ish Peninsula, the analogies all point the same way. They indicate that the original Celtic would have been superseded by the Latin of the Conquerors, and, consequently, that our language, in its later stages, would have been neither British nor Gaelic, but Roman. Upon these analogies, however, we may refine. Italy was from the beginning Roman; the Spanish Peninsula was invaded full early; no ocean divided Gaul from Rome; and the war against the ancestors of the Wallachians was a war of extermination. § 42. In the History of the English language we have seen that the principal Elements which enter into its composition are, 1. Celtic words, found either in the older branch of the Gaelic or in the younger branch of the Cambrian. 2. Latin words, introduced at different periods. 3. Saxon words, of the Low-Germanic Division of the Teutonic branch of the Gothic stock. This constitutes the great body of the language. 4. Danish words of the Scandinavian branch of the Gothic. 5. Norman, a mixture of French and Scandinavian. It is also enriched by contributions from the Greek, the French, the Italian, the Spanish, the German, and other languages. THE NUMBER OF ANGLO-SAXON WORDS. § 43. Whether we take into view the number or the sorts of words, the Anglo-Saxon is less an element than the Mother-tongue of the English. In the English language there are as many as twenty-three thousand words of Anglo-Saxon origin. From an examination of passages from the Bible, Shakspeare, Milton, Cowley, Thomson, Addison, Spenser, Locke, Pope, Young, Gibbon, Johnson, it appears that in one thousand four hundred and ninety-two words in sentences taken from these authors, there are only two hundred not Saxon. Upon this basis of calculation, it appears that four fifths of the words in actual use are of Anglo-Saxon origin. THE KIND OF WORDS. § 44. The names of the greater part of the objects of Nature; as, sun, moon, stars, day, light, heat; all those words which express vividly bodily action; as, to sit, to stand, to stagger; all those words which are expressive of the earli- THE EXPRESSIVENESS. § 45. From the last statement we can understand why the Saxon element is so much more expressive than the Latin part of the language. "Well being arises from well doing," is Saxon. "Felicity attends virtue," is Latin. How inferior in force is the latter! In the Saxon phrase, the parts or roots being significant to our eyes and ears, throw the whole meaning into the compounds and derivatives, while the Latin words of the same import, having their roots and elements in a foreign language, carry only a cold and conventional signification to an English ear. "In one of my early interviews with Robert Hall," says his biographer, "I used the term 'felicity' three or four times in rather quick succession. He asked me, Why do you say Felicity? Happiness is a better word, more musical, and genuine English, coming from the Saxon.' 'Not more musical,' said I. Yes, more musical, and so are all words derived from the Saxon, generally. Listen, sir: My heart is smitten and withered like grass. There is plaintive music. Listen again, sir: Under the shadow of thy wings will I rejoice. cheerful music.' ( Yes, but rejoice is French.' but all the rest is Saxon; and rejoice is almost out of time with the other words. Listen again: Thou hast delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, and my feet from There is True, falling. All Saxon, sir, except delivered. I could think of the word tear till I wept." ENGLISH GRAMMAR AND THE ANGLO-SAXON. § 46. English Grammar is almost exclusively occupied with what is of Anglo-Saxon origin. The few inflections we have are all Anglo-Saxon. The English Genitive, the general mode of forming the Plural of Nouns, and the terminations by which we express the Comparative and Superlative of Adjectives er and est, the inflections of the Pronouns and of the Verbs, and the most frequent termination of our adverbs ly, are all Anglo-Saxon; so are the auxiliary verbs. THE STABILITY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. § 47. "Look at the English," says Halbertsma, "polluted by Danish and Norman Conquests, distorted in its genuine and noble features by old and recent endeavors to mould it after the French fashion, invaded by a hostile force of Greek and Latin words, threatening by increasing hosts to overwhelm the indigenous terms. In these long contests against the combined might of so many forcible enemies, the language, it is true, has lost some of its power of inversion in the structure of sentences, the means of denoting the dif ferences of gender, and the nice distinctions by inflection and termination; almost every word is attacked by the spasm of the accent and the drawing of consonants to wrong positions, yet the old English principle is not overpowered. Trampled down by the ignoble feet of strangers, its spring still retains force enough to restore itself; it lives and plays through all the veins of the language, it impregnates the innumerable strangers entering into its dominions, and stains them with its color; not unlike the Greek, which, in taking up Oriental words, stripped them of their foreign costume, and bid them appear as native Greeks."