"ON EARLY ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION, WITH ESPECIAL REFERENCE
TO SHAKSPERE AND CHAUCER."

BY

RICHARD FRANCIS WEYMOUTH, D.LIT., M.A.,

FELLOW OF UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, LONDON.

LONDON:

ASHER & CO., BEDFORD STREET, COVENT GARDEN.

A

PREFACE.

IT is now nearly four years since I first laid lance in rest
to tilt at Mr. Ellis's views-expounded in a work of already
996 closely printed pages 8vo., and still growing—by read-
ing before the Philological Society a paper in opposition
to them. How I waited year after year, hoping, in the
case of a book which cannot but have an exceedingly
limited sale, that the expense would be at least partly
borne by the Society of which I have been a member for
nearly a quarter of a century, and how the hope has proved
to be vain, boots not to tell. Suffice to say the delay has
enabled me to avail myself of the few and scanty intervals
of leisure that relieve an engrossing and harassing profes-
sion, to enlarge and to a great extent rewrite the paper,
though it still is far from being as complete as I could
wish. But I have no time to enlarge yet further, and must
therefore console myself with the reflection that at least in
some people's estimation a great book is a great evil, and
that an argument, if sound, is often none the worse for
being condensed.
R. F. W.

MILL HILL SCHOOL, MIDDLESex, N.W.
April, 1874.

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

I.

2.

3.

4.

Section

Introductory

Our starting point must be spoken, not written, language

Mr. Ellis's delusive maxim that "the orthography shows the

sound".

Orthoepists not to be too much relied on

Page

I

I

7.

In dealing with other languages Mr. Ellis unhesitatingly admits

the evidence of traditional pronunciation

6

8.

The separate dialects so many separate witnesses

6

9.

See for example the permanence of the characteristic peculiarities

of the Scottish dialect

No reason to believe that civil war has greatly changed our spoken

language

As to I (əi) words, Dutch and German confirm the evidence of

our own dialects: list of words

14. By aid of these words others may be determined

15. This positive evidence not to be flung aside the moment an objec-

The sound of (əi) sometimes written ei in English as well as in

German

17

22.

The English pronunciation of the Latin i defended by Lipsius

23. A ray of light from an old inscription in Æolic Greek

24. Conclusion, for the present, as to I words. (See below, § 109)

25. Fresh objections brought by Mr. J. A. H. Murray from the

Scottish mode of writing Celtic proper names

26. No such evidence derivable from Welsh