spread their Colonies round all the Coasts of _Asia Minor_, even to the _Northern_ Parts, lying towards the _Euxine_; in every Island of the _Aegean Sea_, and several others in the _Mediterranean_, where the Language was preserved entire for many Ages, after they themselves became Colonies to _Rome_, and till they were over−run by the barbarous Nations, upon the Fall of that Empire. The _Chinese_ have Books in their Language above two Thousand Years old, neither have the frequent Conquests (16) of the _Tartars_
been able to alter it. The _German, Spanish, and Italian_, have admitted few or no Changes for some Ages past. The other Languages of _Europe_ I know nothing of, neither is there any occasion to consider them.
HAVING taken this compass, I return to those Considerations upon our own Language, which I would humbly offer Your Lordship. The Period wherein the _English_ Tongue received most Improvement, I take to commence with the beginning of Queen _Elizabeth’s_ Reign, and to conclude with the Great Rebellion in Forty Two. ‘Tis true, there was a very ill Taste both of Style and Wit, which prevailed under King _James_
the First, but that seems to have been corrected in the first Years of his Successor, who among (17) many other qualifications of an excellent Prince, was a great Patron of Learning. From the Civil War to this present Time, I am apt to doubt whether the Corruptions in our Language have not at least equalled the Refinements of it; and these Corruptions very few of the best Authors of our Age have wholly escaped/ During the Usurpation, such and Infusion of Enthusiastick Jargon prevailed in every Writing, as was not shook off in many Years after. To this succeeded that Licentiousness which entered with the _Restoration_, and from infecting our Religion and Morals, fell to corrupt our Language; which last was not like to be much improved by those who at that Time made up the Court of King _Charles_ the Second; either such who had followed Him in His Banishment, or who had been (18) altogether conversant in the Dialect of those _Fanatick Times_; or young Men, who had been educated in the same Company; so that the _Court_, which used to be the Standard of Propriety and Correctness of Speech, was then, and, I think, hath ever since continued the worst School in _England_ for that Accomplishment; and so will remain, till better Care be taken in the Education of our your Nobility, that they may set out into the World with some Foundation of Literature, in order to qualify them for Patterns of Politeness. The Consequence of this Defect, upon our Language, may appear from Plays, and other Compositions, written for Entertainment with the Fifty Years past; filled with a Secession of affected Phrases, and new, conceited Words, either borrowed from the current (19) Style of the Court, or from those who, under the Character of Men of Wit and Pleasure, pretended to give the Law. Many of these Refinements have already been long antiquated, and are now hardly intelligible; which is no wonder, when they were the Product only of Ignorance and Caprice.
I HAVE never known this great Town without one or more _Dunces_ of Figure, who had Credit enough to give Rise to some new Word, and propagate it in most Conversations, though it had neither Humor, nor A Proposal for Correcting, Improving, and Ascertaining the English Tongue 3
A Proposal for Correcting, Improving, and Ascertaining the English Tongue Significancy. If it struck the present Taste, it was soon transferred into the Plays and current Scribbles of the Week, and became an Addition to our Language; while the Men of Wit and Learning, instead of early obviating such Corruptions, were too (20) often seduced to imitate and comply with them.
There is another Sett of Men who have contributed very must to the spoiling of the _English_ Tongue; I mean the Poets, from the Time of the Restoration. These Gentlemen, although they could not be insensible how much our Language was already overstocked with Monosyllables; yet, to same Time and Pains, introduced that barbarous Custom of abbreviating Words, to fit them to the Measure of their Verses; and this they have frequently done, so very injudiciously, as to form such harsh unharmonious Sounds, that none but a _Northern_ Ear could endure: They have joined the most obdurate Consonants without one intervening Vowel, only to shorten a Syllable: And their Taste in time became so (21) depraved, that what was a first a Poetical License not to be justified, they made their Choice, alledging, that the Words pronounced at length, sounded faint and languid. This was a Pretence to take up the same Custom in Prose; so that most of the Books we see now a−days, are full of those Manglings and Abbreviations. Instances of this Abuse are innumerable: What does Your Lordship think of the Words, _Drudg’d, Disturb’d, Rebuk’t, Fledg’d, and a thousand others, every where to be met in Prose as well as Verse? Where, by leaving out a Vowel to save a Syllable, we form so jarring a Sound, and so difficult to utter, that I have often wondred how it could ever obtain.
