An Outline of English Speech-craft

Sundriness in Rank.

By rank-word, as first, fifth, tenth, last.

An, a, the so-called indefinite article, is simply the tale mark-word an, one.

We use a before a consonant, and an before a vowel, as a man, an awl. But it is not that we have put on the n to a against the yawning, but it is that the n has been worn off from an.

The Frieses and Holsteiners now say ien man and en mann.

The mark-word an, a is of use to offmark a common one-head name, as ‘I have been to a white church’ (common); or, without the mark-word, ‘I have been to Whitechurch’ (one-head), the name of a village so called. ‘He lives by a pool’; ‘he lives by Pool’ (a town in Dorset). ‘He works in a broad mead’; ‘he works in Broadmead’ (in Bristol).

As the Welsh has no such mark-word, it might be thought that it cannot give these two sundry meanings; and the way in which it can offmark them shows how idle it is to try one tongue only by another, or to talk of the unmeaningness or uselessness of the Welsh word moulding.

Llan-Tydno would mean a church of Tydno, but the parish called ‘The Church of Tydno’ is in Welsh Llandydno, which, as a welding of two words, hints to the Welsh mind that Llandydno is a proper name, and so that of a parish.

Hoel da would mean a good Hoel; but to Hoel, the good king, the Welsh gives as a welded proper name Hoel dda; and to Julius Cæsar the Welsh gives, as one welded proper name, Iolo-voel, Julius-bald, whereas Iolo-moel would mean some bald Julius.

One sundriness of tale, the marking of things under speech – as onely (singular) or somely (plural) – is by an onputting to the thing-name for someliness a mark-ending, or by a moulding of the name into another shape or sound.

By mark-endings, -es, -s, -en, -n.

By for-moulding, as foot, feet—tooth, teeth; or by both word-moulding or sound-moulding and an ending, as brother, brethren.

When the singular shape ends in -sh, -ss, or -x, -ks, it takes on -es for the somely, as lash, lashes; kiss, kisses; box, boxes.

And surely, when the singular shape ends in -st, our Universities or some high school of speech ought to give us leave to make it somely by the old ending -en or -es instead of -s—fist, fisten, fistes; nest, nesten, nestes.

What in the world of speech can be harsher than fists, lists, nests?

It is unhappy that the old ending in -en, which is yet the main one in West Friesic, should have given way to the hissing s.

Where common names with the definite mark-word become names of places they are wont to lose the article, as The Bath, in Somerset, is now Bath; The Wells, in Somerset, Wells; Sevenoaks, not The Seven Oaks, in Kent.

In our version of Acts xxvii. 8, we have a place which is called The Fair Havens, instead of Fairhavens without the mark-word, as the Greek gives the name.

Other thing mark-words offmark all of the things of a name or set from others of another name or set.

All birds, or all the birds in the wood; or all taken singly, as each or every bird; or somely, as set or share; some few or a few; many or a many birds.

Another or others beyond one or some under speech.

Any one or more of a some, either apple or any apples.

Both, for the two without others; or

Much or little grass.

Many mark-words were at first thing-names.

Many was a menge, a main or upmingled set; and a great many men would mean a great set or gathering of men.

Few was feo, which seems to have meant at first a cluster or herd; and a few men was a few (cluster) of men.

Some was a sam or som, a set or upmingled mass; and some men was a sam or som of men.

Now if the speech is about the set, it may be onely, as ‘There is a great many,’ ‘there is a small few,’ or ‘a few’; but if the speech is about the bemarked things, the mark-word may well be somely – ‘many men are’; ‘few men are’; ‘some men are.’

In the queer wording, ‘many a man,’ ‘many a flow’r is born to blush unseen,’ it is not at all likely that a is the article. It is rather a worn shape, like a in a-mong (an-menge), or a-hunting (an-huntunge), of the Saxon case-word an or on, meaning in; and it is not unlikely that man has, by the mistaking of a for an article, taken the stead of men– ‘an maeng an men,’ a many or mass in men; as we say ‘a herd in sheep,’ ‘a horde in gold.’ So far as this is true the mark-word may be somely – ‘many a man or men,’ ‘a main in men are.’

None (Saxon na-an, no one) should have a singular verb – ‘None is (not are) always happy.’

Some mark-words are for a clear outmarking (as single or somely) of things outshown from among others.

Outshowing Mark-words.

The so-called definite article the is a mark-word of the same kind as this, that, these, and those.

The word the in ‘the more the merrier’ is not the article the– to a name-word. It is an old Saxon outshowing mark-word meaning with that (mid þy). ‘The more the merrier’; þy (with that measure), they are more; þy (with that measure), they are merrier.

In the wording ‘the man who’ or ‘the bird which was in the garden,’ who and which are not the names, but are tokens or mark-words of the things —who of the man, and which of the bird.

A thing may be marked by many mark-words, as ‘the (never to be forgotten) day,’ ‘the (having to me shown so many kindnesses) man is yet alive.’

A long string of mark-words may, however, be found awkward, and so we may take a name-token who for the man, and, instead of the words ‘having to me shown so many kindnesses,’ say, ‘who showed me so many kindnesses.’

Who or that is the name-token for menkind, and which or that for beings of lower life or of no life, as ‘the man who’ or ‘the bird or flower which was in the garden.’

Who and which are used in the asking of questions – ‘Who is he?’ ‘What is that?’

The name-token should follow close on the forename for the sake of clearness. ‘Alfred sold, for a shilling, the bat which William gave him,’ not ‘Alfred sold the bat for a shilling which William gave him,’ if it was the bat that was given to him by William.

These mark-words take the stead of thing-names, and are Name-stead words, and clear the speech of repetitions of the names. The baby may say ‘Baby wants the doll,’ but at length learns to say ‘I want the doll’; or ‘Papa, take baby,’ and afterwards ‘You take me’; or ‘Give baby the whip– the whip is baby’s,’ for ‘It is mine.’

A man may be beholden to the speech in three ways: —

(1) He may be the speaker, called the First Person;

(2) He may be spoken to, the Second Person (the to-spoken thing);

(3) He may be spoken of, the Third Person (the of-spoken thing);

Here the sex is marked.

It is sometimes put for an unforeset thing-name of an unbodily cause or might, as ‘it rains’; ‘it freezes.’

For a child or an animal of unknown sex we may take the neuter (or sexless) mark-word it. ‘It (the child) cries.’

SUCHNESS OR QUALITIES,