HISTORICAL OUTLINE. THE various languages spoken by mankind admit of being grouped together in certain great families, the members of each of which resemble each other more or less closely in the words used to express ideas, and in the grammatical framework of forms and inflexions by which the words are combined. One of these families of languages has been called the Indo-European, or Aryan family. It includes the Sanscrit, Persian, Slavonian, Latin, Greek, Keltic, and Teutonic languages. The Teutonic branch of this family is divided into two principal stocks, the Scandinavian and the German; and the German stock is again subdivided into High German languages (spoken in the mountainous districts of the south of Germany) and Low German languages (spoken in the northern lowlands of Germany). English belongs to the Low German branch of the Teutonic stock, and is akin to Frisian, Dutch, Flemish, Platt-Deutsch, and Moso-Gothic. The inhabitants of Gaul and Britain, when those countries were invaded by the Romans, were of Keltic race, and spoke various dialects of the Keltic group of languages. The conquered Gauls adopted the Latin language, and the Franks and Normans, who at a later time established themselves in the country, adopted the language of the people they conquered. Thus it has come about that French is for the most part a corrupted form of Latin, belonging to that group of languages which is called 'Romance.' The Keltic inhabitants of Britain did not adopt the Latin language, but retained their own Keltic dialects. One of these is still spoken by the Keltic inhabitants of Wales. English is the language brought into England by the Saxons and Angles, who in the fifth century conquered and dispossessed the British or Keltic inhabitants, and drove the remnants of them into the remote mountainous corners of the island, especially Wales, Cornwall (which was called West Wales), and Strathclyde (comprising Cumberland, Westmoreland, and the Western Lowlands of Scotland). They were a Teutonic race, coming from the lowland region in the northwestern part of Germany. The name Angle appears to have belonged at first only to one division of these Teutonic invaders; but B in course of time, though long before the Norman Conquest, it was extended over the rest, and the entire body of the Teutonic inhabitants of our country called themselves and their language English, and their country England (Angle-land). In speaking of themselves they also, at least for a time, employed the compound term AngloSaxon. English thus became the predominant language in our island from the Firth of Forth* to the English Channel, and has continued so for more than thirteen centuries. During this time, it has, of course, undergone many changes. It has adopted many new words from other languages, and its forms have been altered to some extent; but it has lasted in unbroken continuity from its introduction until now. Modern English is only a somewhat altered form of the language which was brought into England by the Saxons and Angles, and which in its early form, before the changes consequent upon the Norman Conquest, is commonly called Anglo-Saxon. The grammatical framework of Modern English is still purely Anglo-Saxon. The As regards its form, Anglo-Saxon (or old English) differed from modern English in this respect, that it had a much greater number of grammatical inflexions. Thus nouns had five cases, and there were different declensions (as in Latin); adjectives were declined, and had three genders; pronouns had more forms, and some had a dual number as well as a singular and plural; the verbs had more variety in their personal terminations. greater part of these inflexions were dropped in the course of the three centuries following the Norman Conquest, the grammatical functions of several of them being now served by separate words, such as prepositions and auxiliary verbs. This change is what is meant when it is said that Anglo-Saxon (or ancient English) was an inflexional language, and that modern English is an analytical language. The greater part of the foreign words that have been incorporated into English, and are now part and parcel of the language, may be divided into the following classes : 1. Words of Keltic origin.-The Anglo-Saxons adopted a few Keltic words from such Britons as they kept among them as slaves or wives. These words consist chiefly of geographical names, such as Avon, Don, Usk, Exe, Ouse, Pen (in Penrith, Penzance), Mendip, Wight, Kent, &c.; and words relating to common household matters, such as kiln, crook, clout, darn, gruel, mattock, mop, rug, wire, &c. As the Gauls were of Keltic race, Keltic words naturally made their appearance in French, and some were thus introduced into our language not directly from the Britons, but through the medium of Norman-French (such, for example, as basket, button, gown, wicket, bran, fleam). 2. Words of Scandinavian origin.-Men of Scandinavian race (Picts, Norsemen, and Danes) made repeated incursions into this * Lowland Scotch is a genuine Anglian dialect, and has kept closer to the Teutonic type than modern English. island during several centuries, and established themselves in force on the eastern side of the island, in East Anglia, Northumbria, and part of Mercia. In consequence of this a good many Scandinavian words made their way into common use, and Danish or Scandinavian forms appear in many names of places in the districts occupied by the Scandinavian invaders, such as by (' town,' as in Grimsby); Scaw (wood,' as in Scawfell); force (waterfall,' as Stockgill Force); holm (island, as in Langholm); ness ('headland,' as in Furness); ey ('island,' as in Orkney); beck (brook,' as in Troutbeck), &c. The influx of the Scandinavian element produced on the northern dialects the same sort of effect that the Norman-French element did on the southern dialects; it led to the weakening and disuse of the inflexions in the northern dialects long before the like change was brought about in the southern dialects. 3. Words of Latin origin, and Greek Words introduced through Latin.-Of these we have now immense numbers in English, the words of classical origin being considerably more than twice as numerous as those of Teutonic origin, there being, according to some authorities, about 29,000 of the former to about 13,000 of the latter. These words came in at various periods, and under various circumstances. a. A few Latin words, connected with names of places, were adopted by the Britons from the Romans, and by the Angles and Saxons from the Britons, and appear, for example, in Chester (castra), Gloucester, Stratford (strata), Lincoln (colonia), Fossbury (fossa). b. A good many words of classical origin were introduced between the settlement of the Saxons and the Norman Conquest by the ecclesiastics who brought Christianity into England. These words are mostly ecclesiastical terms, and names of social institutions and natural objects previously unknown to the English. These words came direct from Latin, or from Greek through Latin. c. A much larger number of words of Latin origin came to us through Norman-French, the acquired language of the Norman conquerors of England. After the Conquest this was of course the language of the Norman nobles and their retainers throughout England. To a more limited extent it had been introduced as the language of the court of Edward the Confessor. Most of the words in our language which relate to feudal institutions, to war, law, and the chase, were introduced in this way. English, however, never ceased to be the language of the mass of the native population, though an important change in it was at least accelerated, if not first commenced, by the influence of the Norman-French, which was established side by side with it. The numerous grammatical inflexions of the older English began to be disused, and in the course of the three centuries that followed the Conquest were reduced to little more than their present number. d. The revival of the study of the classical languages in the sixteenth century led to the introduction of an immense number of |