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, gien, 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.

II. 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.

In the ninth century they obtained a permanent footing in the North and East parts of England : and in the eleventh century a Danish dynasty was established on the throne for nearly thirty years (A.D. 1016-1042).

The Scandinavians were a Teutonic people and their language very closely resembled the old English speech. It is, therefore, no easy matter to determine the exact number of words introduced by the old Northmen. Many of the borrowed words have taken an English form, so as to be no longer distinguished as pure Scandinavian. The spoken language was affected by the Danes far more than the written language, especially in Northumberland, Durham, Yorkshire, Lancashire, Cumberland, Lincoln, and Norfolk, where many Danish words are still to be found. In the eleventh and twelfth centuries only a few Scandinavian words found their way into the written language; such words are, aren, are; by, a town; fel, a hill; til, to.

In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries they became more common and are easily discernible; many of these still survive, as blunt, bole (of a tree), bound (for a journey), busk, buckle-to (buskle), cake, call, cast, curl, cat, dairy, die, daze, droop, fellow, flit, fro, froward, gab, gait, ill, irk- (some), kid, kindle, loft, low (flame), neave (fist), muck, odd, puck, plough, root, same, scold, sly, shy, tarn (lake), ugly (E.E. ugge, to fear), weak; gar (to cause, make), greet (to weep), are used by Spenser.

20. Very many Norse words once very common in old Northern writers have gone out of use, or have become provincial, as, at, to (before infinitives) beck (stream), erre (scar), last (fault), lit, (stain), layte (to seek), mun (must, shall), trine (to go), tyne (to lose), tynsel (loss), throp or thorp (town), &c.

21. Many names of places ending in by (town), fell (hill), beck (stream), shaw (wood), garth (enclosure), indicate Danish settlements; firth is the Scandinavian ford (cp. Mil-ford, Water-ford).

22. The Danish invasions did much to unsettle the inflexions in the North of England. Before the Norman-French conquest we find the n of the infinitive falling off, and the verb in the third person singular present indicative ending in es instead of eth. The use of the plural suffix in as was frequently extended to nouns that originally formed the plural by the suffix a or u. The dialects of the North and North-East of England in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries are almost as flexionless as modern English. These parts

of England were the last to come under the influence of Norman-French.

III. The Latin Element in English.

I. LATIN OF THE FIRST PERIOD: connected with the Roman Invasion.

23. The Roman occupation of Britain for nearly four centuries (from A.D. 43 to A.D. 426) left its traces in the few names of places, as: Chester, Gloucester, Dorchester, Exeter, Stratton, Lincoln, &c.

Fortified towns and great roads became familiar objects to the old English settlers in Britain; so castra, a camp, and strata, a street, soon passed into English under the forms ceastre = chester, and stræt = street. Probably portus, a port, as in Ports-mouth, was known to the oldest English. Cp. O.E. port-gerefa, a port-reeve.

2. LATIN OF THE SECOND PERIOD: St. Augustine's Mission.

24. The introduction of Christianity about the end of the sixth century (A.D. 596) brought England into connection with Rome, and during the four following centuries a large number of Latin words became familiar to educated Englishmen.

The words introduced into the language during this period were, for the most part, connected with the Church, its services and observances, as: ancor, hermit (anchoreta); postol, apostle (apostolus); biscop, bishop (episcopus); calc, chalice (calix); clustor, cloister (claustrum); diacon, deacon (diaconus); clerc, clerk (clericus); munec, monk (monachus); masse, mass (missa); mynster, minister (monasterium); preost, priest (presbyter); sanct, saint (sanctus); carited, charity (caritas); almesse, alms (eleēmosyna); predician, preach (prædicare); regol, rule (regula).

A few foreign articles now came in for the first time, and retained their Latin names.

(1) A few articles of food, clothing, ornaments, &c. : butor, butter (butyrum); cêse, cheese (caseus); pal, pall (pallium); tunic, tunic (tunica).

(2) Trees and Plants: cedar, cedar (cedrus); fic, fig (ficus); peru, pear (pirum); persuc, peach (persicum); lactuce, lettice (lactuca); lilie, lily (lilium); pipor, pepper (piper); pisa, pease (pisum), &c.

(3) Animals: mere-greot, pearl (margarita); camel, camel (camelus); culufre, dove (columba); leo, lion (leo); pard, leopard (pardus); ostre, oyster (ostrea); pawa, peacock (pavo); trûht, trout (tructa); turtle, turtle (turtur); olfend (camel), a corruption of elephant.