ll
sounded in Ger. _Knabe_, boy. French gets over the difficulty by
inserting a vowel between the two consonants, e.g., _canif_ is a
Germanic word cognate with Eng. _knife_. This is a common device in
French when a word of Germanic origin begins with two consonants. _Cf._
Fr. _derive_, drift, Eng. _drive_; Fr. _varech_, sea-weed, Eng. _wrack_.
_Harangue_, formerly _harengue_, is Old High Ger. _hring_, Eng. _ring_,
the allusion being to the circle formed by the audience. Fr. _chenapan_,
rogue, is Ger. _Schnapphahn_, robber, lit. fowl-stealer. The _shallop_
that "flitteth silken-sail'd, skimming down to Camelot," is Fr.
_chaloupe_, probably identical with Du. _sloep_, sloop.

The general dislike that French has for a double consonant sound at the
beginning of a word appears also in the transformation of all Latin
words which began with _sc_, _sp_, _st_, e.g., _scola_ > _escole_
(_ecole_), _spongia_ > _esponge_ (_eponge_), _stabulum_ > _estable_
(_etable_). English words derived from French generally show the older
form, but without the initial vowel, _school_, _sponge_, _stable_.

The above are very simple examples of sound change. There are certain
less regular changes, which appear to work in a more arbitrary fashion
and bring about more picturesque results. Three of the most important of
these are assimilation, dissimilation, and metathesis.

Assimilation is the tendency of a sound to imitate its neighbour. The
tree called the _lime_ was formerly the _line_, and earlier still the
_lind_. We see the older form in _linden_ and in such place-names as
_Lyndhurst_, lime wood. _Line_ often occurred in such compounds as
_line-bark_, _line-bast_, _line-wood_, where the second component began
with a lip consonant. The _n_ became also a lip consonant because it was
easier to pronounce, and by the 17th century we generally find _lime_
instead of _line_. We have a similar change in _Lombard_ for Ger.
_lang-bart_, long-beard, or, according to some, long-axe. For
_Liverpool_ we find also _Litherpool_ in early records. If the reader
attempts to pronounce both names rapidly, he will be able to form his
own opinion as to whether it is more natural for _Liverpool_ to become
_Litherpool_ or _vice-versa_, a vexed question with philologists. Fr.
_velin_, a derivative of Old Fr. _veel_ (_veau_), calf, and _venin_,
Lat. _venenum_, have given Eng. _vellum_ and _venom_, the final
consonant being in each case assimilated[43] to the initial la