It will be observed that this sonnet consists entirely of monosyllables, and yet that the style of it shows considerable power and vigour. The words printed in italics are all derived from Latin, with the exception of the word _phrase_, which is Greek. 11. +Change in the Order of Words.+-- The syntax-- or order of words-- of the oldest English was very different from that of Norman-French. The syntax of an Old English sentence was clumsy and involved; it kept the attention long on the strain; it was rumbling, rambling, and unpleasant to the ear. It kept the attention on the strain, because the verb in a subordinate clause was held back, and not revealed till we had come to the end of the clause. Thus the Anglo-Saxon wrote (though in different form and spelling)-- “When Darius saw, that he overcome be would.” The newer English, under French influence, wrote-- “When Darius saw that he was going to be overcome.” This change has made an English sentence lighter and more easy to understand, for the reader or hearer is not kept waiting for the verb; but each word comes just when it is expected, and therefore in its “natural” place. The Old English sentence-- which is very like the German sentence of the present day-- has been compared to a heavy cart without springs, while the newer English sentence is like a modern well-hung English carriage. Norman-French, then, gave us a brighter, lighter, freer rhythm, and therefore a sentence more easy to understand and to employ, more supple, and better adapted to everyday use. 12. +The Expulsion of Gutturals.+-- (i) Not only did the Normans help us to an easier and pleasanter kind of sentence, they aided us in getting rid of the numerous throat-sounds that infested our language. It is a remarkable fact that there is not now in the French language a single guttural. There is not an +h+ in the whole language. The French _write_ an +h+ in several of their words, but they never sound it. Its use is merely to serve as a fence between two vowels-- to keep two vowels separate, as in _la haine_, hatred. No doubt the Normans could utter throat-sounds well enough when they dwelt in Scandinavia; but, after they had lived in France for several generations, they acquired a great dislike to all such sounds. No doubt, too, many, from long disuse, were unable to give utterance to a guttural. This dislike they communicated to the English; and hence, in the present day, there are many people-- especially in the south of England-- who cannot sound a guttural at all. The muscles in the throat that help to produce these sounds have become atrophied-- have lost their power for want of practice. The purely English part of the population, for many centuries after the Norman invasion, could sound gutturals quite easily-- just as the Scotch and the Germans do now; but it gradually became the fashion in England to leave them out.