Page:Language and the Study of Language.djvu/94

72 regions in that age of discovery, yet men learned by degrees to employ it as the proper title of this particular island. At first, doubtless, they pronounced it distinctly, new-found land; but no sooner had the words fully acquired the character of a specific name for a single thing, than they began to receive the stamp of formal unity, by the accentuation of one of the three syllables, and the subordination of the rest, in quantity and distinctness of tone. There was, to be sure, a difficulty about deciding which of three constituents of so nearly equal value should receive the principal stress of voice, and our practice varies even now between Newfoúndland and Néwfoŭndland, while we occasionally even hear Newfoŭndlánd: but good usage will finally decide in favour of one of these modes, and will reject the others. How little is the primary meaning of the compound present to the minds of those who utter it! And when, transferring the name of the island to one of its most noted products, we speak of some one as "the fortunate owner of a fine Newfoundland," how little we realize that, in terms, we are asserting his lordship over a recently discovered territory!

The two words which we have instanced have suffered no modification, or only a very slight one, of their original form since they were put together out of separate elements. But it is clear enough that this readiness to forget the etymological meaning of a word in favour of its derivative application, to sink its native condition in its official character, prepares the way for mutilation and mutation. We have put together, to form the title of a certain petty naval officer, the two words boat and swain, and we know what the word means, and why: the sailors, too, know what, but the why is a matter of indifference to them; they have no leisure for a full pronunciation of such cumbrous compounds as bōatswāin; they cut it down to bos'n; and it is a chance if a single one among them who has not learned to read and write can tell you how he of the whistle comes by such a title. So also, the mariner calls to'gal'nts'ls what we land-lubbers know by the more etymologically correct, but more lumbering, name of topgallantsails. And these are but typical examples of what has been the history of language from the