UNKNOWN

Mataura Ensign, 21 May 1910, Page 2

UNKNOWN

3 fES OF ENCLfSH. CRESTING STUDY. 1 , k * :rh;i,)s only natural, writes Mr Ha -.v. ",!.. i;askell, that a language made up of so many heterogenous elemc i ■■:. u;;- own should abound in ouriosidos not to be found in the language whose development was little influenced by outside sources, or in a scientifically constructed tongue like Esperanto or Volapuk. Certain it is that a knowledge of these curiosities brings with it something of fascination and serves to endear to us. sur curious old language. Noticeable is "the fact that words which rhyme perfectly may have altogether different terminations, as the words "gneiss" and "mice,"' send that words which terminate similarly not infrequently fail to rhyme, as in the case of "brides" and "cantharides."

In "suspicion," "remission," and "contrition" we have three words in which the final "ion" is preceded in each case By a different consonant-; but, as the T and C both take the sound of •S, these words all rhyme perfectly, iFurther investigation reveals* the interesting fact that, whereas there is a great variety of words ending in "tion" and "sion," only five bear the termination "cion." These five are "scion," "coercion," "suspicion,"' "cpihicion,'"

and "internecion." "Epinicion," meaning a song of victory, and "internecion," meaning slaughter,, are not in common use, but the other three words are familiar to all. It is perhaps worthy of remark that of words bearing the phonetically similar ending

"tion" there are over one hundred examples. The termination "dous" is, however, even more exclusive than "cion," ivs it is borne by just four English words. These are "stupendous," "tremendous," "hazardous," and "horrendous." Curiously, all the words in this latter group are adjectives, while the former group is composed entirely of nouns.

It seems somewhat strange to speak of beheading a word of one syllable and leaving a word of two syllables; but there are several monosyllables that admit of this possibility. If we behead either "caged," "raged," or "waged," used as monosyllables, we have the word "aged," which, when used as an adjective, is pronounced with two syllables. "Staged," twice beheaded, leaves the same result. Better yet, behead "vague" or "Hague," or twice 'behead "plague," and we have "ague," which admits of only bisyllabic pronunciation. Likewise "shrugged"' twice beheaded leaves the different word "rugged."

There are over thirteen hundred words in onr language ending with the long E sound, such as "tree," etc.; but even this remarkable showing is eclipsed by words ending in "ess," as there are fourteen hundred of these. From the citation of these two 'cases it might be inferred -that the poet has a sinecure to select a rhyme for any word he chooses to employ; but such is not the case. Exclusive of the ordinal numerals, most of which are unrhymable, there are more than sixty words that have no rhyme. Well-known examples of these include .such words as "gulf," "mouth," "orange," "scarce," "silver," "window," "warmth," "spoilt,"' and "wasp."

It is perhaps not generally known that there is a verse in the Bible that contains all but one oi' the letters of the alphabet. This, however, is a fact, as in the twenty-first verse of the

-iv. -j.apior o. >b are found all the •rs but J. i lis is, of course, pur . coincidi.M<- 'or, as the versa contains forty-three letters, it would be u,,.,orthy of note if done by design. While our language doe» ftot contain such long words as are found in some other tongues, nor so many words of unii -ua, ioagth. we have several that are awkwardly long for conversation purposes. We have "philoprogartiveness," with twenty letters; '■Jiiteivontrovertibilities," with twentyone; "intercommunioabilities," with twenty-two; "disproportionablenesses," with twenty-three; and "transubstantmtionalists" and "contradistinguishability, each containing twenty-four letters. Hut how insignificant are all these compared with the Dutch "Albasserdammerlandarcnopsteckersvorgaderm kykaal!" An effective little word is J "synacategorcmatie," as it manages to compress eight syllables into seventeen letters.