THE ENGLISH OF THE BIBLE

Shannon News, 6 July 1928, Page 1

THE ENGLISH OF THE BIBLE

AS SPOKEN OP TO-DAY. There is probably no district of England in which the dialects of bygone days survive more completely tlian in Devon .and Cornwall. Here can still be heard the language of Chaucer, of Shakespeare, and of the English Bible, (writes R. Dew in the Cornhill Magazine). Word? which compiler* of modern dictionaries declare to be archaic stil! find free expression in these .counties, for here is the old “vulgar tongue/’ just as our forefathers used it in the days that are past. Folk from the shores are often puz?lcd by the expressions which they hear when on a visit to Devon and Cornwall, seldom aware that what seems to be merely a local dialect is in truth lhe old English tongue which each generation has passed on to its successor. The observations of one who has lived for many years in a Cornish village close to the source of the Tamar may be recorded to illustrate this statement, which is interesting for ■ninny reasons. . A visitor to this district will notice that here we do not often speak of Heaving the gate open, we leave it “abroad.” He is puzzled, perhaps, and slightly amused. He uses the wqid “abroad/’ of course., in references to France or Italy , or .other foreign countries, but not in the sense of “wide apart/’ whieb is its old import. This use of the word is found, rwf course, in Chaucer, e.g., “Thyne .fHinys shalt thou sprede abrede’’ (( < ‘ < ;SQ&>aunt of the Rose,’’ 2563), (Ed. SSkoatv), rgnd m many places' in the English Bible. “Moses spread abroad Shis hands unto /the Lord ’ ’ (Ex. ix, 29). “The .eagle ..spreadeth abroad her. wings/'’ {'Dci\t. /sx/xjii, JLI). We are I apt, nerhaps, to forget fliftt -.we may hi? ve "mafj times joined dn singing of. the storm"whe/ “the clouds poured] out water, the air J tlnmdered, and Thine arrows went or . 4 ‘ righteous ’ ’ who * f shall a palm tree and spread abroad cedar in Libanus,” or of the “prom, who “spread a net abroad with cords” Fs. ixxvii, 17, xcii, 11, cxl, 5). Strike, in the sense of stroke, of moving the hand up and down .... is a common expression in the south-west .... This use of tho word * i strike, ’ ’ so common in Devon and Cornwall today, is found again in the English Bible in the account of the arrangements made by Moses for the ceremonies of the' Passover. The elders are to “strike the lintel and the two side posts with the blood’.’ of the paschal Lamb (Ex. xii, 22) Again, there is another word in with a meaning often found in the English Bible. “Tci* I hie” means very often nothing more than “singular” or “remarkable.” “I was terrified” does not always mean “I was surprised.” “Thy right band shall teach thee terrible things” (Ps. xiv, 4), is in the Vulgate: “Deducet to mirabiliter dextra tua.” To show that “terrible” and “wonderful” were at one time intercliangable terms, it is only necessary to remark that while in the English Bible ver sions of the Psalms God is spoken of as ‘ ‘ terrible in His doings totvardf the children of men,” the Pr.ayei Book version of the same passage runs: “How wonderful He is in His doings” (Ps. Ixv, 5). Again, of thi two versions of another Psalm (cxiv, 6), the former runs: “Men shall speak of the might of Thy terrible acts/’.which the Prayer Book version is: “Men shall speak of the might oi Thy marvellous acta.” When one has grasped this meaning of the word, the common local description of a heavy downpour of rain as a “ terrible show or” becomes intelligible. From time to time suggestions are made that it would be well to retranslate the Bible and the Liturgy “foi the benefit of rustic congregations” as the cant phrase runs, but probably “the rustic congregations” understand the old English Bible and Prayer Book better than many of these armchair critics suppose, and, indeed, probably better than the critics themselves Enough has been quoted to support the claim which is here made . that Tamarsidc dialect has a good history behind it, and in these days of slip-, shod speech and slang expressions- one might-do worse than employ the language of the good folk of Devon and Cornwall.