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words survive in the English of the present Classes of

day.

These may be divided into five classes.

Keltic words.

Keltic words introduced into English by the Class I. medium of another language; viz., the Latin; as, druid, bard.

Words originally common to both Keltic and Class II. Gothic; as, brother, mother; in Keltic, brathair, mathair; the numerals, etc.

Words that have remained from the original Class III. Keltic of the island, and which form genuine constituents of the present English.

These fall into the following subdivisions:(a.) Proper names, generally geographical;

as, Avon, Don, Dee, Thames, Cam, etc.

Arran, Bute, Man, Mull, Wight, etc. Devon, Durham, Glamorgan, Kent, etc. Cheviot, Chiltern, Grampian, Malvern, etc. Cardiff, Carlisle, Llandaff, Liverpool, etc. (b.) Words found in old writers; as, bug= ghost; capul-hyde-horse-hide; cam = crooked crowd a fiddle; grise a step; gyve=fetters; imp-to engraft; kern-an Irish foot-soldier.

=

;

(c.) Words retained in the provincial dialects; brat an apron; cob to beat; cocker= to fondle: gwethall=household stuff, etc.

(d.) Vulgarisms and slang expressions; as, game crooked (see cam above); sham=deceit; bam mystify; balderdash nonsense; spree=

=

=

play; tantrum=bad temper, etc.

(e.) Words retained in the current language; as, basket, barrow, bran, cart, coat, crockery, dainty, darn, drill, fag (in fag-end), flaw, fun

Rivers.

Islands.

Counties.

Hills.

Towns.

Keltic words.

Class IV.

Class V.

Latin I.

Military terms.

nel, gown, gusset, hem, happy, kiln, lath, mattock, mop, pail, pelt, prance, pranks, peck, pitcher, rail, rasher, ridge, rug, solder, (to cement), size (glue), tackle, ted (of hay), wicket, and wire.

Words introduced by the Normans after the Conquest, being the remains of the original Keltic of Gaul.

Words of late introduction; as, flannel, whiskey, tartan, kilt, plaid, pibrock, reel, clan.

LATIN OF THE FIRST PERIOD.

The first intermixture of a foreign language with the original Keltic of the island was caused by the Roman occupation of Britain from A.D. 43 to A.D. 418.

This is generally called the Latin of the first period, and consists of a few words, chiefly relating to military matters; as the

(1.) Terminations, -chester, -caster, -cester, etc., in Winchester, Lancaster, Gloucester, derived from the Latin castra = a camp.

(2.) The word street, and other modifications of the Latin strata = a paved road, in the towns Stratford, Stradbrooke, Streatham, etc.

(3.) The termination -coln (from Latin colonia = =a colony) in Lincoln.

(4.) The prefix port- (from Latin portus=a harbour) in Portsmouth, Portsea, etc.

(5.) The prefix wall-, from Latin vallum = a rampart, in Wallbury.

(6.) The prefix Foss-, from Latin fossa = a trench, in Fossbury, Fosbridge, etc.

ANGLO-SAXON.

Saxon.

The language which next disturbed, or rather Angloalmost wholly displaced, the original Keltic, was Anglo-Saxon, the mother tongue of the present English. It was introduced by some tribes from the North of Germany, in the fifth and sixth centuries of our era.

vasions.

The following is the received account of their Saxon ininvasions :

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FIRST SAXON INVASION.

A.D. 449.

Some Jutes, under Hengist and Horsa, landed Jutes, at Ebbsfleet, in the Isle of Thanet, Kent, where they soon afterwards established the kingdom of Kent.

They gradually extended to the Isle of Wight and part of Sussex.

SECOND SAXON INVASION.

A.D. 477.

Some Saxons, under Ella, landed in Sussex, Saxons, and formed the kingdom of Sussex, or South Saxons.

They did not extend themselves beyond Sussex.

THIRD SAXON INVASION.

A.D. 495

Some Saxons, under Cerdic, landed in Hants, Saxons, and formed the kingdom of Wessex, or West Saxons.

They afterwards extended their power over Hampshire, Berkshire, part of Surrey, Dorset, Wilts, Bucks, Oxfordshire, and Gloucestershire.

Saxons,
A.D. 530.

Angles,
A.D. 535.

Angles,

A.D. 547.

Mercia,
A.D. 626.

FOURTH SAXON INVASION.

Some Saxons, under Ercenwin, landed in Essex, and formed the kingdom of Essex, or East Saxons.

They afterwards extended their rule over Essex, Middlesex, and part of Hertfordshire.

FIFTH SAXON INVASION.

Some Angles, under Uffa, landed in Norfolk, and formed the kingdom of East Angles.

They afterwards extended their dominion over Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire, Northamptonshire, and Lincolnshire.

SIXTH SAXON INVASION.

Some Angles, under Ida, landed in Yorkshire, and afterwards established the kingdom of Northumbria.

They afterwards extended their dominion over the six northern counties of England, and the Scottish counties south of the friths of Forth and Clyde.

The seventh kingdom of the Heptarchy was not formed by a fresh immigration of German tribes, but by a portion of the Anglians already settled in England, under Penda, in 626 A.D.

Mercia embraced all the midland counties west of the kingdoms of East Angles and East Saxons, south of that of Northumbria, east of the Severn, and north of the Thames.

UNION OF THE ANGLO-SAXON TRIBES INTO

ONE KINGDOM.

Anglo

Egbert, King of Wessex, died in 836 A.D. Union of He had united the Saxon Heptarchy into one Saxon kingdom.

By this time, the languages of the various tribes, which were all dialects of the same language, resolved themselves into Anglo-Saxon, our mother tongue.

dialects. A.D. 836.

Saxon

As by far the greatest element in modern AngloEnglish is derived from Anglo-Saxon, words element. from that source cannot be limited to any class or classes of names.

matical

Anglo

words.

It will be sufficient to state that the gram- Grammatical structure of English is formed from Structure. that of the Anglo-Saxons; and that of words, all the pronouns, numerals up to a million Classes of (which is Latin), the ordinals, except second Saxon and millionth (which are both Latin), the prepositions proper, conjunctions, and auxiliary verbs, are of Anglo-Saxon origin. The names of the elements, of the seasons, the organs of the body, the modes of bodily action and posture, the words used in earliest childhood, terms of pleasantry, satire, contempt, and anger are for the most part Anglo-Saxon.

The monosyllables and words, derived or compounded of monosyllables, which have an independent existence in English, are nearly all Anglo-Saxon.

Words beginning with bl, br, dl, gl, gr, k and

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