-Bos. Dic., p. 39. Camden observes: "Whereas our tongue is mixed, it is no disgrace. The Italian is pleasant, but without sinews, as still fleeting water. The French delicate, but ever nice as a woman, scarce daring to open her lippes for fear of marring her countenance. The Spanish majestical, but fulsome, running too much on the o, terrible like the Divill in the play. The Dutch manlike, but withal very harsh, as one ready at every word to picke a quarrell. Now we, in borrowing from them, give the strength of consonants to the Italian; the full sound of words to the French; the variety of terminations to the Spanish; and the mollifying of more vowels to the Dutch; and so, like bees, we gather the honey of their good properties, and leave the dregs to themselves. And thus, when substantialnesse combineth with delightfulnesse, fullnesse with finenesse, seemlinesse with portlinesse, and currentnesse with staydnesse, how can the language which consisteth in all these, sound other than full of all sweetnesse?"-Camden's Remains, p. 38. THE PROSPECTS OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 48. Having looked at the past History of the English Language, we naturally inquire what will be its ultimate Destiny. Will it ever cease to be a living language? Will the nations who speak it ever be overrun by a race of Asiatic barbarians, as were the Classical nations of Antiquity? Will another Julius Cæsar, another Hengist and Horsa, another Danish Canute, another Norman Conqueror, in turn gain possession of England, and change the dynasty, the laws, and the language of the land? And, then, is the fate of the Mother-country to be our own? Will a band of irresistible warriors come from the ocean to change our institutions, our laws, and our language? Will our mothertongue, like the Greek, the Latin, the Sanscrit, and the Anglo-Saxon, become a dead language, and be found only in books? To this it may be replied, that the experience of the past is not to be the mold of the future. From the horoscope of the present a brighter destiny may be predicted. The Anglo-Saxon race will not only keep their own Institutions and their own Language, but they will impress those institutions and that language upon others. Besides the natural growth of population, that love of Conquest for which they have been distinguished ever since they traversed the German Ocean in their frail boats, pursuing plunder, will help to extend and perpetuate the English language. The love of Religious conquest, as when the pious Missionary goes forth under the banner of the cross; the love of Literary conquest, as when the Schoolmaster is abroad; the love of Commercial conquest, as shown by our Merchants and Navigators; the love of Military conquest, which the Anglo-Saxon race have shown all over the globe, and are now showing, will only extend the language. The British Empire, extending over one hundred and fifty-six millions, listens to that language as to a voice of power. The population of our own country, doubling every twenty-five years, already amounts to more than twenty millions. The French population of Canada, the Celts, the Spanish population of Mexico, the Celts, will give place to the Anglo-Saxon race, or rather, as in past time, be absorbed in it. We may believe that, fixed in the standards of the National literature, the language of the Constitution will be familiar to the hundreds of millions in North America as their vernacular tongue; and that Shakspeare and Milton will be read ages hence on the banks of the Connecticut and the Potomac, on the banks of the Columbia and the Francisco. CHAPTER III. DIALECTS AND PROVINCIALISMS OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. § 49. CALLING to mind the Celts, the Saxons, the Jutes, the Angles, the Danes, the Normans, who were ancestors of those who now dwell in England and Anglo-America, we can not fail to expect diversities in the language as now written and spoken. That Celtic words should most readily be found in districts like Cornwall, where a Celtic language was most lately spok en, is what we expect, and what we find. Peculiarities of dialect may be expected, I. In Cumberland and the district of Strath Clyde. The Celtic of Wales was spoken north of its present boundaries, one of its forms being the Pictish. |