II. Relation of English to the Teutonic Group.

ENGLISH IS A TEUTONIC LANGUAGE, AND BELONGS TO THE LOW-GERMAN DIALECTS.

6. The Teutonic group is that with which we are more nearly connected, English being one of its most important members.

There are three great divisions of the Teutonic people; (1) Low-German, (2) Scandinavian, (3) High-German.

The Low-Germans formerly lived near the lowlying lands, by the mouths of the rivers Rhine, Weser, and Elbe.

The Scandinavians, probably an off-shoot from the Low-Germans, settled in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and at a later period in Iceland.

The High-Germans lived inland, in the highlands south of Germany (Bavaria, &c.)

7. The word Dutch, now only applied to the people of Holland, formerly denoted all Germanspeaking people. The Germans still call themselves Deutsche, and their language Deutsch.

8. The word Dutch is an adjective signifying national,' and was the name by which the old Teutons called themselves in contradistinction to other people, whose language they were unable to understand. They styled themselves the (intelligible)

1 Cp. O.H. Ger. diot, O.E. theod people; O.H. Germ diutisc, O.E. theodisc of the people, popular.

people, but called others, as the Romans, and the Kelts in Britain, Walsch and Welsh.

Ancient nations gave themselves polite names, but spoke contemptuously of their neighbours. The old Hindus called themselves Aryans from arya, noble: the Slavonians or Slaves got their name from Slavo, a word or renown.

9. English belongs to the Low-German division of the Teutonic languages. Its nearest living relations are Dutch (the language of Holland), Flemish (once the court language of Brabant), Frisian (between the Scheldt and Jutland and on the islands near the shore), Plat-Deutsch (on the Baltic coast); Gothic (the language of the Goths in the ancient province of Dacia) is a dead language. The Gothic translation of the Gospels by Wulfila or Ulfilas (in the fourth century) is the oldest monument of Teutonic literature extant. The old Saxon is also a dead language; it was once spoken between the Rhine and the Elbe in Munster, Essen, and Cleves.

CHAPTER II.

History of the English Language.

ORIGIN OF THE ENGLISH.

11. The English language was brought into Britain about the middle of the fifth century by Low-German tribes, commonly known as Angles, Saxons, and Jutes (Frisians).

These Teutonic invaders were known to the Britons as Saxons, but they called themselves English (Ænglisc), and their new home England (Ængla-land, the land of the Angles).

The term Angle or Engle is supposed by some to take its name from the district of Angeln in the Duchy of Schleswig.

12. The Frisians or Jutes settled in Kent; the Angles in the north, east, and central parts of Britain; and the Saxons in the south and west parts of the island (in Essex, Sussex, Wessex, &c.)

The Lowlands of Scotland once formed part of the old Northumbrian kingdom, hence Lowland-Scotch is an English dialect.

Foreign Elements in English.

ENGLISH WAS ORIGINALLY AN INFLECTED AND UNMIXED LANGUAGE, BUT IS NOW AN UNINFLECTED AND COMPOSITE LANGUAGE.

13. The language that was brought into Britain by the Low-German invaders, was an inflected and synthetic language, like its congener Modern German, and its more distant relatives, Sanskrit, Greek, and Latin.

Though modern English has lost most of the older grammatical endings, and has been reduced to an analytical language (like Danish, French, and Persian), it still belongs, by virtue of its descent, to the family of inflected languages.

14. The English language brought over by the Angles, Saxons, &c., was an unmixed language.

There were no non-Teutonic elements in its vocabulary.

It is now a composite or mixed language, having adopted words from various nations with whom the English people have had dealings at different times.

The foreign elements in English may therefore be treated historically.

I. The Keltic Element in English.

15. The English invaders of Britain displaced the old Keltic inhabitants, and did not largely mix with them; their language was, therefore, but little influenced by the speech of the British tribes. It affected the spoken far more than the written language, for from

the ninth to the twelfth century English literature furnishes but few examples of borrowed Keltic terms. The words of this period are barrow (mound), brock, breeches, clout, crock, kiln, cradle, mattock, pool.

In the literature of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries we find more frequent traces of Keltic terms, of which the following still survive :-boast, boisterous, bribe, cam (crooked), crag, dainty, darn, daub, fleam, glen, havoc, kiln, mop, pillow.

16. The Norman-French contained some few Keltic terms borrowed from the old Gaulish; some of these found their way into English, as: bag, barren, bargain, barter, barrel, basin, basket, bonnet, bucket, bran, button, chemise, car, cart, dagger, gravel, gown, harness, marl, mitten, motley, osier, pot, rogue, ribbon, varlet, vassal, wicket.

17. A few words, the names of Keltic things, are of recent introduction: as, bannock, bard, bog, brogue, clan, claymore, clog, log, fillibeg, gag, kilt, pibrock, plaid, pony, shamrock, slab, slogan, whiskey.

18. The oldest geographical names are of course Keltic, especially names of rivers and of mountains; as, Avon, Ouse, Esk, Exe, Usk, Thames, Derwent, Dee, &c., Pen-y-Gent, Helvellyn, &c., Aberdeen, Kent, Dover, &c.

11. The Scandinavian Element in English.

19. Towards the end of the eighth century (A.D. 787) the Northmen of Scandinavia (Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Iceland) commonly known as Danes, made descents upon the East coasts of England, Scotland, the Hebrides, and Ireland, as well as in other parts of Europe.