For the contrary contention, namely, that homophones do _not_
destroy themselves, there is prima facie evidence in the long list of
survivors, and in the fact that a vast number of words which have not
this disadvantage are equally gone out of use.
[Sidenote: Causes of obsolescence.]
Words fall out of use for other reasons than homophony, therefore one
cannot in any one case assume that ambiguity of meaning was the active
cause: indeed the mere familiarity of the sound might prolong a word's
life; and homophones are themselves frequently made just in this way,
for uneducated speakers will more readily adapt a familiar sound to a
new meaning (as when my gardener called his Pomeranian dog a Panorama)
than take the trouble to observe and preserve the differentiation of a
new sound. There is no rule except that any loss of distinction may be
a first step towards total loss.[13]
[Footnote 13: To give an example of this. In old Greek _we_ and _you_
were [Greek: aemeis] and [Greek: umeis]: and those words became
absolutely homophonous, so that one of them had to go. The first
person naturally held on to its private property, and it invented
_sets_ for outsiders. Now the first step towards this absurdest of
all homophonies, the identity of _meum_ and _tuum_, was no doubt the
modification of the true full _u_ to _ii_. The ultimate convenience
of the result may in itself be applauded; but it is inconceivable
that modern Greek should ever compensate itself for its inevitable
estrangement from its ancient glories.]
It is probable that the working machinery of an average man's brain
sets a practical limit to his convenient workable vocabulary; that is
to say, a man who can easily command the spontaneous use of a certain
number of words cannot much increase it without effort. If that is
so, then, as he learns new words, there will be a tendency, if not a
necessity, for him to lose hold of a corresponding number of his old
words; and the words that will first drop out will be those with which
he had hitherto been uncomfortable; and among those words will be the
words of ambiguous meaning.
[Sidenote: No direct proof]
It is plain that only general considerations can be of value, unless
there should be very special evidence in any special case; and thus
the caution of Dr. Henry Bradley's remarks in note on page 19.
I remember how I first came to recognize this law; it was from hearing
a friend advocating the freer use of certain old words which, though
they were called obsolete and are now rarely heard, yet survive in
local dialects. I was surprised to find how many of them were unfit
for resuscitation because of their homophonic ambiguity, and when
I spoke of my discovery to a philological friend, I found that he
regarded it as a familiar and unquestioned rule.
But to prove this rule is difficult; and as it is an impossible task
to collect all the obsolete words and classify them, I am proposing to
take two independent indications; first to separate out the homophones
from the other obsolete words in a Shakespearian glossary, and
secondly, to put together a few words that seem to be actually going
out of use in the present day, that is, strictly obsolescent words
caught in the act of flitting.
[Sidenote: Obsolescence defined.]
Obsolescence in this connexion must be understood only of common
educated speech, that is, the average speaker's vocabulary.
Obsolescent words are old words which, when heard in talk, will sound
literary or unusual: in literature they can seem at home, and will
often give freshness without affectation; indeed, any word that has an
honourable place in Shakespeare or the Bible can never quite die, and
may perhaps some day recover its old vitality.
[Sidenote: Evidence of obsolescence.]
The best evidence of the obsolescence of any word is that it should
still be frequently heard in some proverb or phrase, but never out
of it. The homophonic condition is like that of _aural_ and _oral_,
of which it is impossible to make practical use.[14] We speak of an
_aural surgeon_ and of _oral teaching_, but out of such combinations
the words have no sense. It happens that oral teaching must be aural
on the pupil's side, but that only adds to the confusion.
[Footnote 14: The words _aural_ and _oral_ are distinguished in
the pronunciation of the North Midlands and in Scotland, and the
difference between the first syllables is shown in the Oxford
dictionary. In Southern English no trace of differentiation remains.]
In deciding whether any obsolete homophone has been lost by its
homophony, I should make much of the consideration whether the word
had supplied a real need, by naming a conception that no other word
so fitly represented; hence its survival in a proverb is of special
value, because the words of proverbs are both apt and popular; so that
for the disuse of such a word there would seem to be no other cause so
likely and sufficient as damage to its signification.
The glossary is relied on to contain, besides its other items, all
the obsolete words: the homophones separated out from these will show
various grades of obsolescence, and very different values as examples
bearing on the question at issue.
_Table of homophones taken from among the obsolete words in Cunliffe's
'A New Shakespearean Dictionary,' Blackie_, 1910.]
ANCIENT: replaced by ensign.
BATE = remit.
BECK = a bow of the head: preserved in 'becks and nods',
mutual loss with beck = rivulet.
BOOT = to profit: Sh. puns on it, showing that its absurdity
was recognized.
BOTTLE (of hay): preserved in proverb.
BOURNE = streamlet: preserved in sense of limit by the line of
Sh. which perhaps destroyed it.
BREEZE = gadfly.
BRIEF (_subs._): now only as a lawyer's brief.
BROOK (_verb_).
BUCK = to steep (linen) in lye.
COTE: as in sheepcote.
DOLE = portion, and dole = sorrow: probably active mutual
destruction; we still retain 'to dole out'.