Persian. Azure, balcony, barbican, bashaw, bazaar, check-mate, chess, dervise, emerald, hookah, howdah, indigo, jackall, jasmin, kaffir, lilac, musk, orange, pasha, pawn (in chess), saraband, scimitar, sepoy, shawl, sherbet, simoom, taffeta, tiffin, turban.

Hindustani. Banian, batta, betel, buggy, bungalow, calico, coolie, cowrie, dimity, jungle, lac, loot, mullagatawny, muslin, pagoda, palanquin, pariah, punch, pundit, rajah, rupee, sandal (wood), sugar, suttee, toddy.

Malay. A-muck, bamboo, bantam, caddy, caoutchouc, chintz, cockatoo, creese, curry, gamboge, godown, gong, gutta-percha, junk, mango, orang-outang, rattan, sago.

Chinese. Bohea, congou, hyson, nankeen, pekoe, satin, soy, tea. Turkish. Bey, chibouk, chouse, janisary, kiosk, sash, tulip, seraglio.

American. Cacique, calumet, condor, lama, maize, moccasin, pampas, pemmican, potato, squaw, wigwam, tobacco, tomahawk, tomata.

Polynesian. Tattoo, taboo, kangaroo.

Italian. Balustrade, bravado, bravo, bust, canto, caricature, carnival, charletan, cupola, ditto, dilettanti, farrago, folio, gazette, gondola, grotto, harlequin, improvisatore, influenza, lava, manifesto, motto, opera, pantaloon, piazza, portico, regatta, scaramouch, sketch, soprano, stanza, stiletto, stucco, studio, tenor, terra-cotta, tornado, torso, umbrella, virtuoso, vista, volcano, zany.

Spanish. Alligator, armada, armadillo, barricade, cambist, carbonado, cargo, chocolate, cigar, creole, desperado, don, duenna, embargo, flotilla, gala, grandee, grenade, jennet, mosquito, mulatto, negro, olio, paroquet, platina, poncho, punctilio, savannah, sherry, tornado, verandah.

Portuguese. Ayah, cash, caste, cocoa, commodore, compound, fetish, mandarin, palaver.

French. Beau, belle, belles-lettres, billet-doux, bon-mot, bouquet, déjeûner, dépôt, éclat, ennui, penchant, soirée, trousseau. Dutch. Block, boom, boor, bow-sprit, reef (v.), schooner, skates, sloop, smuggle, spoor, stiver, tafferel, veer, wear (ship), yacht. 24. Words introduced in the earlier stages of the language are usually much altered in form, as bishop, from episcopus. At a later period, the terminations only are modified, as episcopal, from episcopalis. Compare sure and secure, fealty and fidelity, hotel and hospital, pursue and persecute, blame and blaspheme. The earlier and more corrupt forms have usually been transmitted through the Norman-French. In

modern times, the ending of a new word is sometimes changed to adapt it to the current forms, as telegram, bivalve, detective; and sometimes the word retains its original form, as terminus, basis, diorama.

25. The meaning of a word frequently differs at different periods in the history of the language. The following words have the Old English meaning subjoined:

26. The pronouns, numerals, prepositions, conjunctions and auxiliary verbs-"the names of the elements and their changes, of the seasons, the heavenly bodies, the divisions of time, the features of natural scenery, the organs of the body, the modes of bodily action and posture, the commonest animals-the words used in earliest childhoodthe ordinary terms of traffic-the constituent words in proverbs-the designations of kindred-the simpler emotions of the mind-terms of pleasantry, satire, contempt, indignation, invective and anger, are for the most part AngloSaxon."* Words indicating a more advanced civilisation and complex feelings, and most of the terms employed in art, science, mental and moral philosophy, are Classical.

27. The number of words in the English language is probably about 80,000. By actual enumeration of those contained in the best dictionaries it has been ascertained that 13,330 Saxon words and 29,354 of Classical origin are now registered. In consequence, however, of the popular nature of the Teutonic words in the language, the Saxon element largely preponderates in the works of our greatest writers.‡

* Edinb. Review, April, 1859.

