Page:The Sources of Standard English.djvu/171

142

Many changes take place in words. Thus, holh (cavus), hœlfter, morgen, nihtegale, now become holeuh, halter, more&#x0293;eiing (morning), and ni&#x0293;tingale. The word sprenge (trap) is now first found, coming from the verb spring. There are a few Scandinavian words, such as amiss, cukeweald (cuckold), cogge (of a wheel), falt (falter), and shrew; the last comes from skraa (sloping). There are many words cropping up, akin to the Dutch and German, like clack, clench, clute (gleba), cremp (con&shy;trahere), hacch (parere), luring (torvo vultu), mesh, isliked (whence our sleek), stump, twinge, wippen; the last in its intransitive sense.

In page 27, we see the first use of a well-known adjective.

‘Mon deth mid strengthe and mid witte; That other thing nis non his fitte.’

That is, ‘it is no match for man.’ This is akin to the Dutch vitten (convenire).

THE EAST MIDLAND DIALECT.

(About A.D. 1260.)

I now give the Lord's Prayer, Hail Mary, and Belief, from a manuscript written in the middle of the Thir&shy;teenth Century, and printed in the Reliquiæ Antiquæ, I. 22. This must have been used in the Northern part of Mercia, perhaps in Orrmin's shire, for the a is not yet replaced by o, as in East Anglia. We also find such Northern forms as til, until, fra, als, alwandand,