52. +Difference of English Dialects.+-- Another source of doublets is to be found in the dialects of the English language. Almost every county in England has its own dialect; but three main dialects stand out with great prominence in our older literature, and these are the +Northern+, the +Midland+, and the +Southern+. The grammar of these dialects[13] was different; their pronunciation of words was different-- and this has given rise to a splitting of one word into two. In the North, we find a hard +c+, as in the _caster_ of +Lancaster+; in the Midlands, a soft +c+, as in +Leicester+; in the South, a +ch+, as in +Winchester+. We shall find similar differences of hardness and softness in ordinary words. Thus we find +kirk+ and +church+; +canker+ and +cancer+; +canal+ and +channel+; +deck+ and +thatch+; +drill+ and +thrill+; +fan+ and +van+ (in a winnowing-machine); +fitch+ and +vetch+; +hale+ and +whole+; +mash+ and +mess+; +naught+, +nought+, and +not+; +pike+, +peak+, and +beak+; +poke+ and +pouch+; +quid+ (a piece of tobacco for chewing) and +cud+ (which means the thing _chewed_); +reave+ and +rob+; +ridge+ and +rig+; +scabby+ and +shabby+; +scar+ and +share+; +screech+ and +shriek+; +shirt+ and +skirt+; +shuffle+ and +scuffle+; +spray+ and +sprig+; +wain+ and +waggon+-- and other pairs. All of these are but different modes of pronouncing the same word in different parts of England; but the genius of the language has taken advantage of these different +ways of pronouncing+ to make different +words+ out of them, and to give them different functions, meanings, and uses. [Footnote 13: See p. 242.] CHAPTER III. HISTORY OF THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH. 1. +The Oldest English Synthetic.+-- The oldest English, or Anglo-Saxon, that was brought over here in the fifth century, was a language that showed the relations of words to each other by adding different endings to words, or by +synthesis+. These endings are called +inflexions+. Latin and Greek are highly inflected languages; French and German have many more inflexions than modern English; and ancient English (or Anglo-Saxon) also possessed a large number of inflexions. 2. +Modern English Analytic.+-- When, instead of inflexions, a language employs small particles-- such as prepositions, auxiliary verbs, and suchlike words-- to express the relations of words to each other, such a language is called +analytic+ or +non-inflexional+. When we say, as we used to say in the oldest English, “God is ealra cyninga cyning,” we speak a synthetic language. But when we say, “God is king _of_ all kings,” then we employ an analytic or uninflected language. 3. +Short View of the History of English Grammar.+-- From the time when the English language came over to this island, it has grown steadily in the number of its words. On the other hand, it has lost just as steadily in the number of its inflexions. Put in a broad and somewhat rough fashion, it may be said that--