the word indefinite. There are several similar instances of pluralising in the modern dialect: outs from ought-"Is there outs of folk?"—all wayses, wases me (woe is me). The pl. fuits, feets, is also in use.

In rejecting the sign of the genitive, the dialect has gone a step beyond the English abolition of cases: thus for Harry's pump we have the odd-looking expression, Harry pump. But like all other dialects, though it cast off the old endings, it has not scrupled