+ Max Müller's Lectures, p. 75.

For some careful and instructive details on this subject, see Marsh's Lectures (Lec. VI.)

28. English is now spoken by about seventy millions of people. It is the general language of Great Britain and Ireland, the United States and British America, Australia, Van Diemen's Land, New Zealand and South Africa. It is spoken in certain portions of the West Indies, and partially in India.

29. As the changes by which modern English has grown out of the old Anglian tongue were gradual in their development, it is impossible accurately to define the successive stages of the language. For convenience in treating the history of English literature the following artificial arrangement has been proposed :

1. A.D. 550-1150 Anglian or Anglo-Saxon.

1150-1250 Semi-Anglian or Semi-Saxon.
1250-1550 Old English.

2.

3.

PART II.

LETTERS.

30. LETTERS were once pictures of various objects, but are now used as symbols to represent sounds.

A collection of the symbols employed in any language is called an Alphabet. The word is derived from alpha, beta, the Greek names for the first two letters.

31. These sounds are produced by air issuing from the lungs, and modified in its passage through the throat and mouth by the Organs of speech.

The Organs of speech are, (1) the throat (guttur), (2) the palate (palatum), (3) the tongue (lingua), (4) the teeth (dentes), (5) the lips (labia), (6) the nose (nasus).

Hence letters have been classed as gutturals, palatals, linguals, dentals, labials, and nasals.

32. The modifications of sound are infinite, and no language, therefore, can possess a separate symbol to represent each separate sound.

In the English language there are twenty-six letters, viz. a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, j, k, l, m, n, o, p, q, r, s, t, u, v, w, x, y, z.

These letters are divided into vowels and consonants.

33. Vowels.-A vowel is the continuous sound produced when the organs of speech are retained in such a position as not to interrupt the air issuing from the lungs, as a, e, o. It is capable of forming a syllable or a word without the assistance of other letters: a man, amend.

34. The vowels, as arranged in the English alphabet, are a, e, i, o, u, but the natural order in which they are produced is i, e, a, o, u, pronounced ee, ay, ah, oh, oo.

Of these vowels, i and e are frequently called weak; a, o, u strong.

35. Owing to the imperfect nature of the English alphabet, several vowel-sounds frequently occurring in the language are not represented by separate symbols.

Simple vowel sounds and their equivalents.

1. sit-Cyril, busy, women, cabbage, pretty, surfeit, guilt, sieve, breeches, carriage, valley, yonder.

2. set-any, bury, bread, guest, leopard, connoisseur, friend, heifer, said, says, michaelmas.

3. mete-marine, meet, meat, brief, people, ceiling, æther, phœnix,
key, quay.

4. male-maid, may, weigh, great, gauge, gaol, they, demesne.
5. marry-guarantee, plaid.

6. Mary-pair, heir, bear, there.

7. mar-aunt, guard, heart, ah, clerk.

8. not-what, laurel, knowledge.

9. note-boat, toe, yeoman, soul, sow, sew, hautboy, beau, owe, floor. 10. north--call, fraud, broad, fought, awe, bawl, George.

11. bud-love, berth, birth, does, rough, flood, myrrh, surgeon, earth, fashion, porpoise, waistcoat, huntsman.

12. bull-wolf, good, could, construe.

13. rude-move, rood, blew, true, fruit, through, shoe, galleon, two, manœuvre, win.

From this table we may appreciate the imperfection of our alphabet and of our system of orthography. Thirteen vowel sounds are represented by five symbols, and the same thirteen sounds are expressed by one hundred expedients in the written language.

36. The letters y and w, which have been called Semivowels, are simply superfluous letters in the alphabet-expedients in the written language for expressing the sounds of i in sit and u in bull: e.g. yonion, million = mill-yon, span-iel = span-yel; and win = uin, suasive = swasive.