ANOTHER Cause (and perhaps borrowed from the former) which hath contributed not a little (22) to the maiming of our Language, is a foolish Opinion, advanced of late Years, that we ought to spell exactly as we speak; which beside the obvious Inconvenience of utterly destroying our Etymology, would be a thing we should never see an End of. Not only the several Towns and Countries of _England_, have a different way of Pronouncing, but even here in _London_, they clip their Words after one Manner about the Court, another in the City, and a third in the Suburbs; and in a few Years, it is probable, will all differ from themselves, as Fancy or Fashion shall direct: All which reduced to Writing would entirely confound Orthography. Yet many People are so fond of this Conceit, that is sometimes a difficult matter to read modern Books and Pamphlets, where the Words are so curtailed, and varied from their (23) original Spelling, that whoever hath been used to plain _English_, will hardly know them by sight.
SEVERAL young Men at the Universities, terribly possed with the fear of Pedantry, run into a worse Extream, and think all Politeness to consist in reading the daily Trash sent down to them from hence: This they call _knowing the World_, and _reading Men and Manners_. Thus furnished they come up to Town, reckon all their Errors for Accomplishments, borrow the newest Sett of Phrases, and if they take a Pen into their Hands, all the odd Words they have picked up in a Coffee−House, or a Gaming Ordinary, are produced as Flowers of Style; and the Orthography refined to the utmost. To this we owe those monstrous Productions, which under the Names of _Trips_, _Spies_, _Amusements_ (24), and other conceited Appellations, have over− run us for some Years past. To this we owe that strange Race of Wits, who tell us, they Write to the _Humour of the Age_: And I wish I could say, these quaint Fopperies were wholly absent from graver Subjects. In short, I would undertake to shew Your Lordship several Pieces, where the Beauties of this kind are so prominent, that with all your Skill in Languages, you could never be able either to read or understand them.
BUT I am very much mistaken, if many of these false Refinements among us, do not arise from a Principle which would quite destroy their Credit, if it were well understood and considered. For I am afraid, My Lord, that with all the real good Qualities of our Country, we are naturally not very Polite. (25) This perpetual Disposition to shorten our Words, by retrenching the Vowels, is nothing else but a tendency to lapse into the Barbarity of those _Northern_ Nations from whom we are descended, and whose Languages labour all under the same Defect. For it is worthy our Observation, that the _Spaniard_, the _French_, and the _Italians_, although derived from the same _Northern_ Ancestors with our selves, are, with the utmost Difficulty, taught to pronounce our Words, which the _Suedes_ and _Danes_, as well as the _Germans_ and the _Dutch_, attain A Proposal for Correcting, Improving, and Ascertaining the English Tongue 4
A Proposal for Correcting, Improving, and Ascertaining the English Tongue to with Ease, because our Syllables resemble theirs in the Roughness and Frequency of Consonants. Now, as we struggle with an ill Climate to improve the nobler kinds of Fruit, are at the Expence of Walls to receive and reverberated the faint Rays of the Sun, and fence against the _Northern_ (26) Blasts; we sometimes by the help of a good Soil equal the Production of warmer Countries, who have no need to be at so much Cost or Care. It is the same thing with respect to the politer Arts among us; and the same Defect of Heat which gives a Fierceness to our Natures, may contribute to that Roughness of our Language, which bears some Analogy to the harsh Fruit of colder Countries. For I do not reckon that we want a _Genius_ more than the rest of our Neighbours: But Your Lordship will be of my Opinion, that we ought to struggle with these natural Disadvantages as much as we can, and be careful whom we employ, whenever we design to correct them, which is a Work that has hitherto been assumed by the least qualified Hands. So that if the Choice had been left to me, I would rather have (27) trusted the Refinement of our Language, as far as it relates to Sound, to the Judgment of the Women, than of illiterate Court− Fops, half−witted Poets, and University−Boys. For, it is plain that Women in their manner of corrupting Words, do naturally discard the Consonants, as we do the Vowels. What I am going to tell Your Lordship, appears very trifling; that more than once, where some of both Sexes were in Company, I have persuaded two or three of each, to take a Pen, and write down a number of Letters joyned together, just as it came into their Heads, and upon reading this Gibberish we have found that which the Men had writ, by the frequent encountering of rough Consonants, to sound like _High Dutch_; and the other by the Women, like _Italian_, abounding in Vowels and Liquids. Now, though (28) I would by no means give Ladies the Trouble of advising us in the Reformation of our Language; yet I cannot help thinking, that since they have been left out of all Meetings, except Parties at Play, or where worse Designs are carried on, our Conversation hath very much degenerated.